Rose Foote: America's first 'Iron Lady': Part 2

The American legation and its staff, circa 1884. Robert Neff Collection

• Published Dec 20, 2020 10:54 AM KST
• Updated Dec 20, 2020 3:58 PM KST

By Robert Neff

The first American representative to Korea was Minister Lucius Foote in 1883. We know a good deal about his official life ― and even some of his private life ― from his reports to the State Department and gossip from his subordinates and peers. I don't find him very interesting and feel he had a very minor role in early American-Korean relations. His wife, however, does interest me.

A ROSE BY ANY NAME

Rose was a graceful woman who dressed elegantly and was described as being “accomplished and beautiful with a majestic bearing.” She was in her mid-50s when she arrived in Korea, and generated a great deal of interest with Koreans of all social classes, not only because she was the first occidental woman to enter ancient Seoul but also because of her “exceptional beauty and queenly bearing [that] aroused admiration wherever she was seen.”

She knew how to dress elegantly and put on a good show. On one of the many occasions when she was summoned to the palace, a naval officer described her as being “dressed in grey plush with a bonnet to match, wore much old lace, all her diamonds ― and she has many beautiful ones ― several bracelets, and a bunch of half-blown roses below the lace which was puffed around her throat and neck. She looked very stylish, and her appearance was calculated to make a sensation.”

Others, who made brief visits to the legation, found her more subdued and described her as “a gray haired lady of fifty, or so, bright, good-looking, cheerful, and hospitable.

However, Ensign George C. Foulk, who lived in the legation, provides us with a more accurate (if not biased) account of Rose's true nature.

In a letter home, he described her as “a Southern woman, tall, handsome, with a long upper lip with lots of vertical lines in it.” His later descriptions became even more unflattering: “She is kind, but rough, says thing ladies don't often say, is at times very careless in exposing herself in night dress or petticoats, etc. Yet she wears lots of diamonds when in swell dress, wears powder and a little paint.”

Later, after a thief broke into the American legation and made off with the furniture but had carelessly dropped and forgot nearly $8,000 worth of Mrs. Foote's jewelry, Foulk caustically noted “unfortunately, for at fifty-three, she's ablaze all the time.” Apparently she was vain about her age as well as her looks and lied; born in 1827 she would have been about 57 when Foulk described her to his parents.

Rose knew how to put on a show in public but behind closed doors her facade as an elegant Southern woman fell and her true image as a domineering woman appeared.

A STORMY RELATIONSHIP

Rose and Lucius (most people affectionately called him “General”) had been married for over 21 years when they arrived in Korea. According to Rose's biographer and trusted friend, Mary V. Tingley Lawrence, the relationship between Rose and Lucius was almost idyllic with “an unusual bond of inter-dependence and delightful comradeship.”

Foulk described their relationship as troubled and her as domineering. In one letter to his parents he wrote, “Mrs. Foote is a handsome woman with an awful temper, and she and the General lead a wretched life, which affects the whole life of the legation.” And in another, “Mrs. Foote wears the breeches, and I have seen ample to tell me the General has made a bad match and knows it.”

Despite Foulk's negative observations there was a great degree of love between Lucius and Rose. When the minister returned to Seoul, following the Gapsin Coup in December 1884, Foulk noted his superior was “out of his head, half sick for his wife, who had gone to Japan.”

HEAD OF THE HOUSEHOLD

Rose took it upon herself to run the household with an iron-fist. She had a large staff of Korean servants, in addition to her Japanese amah and Chinese steward, Eu Don (who later became a rich and prosperous shop and hotel keeper in Seoul and Chemulpo under his nickname “Steward”). She was fastidious and insisted on doing a lot of the cooking herself, especially the treats that she sent to the Royal Palace. On one occasion “she sent to the Queen a large loaf of fruit-cake, and a larger one of pound-cake, both elaborately frosted and decorated with the national motto, also a boiled ham, jellied and fixed up in a fanciful way, some home-made bread and preserves, some California bonbons, and a large quantity of Pacific canned fruits.”

When Foulk first arrived at the legation he was apparently quite satisfied with his living arrangements: “The minister's table arrangements are pretty well fixed. Food is costly ― that is, the kind foreigners use, but we get it and cost doesn't count.” Soon, however, he grew disenchanted. “[Mrs. Foote] has given orders that the kitchen servants may do nothing on any other than her own orders. We get two meals a day here now, and I want tea at noon, if that is to be the arrangement; but I will not look up Mrs. Foote to get it. Today, for example, I ate breakfast and dinner, the last at 6:30 p.m., so had a headache all afternoon.”

Her control of the household did not end there. He bitterly griped, or as he described it ― “growled,” often about how Rose treated him and even referred to him “as her attache.” Her control knew no end and she even took it upon herself to inspect his room:

“Mrs. Foote also inspects my room daily and in a soft but nevertheless disagreeable way, attempts to tell me where I ought to keep my socks, money, etc.” The inspection of his room was “kind; but I do not think she ought to go through my trunk and wardrobe which she did, and but once.

It began to weigh heavily upon Foulk who chaffed at living “under petticoat rule,” and complained that “A coolness hangs over me, and everywhere else which makes it horrible to have to live here.” Unable to endure it any longer he lashed out:

“The result has been my tongue got loose, and I told her I did not understand the position of a lady in the diplomatic service. She made it very hot for me in return. It has come to the point that I must go from the legation.”

Eventually he moved to a small house away from the legation where he found some respite from her nagging but not from her meddling.

Some of Rose's meddling was done with good intentions as we shall see next weekend.