Antoinette Van Leer Polk

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Antoinette Van Leer Polk
Antoinette Van Leer Polk in 1912
BornOctober 27, 1847
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
DiedFebruary 3, 1919(aged 72)
Bouguenais, Loire-Atlantique, France
Occupation(s)Equestrian, planter, socialite
TitleBaroness
SpouseAthanase-Charles-Marie Charette de la Contrie
ChildrenAntoine de Charette
Parent(s)Andrew Jackson Polk
Rebecca Van Leer
RelativesVanleer Polk (brother)
William Polk (paternal grandfather)
Anthony Wayne Van Leer (maternal grandfather
Leonidas Polk (paternal uncle)
James K. Polk (paternal great-uncle)

Antoinette Van Leer Polk, Baroness de Charette (October 27, 1847 – February 3, 1919) was an American Southern belle in the Antebellum South and (by marriage) French aristocrat in the Gilded Age. She was born into the planter elite, the great-niece of the 11th President of the United States James K. Polk and a member of the influential Van Leer family through her mother. She was an heiress to plantations in Tennessee and a "Southern heroine" who warned Confederate soldiers of advancing Union troops during the American Civil War. After the war, she moved to Europe, where she took to foxhunting in the Roman Campagna of Italy and the English countryside, and later became a baroness and socialite in Paris and Brittany.

Miniature portrait done by Katherine Arthur Behenna, now kept at the New York Historical Society

Early life and family background

Polk was born on October 27, 1847, in Nashville, Tennessee.[1][2] Her father, Colonel Andrew Jackson Polk, was a planter who served in the Confederate States Army.[2][3] Her mother, Rebecca Van Leer, was an heiress to an iron fortune from the Cumberland Furnace and the Van Leer family.[4][5] Polk grew up at Ashwood Hall, a mansion in Ashwood near Columbia in Maury County, Tennessee with her parents and brother, Vanleer Polk.[3]

Her paternal great-uncle, James K. Polk served as the 11th President of the United States from 1845 to 1849.[6] Bishop Leonidas Polk, who served as a General in the Confederate States Army, was her uncle.[7] She was also a descendant of General Anthony Wayne and Samuel Van Leer, both officers in the American Revolutionary War.[8]

American Civil War and fox-hunting

During the American Civil War, while visiting Mary Polk Branch she saw Northern forces on their way to Ashwood.[6] Polk got on a horse and rode there before the Northerners to warn the Confederate soldiers of their arrival.[6][7][9] As a result, she is credited as a "Southern heroine" for saving Confederate personnel.[6][9] Unlike the Polks, her relatives on her mother's side fought for the Union.[10]

After the war, Polk moved to Italy with her mother and her siblings. Her family later became friends with King Humbert I.[11] [12] She took to fox-hunting in the Roman Campagna of Italy,[13] where she won a fox-hunt among forty female riders.[7][14] She also participated in fox hunting in the English countryside.[13]

Personal life

In Italy, Polk met her future husband, General Baron Athanase-Charles-Marie Charette de la Contrie, then a Commander of the Papal Zouaves. Charette de la Contrie was a great-grandson of Charles X, the last king of France, a grandson of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry and descendant of Louis XIII.[1][8][15] They wed in Rome, Italy, on December 1, 1877.[7][15] An aristocrat from the Vendée, he had served as a general in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.[16] They resided at the Avenue Hoche in the 8th arrondissement of Paris and at the Château de la Basse-Mothe in Bouguenais near Nantes.[16] Her wounded father lived with them,[3] until he died in Switzerland.[9] Polk inherited plantations in Tennessee from him.[12]

The couple had two children, Louise Marie, born in or near Genoa, Italy in 1866, raised by a series of governesses and later quietly married to Angelo Schinoni, possibly a relative of the midwife and governess who had delivered her,[17] and Charles Antoine, later known as Antoine de Charette, born in or near Paris in 1869, who was first engaged to Gladys Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough,[12] and later married Susan Henning of Shelby County, Kentucky,[18][19][20] the daughter of James W. Henning, a stockbroker on the New York Stock Exchange,[21] in a lavish society wedding at the St. Patrick's Cathedral.[22]

Her miniature portrait was done by Katherine Arthur Behenna for New York art collector and socialite Peter Marié.[2] It was acquired by the New York Historical Society in 1905.[2][23]

Death and legacy

She died on February 3, 1919, at her Château de la Basse-Mothe in Brittany, France.[1] Her son Antoine inherited her Southern plantations.[12][22] Her miniature portrait was exhibited alongside others as part of a special exhibition of the Peter Marié Collection showing socialites of the Gilded Age from November 11, 2011, to September 9, 2012, at the New York Historical Society in New York City.[23]

References

  1. ^ a b c Scott, Henry Edwards (1922). The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society. p. 259. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d Baroness de Charette, New York Historical Society
  3. ^ a b c Tennessee: A Guide to the State, US History Publishers: Federal Writers' Project, 1949, p. 389
  4. ^ "History: Local: Village of Lima, Middletown Twp, Chester (now Delaware) Co, PA". USGenWeb Archives. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
  5. ^ George W. Jackson, Cumberland Furnace, a Frontier Industrial Village: A Story of the First Ironworks on the Western Highland Rim, Virginia Beach, Virginia: The Donning Company, 1994
  6. ^ a b c d "Valorous Acts of American Women in War: A Few Instances of Personal Heroism at the Front". The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. 3 June 1917. p. 2. Retrieved July 10, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  7. ^ a b c d "Antoinette Polk His Bride: Baron di Charette Married Noted Horse-woman of Tennessee". The Washington Post. 25 February 1908. p. 12. Retrieved July 10, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  8. ^ a b "Personal". Chicago Daily Tribune. 7 November 1877. p. 12. Retrieved July 11, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  9. ^ a b c "Some Southern Heroines: Daring Feats Performed by the Women During the War". The Anderson Intelligencer. 22 July 1896. p. 1. Retrieved July 10, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  10. ^ "Van Leers in the Civil War". www.vanleerarchives.org. Van Leer Archives. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
  11. ^ "Charette Affiliate Family". www.vanleerarchives.org. Van Leer Archives. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  12. ^ a b c d "Lucky Frenchman Has Won the Love of Gladys Deacon: After the Affairs of a Smitten Prince and a Duke "Turned Down," Comes the Triumph of Young Baron de Charette, And Another International Romance Is Launched". Palestine Daily Herald. 13 April 1908. p. 6. Retrieved July 10, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  13. ^ a b "To American Girls Abroad". The Atlanta Constitution. 13 November 1877. p. 1. Retrieved July 10, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  14. ^ "News In Brief". The Pittsburgh Daily Gazette. 20 May 1870. p. 1. Retrieved July 11, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  15. ^ a b "A Southern Lady's Choice". The Greensboro Patriot. 21 November 1877. p. 1. Retrieved July 11, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  16. ^ a b Chauncey M. Depew, Titled Americans: A list of American ladies who have married foreigners of rank Archived 2015-07-13 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2013
  17. ^ Raggio (dissertation) (1988). Lettere americane e britanniche nelle collezione privati liguri...
  18. ^ Branch, Mary Polk (1912). Memoirs of a southern woman "within the lines," and a genealogical record. Chicago: The Joseph G. Branch Publishing Co. p. 26. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  19. ^ Marquis Related to American Families: French Nobleman Will Wed Kentucky Belle and Heiress: James K. Polk's Niece, The St. John Sun, August 3, 1909
  20. ^ Henning-Charette Family Papers – Van Stockum Collection, 1893-1950, The Filson Historical Society, August 21, 2013
  21. ^ "Another Title Gained By An American Woman: Miss Henning Becomes the Bride of a French Marquis Whose Mother Was An American". The Wichita Beacon. 9 November 1909. p. 1. Retrieved July 10, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  22. ^ a b "Crush at Church Wedding of Kentucky Heiress and Marquis de Charette, Necessitating Activity by Many Bluecoats. Auto Owner Endeavors To Present Bill for $58 When Bridegroom Arrives, But Policeman Squelches Him--Nuptials Equal Those of Gladys Vanderbilt". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 12 November 1909. p. 2. Retrieved July 11, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  23. ^ a b Emma Mustich, Hot chicks of the Gilded Age?, Salon, November 5, 2011
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