USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > Historic graves of Maryland and the District of Columbia : with the inscriptions appearing on the tombstones in most of the counties of the state and in Washington and Georgetown > Part 20
USA > Maryland > Historic graves of Maryland and the District of Columbia : with the inscriptions appearing on the tombstones in most of the counties of the state and in Washington and Georgetown > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23
The original parishes of Dorchester, two in number, were Great Choptank and Dorchester. Christ Church, Cam- bridge, not an old building, but standing in the midst of an ancient churchyard, represents the first, and Old Trinity, on Church creek, a few miles from Cambridge, the second. The name of the creek is sufficient of itself to indicate the locality where there was a place of worship in early times, and the present Trinity, a venerable edifice of uncertain age, containing many valuable relicts, is to-day the historic church of the county. To the graveyard at Cambridge, however, we must turn for memorials of those who lived in the long ago. To be sure the oldest have crumbled away and mingled with the dust of the dead; some are illegible, others are par- tially buried under the earth; others again are broken and scattered, and the dates are lost, but a goodly number of names obtained from various sources are sufficiently distinct to be added to our list. Apart from the Latin inscription,
242
Historic Graves of Maryland
given below, there are none that are not of a fragmentary kind.
Hic conduntur ossa Caroli Goldsborough, Armiger, Roberti Golds- borough & Elizabethæ, uxoris suis, Filius; Qui post hujus Vitæ Tædia Vigilias Laboresque Perquam assiduos Tandem Animam exhalavit, July Die decimo quarto, Annos Christi MDCCLXVII, Atatis suæ LV.
Here is buried Henrietta, the young wife of Hon. Daniel M. Henry, formerly member of Congress for Cambridge dis- trict, and the daughter of Gov. Chas. Goldsborough. She was born in 1828, was married in 1845, and died as a bride of thirteen months. The disconsolate husband had the following lines engraved on her tomb:
Thou art gone my wife, The dates upon thy tomb Will tell what cause I've had to weep; How soon death called thee from thy youthful bloom, And marred the Joys I hoped to reap.
In wedded life we loved with truest love, And nor7 'tis sad to be alone. Heaven saw thy worth & needed thee above. Thou art gone! Oh God, Thy will be done!
The list continues thus :
Hon. Chas. Goldsborough, Governor of Maryland in 1818, born July 15, 1765; died December 13, 1834.
Wilhemina, first wife of Chas. Goldsborough of Horn's Point, died 1790.
William Murray, 1763. Sarah, wife of Wm. Murray, 1742.
Eleanor Warren Holliday, second wife of William Murray, 1750. "She was remarkable for her piety & for being a good stepmother."
Daniel Murray, 1781. John Caile, 1772. Susan Morton, 1809. Henrietta Chaplain, 1808. John Reid, 1813.
Peter Ferguson, 1812.
243
Dorchester County
Henry Waggaman, 1809.
Hall Caile Waggaman, 1776.
Robert Harrison, 1802.
Milcah Harrison, 1780.
John Caile Harrison, 1780. (Slab much broken.)
John Hall Caile, 1783.
John Caile, 1767.
John Leeds Nesmith, 1810.
Hon. Josiah Bayley, 1846.
(At one time Attorney General of Maryland.)
John Ryder Nevitt, drowned in the Choptank river in 1772.
Isaac Steele, 1806. (The slab over his grave was placed there by his brother.)
Henry Page, 1843. (A monument inclosed by an iron railing was erected to his memory "by his dearest friend.")
On the outskirts of Vienna, about eighteen miles from Cambridge, the county seat, once stood a brick chapel of ease of great Choptank parish. Built between the years 1727 and 1730, and known through its declining years as the "Old Brick Church," it remained until the middle of the last century, when being in ruins, it was pulled down and some of the brick was used in the foundations of St. Paul's church, in the town. The old churchyard was thus left to its fate, and though long disfigured by the encroachments of briars and undergrowth, the beauty of its wide spreading oaks saved it from being abandoned altogether. Something should be said, also, about the veneration and sentiment of a later generation, who revered its memories, had it cleared of rubbish, and reconsecrated it to the burial of the dead. Though now used as a cemetery, the ancient monuments, alas, suffered during the interim and we have been unable to obtain a satisfactory report about the worthies of the past buried there.
CHAPTER XII
T HE District of Columbia, as it now stands, is a part of what was originally Maryland territory, and before the city of Washington was even dreamed of, Georgetown, on the other side of Rock Creek, was already a social center among the inhabitants of Prince George's county. It is not strange, therefore, that Georgetown should have added the attractions of a society "eminently polite," to such talent and culture as the Federal city, even in its infancy, allured to its borders. Here Gilbert Stuart had his studio, from 1803 to 1805, and many notabilities of the time were his patrons. Here Thomas Moore, the melodious "Bard of Erin," while on a tour in this country, tuned his lays, and here Francis Scott Key, "the pensive singer of piety and patriotism," gained a popularity, which became fame after the events that inspired him to write "The Star Spangled Banner." James Madison and his charming wife "Dolly," who to the day of her death was the society heroine of the Capital, lived at Georgetown while he was Secretary of State, and the ill-fated Aaron Burr made his headquarters there. On the Heights of Georgetown many diplomats also had their homes.
The most noted of these was "Kalorama," which with its old graveyard, alas, is now a thing of the past. Still it is pleasant to allow our interest to linger about just such spots. Our chief concern about the past is, after all, with the people who lived in the past, and "Kalorama" was eminently the center of life one hundred years ago. It was owing to the number of celebrities who were entertained there, that it
ENTRANCE TO AN OLD FAMILY BURYING-GROUND Showing the English ivy planted over one hundred years ago
245
Georgetown
gained for itself the name of the "Holland House of America," and now we perpetuate its memory, because of the many distinguished men who were laid to rest in its graveyard.
Joel Barlow, upon his return from France in 1805, estab- lished himself at "Kalorama," "on the Heights " and drew around him many interesting personages. Among these was Robert Fulton, who had lived with Barlow in Paris for seven years before his return. Fulton, whose invention of the steamboat has made his name a household word, was also an artist, though this is not so generally known. He started life as a miniature painter, and before leaving France he superintended the execution of the plates of Barlow's Columbiad. This work was published in Philadelphia in 1807. Being illustrated with engravings executed by the best artists in London, it was one of the most costly publi- cations that had been attempted in America. We find him visiting his friend at "Kalorama" in 1810, when Jefferson, Madison and a number of members of Congress were in- vited to meet him, to witness the demonstration of his latest plans for applying steam navigation to submarine warfare. He did not live to perfect these plans, but died in 1815, when his efforts were about to be crowned with success.
Barlow's death preceded that of his friend by three years. He had been sent on a mission to France by Monroe, who recognized his skill as a diplomatist; but on December 22, 1812, while hastening in the depths of a northern winter to a rendezvous with Napoleon, he succumbed to the exposure. A tombstone was erected to his memory in the graveyard at "Kalorama." Massachusetts avenue now skirts the once hallowed spot, while modern dwellings cover it, and Rock Creek, unmindful of the part it played in the furthering of steam navigation, flows on past Lyon's mill, which ere long will also have to give way before the march of progress.
In course of time the widow of Stephen Decatur became
246
Historic Graves of the District of Columbia
the presiding genius of "Kalorama," counting among her intimate friends such men as Robert Goodloe Harper, Sir Stratford Canning and Charles Carroll of Carrollton. It was doubtless owing to her association with the latter that she became a Roman Catholic, as it was to the influence of Mr. Harper that she declined the honor and risk of be- coming sister-in-law to Napoleon, thereby escaping the fate of the beautiful Betsy Patterson of Baltimore. For thirty- five years she lived faithful to the memory of her dead hero, and died in the convent at Georgetown, in 1855.
Commodore Stephen Decatur was one of those historical personages whom romance writers delight to honor. One might say that the conflagration in the harbor of Tripoli, caused by firing the recaptured ship Philadelphia, had thrown a glow over his deeds that has not faded after the lapse of a century. In the fatal duel fought with Commodore James Barron at Bladensburg, he has been looked upon as a martyr to the revengeful spirit of his opponent. Decatur was born at Sinnepuxent, Md., January 5, 1779, and though for many years his home was on the high seas, he died on Maryland shores. This occurred March 22, 1820. He was buried at "Kalorama," and later his remains were transferred to Philadelphia.
Among the other bodies that have been removed from "Kalorama " are the following :
Abraham Baldwin, a Senator in Congress from Georgia, who died March 4, 1807, aged 52 years. "His devotion to his country his greatest fame; her constitution his greatest work." Abraham Baldwin was a member of the convention to draft the Constitution of the United States. After his death, the original manuscript of the Constitution was found among his papers.
Henry Baldwin, Judge of the Supreme Court, died April 21, 1844.
247
Georgetown
Ruth Baldwin, his wife, died May 29, 1848, aged 62 years. George Bomford, Colonel U. S. A., died May 25, 1848, aged 66 years. While at the head of the Bureau of Ordi- nance, Colonel Bomford lived at "Kalorama."
Clara Bomford, wife of Colonel Bomford, died Decem- ber 10, 1855, aged 74 years.
"Oak Hill Cemetery," located on the Heights of George- town and bordering on Rock Creek, was, previous to its oc- cupancy as a cemetery, known as "Parrott's Woods." The hills, covered with lofty oaks, extended their shady bowers in every direction, and here the Sunday School children of the town used to assemble to celebrate the Fourth of July, "in prose and song." Many of our citizens, who as boys romped and played under these spreading oaks, little thought that they should find a final resting place beneath their shade.
This cemetery owes its origin to Mr. William Corcoran, a native and former resident of Georgetown, who conceived the idea of laying out a public burial place. Consequently, he purchased fifteen acres of land from Lewis Washington of Jefferson County, Va. When the charter of the Oak Hill Cemetery Company was granted by Congress on March 3, 1849, Mr. Corcoran generously conveyed this land to the company for the purpose of a cemetery. More land has since been added, until the number of acres in 1878 had in- creased to thirty-six.
The donor continued his beneficence from time to time in laying out and embellishing the grounds at his expense. The finest mausoleum in the cemetery is the Doric temple, in which is enshrined the dust of William W. Corcoran and that of his wife and children. Eight snow-white columns support the marble dome, plainly chiseled, but grand and solid. Except the word "Corcoran," there is not a line to designate who lies below the vaulted floor. The temple stands alone on an elevation.
248
Historic Graves of the District of Columbia
The Van Ness mausoleum is also here. It was modeled after the temple of Vesta by George Hatfield, probably the same architect, who, with James Hoban, was employed to finish the north wing of the Capitol for occupation in 1800. The mausoleum, erected by Gen. John Peter Van Ness, formerly stood on H. Street, Washington city, in the grounds of the orphan asylum, of which Mrs. Van Ness was founder. In it were placed the remains of the members of the Burnes family, also of Mrs. Ann Elbertina Middleton, the lamented daughter and only child of General and Mrs. Van Ness, and wife of Arthur Middleton, Esq., of South Carolina. Near them now repose the bodies of the General and his wife. John P. Van Ness was born at Ghent, N. Y., in 1770, and died at Washington, D. C., March 7, 1847. His wife, whom he married in 1802, was Marcia, daughter and heiress of David Burnes, one of the proprietors of the land on which the Federal city was built. She was born in 1782 and died in 1832. Her husband's position and her own wealth gave her a conspicuous place in Washington society, and her numerous charities gained for her the distinction, unusual for a woman, of being buried with public honors.
The remains of Philip Barton Key, uncle of Francis Scott Key, rest now in this cemetery. Mr. Key was captain in the British Army in the Revolution, but after peace was restored, he settled down under the new order of things, was made Attorney-General, became Member of Congress and held other offices. His home, "Woodley," was one of the most noted in the vicinity of Georgetown; he died and was interred there in 1817. In 1869 his remains were removed to Oak Hill.
Just in the rear of the chapel is a monument to the memory of Maj. George Peter, who died June 22, 1861. He com- manded a company of artillery from Georgetown at the battle of Bladensburg, on August 24, 1814. He was married
249
Georgetown
three times, his first wife was Ann Plater, his second, Agnes Buchanan Freeland, and his third, Sarah Norfleet Freeland.
Among those who were buried elsewhere and subsequently removed to this spot was Commodore Beverly Kennon, United States Navy, who met with a tragic end, being killed by the explosion of a cannon on board of the United States steam warship Princeton, February 28, 1844. He was in- terred first at the Congressional Cemetery, and on April 18, 1874, was removed to Oak Hill.
In a prominent position in front of the mortuary chapel is the tomb of John Howard Paine, the author of "Home Sweet Home." He died April 1, 1852, at the United States consulate in Tunis, Africa, and his ashes were doomed for many years to lie in a strange land. On June 8, 1893, the one hundreth anniversary of his birth, they were deposited in this tomb with fitting honors.
The Honorable Samuel Sprigg, nineteenth governor of the State of Maryland, originally buried in St. Barnabas churchyard, about five miles from Upper Marlborough, is another of those whose remains have been transferred to Oak Hill.
Among the local families who constituted society in those days were the Custises, the Lingans, the Peters, the Forrests, the Keys and the Platers, most of whom were related by marriage and had their homes on the heights of George- town. Among these homes were "Rosedale," "Woodley" and "Greenwood," where Col. Uriah Forrest, Phillip Bar- ton Key and Col. Thomas Plater, respectively, dispensed hospitality. Mrs. Forrest and Mrs. Key were daughters of Hon. George Plater, sixth Governor of Maryland, and sisters of Col. Thomas Plater of Greenwood. On the latter place, a little more than a stone's throw from the quaint brick dwelling, is all that remains of the family bury- ing ground. Besides the stone coping which indicates the
250
Historic Graves of the District of Columbia
existence of a subterranean vault, there are scattered bits of marble, a foot stone marked "W. H. R.," and one tomb- stone with a legible inscription, which tells the pathetic story of one who, with everything to live for, was cut off in the flower of her youth. This was Mrs. Ann Peter, the first wife of George Peter, celebrated in her day as one of the lovely daughters of Colonel Plater and his wife, Martha, and known in the Capital society as the "beauty." She died in 1814, in the twenty-third year of her age, leaving no children. Maj. George Peter survived her nearly fifty years, and contracted successively two other marriages, as has been already mentioned, so that the name of Peter is in no im- mediate danger of becoming extinct.
Colonel Plater's wife, Martha, also a very beautiful woman, was the sister of Gen. James Maccubbin Lingan, a veteran of the Revolutionary war, who met his death at the hands of the Baltimore mob, in 1812. The General held a part interest in the Federal Republican, a newspaper edited by Alexander Contee Hanson and others and published in Baltimore, where the Democratic party was strongly in the majority. The opposition of this paper to the Madison war- policy of 1812 drew upon the editors and owners the fury of the mob, who first destroyed the building where the paper was printed, and about a month afterward, when General Lin- gan and his partners had succeeded in circulating another issue, attacked the house where they were prepared to de- fend their property. To escape the excesses of the mob, they surrendered to the civil authorities, who offered them the protection of the jail for the night. The building was carelessly guarded, the mob broke in, and the scenes that followed were as horrible in their brutality and cruelty as any depicted on the gruesome pages of the French Revolution.
Though many of his friends were left for dead upon the floor of the jail, General Lingan alone was killed outright.
1
251
Georgetown
His body was buried secretly,-the condition exacted by the ringleaders before surrendering it,-and it was not until some time afterwards that his relatives had it removed to Georgetown and quietly buried in a grave on his own farm "Harlem." Here, many years later, his wife was laid by his side and still later, an infant grandson. During the civil war the whole field was used as a camping ground and all signs of an inclosure disappeared, but in 1874 or 1875, the grandchildren of General Lingan had an iron fence placed around the graves. These are now to be found at the back of a laborer's cottage on the Foxhall Road and are to be identified by the name "Lingan" on the iron gate of the inclosure.
In spite of the secrecy which attended the disposal of his body, General Lingan's memory was honored by a stately funeral. On September 1, a little more than a month after his death-during which the wounds and bruises of his friends and colleagues had time to heal-an immense con- course of people, too large for any church to hold, moved in procession to Parrott's Woods, now known as Oak Hill Cemetery, in the following order:
Marshals on horseback; four clergymen of different denominations; Committee of Arrangements; Mr. Custis of Arlington, orator of the day; Music; Captain Stull's Rifle Corps, commanded by Lieutenant Kurtz; eight venerable pall-bearers with white scarfs; hearse with the horses clad in mourning; Mr. George Lingan, the General's son, chief mourner; the General's horse in mourning, led by a groom; family and relatives of the deceased in coaches; the wounded veteran, Major Musgrove, who survived the midnight massacre in which his brother soldier fell, bearing the General's sword, and supported by two heroes of the Revolution; Mr. Hanson, and other survivors of the band who defended the liberty of the press; veteran band of the Revolution; strangers of distinction; citizens from the counties of Montgomery, Baltimore, Frederick, Charles, Prince George's and St. Mary's, and from the cities of Georgetown, Washington and Alexandria; marshals on horseback; Captain Peter's troop of horse commanded by Lieut. John S. Williams.
The orator of the day, spoken of above, was George Wash-
252
Historic Graves of the District of Columbia
ington Custis, grandson of Mrs. Martha Washington. He was born at Mount Airy, Prince George's county, Md., the seat of his grandfather Benedict Calvert, on April 30, 1781, and died in 1857. His grave and that of his wife, Mary Lee Custis, who was a Miss Fitzhugh of Virginia, lie at Arlington under a tree, near a woodland path, apart from the soldiers' graves. According to the inscription on her tombstone she was born April 22, 1782, and died April 23, 1853. He was the seventh child of John Park Custis and Eleanor (Calvert) his wife, being only a few months old when his father died from camp fever, contracted while acting as General Wash- ington's aid-de-camp at the siege of Yorktown. He was adopted by the latter and lived at Mount Vernon until his grandmother Washington's death, in 1802, when he built Arlington House. His daughter, Mary Randolph, was the wife of the Confederate hero, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and they lived at Arlington, which has since become the National Cemetery.
It is said that this estate passed into the hands of the government through confiscation at the time of the civil war. As a matter of fact, it was appropriated for taxes, but when Robert E. Lee's son was old enough to claim his Custis in- heritance, the accident of his being the son of a "rebel" could not be made to interfere with his right as a citizen, and it was decreed that he should receive a compensation for his land over and above the amount of the taxes for which it had been taken. Uncle Sam's version of the case stands on record in the entrance hall of the old mansion, where two bronze tablets supplement the history of the tract.
Back of St. Alban's church in the Cathedral Close, on the heights above Georgetown, are two old-time tombstones mounted on brick foundations and inclosed by an iron rail- ing. These stones, which were brought here in 1898 from the old burying ground at Croom, cover the remains of the
253
Georgetown
Rt. Rev. Thomas John Claggett and his wife, Mary. A more fitting spot for the last resting place of the first bishop consecrated in America, could not have been chosen, and the fact that Francis Scott Key was the author of his epitaph, adds an additional halo to his surroundings. The epitaph, written in Latin, states that Thomas John Claggett, the first bishop of Maryland, was born in the year 1743; ordained deacon and priest in London in 1767; consecrated bishop in 1792, and died in the peace of Christ in 1816. It ends with a tribute to his good qualities as man and servant of the church. The bishop was born in Prince George's county, at Croom, an ancestral estate of about 500 acres. Here he lived in his later years, while engaged upon the combined duties of bishop of the diocese and parish priest. St. Thomas church, where he officiated, is about a mile distant from his home. This church is not only interesting on account of its associations with him, but also because of its venerable age. Among the early worshipers here were the Calverts of Mount Airy, a daughter of whose house was the heroine of a runaway marriage, the groom of twenty-one, being no less a person than John Custis, stepson of George Washington, and father of G. W. Custis of Arlington, who has been re- ferred to on a previous page. No very ancient graves have been preserved in St. Thomas' churchyard, for in Prince George's county the custom obtained of burying the dead in private burying grounds. In that at Croom, whence the re- mains of the bishop and his wife were removed, the graves of some of his children are still to be seen, but the old home has long since been destroyed by fire.
John Thomas Claggett was consecrated on November 17, 1792, in Trinity church, New York, and the four American bishops-Seabury, Provoost, White and Madison, who had received consecration in England-united in the ceremony, the first of its kind to take place in America.
254
Historic Graves of the District of Columbia
In a hollow of the college grounds at Georgetown is a little spot laid off in symmetrical mounds, ten in a row, where the presidents and professors of this well-known institution sleep, and here lies also the body of the Rt. Rev. John Car- roll, the first Roman Catholic archbishop, under whose di- rection as head of the incorporated Catholic clergy of Mary- land the college was founded in 1789. The first step toward its establishment was taken in 1786, when the necessity for an institution of the kind was urged before the general chap- ter at Whitemarsh. Another important matter occupying the minds of the Catholic clergy at this time, was the estab- lishment of a See in this country. The manner in which the appointment of the Rev. John Carroll took place can best be described by quoting the words of Pope Pius VI in the official document given "under the Fisherman's Ring the 6th day of November 1789."
"And whereas by special grant and for the first time only, we have allowed the priests exercising the cure of souls in the United States of America to elect a person to be appointed bishop by us, and almost all their votes have been given to our beloved son John Carroll, Priest, we . .. declare, create, appoint and constitute the said John Carroll Bishop and Pastor of said church in Baltimore . . and we com- mission said Bishop elect to erect a church in the said City of Baltimore in the form of a Cathedral Church."
The consecration of the new bishop was performed on August 15, 1790, in the chapel of Lulworth Castle, England, the seat of Thomas Weld, Esq.
About five miles from the city of Washington, on what is called the Sligo branch of the Anacostia river, otherwise the eastern branch of the Potomac river, lies an old estate which formerly bore the name of Green Hill, but now is known as the Riggs' Farm. The original dwelling has disappeared and
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.