Louise Taft
Louise Taft | |
---|---|
Born | 11 September 1827 |
Died | 8 December 1907 (aged 80) |
Children | 5, including William Howard Taft, Henry Waters Taft, and Horace Dutton Taft |
Louisa Maria "Louise" Torrey (September 11, 1827 – December 8, 1907) was the second wife of Alphonso Taft, and the mother of U.S. President William Howard Taft.
Background
She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the first daughter of Samuel Davenport Torrey (1789–1877) and his second wife, the former Susan Holman Waters (1803–1866). Her three sisters were Delia Chapin Torrey, Anna Davenport Torrey (who married geologist Edward Orton, Sr.), and Susan H. Torrey. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College (then Mount Holyoke Female Seminary) in 1845.
From 1846 to 1858, she intermittently published The Yale Gallinipper, a "scathingly satirical" Yale newspaper with Olivia Day (daughter of Jeremiah Day) and Henrietta Blake (descendant of Eli Whitney). The three women wrote anonymously, pretending to be "three brothers" who were undergraduates at Yale. They were known for their hard-hitting criticisms of the students, faculty, and the Yale Literary Magazine.[1]
Marriage and family life
She married Alphonso Taft, widowed in 1852, on December 26, 1853 in Millbury, Massachusetts, becoming stepmother to his two living sons by his first wife, Fanny Phelps: Charles Phelps Taft, who became the publisher of the Cincinnati Times-Star and was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1895 to 1897, and Peter Rawson "Rossy" Taft.
They had five children, four of whom lived to adulthood. The first, who died aged 14 months of pertussis, was Samuel Davenport Torrey Taft. The second was President William Howard Taft; next was Henry Waters Taft, who became a lawyer in New York City; fourth was Horace Dutton Taft, founder of the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, and the last was Frances Louis "Fanny" Taft, who married surgeon William A. Edwards.
The family lived in Cincinnati during her husband's tenure as judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati. Then in Washington, D. C. when he served successively as Secretary of War and Attorney General. Also, in Austria-Hungary and Russia when he served as U.S. ambassador to each country.
Death
Louise Taft died at Millbury, Massachusetts, aged 80 years, and was interred at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio. Less than one year later, her eldest surviving son was elected President.
References
- ^ Weil, Tom (2018). 70@40: The Yale Class of 1970 on the Occasion of their 40th Reunion. The Public Press. pp. 5–6. ISBN 9781456523169.
- Gary Boyd Roberts, Ancestors of American Presidents, First Authoritative Edition, 1995, p. 60.
- Ishbel Ross, An American Family: The Tafts 1678 to 1964, World Publishing Co., Cleveland, 1964.
External links
- Louisa Torrey Hall, Mount Holyoke College
- v
- t
- e
- 10th Chief Justice of the United States (1921–1930)
- 27th President of the United States (1909–1913)
- 3rd Provisional Governor of Cuba (1904)
- 42nd United States Secretary of War (1904–1908)
- Governor-General of the Philippines (1901–1904)
- 6th Solicitor General of the United States (1890–1892)
(timeline)
- 1909 inauguration
- Dollar diplomacy
- Income Tax amendment
- Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act
- Weeks Act
- Federal Corrupt Practices Act
- Wireless Ship Act of 1910
- Apportionment Act of 1911
- North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911
- Mann–Elkins Act
- Radio Act of 1912
- Defense Secrets Act of 1911
- Pinchot–Ballinger controversy
- Commission on Economy and Efficiency
- U.S. occupation of Nicaragua
- United States Chamber of Commerce
- Ceremonial first pitch
- State of the Union Address 1912
- Cabinet
- Judicial appointments
- First Oval Office
Supreme Court
- Supreme Court career
- Judiciary Act of 1925
- Creation of the Supreme Court Building
- Taft Court cases
- Early life
- Birthplace, home, and historic site
- Woodbury Point
- Taft Bridge
- Bibliography
- U.S. Postage stamps
- Taft, Montana
- High school (New York City
- Chicago
- Los Angeles
- San Antonio)
- Helen Herron Taft (wife)
- Robert Alphonso Taft (son)
- Helen Taft Manning (daughter)
- Charles Phelps Taft II (son)
- William Howard Taft III (grandson)
- Robert Alphonso Taft Jr. (grandson)
- Seth Taft (grandson)
- Alphonso Taft (father)
- Louise Taft (mother)
- Charles Phelps Taft (brother)
- Henry Waters Taft (brother)
- Horace Dutton Taft (brother)
- Peter Rawson Taft (paternal grandfather)
- Billy Possum
- Progressive Era
- Pauline Wayne (cow)
- Backstairs at the White House (1979 miniseries)
- Theodore Roosevelt (2022 miniseries)
- Category