Mrs. Annie Chambers Ketchum, poet, naturalist, and novelist, was born
near Georgetown, Kentucky, November 8, 1824, the daughter of Benjamin
Stuart Chambers, founder of Cardome Academy; her mother was a member
of the famous Bradford family of journalists. Miss Chambers was
graduated from Georgetown Female College with the M. A. degree. Her
first husband was William Bradford, whom she married in 1844, and from
whom she was subsequently divorced. After her separation from her
husband, she went to Memphis, Tennessee, and opened a school for
girls, which she conducted for several years. In 1858 she was married
to Leonidas Ketchum, a Tennessean, who was mortally wounded at the
battle of Shiloh in 1863. After her husband's death, Mrs. Ketchum
returned to Kentucky and conducted a school at Georgetown for three
years, but, in 1866, she returned to Memphis, where she again taught
for a number of years. Mrs. Ketchum spent the winter of 1875 at
Paris, France, pursuing her literary work, and on May 24, 1876, she
entered upon the novitiate in a convent there. She afterwards returned
to America and her last years were spent in Kentucky. Mrs. Ketchum
died in 1904. Her first literary work to attract attention was a
novel, entitled _Nellie Bracken_ (Philadelphia, 1855). From 1859 to
1861 Mrs. Ketchum was editor of _The Lotus_, a monthly magazine
published at Memphis. _Benny: A Christmas Ballad_ (New York, 1869) was
the first of her poems to attract any considerable attention; and her
best known poem, _Semper Fidelis_, originally published in _Harper's
Magazine_ for October, 1873, is a long, leisurely thing that makes one
wonder at its once wide popularity. All of her poems Mrs. Ketchum
brought together in _Lotus Flowers_ (New York, 1878). _Lotus_ was her
shibboleth, and she never missed an opportunity to make use of it. She
made many translations from Latin, German, and French writers, her
finest work in this field being _Marcella, a Russian Idyl_ (New York,
1878). _The Teacher's Empire_ (1886) was a collection of educational
essays contributed to various journals. Mrs. Ketchum's _Botany for
Academies and Colleges_ (Philadelphia, 1887), was a text-book in many
institutions for several years subsequent to its publication.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington,
Kentucky, 1882); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_
(New York, 1887, v. iii); B. O. Gaines's _History of Scott County,
Kentucky_ (1905, v. ii).