Using various online archives and my own files, I thought it would be interesting to flesh out some of the prominent early cat fanciers on both sides of the Atlantic, most of whom were "society" people. This page details prominent early fanciers in the USA.

MRS ELIZABETH BRACE

CATS WHICH LIVE BETTER LIVES THAN HUMANS. ROCHESTER WOMAN HAS A CATTERY IN WHICH THE FELINES ARE WATCHED BY SERVANTS AND SLEEP ON SILK AND VELVET CUSHIONS. The Buffalo Enquirer, 23rd November 1908.
Mrs. Elizabeth L Brace is establishing a cattery at her home, No. 437 Frost Avenue, and many of its occupants are famous. Their pedigrees are long, while in most cases their hair is short. As told some days ago, fifteen of these cats come from the Black Short-haired Cattery at Oradell, N. J., owned by Miss Jane R. Cathcart. Mrs. Brace will care for the pets this winter and take them to all the shows where they will be entered.

Two rooms on the second floor of Mrs. Brace's house and the entire attic on the third floor are given up to cats. All the females are in one room together and all the males occupy the attic above, where each has his separate dwelling, These are nothing more or less than the Cypher brood coops in two apartments, one inclosed with netting, for a run. In pleasant weather the males are put in larger coops with twelve-foot runs and taken outdoors.

When the cats were sent here they were prepared for the trip in proper fashion. It would be interesting to one not familiar with the fancy to see how these pets are equipped for journeys. They travel in Backus cages, which all thoroughbred cats regard as the Pullman cars for cat travelers. Each cage is about eighteen by twenty-four inches and about twenty inches high. There is a buffet In the side, with places for food and water, while on the floor is velvet carpet. The cats travel in the same cages when they go to shows. The cage has a gable roof and on the top is a handle.

There is an emergency room at the cattery where cats are-put when sick. Although the cats are carefully looked after by Mrs. Brace and she prepares their food, she thinks of having a veterinarian call once a week while her winter guests are here.

Every one of the Oradell cats was imported, with one exception, Kombo, a white male champion with blue eyes. His mate, Snowdrift, also white with blue eyes, is from England. Two of the valuable ones are Champion Silver Stripes and his mate, Dame Fortune II. Both are silver tabbies. Silver Stripe's former owner. Mrs. Collingwood, of England, has tried to buy him back at a greatly increased price.

There are three Russian females, Chita, Sacha and Speedwell of Bath. A pair of Abyssinians of the cattery are the only ones in this country. The male is Aluminum II, and the female is Salt. They are of a silver shade, Then there are two Siamese males, Siam de Paris and Prince Damrong. Besides these is a brown tabby, called the Lady in Brown, which has never contested for honors, as she is to be shown for the first time this season.

These cats are fed twice a day, about 10 o'clock in the morning and at 6 at night. They receive only a certain quantity of food, determined by what the individual cats have shown that they need. It has been learned that some cats require much more than others. When one finishes a meal, he or she is taken out of the room until the others have finished, that one may not eat out of the others' dishes.

The food is varied different days. The neat is sometimes Hamburg steak, not made from what the average Hamburg steak is made from, but from the best round pieces and without fat. When this has been chopped it Is mixed with either shredded wheat or something else of that character in the proportion of two-thirds meat. Sometimes fish is on the bill-of-fare and at other times boiled meat. Cooked carrots are a dish permitted the blue- blooded pets. These articles are served at different times for the benefit of the pussies' stomachs. The milk must always be either evaporated or condensed. Every cat gets at least one egg a week. When a cat is in poor condition, he or she has one every day. It is a secret among the beauties who prepare themselves for gaining favor with the judges at shows that eggs make their fur shine.

Master Frank Decker, who was at Miss Cathcart's cattery through the summer, came with the cats to Rochester. He is well informed on catology and makes a valuable assistant to Mrs. Brace.

Dr. C. R. Webber, veterinary surgeon, says that he has from one to two hundred more or less valuable cats on his calling list all the time. A great difference is noticeable in the practice among them between winter and summer, he says. They are so carefully guarded from exposure in cold weather and cared for so tenderly they are susceptible to disorders they would never know in a more natural state. They differ from the old-time barn cat as does the progressive citizen from a gypsy. Aside from colds their chief ailment, the doctor says, is indigestion. If they were out howling on the back fence nights, the doctor says, they would stand stimulating food better.

MR AND MRS CONLISK

ALL THESE CATS ARE COSTLY, AND ONE OF THEM GOES HUNTING The Sun, New York, 16th October 1904
Gowanda, N. Y., Oct. 15. - "White man want two hunnerd dollar for one small gat! Heap damfool. Ugh!" Words fail to describe the supreme contempt with which the average Cattauraugus Indian waves his grimy paw toward the prominent citizen in this village who is the subject of the above candid criticism. If a stranger in Gowanda should overhear the remark and ask him why such scorn, the descendant of the once mighty Cattaraugus nation might reply: "He sell gat. S'pose you buy? He ask one, two hunnerd dollar. Me can buy two horse for that!" Should the stranger seek for a more lucid explanation of the red man's heat, any resident of Gowanda could tell him that it was all caused by the cat farm near here.

It appears that the catteries are a new institution in Gowanda, and plenty of the inhabitants share the opinion of the Indians who come in daily from the neighboring Cattaraugus reservation that there is a good deal of foolishness in the proposition that a cat can be worth as much as $250. There is a hospital for the insane in the outskirts of this village and the natives regard the catteries as an annex of the State hospital where the most hopeless cases are kept. Else, how could any man in his senses potter around raising cats and expecting to sell them for such sums as $200, they ask.

It is but fair to say that there are a few Indians who do not share the views of the majority aa to the insanity of the idea of breeding cats. These have made so much progress from the thralldom of prejudice as to take the view that even a cat is worth whatever price one can get for it. These untrammelled red men go so far as to try to humor the owner, and, to this end they bring all the cats they can catch and offer them to him at his own price. Some go even further and try to steal his cats for the purpose of selling them to him again, much as city dog robbers steal Towser for the purpose of taking him back to the owner after the latter has advertised "dog lost," just to claim the reward.

In order to discourage this practice, the cat breeder has been obliged to resort to the custom of meeting Indian cat merchants with a gun. This serves to keep his stock intact and prevents the disappointed Indians from dropping their wares on the premises where they might mingle with the high priced cats to the corruption of their blood and manners. Aa a further precaution, he has surrounded his catteries with a woven wire netting, calculated to keep all vulgar cats out and his aristocratic pussies in. So, it befalls that he is able to sleep nights even though the caterwaulings of Thomas cats, and Tabby cats tell all the neighborhood that they are besieging the catteries.

In the catalogue of catdom these precious cats are known as Persian silver grays. They are the most expensive cats in the world. They will never he raised for the purpose of contributing to the fiddle-string supply. Their fur is of the fineness of a spider web, and when you stroke their backs, up comes a tail that has a spread more like a peacock's pride than a common cat's tail. The majority are silver gray with a fleck of white. There is one in the collection which the novice would pronounce black, but her owner maintains that Katydid is a sample of a very rare shade of gray and offers to point out the distinctive flecks of white silver in her fur. He calls this rare shade London smoke. The name is a tribute to the land whence the grandfather of Katydid migrated to improve the blood and prices of the feline population of Gowanda.

Katydid is a remarkable character, and her fame has gone forth through all the Cattauraugus hills. She is a mighty hunter, and not even Emperor William of Germany is fonder of the smell of powder than she is. Whenever her owner goes abroad to shoot birds or small game Katydid is sure to be at his heels, or else dashing ahead after he fires to retrieve whatever he shoots. She has as much feather on her feet and tail aa a setter, and performs the duties of retrieving fully as satisfactorily. If by chance she were busy in her boudoir when her master set forth, and did not notice his departure on a foray, all that would be necessary would be for him to shoot anywhere within a mile of the cattery. At that sound, which might be too faint for human ear to notice, there would be a whirl of black cat through the fields, a flash of a London smoke tail, and Katydid would be streaking through the fields to participate in the slaughter. Indians who have met the silent man with a gun over his shoulders and the cat at his heels in the woods, and especially if they chance to see the cat swarm up a tree to bring down a bird that was killed but did not fall, have taken great pains thereafter to give the pair plenty of solitude. To them the performance savors of "heap bad medicine."

To mention the names of the occupants of the catteries is to call the roll of those proud pussies that have sat in the seats of the mighty in cat shows in New York at Madison Square Carden, and in other cities. The list includes Bitterne Silver Chieftain, a patriarch of seven years and with an ancestry longer than his tail. He is what cat cult devotees style a Persian self-silver. Among the descendants who boast his blood in their veins are Jack Frost, the king of the silvers in this country; Glen Haven, and in England in any another high-priced Persian.

Another imported cat of high degree and price is Chiffon, as fluffy as the name implies. She cost $275 delivered from London at the catteries. She shares with Bitterne Silver Chieftain the honor of winning the blue ribbon at the Crystal Palace cat show. Silver Belle won first prize not only at the Crystal Palace, but also at Madison Square Garden, where she carried off the first prize in her class, together with two special prizes, one for being the best cat in the show and a second as the best cat in New York State.

Among the cats in the cattery are some bearing such horsey names as Star Chimes, and Lou Dillon. These were bestowed upon them by their owner, whose early education was extended largely by studying the performances of running and trotting horses. He is a bookmaker and does not pretend to know anything about cats beyond the fact that they come high.

"If any of them dies," as he expressed it when referring to the financial side of the business, "they'll never help the fiddle-string supply. There ain't a cat in the bunch whose fiddle strings would sound a lower note than high C."

It is his wife who looks after the cats and exhibits them. She also reserves the exclusive privilege of naming them, since it became manifest that her husband meant to apply to them the names of Directum, Star Pointer, Nancy Hanks and others associated with kings and queens of the turf.

The catteries proper consist of two cottages fitted up with every convenience for the feline aristocrats, including benches with soft cushions and plenty of toilet facilities. If these cats have the traditional nine lives, the fact is not expressed in the form of fecundity. With cats of high degree as with Harvard graduates the rule governing the propagation of the species seems to be "The higher, the fewer."

"The cats are so highly bred that two kittens constitute the average litter except in rare cases, when the number is four, but in this event the offspring are apt to live only a few days. But then, as the cat fancier expresses it, "If they were more robust and there were bigger litters, they would be so many of 'em that they would be a good deal cheaper."

MRS CLIFFORD B. HARMON

"CATTERY" FOR $5000.00 PET FELINES The Fresno Morning Republican, 5th April 1914
NEW YORK SOCIETY WOMAN DEVOTES LARGE SUMS OF MONEY AND MUCH TIME IN SCOURING THE WORLD FOR CATS TO CAPTURE BLUE RIBBONS AT THE MANY SHOWS SHE ENTERS HER PETS IN.
When a woman adopts a hobby chances are she will ride it to the limit. This is proved by the enthusiasm with which they go in for prize winning horses and blue blooded dogs of every breed and specie. When she turns her attention to cats her ardor is no less keen, as the many entries at the, various cat shows throughout the country attest. There is no more enthusiastic collector of cats in the world than Mrs. Clifford B. Harmon, wife of the millionaire real estate man of New York, whose spare moments are devoted to aviation and the Aero Club of America, of which he is the president. When Mr. Harmon is not soaring aloft in an airship he is at his palatial home at Greenwich, Conn. on the grounds of which his wife has had erected a sumptuous and commodious building in which she houses her hundred and one cats of every known variety.

Mrs. Harmon's cats have a worldwide reputation. They have won more blue ribbons, perhaps, than cats from any other cattery. That they are priceless is proved by the prompt and peremptory refusal of their mistress to sell any one of the number no matter how fancy a figure is offered. Her cats are for her pleasure alone, and when they reach that age when they can no longer hold their own in the show ring they are either given to some dear friend whom she knows will give them tender care, or else they are mercifully put out of the world.

The Greenwich home of the Harmons is one of the show places of that aristocratic and wealthy little colony. The grounds are beautifully kept, and set well back in the rear of the estate can be found the cattery. Here every comfort and luxury that their catships might crave are provided. The various rooms in which they are quartered are kept at even temperature. A cat from far off India is kept in a room where the thermometer ever stands at that point which is mean and peculiar to the particular section of the Empire he was wont to roam over. Cats from the far north never know what it is to become uncomfortable from the heat for a refrigerating plant generates sufficiently chilling blasts to insure polar breezes if he craves them. Everything thereabouts is conducted on a lavish and scientific scale even to the preparation of their food.

In the Harmon cattery might be found such blue blooded champions as Buzzing Silver, an immense and magnificent specimen of bone, sinew and silken fur who boasts the title of champion of the world and which he has successfully defended against all comers. This cat is worth many times his weight in gold. He cost a small fortune and Mrs. Harmon has repeatedly refused offers trebling the sum paid for him. Petie K is the champion Persian - an immense cat of beautifully shaded coat tapering at the points to a coal black. He has won four championships, seven challenge cups and 250 prizes in the various shows he has appeared in. The money prizes awarded him at various times more than offset the price paid for him and the sums expended on his keep.

One of the most highly prized cats in the Harmon cattery is Lady Sonia, a Siamese specimen of the rarest type. She is a beauty, big, powerful and superbly coated.

These cats receive all the attention that a doting mistress might lavish upon her favorite poodle. Each day they are bathed and combed and brushed until their coats shine like satin. The long-haired varieties, of course, cause the most trouble for they are being groomed apparently from the moment they awaken from their naps on silken cushions until they are prepared for bed again at night.

At present Mrs. Harmon is rejoicing in many newcomers to her cattery. Mr. Harmon returned from Europe a day or two before Christmas and as a surprise to his wife brought sixteen cats of the very highest types he picked up abroad, These were transported in richly upholstered baskets and there were several attendants for the brood, to see that they were properrly cared for during the voyage.

In this collection were one or two of the tailless Manx variety as well as a native colored and hazel-eyed one from Formosa. In the collection also was a magnificent specimen from Persia and boasting of the name of Hafiz. He unquestionably was the 'class' of the collection and doubtless will sweep everything before him when his schooling for the shows he is to appear in is at an end. His marlin silk-like whiskers and his staring glassy eyes give him a formidable appearance, but his mistress says he is a dear and just as gentle and affectionate as the ordinary tabby of less ancient lineage.

The advent of Hafiz into America was attended by many thrills and not a few qualms and pangs for the master who was bearing him to his wife. As one of the stewards came down the companionway of the steamship after it had been warped into her berth, the top of the basket flew open and Hafiz sprang out with the agility of the cat that he is. Perhaps he had heard filtering from the steerage scraps of conversation about the land of the brave and the free. At any rate Hafiz then and there determined to enjoy that freedom which in a measure is so often denied cats of the peerage.

With a meow that sounded like so much Greek to the ordinary cats that prowl about every steamship pier, Hafiz bounded away and in a jiffy was opening a gap between him and his pursuers that increased with his every spring. Down the pier he romped, his broad back humped and his huge tail standing as stiff and straight as a poker. The alarm was given and ship's stewards, deck hands and passengers all joined in the chase that momentarily became more exciting. After a lapse of half an hour Hafiz was finally cornered behind a stack of baggage and clawing, scratching and meowing he was dragged forth by a deck hand who holding this priceless pet by the scruff of his neck bore him proudly to his almost distracted owner to collect the right reward that had been promised to the one capturing the prize.

Mrs. Harmon says her fondness for cats began when she was a child. She has owned many fine horses and dogs but she frankly admits that her affections are centered on her cats. The daughter of Mr. E. C. Benedict, Commodore of the New York Yacht Club, she went in for athletics and aquatics from the time of infancy. She is a splendid sailor and can sail a skiff, or navigate a steam yacht with the skill of a veteran. She has been the mistress of a large fortune since she reached womanhood and her every whim was gratified as a child. Her friends rather marvel at her fondness for cats, saying that a woman of athletic tastes would be more likely to concentrate her interest in horses, dogs, yachts, or some other pet to the preference of cats. But cats are her hobby and she lets nothing interfere with her care of them.

A visit to the Greenwich home is almost sure to find Mrs. Harmon in the big outbuilding superintending the care of her pets or with one of them perched on her shoulder or lolling in her lap. She knows just what they need and no matter how expert the attendants she hires to take care of her pets she personally superintends everything that is done for them from their morning bath and toilet to the preparation of their food.

At a recent exhibition it was estimated that upwards of $200,000 was represented in the cats on show. Some of these ribbon winners had cost more than $1,000 each, and some in Mrs. Harmon's collection had cost more than that. Such cats as Bungalow Turk's Cap, a magnificent blue fellow with long, silky fur and unlike most cats he loves to be stroked and petted. He is one of the best cats of his kind in the world, and at the recent Atlantic Cat Club's show was voted the best all round cat on exhibition. No less conspicuous was Miss Champion's Argent Glorioso, a shaded silver specimen and the sensational winner at many shows last year. Hie was placed in reserve to the winner, Turk's Cap. Many beautiful specimens are shown at these exhibitions and they are grouped according to size, color and breed. Champion Rokeles Fay, for instance won for his mistress, Mrs. F. Y. Mathis, the blue ribbon because he was the best cat of solid color. Mrs. Bell's Bonnie Boy got the best blue ribbon because he was the best male "tabby." Champion Cheeter brought a blue to Mrs. McAllister because she was the best female "tabby." From this it can be seen that even the everyday tabby has a place in these shows, although cats from foreign climes command the biggest prices and most attention from the spectators.

There are so many varieties of Angoras nowadays that it is difficult to classify them. They have been grouped according to size and color and many of them are beautiful animals. They come in every shade and color from white to blue, the orange being a particularly popular color just now. The smokes, chinchillas, shaded silvers, browns and creams also have their vogue, and the respective owners of each insist that their kind is the best.

MISS LAURA G. HOPKINS

ARISTOCRATIC CATS OF LONG DESCENT AND HIGH QUALITY Omaha Sunday Bee, 20th October 1907
New York, Oct 19. "I'm only too glad to be Interviewed about the profession of cat breeding," said Miss Laura G. Hopkins, secretary of the Atlantic Cat club, as she settled down in her chair for a long talk; "only you mustn't call it a profession. Of course, there are some people who raise cats for filthy lucre, but with most of us it's an art, a sport, and a very absorbing one at that. "But, to get down to business, one of the most expensive cats is, of course, the Persian, or the Angora, as some people call them. They are not really the same, because the Persians come from the highland of Tibet and have a dry, shiny fur, whereas the Angoras come from the lowlands and are apt to be duller in coloring. The Persian cat is the result of years and years of breeding and they have been inbred to retain certain traits until they have become like some people - much over-refined. Consequently they are very delicate as kittens, but once over all the youthful ailments they are as good an investment as a horse or an automobile. "

"Of course, great care must be taken of a thoroughbred Persian even when it is grown up. I have many friends who take their cats to the mountains every summer because it's much too hot in New York for such thickly clothed animals. But the refinement of these cats shows in other ways as wall. For example, an ordinary cat would just as soon sit on the coal bin as not and is just as ready to cuddle up to an ash can, but a real Persian, if he happens to stray from his proper quarters, will select a nice clean piece of paper to sit on, or, if it be at home, it will usually choose your softest and silkiest sofa cushions. What's more, they wouldn't even think of stealing. They're much too proud to stoop to that. And then they are so sensitive. My prize Persian once looked at the canary in a most ordinary and catlike manner, so I just lectured her for it good and hard, and she has never done it since. If you will walk upstairs to my cat rooms I'll show her to you."

And Miss Hopkins led the way through the picturesque rooms of her house, which, by the way, is the birthplace of the Authors' club. On the top floor toward the front, where the windows are broad and the sun streams in all day, Miss Hopkins' pets are, housed in a room devoted exclusively to their care, comfort and amusement. A big white cage stands alone one of the walls, spools attached to long strings hang[ing] from the celling, and scattered about are ping pong balls for the playful kittens and big, soft pillows for the more dignified older pussies. Some white kittens were gamboling about on the floor and over on the window ledge stretched out on a dark red cushion in a winning and luxurious pose lay White Aigrette, lazily blinking her bright blue eyes in the sunshine.

If the great Robert Louis Stevenson meant what he said when he asserted that cats are not vain he never could have seen a thoroughbred Persian. White Aigrette is as self-possessed and self-assured as a belle of six seasons and knows how to show off her good points just as cleverly. She imitates society queens in other ways also, for when she has a litter of kittens she quite ignores them and poor Sara, the kitchen tabby, is called in to bring up the aristocratic family. And as for her lineage! Her family tree is very much longer than that of most Americans and goes straight back to her native Persia. Her. immediate parents were Oberon, an English cat, and Carrara, who made herself famous last year at the Madison Square Garden exhibit by escaping from her cage and climbing up to the electric light chandelier which hangs from the ceiling. White Aigrette herself has two kittens, Superba and Matador, who have much if not all of their mother's beauty.

Almost every day White Aigrette has her automobile ride, and so that she may not take cold she wears a light blue silk cloak which just matches the color of her eyes. Her meals are served three times a day at fixed hours and if any delay occurs she bangs at the wires of her cage, knocks ever the little chairs in her room and makes herself generally disagreeable until she gets something to eat. But put the most tempting tidbit before her between meals and White Aigrette will regard it with supreme indifference. Her disposition is not affectionate and she never goes out of her way to win caresses. As her Miss Hopkins says, "she has become so sure of herself that she just poses all day long and cares about nothing but admiration."

Last year White Aigrette carried off the ribbon at Madison Square Garden as the best kitten in the show, and most cat fanciers expect that this year, when the exhibit comes off in December, she will carry everything before her as the best cat in the show. As yet no pictures of White Aigrette are in existence, as Miss Hopkins believes firmly in the superstition that it is sure death to a cat to have a photograph made before she is quite old. With tears in her eyes she will tell you of her pal, Fanchon the Cricket, a valuable chinchilla, who was photographed by one of his admirers and died the next day.

Another cat tragedy which Miss Hopkins tells is the story of Joe Hoggengreimer. Joe was a big, brown tabby, a most philosophic cat, who had been his mistress' special pet all his life, but had never been thought worthy of being entered in a show. Last year he was entered in the Garden show because it would have been too mean to leave Joe at home when all the rest of elite catdom was going to compete. And lo and behold when the prizes were awarded, Joe, the unappreciated family tabby, had won the blue ribbon. He was carried all over the Garden by his friends; they bought him a beautiful English collar and when he got home he had an extra fish dinner to complete the joys of the day. But poor Joe Hoggengeimer had been made by nature a quiet, home-keeping soul. Dissipation simply didn't agree with him and the next day he died of distemper.

As short a time as ten years ago England had the best cats, and most American prize winners were imported from that country, but America has slowly been gaining until it equals England and even surpasses it in the breeding of silvers and whites. One of the best known cat fanciers of this country is Mrs. Dykhouse. She has put up extensive kennels at Grand Rapids, Mich., at an expense of $8,000. The building is equipped with a miniature furnace and an electric light plant to provide the proper temperature and light. Her blue-eyed Persian, Y-Rrenin Gwyn, imported by her from England, has won three first prizes in his native country and four firsts In America, besides six gold medals and six silver challenge cups. Mrs. Dykhouse also owns the famous Princess of Paris, who won first place in the open class at Chicago, both as a kitten and a full grown cat. The Princess also has to her credit four silver cups and two gold medals. Last year she won the Beresford Challenge for the best blue-eyed white female cat.

In the east the best known cat fancier is Miss Pollard of Elizabeth, N. J. Her famous white Persian Purity, valued at $1,500, is the winner of forty-seven prizes and half a dozen cups and belongs to the best white stock in the country. She has been beaten but twice, once in England and once in America, by her own daughter, Puritana. Other inhabitants of the Omar cattery, as Miss Pollard''s kennels are called, are King of the Silvers, winner of eight firsts; White Monk, a son of Purity; Boynton Grip, a blue eyed white, and Scotland Yet, a blue that has just been imported from Scotland, where he was considered the finest cat of his kind in the country.

Strongheart, a very valuable and very beautiful Persian and a great prize winner, is owned by Mrs. Richard Hardy of Detroit. Strongheart is pitch black in color and has bright yellow eyes. His sire was Blackthorn, his dam Blackberry Fawe, both famous cats in their day.

Among the short-haired population of catdom the most famous is undoubtedly Caroline, owned by Robert Scully. She is a very big cat, with bright blue eyes, the color of which!s emphasized by a sapphire necklace which she constantly wears. By all fanciers she is declared to be the finest short-haired cat in America, and she has taken all prizes at New York, Boston and Washington.

Last year the prize for the best cat in the show was won by Laddie Loupin, a blue, belonging to Mrs. Hofstra, who is the President of the Atlantic Cat club. In this way Mrs. Hofstra won her own cup, the Hofstra trophy, which is offered every year at the club competitions and which will finally belong to the person winning it three times running. So far the cup has been won by Mrs. Woodward's Commodore in 1903 and 1904, by Argent Splendor of the Argent kennels in 1906, and in 1908 by Siam H of the Hempstead kennels.

MRS CLINTON LOCKE

Chicago started a Cat Club in 1898, largely due to Mrs. Clinton Locke, who founded the Beresford Cat Club, named in honour of Lady Marcus Beresford. She used the prefix Lockehaven. "Mrs Clinton Locke, one of the first American women to start a cattery had innumerable cats, and even before the turn of the century she had acquired a choice pair of Siamese cats called 'Siam' and 'Sally Ward' and from these she bred 'Calif' and 'Bangkok'. 'Siam' was a big, round-faced substantial-looking gentleman, but 'Chom', his son, bred by Mrs Cronise of San Francisco, was quite as elegant-looking and refined as many of our show cats today, his only blemish being a shortish, kinked tail." - May Eustace and Elizabeth Towe, Fifty Years of pedigree Cats, 1967.

Adele Gleim Douthitt Locke was born around 1839 and married to Reverend Dr. Clinton Locke (born 1829) of Grace Episcopal church in Chicago. The couple were the originators of the movement to establish Saint Luke's Hospital. They had four children, three boys and one girl, but only Robert and Fanny survived. Robert D. Locke (b 1868) had a chequered history, being accused of attempted murder in 1895 and committing suicide in San Francisco in 1900 while his wife was in Paris. Mrs. Clinton Locke s only daughter, Fanny Cottinet Locke, married John Kenneth Mackenzie in 1890, in a huge society event documented in detail in The Inter Ocean of 2nd October 1890. Her father, Rev. Clinton Locke officiated, so Fanny was given away by her brother Robert (a Rev. Chester Locke is also mentioned in the account). Fanny was widowed in 1905 and later married Fredrick H. Hatton, a Chicago drama critic, becoming Mrs. Fanny Locke Hatton.

More about the family can be found in The Inter Ocean, Saturday May 15th, 1897, when they celebrated Mrs. Clinton Locke s mother s 85th birthday. Her mother was Adela (or Adele) Gleim Douthitt. Her father was Robert H. Douthitt, a banker in Pittsburg who had died when Adela was only in her 30s. Adele Clinton Locke also had a sister, Mrs. George G. Plant of St Louis, who had died a little before Adela Douthitt s 85th birthday. Mrs. Douthitt had not remarried, and from the age of 65 had lived at Grace Church rectory (presumably Rev. & Mrs. Clinton Locke s home).

Also present at the birthday was Mrs. Robert Locke (whom we can deduce was her daughter-in-law) although Dr. Robert Locke was out of town. Mrs. Kenneth Mackenzie (Fanny) was in Kentucky, but her husband John Kenneth Mackenzie and their son Jack Donald Mackenzie were there. Clinton Locke Plant (Rev. & Mrs Locke s nephew) was also present.

CHICAGO WOMAN SELLS HIGHLY BRED CATS TO AID BABIES (The Inter Ocean, November 30, 1902): "Mrs. Locke dearly loves her cherished cats and kittens, but she loves sick little children, ailing women, and dependent invalids still more. All of Mrs. Locke s cat money goes for charity and the sick babies, perhaps, are most potent to charm it to humanitarian uses. Every time a fresh call is made upon Mrs. Locke s sympathies a fine cat or kitten is presently missing from the Lockehaven cattery. The sacrifice is a real one, for the mistress of the cats and cattery holds each separate pet and treasure in especial tenderness and affection. There is scarce a charity of charitable enterprise of Chicago or vicinity but could tell grateful tales of Mrs. Locke s frequent generosity in this connection, and the number of men and women saved from suffering or started up in the lucrative industry of cat culture because of the pretty Lockehaven inmates and their kindly owner would run into the hundreds. The beginning of Mrs. Locke s cattish charities dates back twenty years. At that time a personal friend, a great traveller, brought to her a fine blue cat from Persia. The career of Wendella, as the pretty puss was named, in honor of the giver, marked the beginning of the cat-loving fad in Chicago. She proved a most attractive and lovable pet, and was presently joined by other fine cats, imported from England. Almost before the pioneer of the cat fancy in Chicago was aware of the fact or of her distinction, other cat-loving women, admiring and envious, were endeavouring to start catteries. Mrs. Locke, with numerous charities weighing upon her heart and brain, always saw and recognized an opportunity to make money in behalf of these beloved institutions and efforts. With every cat or kitten sold a check was promptly sent to some needy place or person; the only exceptions ever made to this rule have occurred when other fine cats have been imported, for the good of the Lockehaven cattery and collection, and, indirectly, of the beneficiaries for whose sake the cats were sold. To hunt up the records of the hundreds of choice cats now to be found in Chicago would be to trace Mrs. Locke s cats and kittens to all parts of the city. And still, although Mrs Locke is now disposing of many of her cherished pets and treasures, because of the ill health and encroaching duties that render it impossible for her to longer care for so many, the Lockehaven cattery is will worth a visit for the sake of the fine animals it still contains."

Mrs Clinton Locke died at the age of 70.

MRS ROBERT LOCKE

Mrs. Robert Locke owned the first registered Siamese cats in America: Bangkok, Siam and Calif. Apart from her Siamese cats and her relationship (daughter-in-law) to Mrs. Clinton Locke, there is little to be found on Mrs. Robert Locke, but it appears she suffered tragedy quite early in her married life. Her husband, Dr. Robert Locke was a talented linguist and traveled widely. Prior to his medical career he had been a cadet at West point Academy, but decided against a military career and went to Rush Medical College instead. He spent several years in post graduate work in Vienna and Berlin, and later worked for the Ward line of steamers plying to South American ports. In 1895 was arrested for attempted murder: it was charged that, while intoxicated, he tried to kill a watchman at Von Herman's drug store. He was shot in the leg during the scuffle. Nothing seems to have come of this and in 1898/9 he was posted to the Philippines, working for the Associated Press. According to the New York Times, June 10th, 1900 "Dr. Robert Locke, who committed suicide in San Francisco [...] had traveled in all parts of the world, was a proficient linguist, and was one of twelve men to go to the Philippines to act as press censors for the Government. The strain told upon his health, and the climate was such that he decided to return. On arriving at San Francisco he wrote his mother that he was in ill-health and would rest for a time before coming to Chicago. From his letter they gathered the idea that he was suffering from malaria."

On June 9th, 1900, it was widely reported in the press that Locke had committed Suicide at the Occidental Hotel. His widow, was believed to be in Paris at the time. He had returned from Manila, in poor health, in May 1900 and had been in San Francisco "to recuperate" ever since. He had thrown his personal effects around his hotel room before shooting himself through the heart with an army revolver he had stolen from the hotel room of Lt. George S. Newhall. He was found in bed, undressed, with a sheet wrapped about the lower part of his body. Although he left no explanation, his correspondence and repeated threats of suicide while at the hotel, showed he was likely deranged by fever developed during his 18 months in the Philippines where he was a correspondent for the Associate Press and also did voluntary work as a surgeon. (Details from the Chicago Daily Tribune, June 10th, 1900)

Mrs. Robert Locke continued to work with Mrs. Clinton Locke and the Chicago Cat Club and its shows.

MISS FRANCES WILLARD

The life of Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (1839 - 1898), owner of the much-exhibited cat Toots Willard is very well documented. She was an educator and social reformer, and was instrumental in the passage of the Eighteenth (Prohibition) and Nineteenth (Women Suffrage) Amendments to the United States Constitution. She was also a national president of Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).

She was the daughter of Josiah Flint Willard and Mary Thompson Hill Willard and was the middle of three children. In the 1860s, both her father and her younger sister, Mary, died, and her brother, Oliver, became an alcoholic and a gambler who caused the family a deal of financial hardship. Although once engaged to Charles Henry Fowler, she remained unmarried and her emotional attachments were towards women, including her long-time companion Anna Adams Gordon. She died from influenza in 1898. Her famous and much spoiled - cat Toots Willard, a popular feline figure at cat shows, passed into the care of Mrs. Leland Norton where his acquired habits continued to be indulged. His frequent appearance at early cat club shows, which tended to be arranged and attended by women, was largely to do with the fame of his owner - she likely thought his appearances a good way to promote her causes to other women.

HELEN WINSLOW (Author of Concerning Cats )

I have included this brief biography of Helen Winslow not because she was a prominent cat fancier, but because she wrote Concerning Cats and corresponded with Frances Simpson.

Helen Maria Winslow was born in 1851 in Westfield, Vermont, and died in 1938 in Shirley, Massachusetts. She is best known to cat-lovers as the authoress of Concerning Cats, American contributor to Frances Simpson s Bok of the Cat, and various articles on cats for American magazines. As well as being an author and journalist, Winslow was an editor and publisher who started out as dramatic editor on the Boston paper The Beacon, 1891 97, and later as editor of the Woman's Club Department of the Boston Transcript, 1893 98; editor, Woman's Club Department of the Delineator, 1897 and 1912. She was also editor and publisher of The Club Woman, 1897-1904; and the publisher of the Official Register of Women's Clubs in America from 1897.

Winslow was in the ninth generation of descent from Kenelm Winslow, a brother of Governor Edward Winslow, of the Plymouth Colony (i.e. a Mayflower colonist). She was educated at the Vermont Academy and State Normal schools, with special studies in languages and literature in Boston. Her father, Don Avery Winslow was a noted composer and a member of the first English opera company organized in the United States. Her mother, Mary F. (Newton) Winslow (died 1882), was a scholar, linguist and poet. Helen s siblings were Edward W. Winslow (drowned in early youth), Mary A. Winslow, Isabel N. Winslow, and Harriet P. Winslow.

She became a writer early in life, and sometimes used the pen name, "Aunt Philury". Her first published works were "Aunt Philury Papers" and "Jack." Her first serial story, "The Shawsheen Mills," was published in the Yankee Blade. In 1886, she published "A Bohemian Chapter" (about a struggling female artist) as a serial in the Boston Beacon. She also wrote poetry, much of which was devoted to nature. Other notable works were Salome Shepard: Reformer (1893), Concerning Cats (1900), Concerning Polly (1902), Literary Boston or To-day (1902), The Woman of To-morrow (1905), The President of Quex (1906), Peggy at Spinster Farm (1908), A Woman for Mayor (1910), The Pleasuring of Susan Smith (1912) and At the Sign of the Town Pump (1913). She also collaborated with Frances Willard (a noted temperance reformer and women s suffragist) in Occupations for Women, and with Marie Wright in Picturesque Mexico.

As a journalist, Winslow wrote for the Boston Transcript, and later the Boston Advertiser and the Boston Saturday Evening Gazette. In addition to these, she wrote on a wide range of topics for The Christian Union, Christian at Work, Interior, Drake's Magazine, Demorest's Magazine, Iroquois magazine, the Arena, Journal of Education, Wide Awake, Youth's Companion, and Cottage Hearth among others. In religious life she was a Congregationalist.

Helen Winslow served as commissioner from Massachusetts to the Cotton States and International Exposition of Atlanta, 1893; director of Board of Trustees of the Frances Willard Hospital, Bedford, Massachusetts; and State regent of the Massachusetts Daughters of the American Revolution, 1901-2. She served as treasurer of the New England Woman's Press Association, and was one of its six founders. She was also the founder of the Boston Authors Club; and served as vice-president of the Press League. She lectured before many women's clubs and societies and was a member of The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, the Ex-Club of Boston, Pioneer Workers, the Lyceum Club of England, Professional Woman's Club, the Daughters of Vermont, Roxburghe Club, and the Altrurian Club.