USA > Maryland > Some old historic landmarks of Virginia and Maryland : described in a hand-book for the tourist over the Washington-Virginia railway > Part 15
USA > Virginia > Some old historic landmarks of Virginia and Maryland : described in a hand-book for the tourist over the Washington-Virginia railway > Part 15
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).
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INTERIOR OF THE HALL ..
Within, the house has the admirable features of the best of the Southern mansions of its time, the wide hall running across the entire breadth of the house, broken only by a fine broad staircase ascending at one side, and in this case relieved half way down it's length of' wall on either side by a carved panel reaching from floor to cornice, where they form themselves into two graceful arches, that meet in the centre of the ceiling in a drop in the form of a huge acorn carved in wood. From both sides. of the hall enter the chief rooms of the house, the doors curiously low in proportion to the heights of the walls, with deep panelled casements, and opening into four apartments of fine dimensions.
On the right of the main entrance is what is known as the Jefferson room, as here there is reason to believe that Thomas Jefferson consulted and talked over with his friend and settled many a question that is embodied in this country's laws, giving more than reasonable indorsement to the popular belief that in this room the American Declaration of Independence was practically framed. The room is at present modernly furnished with the elegant appointments of a lady's boudoir, being the sitting room of the daughter of the house, but its most prominent ornament withal is a fine bust of the third President of the United States.
HISTORIC WHITE PARLOR.
On the south side, and communicating with this room, is the handsomest apartment in the mansion, and is the room in which all affairs of especial ceremony took place. It has been alluded to as the White Parlor, taking the name from the ivory white woodwork in which it is finished. This woodwork is of particular note, being of a character in its elaborate hand carving and solidity that is not often reproduced today. However, the wood fitments of Gunston Hall are one of its notable features. George Mason brought over from England several workmen to erect, and decorate the woodwork throughout his house, and they spent three years in accomplishing the task. The two doors' in the white Parlor, its two large windows, and the recesses on either side of the big square open fire place are all incased in broad, fluted, square pilasters with frontal decorated after the chaste Doric designs. The heavy panelled doors are also finished with classic scrolls. A Northern architect visiting Gunston Hall not long since- fortunately it was not before the arrest of its decay-offered $3,000 -for the woodwork of this room, which he had an ardent desire to transfer to a colonial mansion he was erecting near Boston.
The plainer, though very handsome woodwork in wainscoting cornices, doors, mantel and window frames, and otherwise finishing of the mansion's stately dining room, situated across the hall from the White Parlor, has an appropriate finish of oak graining. As one sits at the characteristically hospitable board of Gunston Hall, thought irresistibly travels back to former guests who have been regaled in this room. They present an imposing array-the great Washington himself frequently came over from Mount Vernon, six miles away; Jefferson was a very frequent Gunston Hall guest; Adams, Madison, and Monroe, who was a political pupil of Mason; Randolph and Henry visited it; also the gallant La- fayette; and General Green, in fact, all the notable statesmen of the time were guests at one time or another of this "Solon and Cato," the law giver and the stern patriot of the age in which he lived.
The library, occupying the north front of the house, is again handsomely finished in dark, carved wood, with deep, glass inclosed alcoves in the east wall filled with shelving for books.
Ascending the beautiful stairway, with its graceful, hand-turned, mahogany balustrade, one is surprised to find on turning to the second flight, over the broad hallway at its head, a series of graceful arches sup- ported by square fluted pillars. A broad hallway runs from end to end on this floor between the rows of chambers on either side, each with its individual feature of quaintness and beauty. The room occupied by Lafayette when he visited Gunston Hall is that situated in the southwest corner, with two small gable windows gathering all the possible warmth from the late sun, and its dormer window commanding a fine view of the sloping lawns below and the peaceful Potomac in the near distance."
THE "PRINCETON" CATASTROPHE-BURSTING OF THE "PEACEMAKER."
On the 28th of February, 1844, a large party of ladies and gentlemen of Washington including President Tyler and the members of his Cabinet with their families, were in- vited by Commodore Stockton, of the navy, to pass the day on the frigate "Princeton" lying at anchor off the city of Alexandria. The day was fine and the company numer- ous and brilliant, not fewer than four hundred in number of whom the majority were
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ladies. After the arrival of the guests the "Princeton" got under way and proceeded down the river a short distance below Fort Washington. During the passage down, the largest gun of the vessel, the "Peacemaker," firing a ball of two hundred and twenty-five pounds, was fired several times to test its strength and capacity. The gun had been constructed from a model of, and under the immediate direction of the commodore, and Mr. Tyler had manifested a great interest in its success. At two p. m. the ladies of the party were invited to a sumptuous repast in the cabin. The gentle- men succeeded them at the table, and some of them had got through and left it. The ship was on her return to her anchorage, and when opposite Broad Bay, the commander proposed, for the special gratification of the President and his Cabinet, to fire the gun again, a salute, as he said, in honor of the "great peacemaker" of his country-George Washington. Accordingly, all the members of the Cabinet started to go upstairs, the President with them, but at that instant they were called back to hear a toast proposed by Miss Wickliffe. It was this: "The flag of the United States, the only thing Amer- ican that will bear a stripe." This was received with great enthusiasm. The Presi- dent in response then gave as a toast, "the three great guns,-the 'Princeton,' her com- mander, and his :Peacemaker.' This was loudly applauded by the ladies and then the members of the Cabinet started to go upstairs again. At this moment, Mr. Upshur, of Virginia, Secretary of State, had his hand on the President's arm and said to him, "Come, Mr. Tyler, let's go up and see the gun fired." Just then Colonel Dade asked Mr. Waller, the President's son-in-law, to sing an old song about 1776. The President replied, "No, by George, Upshur, I must stay and hear that song; it is an old favorite of mine. You go up, and I'll join you directly." Accordingly, away went Upshur, Gilmer, and the others to see the gun fired. Messrs. Benton, Phelps, Hannegan, Jarne- gan, Virgil Maxey, Commodore Kennon, Colonel Gardiner, and many others following. The President remained below, listening to the singing, and just as Mr. Waller came to the name of Washington, off went the gun. "There," said the master of ceremonies, "that's in honor of the name, and now for three cheers." And just as they were about to give them, a boatswain's mate rushed into the cabin begrimed with powder and said that the "big gun" had exploded and killed many of those on deck. On this announce- ment the shrieks and agonizing cries of the women were heart-rending,-all calling for their husbands, fathers, brothers, and so on, rushing wildly into their arms and fainting with the excess of feeling. When the gun was fired the whole ship shook, and a dense cloud of smoke enveloped the entire group on the forecastle, but when this blew away an awful scene presented itself to the spectator.
The lower part of the gun, from the trunnions to the breech, was blown off, and one half section of it was lying on Mr. Upshur. It took two sailors to remove it. Mr. Upshur was badly cut over the eye and on his legs; his clothes were literally torn from his body, he expired in about three minutes. Governor Gilmer of Virginia, was found to be equally badly injured. He had evidently been struck by the section of the gun before it had reached Mr. Upshur. Mr. Sykes, member of Congress from New Jersey, endeavored to raise him from the floor, but was unable. A mattress was brought for him, but he soon expired. Mr. Maxey, of Maryland, had his arms and one of his legs cut off, the pieces of flesh hanging to his mutilated limbs, cold and bloodless in a manner truly frightful. He died instantly. Mr. Gardiner, ex-member from New York, and Commodore Kennon, lingered about half an hour, unconscious, and expired with- out a groan. The flags of the Union were placed over the dead bodies as their wind- ing sheets. Behind the gun, the scene, though at first equally distressing, was less alarming. Commodore Stockton who was knocked down, rose to his feet and jumped on to the wooden carriage to survey the effects of the calamity. All the hair of his head and face was burned off. Judge Phelps, of Vermont, had his hat blown off. Nine seamen were seriously wounded and Colonel Benton and many others were stunned by the explosion. Such was the force of it that the starboard and larboard bulwarks of the ship were shattered and the gun blown into many pieces.
Judge Wilkins had taken his stand by the side of Governor Gilmer but some remarks falling from the lips of the latter, and perceiving that the gun was about to be fired he explained, "though Secretary of War, I don't like this firing, and believe that I shall
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run," so saying he retreated, suiting the action to the word, and escaped injury. The most heart-rending scene, however, was that which followed. The two daughters of Mr. Gardiner, of New York, were both on board and lamenting the death of their father while Mrs. Gilmer from whom they vainly attempted to keep the dreadful news of the death of her husband, presented truly a spectacle fit to be depicted by a tragedian. There she sat on deck, with hair dishevelled, pale as death, struggling with her feelings and with the dignity of a woman, her lips quivering, her eyes fixed and upturned, with- out a tear, soliloquizing, "Oh certainly not! Mr. Gilmer cannot be dead! Who could dare to injure him? Yes, O Lord have mercy upon me! O Lord, have mercy upon him!" And then, still more apparently calm and seeming to be collected, with the furies tearing her heart within, "I beseech you, gentlemen, to tell me where my husband is? Oh! impossible, impossible! can he, can he, can he be dead? Impossible!" Here Senator Rives of Virginia, drew near. "Come near, Mr. Rives," she said in a soft whisper, which resembled Ophelia's madness, "tell me where my husband is-tell me if he is dead. Now certainly, Mr. Rives, this is impossible." Mr. Rives stood speechless, the tears trickling down his cheeks. "I tell you Mr. Rives, it is impossible," she almost shrieked; and then again moderating her voice, "Now do tell his wife if her husband lives!" Here several ladies exclaimed, "God grant that she may be able to cry; it would relieve her-if not, she must die of a broken heart."
A daughter of Mr. Gardiner, one of the victims of the ill-fated party and to whom the President was paying attention, and who in the following June became his wife, gave the following relation a few years ago. "When we got down to the collation served in the cabin the President seated me at the head of the table with him and handed me a glass of champagne. My father was standing just back of my chair so I handed the glass over my shoulder, saying, 'Here, pa.' He did not take it but said 'My time will come.' He meant his 'time to be served,' but the words always seemed to me prophetic. That moment, some one called down to the President to come to see the last shot fired, but he replied that he could not go, as he was better engaged. My father started with some other gentlemen and left us. Just then we heard the report and the smoke began to come down the companion-way. 'Something must be wrong', said a bystander, who started to go and see. He got to the door then turned around and gave me such a look of horror, that I never shall forget it. That moment I heard some one say, 'The Secretary of State is dead.' I was frightened, of course, and tried to get upstairs. 'Something dreadful has happened,' I exclaimed. 'Let me go to my father!' I cried, but they kept me back. Some one told me that the gun had exploded, but that there was such a crowd around the scene it would be useless for me to try to get there. I said that my father was there, and that I must know if any evil had be- fallen him. Then they told me he had been wounded. That drove me frantic, I begged them to let me go and help him-that he loved me, and would want me near him. A lady, seeing my agony, said to me, 'My dear child, you can do no good; your father is in heaven.'"
The bodies of the victims of this dire calamity, which cast a gloom over the whole land, were taken up to the capital. Five hearses, conveying the remains of Messrs. Upshur, Gilmer, Kennon, Maxey, and Gardiner, followed by a long train of carriages and a great concourse of citizens, on horseback and afoot, passed in silence up Penn- sylvania Avenue and proceeded to the Executive Mansion. The coffins of the distin- guished dead were taken into the East Room and placed on biers to await the funeral solemnities which occurred on the Saturday following."
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2
0
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1699
OLD HISTORIC LETTERS.
What is the harvest they bring us, Flotsam of life and the years? Kissed by the dust in their sleeping Bathed in love's sunshine and tears.
The enthusiastic delver among old historic records now and then finds himself in the presence of veritable apparitions of personages whose faces are seen no more save as they look down through the limnings of the painter from their lonely places on the old ancestral walls, whose voices were silent long generations before the time of his earliest memories.
These are the apparitions: A bundle of letters, folded, tied and laid away, when and by whom, by what careful, loving hands no record tells us. They rise up from old trunks, boxes, barrels, and musty shelves, in dust-strown lofts and garrets. To sit down alone in the quiet and open these bundles of missives, faded and worn, sometimes in tat- ters and hardly decipherable, is like taking a long journey backward through the van- ished years, and holding pleasant communion with the dead, and learning somewhat of the lore of the times when they were living, moving actors on the world's wide stage. And we are glad to notice that an interest is at length being fostered among our people, though thousands of opportunities have already irretrievably passed away, for the bringing to light of such of these precious historic souvenirs as have escaped destruction and securing for them preservation from further liability to loss.
The societies of the Daughters and Sons of the Revolution have shown a zeal in this direction at once worthy of commendation and general emulation. Whatever relates to the trials, sacrifices, habits, manners and customs of the ancestors of the colonial days- whatever comes up to the surface in the course of more studious investigation to throw new and more ample light on their home and neighborhood life takes on additional interest and fascination for all classes of our people an interest that will increase as tlie widening years go on, and as patriotic impulses become more and more the incentives to action.
This letter taken from a bundle preserved with pious care through all the mutations of succeeding times, we open and read with feelings akin to awe. It is dated June 14th, 1723. It is to a correspondent in London and reads:
"WAKEFIELD, VIRGINIA.
Dear Brother-We have not a schoolmaster in our neighborhood until now in nearely twenty years.
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We have now a young minister living with us who was educated at Oxford, took orders and came over as assistant to Rev. Kemp, of Gloucester. That parish is too poor to keep both and he teaches school for his board. He teaches sister Susie and me and Madame Carter's boy and two, girls .; I am now learning pretty fast. Mamma and Susie and all send love to you and Mary."
The writer of this matter of fact epistle was no other than. Mary Ball, the young Virginia damsel at the age of seventeen, and who ten years later. was to find favor in the eyes of Augustine Washington, and become the mother of the future commander-in- chief of the Continental armies and the first President of the United States of America.
Not much is recorded of the youth and young womanhood of Mary Ball, daughter to Joseph Ball, son of Col. Wm. Ball who came to Virginia before 1669. "From her mother who died in 1728 after a widowhood of many years she had doubtless inherited the noble qualities of mind and heart, and had been taught all those domestic virtues of which contemporary testimony and tradition tell us. She was a bright exemplar of industry, frugality, strength of will and purpose, obedient to the behest of duty, faithfulness and modesty, and with deep religious convictions. Here is a letter from one of her friends which gives us a glimpse of her lovely girlhood:
"W'MSBURG, ye 7th of Oct, 1722.
Dear Sukey :- Madame Ball, of Lancaster, and Her Swect Molly have gone Hom. Mamma thinks Molly the Comliest Maiden She know. She is about 16 yrs old, is taller than Me, is very sensible, Modest and Loving. Her hair is like unto flax. Her eyes are the color of yours and her Cheeks are like May blossoms. I wish you could See Her."
Here is a letter or rather a note which has been handed down as an heirloom through many generations. The date is Wakefield, Va., 1733, one year after the birth of George Washington, and it is in the handwriting of his father; Captain Augustine Washington, who with Mary Ball, his wife, are going to make a visit very soon to some of their friends in the neighborhood of the Old Homestead. . They announce the time of their coming and their intention of bringing with them their "baby George." Through this brief note we get but a glimpse of far away events. Only the mere announcement of an afternoon or overnight friendly reunion. And this is all that will ever be known of the little social event thus briefly alluded to; but it is a glimpse which may be readily widened into charming views of all its unnoted details and circumstances, accordingly as rein is given to one's fancies. Doubtless the infant, in swaddling clothes on this neighborly expedition was everywhere hailed by kindred and friends with the usual exclamations of fondness and delight, but they did not perceive the brightness of his particular star hanging serenely in the heavens above and pointing to the future mis- sion and the career of great renown.
Here is a letter of great interest written to Mary Washington by her brother Joseph Ball on learning that there was some talk of entering her son George as a midshipman in the British navy.
STRATFORD BY BOW, LONDON, 19th May, 1747.
"DEAR SISTER: I understand that you are advised and have some thoughts of putting your son George to sea. I think he had better be put a prentice to a tinker, for a common sailor before the mast has by no means the common liberty of the subject; for they will press him from a ship where he has fifty shillings a month and make him take three-and-twenty, and cut and slash him like a negro, or rather like a dog. And as to any considerable preferment in the navy, it is not to be expected, there are so many always gaping for it here who have interest and he has none. And if he should get to be master of a Virginia ship (which will be very difficult to do) a planter that has three or four hundred acres and three or four slaves, if he be industrious, may leave his family in better bread than such a master of a ship can, and if the planter can get ever so little before hand let him begin to buy goods for tobacco and sell them again for tobacco, (I never knew them men miss while they went on so, but he must never pretend to buy for money and sell for tobacco. I never knew any of them but lost more than they got. He must not be too hasty to get rich, but go on gently and with patience as things will naturally go. This method, without aiming to be a fine gentleman before his time, will carry a man more comfortably and surely through the world than going to sea. I pray God keep you and yours. My wife and daughter join with me in love and respect to you and yours. Your loving brother,
Joseph Ball.".
Another letter is dated 1759, twenty-six years later. It is from Mary, the mother of George, to a relative in London. Her son is yet but little more than a boy, but he has been away from her for five years, exposed to privations and hardships untold in the
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warfare with the French and Indians on the wilderness borders, and pathetically relates o her correspondent how grievous and afflicting to her has been his absence. But now he is glad he is coming home.
And here is one of the messages she has received from her son George just after that disastrous battle of Braddock with the French and Indians on the Monongahela:
CAMP OF GREAT MEADOWS, July 14, 1755.
HONORED MADAME :- As I doubt not you have heard of our defeat, and perhaps have had it repre- ented in a worse light, if possible, than it deserves, I have taken the earliest opportunity to give an account of the engagement as it happened within seven miles of the French fort on Wednesday, the 9th inst. We narched on to that place without any considerable loss, losing now and then a straggler by the French and couting Indians. When we came there we were attacked by a body of French and Indians whose num- er I am certain did not exceed 300 men. Ours consisted of about 1,300 well armed troops, chiefly of he English soldiers who were struck with such a panic that they behaved with more cowardice than it is possible to conceive. The officers behaved gallantly in order to encourage the men, for which they suf- ered greatly, there being nearly 60 killed and wounded, a large proportion out of the number we had. The Virginia troops showed a great deal of bravery and were nearly all killed, for out of three companies here is scare 30 men left alive. Capt. Poulson shared a hard fate, for only one of his men was left. In hort, the dastardly behaviour of those they called regulars exposed all others that were inclined to heir duty to almost certain death, and at last in spite of all the efforts of the officers to the contrary they roke and ran as sheep pursued by dogs, and it was impossible to rally them. The general, Braddock, was wounded and died three days after. Sir Peter Halket was killed on the field where died many other rave officers. I luckily escaped without a wound, though I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me. Captains Orme and Morris, two of the general's aids-de-camp, were wounded arly in the engagement, which made the duty hard on me, as I was the only person left to distribute the general's orders, which I was scarcely able to do, as I was not half recovered from a violent spell of sick- less that confined me to my bed and wagon for above ten days. I am still in a weak and feeble condition which induces me to halt here two or three days, in the hopes of recovering a little strength to enable me o proceed homeward, from whence I fear I will not be able to stir until towards September. From your bedient Son, GEORGE WASHINGTON.
In July, 1760, Widow Washington writes to her brother Joseph in London as follows:
Dear Brother, this Coms by Captain Nickleson. You seem to blame me for not writeing to you butt I loe ashure you that it is Note for want for a very great regard for you and the family, butt as I don't hip tobacco the Captains never call on me, soe that I never know when tha com or when tha goe. I be- ieve you have got a very good overseer at this quarter now; Captain Newton has taken a large lease of ground from you which I Deare say, if you had been hear yourself, it had not been done. Mr. Daniel & his wife & family is well. Cozin Hannah has been married & lost her husband. She has only one child, boy. Pray give my love to Sister Ball & Mr. Bowmon, his son in law & his Lady & I am, Deare Brother, Your loving sister,
Mr. Joseph Ball, Esq., At Stratford by Bow, Nigh London.
MARY WASHINGTON.
"There is another letter extant, written by the same hand but feebler and more un- steady. It is to her son John Augustine, somewhere about the year 1781, when the ong struggle of the American Revolution was still pending and the independence of the hirteen colonies was not yet an assured fact. Her son George had been long away rom her again as commander-in-chief of the armies and again was exposed to great perils, and in the commotion and uncertainties of the times it was natural that the epistle of the good matron, now bowed with more than three score years and ten, and harrassed by many cares, should take the tinge of surrounding circumstances. She complains that the times are hard and that her estates are not yielding enough for her support, "that she is going fast, and is like an old almanack, out of date."
We must not omit an epistle traced by the hand of George Washington when at the age of sixteen he was surveying the wilderness lands of his patron Thomas, Lord Fair- fax, Baron of Cameron. His pen doubtless was a stray quill from an eagle or other wild bird-his table a fallen tree-his light a blazing pine fagot. It was written to one of his youthful companions, perhaps a schoolmate who had shared with him the rude aca- demic trainings of schoolmaster Hobby in Westmoreland.
DEAR RICHARD :- The receipt of your kind favor of the 2nd instant afforded me unspeakable pleasure, as I am convinced I am still in the memory of so worthy a friendship I shall ever be proud of increasing.
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You gave me the more pleasure as I received it amongst a parcel of barbarians and an uncouth set of people. The like favor often repeated would give me pleasure altho I seem to be in a place where no real satisfaction is to be had. Since you received my letter in October last I have not sleeped above three nights or four in a bed, but after walking a good deal all the day, lay down before the fire on a little hay, straw, fodder, or bearskin, which ever is to be had, with man, wife and children, like a parcel of dogs or cats, and happy is lie that gets the place nearest the fire. There's nothing would make all this tolerable, but a good reward of a doubleoon which is my constant reward every day that the weather will permit my going out, and sometimes six pistolcs. The coldness of the weather will not allow my making a long stay, as the lodging is rather too cold for the time of year. I have never had my clothes off, but lay and sleep in them like a negro except the few nights I have lain in Ferderic town.
G. WASHINGTON.
Two letters more and we will close our chapter. They were written by the Hon. William Fairfax, the founder of Belvoir, on the Potomac. In 1750, accompanied by his son-in-law, Major John Carlyle, of Alexandria, he made a voyage to England to visit such of his kinsmen and friends as were still living in the old neighborhoods of his boyhood. Years of close attention to private and public affairs in Virginia had been wearing upon him, and he needed rest. His faithful wife, Deborah, had passed away from his side three years before. His son, George William, and his wife and children were domiciled in the Belvoir home. The first of these letters is dated, White "Haven, England, July 6, 1750.
The second is dated London, October of the same year, and both are addressed to Lawrence Washington. In them he gives a description of their voyage and sea sick- ness, tells of the comfort they found in the plum cake with which they had been pro- vided by his daughter Anne, Lawrence's wife. He speaks of their remembrance of the Mount Vernon and Belvoir friends in their toast while envoyage, of their meeting with cordial friends after landing in old England, of transacting business connected with the tobacco trade, of their solicitude for the well and sick at home, and of the pleasure they had received from home letters; assures them that they will not forget their commissions for the purchase of tokens in London, and in concluding, indulges the hope that Lawrence Washington and his brother George will derive benefit from their visit to the springs.
A voyage across the Atlantic ocean to the Old World in those times was one of no small undertaking. It was an event of a life time. There were no vessels for passengers enclusively and the passage had to be made in the ships, brigs or schooners of com- merce, many of them but poorly provided with the conveniences and comforts. Some- times the voyager was fortunate if favoring gales filled his sails and he crossed over in four or five weeks, but oftener through storms or adverse winds or besetting calms the time was as many months, and generally the "freshest advices" chronicled by the gazettes of the day from England and the other countries "beyond the seas" were quite - old reading before they reached the firesides of the colonists.
The old letters-the worn and faded letters written by hands which have been dust long generation Now and then we take them from their places and read them over thoughtfully, as we have many tim __ before, and then how they open for our visions the dim vistas of the past. Far away we can see lonely dwellings, rude, ungarnished cabins, the outposts of civilization in the wilderness clearings, where in their ruddy firelights are gathered, groups of brave hopeful hearts, the makers and builders of the neighborhoods and states. There are fading sails on the rivers and bays; these outward bound with cargoes of tobacco and bearing letters-precious letters to the English friends in homes, three thousand miles away, some of them from brave, hopeful hearts with cheerful story of how their lots have been cast in pleasant places. . Some of them perchance from hearts less resolute; and repining because of besetting struggles and hardships in the new homes. And there are sails incoming, descried with joy and swelling hearts for the expected friends on board, for the long looked for messages and tokens and presents for the pioneers. Therss some of the shadowy throngings of the vistas which open to us when we unfold and read the faded 1, Let ours then be the kindly office of gathering and preserving such of them as still remain scattered they be not lost.
This searching and gathering and rescuing from destruction the faded and tattered waifs of hear, fingers of the long ago is purely a labor of love and kindly instincts we know, with no compensat dollars and cents and of a certainty there will be some who will put but little estimate upon our < and fail to appreciate our motives and solicitude, but there will be others, many others we doubt not will properly appreciate them and so, perhaps they shall not have been in vain.
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We want more facts concerning the old homesteads, the old families, the old churches, the old high ways, thic old manners and customs-more about the heroic sacrifices of the brave pioneers, the honored and worthy fathers and mothers who set the hearth stones and the altars along the bays and rivers and creeks and by the mountains in the new found wastes and planted the germs of civil and religious liberty over them all. We want to learn more about the sturdy Continentalers who sprang to arms and filled up the regiments when flying couriers brought tidings of Lexington to the plantations along the Pautuxent, the Potomac, tlic Rappahannock, and the James. We want more enthusiasm in the direction of preserving and restoring the old historic houses which are fast falling to ruins-more care to keep in order the but places. to reset the falling memorial stones, restore their fading inscriptions and keep up their inclosures.
. THE OLD GATEWAY OF MOUNT VERNON, AND LODGES.
Through this gateway in Washington's time was the only carriage road leading the Mansion of Mount Vernon. The road connected about one mile distant + west with the Old King's Highway from Williamsburg by Alexandria and the Shenandoah. It was a much traveled way and is still used, but the the great tide of travel which now sets in to the consecrated home is railway and Steamboats.
THE SWIFT SURE STAGE, STARTS FROM THE
GREEN
TREE
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Laxt
THE OLD VIRGINIA REEL
ctr
y sweet and very merry, very faint and far away, Now I hear the ancient fiddlers on the strings begin to play, Keeping time with swaying bodies and a kind of whispered croon Till a host of dainty slippers follow to the dear old tune.
Ah, the instruments are shattered and the strings are snapped in twain, And the fiddlers have forgotten and will never play again! 'Twas the creaking of the branches on the shingles to and fro That recalled to me the music and the mirth of long ago. But above the stars eternal in their faded pinks and blues, With the powder on their ringlets, and the buckles on their shoes I shall see the beaux and sweethearts in a long procession kneel And their harps will play the music of an old Virginia reel. Minnie Irving.
HECKMAN BINDERY INC. MAR 90 N. MANCHESTER, INDIANA 46962
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