Part 17 (2/2)

I regret to hear your father is unwell at Barnu to see him

Believe me always your friend,

LOUISA VERPLANCK

I also append a letter received by Mr Gouverneur froaret Chatham Seth), which recalled many tender associations

NEW YORK 11th April

I need not tell you, ratified by your kind remeive us the first news of our dear Marian's safety Give my very best love to her and a kiss to Miss Gouverneur hom I hope to be better acquainted hereafter

Mr and Mrs Nourse with our dear little Charlie left us yesterday for Washi+ngton You will probably see them before you receive this I feel assured that Marian is blessed in being with her mother who has every experience necessary for her Therefore it is idle for ive my advice but I must say, keep her quiet, not to be too smart or anxious to show her baby--at first--and she will be better able to do it afterwards May God bless you all three and that this dear pledge coe be to you both every coive hter from

your sincerely attached friend and cousin,

M C KEMBLE

On the corner of Fourteenth and P Streets, and not far froman, an intimate friend of Mr

Gouverneur's father This locality, now such a business center, was decidedly rural, and Mr Kingman's quaint and old-fashi+oned house was in theand the interior waswhich was a large collection of Indian relics After his death I attended an auction held in the old home and I remember that these curiosities were purchased by Ben Perley Poore, the well-known journalist Although reat pleasure to him, and he formed an attachh life The Kingman house was the rendezvous of both literary and political circles

William H Seas one of its frequent visitors and I once heard hiht appropriately be worshi+ped, as it rese ”that is in the Heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or the water under the earth” For a numan was a correspondent of _The Baltimore Sun_ under the _nom de plume_ of ”Ion”

His communications were entirely confined to political topics and he was such a skilled diplo thenize him as their own advocate Thomas Seaton Donoho, of who his poeraceful sonnet entitled

E KINGMAN

Ever will I reht Strawberry Knoll; not for the berries red, As, ere one; but ument to love it well, Whether in Suic wand arrayed, Or when in Winter's lap the rose leaves fell, For pleasant faces ever there were found, For genial welcoht went s thine, more fair

Those who have known thee as a Stateslow!

Mr Kinginia, a relative of General Richard S Ewell of the Confederate Army She was in some respects a remarkable character, a ”dyed-in-the-wool” Southerner and a woman of unusual personal chareneral appearance she presented a fitting reo Her style of dress reoith a white kerchief crossed neatly upon her breast and her gray hair with puffs clustered around her ears, together with her quaint ested the fa of an old-fashi+oned picture She was an accomplished perforlish literature In all the years I knew her I never heard of her leaving her house She had no children and her constant coe, fae, was an intiuest of ours He was an Irish patriot of 1848 and was remarkable for his versatility He had a fine voice, and I re hi ”The Temptation of St Anthony” He was an accomplished journalist and the author of several books, one of which, ”The Modern Revolutionary History and Literature of Ireland,” has been pronounced the best work extant ”on the last great revolutionary era of the Irish race”

After the Civil War I often ift of sarcasm is still remembered Simon Cameron, Lincoln's first Secretary of War, was also a frequent visitor there He was an unusually genial and cordial gentleent invitation, visited him at his handsoraperies made such a vivid impression upon my husband that his description of them almost enabled me to see the luscious fruit itself before e, USN, and his wife, lived on the corner of K and Fourteenth Streets at a hotel then known as the Rugby House Mrs Bridge was a sister of the famous beauty, Miss Emily Marshall, who e, while on the active list, had been stationed for a tienial and attractive, returned here after his retireby House While there the hotel was offered for sale and was bought by Mr Bridge, who enlarged it and changed its name to The Hamilton, in compliment to Mrs

Hahter of Alexander Hamilton Mrs Holly, e on I Street, on the site of the present Russian ehter of Benjamin F

Tracy, Harrison's Secretary of the Navy, lost their lives in a fire that destroyed the house A the attractions of this home was a remarkable collection of Hamilton relics which subsequent to Mrs Holly's death was sold at public auction The sale, however, did not attract any particular attention, as the craze for antiques had not yet developed and the souvenir fiend was then unknown

It hile I was living on Twelfth Street that I first aret Edes, so well known in after years to Washi+ngtonians She was visiting her relatives, the Donoho family, which lived in my immediate vicinity Her host's father was connected with _The National Intelligencer_, and the son, Thomas Seaton Donoho, was named after William Winston Seaton, one of its editors Tho character He was decidedly romantic in his ideas and many incidents of his life were curiously associated with the ivy vine

He planted a sprig of it in front of his three-story house, which was built very hborhood, and called his abode ”Ivy Hall”; while his property in the vicinity of Washi+ngton he named ”Ivy City,” a locality so well known to-day by the sa fraternity His book of poeton in 1860, is entitled ”Ivy-wall”; and, to cap the cliirl was born into the Donoho family she was baptized in mid-ocean as ”Atlantic May Ivy” In addition to his poems, he published, in 1850, a drama in three acts, entitled, ”Goldsedy in five acts

Soon after e, Mr Gouverneur acted as one of the pallbearers at the funeral of his early friend, Gales Seaton, the son of William Winston Seaton, and a most accomplished man of affairs In those days honorary pallbearers were unknown and the coffin was borne to the grave by those hom the deceased had been most intimately associated The Seatons owned a family vault, and the body was carried down into it by Mr Seaton's old friends After the funeral I heard Mr Gouverneur speak of observing a coffin which held the remains of Mrs Francis Schroeder, as Miss Caroline Seaton, and whose husband, the father of Rear Admiral Seaton Schroeder, USN, was at one time US Minister to Sweden and Norway Seaton Munroe, a nephew of Gales Seaton, was proton society He never arded him as the Ward McAllister of the Capital When Colonel Sanford C Kellogg, USA, then military _attache_ of the US Embassy in Paris, heard of Munroe's death, he wrote to a mutual friend: ”I do not believe the man lives who has done more for the happiness and welfare of others than Seaton Munroe” He was one of the prominent founders of the Metropolitan Club, which commenced its career in the old Morris house on the corner of Vermont Avenue and H Street; and later, when it moved to the Graham residence on the corner of Fifteenth and H Streets, he continued to be one of its most popular and influential members

In April, 1858, occurred the fatonians It was a fancy-dress affair, and it was the intention of Senator and Mrs William McKendree Gwin of California that it should be the most brilliant of its kind that the National Capital had ever known Of course Mr Gouverneur and I did not attend, owing to , but I shall always re Mr Kingman for the occasion We decked hirandfather, Ja his diplomatic mission in France As luck would have it the suit fitted hi to us as to Mr Kingman to hear that the costuhtly adjudged a brilliant success Ah not, of course, in fancy dress Senator Gwin represented Louis Quatorze; Ben Perley Poore, ”Major Jack Downing”; Lord Napier, George Hammond--the first British Minister to the United States; Mrs Stephen A Douglas, Aurora; Mrs Jefferson Davis, Madame de Stael; and so on down the list It is probable that the wife of Senator Cleton, attracted more attention and afforded uest