I was collecting quotes and the like from mi books about these two so I'm making this massive post to keep going back to
Anne Brown Clay (Taken from the Heidlers' book):
Born April 15, 1807
"Clay was glad to get home [after his first stint in the senate for a few weeks in 1807]. His return in April was more than usually merry because a baby was waiting for him, a little girl whose birth he had just missed. She was his second daughter. They named her Anne Brown Clay after her aunt Nancy Brown in New Orleans, a good choice because like Aunt Nancy, Anne would become a vivacious, clever girl. Clay cherished all of his children, but something about Anne always made him especially happy. A man who had countless friends, he would come to regard this daughter among his very best."
In 1822 Susan Clay would marry Martin Duralde and moved to New Orleans where Anne would go down for a visit later in the year. "It was quite an adventure for Anne, who was fifteen. And it was difficult for Henry and Lucretia to see Susan embark on a new life away from them. She was only seventeen." "Aunt Julia took Anne under her wing, and during the dazzling whirl of parties the girl met James Erwin, an entrepreneur with interests in New Orleans and Tennessee whose father, Andrew was...an opponent of Andrew Jackson. James had dash and elan, more in fact than Anne or her parents realized, and young Anne's heart didn't stand a chance. The speedy courtship resulted in a wedding the following fall in Lexington, possibly more bittersweet for Henry than Susan's, because clever Anne was always his favorite."
"Anne saw him [Clay Jr.] in Washington in 1828 and joked to her father that Henry was at the age when young men are 'obliged to put on a very sage and serious air to remind one of' their dignity."
"After Eliza and Susan died, Clay doted on Anne, and not just because she was his only surviving daughter. He openly admitted that she was 'one of the few sources which I have of real happiness,' but both her vivacious temperament and the fact Clay treated her as a friend rather than a project kept her from feeling, as Henry did, that her papa's devotion was too great not to be disappointed. Clay was never able to make his sons his friends, not even after they married and had children of their own. With Anne, everything was different. Her letters were playful and informative, full of puns and amusing stories about her, James, and the children. James Jr., she said, was 'becoming quite a beauty, at least for his opportunities, not having to inherit from either side of the house.'" Clay would beg for James to bring Anne up to Lexington which he usually did in between her pregnancies which meant they would bring their children which would make Clay even more happy. Eventually James bought a home, Woodlands, near Ashland, to spend large parts of the year in, "Clay was jubilant."
Anne’s death in the winter of 1835 absolutely devastated her father. Passing out in the Senate upon hearing the news and then locking himself in his room, not eating, drinking, or sleeping for a few days. He told Lucretia that the last source of his happiness was ripped from him.
"It was cold comfort that Erwin had treated his and Anne's children just shabbily. He had squandered their share of Anne's inheritance and died owing them $37,000, not counting years of interest--money that none of them would see, since the second Mrs. Erwin proved tenacious in claiming her and her children's share of the meager leavings." Anne's children had a hard lot: tuberculosis, daughters cast adrift by male family members, one going off to California, one dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Julia Webster (Taken from Remini's Webster and Peteron's Great Triumvirate)
"Webster remained in Boston into the new year because his wife was pregnant and about to deliver. Their second daughter, Julia, was born, January 16, 1818. Webster hoped to hurry down to Washington around the first of February but had to change his plans when he was retained in another case that required his immediate presence."
Webster would have to constantly move back and forth from Washington to appear in front of state courts, federal courts, the Supreme Court, and the Claims Commission, which put a strain on his wife and children. One of his wife's letters from 1824 showcases the family dynamic while Webster was away which was more often than not. "I hope ere this hour, my dear Husband, you are almost at the end of your journey. You are first, and last, and always in our hearts, and on our minds. I say ours for Julia's bonny hazel eye has often filled with tears since we parted and she could hardly enjoy the beauty of a nice bedroom and delightful bed because dear Papa was in the steamboat and her apprehension for your safety are very great."
On Jan. 21, 1828 Grace Webster expired from a tumor just a few days after Webster turned 46. Julia just turned 10 and her brother Fletcher was only 14. During the funeral Webster "took Julia and Fletcher by the hand," and moved the remains of their siblings who had died a little over 10 years before and brought them into the tomb his wife was being buried in.
Webster always said he was a family man and missed his children but then did like everything but see his children imo. While in Washington, and after losing his first wife, he put his children up with others. Julia would be put under the tutelage of Miss Elizabeth Palmer Peabody's where she started to learn Latin and was dutiful in her letters to her father. She asked him if she should study French as well and if New York's City Hall was made out of wood or marble as she wagered once cent with Peabody's husband. She thought it was wood.
Caroline Le Roy and Webster were married after a very quick month-long courtship on December 12, 1829 in the parlor of the Eastern hotel near the Battery in New York. Only Webster's daughter Julia and Caroline's immediate family attended. Interestingly, according to Peterson, Webster could not function without a wife.
Caroline insisted on taking Julia to Washington with them and from then on Julia will be with her father in Washington often.
William Pitt Fessenden found Julia, "bashful, but possessed of a very intelligent face and good conversational accomplishments." Fessenden joined the Websters on their western tour and arriving in Lexington Clay "entertained [them] royally and did a great deal of drinking, dancing, gambling and horse racing. Young Fessenden was rather shocked by the antics of the western Whigs. Clay and his friends, he wrote, were "talking as loudly, betting as freely, drinking as deeply, and swearing as excessively as the jockeys themselves."
When Webster is offered the position of Sec. of State under Harrison he readily accepts it (tired of the senate, thought of retiring, tired of his weakness in the party) despite the pleas of Julia, "Do come back to us, dear Father."
In January 1848 Julia was diagnosed with tuberculosis and her health was falling. She made light of her condition in letters to her father and cared more about news of him and the Whig nomination. In the middle of this the family received news that Edward Webster died of typhoid fever in San Angel outside Mexico City. Julia said he died in a "wicked & cruel war." Webster knew that Julia was about to be next. "Another event is approaching which goes to the very bottom of my heart. I cannot trust myself to speak of it, or to write about it." Julia knew it too. On April 28, 1848, with her father by her side, she died of consumption at age 30. Her last words were, "let me go, for the day breaketh."
Webster, knowing how much Julia loved their home of Marshfield, planted two weeping elms naming them "Brother and Sister" for Edward and Julia. "I hope the trees will live," Webster wrote as he moved the remains of the siblings from the Boston grave to the family plot at the home.
