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Kate Chase Sprague, 1840-1899
Born Cincinnati, Ohio
Consumed by the desire to see her father elected president, Kate Chase did everything in her power to advance Salmon P. Chase's political career. When her thrice-widowed father won Ohio's governorship, in 1856, he chose sixteen-year-old Kate to serve as his official hostess. She laid the groundwork for his bid to become the Republican Party's 1860 presidential nominee by wining and dining the influential politicians who flocked to her glamorous soirees. Bitterly disappointed when Abraham Lincoln secured the Republican nomination and the presidency, Kate took some consolation in her father's appointment as Secretary of the Treasury. She established their Washington, D.C., residence as a glittering salon and reigned as the belle of capital society while building a network of political alliances. Kate's marriage in 1863 to millionaire William Sprague helped to finance her father's presidential ambitions, but her hopes were dashed when Lincoln was nominated for a second term.
Mathew Brady Studio, print from 1863 wet collodion negative |