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Frances Ann Devereux Polk


Gender:
Female
Born:
Unknown
Died:
Unknown
Later Residences:
Richmond, VA
Leighton, LA
Biographical Notes:
Frances married her childhood friend Leonidas Polk in 830. Leonidas studied at the Raleigh Academy, UNC Chapel Hill, West Point, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. After he was ordained in Richmond in 1830, the couple settled there. In 1841, when Leonidas was named Bishop of Louisiana, the family relocated to Leighton, Bayou Fourche where they owned a large sugar plantation and taught their slaves Sunday School. They had eight children together. Leonidas found a conflict of morals between his duties as a Planter and Bishop, yet entered the Confederate army at the start of the Civil War and was killed in action at Pine Mountain, GA in June 1864.

With no financial support after her husband's death, Frances resorted to teaching. After teaching English Literature at the Columbia Institute, in New Orleans she later established a school of her own.

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