Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/651

610 Bishop Neale said in establishing the school that it was founded "to teach the female youth of America," and truly did he prophecy and plan, for hither came the best of the "female youth of America" for many years, and to-day some of our most distinguished women claim the Georgetown Convent of Visitation as their Alma Mater.

In the period just before the war-days, there came to the academy the two daughters of Senator Ewing, of Ohio (the first secretary of the Department of the Interior). One of them, Ellen Ewing, afterwards married General William Tecumseh Sherman. Here also was educated Harriet Lane Johnston, niece of President Buchanan, who gained social distinction at the Court of St. James while her uncle was United States Minister there, and afterwards gracefully conducted for him the social functions of the executive mansion, as one of the most charming in all the line of "ladies of the White House." Another graduate, famous for her exceptional beauty, as well as for her social leadership in Washington, was Adelaide Cutts, who married Stephen A. Douglas, the brilliant rival of Abraham Lincoln for presidential honors. Mrs. Douglas long after her first husband's death, became the wife of General Robert Williams, United States Army.

General Joseph E. Johnston, eminent afterwards among Confederate military chieftains, found his wife in a Visitation graduate, Miss McLain, a daughter of Secretary McLain. Another pupil, Teresa Doyle, married Senator Casserly; and Miss Deslonde, of Louisiana, who studied here, became Mrs. General Beauregard. The following account of the students of the institution is compiled from "A Story of Courage; Annals of the Georgetown Convent of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary."

"Among others who graduated before the war were Marion Ramsay, who became Mrs. Cutting, of New York; the