February 28, 2025 • 8 mins
Kate Chase was the 20-year-old queen bee of Washington society at the onset of the Civil War. She had the ear of Abe Lincoln and the hatred of his jealous wife Mary Todd Lincoln. Kate married rich but then fell for another powerful man…until they were caught. And that changed everything.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you with me here? You'll look at pics of
people from the eighteen hundreds and they look so serious
and respectable. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but
that wasn't always the case. They just kept their indiscretions
under wraps. In Washington, d C. During the Civil War,
Kate Chase was the reigning Society princess. Her father, a widower,
(00:20):
was Treasury Secretary, and Kate was his official hostess and escort.
So how did she go from being a rich, beautiful
queen bee to selling eggs and produced door to door
to make ends meet. I'm Patty Steele, from the toast
of Washington to poverty stricken egg lady. It was all
about sex. That's next on the backstory. The backstory is back.
(00:46):
Imagine you're born into a life of luxury, a wealthy
intellectual father, a beautiful young mother. You are exquisitely beautiful,
incredibly well mannered, and best of all, celebrated for your
intense intense despite being a woman in what was definitely
a man's world. Kate Chase was the daughter of Salmon Chase,
(01:07):
a brilliant guy who went on to become Abe Lincoln's
secretary at the Treasury and eventually Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court. Yeah, that's a lot to live up to.
But Kate far exceeded everybody's expectations. She was gorgeous, tall
and slender, with an incredible figure. But in addition to beauty,
her expensive, fabulous wardrobe, and her style and charm, she
(01:30):
was brilliant. She could handle herself in the most intense
political conversations. When she first arrived in DC from her
home in Ohio as her father joined Lincoln's cabinet, one
politician described her as follows. She was about nineteen, tall
and slender, exceedingly well formed. Her nose was somewhat audaciously
(01:50):
tipped up, fitting pleasingly into her face with its large,
languid yet vivacious hazel eyes shaded by long dark lashes,
and arched by proud eyebrows. Eyebrows can be proud. He
went on to say. The fine forehead was framed in
waving gold brown hair. She had something imperial in the
pose of her head, and her movements possessed an exquisite
(02:13):
natural charm. No wonder she was admired as a great
beauty and broke many hearts, and Miss Kate took a
lively and remarkably intelligent part in conversations that soon turned
itself upon politics. That is a fan. She was in
demand for every social event. She visited army camps, she
was friends with high powered politicians and generals, and with
(02:36):
all that going for her, every man in Washington wanted her,
and women either wanted to be her, or, like Mary
Todd Lincoln, they hated her, which Kate actually seemed to enjoy.
In fact, when Kate married the very wealthy Civil War
general turned Rhode Island governor turned senator William Sprague in
the social event of eighteen sixty three, Mary Lincoln refused
(02:58):
to go with her husband Abe to the wedding. He
went alone. He was not immune to Kate's charms. As
a wedding gift, Sprague gave Kate a tiara that today
would cost well over a million dollars. She had it all.
Kate was devoted to her father, to the point that
she actually had married Sprague solely as a financial resource
to help her dad run against Lincoln in the election
(03:21):
of eighteen sixty four. He wanted the Republican nomination. Both
Kate and her father saw the White House as his
ultimate goal, but folks found out that Chase's dad had
plotted against the president in the run up to the election.
Plus the war had turned around. All that allowed Lincoln
to win his second term, much to Kate and her
father's disappointment. But the problem was she was now stuck
(03:45):
married to William Sprague, who had become an abusive alcoholic
with a violent temper. He was a notorious womanizer and
was rapidly descending into insanity. Well, it seems, Kate continued
to enjoy all the intention in other men gave her.
There were rumors that she had numerous affairs beginning shortly
after her marriage. While she and her husband had four kids,
(04:08):
the last two, according to gossip, might have had different fathers.
Now along comes one of the hottest men in Washington,
not just powerful and wealthy. Senator Roscoe Conkling was considered
to be the best looking man in politics. He was
devoted to exercise, unusual in those days. He was about
six foot three, a big, well built guy who dressed impeccably,
(04:31):
had incredible manners, and he was a remarkable speaker. Despite
the fact that both he and Kate are married to
other people, they fall in love or maybe it was lust.
Their affairs uncovered when Kate's drunken husband shows up unexpectedly
at their summerhouse in Narragancet, Rhode Island. Yikes, he finds
Roscoe lounging in a bathrobe having breakfast with Kate. Sprague
(04:55):
chases him out with a shotgun. None of this looks good,
The New York Times to scribes the incident. Senator Roscoe
Conkling was a frequent visitor at the Sprague's estate and
was unpleasantly conspicuous in the proceedings which ended in the
divorce of the Sprague's mister. Conkling had been forbidden by
mister Sprague to come to the house, but Sprague later
(05:16):
met Conkling coming from the rear of the house. Reports
had it that Conkling jumped from a window, with Sprague
coming after him with his old Civil War musket in
his hands. Sprague apparently also threatened to throw Kate out
of a second story window, but instead he has her
locked in her room. Kate manages to escape and the
Spragues separate permanently. The pair divorced a few years later,
(05:40):
but she got no money from her ex. In those days,
a woman involved in an affair forfeited any right to
her husband's financial support. As for Roscoe, he went back
to his wife. So Kate took her three girls and
moved to her father's home outside of d c. While
her son, Willie continued to live with his father. Sadly,
(06:00):
Willie committed suicide at the age of twenty five. Kate
became a recluse. Her father now long dead, no financial
help from her husband, and the failure of her dead
father's businesses, so she was penniless. In order to get by,
Kate raised chickens and vegetables and sold eggs and produce
door to door the last decades of her life. People
(06:22):
said she looked years older than she was, but she
allowed no photos to be taken of her. She died
of liver failure in eighteen ninety nine, at the age
of just fifty eight. In her obituary, the Washington Post
called her the most brilliant woman of her day. None
outshone her, but newspapers said only two or three close
relatives gathered for her burial. They said, dust to dust,
(06:46):
ashes to ashes. The mortal remains of the daughter of
Salmon p Chase were laid to rest forever beside the
dust of her illustrious father. This remarkable woman came closer
to being queen than any other American woman ever has
for a while, she had owned her time. The question is,
how does that kind of an RC happen in just
(07:08):
one lifetime. Hope you're enjoying The Backstory with Patty Steele.
Follow or subscribe for free to get new episodes delivered automatically,
and feel free to dm me if you have a
story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty
Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
(07:31):
The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis
Duran Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser.
Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday
and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with
comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty
Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening
(07:54):
to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history
you didn't know you needed to know
Are you with me here? You'll look at pics of
people from the eighteen hundreds and they look so serious
and respectable. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but
that wasn't always the case. They just kept their indiscretions
under wraps. In Washington, d C. During the Civil War,
Kate Chase was the reigning Society princess. Her father, a widower,
(00:20):
was Treasury Secretary, and Kate was his official hostess and escort.
So how did she go from being a rich, beautiful
queen bee to selling eggs and produced door to door
to make ends meet. I'm Patty Steele, from the toast
of Washington to poverty stricken egg lady. It was all
about sex. That's next on the backstory. The backstory is back.
(00:46):
Imagine you're born into a life of luxury, a wealthy
intellectual father, a beautiful young mother. You are exquisitely beautiful,
incredibly well mannered, and best of all, celebrated for your
intense intense despite being a woman in what was definitely
a man's world. Kate Chase was the daughter of Salmon Chase,
(01:07):
a brilliant guy who went on to become Abe Lincoln's
secretary at the Treasury and eventually Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court. Yeah, that's a lot to live up to.
But Kate far exceeded everybody's expectations. She was gorgeous, tall
and slender, with an incredible figure. But in addition to beauty,
her expensive, fabulous wardrobe, and her style and charm, she
(01:30):
was brilliant. She could handle herself in the most intense
political conversations. When she first arrived in DC from her
home in Ohio as her father joined Lincoln's cabinet, one
politician described her as follows. She was about nineteen, tall
and slender, exceedingly well formed. Her nose was somewhat audaciously
(01:50):
tipped up, fitting pleasingly into her face with its large,
languid yet vivacious hazel eyes shaded by long dark lashes,
and arched by proud eyebrows. Eyebrows can be proud. He
went on to say. The fine forehead was framed in
waving gold brown hair. She had something imperial in the
pose of her head, and her movements possessed an exquisite
(02:13):
natural charm. No wonder she was admired as a great
beauty and broke many hearts, and Miss Kate took a
lively and remarkably intelligent part in conversations that soon turned
itself upon politics. That is a fan. She was in
demand for every social event. She visited army camps, she
was friends with high powered politicians and generals, and with
(02:36):
all that going for her, every man in Washington wanted her,
and women either wanted to be her, or, like Mary
Todd Lincoln, they hated her, which Kate actually seemed to enjoy.
In fact, when Kate married the very wealthy Civil War
general turned Rhode Island governor turned senator William Sprague in
the social event of eighteen sixty three, Mary Lincoln refused
(02:58):
to go with her husband Abe to the wedding. He
went alone. He was not immune to Kate's charms. As
a wedding gift, Sprague gave Kate a tiara that today
would cost well over a million dollars. She had it all.
Kate was devoted to her father, to the point that
she actually had married Sprague solely as a financial resource
to help her dad run against Lincoln in the election
(03:21):
of eighteen sixty four. He wanted the Republican nomination. Both
Kate and her father saw the White House as his
ultimate goal, but folks found out that Chase's dad had
plotted against the president in the run up to the election.
Plus the war had turned around. All that allowed Lincoln
to win his second term, much to Kate and her
father's disappointment. But the problem was she was now stuck
(03:45):
married to William Sprague, who had become an abusive alcoholic
with a violent temper. He was a notorious womanizer and
was rapidly descending into insanity. Well, it seems, Kate continued
to enjoy all the intention in other men gave her.
There were rumors that she had numerous affairs beginning shortly
after her marriage. While she and her husband had four kids,
(04:08):
the last two, according to gossip, might have had different fathers.
Now along comes one of the hottest men in Washington,
not just powerful and wealthy. Senator Roscoe Conkling was considered
to be the best looking man in politics. He was
devoted to exercise, unusual in those days. He was about
six foot three, a big, well built guy who dressed impeccably,
(04:31):
had incredible manners, and he was a remarkable speaker. Despite
the fact that both he and Kate are married to
other people, they fall in love or maybe it was lust.
Their affairs uncovered when Kate's drunken husband shows up unexpectedly
at their summerhouse in Narragancet, Rhode Island. Yikes, he finds
Roscoe lounging in a bathrobe having breakfast with Kate. Sprague
(04:55):
chases him out with a shotgun. None of this looks good,
The New York Times to scribes the incident. Senator Roscoe
Conkling was a frequent visitor at the Sprague's estate and
was unpleasantly conspicuous in the proceedings which ended in the
divorce of the Sprague's mister. Conkling had been forbidden by
mister Sprague to come to the house, but Sprague later
(05:16):
met Conkling coming from the rear of the house. Reports
had it that Conkling jumped from a window, with Sprague
coming after him with his old Civil War musket in
his hands. Sprague apparently also threatened to throw Kate out
of a second story window, but instead he has her
locked in her room. Kate manages to escape and the
Spragues separate permanently. The pair divorced a few years later,
(05:40):
but she got no money from her ex. In those days,
a woman involved in an affair forfeited any right to
her husband's financial support. As for Roscoe, he went back
to his wife. So Kate took her three girls and
moved to her father's home outside of d c. While
her son, Willie continued to live with his father. Sadly,
(06:00):
Willie committed suicide at the age of twenty five. Kate
became a recluse. Her father now long dead, no financial
help from her husband, and the failure of her dead
father's businesses, so she was penniless. In order to get by,
Kate raised chickens and vegetables and sold eggs and produce
door to door the last decades of her life. People
(06:22):
said she looked years older than she was, but she
allowed no photos to be taken of her. She died
of liver failure in eighteen ninety nine, at the age
of just fifty eight. In her obituary, the Washington Post
called her the most brilliant woman of her day. None
outshone her, but newspapers said only two or three close
relatives gathered for her burial. They said, dust to dust,
(06:46):
ashes to ashes. The mortal remains of the daughter of
Salmon p Chase were laid to rest forever beside the
dust of her illustrious father. This remarkable woman came closer
to being queen than any other American woman ever has
for a while, she had owned her time. The question is,
how does that kind of an RC happen in just
(07:08):
one lifetime. Hope you're enjoying The Backstory with Patty Steele.
Follow or subscribe for free to get new episodes delivered automatically,
and feel free to dm me if you have a
story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty
Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
(07:31):
The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis
Duran Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser.
Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday
and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with
comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty
Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening
(07:54):
to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history
you didn't know you needed to know
Host
Patty Steele
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