Ellen Lewis Herndon Arthur - Marriage and Family

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.