Woman of the Century/Jessie Benton Fremont

FRÉMONT, Mrs. Jessie Benton, horn in Virginia, in 1824. She is a daughter of the late Hon. Thomas Hart Benton, of Missouri, who was conspicuous as editor, soldier and statesman, and famous for thirty years in the United States Senate, from 1820 to 1851. During the long period of Col. Benton's public life Jessie Benton was an acknowledged belle of the old regime. She possessed all the qualities of her long and illustrious ancestry, illuminated by her father's record, and was the JESSIE BENTON FREMONT. center of a circle of famous men and women. She became the wife of John Charles Fremont, the traveler and explorer, who was born in Savannah, Ga., in 1813. Gen. Fremont is known to the world as the "Great Path Finder," and a "Grateful Republic" recognized his services. In 1849 he settled in California and was elected senator for that State. He received in 1856 the first nomination ever made by the Republican party for president. His wife was a prominent factor in that campaign. A major-general's commission was conferred in 1862, but General Fremont was more famous as explorer than as statesman or general. In 1878 he was appointed Governor of Arizona, where both he and Mrs. Fremont were very popular. Then closed the long and honorable public life of the Pioneer of the Pacific. In all these public positions Mrs. Fremont won renown in her own right. As a writer she is brilliant, concise and at all times interesting. Her extensive acquaintance with the brightest intellects of the world enabled her to enter the field of literature fully equipped, and since the death of Gen. Fremont she finds pleasure in her pen. The memoirs of Mrs. Fremont will find a large circle of readers. She is now a resident of Los Angeles, Cal., and lives with her daughter Congress has recognized the services of "The Great Explorer" and given his widow a pension of two-thousand dollars per annum. Her published books are "Story of the Guard, a Chronicle of the War," with a German translation (Boston, 18^5), a sketch of her father, Thomas H. Benton, prefixed to her husband's memoirs (1886), and "Souvenirs of my Time" (Boston, 1887). She is passing her days in quiet retirement.