Marriage and Family
Nell and Chester Arthur were introduced in 1856 by her cousin Dabney Herndon Maury, a friend of Arthur, in New York City. Arthur proposed to her on the porch of the U.S. Hotel in Saratoga Springs, New York after a brief courtship.
Arthur, aged 30, married Herndon, aged 22, on October 25, 1859, at Calvary Episcopal Church in New York City. The day was her father's birthdate. Arthur, who was from rural Vermont, is said to have learned refined dressing while at Union College, where he was in the debating society, and the ways of high society from her socially prominent family. The couple were known for their parties in their Lexington Avenue townhouse in Manhattan.
A talented soprano, Nell Arthur sang with the Mendelssohn Glee Club and performed at benefits around New York. The Arthurs appeared to have a strong marriage, but it was strained by both Chester's political activities, which took much of his time, and the divided loyalties of the Civil War. While Arthur was serving in the New York militia during the conflict, his wife privately sympathized with the Confederacy, for which many of her Virginia kinfolk were fighting.
The Arthurs had two sons, one of whom died young, and a daughter:
- William Lewis Herndon Arthur (1860–1863)
- Chester Alan Arthur Jr. (1864–1937) - He graduated from Princeton University in 1885 and went on to Columbia Law School. He became a gentleman of leisure. President Arthur on his deathbed warned his son not to go into politics. Alan Arthur traveled extensively, maintained a fine stable of horses, and relied on polo for exercise. A celebrated playboy, at age 36 he married Myra Townsend, a California heiress. The couple separated after 16 years of marriage and divorced in 1927. Eventually he settled in Colorado Springs. In 1934 he married Rowena Graves, a real estate and insurance businesswoman.
- Ellen Hansbrough Herndon Arthur (1871–1915) - Still a child while her father was president, she was shielded from the press. She married Charles Pinkerton and lived in New York City.
Read more about this topic: Ellen Lewis Herndon Arthur
Famous quotes containing the words marriage and/or family:
“Our home has been nothing but a play-room. I’ve been your doll-wife here, just as at home I was Papa’s doll-child. And the children have been my dolls in their turn. I liked it when you came and played with me, just as they liked it when I came and played with them. That’s what our marriage has been, Torvald.”
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906)
“What we often take to be family values—the work ethic, honesty, clean living, marital fidelity, and individual responsibility—are in fact social, religious, or cultural values. To be sure, these values are transmitted by parents to their children and are familial in that sense. They do not, however, originate within the family. It is the value of close relationships with other family members, and the importance of these bonds relative to other needs.”
—David Elkind (20th century)