As I Remember Part 17

BOSTON, 23 Feb.

My dear Miss Campbell,

I had much pleasure in receiving this morning Mrs.

Campbell's invitation and your kind note of the 20th. I am greatly indebted to you for remembering me on an occasion of so much interest and importance, and I beg to offer you my sincere congratulations.

Greatly would it rejoice me to be able to avail myself of your invitation to be present at your nuptials.

But the state of my health and of my family makes this impossible. But I shall certainly be with you in spirit, and with cordial wishes for your happiness.

Praying my kindest remembrance to your mother and sisters, I remain,

my dear Miss Campbell,

Sincerely your friend,

EDWARD EVERETT.

P.S. I suppose you saw in the papers a day or two ago that poor Miss Russell is gone.

The Miss Russell referred to by Mr. Everett was Miss Ida Russell, one of three handsome and brilliant sisters prominent in Boston in the society of the day.

Soon after my marriage my husband and I made a round of visits to his numerous family connections. It is with more than usual pleasure that I recall the beautiful old home of Mr. Gouverneur's aunt, Mrs. Thomas Cadwalader, near Trenton, which a few years later was destroyed by fire.

A guest of the Cadwaladers at the same time with ourselves was my husband's first cousin, the Rev. Robert Livingston Tillotson of New York, who studied for the Episcopal ministry and subsequently entered the Roman Catholic priesthood.

From Trenton, we journeyed to Yonkers, New York, to visit the Van Cortlandt family at the historic manor-house in that vicinity. It was then owned and occupied by Mr. Gouverneur's relatives, Dr. Edward N.

Bibby and his son, Augustus, the latter of whom had recently changed his name from Bibby to Van Cortlandt, as a consideration for the inheritance of this fine old estate. Dr. Bibby married Miss Augusta White of the Van Cortlandt descent, and for many years was a prominent physician in New York City. When I visited the family, he had retired from active practice and was enjoying a serene old age surrounded by his children and grandchildren. Henry Warburton Bibby, the Doctor's second son, was also one of this household at the time of our visit. He never married but retained his social tastes until his death a few years ago.

In the drawing-room of the Van Cortlandt home stood a superb pair of bra.s.s andirons in the form of lions, which had been presented to Mrs.

Augustus Van Cortlandt by my husband's mother as a bridal present. They had been brought by James Monroe upon his return from France, where he had been sent upon his historic diplomatic mission by Was.h.i.+ngton. The style of life led by the Van Cortlandt family was fascinating to me as, even at this late date, they clung to many of the old family customs inherited from their ancestors. Our next visit was to the cottage of William Kemble in Cold Spring, and it seemed to me like returning to an old and familiar haunt. My marriage into the Gouverneur family added another link in the chain of friends.h.i.+p attaching me to the members of the Kemble family, as they were relatives of my husband. I was entertained while there by the whole family connection, and I recall with especial pleasure the dinner parties at Gouverneur Kemble's and at Mrs. Robert P. Parrott's. Martin Van Buren was visiting "Uncle Gouv" at the time, and I was highly gratified to meet him again, as his presence not only revived memories of childhood's days during my father's lifetime in New York, but also materially a.s.sisted in rendering the entertainments given in my honor at Cold Spring unusually delightful.

From Cold Spring we drove to The Grange, near Garrison's, another homestead familiar to me in former days, and the residence of Frederick Philipse, where I renewed my acquaintance with old friends who now greeted me as a relative. At this beautiful home I saw a pair of andirons even handsomer than those at the Van Cortlandt mansion. They were at least two feet high and represented trumpeters. The historic house was replete with ancestral furniture and fine old portraits, one of which was attributed to Vand.y.k.e.

The whole Philipse and Gouverneur connection at Garrison's were devoted Episcopalians and were largely instrumental in building a fine church at Garrison's, which they named St. Philips. In more recent years a congregation of prominent families has wors.h.i.+ped in this edifice--among others, the Fishes, Ardens, Livingstons, Osborns and Sloanes. For many years the beloved rector of this church was the Rev. Dr. Charles F.

Hoffman, a gentleman of great wealth and much scholarly ability. He and his brother, the late Rev. Dr. Eugene A. Hoffman, Dean of the General Theological Seminary in New York, devoted their lives and fortunes to the cause of religion. Residents of New York are familiar with All Angels Church, built by the late Rev. Dr. Charles F. Hoffman on West End Avenue, of which he was rector for a number of years. During his life at Garrison's, both Dr. and Mrs. Hoffman were very acceptable to my husband's relatives, especially as the Doctor was connected with the family by right of descent from a Gouverneur forbear. Charles F. Hoffman married Miss Eleanor Louisa Vail, a daughter of David M. Vail of New Brunswick, New Jersey, who in every way proved herself an able helpmeet to him. Mrs. Hoffman was educated at Miss Hannah Hoyt's school in New Brunswick, a fas.h.i.+onable inst.i.tution of the day, and at a reunion of the scholars held in recent years, she was mentioned in the following appropriate manner: "Nearly half a century ago, in the well-known Miss Hoyt's school, was Eleanor Louisa Vail who was noted for her good lessons and considerate ways towards all. She never overlooked those who were less fortunate than herself, but gave aid to any who needed it, either in their lessons or in a more substantial form. In the wider circle of New York the benevolent Mrs. Hoffman, the wife of the late generous rector of All Angels Church, but fulfilled the promise made by the beautiful girl of former days." Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Hoffman's daughter, Mrs. J. Van Vechten Olcott, is as beloved in her generation as her mother was before her.

Samuel Mongan Warburton Gouverneur, a younger brother of Frederick Philipse, was living at The Grange at the time of my visit. Some years later he built a handsome house in the neighborhood which he called "Eagle's Rest," and resided there with his sister, Miss Mary Marston Gouverneur. After his death, the place was sold to the late Louis Fitzgerald, who made it his home.

After six months spent in the mountainous regions of Maryland, not far from c.u.mberland, on property owned by my husband's family, Mr.

Gouverneur and I returned to Was.h.i.+ngton and began our married life in my mother's home. Soon after we had settled down, my eldest daughter was born. The death of my sister, Mrs. Alexandre Gau, from typhoid fever soon followed. It was naturally a terrible shock to us all and especially to me, as we were near of an age and our lives had been side by side from infancy. My mother, in her great affliction, broke up her home and Mr. Gouverneur and I rented a house on Twelfth Street, near N Street, a locality then regarded as quite suburban. Here I endeavored to live in the closest retirement, as the meeting with friends of former days only served to bring my sorrow more keenly before me.

Meanwhile my whole life was devoted to the little girl whom we had named Maud Campbell, and who, of course, had become "part and parcel" of my quiet life. Mr. Gouverneur was the last surviving member of his family in the male line, and the whole family connection was looking to me to perpetuate his name. Soon after the birth of my daughter my husband received the following characteristic letter from Mr. Gouverneur's aunt, Mrs. David Johnstone Verplanck, who before her marriage was Louisa A.

Gouverneur, a gifted woman whose home was in New York:

THURSDAY, April 10th.

My dear Sam,

In return for your kind recollections I hasten to offer my most sincere congratulations to yourself and Mrs. G. As husband and father you have now realized all the romance of life, the pleasures of which I have little doubt you already begin to feel deeply intermingled with many anxious hours.

It is wisest and best to enjoy all that good fortune sends and fortify ourselves to meet and endure the trials to which our Destiny has allotted.

Tell Mrs. G. that we must send for the girdle the old woman sent the Empress Eugenie. She had a succession of seven sons, and requested her to wear it for luck. As it was very dirty the royal lady sent it back. It might be procured and undergo the purifying influence of water. All I can say at present to console your disappointment I hope a son will soon consummate all your joys and wishes. You know it rests with you to keep the name of Gouverneur in the land of the living. It is nearly extinct and you its only salvation.

I regret to hear your father is unwell at Barnum's [Hotel, Baltimore]. I hope he will soon be with us. I long to see him.

Believe me always your friend,

LOUISA VERPLANCK.

I also append a letter received by Mr. Gouverneur from Mrs. William Kemble (Margaret Chatham Seth), which recalled many tender a.s.sociations.

NEW YORK 11th April.

I need not tell you, my dear friend, how much we were all gratified by your kind remembrance of us, in the midst of your own anxiety and joy, to give us the first news of our dear Marian's safety. Give my very best love to her and a kiss to Miss Gouverneur with whom I hope to be better acquainted hereafter.

Mr. and Mrs. Nourse with our dear little Charlie left us yesterday for Was.h.i.+ngton. You will probably see them before you receive this. I feel a.s.sured that Marian is blessed in being with her mother who has every experience necessary for her. Therefore it is idle for me to give 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 G.o.d bless you all three and that this dear pledge committed to your charge be to you both every comfort and joy that your anxious hearts can wish. Please to give my best regards and wishes to Mrs. Campbell and her daughter from

your sincerely attached friend and cousin,

M. C. KEMBLE.

On the corner of Fourteenth and P Streets, and not far from our home, was the residence of Eliab Kingman, 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-fas.h.i.+oned house was in the middle of a small farm. It was an oddly constructed dwelling and the interior was made unusually attractive by its wealth of curios, among which 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 many years his senior, my husband found Mr. Kingman and his home a source of great pleasure to him, and he formed an attachment for his father's early friend which lasted through life. The Kingman house was the rendezvous of both literary and political circles.

William H. Seward was one of its frequent visitors and I once heard him wittily remark that it might appropriately be wors.h.i.+ped, as it resembled nothing "that is in the Heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or the water under the earth." For a number of years Mr. Kingman 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 diplomatist that the adherents of either party, after perusing them, might easily recognize him as their own advocate. Thomas Seaton Donoho, of whom I shall speak presently, was a warm friend of Mr.

Kingman and the constant recipient of his hospitality. Among his poems is a graceful sonnet ent.i.tled

E. KINGMAN.

Ever will I remember with delight Strawberry Knoll; not for the berries red, As, ere my time, the vines were out of bed, And gone; but many a day and many a night Have given me argument to love it well, Whether in Summer, 'neath its perfumed shade, Whether by moonlight's magic wand arrayed, Or when in Winter's lap the rose leaves fell, For pleasant faces ever there were found, For genial welcome ever met me there, And thou, my friend, when thought went smiling round, Madest her calm look, reflecting thine, more fair.

Those who have known thee as a Statesman, know Thy noon-day: I have felt thy great heart's sunset glow!

Mr. Kingman married Miss Cordelia Ewell of Virginia, 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 charm and ability. In dress, manner and general appearance she presented a fitting reminder of the _grande dame_ of long ago. Her style of dress reminded one of the Quaker school. Her gray gown with a white kerchief crossed neatly upon her breast and her gray hair with puffs cl.u.s.tered around her ears, together with her quaint manner of courtesying as she greeted her guests, suggested the familiar setting of an old-fas.h.i.+oned picture. She was an accomplished performer upon the harp as well as an authority upon old English literature. In all the years I knew her I never heard of her leaving her house. She had no children and her constant companion was a venerable parrot.

John Savage, familiarly known as "Jack" Savage, was an intimate friend of the Kingmans and also a frequent guest of ours. He was an Irish patriot of 1848 and was remarkable for his versatility. He had a fine voice, and I remember seeing him on one occasion hold his audience spell-bound while singing "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 p.r.o.nounced the best work extant "on the last great revolutionary era of the Irish race."

After the Civil War I often met at Mr. Kingman's house General Benjamin F. Butler, whose withering gift 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 gentleman, and some years later Mr. Kingman and my husband, upon his urgent invitation, visited him at his handsome country place, Lochiel, in Pennsylvania. His fine graperies made such a vivid impression upon my husband that his description of them almost enabled me to see the luscious fruit itself before me.

My old friends, Purser Horatio Bridge, U.S.N., 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 married Harrison Gray Otis of Boston. Mr. Bridge, while on the active list, had been stationed for a time in Was.h.i.+ngton and, finding the life congenial and attractive, returned here after his retirement and with his wife made his home at the Rugby 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.

Hamilton Holly, an intimate friend of Mrs. Bridge and the daughter of Alexander Hamilton. Mrs. Holly, my old and cherished friend, lived in a picturesque cottage on I Street, on the site of the present Russian emba.s.sy, where so many years later the wife and daughter of Benjamin F.

Tracy, Harrison's Secretary of the Navy, lost their lives in a fire that destroyed the house. Among 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 was while I was living on Twelfth Street that I first met Miss Margaret Edes, so well known in after years to Was.h.i.+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. Thomas Seaton Donoho was a truly interesting character. He was decidedly romantic in his ideas and many incidents of his life were curiously a.s.sociated with the ivy vine.

He planted a sprig of it in front of his three-story house, which was built very much upon the plan of every other dwelling in the neighborhood, and called his abode "Ivy Hall"; while his property in the vicinity of Was.h.i.+ngton he named "Ivy City," a locality so well known to-day by the same name to the sporting fraternity. His book of poems, published in Was.h.i.+ngton in 1860, is ent.i.tled "Ivy-wall"; and, to cap the climax, when a girl 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, ent.i.tled, "Goldsmith of Padua," and two years later "Oliver Cromwell," a tragedy in five acts.

Soon after my marriage, 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 with whom the deceased had been most intimately a.s.sociated. 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, who was Miss Caroline Seaton, and whose husband, the father of Rear Admiral Seaton Schroeder, U.S.N., was at one time U.S. Minister to Sweden and Norway. Seaton Munroe, a nephew of Gales Seaton, was prominent in Was.h.i.+ngton society. He never married and many persons regarded him as the Ward McAllister of the Capital. When Colonel Sanford C. Kellogg, U.S.A., then military _attache_ of the U.S. Emba.s.sy 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 famous Gwin ball, so readily recalled by old Was.h.i.+ngtonians. 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 my deep mourning, but I shall always remember the pleasure and amus.e.m.e.nt we derived in dressing Mr. Kingman for the occasion. We decked him out in the old court dress which Mr. Gouverneur's grandfather, James Monroe, wore during his diplomatic mission in France. As luck would have it the suit fitted him perfectly, and the next day it was quite as gratifying to us as to Mr. Kingman to hear that the costume attracted marked attention.

The ball was rightly adjudged a brilliant success. Among the guests was President Buchanan, though 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 Clement C. Clay, of Alabama, who represented Mrs. Partington, attracted more attention and afforded more amus.e.m.e.nt than any other guest.