Part 23 (2/2)
Gouverneur had known the General--”Ned” Beale, as he was usually called--in other days and I soon derived much pleasure from Mrs Beale's acquaintance She was a wo and was especially qualified torequirements of the most exclusive society The household was rendered additionally brilliant by her two daughters, both of ere then un vivacity of the elder, Miss Mary Beale, who subsequently became Madame Bakhmeteff of Russia, is easily recalled; while her sister, now Mrs
John R McLean, is so well known in Washi+ngton and elsewhere as to render quite superfluous any atte qualities Their home was a social rendezvous, and I especially recall an entertainment I attended there when I met many social celebrities
General Beale had collected numerous relics of early California which seemed peculiarly adapted to the historic hly polished floors, the e of society folk in their ”best bibs and tuckers,” presented a scene which is not readily effaced fro were General Ambrose E
Burnside, whom I had known as a cadet at West Point, and my old friend, Captain (afterwards General) Richard Tyldin Auchmuty of New York, who since I had last seen hiiven in honor of the then young but gifted tragedian, John E McCullough, hom the Beale family had formed a friendshi+p in the far west
FOOTNOTES:
[3] My youngest daughter, Rose de Chine Gouverneur, and Chaplain Roswell Randall Hoes, USN, were ton on the 5th of December, 1888
CHAPTER XV
TO THE PRESENT DAY
Shortly after our return to Washi+ngton we received an invitation to a party at the house of Mr and Mrs William A Richardson, the former Secretary of the Treasury in Grant's cabinet In my busy life I have never seearies of fashi+onable attire Although as a woman I cannot say that I have been wholly averse to array arments, they were always matters of secondary consideration with ht My indifference now confronted me, however, with the query as to what I should wear upon this particular occasion, and I was compelled, as merchants say, ”to take account of stock,” especially as ownin Frederick I did pretty ard to dress, I realized that in Washi+ngton, willing or unwilling, I ht be compelled to do, to a certain extent, what other people pleased; but such demands have their reasonable linore the dictates of fashi+onable sentiinality on ly decided to wear a handsoeneration before--a light, blue silk with its many flounces embroidered in straw in imitation of sheaves of wheat In forloves which were laced at the side--a Parisian fancy of the day, a pattern of which had been sent me by Mrs Schuyler Hamilton These also I concluded to ith the antiquated dress; and thus arrayed I attended the party and had a thoroughly good ti, as a matter of course, that the incident was closed The _New York Graphic_, however, seeed me into its columns in an article which was subsequently copied into other papers Although at first I felt sorined, upon further consideration I was inclined to be pleased, at least with that part of the narrative thatallusion tothe ladies frequently seen in society this winter is Mrs Marian Cahter of the late James Campbell of New York and the wife of Sarandson of ex-President Jaant lady of pleasingvivacity and possesses a fund of hu inforreat deal and seen much of the fashi+onable world Mr Gouverneur's mother was le--that is to say, on the carpet of which that very elastic bird ure Suppose Miss Nellie Grant, of whose engageton talks so loud and this city appears to know nothing, should take it into her head to be le, the public, stretch its wings and utter a prolonged shriek? Now I ask you candidly, have we retrograded in matters of taste or become less loyal to the true spirit of our Republican institutions? Mrs Gouverneur has the most wonderful collection of American and Asiatic antiques She favors antique styles, even in matters of the toilet, and at a party last week had her dress looped with the ornaments which formed part of Mr Monroe's court dress when Minister to France She also wore black velvet mittens of that date
Whilein Paris with her son and daughter, her home on the corner of H and Fourteenth Streets was occupied by Ward Hunt and his wife of Utica Judge Hunt had recently been appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court, and I immediately renewed my associations of former days with his family Next door to the Hunts lived Mr and Mrs titian J Coffey, the former of whom had accompanied ex-Governor Andrew G Curtin of Pennsylvania upon hisresidence, the old ”Hill house,” was the home of Mr
and Mrs James C Kennedy, the latter of as Miss Julia Rathbone of Albany Their hospitality was lavish until the death of Mr Kennedy, when hisreturned to Albany where a few years later she married Bishop Thomas Alfred Starkey of New Jersey Mrs Robert Shaw Oliver, wife of the present efficient assistant Secretary of War, is her niece
After Mrs Kennedy left Washi+ngton, Mr and Mrs Robert Elkin Neil of Coluhter, Mrs William Wilberforce Williae ed to the Sullivant family of Ohio whose women were remarkable for their beauty The wife of William Dennison, one of the District Cohter, Miss Jenny Dennison, was one of the belles of the Hayes administration There were so many representatives of the ”Buckeye State” at that titon that someone facetiously spoke of the city as the ”United States of Ohio” Mr and Mrs Matthew W Galt, parents of Mrs Reginald Fendall, lived in the next house in the H Street block, while adjoining them resided Colonel and Mrs James G Berret I knew Colonel Berret very well Nature had been very lavish in her gifts to hiacity and fine personal appearance It was his frequent boast, however, that through force of circu,” but he took advantage of his subsequent opportunities and became an efficient ton, while a princeaddress He sold his attractive ho of the US Supreme Court, ith his family resided in it for many years and then moved into a house on I Street, near Fifteenth Street, which in late years has been remodeled and is now the spacious residence of Mr Charles Henry Butler
Directly across the street and in the middle of the block, between Fourteenth and Fifteenth Streets, lived Colonel and Mrs John F Lee
This is a house which I link withassociations Mrs Lee, whoton's oldest fae County in Maryland She was a deeply religious woave me _carte blanche_ to drop in for an infore of which I occasionally availed raduate of West Point, but at the beginning of the Civil War resigned his commission His brother, Samuel Phillips Lee, however, as then a Commander in the Navy, remained in the service and eventually beca so widely in their political views, the two brothers were respected and beloved by their associates, and never allowed their opinions upon matters of state to interfere with their fraternal affection The only daughter of Colonel Lee, Mrs Henry Harrison, usually spends her winters in Washi+ngton
Next door to the Lees on the east lived Senator and Mrs Zachariah Chandler, the parents of Mrs Eugene Hale; while still further down the street was the residence of Doctor Willia and father of Mr James M Johnston and Miss Mary B Johnston, the latter of whotonians of which I enjoy the honor of being a member It is at her hoed feho are anization meet once eachto earlier Washi+ngton and to discuss persons and events connected with its history The insignia of the society is an orange ribbon bearing the words inscribed in black: ”Should auld acquaintance be forgot?” A proanization is Mrs
Anna Harris Eastman,of Cohter of the beloved physician, the late Medical Director Charles Duval Maxwell, USN
In the opinion of tonians no history of the District of Coluhlands, the hoone by I remember that this ivy-covered stone house was deemed inaccessible, as it was reached only by private conveyance or stage coach The first tiinedin the colonial period, as the furniture was entirely of that time When I first knew Mrs Nourse, as Miss Rebecca Morris of Philadelphia, theof Charles Josephus Nourse, she was advanced in life, but notwithstanding the infir, and was filling orders the proceeds of which she gave in aid of St
Alban's which was then a country parish I frequently passed a day at this ancestral ho a wonderful Elizabethan clock in the hallhich I a the hours in the hohlands is Rosedale, occupied for many years by the descendants of General Uriah Forrest, who built it subsequent to 1782 He was the intiton, and its present occupant, Mrs
Louisa Key Norton, daughter of John Green andof John Hatley Norton of Richmond, iswith her grandfather, General Forrest, Washi+ngton walked out upon the portico and, lost in admiration of the beautiful view, exclaimed: ”There is the site of the Federal City” Mrs Norton's sister, Miss Alice Green, elo de Yturbide, and it was their son, Prince Augustine de Yturbide, as adopted by the E local features connected with the Grant administration, which at the time made no special impression upon me, was the fact that there were then but few, if any, social cliques in Washi+ngton, and that society-going people constituted practically one large fa to the Capital at that time and properly introduced was much more cordially received than now Such, for example, was the condition of affairs when Mr and Mrs Alexander Jeffrey caton to spend a winter They rented the old Pleasanton house on Twenty-first Street below F Street and entertained with true Southern hospitality The Jeffrey family was of Scotch extraction and Mrs
Jeffrey was Miss Rosa Vertner of Kentucky, where she was favorably known as a poetess The first wife of Alexander Jeffrey was Miss Delia W
Granger, a sister ofAs soon as they were settled in their ho entertainment which Mr Gouverneur and I attended Wethere a nuton--aetown and her sister, Mrs Hamilton Smith; Mrs William E Dudley; and Wickliffe Preston and his sister, a decided blonde ore a becohter, Octavia Walton Le Vert, were also there and it is with genuine pleasure I recall the unusual vivacity of the forifted woman was a pronounced belle from Alabama and had passed much of her life in Italy, where she hadher absence abroad the ravages of our Civil War made serious inroads upon her financial circuton at the period of which I aave a series of lectures upon Mr and Mrs Robert Browning in Willard's Hall on F Street They received the endorsement of fashi+onable society and, at the conclusion of her last appearance, Albert Pike, the later apostle of Freemasonry, offered as an additional attraction a short discourse upon his favorite theme Madaranddaughter of George Walton, one of the Signers froe Walton, the Territorial Governor of Florida In 1836 she eon of the Count de Rochambeau at Yorktown, Va In 1858 her ”Souvenirs of Travel” appeared, and later she wrote ”Souvenirs of Distinguished People” and ”Souvenirs of the War,” but, for personal reasons, neither of the tas ever published
My first acquaintance with George Bancroft, the historian, dates back to the year 1845, when he caland to deliver a course of lectures and was the guest of s he spent with us stands out in bold relief He was a man of musical tastes, and Justine Bibby Onderdonk, a friend of hter of Gouverneur S Bibby, who only a few days before had made a runaway match with Henry M Onderdonk, the son of Bishop Benjauest at the sahest order and she delighted Mr Bancroft by singing some of his favorite selections Later, when he was Secretary of the Navy during the Polk administration, I saw Mr Bancroft very frequently I aan his political life in Massachusetts as a Whig When I first knew hie in his political creed placed hiht in his State, h as intolerant of Democrats as their ancestors had been of witches in early colonial days
Upon ton I soon renewed my acquaintance with Mr and Mrs Bancroft, and the entertainments I attended in their home on H Street, between Sixteenth and Seventeenth Streets, revived pleasant recollections of Mrs Clement C Hill, whose house they purchased and of whose social leadershi+p I have already spoken Mr Bancroft at this tie I have often heard him say: ”I came in with the century” In spite of the fact, however, that he had exceeded the years usually allotted to man, he could be seen nearly every day in the saddle with Herr at a respectful distance in the rear I may add, by the way, that a few doors froe Clymer of the Navy with his wife and venerable mother-in-law, the latter of as theof Commodore William B Shubrick, USN
Colonel Alexander Bliss, Mrs Bancroft's son and fatonians as ”Sandy” Bliss, lived just around the corner frohter of William T Albert, of Baltimore, but when I knew him best he was a er A few doors from Colonel Bliss lived Senator Matthew H Carpenter, a political power of the firstPresident Grant's second presidential ter belle Equestrian exercise was not then quite so popular in Washi+ngton as later, but it had its devotees, a as Colonel Joseph C Audenreid, USA, an unusually handsoenerally accohter Florence, then a child, and was often to be seen riding out Fourteenth Street towards the Soldiers' Home, which was then the fashi+onable drive
John L Cadwalader, a cousin of Mr Gouverneur and now one of the most prominent members of the New York bar, was assistant Secretary of State under Haiton by his two sisters, both of whom lived with him in a fine residence on the corner of L Street and Connecticut Avenue, which has since been torn down to e apart this residence that I first made the acquaintance of Dr S Weir Mitchell Miss Mary Cadwalader brought hi the visit announced her engagehly eminent physician alone, as he had not yet entered the arena of fiction and poetry in which he has since attained such wide-spread distinction
It gives ested toin Philadelphia many years later, that I should write these reminiscences