USA > Virginia > Arlington County > Arlington County > Historic Arlington. A history of the National cemetery from its establishment to the present time > Part 3
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The house was a very old one, having been erected by the Alexanders in the early part of the 18th century, long before the old house at Mount Vernon had been thought of. Had it been treated by the Government with the respect which the antiquity of its origin merited it would be now one of the most interesting relics of the early history of the country. But the War Depart- ment had little more use for the old mansion as a relic than did Custis as a place of residence. It was with him but a temporary abode, and within a year of his leaving Mount Vernon he began the erection of the splendid "Arlington House," which, from its present condition, would seem to have been built for all time as a monument to its founder.
Mr. Custis, in selecting the site for his house, showed clearly his appreciation of the beautiful, and his artistic tastes and broad mental visions are manifest in the structure which he designed and erected.
The tall massive columns of the portico are designed from the most perfect type of Greek architecture, while the broad hallways and spacious chambers are indicative, even in their present dis- mantled condition, of wholesome comfort and homely elegance.
The house is modeled after the ancient Temple of Theseus at Athens, but in adopting this design Mr. Custis only followed a custom that prevailed throughout the South, and, indeed, in some parts of New England, in the early part of the century. In building his house, Mr. Custis, however, brought the style to a higher state of perfection than it had attained before, and
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"Arlington House " was known from the time of its erection till the breaking out of the war as the finest specimen of the landed proprietor's residence that could be found within the limits of the slave States.
It was built of brick, and stuccoed, and the material for its construction was produced on the grounds about it. Brick-yards were established on a portion of the estate, now part of Fort Myer, where the bricks were burned under Mr. Custis' own supervision.
Just about the time the Arlington Mansion was completed Mr. Custis married Mary Lee Fitzhugh, the daughter of Fitzhugh of Chatham, near Fredericksburg. He was then but twenty- three years of age, while his wife was but sixteen. He took his bride to Arlington at once, and there, for the next fifty years, they lived a life of the most delightful contentment, surrounded constantly by relatives and guests.
With the generous hospitality of a wealthy Virginia planter, Mr. Custis entertained lavishly. All the old revolutionary heroes were welcome guests at his board, while the distinguished men of a succeeding generation delighted in visiting the hospitable farmer.
Once comfortably settled with his bride in their new and mag- ficent home, Mr. Custis gave his attention to improving the agri- cultural methods of the time. In 1803 Col. David Humphreys returned from a mission to Spain, bringing with him one hundred fine-wooled Merino sheep.
Custis took a great interest in the matter of stock breeding and domestic manufactures, and he saw in the advent of the Merinos a promise of the opening, in America, of woolen cloth making. At that time all the cloth of this character used in the country was imported from England, and could only be obtained at con- siderable cost. The importance of the matter, because of the success of the manufacture of cotton cloth by the Southern States, was occupying then the thoughts of a number of public-spirited men.
To foster improvements in sheep and to encourage woolen manufacture at home, Mr. Custis, in 1803, called a convention of those interested in sheep husbandry and wool manufacture. It met at Arlington House and really marked the beginning of
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the woolen-manufacturing interests of the country. It is not known whether or not this convention recommended the impo- sition by Congress of a tariff on woolen goods, but from the views held at that time regarding, and the actual needs of, an infant in- dustry, it is presumed it did. The convention also led to the adoption by Mr. Custis of a custom which rendered his fine estate and himself famous throughout the country. He entered into sheep-raising with considerable ardor, and in succeeding years the annual sheep-shearing at Arlington Spring brought together from all parts of the country an assemblage of men interested in the industry, and others distinguished by their ability in public life. All were the guests of Mr. Custis, and the occasion became almost an annual festival.
The spring at which the gatherings took place was at the foot of a wooded slope, near the bank of the river and not far from where stood the old Alexander mansion. It was a pure and copious fountain, gushing out from the roots of a huge and vener- able oak tree, which doubtless stood there when the Indians of a former age came thither to slake their thirst. Around the spring a beautiful grassy lawn, shaded by a variety of trees, extended, affording a magnificent resort for such meetings. Mr. Custis always presided. Toasts were drunk, speeches were made, and prizes were awarded by Mr. Custis to the persons bringing, for purposes of exhibition, the finest specimens of sheep. Generally these ceremonies took place under the shelter of Washington's war tent, which was brought out for the occasion from among the treasured relics of the first President that Mr. Custis possessed.
The host usually made a stirring address, and in one of his speeches, delivered while wool manufactures were yet unknown in America, he said prophetically : " America shall be great and free and minister to her own wants by the employment of her own re- sources. The citizens of my country will proudly appear when clothed in the produce of their own native soil."
The efforts Mr. Custis was making in behalf of the sheep-rais- ing industry attracted general attention, and among his letters of that time we find several from James Madison, then Secretary of State, and afterwards President of the United States.
In one of these Mr. Custis is informed that Mr. Madison " of- fers for himself the thanks to which Mr. Custis is entitled from
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his fellow-citizens for his laudable and encouraging efforts to in- crease and improve an animal which contributes a material so precious to the independent comfort and prosperity of our coun- try. Mr. Madison wishes that Mr. Custis may be amply gratified in the success of his improving experiments, and that his patri- otic example may find as many followers as it merits."
In another letter on the same subject, Mr. Madison says : " It gives me pleasure to find your attention to this interesting subject does not relax, and that you are successfully inviting to it other public-spirited gentlemen."
In this matter, however, like in a good many others, Mr. Cus- tis understood the theory of sheep-raising and of arousing inter- est in the subject better than he did the practice. His own efforts met with very poor success. He established a large flock of Merinos on the hills of Arlington, but they were gradually killed off by thieves and dogs, until but two animals remained to show that Mr. Custis was still true to his principles.
The absence of the sheep somewhat interfered with the suc- cessful continuation of the annual sheep-shearing gatherings at the Custis spring and they were eventually abandoned.
Mr. Custis retained his interest in sheep-raising, however, and before his own flock became extinct he had the satisfaction of seeing the manufacture of American woolens grow into an impor- tant industry. He also maintained a broad and deep interest in all other agricultural pursuits, and for a great many years he was an active member and one of the vice-presidents of the American Agricultural Society.
When the war of 1812 occurred Mr. Custis served as a volun- teer to oppose the British when they entered Maryland and ascended the Potomac to attack the Capital. He fought in the battle of North Point as a private soldier. After the war he re- fused to accept any compensation for his services, but rendered assistance to his less wealthy companions in arms in prosecuting legitimate claims against the Government.
During these earlier years of the century Mr. Custis was widely known as the adopted child of George Washington, and as the character of that soldier and statesman was better understood and appreciated by the generation that succeeded his, as the years passed, Mr. Custis became more and more an object of re-
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spect and veneration. His own character, too, entitled him to the utmost consideration from his contemporaries. He was sought after as a public speaker ; invitations to his home at Arlington were coveted by the leading men of the time, and his friendship was cherished by all he bestowed it upon. Congress invited him to deliver an address to a joint assemblage of the two houses on the character of his foster-father, and everywhere he was accorded the utmost respect and consideration.
A number of Mr. Custis' speeches were preserved by his rela- tives, and they show him to have been a speaker of marked abil- ity and eloquence. An address he delivered on the death of General Lingan is still admired by readers, and another speech, which he delivered on the overthrow of Napoleon, called forth the most graceful acknowledgments from the representative of Russia at Washington, and from other foreign ministers.
When Lafayette revisited the United States in 1824, among his first visits was one to Mr. Custis. During Lafayette's exile from France, his son, George Washington Lafayette, had lived for a period of several months with Washington at Mount Vernon. There he had formed a strong attachment for young Custis, and the two renewed their friendship on this occasion with the utmost warmth. Lafayette spent much time with Mr. Custis, and en- riched, during his stay, the latter's fund of information concern- ing Washington, from his own reminiscences of his old com- mander. Together they visited the tomb of Washington, where, beside the last resting-place of the country's greatest hero, Mr. Custis presented the illustrious Frenchman with a ring, in which was some of the hair of the dead chieftain. The following ac- count of the visit was found by the authors in the files of the old National Intelligencer, and was published in that paper immedi- ately after the occurrence, on the 26th of October, 1824 :
" The solemn and imposing scene of the visit of Lafayette to the tomb of Washington took place on Sunday, the 17th of Octo- ber, 1824. About 1 o'clock the General left the steamboat Petersburg, at anchor off Mount Vernon, and was received into a barge manned and steered by captains of vessels from Alexandria,. who had handsomely volunteered their services for this interest- ing occasion. He was accompanied in the barge by his family and suite, and Mr. Secretary John C. Calhoun. On reaching the
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shores he was received by Mr. Lawrence Lewis, the nephew of Washington, and by the gentlemen of the family of Judge Bushrod Washington (the Judge himself being absent on official duties), and conducted to the ancient mansion, where, forty years before, Lafayette took the last leave of his 'hero, his friend, and our country's preserver.'
" After remaining a few minutes in the house the General pro- ceeded to the vault, supported by Mr. Lewis and the gentlemen relatives of the Judge, and accompanied by G. W. Lafayette and G. W. P. Custis, the children of Mt. Vernon, both having shared the paternal care of the great chief. Mr. Custis wore the ring sus- pended from a Cincinnati ribbon. Arrived at the sepulchre, after a pause, Mr. Custis addressed the General as follows :
* * *:
" The General, having received the ring, pressed it to his bosom and replied :
"' The feelings which at this awful moment oppress my heart do not leave the power of utterance. I can only thank you, my dear Custis, for your precious gift and pay a silent homage to the tomb of the greatest and best of men, my paternal friend.'
" The General affectionally embraced the donor and the other three gentlemen, and gazing intently on the receptacle of departed greatness, fervently pressed his lips to the door of the vault, while tears filled the furrows of the veteran's cheeks. The key was now applied to the lock, the door flew open and discovered the coffins strewn with flowers and with evergreens. The General descended the steps and kissed the leaden cells which contained the ashes of the great chief and his venerable consort, and then retired in an excess of feeling which language is too poor to describe. After partak- ing of refreshments at the house and making a slight tour of the grounds, the General returned to the shore. In descending the hill to the river the horses became restive. Some spirited young men rushed forward, removed them from the carriage and would have drawn the vehicle themselves. But this the General would not permit, and, alighting, he walked to the shore, a distance of about a quarter of a mile.
" Previous to re-embarkation, Mr. Custis presented the Cincin- nati ribbon, which had borne the ring to the vault, to Major Ewell, a veteran of the Revolution, requesting him to take part of it andl
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divide the remainder among the young men present, which was done, and a general struggle ensued for the smallest portion of it. The same barge conveyed the General to the Petersburg, the Marine Band playing, as before, a strain of solemn music. The vessel immediately proceeded on her voyage to Yorktown, Not a soul intruded upon the privacy of the visit to the tomb. Noth- ing occurred to disturb its reverential solemnity. The old oaks which grew around the sepulchre, touched with the mellow lustre of autumn, appeared rich and ripe as the autumnal honors of Lafayette. Not a murmur was heard save the strains of solemn music and the deep and measured sound of artillery, which awoke the echoes around the hallowed heights of Mount Vernon.
"'Tis done! The greatest and most affecting scene of the grand drama has closed, and the pilgrim who now repairs to the tomb of the Father of his Country will find its laurels moistened by the tears of Lafayette."
Mr. Custis never, as already intimated, cut much of a figure as a public man. Most of the public gatherings in which he took an active part, such as the sheep-raisers' convention, and kindred meetings, were held at Arlington, where he appeared more in the character of a host than of an individual endeavoring to affect public opinion or public events. He spent most of his time at home, and there he delighted to play the host to whoever came his way. He cared not whether the wayfarer that entered his .grounds was shabbily dressed, or arrayed in purple and fine linen. ·One was as welcome as the other, and neither was allowed to de- part until he had feasted with his host and pledged his health in a glass of something invigorating. Prohibitionists were scarce in those days, although temperance was the rule and not the excep- tion among the better classes, so that Mr. Custis' kindly enter- tainment of the stranger at his gates did not call forth the storm of public condemnation that it would now. But indeed Custis would have cared little if it had. In his home life he cared about as much for what his neighbors and the good gossips among them might say concerning him as did the early American savages for the tracts sent them by the well-intending missionary societies of the mother country.
He had very well-defined principles of his own, and if he lived up to them he was satisfied. It was one of his customs to attend
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the inauguration of each succeeding President from the time of Washington until 1857. But except when some such state occa- sion took him to the Capital his visits to Washington were not. frequent. After the visit of Lafayette his public appearances be- came few and far between. He was then a middle-aged man, and his home life, surrounded as it was with so much that brought to him recollections of a glorious past, was all that he desired.
He was at this time a sturdy man, though slightly built. The promise of personal beauty which his early youth had given was not exactly fulfilled in his maturer years. His features were sharp and irregular, his nose long and thin, his forehead low and receding, his hair was light and thin, and in after years his head was bald. A firmly set mouth and a well-rounded chin were his best features, and indicated a firmness of character which his light- blue and rather weak eyes seemed to contradict. His cheeks were slightly sunken and gave to his face a somewhat cadaverous ap- pearance, which was hardly improved by the thin side-whiskers he wore. He was careless with his dress, and the visitor to Arlington was often surprised at the shabby-appearing gentleman who ap- peared to welcome him to so splendid a mansion.
Mr. Custis was a great hunter, and in his out-of-doors life he was generally accompanied by his gun and his dogs. There was plenty of game on the Arlington hills, and Mr. Custis combined the work of superintending the operations of his numerous slaves with the pleasure of hunting. He was a good shot and tireless
when in pursuit of game. None of the younger men, in fact, could keep pace with him, and he often amused himself, when hunting with a party of his guests, by tiring them all out, though most of them were his juniors by a number of years. On these occasions, and they were generally such as remained in the mem- ories of those who participated in the expeditions as very pleasant. recollections, the day generally wound up with a banquet at the house of the host and an evening of delightful gaiety. When the company would assemble around the banquet table, Mr. Custis delighted in making merry over the fatigue experienced by his guests during the day. He would pretend that he himself was but a shadow of his former self, and would relate stories of his- early youth, and of the prowess of the men that won the revolu- tionary battles, that made his guests smile incredulously. Of
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course, none of this good-natured raillery was meant by the genial host, and as his guests recognized its insincerity they laughed with him at their own expense and discomfiture.
Mr. Custis at this time conducted his estates on a system that was almost like the governing of a small principality. The Arlington estate was his home, and upon it he did very little farming for profit. His income he derived from what he called his farms in Westmoreland county. The Arlington estate was simply his private grounds, and its cultivation at all was for the purpose of providing for the numerous slaves that he kept about him. In his treatment of his negroes, Mr. Custis was as consid- erate as he was regarding any other class of human beings, and the glaring evils of slavery were never apparent upon his property. Each slave had a house apportioned him, and a bit of ground, the produce of which he owned as securely as if his title to the land he occupied was duly recorded in the records of the county courts.
The slaves were of course compelled to give a good portion of their time to the master's service, but their work was not hard and they were liberally provided for in decrepit old age as well as in sturdy youth. Mr. Custis also respected the domestic rela- tions of the negroes, and the separation of mothers from their children and of wives from their husbands was a practice in which he never indulged himself, and which he abhorred in others. As a result his slaves were devoted to him. He was not only a kind master, bat was their friend, and delighted as much in joking with them, and in making harmless fun of them, as he did in the conversations of his neighbors. Active both in mental and physical exercise, Mr. Custis' out-door life at Arling- ton was at once to him a source of pleasurable recreation and of physical health and vigor.
His in-door life was equally admirable. To judge of the home he occupied, one must picture the now bare and desolate rooms of the fine old mansion filled with the handsome furniture of a hundred years ago, the walls resplendent with art treasures, and the whole house glowing with life and comfort. Through the open windows the scent of flowers is wafted in on the summer breezes. Flowers grace the tables and ornament the mantelpieces, and on every side are evidences of wealth, culture, and house-
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wifely taste. The rooms are filled with Mr. Custis' guests, and bustling about, in obedience to instructions given, are numerous black-faced servants, all neatly dressed, and all proud of the master they serve. The central figure in this goodly assemblage is the host, courteous and considerate to all. His anecdotes are the best that are told, his views on all topics are listened to with respect, and his regard is desired by everyone about him.
Mr. Custis' home life was not constantly spent, however, in en- tertaining his guests. He had his hours for work, and spent them in his library, where he engaged himself either with his incom- pleted literary efforts or with his attempted reproductions in oil of revolutionary scenes and figures. He read a great deal, but his reading was done generally at times when Arlington was de- serted by guests. When there were people about to enjoy them- selves Mr. Custis preferred being among them, and really got. more enjoyment out of the pleasures of others than he did from any other source of amusement.
About the famous Arlington spring he constructed several build- ings, among others a big kitchen and dining-room and a dancing pavilion, and these, with the beautiful grounds about them, he threw open to the picnic parties from Washington, Georgetown, and the country around. He built a wharf out into the river, and induced a small steamer, called the G. W. P. Custis, to make sev- eral trips daily to the spring.
The spring at once became the most attractive spot in that section of the country, and a throng of people visited it daily. No intoxicating liquors were permitted on the premises, but, ex- cept in this particular, the visitors were entirely free from re- straint, and could go and come as they pleased. All Mr. Custis asked in return for his hospitality was the observance by his guests of the moral principles he upheld himself and a reciproca- tion of the kindly feeling that animated him.
Every day during the pleasant weather Mr. Custis joined the merry-makers at the spring and frequently joined in the games of the children and the youthful people. Often he took with him his violin-for, with his other accomplishments, Mr. Custis was also something of a musician-and never were the dances so en- joyed or the fun gayer than when the host furnished the music with his own bow.
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These gatherings continued during every summer from the time of their commencement to the death of Mr. Custis, in 1857, and their popularity constantly increased. After Mr. Custis' death they ceased, the spring was abandoned, and now no vestige of the green lawns that were the scenes of former gayety can be found. The spring remains, but it is overgrown with bushes and weeds and is seldom approached, even by the negroes living in its vicin- ity. The river, too, has filled up at this point, and where once was navigable water is now but a marsh, covered thickly over with a luxuriant growth of marsh grass and rushes.
The arrangement of the Custis house was as excellent as the regulations that ruled the life of its owner. A broad hallway runs through the centre of it, and upon this opened the rooms on either side. To the right, as you enter the building, was the large din- ning-room, with the butler's pantry in the rear. Across the hall were two large rooms used as parlors and sitting-rooms, and at the end of that wing of the building was Mr. Custis' library and study. A long, low wing that extends for forty or fifty feet to the right of the mansion was occupied by Mrs. Custis and her daughter. There they had their private sitting-rooms, their sewing-rooms and other apartments that make a home pleasant and comfortable to women. The sleeping apartments were all on the upper floors and they were large rooms, well lighted and ventilated by the large and numerous windows. The kitchen and quarters for the house servants were detached from the house, and were located in the two brick and stuccoed buildings, then, as now, at the end of the dwelling.
But the feature of Mr. Custis' house, in which he took great pride himself and which never failed to impress the visitor, was the collection of relics, both of Washington, and the ancestors of the Custis family, who preceded him. Of these relics, the por- traits he possessed were first in the matter of interest. They represented better than anything else could the men and women of the past and gave a clearer idea of their appearance thian could have been obtained without their aid.
One of the finest of these portraits was that of Col. Daniel Parke, painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller. It represented the gal- lant Colonel in a very rich court dress, and showed the medallion portrait of Queen Anne, which had been presented to Col. Parke
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