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Part of the American
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Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren 1835 ~ 1898
The wife of the distinguished Admiral
Dahlgren was born in Gallipolis, Ohio, about 1835. She was the
only daughter of Samuel F. Vinton, who served with distinction
as a member of Congress for some years.
At an early age she became the wife of
Daniel Convers Goddard, who left her a widow with two children.
On the 2nd of August, 1865, she became the wife of Admiral
Dahlgren, and three children were born of this marriage. Admiral
Dahlgren died in 1870.
Her first contributions to the press
were written in 1859 under the signature "Corinne." She also
used the pen-name "Cornelia." Her first book was a little book
entitled "Idealities." She made several translations
from the French, Spanish and Italian languages, among them, "Montalembert's
Brochure," "Pius IX," and the philosophical works
of Donoso Cortes from the Spanish. These translations brought
her many complimentary notices and an autographed letter from
Pope Pius IX, and the thanks of the Queen of Spain.
She was also the author of a voluminous biography of Admiral
Dahlgren and a number of novels including, "The
South-Mountain Magic," "A Washington Winter," "The
Lost Name," "Lights and Shadows of a Life," "Divorced,"
"South
Sea Sketches," and a volume on "Etiquette of
Social Life in Washington," and quite a number of essays,
reviews, and short stories for the leading papers and
periodicals of the day. She was a woman of fine talent and a
thorough scholar, and in the social circles of Washington of
which she was a conspicuous figure, she was considered a
literary authority, and the Literary Society of Washington, of
which she was one of the founders, had about the only "Salon"
ever in existence in Washington.
Her house was the center of a brilliant circle of official and
literary life of the Capital city. In 1870- 1873 she actively
opposed the movement for female suffrage, presenting a petition
to Congress which had been extensively signed asking that the
right to vote should not be extended to women.
Mrs. Dahlgren was a devout Catholic, and was for some time
president of the Ladies' Catholic Missionary Society of
Washington, and built a chapel at her summer home on South
Mountain, Maryland, near the battlefield, known as St. Joseph's
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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