Katherine (Biddle) Barrette (1864 - 1933)

Born 19 Aug 1864 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, USA

Ancestors

Wife of John Davenport Barrette — married 13 Jun 1894 in Christ Church Detroit, Michigan, USA

Descendants

Died 24 Jan 1933 at age 68 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA

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Biography

Katherine Biddle Barrette was born in Detroit, Michigan on Aug. 19, 1864. At the time, her father James Biddle was with the Union forces attacking Atlanta, Georgia. Her mother Margaret Terry Biddle gave birth in the company of her sister Louisa Terry and their servants.

It was at West Point that Mama met Papa. Grandpa James Biddle and Grandma Margaret Terry Biddle, from 730 Jefferson Avenue, Detroit, thought it time for a summer trip. Mama had just lost some of her hair with typhoid fever, and also a beau her family disapproved of. Aunty,^[1], two years older, Mama, Grandpa and Grandma went to West Point.

West Point was fun. Mama and Papa took walks overlooking the Hudson on "Flirtation Walk". After ten days he proposed, She accepted. He now taught Math at West Point and had good quarters. But Grandpa Biddle hesitated about a strange young man from Iowa.

"Wait a year," he said.

The next year, in 1894, they were married in Detroit with Grandpa's blessing. Mama's Aunt, "Aunt Maggie"^[2]also approved and so did her son, Biddle Porter ^[3]. He had known Papa at West Point. We have a picture of all of them standing back of Grandpa's chair, where he often sat because of his wounded knee as a Major in the Civil War. Cousin Biddle Porter was grinning from ear to ear. I remember that grin some years later when he tossed me over his shoulder and tickled me.^[4]

Married to an Army officer, Katherine spent her life constantly moving from place to place, as John Barrette rose from Lieutenant to General during his career that lasted more than 30 years. He was in the Coast Artillery, no longer in existence, but at that time charged with defending the shores of the United States, both east and west. Most of his career was spent serving in posts along the east coast, protecting cities like Portland, Maine, New York, Baltimore, Norfolk, and Charleston. Many of these posts were on islands and required ferry trips to go ashore. Later in his career, after the Spanish-American War, he was sent to the Philippines with his family. The Barrettes also were sent to Hawaii, after World War I, where he was Commanding General of Fort Shafter. There is a (now closed) Fort Barrette on Oahu and a still existing Fort Barrette Road that were named after Gen. Barrette.

The Barrettes had five daughters, no sons. A family story tells how Mrs. Barrette referred to them as "the beautiful Mrs. Barrette and her five daughters", while the daughters said "Mrs. Barrette and her five beautiful daughters".

After Gen. Barrette retired, in the 1920s, the couple lived in Washington, DC until Katherine died on January 24, 1933. She is buried in Arlington National Cemetery next to her husband, who died a few years later.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Louisa Biddle
2. ↑ Margeretta Biddle Porter
3. ↑ John Biddle Porter
4. ↑ Memoirs of Mary Lydia Barrette Sinclair, 1897-1991, privately printed, in possession of Henry Chadwick
5. ↑ Author: National Cemetery Administration Title: U.S. Veterans Gravesites, ca.1775-2006 Publication: Name: Name: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.Original data - National Cemetery Administration. Nationwide Gravesite Locator.Original data: National Cemetery Administration. Nationwide Gravesite Locator