MSS 40 King Family Papers

              SARAH WORmINGTOM KING PETER, May 10, 1800 - Feb. 6, 1877, philan-t
h r o p i s t , was the daughter of Thomas and Eleanor ( Van ~ w e a r i n ~ e n )
' Worthington. Sarah, born i n Chillicothe, was gchooled i n Frankfort,
C Ky., and i n a private i n s t i t u t i o n near Baltimore, receiving i n s t m e -
Lion c h i e f l y i n t h e s o c i a l usages bec0ming. a g i r l of her position and
beauty. In 1816, she married Edward King, son of Rufus King of New
York, who had completed the course a t Lftchfield Law School and settled
i n Chillicothe t o practice his profession. She becarno an ardent worker
i n t h e l o c a l Episcopal Church, which she helped t o found i n 1820, and
maintained a cultivated salon on t h e f r o n t i e r where she entertained
among others Karl Bernhard, Duke of Sexe- Weimar- Eisensch, who recorded
h i s impressions of the family i n h i s Travels through North Arneric
durina the Years 1825 and 1826 ( 1828; 11, 1.9- 50). In 1825, she : ccom-panied
her f a t h e r t o New Orleans, where sha was honored as one of
Eafayettegs hostesses. Moving $ 0 Cincinnati i n 1831, t h e Kings became
prominent i n s o c i a l l i f e , aidad i n founding the Cincinnati School of Law,
and a s s i s t e d i n the establiskme~ lt sf the Protestant Orphan 8sl; yum. In
1836, King died and h i s widow moved t o Cambridge, f? cass., where her sons
were attending Harvard College. Welcomed by s o c i a l leader8 because of
her family connectfons i n New ' Slork and Maine, she s p e n t h e r time i n the
service of Christ Church and in mastering French, German, end I t a l i a n . e With her elder son, Rufus King s e t t l e d i n Cincinnati as a lawyer and
t h e younger, Thomas W. Xing id the Philadelphia commercial house of his
kinsman, Richard APaop, she f e l t f r e e t o follow her own bent, and i n
October, 1 a 9 lshe married William F s t s r , B r i t i s h consul i n Philadelphia.
He was an Oxford @ tcholar, a t r a n s l a t o r of Germn poetry, and an e s s a y i s t ,
and had served as e Whig mernber 0% Parliament. The Peters became f a v o r i t e s
i n s o c i a l and i n t e l l e c t u a l c i r c l e s , and t h e i r home was noted f o r Its
c o l l e c t i o n s of bronzes, p r i n t s , end paintings. After t h e death of Sarah
Peter" younger son, she took h i s widow and three children t o Europe
( 1851- 52). She organized the Philadelphia School of Design for Women,
promoted an a s s o c i a t i o n f o r the advancement of t a i l o r e s s e s , and materi-a
l l y aided the Quakers i n the erection of the Rosina House of Magdalena.
On the death of her husband, Feb, 6, 18539 she returned t o Cincinnati,
where her home became r rendezvous f o r a r t i s t s and musicians. She soon
brought together a group of women i n t e r e s t e d i n the, f i n e a r t s with whose
paasistanccr she founded a small a r t museum, f o r which she c o l l e c t e d marste; k.-
pieces and worthy copies on her frequent Ehropean journeys, By 1876, t h i a
group had grown i n t o the WomamBs Muaeruail Assocfsrtion, which l a t e r fostered
t h e Cincinnati Academy of Fine Arta.
As e r e s u l t of her sympathetic observations i n European Catholic countries,
e s p e c i a l l y i n 1854 when ahe met the American p r e l a t e s who had gone t o Rome
f o r the d e f i n i t i o n of the Immaculate Conception, ehe developed an i n t e r e s t
i n Catholicism, Ira 1855 sshe was received i n t o the church a t Rome by
t h e picturesque Monsignor Bedini, Aa a Catholic, her i n t e r e s t i n mgdalena,
orphans, and the indigent became more marked, although h e r e a r l y s e r v i c e s
IJ . were given l i t t l e support by Archbishop Purcell, who i n time came t o truert
her implioitly. In 1857, ehe brought the S i s t e r s of the Good Shepherd
under MoQhep K ~ v ward from EouisvilPe t o Cincinnati and l a t a p a s s i s t e d