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 21
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 21
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few of the old landmarks remain, but in a sheltered corner of what was probably the old garden, is a slight mound covered with periwinkle and surmounted by a simple cedar cross. In this spot lie the remains of Charles L'Enfant, the brave and talented Frenchman who fought in our Revolutionary war and to whom we are indebted for the plan of our national capital. Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography ac- cords him a brief mention as a military officer, architect and engineer, but a better knowledge of his life in its essentially human aspect is to be drawn from a variety of sources, in- cluding his own papers, the only fortune he left behind him, the letters of General Washington, contained in volumes IX, X, XII of Spark's Life of Washington, and traditions handed down by those with whom he passed his latter years.
Born in the year 1755, he was still young when the war ended. Possessed of good taste and ability, both of which were early recognized by Washington, he had every prospect of a successful career before him, but owing to a proud spirit, trained to military obedience alone, and to his being one of those unfortunate characters, who so often stand in the way of their own success, he seldom realized any profit from his professional services. To quote from a recent writer: even "The task that . . . won for his name enduring fame, brought him personally nothing but disgrace, neglect and poverty prolonged through more than a quarter of a cen- tury." Under the custody of the War Department is still to be seen L'Enfant's map, the title of which appears in one corner as follows: "Plan of the City intended for the per- manent Seat of the Government of the United States, pro- jected agreeable to the direction of the President of the United States in Pursuance of the act of Congress passed the 16th day of July, 1790 establishing the Permanent Seat on the bank of the Potommac."
In March, 1791, Major L'Enfant began the congenial
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task of laying out the city, and on July 20, following, Wash- ington writes to David Humphries: "You have been in- formed of the spot fixed for the seat of government on the Potomac; and I am now happy to add that all matters be- tween the proprietors of the soil and the public are settled to the mutual satisfaction of both parties and that the busi- ness of laying out the city, the grounds for public buildings, walks &c, is advancing. under the inspection of Major L'En- fant with pleasing prospects." Under these promising con- ditions a public sale of lots was advertised to take place on October 17, of the same year; but unfortunately L'Enfant failed to recognize the authority of the commissioners in the matter and withheld the plat of the city from the inspection of the commonalty, lest they should "leap at once" as he expressed it, "upon my best squares and vistas and raise huddles of shanties which will permanently embarrass the city." That his prophecy was only in part fulfilled was due to Washington and Jefferson who approved of his plan and protected it from perversion so long as they were in office, thereby fixing the main features of the original scheme be- yond possibility of loss. The "huddles of shanties," con- jured up by L'Enfant's fears materalized as he foresaw they would, but they failed to become a permanent embarrass- ment to the city owing to the heroic measures adopted in the cause of good taste, about three-quarters of a century later; since when L'Enfant's conception of a beautiful city laid out on an extensive scale has become more and more possible of realization.
L'Enfant's attitude to the commissioners made it impossible to employ him "about the Federal city in that degree of subordination which was lawful and proper," and so, in March, 1792, he was dismissed by Jefferson after having for one year thrown himself heart and soul into his work. In compensation for his services, $2,500 or $3,000 were con-
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sidered ample, but he would not accept less than $50,000, and to quote again from the same article: "until the day of his death, in 1825, the tall erect figure of the courtly French- man trod the corridors of the Capitol as he vainly pleaded with Congress for the reward he believed his due."
In 1812 L'Enfant again appears as the planner of Fort Washington-his last work-for again he became restive under certain restraints and was mustered out of the service.
For seven years he lived at "Warburton Manor," the seat of Thomas Digges, within sight of the fort he had built. Here he found consolation in the companionship of a generous and sympathizing friend. Thomas Digges died in 1821 and L'Enfant's troubles began anew; but William Digges, the nephew of his former friend and benefactor, received him into his home at Green Hill, and here shortly afterwards, at the age of seventy, he died and was buried. His fame is his only monument.
The oldest places of burial in Washington, owing to the growth of the city, are now extinct. Old St. John's, belong- ing to the Episcopal Church, which was begun about the year 1796 on land given by Col. Wm. Deakins, was the first to be disturbed. This occurred just before the civil war, and immediately after peace was restored St. Matthew's Roman Catholic cemetery and the Methodist burying ground, known as the "Foundry," were made to follow; but a graveyard older than either of these was "Holmead's," bounded by 19th and 20th streets, N. W., and S. and Bound- ary streets, where interments were permitted as late as 1874. It is estimated that they reached the number of 10,000. The history of this last habitation of the dead is worth pre- serving with others of its kind.
Tradition says that Anthony Holmead, whose farm lay in the western section, set apart a plot of ground 120 feet by 100 for a graveyard; as a matter of fact a paper preserved
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among the records of the commissioners shows that a grave- yard existed or was contemplated by Holmead as early as 1791. In 1796 a conveyance was made to the commissioners by which Holmead was to be allowed to retain his buildings and graveyard, should the arrangement of the city lots and streets not interfere. For this privilege he was to pay to the President at the rate of £12. 0 s. 10 d. per acre; on the other hand, if the city lay through the property to the interference of his buildings and graveyard, the commissioners were to pay him damages.
And so the matter rested till between the years 1810 and 1816, when the Corporation of Washington allotted squares numbered 109 and 1026 respectively, as places of burial. These were considered to be at a proper distance from the populous parts of the city to accommodate the inhabitants at either end. A sexton was appointed to take care of each of them, to dig the graves and to keep a register of persons interred. Square 109, located between 19th and 20th streets, S. street and Florida avenue, at that time the boundary, embraced Holmead's reservation and became the public burying ground of the northwestern section, or, as it is stated among the general acts of the Corporation, was one of the squares "assigned . . . to the public as burial grounds for the interment of all people." The act provides also for the fencing in of these squares with good and sufficient locust or cedar posts and chestnut rails under the direction and supervision of three commissioners for each burial ground, to be appointed by the Mayor. The latter was also to cause the necessary gates and stiles to be made and fixed thereto. Provisions were made both for white people and for "people of color" and slaves. A thorn fence was to mark the line of separation between the two. The later history of the grave- yard shows that a distinction between the colors was pre- served up to the end of its existence.
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Among the other provisions of this act, was one that allowed persons whose dead were already buried there, to have a first choice of lots, and they were not to be charged more that $3.00 nor less than $2.50 for any one site. The funds thus raised were to be used to keep the grounds in order and to build a house for the sexton. The latter was not only to keep a regular and exact account of all interments made and the numbers of the graves and sites, but also the names of the persons interred, and every three months he was to make a return of the same to the register of the city, whose duty it was to file and keep them for future reference. It is doubtless owing to this fact that so many names have been preserved.
The first interment on record is that of Robert Smith of Boston, who was buried there on May 30, 1794, and the list includes the names of many well-known families. Among the oddities there laid to rest was Lorenzo Dow, the eccen- tric minister, who with his wife, Peggy, preached in the market houses and handled crowds just as the leaders of the Salvation Army began to do some fifty years later. Nomi- nated President by Crow, Lorenzo Dow was elected by his followers and proceeded to the White House to take his seat. Arrest instead of inauguration very naturally followed. Wil- liam Seaton, the journalist, James Hoban, the architect, An- drew Way, the well-known printer, and others, who in their day and generation played a part in civic or national life, were also buried at Holmead's.
About the year 1884 the commissioners sold the ground for building lots, and with $4,000, a part of the proceeds, they had most of the bodies and tombstones removed to other places of burial. Six hundred bodies were said to have been provided for elsewhere by relatives and friends. The rest of the funds thus raised, amounting to $48,000, were devoted to the use of the public schools.
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The body of Joseph Meigs, the father of General Meigs, buried at first at Holmead's, now reposes in the Oak Hill cemetery; that of George Moore, who died in 1810, lies at Mt. Olivet, but most of the bodies were reinterred in the Rock Creek Cemetery.
A partial list has been obtained of some of the persons buried at Holmead's: Andrew McLean, Joseph McIntosh, 1809; George Morland or Morlin, Samuel Douglas, 1815; Alexander Smoot, Robert Breckingridge, John Sessford, Nicholas King, Thomas H. Gillis, Alex. Cochran, 1812; John Lenthall, 1808; Walter Lennox, Robt. Underwood, John McClelland, Cornelius McLean, Ezekiel King, Major Stone, 1826; Peter Lenox, 1832; Mrs. Shieffly, 1839; Mrs. A. J. Larned, James Larned, 1847; Wm. O'Neil, 1837; aged 86; Alex. McIntire, 1843; Chas. Polkinhorn, 1844. Interspersed through the list we find the names of Stanley, Hines, Somers, McIntosh and Handley.
Square 1026, set aside for the inhabitants of the eastern section of the city of Washington was abandoned, as being too low. The National, now the Congressional, cemetery, on 17th street and Georgia avenue, existed already in 1830, when it is described by a writer of the day as "South East of the Capitol and sloping towards the margin of the East- ern Branch." Either this cemetery or the Washington Parish burial ground adjoining it and now included in it, may have served the original purpose of the commission- ers.
The Congressional burying ground is easy to find and well worth a visit, and so we shall mention only a few names of the dignitaries buried there: George Clinton, a friend and contemporary of Washington who was born July 26, 1739, and died in Washington, April 20, 1811; Elbridge Gerry, Vice President of the United States, who died there in 1814, and the Hon. Wm. Pinkney, senator for Maryland, who died
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February 25, 1822, aged 58, besides many "Honourables " from other states of the Union.
Pushinataha, "the Eagle of the Choctaws," who served with Jackson through all the perils of the Pensacola war, and died from diphtheria while on a mission to Washington, was buried there with funeral honors. His monument, which his tribe were allowed to choose to mark the resting place of their chief, is of sandstone now dark with age. It is a rectangular block resting on a pedestal and surmounted by a pyramid; on one of its sides are inscribed the following words taken from a eulogy pronounced by John Randolph of Roanoke:
" Pushinataha was a warrior of great distinction. He was wise in council, eloquent in an excellent degree, and on all occasions, under all circumstances, the white man's friend."
Old St. Paul's, around which are now to be found the graves of Rock Creek Cemetery, was described by a writer in 1816 as being "in the bosom of the woods." It is on the Brightwell road, about three miles from the Capitol, though since the introduction of the trolley, it might be said to lie at its doors. Near it, in the early part of the nineteenth century, stood the home of Samuel Harrison Smith. The name of this place, "Turkey Thicket," carries us back to a time when the neighborhood was still more or less of a wilderness.
As editor of the National Intelligencer, the first newspaper published in Washington, Samuel Smith deserves mention in passing. He was the son of Jonathan Smith, a wealthy Philadelphia merchant, and patriot in the Revolution. He associated himself from the first with the vital interests of the infant Capital. The Intelligencer was started by him during the Adams administration on October 31, 1800, and he remained the editor until 1818, when he handed over
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the control to his young assistant, Joseph Gales, and became a manager of the Washington branch of the United States Bank. He died in 1845.
Another newspaper, which is not to be confused with the National Intelligencer, is the National Journal, a daily, founded by Peter Force, who, as the patient collector of "Force's Tracts" is the literary "old mortality " to whom the modern antiquarian turns. It is said that he is buried in the Rock Creek cemetery. John T. Agg, the gifted Eng- lishman who edited the National Journal, certainly lies there, if we are to believe the testimony of the stone erected by the parish as a grateful tribute to his memory. He died April 19, 1855, aged 75 years, having outlived his journal twenty-five years.
To him were attributed the following lines that appeared in the National Journal, January, 1824 :
Wend ye with the world to-night ? Brown and fair and wise and witty; Eyes that float in seas of light; Laughing mouths and dimples pretty; Belles and matrons, maids and madams All are gone to Mrs. Adams.
In the Rock Creek cemetery lie also the remains of Mrs. Carolina Virginia Marylanda Frye. Her two hus- bands, Gen. Andrew Buchanan and Nathaniel Frye, are buried beside her. She was the daughter of Joshua Johnson, brother of Thomas Johnson, first governor of Maryland after her independence as a state, and the sister of Catherine, Mrs. John Quincy Adams, whose ball given in honor of Andrew Jackson on January 8, 1824, furnished the motive for John T. Agg's graceful lines, quoted above.
The old inscriptions in this churchyard are few in num- ber because of its neglected condition during the disturbed period of the Revolution and the years immediately follow- ing it.
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They appear as follows:
In Remembrance of J. White who died March 8, 1801 Aged 86 years. Eleanor White Wife of J. M. White departed this life Aug. 12th 1795 the 90th year of her age and 60th of her marriage.
Here lies the body of Abram Mason born the 14th day of January 1798 and died on the 22nd. day of July 1801. The oldest child and only son of John T. Mason and Elizabeth His wife of Georgetown.
In memory of David Steuger late of the City of Philadelphia who de- parted this life on the 8th day of Nov. 1802. Aged 21 years and 4 months.
When I lie buried deep in dust My flesh shall be thy care These withering limbs with thee I trust O raise them strong and fair.
In Memory of Susanna Borrows wife of John Borrows who departed this life July 31, 1803 Aged 71 years.
Nathaniel Frye Aged 77 years.
Caroline V. M. Frye Born October 5th, 1777 Died May 14th 1862.
In Memory of Elizabeth Gramphin wife of Thomas Gramphin who departed this life . . . of March ... 1775.
In Memory of Robert Gramphin Son of Thomas and Elizabeth Gramphin who departed this life April 1775 Aged 19 years.
In Memory of Thomas Gramphin who departed this life 29th of July 1783, aged 68 years.
In Memory of Mary wife of Wm. Tunnicliff also Robert Tunnicliff who died Nov. 1798. This slab is broken into six pieces and cannot be further deciphered.
In Memory of Mrs. Amelia Lovering wife of Wm. M. Lovering, Architect of the City of Washington who departed this life the 14th day of January 1791 Aged 30 years.
This humble grave though no proud structures grace,
Yet truth and goodness sanctify the place.
O from life I am safe on that calm shore
Where sin and pain and suffering are no more.
What never wealth could buy nor power decree Regard and pity wait secure on Thee.
John Agg of Eversham England Died 19 April 1855 Aged 75 years.
John Agg A communicant, long the Senior member of the Vestry, a faithful and generous friend of the Church. Erected by the Parish as a grateful tribute to his Memory.
In Memory of Charles Shremaker of Philadelphia Deceased April 14th, 1807 In the 54th year of his Age.
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On the outer wall of St. Paul's church, the venerable structure that stands in their midst, are inscribed these words :
Erected 1719. Rebuilt 1775. Remodelled 1868.
These dates represent the decisions of the vestry rather than the ultimate accomplishment of their plans concern- ing the erection and rebuilding of the church.
As early as 1710 the Rev. John Frazier, rector of St. John's Piscataway parish, preached to the inhabitants in the eastern branch of the Potomac and Rock Creek Hundred, and it is to be inferred, from what is already known of the customs of those days, that the services were held sometimes at the house or in an outbuilding of one landowner, sometimes in that of another.
On September 18, 1719, the rector of Piscataway parish called a meeting of the inhabitants of Prince George's county to consider ways and means for the erection of a chapel in the location where his nine years of ministry had drawn together a congregation sufficiently large to need a meeting place of its own. It was in response to his appeal that John Bradford, a vestryman of the parent church of St. John, contributed 1,000 pounds of tobacco, the staple of that period, and 100 acres of land. The latter constitutes what is known to-day as the glebe of Rock Creek parish. About one-half of this land has been laid off into a cemetery, composing perhaps the largest churchyard in existence, the usual number of acres allowed to a church being one, known simply as "God's acre." Here the walls of the present church have stood since the beginning of the Revolution, the completion of the structure having been interrupted at that time. In the first quarter of the next century it was roofed in and became a place of worship, and later still it took the form in which it now appears.
All the old parish records that have been rescued from
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oblivion or probable destruction are now kept at the diocesan library in Baltimore, and to make their ultimate preservation doubly sure the Maryland Historical Society has procured copies of them. From these records and from other sources, principally the researches of the Rev. James A. Buck, a late rector, who served here for thirty-five years, an outline of the church's history may be gathered. The principal events connected with it are its creation as a parish church in 1726 under the name of Prince George's parish, and its ultimate adoption in 1856 of the popular name of Rock Creek parish, when by a further subdivision its metes and bounds were again defined. This is a case like others in Maryland, notably that of St. John's Piscataway parish, better known as the "Broad Creek" church, where the proximity of some river or creek provided it from the be- ginning with a name to preserve its identity.
The first object that meets the eye upon entering the cemetery is a large iron cross bearing the name of John Bradford. This surname, though well known in the history of a sister colony, has had but few representatives in Mary- land, and the little that can be obtained concerning the beneficent donor of land to the church is to be found in the rent roll of Calvert and Prince George's counties and in the church records of St. John.
As early as 1704 we find him owning a portion of "Twiver," a tract of 440 acres in Mattapony Hundred, and also a tract of 300 acres called "Essex Lodge," west side of Patuxent, 150 of which he had purchased from the Widow Bagby. In 1714 and in 1715 he takes up land with others in Mount Calvert Hundred. These tracts were called respectively "Good Luck," "Butterwick" and "Haddock Hills." The latter consisted of 500 acres, 100 of which were in possession of John Deakins, whose surname is one of those associated later with the history of Georgetown. The ownership of
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"Butterwick" was confirmed to John Bradford by patent on May 11, 1715, and that of "Bradford's Rest" on June 3d of the same year, and here he is designated by the name of "Captain." Ere this time he had become one of the leading men of Prince George's county, appearing on St. John's church records as vestryman in 1712, where the baptism of his son William is recorded in 1713. He is next alluded to as Maj. John Bradford, and finally as Col. John Brad- ford, late of Prince George's county, deceased, June 23, 1726. His wife Joyce, and his son John are named as executors in his will, and Henry Darnall and Daniel Carroll of the same county went on their bond to the amount of $8,000.
Unless some descendant of John Bradford should stand forward to tell us more about him, we shall have to remain contented with this scant outline of one, known to the present generation by his gift alone.
Piscataway parish, to which Rock Creek owed its origin, was one of the first four laid out in Charles county in 1692. By the creation of Prince George's county in 1695, it fell within the boundaries of the new county, extending from the Mattawoman Creek, an estuary of the Potomac, to the Pennsylvania border; all the parishes, therefore, since erected in the northwestern section of Maryland are direct descend- ants of the Piscataway parish, and St. John's, the quaint old brick church which stands on Broad Creek within easy access of Washington, is its most venerable monument. The few crumbling stones remaining in St. John's grave- yard, however, furnish no record of the men who con- tributed to its erection or support. A headstone to James Jones, who died in 1760, is the only stone of any antiquity that has resisted the vicissitudes of time, weather and neg- lect, though there is another inscription that has been partly deciphered as "Boston D-tts, died 1743."
We cannot, therefore, seek in this spot for enlightenment
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about the past. Fortunately the church records are not silent on this point. The inhabitants of Piscataway Hundred, em- powered by the Act of 1692, met at the house of Col. John Ad- dison, to elect the first vestry. Colonel Addison was chosen foreman, the other members being William Hatton, John Smith, William Hutchinson, William Tannehill and John Smallwell. John Addison and William Hutchinson were appointed to direct the building of the church, and specifi- cations of what was required show that the first vestry of St. John's was composed of men who had brought with them to the wilderness a just appreciation of the fitness of things, in all that appertained to an abode for Christian worship. The church was ready for the use of the congre- gation in 1697. They were ministered to by lay readers until the year 1709, when the Rev. John Frazier took charge.
Much of the local tradition of the past is linked with the name of Addison and with the old family estates of Barnaby, Oxen Hill and Gisborough.
At Oxen Hill is the family vault and graveyard where the dead of several generations repose. Col. John Addison died in England in 1706, and probably the first to be laid in the vault was Thomas, his only son and heir, with the latter's wives, Elizabeth Tasker and Eleanor Smith. The third generation is represented by John, Thomas and Anthony, all of whom were born to Thomas by his second marriage; also, possibly, John's wife, Susannah Wilkinson; then comes John's son Thomas, who married Rebecca Dulany, and some of their children and grandchildren. This brings us down to the Rev. Walter Dulany Addison, who was born at Annapolis, January 1, 1769, and died January 31, 1848. He is buried in the adjoining graveyard by the side of his first wife, Elizabeth Dulany Hesselius. She died July 31, 1808, at the age of 33. His brother John of Colebrook, who pre-
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