Caroline Van Dusen Chenoweth

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Caroline Van Dusen was the daughter of Charles Van Deusen and Mary Huntington Cole. She was born at the family's home in New Albany, IN on December 29, 1846. New Albany is directly across the Ohio River from Louisville, KY, and some records list her birth there. As a young child she and her siblings, Charles K., Mary Huntington, and Henry Devol, spent their winters in New Orleans, LA near her mother's family, and she attended the St. Charles Institute. Her father Charles was a steamboat captain on the Mississippi River, and he spent a lot of time away from home. His steamer was called the "Uncle Sam".

Caroline's mother died in 1854 and for a few years her siblings lived full time in New Orleans with their grandparents, with their father visiting as often as he could. Caroline moved to West Stockbridge, MA to live with relatives. In 1857 Charles married Mrs. Rebecca (McCoy) Aiken, so Caroline and her siblings moved back to New Albany. Sadly, less than a year after their marriage Rebecca died, and Charles followed of an illness in St. Louis a few months later, leaving Caroline, Charles, Mary, Henry, and their step-sister Florence ophaned. Henry died a few months later. The siblings were split up, and Caroline went to Evansville, IN to attend Moores Hill College (now the University of Evansville).

On March 19, 1863 Caroline married Bernard Peel Chenoweth in Jefferson County, IN. Bernard was born in Winchester, VA on August 18, 1836 into a slave-holding family. Bernard did not hold with his family's ideas, and went to Kansas during the US Civil War to join the Union Army. He served as Captain in the 1st Kansas Regiment, Company A. At the Battle of Wilson's Creek in 1861 he was wounded in the arm, had a ball in his boot, and had his hat shot off. When Bernard became a Colonel, Caroline went to war with him and acted as his clerk. After the war Bernard could not return to Virginia as he was estranged from his family and most of his property had been destroyed. After briefly living in St. Louis, MO where they had a son, Ernest Bernard, Bernard got a job in Worcester, MA as the Superintendent of the Worcester Public School in 1867 and the family relocated. Oramel "Otto" Goddard, who also used the name "Arthur Peel Chenoweth", was born in Worcester shortly after their move.

Shortly after Grant was elected president in 1869 Bernard petitioned the government to give him a position in the Foreign Service, and he was given a post in Guangzhou (Canton), China. Caroline and the boys moved with him across the world, and Caroline served as his co-consul. While they were there they had a daughter named Laura Cromwell. Sadly, she died before she reached her first birthday.

Mr. Chenoweth died in Guangzhou on June 21, 1870 just a week after Laura. They were buried together in the Old Fort Macao Cemetery. Mrs. Chenoweth was asked to continue her late husband's position in the Foreign Service by the US merchants there, but the petition was denied because a woman was not allowed to hold that position on her own.

Caroline and her children returned to the United States. She became a popular professor of English Literature at Smith College in Northampton, MA. They lived part of the year in Boston where Caroline gave private lessons in literacy and writing, and became an accomplished researcher, writer, and author. She also served as a clerk at the Boston Custom House. Ernest attended Boston Latin School and later Harvard. After graduation he became an editor and later owner of the Saturday Evening Gazette. He died of phthisis (most likely tuberculosis) in 1897. Otto was also well educated, but had a very different temperment than his brother. He moved to Wyoming in the 1880s to "paint" but became a gentleman horse thief. After the last of his many captures he was declared insane, brought back to Massachusetts, and lived out the remainder of his life in a sanitarium. For a few years right after the incidents with Otto Caroline lived in New York City. Around 1895 she came back to Worcester.

During her time in Worcester she helped found two chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution: Colonel Timothy Bigelow in Worcester, and Colonel Henshaw in neighboring Leicester. The Colonel Timothy Bigelow Chapter is still going strong, and remains active in Worcester and the surrounding communities. Mrs. Chenoweth continued writing and teaching, remaining active throughout the remainder of her life. Her most popular book, Stories of the Saints, first published in 1880, was republished by Houghton Mifflin in 1907.

Mrs. Chenoweth died in Worcester on May 12, 1917. Her funeral was held at The Oaks, the chapter house for the Colonel Timothy Bigelow Chapter. She is buried beside her son Ernest at Rural Cemetery in Worcester, MA.