Mattie Ould Schoolcraft

Ould was the daughter of Robert Ould and Sarah Augusta Turpin Ould. Her father was a lawyer, a judge, and an official of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.^[1] Her mother was a close friend to Varina Davis.^[2]

Ould was a society "belle", known for her wit, conversational skills, and beauty.^[3][4] She was said to be informally engaged to a tobacco merchant. While she was staying the summer at White Sulfur Springs, Ould met a New York-born newspaper owner and editor Oliver J. Schoolcraft, son of Congressman John L. Schoolcraft. They married suddenly in August 1876, without announcing their intentions even to their families.^[5][6] Schoolcraft inherited "a comfortable fortune", according to The Baltimore Sun,^[7] but "is not credited with having much brains, and is considered in every way inferior to his spouse," explained The Boston Globe.^[5]

The Schoolcrafts sailed for Europe on honeymoon.^[8] She died in childbirth in April 1877,^[9] in her mid-twenties, near Richmond.^[4][10] "Richmond had never seen such a sight as Mattie Ould's funeral," recalled the Richmond TImes-Dispatch in 1900.^[11]

Oliver Schoolcraft's second marriage was also brief.^[7] Ould's story and image were reprinted for decades after her death,^[11][12][13] sometimes as an illustration of "the fatality that attends the gift of beauty".^[14] An 1871 miniature portrait of Ould is in the collection of The Valentine, a museum in Richmond.^[15]