Octavia Walton Le Vert
Octavia Walton Le Vert | |
---|---|
Born | Octavia Celestia Valentine Walton August 11, 1810 Belle Vue, Augusta, Georgia |
Died | March 12, 1877 | (aged 65)
Resting place | Walker Family Cemetery, Augusta, Georgia |
Spouse |
Dr. Henry Strachey Le Vert
(m. 1836–1864) |
Children | Octavia Walton Le Vert Claudia Anna Eugenia Le Vert Sally Walker Walton Le Vert Henrietta Caroline Le Vert |
Parent(s) | George Walton Jr. Sally Minge Walker |
Signature | |
Octavia Walton Le Vert
LeVert was born in Augusta, Georgia, and moved with her parents to Mobile, Alabama, in 1835, where she married Dr. Henry Strachey Le Vert in 1836. During her travels to Europe she was presented at the courts of several countries. She also received an audience with the Pope during her time there. Following her last European tour and return to the United States, she took on a role in the successful national campaign to purchase and restore Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington.[2] Following the American Civil War, with her husband dead and much of her fortune gone, she returned to her birthplace of Georgia and embarked on an ultimately unsuccessful lecture tour.[1][3][4] She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1990.[5]
Early life
Octavia Walton was born on August 11, 1810, at her maternal grandmother's home, Belle Vue, near Augusta, Georgia. Her parents' first home, Meadow Garden, was nearby. Her parents were George Walton Jr. and Sally Minge Walker. George Walton, Jr. was educated at Princeton University, eventually becoming a prominent lawyer and Georgia state representative.[3] Sally Minge Walker was from a socially prominent Georgia family. Octavia Walton was the oldest of two children. Her younger brother, Robert Watkins Walton, was born in 1812.[1]
Her paternal grandparents were
Octavia was taught at home by her mother and paternal grandmother in a variety of subjects, and she and Robert were also tutored in science and Latin by a Scottish teacher. She showed a unique comprehension of languages at an early age. She was fluent in French and Spanish and could speak Italian before she was a teenager.[1]
When wit, and wine, and friends have met
And laughter crowns the festive hour
In vain I struggle to forget
Still does my heart confess thy power
And fondly turn to thee!
But Octavia, do not strive to rob
My heart, of all that soothes its pain
The mournful hope that every throb
Will make it break for thee!
—attributed to Edgar Allan Poe[6]
George Walton, Jr. was appointed Florida's first territorial secretary in 1821, taking his family with him to Pensacola. Octavia assisted her father by translating French and Spanish documents into English.[3] During her father's long tenure in Florida, her mother frequently took the children on tours along the Eastern Seaboard. Historians and literary scholars believe that it was during one of these trips in the late 1820s that she encountered Edgar Allan Poe, with whom she continued correspondence until his death.[1][7] After her death, a poem, the text of which was authenticated as being written in Poe's hand, was found in one of her personal albums. The date "May 1, 1827" was written in her hand on the poem.[6]
During another East Coast trip during the early 1830s, Walton met Washington Irving while traveling on a stagecoach. The two became friends and remained so until Irving's death. Irving encouraged Le Vert to express herself through writing. She spent several seasons in Washington, D.C.. During this time she attended congressional debates and met Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, and Henry Clay, becoming friends with all three, but developing an especially close friendship with Clay.[1][3][7]
Marriage
Following the completion of his term in 1834, George Walton, Jr. moved his family to Mobile, Alabama in 1835. Here, Octavia Walton met Dr. Henry Strachey Le Vert, the son of a French physician who had served as
The Le Verts settled into a large c. 1827 home, expanding it into a mansion in 1847. It was located at the corner of St. Emanuel and Government streets in Mobile.[7] The couple had five children: Octavia Walton Le Vert, born on November 20, 1836; Claudia Anna Eugenia Le Vert, born on May 22, 1838; Sally Walker Walton Le Vert, born on April 6, 1841; a stillborn son in 1844; and Henrietta Caroline Le Vert, born on December 6, 1846. Only Octavia and Henrietta survived into adulthood.[1]
Octavia Le Vert, by this time more commonly known as Madame Le Vert, began hosting lavish parties at her home for Mobile society and encouraging the development of music and the arts in the city. During this time she entertained numerous prominent people at her home, including
Encouraged by Lady Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie, Le Vert embarked on a tour of Europe in 1853 with her husband and oldest daughter. While there, she visited the courts of the United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy. She was presented to
Upon her return to the United States, she wrote an account of her travels and her experiences with European high society, entitled Souvenirs of Travel. It was published in 1857 and went through five printings in her lifetime.
Later life
Le Vert's life took a turn for the worse with the outbreak of the American Civil War. She was not a strong supporter of the secession of Alabama from the United States and had conflicted feelings towards the institution of slavery. Once war broke out, however, she and her daughters served as nurses in the Confederate hospitals.[3] Her husband died in Mobile on March 15, 1864, and was interred in Magnolia Cemetery alongside their children.[1]
It was widely known that she gladly received the news of the end of the war and then entertained occupying
Notes
- ^ Also sometimes spelled LeVert or Levert
Popular culture
Josef Gung'l wrote a polka, Levert Polka, and dedicated it to Mrs. Octavia Walton LeVert.
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-9618589-1-9.
- ^ a b "Portraits/Biographies of Regent and Vice Regents to 1874" (PDF). George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate, Museum, and Gardens. Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. Retrieved February 18, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Doss, Harriet E. Amos; Frear, Sara (July 24, 2009). "Octavia Walton Le Vert". The Encyclopedia of Alabama. Auburn University. Retrieved February 18, 2012.
- ^ "Octavia Walton Le Vert (1811–1877)". Alabama Women's Hall of Fame. Judson College. Retrieved February 18, 2012.
- ^ "Inductees". Alabama Women's Hall of Fame. Judson College. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
- ^ a b Thomas Ollive Mabbott (1969). "To Octavia". The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Vol. I: Poems. Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8203-2257-5.
- ^ Emmeline Stuart Wortley, Lady (1851). Travels in the United States, etc.,: during 1849 and 1850. London: Richard Bentley. pp. 133–137. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
- OCLC 4316510.