Marriage
Taft married Nellie on June 19, 1886, at the home of the bride's parents in Cincinnati. The wedding was performed by the Reverend D.N.A. Hoge of Zanesville, Ohio. Taft's younger brother Horace Taft was best man. The couple honeymooned one day in New York City and four days at Sea Bright, New Jersey, before setting off on a three-month tour of Europe.
On their return, they settled in Cincinnati. Mrs. Taft encouraged her husband's political career despite his oft-stated preference for the judiciary. She welcomed each step in her husband's political career: state judge, Solicitor General of the United States, and federal circuit court judge. In 1900 he agreed to take charge of American civil government in the Philippines. Further travel with her husband, who became Secretary of War in 1904, brought a widened interest in world politics and a cosmopolitan circle of friends.
The Tafts had two sons and a daughter. Robert Alphonso Taft (1889–1953) was a political leader, Helen Taft (1891–1987) was an educator, and Charles Phelps Taft II (1897–1983) was a civic leader.
Read more about this topic: Helen Herron Taft
Famous quotes containing the word marriage:
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“We hope the day will soon come when every girl will be a member of a great Union of Unmarried Women, pledged to refuse an offer of marriage from any man who is not an advocate of their emancipation.”
—Tennessee Claflin (1846–1923)
“Every relationship that does not raise us up pulls us down, and vice versa; this is why men usually sink down somewhat when they take wives while women are usually somewhat raised up. Overly spiritual men require marriage every bit as much as they resist it as bitter medicine.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)