Gen. Edward King & Mrs. Sarah Peter
Gen Edward King, another member, was, in spirit, manners, and education, a su-perior man. He was a son of the eminent statesman and senator from Massachusetts, Rufus King, and father of Rufus King, to-day eminent lawyer of Cincinnati, and author of “Ohio,’ in the American Commonwealth series of State Histories. Gen. King married Sarah, a daughter of Gov. Worthington, at Chillicothe, practised law, became speaker of the Ohio legislature and, in 1831, removed to Cincinnati. He was both witty and enter-taining. He died in 1836. His wife, later known as Mrs. Sarah Peter (having eight years later married Mr. Peter, the British Consul at Philadelphia), was a most instructive member of the circle. Mr. Peter died in 1853, and then again, until her decease, Cincinnati was her home.
Her life has recently been published by Robert Clarke & Co., and illustrates the truth of the statement made by Mr. Mansfield, viz., that “The activity, energy, and benevolence of her mind accomplished in the next forty years probably more of real work for the benefit of society than any one person, and that work has made her widely known at home and abroad.” Not any Ohio-born woman has probably done so much.
She was one of the founders of the Cincinnati Orphan Asylum, which has cared for thousands of orphan children the last fifty years. She was also active in church and Sunday-school work, in improving church music and relieving the poor. In Philadel-phia she was prominent in founding “The Rosina Home for Magdalens,’ which still continues its noble work. She devoted a room in her house to a school of design for (823) women, and engaged a teacher to conduct it. From this germ sprang the Philadelphia School of Design, which now has over 200 pupils, and an institution of great utility. She also founded an institution there for the protection of poor sewing women.
Her accounts of her several journeys to Europe and the Holy Land are among the best books of travel. When in Europe, Mrs. Peter urged the art-loving people of Cincin-nati to secure good copies of painting and sculpture. In this and other regards she made a broad mark upon its art-history.
“It was in 1852, while visiting Jerusalem that Mrs. Peter found herself tending toward the Roman Catholic Church, and she was soon in full communion with it. She was one of the most active and powerful members it has ever had in America. Her devotion to the sisterhoods and the hospitals was untiring and most generous. She was one of the good angels of the sick and wounded soldiers dur-ing the civil war. Her passion for charity was so great that she lived herself a simple convent life. She went to the battle-field of Shiloh with a relief-boat, and her ministrations continued until the war ended.
This good woman, of so many noble achievements and of such commanding in-fluence, passed to her rest February 6, 1877.”
From Historical Collections of Ohio by Henry Howe; Pub. 1888