Photo taken in 1920s. A unique bit of American history… This is the Home of the woman who refused to marry Ulysses S. Grant, located in Natchitoches Louisiana.
Originally when I came across this photograph the above were the only details accompanying it. Curious, I searched for more information. I found more details in a dictorial continuation prepared in 1933. (Author not listed in the paper itself.). This paper is located in the Louisiana digital library, oddly in the Louisiana Works Progress Administration (WPA) files. The paper is simple titled, “The Home of the Woman Who Refused to Marry Ulysses S. Grant.”
It is told that this woman, Mary Elizabeth Campbell was quite the beautiful sensation at a fancy ball she attended in Natchitoches when she met Grant, who was then a Lieutenant stationed at Camp Salubrity near Natchitoches. Grant was immediately enamored withy the beautiful young bell and soon asked her to marry him. She refused his proposal, at least in part because she did not gain the approval of her legal guardians (Miss Campbell had been orphaned as a young child in Richmond, Virginia.)
She later married Mr. J.C. Sullivan of Baltimore, Maryland and they had three children. The children were at least in their early teens by the time the Sullivans moved to the house in this photo, which is according to the description in the dictorial continuation located at “New Second Street.” Opposite the corner of Cypress End New Second. The house became known as the Sullivan House. Whether or not it is still called that, I am not certain.