Blanche Ames

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanche_Butler_Ames

Blanche Butler Ames (March 2, 1847 – December 26, 1939) was the wife of Adelbert Ames, a decorated general of the American Civil War and Senator and Governor of Mississippi during Reconstruction.

Blanche Butler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, the second child and only daughter of Sarah Jones (née Hildreth) and Benjamin Franklin Butler, who would also serve as a general in the Civil War. She attended school in Lowell until she was sent to the Academy of the Visitation in Washington, D.C. at age 13, where she described the sectional tension between northern and southern students on the eve of the Civil War.

Blanche met Adelbert Ames, who had served under her father in the Army of the James, while he was serving as Senator from Mississippi during Reconstruction. They married at Saint Anne's Episcopal Church in Lowell, the same church where her parents were wed, on July 21, 1870.

'After many days, etc." The marriage of Miss Blanche Butler, daughter of General Butler to General Ames will take place July 21st. at St. Anne's Church (Episcopal), Lowell. The festivities will occupy four days, culminating with the ceremony, and will consist of the grand ball. illuminations by the neighbors, etc. The bridesmaids are to be Miss Hildreth, cousin of Miss Blanche; Miss Nesmith, daughter of the late lieut. Governor John Nesmith; Miss Fannie Talbot, daughter of C. P. Talbot, Esq., and Miss Chandler, daughter of Senator Chandler of Michigan." Detroit Free Press July 8, 1970.

They had six children: Butler, Edith, Sarah, Blanche, Adelbert, Jr., and Jessie. When her husband was elected Governor of Mississippi in 1873, Blanche accompanied him, and wrote a series of letters detailing her experiences as a Northern woman living in the South during Reconstruction. After Adelbert resigned under pressure in 1876, the Ames family returned to Lowell to pursue business interests, where they remained for much the rest of their lives.

After her husband's death in 1933, Mrs. Ames compiled a collection of their letters, released by the family as Chronicles from the Nineteenth Century: Family Letters of Blanche Butler and Adelbert Ames in 1957. She died at the Ames winter home in Ormond Beach, Florida, on December 26, 1939, at the age of 92, and is buried beside her husband and their children at the Hildreth family cemetery in Lowell, across from her parents and siblings.

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Ames, Blanche Butler, 1847-1939 from: North American Women's Letters and Diaries, Copyright © 2004 Alexander Street Press, LLC. @@http://www.alexanderstreet2.com/nwldlive/bios/A352BIO.html, July 12, 2004

Blanche Butler Ames was born on March 2, 1847 in Lowell, Middlesex Co., MA. Her mother, Sarah Hildreth Butler, had been a Shakespearean actress before marrying Blanche's father, Benjamin Butler, a Massachusetts politician who became a controversial Civil War general. Blanche attended local public school until at age 13 she was sent to be educated at at the Academy of the Visitation in Washington, DC where she described the sectional tension affecting northern and southern students at the eve of the Civil War. After the war Blanche and her family resided in Washington and Massachusetts, and she became acquainted with Civil War general Adelbert Ames, who had served with her father. They married on July 21, 1870. Her husband was governor of Mississippi from 1874-1876, and her letters to her family detail the first-hand experiences of life as a Northern woman living in the South during the Reconstruction. In 1871, Blanche gave birth to a son Butler, the family eventually growing to six children, one of whom, Blanche Ames (1878-1969), later became a prominent suffrage activist. Blanche Butler Ames died in Lowell, Middlesex Co., MA in 1939.

Source: Chronicles from the Nineteenth Century: Family Letters of Blanche Butler and Adelbert Ames Married July 21st, 1870, vol. 1., Clinton, MA, 1957; Ames Family History Mass.gov (June 04, 2003)

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