“ One branch remained loyal to the king, but the immediate ancestors of the young Kentuckian had borne an active part in the struggle for freedom. Her mother's family were from Pennsylvania. Both her grandmothers were of a Quaker family, Douthett, of Welsh descent. Her mother died in the daughter's infancy, the father in her girlhood. Her first effort was a school-girl story, never thought of for publication till after her father's death, when it was sent to the Louisville "Courier-Journal." ”