Henry Adams first met Elizabeth Cameron in January 1881 at a reception in the drawing room of the house of John and Clara Hay. Elizabeth was considered to be one of the most beautiful and intelligent women in the Washington area. Elizabeth had grown up as Lizzie Sherman, the daughter of Judge Charles Sherman of Ohio, the niece of Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman in Hayes's cabinet and the niece of General william Tecumseh Sherman. Her family had pressured Lizzie into a loveless marriage, but brokered a prenuptial agreement with Senator J. Donald Cameron which provided her with the income from $160,000 worth of securities, a very large amount in 1878, equivalent to about $3,970,000 worth in 2017. The arranged marriage on May 9, 1878, united the reluctant 20-year-old beauty with a 44-year-old widower with six children. Eliza, his eldest, who had served as her father's hostess, was now displaced by a stepmother the same age. The children never accepted her. The marriage was further strained by the Senator's coarseness and indifference and his fondness for bourbon.