Part 1 (1/2)

As I Remember

by Marian Gouverneur

PREFACE

The raes ritten at the urgent request ofotherwise lonely hours The idea of their publication was highly distasteful to me until the often repeated iment commands my respect persuaded me that some of the facts and incidents I have recalled would prove of interest to a large circle of readers The narrative is concerned with persons and events that have interested thy life

I have been deeply iht by time in the modes of education, which are now so much at variance with those of my childhood, and in the led

I should be guilty of an act of grave injustice if I failed to express ments for the aid so unselfishly rendered, in a score of ways, by hter, Mrs Roswell Randall Hoes, without which these pages would not, and could not, have been written

M GOUVERNEUR

AS I REMEMBER

CHAPTER I

EARLY LONG ISLAND DAYS

I do not know of a spot where, had I been accorded the selection, I should have preferred first to see the light of day, nor one s of senti Island, NY, where I was born My home was in Queens County, on the old Rockaway Road, and often in childhood during storms at sea I have heard the waves dash upon the Rockaway beach Two e of Jalie old-fashi+oned house on a farm of many acres, ornamented by Lombardy poplars which stood on each side of the driveway, a fashi+on introduced into this country by Lafayette My randfather, Captain John Hazard, who had co the Revolution, purchased the place from ”Citizen” Edmond Charles Genet, the first Minister of France to the United States, and I have the old parch the War of the Revolution e B Rodney, and I have often heard my mother tell the story she received from his lips, to the effect that after he was ”comfortably housed in irons” on Rodney's shi+p he overheard a conversation in which his name was frequently mentioned The subject under discussion was the form of punishment he deserved, and the cheerful re the damned rebel” This incident made an indelible impression upon my mother's memory, which was emphasized by the fact that her father bore the scars of those irons to the day of his death

I have no recollection of my Grandfather Hazard, as he died soon after lish cause during the Revolution This was possibly due to the influences of an English mother, whose maiden name was Sarah Owen, of Shropshi+re I have heard randmother was a descendant of Dr John Owen, Chaplain of Oliver Cro the Owen coat of arms is still in the possession of a ed his name to Carr, and soon rose to the rank of Post-Captain He eventually drifted back to A Islandthat history repeats itself is here forcibly illustrated by brother fighting against brother It brings tothe Civil War, which can never be effaced from memory

Much of the furniture of randfather took possession of the house and farht it with hiany, are still in my possession A bedstead which I still occupy has been said to be the first of its design brought fro in ence and Dissipation,” after Hogarth, and also a handsome old print of the Savior in the Pharisee's House, all of which were purchased at the same time Two alabaster ornaments are memories ofa shadow that formed a likeness of Louis XVI

My Grandfather Hazard hadof one of thee and pair of horses, and, hen called to account for the act, threatenedfrom a severe indisposition, ran out of the house for succor The slave was taken into custody, and was eventually sent South and sold So theeny who lived not far from us in a hut in the woods on the Hazard estate In subsequent years I heard e in the family connection, that when ”Cuff” and ”Sary” were yman five dollars for his services

Cuff was an old-fashi+oned, festive negro born in this country, and with the firm belief that existence was bestowed upon hienius for discovering holidays, and added many to the calendar that were new to iven a task to accomplish, he would announce that he could not work upon that day as it was ”Paas Monday,” or ”Paas Tuesday,” and so on, continuing as the case required, through the week He had supreers,” a term he applied to those of his race who came directly from Africa, in contradistinction to those who had been born in this country One of Cuff's predecessors in the Hazard fainal deed of his purchase from Hendrick Suydam, dated April 28th, 1807 The price paid o hundred dollars

In the village of Jamaica was a well known academy where my mother received the early part of her education One of her preceptors there was the Hon Luther Bradish, who some years later became Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York, and who at the time of his death was president of the New York Historical Society Her education was continued at Miss Sarah Pierce's school in Litchfield, Connecticut, one of the most fashi+onable educational institutions of that period I have heard my mother say that, accompanied by her father, she made the journey to Litchfield in a chariot, the na before there was any rail communication with that place In close proxie Jareat social resource to Miss Pierce's scholars This institution was patronized bymy mother's tio a history of the school was published, and a copy of the book was loaned ton, whose randfather was the celebrated Oliver Wolcott of Connecticut After e, she andthe Jackson cah that a prominent physician of the place reood faith, that Jackson could not possibly be elected President as he would receive no support from Litchfield

In Ja, our ton and twenty years later a candidate for the presidency His son, Charles King, was the beloved President of Colu students hold hisfae_ of fine old trees It eventually passed into other hands, and a few years ago the entire property was generously donated by the Daughters of the American Revolution to the town of Jarandfather, Captain John Hazard, was about fifty years old at the tirandmother, Miss Leupp, of New Jersey, who died soon after, leaving an only child, my mother A few years later he married Lydia Blackwell at her home on Blackwell's Island, which her father, Jacob Blackwell, had inherited from his father, Jacob Blackwell, the son of Robert Blackwell, as the progenitor of the faave his name to the island upon which he resided

Several years later Captain Hazard was heard to remark that matrimony was a lottery, and that he had drao prizes I have in randfather previous to their ive it in full:

Miss Blackwell's compliments to Captain Hazard and desires to kno he does--and if well enough will be glad to see hi of consequence to communicate and is sorry to hear that he has been so much indisposed as to deprive his friends of the pleasure of his coht--May you enjoy every happiness this imperfect estate affords is the sincere wish of your friend,

L B

Let me see you on Sunday

Burn this

Captain Hazard brought his new bride to the old home on the Rockaway Road where I was subsequently born, and she i my mother, as then but little rew and thrived, and never knew until she was a good-sized girl that the woly nurtured her was only a step-mother She learned the fact froe for so; and I shall always re all the time that the cruel story was untrue, only to have it confirmed by the lips of the woman who had been as affectionate and unselfish as any mother could possibly have been to her own child In subsequent years, when athered her own children around her, she held her step-mother up to us as the embodiment of all female virtue and excellence, all of which is confirmed by my own recollection of her remarkable character and exe us lived a crusty old bachelor by the name of Martin, who in his earlier life had been professionally associated with Aaron Burr No hu was allowed to cross his threshold, but I recall that years after his death I saw a large quantity of silver which he had inherited, and which bore a martin for a crest He was a terror to all the children in our vicinity, and it was his habit to walk on the neighboring roads clad in a dressing gown More than once as I passed hiative, ”Are you Nancy Hazard's brat?”--a query that invariably prompted me to quickenwhich was an obstreperous bull whose stentorian tones were fa places When the children of our household were turbulent my !” This invariably had a soothing effect upon the children, and strange to say this trivial incident has descended areat-grandchildren are as familiar with ”Martin's bull” as my sisters and brothers and I were in our own childhood