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Sallie Ward Hunt
Among the noted women of Kentucky, whose beauty and influence
became world-wide, none was more entitled to distinction than
Miss Sallie Ward, of Louisville, Kentucky. The high position of
her family, her marvelous personal beauty and fascination of
manner, placed her even in her youth among the conspicuously
observed wherever she went. Her ancestors came of old Huguenot
stock who had fled from France, bringing to the southern states
some of the best blood which was infused into our young nation.
Major Mattheus Flournoy served with distinction in the war of
the Revolution. Afterwards he purchased a country seat in Scot
County, Kentucky, where Sallie Ward was born. Her father.
Honorable Robert J. Ward, was a man possessed of the highest
intellectual qualities and of that high standard of justice and
moral integrity which secured for him lasting friendships. At
twenty-eight he was elected speaker of the Kentucky Assembly.
Mrs. Ward was one of the most remarkable women of the day,
distinguished for her personal loveliness and intellectual
gifts. To their daughter, Sallie, they gave every advantage of
education and moral training, and while reared in the lap of
luxury, enjoying everything which wealth could bestow, receiving
from society the most flattering homage, Sallie Ward was
unspoiled by adulation and grew up an amiable, gracious,
attractive woman, well developed in mind and principles. She
possessed a remarkable memory and quick perception, which
enabled her to acquire foreign languages with readiness. A
talented musician and possessing every accomplishment which
could add to her natural charms. Everyone in Kentucky seemed to
take a pride in her loveliness and the fact that she was a
native of their state. She was always interested in the various
enterprises, patriotic and municipal.
White Sulphur Springs, the noted resort of Virginia, has many
legends of her beauty and charm. Statesmen, soldiers, foreign
diplomats followed in her train but she gave her hand to Dr.
Hunt, of New Orleans, and in this city she and her husband
established a magnificent home, where her sway continued. In her
domestic life Mrs. Hunt displayed the noble gifts of her true
nature. She had but one child, a son and after her husband's
death she devoted herself to the education and rearing of this
boy. Perhaps in the United States there has been no woman so
flattered and courted, and the fact that she retained the pure
simplicity of her character unimpaired, argues a truly elevated
mind.
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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