Ida Marie Honoré
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Ida Marie Honoré
By Megan McKinney
Yes. Ida Marie Honoré Grant would spend much of her life known as “the sister of” but it wouldn’t end there. As sister of Bertha Honoré Palmer, possibly the most famous woman in Chicago history, she seemed fated to marry a man greatly overshadowed by a relative.
In the case of her future husband, Colonel Frederick Dent Grant, the towering figure would be his father, United States President Ulysses S. Grant.
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The Frederick Dent Grants
Preceding his presiderncy, General Grant had led the Union Army to victory in 1865 during the American Civil War.
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Generals are generals. However, only forty-five men have served as United States President.
The distinguished President Ulysses S. Grant
Ida Marie was five years her sister Bertha’s junior and, like Bertha, was born in Louisville, Kentucky. Following the family’s move to Chicago, both would attend and graduate from Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in Washington, D.C.
Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School
It was during Ida’s time in Washington that she met Frederick Dent Grant, oldest son of United States President Ulysses S. Grant. They would marry and extend the extraordinary families into which each had been born.
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Major General Frederick Dent Grant and Ida Marie Honoré Grant as they matured.
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Julia Dent Grant Cantacuzène Speransky
The daughter of the Frederick Dent Grants, Julia Grant was born in the White House on June 6, 1876 and would live nearly a century–until October 4, 1975. In I889, Julia and her younger brother, Ulysses S. Grant III, accompanied their parents to Vienna, where Frederick Dent Grant was United States minister to Austria-Hungary through June 1893.
In 1899, Julia’s extraordinary life continued to expand when she married Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Cantacuzène, Count Speransky, a Russian general and diplomat.
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As Princess Cantacuzène, a Russian nobleman’s wife, Julia was able to observe both the Imperial and Bolshevik positions during the Revolution. She was author of three first-person accounts of the events leading up to the Russian Revolution in 1917 and personal historian of the Russian people during the time.
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Prince Cantacuzène’s family estate, Bouromka
The couple would divorce in 1934; however, in the meantime, Julia shared his estate, Bouromka, above.
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And she and the prince produced three handsome offspring, Michael, Bertha, and Ida.
In carrying on the tradition, there was one more notable family marriage: Julia’s brother, Ulysses S. Grant III, married Edith Root, daughter of Elihu Root, U.S. Secretary of State, under President Theodore Roosevelt and U.S. Secretary of War under President William McKinley.
Author photo: Robert F. Carl
