John Swift Livingston lived in Leonard Street, and I recall very pleasantly a party which I attended at his house before the marriage of his daughter Estelle to General John Watts de Peyster. The latter, together with his first cousins, General "Phil" Kearny and Mrs. Alexander Macomb, inherited an enormous fortune from his grandfather John Watts, who was one of the most prominent men of his day and the founder of the Leake and Watts Orphan House, which is still in existence. John G. Leake was an Englishman who came to New York to live and, dying without heirs, left his fortune to Robert Watts, a minor son of John Watts. Robert Watts, however, did not long survive his benefactor. Upon his death the Leake will was contested by his relatives, but a decision was rendered in favor of the nearest kin of the boy, who was his father. After gaining his victory John Watts established this Orphan House and with true magnanimity placed Leake's name before his own. Jacob R. LeRoy lived in Greenwich Street near the Battery, which at this time was a fashionable section of the city. His sister Caroline, whom I knew, became the second wife of Daniel Webster. Mr. LeRoy's daughter Charlotte married Rev. Henry de Koven, whose son is the musical genius, Reginald de Koven. Henry W. Hicks was the son of a prominent Quaker merchant and a member of the firm of Hicks & Co., which did an enormous shipping business until its suspension, about 1847, owing to foreign business embarrassments. Thomas W. Ludlow was a wealthy citizen, genial and most hospitably inclined. He owned a handsome country-seat near Tarrytown, and every now and then it was his pleasure to charter a steamboat to convey his guests thither; and I recall several pleasant days I spent in this manner. When we reached the Tarrytown home a fine collation always awaited us and in its wake came music and dancing. Charles McEvers, junior, belonged to an old New York family and was one of the executors of the Vanden Heuvel estate. His niece, Mary McEvers, married Sir Edward Cunard, who was knighted by Queen Victoria. William Starr Miller married a niece of Philip Schuyler, who was a woman possessing many excellent traits of character. As far as I can remember, she was the only divorced person of those days who was well received in society, for people with "past histories" were then regarded with marked disfavor.
CHAPTER VI
SOME DISTINGUISHED ACQUAINTANCES
In close proximity to St. John's Park, during my early life on Hubert Street, there resided a Frenchman named Laurent Salles, and I have a vivid recollection of a notable marriage which was solemnized in his mansion. The groom, Lispenard Stewart, married his daughter, Miss Louise Stephanie Salles, but the young and pretty bride survived her marriage for only a few years. She left two children, one of whom is Mrs. Frederick Graham Lee, whom I occasionally see in Washington, where with her husband she spends her winters.
When playing in St. John's Park in this same neighborhood, I made the acquaintance of Margaret Tillotson Kemble, one of the young daughters of William Kemble already mentioned as living on Beach Street, opposite that Park. Mr. Kemble was the son of Peter Kemble, member of the prominent firm of "Gouverneur and Kemble," shipping merchants of New York, which traded with China and other foreign countries. This firm, the senior members of which were the brothers Nicholas and Isaac Gouverneur, was bound together by a close family tie, as Mrs. Peter Kemble was Gertrude Gouverneur, a sister of the two Gouverneur brothers. My intimacy with Margaret Tillotson Kemble, formed almost from the cradle, lasted without a break throughout life. She was a second cousin of my husband and married Charles J. Nourse, a member of the old Georgetown, D.C., family. The last years of her life were entirely devoted to good works. Her sister, Mary, married Dr. Frederick D. Lente, at one time physician to the West Point foundry, at Cold Spring, N.Y., and subsequently a distinguished general practitioner in New York and Saratoga Springs. Ellen Kemble, the other sister, of whom I have already spoken, never married. She was eminent for her piety, and her whole life was largely devoted to works of charity.
The Kemble house on Beach Street was always a social center and I think I can truthfully say it was more than a second home to me. Mrs. William Kemble, who was Miss Margaret Chatham Seth of Maryland, was a woman of decided social tastes and a most efficient assistant to her husband in dispensing hospitality. Gathered around her hearthstone was a large family of girls and boys who naturally added much brightness to the household. Mr. Kemble was a well-known patron of art and his house became the rendezvous for persons of artistic tastes. It was in his drawing-room that I met William Cullen Bryant; Charles B. King of Washington, whose portraits are so well known; John Gadsby Chapman, who painted the "Baptism of Pocahontas," now in the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington; Asher B. Durand, the celebrated artist; and Mr. Kemble's brother-in-law, James K. Paulding, who at the time was Secretary of the Navy under President Martin Van Buren. Mr. Kemble was one of the founders of the Century Club of New York, a life member of the Academy of Design, and in 1817, at the age of twenty-one, in conjunction with his older brother, Gouverneur Kemble, established the West Point foundry, which for a long period received heavy ordnance contracts from the United States government. The famous Parrott guns were manufactured there. Captain Robert P. Parrott, their inventor and an army officer, married Mary Kemble, a sister of Gouverneur and William Kemble, who in early life was regarded as a beauty. Mr. William Kemble, apart from his artistic tastes, owned a number of fine pictures, among which was a Sappho by a Spanish master. It was given to Mrs. Kemble by the grandfather of the late Rear Admiral Richard W. Meade, U.S.N. When the Kemble family left Beach Street and moved to West Twenty-fifth Street this picture was sold to Gouverneur Kemble for $5,000, and placed in his extensive picture gallery at Cold Spring.
Mrs. William Kemble was a woman of marked ability and an able raconteurse. Early in life she had been left an orphan and was brought up by her maternal uncle, Dr. Thomas Tillotson of the Eastern shore of Maryland, whose wife was Margaret Livingston, a daughter of Judge Robert R. Livingston and a sister of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston. Another sister of Mrs. Tillotson was the widow of General Richard Montgomery, of the Revolutionary War, who fell at the battle of Quebec. The Tillotsons, Livingstons and Montgomerys all owned fine residences near Hyde Park on the Hudson; and a close intimacy existed between the Tillotsons and the Kembles owing to the fact that Mr. Kemble's first cousin, Emily Gouverneur, married Mrs. Kemble's first cousin, Robert Livingston Tillotson. William Kemble's younger brother, Richard Frederick, married Miss Charlotte Morris, daughter of James Morris of Morrisania, N.Y.
The summer home of William Kemble was in a large grove of trees at Cold Spring and life under its roof was indeed an ideal existence. I was their constant guest and although it was a simple life it teemed with beauty and interest. Our days were spent principally out of doors and the sources of amusement were always near at hand. As all of the Kembles were experts with the oar, we frequently spent many hours on the Hudson. Another unfailing source of pleasure was a frequent visit to West Point to witness the evening parade. As we knew many of the cadets they frequently crossed the river to take an informal meal or enjoy an hour's talk on the attractive lawn. Lieutenant Colonel (subsequently General) William J. Hardee, who for a long time was Commandant of Cadets at West Point, I knew quite well. Later in his career he was ordered to Washington, where as a widower he became a social lion, devoting himself chiefly to Isabella Cass, a daughter of General Lewis Cass. His career in the Confederate Army is too well known for me to relate. After the Civil War I never saw him again, as he lived in the South. During one of my visits at the Kembles General Robert E. Lee was the Superintendent of the West Point Military Academy, but of him I shall speak hereafter.