USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > Historic homes in Washington : its noted men and women and a century in the White House > Part 18
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The mansion is still standing, and was most solidly constructed. The beams and rafters were of solid oak, two feet in diameter, and strong enough, as proven, to bear the weight of two centuries.
Descendant after descendant inherited the estate until
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it, together with Arlington, fell into the hands of Girard Alexander.
Girard sold Abingdon to Gen. George Washington, who bought it for his stepson, John Parke Custis, who married Eleanor Calvert, of Mount Airy, Maryland. She was married at 16 years of age, while Master Custis was a youth of 19. Here they lived several years, until four children were born to them. All were born in this home, except George Washington Parke Custis, who was born in Mount Airy. But the brightness that had illumined this home went out when the ravages of war marked its master for its victim.
After the death of young Custis, his widow married Dr. Stewart, of Virginia, and in Abingdon the nine Stewart sisters were born. They were noted for their beauty and vivacious manners, and many a young Virginia planter has drunk a toast to these fair muses.
But the homestead passed away from them. It had been paid for in Continental money by Gen. Washington, and the heirs of Girard Alexander brought suit to recover the property. After many years of tedious litigation the courts set the sale aside, and Abingdon passed once more into the hands of the Alexanders, and Walter Alexander became the proprietor.
He afterwards sold it to one of the Wises, who kept it but a short time, and resold it to Gen. Alexander Hunter, a member of the original family. Gen. Hunter was Mar- shal of the District of Columbia for 20 years. He was a man of wealth, and spent his means freely in beautifying the old place.
He was a personal friend of President Andrew Jackson, and many a Saturday the head of the Nation would slip away over the river to spend a quiet Sunday at Abingdon. An inflexible rule was made by Gen. Hunter that office- seeking and politics in general should be rigidly tabooed during the President's stay. Everybody found a wel- come to the place. Sturdy farmers would sit by the hour and chat familiarly with the old hero, there being no rules of etiquet laid down in this liberty hall.
One chamber, on the northeast side of the house, was
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always called Gen. Washington's room. It was the chamber-room he always occupied. when he visited his stepson, Mr. Custis. Gen. Hunter used to say his reason for not building a more pretentious house, with his im- mense fortune, was "that a house that was good enough to shelter Washington was good enough for him."
Gen. Hunter's town mansion was on the corner of Cand Third streets. This property has long been owned by the family of the Rev. Julius Grammer, of Baltimore, and leased for a boarding house.
Gen. Hunter willed Abingdon to his nephew, Maj. Alexander Hunter, a man well known in literary work. He was to come into possession of the estate when he reached his majority. But before that time came the civil war broke out and Abingdon, like Arlington, was sold for taxes, the prospective owner being in the Con- federate army. Abingdon was bought by L. E. Critten- den, then Register of the Treasury.
After the war, Alexander Hunter, then 21, sued for its re- covery, and employed James A. Garfield as his lawyer.
The case was won in the Supreme Court, and Gen. Garfield took as his fce 40 acres of Abingdon; and when he became a resident of the White House he was making plans to build upon his land and establish a handsome country home. His untimely death brought all these plans to a 'close, and Abingdon to-day sits in sackcloth and ashes.
Arlington remained in the hands of the Custis family. George W. Parke Custis, when a lad, was present at the inauguration of his foster father as President of the United States, and saw the oath administered by Chan- cellor Livingston, upon the balcony of Federal Hall, in New York, 1789.
He afterwards heard this pledge of fidelity to the Con- stitution from the lips of every President, every four years, down to President Pierce. After his father died, his home was with his sister, Nellie Custis, at Mount Vernon.
This continued through childhood and youth, and until the death of his grandmother and the breaking up of
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the home in 1802, when he commenced the erection of the mansion at Arlington.
He lived here, keeping bachelor's hall until, at the age of 23, he married Mary Lee Fitzhugh, whose mother was a Randolph.
The mansion occupies a commanding view upon the brow of an elevation more than 300 feet above tide-water, and about a half mile from the shore of the Potomac.
The building is of brick, and presents a front of 140 feet. The portico, with its massive Doric columns, is 60 feet front and 25 deep, and was fashioned after the famous temple of Thesus at Athens.
From the portico a beautiful panorama is exhibited; first, the Potomac, spotted with sailboats and ships slowly sweeping down the stream; also, the city, beautiful with its Capitol, its monuments, its public buildings, and the un- folding forests and undulating hills that surround it.
The old mansion is surrounded by a park dotted with groves of chestnuts, oaks and evergreens, and above them all rise patriarchal trees, bearing many centennial honors.
George W. Parke Custis is well remembered by many now living. His portrait, in the Corcoran Art Gallery, shows a florid face, high, curling lip, somewhat receding forehead, penetrating blue eyes, a face that hints the man of the world, genial, gentle, hospitable. He was a bril- liant orator, and in Arlington House are frescoes of his own painting. He thought he was an artist, and made an honorable effort to paint battle scenes representing the achievements of Washington; but all men do not possess the Io talents.
At the north end of the mansion is a beautiful weeping willow that carries in its graceful branches quite a history.
In 1775 an English officer came to this country with the intention of making it his home, never doubting but that this unruly daughter, America, would be easily taught a lesson of obedience to the King. With him he brought a small twig of willow, carefully preserved in an oil-silk covering. A few months only did it take to change the officer's inind, and, before returning to England, he pre- sented this twig, which he had brought from Pope's villa
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at Twickenham, England, to John P. Custis, then Wash- ington's Aid at Cambridge, who planted it at Arlington.
Pope's willow came from the East, and was the parent of all willows of that species in England. The willow at Arlington became the parent of all other trees of the kind in America, and even furnished shoots many years after for English gardens where the tree had become extinct.
There is a noble specimen of this tree on the corner of Twenty-second and Third Avenue, New York. It was a twig taken from the parent tree at Arlington by Gen. Gates, and planted there by him when that portion of . Manhattan Island was his Rose Hill farm.
In 1803 Mr. G. W. P. Custis inaugurated an annual convention for the promotion of agriculture and domestic manufactures, known throughout the country by the title of "Arlington Sheep-Shearing." Col. David Humphries, American Minister to Madrid, had introduced into this country the fine-wooled Merino sheep.
These gatherings were at Arlington Spring, a large fountain of living waters that flow from beneath the shade of a venerable oak not far from the banks of the Potomac. There for years the annual sheep-shearing took place on April 20. Many hundreds would assemble to witness the ceremonies; toasts were drunk, speeches were made and prizes given by Mr. Custis for the best specimen of sheep or wool and domestic cloth. And here first began the prize offerings in this country that are yearly witnessed at the State fairs. Under the "tent of Washington," which is now preserved in the National Museum, many of the noblest men of the land have assembled at these festiv- als. In one of the speeches by Mr. Custis in this tent, he made this prophetic statement:
"America shall be great and free, and minister to her own wants by the employment of her own resources. The citizen of my country will proudly appear when clothed in the product of his native soil."
It must be remembered that at this time Washington's signature to a high tariff bill was of so recent a date that not a yard of broadcloth was manufactured in this country.
Arlington Spring was for many years a great resort for
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picnic parties from Washington, Georgetown and Alex- andria. In the long ago a military party, accompanied by their ladies, went over from Washington to the spring, for a day's outing. Mr. Custis sent his favorite servant, Charles, to wait upon the company at table. The salver used was one of a tea-service made in New York in 1779, of old family plate. When serving the ice cream the waiter said:
"Ladies, this salver once belonged to George Washing- ton, and from it all the great ladies and gentlemen of the · Revolution took wine."
The ladies, as if actuated by one impulse, arose, and each in turn kissed the cold rim of the salver before touch- ing the cream. The Hon. John Custis, one of the King's Council in Virginia, married a daughter of Col. Daniel Parke. Col. Custis, with his great wealth and foreign education, was considered no despicable suitor, but he was forewarned that his intended bride had a will and a temper of her own, and could well hold her part in a war of words. But before marriage, he thought "to possess her would be heaven enough for him."
The marriage seems to have been a most unhappy one, and, fortunately, after the birth of two children, was brought to a close by her death at Arlington, on the East- ern Shore. The husband lived for many years after, and as he could not get even with her in life he commissioned his monument to do him service and give the last word to the ear of posterity.
By a provision of his will, his son and heir, Daniel Parke Custis, the first husband of Martha Dandridge, afterward Martha Washington, was instructed, under penalty of disinheritance, to have a monument erected at a cost of 500 pounds, with the following inscription:
"Under this marble tomb lies the body of the Hon. John Custis, Esq., of the City of Williamsburg and Parish of Burton, formerly of Hungars Parish on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and County of Northampton; aged 71 · years, and vet lived but seven years, which was the space of time he kept a bachelor's home at Arlington on the Eastern Shore of Virginia."
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On the opposite side is: "This inscription put upon his tomb was by his own positive orders." This tomb is still in existence.
It was John Custis who gave the name of Arlington to these estates. Beautiful Nellie Custis married Wash- ington's favorite nephew, Lawrence Lewis. She was a young lady of extensive information, brilliant wit and boundless generosity. She died in Clarke County, Va., in 1852, at the age of 74.
May Randolph Custis, the only child of George W. Parke Custis who survived the period of infancy, and Robert Lee, when children, played together under the forest shade and over the lawns of beautiful Arlington. Robert was the son of Gov. Henry Lee, the friend of Wash- ington, and the first to utter the immortal lines: "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his country- men."
In 1832 Robert Lee and May Custis were married. At the death of Gen. Custis, Arlington became the property of Mrs. Lee. In 1861 the occupants walked out of it. The Washington relics, which they left behind in the thought that the war would soon blow over, were all con- fiscated, and are now in the National Museum.
To-day the old mansion returns but echoes of precious memories; barren are its walls, and forsaken its portals, but the spirit of Washington still hovers over the place, and from the old flag floats the pure gospel of Union and Liberty
When in the softer air of bright May mornings, soldiers' orphans lay their flowers on 10,000 soldiers' graves, it not only tells how dear to the Nation is the dust of these brave men, but shows a deeper reverence for the sacrifice made that the Nation might live and that Washington did not live in vain.
The eye of the great chieftain is resting upon our be- loved country, and every headstone in Arlington tells him that in the hour of danger, Americans will venerate and maintain the laws and give their lives for the liberty and union of their country and the great domain beyond the Potomac he sees redeemed.
CHAPTER XXI.
ALEXANDRIA-BRADDOCK'S ROCK-OBSERVATORY HILL.
THE OLD BRADDOCK HOUSE-AN HISTORICAL COUNCIL-RICHARD HENRY LEE-BRADDOCK'S CONTEMPT FOR PROVINCIALS. UNDERGROUND CAUSEWAY-BRADDOCK'S ROCK-HOME OF JOHN LUCAS-HOUSE BUILT BY CHARLES W. GOLDSBOROUGH. OBSERVATORY HILL-INDIAN BURYING GROUND-JOHN POL- LOCK-"CAMP HILL"-LORENZD DOW-CHARACTERISTIC ANEC- DOTE-ST. ANN'S INFANT ASYLUM-COUNT CHARLES DE MONTHOLON-RESIDENCE OF HENRY STEPHEN FOX-GEN. JOHN MASON.
Early in 1755 Gen. Braddock landed in Alexandria with 2,000 English Regulars, and, on the 14th of that month, met the Governors of the Colonies in what is known, to-day, as the old Braddock House. The room is now exhibited to visitors where this council was held, and where the decision was made that Gen. Braddock was to lead the main army against Fort Duquesne.
It was during Braddock's stay here that Richard Henry Lee (a young man of 23 years) raised a company of volunteers in Westmoreland, was chosen Captain, and marched to Alexandria to offer his services to Gen. Brad- dock. The General, however, declined the offer with an ill-concealed expression of contempt for "provincials." Capt. Lee, with his men, marched home again.
The battle of Fort Duquesne had not then been fought, and Lieut. Washington had not been called upon to cover the retreat of the English Regulars with the Vir- ginian "provincials"-that was a little later on.
In the latter part of April the British General was ready for the forward march. Washington was one of his Aids-de-Camp.
At this time the Potomac River ran very near the old Braddock House; so near that an underground cause- way had been cut from the cellar under the hotel to the river. The horses for this expedition had been secretly hidden away in this cellar-the stalls can be seen there to-day. From ' this hiding-place they were taken
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through the causeway and placed upon barges. The troops also embarked.
These barges sailed up the Potomac until they came nearly opposite to what is now the foot of 25th street. Between 24th and 25th streets stands a great rock, or bowlder, at the time reaching out into water 12 or 14 : feet deep. It is known as Braddock's Rock, or Big Rock, and stands out like a great square butfress. The barges touched at this rock and upon it the troops were landed.
The filling up of the Potomac flats has taken the river a long distance from this historic old rock; but there it is, a monument to the changes a hundred and fifty years have wrought.
The army crossed over the western end of the "First Ward," and followed a mere trail out to where 19th street strikes the boundary.
This was more than half a century before a steam- ship plowed the waters of the Potomac; and three- quarters of a century before relays of horses drew the cars over the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad from Washington to Baltimore and its western branch.
Gen. Braddock's march, after he left the "stepping stone" of the Potomac, was a weary one over the moun- tains, fording rivers, through bogs and mire; Washington even gave up his horses in his anxiety to help on the - baggage trains.
How little did Washington dream that the future would bring him back to the spot where Braddock landed, or that he would there establish the Nation's Capital, bear- ing his name!
A little to the east of the rock above mentioned stood the humble home of John Lucas, whose father, Ignatius Lucas, introduced the immense pivoted ."ducking-gun" upon the Potomac, which was imported from England.
One pleasant Autumnal morning we strolled over this historic ground and found the pleasant-faced, intelligent wife of the present owner ready to tell us all she knew of the early history of the place.
The house was at first built on a "squatter's lot." This came exactly in the middle of a street. Another lot was
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purchased from the Commissioners and the house was moved to it.
Among numerous pieces of antique furniture which had been brought from England we noted claw-feet tables, sideboards, antique mirrors, and a swiss clock. The latter, three feet ivide and massive in build, had barely room to stand beneath the ceiling, and had a mechanical construction by which eight tunes were played and which brought figures with trombone and fife to the front. All these were reminders of days gone by, each a golden link in the chain of memory that united the past and the present. Though the heart of many an antiquarian of to-day would be gladdened by their possession, the most fabulous price offered for them had no value in com- parison with the associations connected with them.
Upon a little side veranda stood the veritable "duck- ing-gun," with the old flint-lock. This gun was fully 12 feet long. The sweet-faced woman within told us that her mother said she had known Mr. Lucas often to take that gun and a skiff, and before breakfast bring in a skiff full of ducks; "but," she added mournfully, "the noise of city and river improvements is hard on ducks."
In the rear of this old place, and overlooking it, was the house originally built by the late Charles W. Golds- borough, formerly Chief Clerk of the Navy Department, and father of the late Rear-Admiral Louis M. Golds- · borough, who married a daughter of the celebrated Wil- liam M. Wirt. The house referred to stood upon a pla- teau, now Observatory Hill. In the days when it was built it was beautifully located, and was elegantly fin- ished and furnished.
Ascending in, an easterly direction from the Golds- borough house, you reach the top of Observatory Hill. From the War of 1812 this hill was known as "Camp Hill." Upon the level of the summit there was a very old ceme- tery, originally an Indian burying-ground. An old resident told us that when a child he was fond of culling wild flowers on the brow of this hill, and often with other children would play hide-and-seek in the grassy hollows of the sunken graves.
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Rough, moss-covered bowlders marked the heads of the graves, and a few freestone slabs were scattered about. "Their names, their years spelled by the unlet- tered muse, the place of fame and eulogy supply."
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There was one complete stone of more recent date, and, perhaps, the grave of the last person buried there. It was there in 1817, and inscribed to John Pollock, an Englishman. He built the two brick houses known as the "Round Tops," square, two stories high, with pyramidal roofs, close together, on the northwest side of Washington Circle.
These were constructed for the porter's lodge of an intended palace, that was to have been built on 24th street, between Pennsylvania avenue and L street. The grounds were to occupy the whole square. Mr. Pollock had predicated all his schemes upon obtaining an im- mense fortune from England, which never came. He sickened and died, and his property was sold for his debts. When the foundation for the Observatory was laid, his bones were scattered to the four winds of heaven.
As Observatory Hill has undergone many changes in title, it may be interesting to the reader to note some of the many legends that gave rise to its different names. Tradition says that on the top of this hill stood the royal wigwam of the Indian chief who called the braves to- gether in council, and here they smoked the peace-breath- ing calumet. Here was the grand council-house and cemetery; hence the name of Grave-Yard Hill.
Dr. Bruff, the first practitioner of dentistry in the Fed- eral metropolis, in the year 1810 built upon the south- west side, near the River, a lofty wooden tower, upon the top of which he placed a windmill, which he had invented and patented, calling it "horizontal windmill."
Thus the hill adjoining was known as "Windmill Hill" until the year 1814, when the District militia had a practice and drill camp there, under the command of Col. Thomas L. McKenny, which changed the name to "Camp Hill." This continued to be its name until it was christen- ed Observatory Hill.
From about 22d street, on the south side of the
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Avenue, there was an elevated causeway, extending west- ward and around to the M street bridge. Pennsylvania avenue, then a mere road, and impassable for pedestrians in wet weather, came down to the roadway.
The ground began to rise from about 23d street, and gradually rose to a considerable hill above, and inclined westerly to Rock Creek.
It was cut down sufficiently where 26th street now runs for a roadway along the cliff to the bridge. Midway be- tween the Mullet estate and the turn of the road westerly there was a depression, which was covered by a cedar grove and large and aged locust trees.
This was the resort of the itinerant preachers, partic- ularly the celebrated and eccentric Lorenzo Dow. On one occasion Lorenzo Dow found that among his audi- tors were some who came for any and every purpose ex- cept worship. Being continually annoyed by these people coming in and going out, preparatory to his dis- course, he thus addressed them:
"My friends and hearers! On occasions like the pres- ent I have always found three classes of people as- sembled. The first are the truly pious, the second those who seek to become so, the third depraved vagabonds who prefer damnation to salvation. I earnestly request all of this last class who may be here now to withdraw before I commence the exercises."
It is needless to say no one left, and the parson, for once, at least, had an attentive and silent audience.
On the southwest corner of 24th and K streets stands a mansion that was once noted for the elegant refinement and hospitality that characterized the distinguished personages that occupied it. Gen. Charles Gratiot, Chief of the Corps of Engineers, United States Army, while holding that position resided there. This was prior to 1838.
Gen. Gratiot's name was, for a time, under a cloud, as he had been dismissed from the service by the President, Martin Van Buren, for alleged misdemeanors in office. He petitioned Congress for a hearing and trial by court- martial. It was referred to the Judiciary Committee;
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and, unjustly, the case was never reopened. For many years he held a' clerkship in the Land Office. He re- turned to St. Louis in 1855, and died soon after in desti- tute circumstances.
Mr. Gratiot married a Miss Chouteau, of St. Louis, the daughter of a distinguished French family. His daughter married Count Charles de Montholon, an attache of the French Legation in 1836, who returned here in 1856 as Minister from France. He was the son of Count de Montholon, who was a distinguished French officer attached to the personal staff of Napoleon, and acted as his Aid-de-Camp during the "Hundred Days."
He followed Napoleon into exile at St. Helena, and at the Emperor's death was appointed one of his executors. He was also a warm adherent of the Prince Napoleon, afterwards Napoleon III. He was imprisoned with him at Ham; but was afterwards pardoned, became a member of the Legislative Assembly, and died in 1853.
This house, in 1834, was rented to Hon. Henry Stephen Fox, Minister from Great Britain. During his occupancy of the house it was the scene of many brilliant entertainments. Just previous to the war it was oc- cupied by Gen. John Mason, a brother of Senator Mason, of Mason and Slidell fame. Gen. Mason married Miss Macomb, a daughter of Gen. Alexander Macomb, the former. Commander of the United States Army. The building has been enlarged and remodeled until it pre- sents'very little of its former appearance.
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CHAPTER XXII. THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS AND HOMES OF FOREIGN LEGATIONS.
THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS-CUSTOMS OF NATIONS-QUESTIONS OF DIPLOMACY-FRENCH HONOR TO WASHINGTON -- A GLANCE AT DIPLOMATIC SOCIAL HISTORY-THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS IN SOCIETY-MINISTER GENET AND WHY HE WAS RECALLED. THE RESIDENCES OF FOREIGN LEGATIONS-THE CZAR'S REPRE- SENTATIVE IN WASHINGTON-THE MAGNIFICENT GERMAN EMBASSY-THIE HOSPITABLE ROMEROS-JAPANESE IN THE SOCIAL WORLD.
The residences of the Diplomatic Corps are among the finest in the city. A few words as to the personnel of the Corps. It consists of Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary, Ministers Resident, Charges d' Affairs, First Secretaries, General Secretaries, Coun- sellors, Chancellors, Military attaches, Naval attaches, Diplomatic attaches, translators and interpreters of Legations.
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