Meikleham and I often dwelt upon this family intimacy extending unbroken from Jefferson and Monroe down to the fourth generation. In the same block with Mrs. Meikleham lived Mr. and Mrs. John W. Douglas, the former of whom, some years later, during the Harrison administration, was one of the District Commissioners. A daughter of his is the wife of Henry B.
F. Macfarland, the late Senior Commissioner of the District, who, as well as his wife, is universally respected and beloved in Washington. On the same street, but on the other side of Fourteenth Street, Colonel and Mrs. Robert N. Scott resided for many years; while just around the corner, on Iowa Circle, in what was then a palatial home, lived Allan McLane and his only child, Anne, who married from this house John Cropper of New York. She is now a widow but lives in Washington, where she is greatly beloved. In this same general region, on the corner of N and Fourteenth Street, lived Lieutenant Commander (now Rear Admiral) and Mrs. Francis J. Higginson, and the latter"s attractive sister, Miss Mary Haldane.
Not far from our dwelling on Corcoran Street lived the attractive wife of _Monsieur_ Grimaud de Caux, _Chancelier_ of the French legation, who left unfading memories behind her. During our many delightful chats I was much interested in the accounts of her early life and experiences in Ireland, and I especially recall many things she told me concerning the members of the Wilde family, with whom she had been quite intimately a.s.sociated. I learned from her that Oscar Wilde inherited his aesthetic tastes largely from his mother. She was a woman of unusual type and habitually dressed in white--at a time, too, before white garments had become so generally prevalent. I was also told that Oscar Wilde"s father was an oculist of some prominence, and that he built a mansion so singular in its construction that the wits of Dublin called it "Wilde"s eye-sore."
Another of my intimate friends of those days was Mrs. Mary Donelson Wilc.o.x, widow of the Hon. John A. Wilc.o.x, formerly Secretary of the U.S.
Senate, a Member of Congress and a veteran of the Mexican War. She was a woman of rare intellectual ability, and subsequent to her husband"s death was for a time one of the official translators of the government.
She was the daughter of Colonel Andrew Jackson Donelson, a nephew of President Jackson as well as his adopted son and private secretary.
General Jackson when President was a widower, and it was while Mrs.
Donelson was presiding as mistress of the White House that Mrs. Wilc.o.x was born. Her memory remained clear until her last illness, and her recollections of prominent men and events, extending back to her childhood, and especially those of her early life at the White House, were of exceptional interest. I was especially amused by her account of the prompt manner in which General Jackson sent her mother back to Tennessee because she refused to accord social recognition to the wife of General John H. Eaton, his Secretary of War. As is well known, this was "Peggy O"Neal" who, before her marriage to Eaton, was the widow of Purser John B. Timberlake of our Navy, who committed suicide while serving in the Mediterranean. The relation which she sustained to the disruption of Jackson"s cabinet has pa.s.sed into history and is too well known to bear repet.i.tion here. As Colonel Donelson shared the views of his wife, he resigned his position as the President"s private secretary and returned with her to Tennessee. He was succeeded by Nicholas P.
Trist of the State Department, but a few months later, through the kindly offices of personal friends, they were both restored to Jackson"s favor and resumed their former functions in the White House.
Just across the street from our home lived Mr. and Mrs. Bernard P.
Mimmack and the latter"s mother, Mrs. Mary Bailey Collins, widow of Captain Charles Oliver Collins of the U.S. Army, and a typical representative of the New York gentlewomen of former days. She was one of the Bailey family, which was much identified with the history of New York, and she and her daughter, Mrs. Mimmack, were valuable additions to our community. Of Mr. Mimmack, only recently deceased, I can speak only in terms of the warmest praise. He was a true friend to me and many times during my widowhood placed his ripe judgment and wide experience at my command.
As I first remember Professor and Mrs. Joseph Henry, they were living with their three daughters in a portion of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution.
He was a man whose public career and private life commanded universal respect, while his scientific discoveries, both at Princeton College and at the National Capital, marked him as one of the most distinguished men of his day. I am not qualified to p.r.o.nounce upon his scholarly attainments nor upon the estimate in which he is held by the learned world of to-day, but it may be a.s.sumed that the eulogistic words of the late Professor Simon Newcomb, himself a scientific giant, represent the truth. "Professor Joseph Henry, first secretary of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution," he wrote, "was a man of whom it may be said, without any reflection on men of our generation, that he held a place which has never been filled. I do not mean his official place, but his position as the recognized leader and exponent of scientific interests at the National Capital. A world-wide reputation as a scientific investigator, exalted character and inspiring presence, broad views of men and things, the love and esteem of all, combined to make him the man to whom all who knew him looked for counsel and guidance in matters affecting the interests of science. Whether anyone could since have a.s.sumed this position, I will not venture to say; but the fact seems to be that no one has been at the same time able and willing to a.s.sume it."
The society circle in Washington in 1873 was small compared with that of to-day. There was much less form and ceremony, fewer social cliques and a greater degree of affability. The "Old Washingtonians" were more _en evidence_ than now and the political element came and went without disturbing in any marked degree the harmony of the social atmosphere.
There were, however, many in public life whose families were cordially received into the most exclusive circles of Washington society and enriched it by their presence. Mrs. Hamilton Fish held social sway by the innate force of character and general attractiveness with which nature had so lavishly endowed her. Mrs. James G. Blaine, whose husband was in Congress when I first knew them, shared in his popularity. Mrs.
George M. Robeson, wife of Grant"s Secretary of the Navy, lived on K Street and kept open house. The Secretary of the Treasury and Mrs.
William A. Richardson, who lived in the old Hill house on H Street, were well known and very popular. Francis Kernan, the junior Senator from New York, with his wife and daughter, was seen everywhere. Thomas Kernan, their son, who eventually became a Roman Catholic priest, was a great dancer and a general favorite. Roscoe Conkling, the senior Senator from New York, was socially disposed, but his wife, who was a sister of Horatio Seymour, although well fitted for social life, took but little part in it. She was a p.r.o.nounced blond, wore her hair in many ringlets and was _pet.i.te_ in figure. Senator and Mrs. Henry L. Dawes and their intellectual daughter, Miss Anna, were highly esteemed by Washingtonians. General Ambrose B. Burnside, Senator from Rhode Island and a widower, lived on H Street, where he lavishly entertained his friends. Senator Joseph R. Hawley and wife of Connecticut and the latter"s bright sister, Miss Kate Foote, resided in the Capitol Hill neighborhood; while Senator Henry B. Anthony, also of Rhode Island and a widower, was famous for his gra.s.shopper turkeys, with which he liberally supplied his guests at his home on the southwest corner of H and Fourteenth Streets. This was the period when William E. Chandler was beginning his prominent and successful political career. He lived with his first wife and interesting family of boys on Fourteenth Street below G Street.
The social leader in Washington in 1873 was Mrs. Frances Lawrence Ricketts, whose husband, General James B. Ricketts, U.S.A., had served his country during the Civil War and on account of disabilities was awarded a handsome pension. They lived on G Street between Eighteenth and Nineteenth Streets and her Friday afternoons were festive occasions. Mrs. Ricketts was no mean philanthropist in her way and a certain wag once wrote--
Here comes Mrs. Ricketts With a pocketful of tickets.
The doggerel had a basis in fact as she frequently appeared in public with tickets to sell for the benefit of some charitable object; and she sold them, too, as but few had the courage to refuse her. She was an exceedingly fine looking woman with a cordial manner and graceful bearing. Mrs. Julia A. K. Lawrence, her mother, the widow of John Tharp Lawrence, originally of the Island of Jamaica, lived with her, was quite as fond of society as the daughter, and, although advanced in years, seemed to have more friends and admirers than any woman I have ever known.
One day by chance I met her in the drawing-room of a mutual friend, Mrs.
Sallie Maynadier, where she shocked us by fainting. One of my daughters wrote her a note of sympathetic inquiry and received in reply the following answer. I regarded it as a somewhat remarkable note as its writer was then approaching her ninetieth birthday.
Pray accept my grateful thanks, my dear Miss Gouverneur, for your kind attention in writing me such a lovely note. I wish I had known you brought it. I would have been so much pleased to see you in my room, which I could not leave yesterday though very much better. I think the fainting was from the heat of Mrs. Maynadier"s parlour and the agitation of the previous day, at the prospect of parting with my very dear friends in the delicate state of dear Kate Eveleth"s health! I hope to hear to-day how she bore the journey, the beautiful day very much in her favor! I can not close this note without expressing my sincere wish that your mamma and yourself will be so kind as to come and see me during the winter. I know that Mrs. Gouverneur does not "pay visits"
but as I can no longer have the pleasure of meeting you at our dear friend"s I hope she will make an exception in favor of such an old woman as myself, one too who has known and loved so many of your father"s family for generations, dating back to President Monroe"s family, when I was a child in England and used to play often with your grandmamma [Maria Hester Monroe]. Can you believe that a vivid memory can turn back so many years? Ask your mamma to favour me and come yourself to see
Yours very truly,
JULIA LAWRENCE.
1829 G Street, Tuesday morning.
An old family friend of Mrs. Lawrence and her daughter, the late Dr.
Basil Norris, U.S.A., a native of Frederick, resided in the Ricketts home, and I am certain that his memory is still revered in the District.
When Mrs. Ricketts, upon her husband"s death, broke up her Washington home, Dr. Norris went to San Francisco to reside. A daughter of mine on her way to join her husband in Honolulu was taken seriously ill in that city and was attended by him with consummate skill. He was then on the retired list of the Army, but had a large and fashionable practice in his newly adopted home.
In connection with Mrs. Lawrence my memory brings vividly before me my old and valued friends, Mrs. Maynadier, widow of General William Maynadier of the Ordnance Department of the Army, and her witty sister, Kate Eveleth. To render acts of kindness seemed their natural avocation, and I never think of them without recalling Sir Walter Scott"s description of a ministering angel. I have heard Mrs. Maynadier say that at the time of her marriage her husband, then a young officer, was receiving a salary of only six hundred dollars; and yet she reared a large circle of children, her daughters marrying into prominent families and her sons becoming professionally well known. Their father was Aide to General Scott in the Black Hawk War and performed similar duty under General Alexander Macomb. Their mother lived to see the fourth generation of her descendants, many of whom still reside in the District.
When I returned to Washington, I found the old Decatur house facing Lafayette Square owned and occupied by General and Mrs. Edward F. Beale, who had recently returned from a long residence in California. Mr.
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 woman of the most aristocratic bearing and was especially qualified to meet the exacting requirements of the most exclusive society. The household was rendered additionally brilliant by her two daughters, both of whom were then unmarried. The sparkling 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 Washington and elsewhere as to render quite superfluous any attempt to describe her many charming 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 mansion, and these objects of interest, together with the highly polished floors, the many and brilliant lights and the large a.s.semblage of society folk in their "best bibs and tuckers," presented a scene which is not readily effaced from one"s memory. Among others I met that evening 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 him had pa.s.sed through the Civil War. This reception was given in honor of the then young but gifted tragedian, John E. McCullough, with whom the Beale family had formed a friendship in the far west.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] My youngest daughter, Rose de Chine Gouverneur, and Chaplain Roswell Randall Hoes, U.S.N., were married in Washington on the 5th of December, 1888.
CHAPTER XV
TO THE PRESENT DAY
Shortly after our return to Washington 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 seemed inclined to devote much time to the shifts and vagaries of fashionable attire. Although as a woman I cannot say that I have been wholly averse to array myself in attractive garments, they were always matters of secondary consideration with me and have yet to cause me a sleepless night. 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 my invitation reached me at too late a day to have a new gown made.
Although while living in Frederick I did pretty much as I pleased in regard to dress, I realized that in Washington, willing or unwilling, I might be compelled to do, to a certain extent, what other people pleased; but such demands have their reasonable limits, and I therefore determined to ignore the dictates of fashionable sentiment and practice a little originality on my own account. I accordingly decided to wear a handsome and elaborate dress of a fashion of at least a generation before--a light, blue silk with its many flounces embroidered in straw in imitation of sheaves of wheat. In former years I had worn with this gown black velvet gloves 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 wear with the antiquated dress; and thus arrayed I attended the party and had a thoroughly good time, supposing, as a matter of course, that the incident was closed. The _New York Graphic_, however, seemed to think otherwise and dragged me into its columns in an article which was subsequently copied into other papers. Although at first I felt somewhat chagrined, upon further consideration I was inclined to be pleased, at least with that part of the narrative that made a pa.s.sing allusion to my attire. This is what the _Graphic_ said:--
Among the ladies frequently seen in society this winter is Mrs. Marian Campbell Gouverneur, daughter of the late James Campbell of New York and the wife of Samuel L. Gouverneur, the only surviving grandson of ex-President James Monroe.
Mrs. Gouverneur is an elegant lady of pleasing manners, sparkling vivacity and possesses a fund of humor and a mind stored with a variety of charming information. She has traveled a great deal and seen much of the fashionable world. Mr. Gouverneur"s mother was married in the White House and--think of it!--on a Spread Eagle--that is to say, on the carpet of which that very elastic bird made the central figure. Suppose Miss Nellie Grant, of whose engagement rumor outside of Washington talks so loud and this city appears to know nothing, should take it into her head to be married on a Spread Eagle, would not the other Eagle, 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 inst.i.tutions? 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.
While my sister, Mrs. Eames, was residing in 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 a.s.sociations of former days with his family. Next door to the Hunts lived Mr. and Mrs. t.i.tian J. Coffey, the former of whom had accompanied ex-Governor Andrew G. Curtin of Pennsylvania upon his mission to Russia; and the adjoining residence, the old "Hill house," was the home of Mr.
and Mrs. James C. Kennedy, the latter of whom was Miss Julia Rathbone of Albany. Their hospitality was lavish until the death of Mr. Kennedy, when his widow returned 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 a.s.sistant Secretary of War, is her niece.
After Mrs. Kennedy left Washington, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Elkin Neil of Columbus, Ohio, with their daughter, Mrs. William Wilberforce Williams, lived in the "Hill house." They were people of large means and entertained on an extensive scale. Mrs. Neil belonged to the Sullivant family of Ohio whose women were remarkable for their beauty. The wife of William Dennison, one of the District Commissioners, was Mr. Neil"s sister and her daughter, Miss Jenny Dennison, was one of the belles of the Hayes administration. There were so many representatives of the "Buckeye State" at that time in Washington 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 him, as he was the fortunate possessor of intelligence, sagacity and fine personal appearance. It was his frequent boast, however, that through force of circ.u.mstances he had received but "three months" schooling," but he took advantage of his subsequent opportunities and became an efficient mayor and postmaster of the City of Washington, while a prince might well have envied him his dignified and imposing address. He sold his attractive home to Justice William Strong of the U.S. Supreme Court, who with 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 s.p.a.cious 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 with many pleasing a.s.sociations. Mrs. Lee, whom I knew as Ellen Ann Hill, was a member of one of Washington"s oldest families and with her husband had a country home in Prince George County in Maryland. She was a deeply religious woman and one of the saints upon earth. She gave me _carte blanche_ to drop in for an informal supper on Sunday evenings--a privilege of which I occasionally availed myself. Colonel Lee was a Virginian by birth and a graduate of West Point, but at the beginning of the Civil War resigned his commission. His brother, Samuel Phillips Lee, however, who was then a Commander in the Navy, remained in the service and eventually became a Rear Admiral. Although differing so widely in their political views, the two brothers were respected and beloved by their a.s.sociates, 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 Washington.
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 William P. Johnston, a favorite physician of long standing and father of Mr. James M. Johnston and Miss Mary B. Johnston, the latter of whom is President of the Society of Old Washingtonians of which I enjoy the honor of being a member. It is at her home on Rhode Island Avenue that the privileged few who are members of this exclusive organization meet once each month to listen to papers read on topics relating to earlier Washington 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 prominent member of this organization is Mrs.
Anna Harris Eastman, widow of Commander Thomas Henderson Eastman, U.S.N., and daughter of the beloved physician, the late Medical Director Charles Duval Maxwell, U.S.N.
In the opinion of many old Washingtonians no history of the District of Columbia would be complete without some mention of The Highlands, the home of the Nourse family. In years gone 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 time I crossed its threshold I could have readily imagined myself living in the colonial period, as the furniture was entirely of that time. When I first knew Mrs. Nourse, who was Miss Rebecca Morris of Philadelphia, the widow of Charles Josephus Nourse, she was advanced in life, but notwithstanding the infirmities of age, she had just acquired the art of china painting, and was filling orders the proceeds of which she gave in aid of St.
Alban"s which was then a country parish. I frequently pa.s.sed a day at this ancestral home, and I especially recall seeing a wonderful Elizabethan clock in the hallway which I am told is still, in defiance of time, striking the hours in the home of a descendant. Near The Highlands is Rosedale, occupied for many years by the descendants of General Uriah Forrest, who built it subsequent to 1782. He was the intimate friend of General Washington, and its present occupant, Mrs.
Louisa Key Norton, daughter of John Green and widow of John Hatley Norton of Richmond, is my authority for the statement that one day after dining with her grandfather, General Forrest, Washington 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, married Prince Angelo de Yturbide, and it was their son, Prince Augustine de Yturbide, who was adopted by the Emperor Maximilian.
One of the pleasing 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 Washington, and that society-going people const.i.tuted practically one large family. A stranger coming 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 came to Washington 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 of my old and valued friend, Mrs. Sanders Irving. As soon as they were settled in their home, Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey gave a large evening entertainment which Mr. Gouverneur and I attended. We much enjoyed meeting there a number of Kentuckians temporarily residing in Washington--among others, Mrs. John Key of Georgetown and her sister, Mrs. Hamilton Smith; Mrs. William E. Dudley; and Wickliffe Preston and his sister, a decided blonde who wore a becoming green silk gown. Madame Le Vert and her daughter, Octavia Walton Le Vert, were also there and it is with genuine pleasure I recall the unusual vivacity of the former.
This gifted woman was a p.r.o.nounced belle from Alabama and had pa.s.sed much of her life in Italy, where she had much a.s.sociation with the Brownings. During her absence abroad the ravages of our Civil War made serious inroads upon her financial circ.u.mstances, and when she visited Washington at the period of which I am speaking she gave a series of lectures upon Mr. and Mrs. Robert Browning in Willard"s Hall on F Street. They received the endors.e.m.e.nt of fashionable 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. Madame Le Vert"s maiden name was Octavia Walton, and she was the granddaughter of George Walton, one of the Signers from Georgia, and the daughter of George Walton, the Territorial Governor of Florida. In 1836 she married Dr. Henry S. Le Vert, son of the fleet-surgeon 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 two was ever published.
My first acquaintance with George Bancroft, the historian, dates back to the year 1845, when he came from New England to deliver a course of lectures and was the guest of my father in New York. One of the evenings he spent with us stands out in bold relief. He was a man of musical tastes, and Justine Bibby Onderdonk, a friend of mine and a daughter of Gouverneur S. Bibby, who only a few days before had made a runaway match with Henry M. Onderdonk, the son of Bishop Benjamin T. Onderdonk of New York, happened to be our guest at the same time. Her musical ability was of the highest 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 am not aware whether it is generally known that he began his political life in Ma.s.sachusetts as a Whig. When I first knew him, however, he was a Democrat and the change in his political creed placed him in an unfavorable light in his State, most of whose citizens were well nigh as intolerant of Democrats as their ancestors had been of witches in early colonial days.
Upon my return to Washington 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 leadership I have already spoken. Mr. Bancroft at this time was well advanced in years, and in referring to his age 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 Herrman Bratz, his devoted German attendant, riding at a respectful distance in the rear. I may add, by the way, that a few doors from the Bancrofts lived Dr.
George Clymer of the Navy with his wife and venerable mother-in-law, the latter of whom was the widow of Commodore William B. Shubrick, U.S.N.
Colonel Alexander Bliss, Mrs. Bancroft"s son and familiarly known to Washingtonians as "Sandy" Bliss, lived just around the corner from his mother"s. His wife was the daughter of William T. Albert, of Baltimore, but when I knew him best he was a widower. A few doors from Colonel Bliss lived Senator Matthew H. Carpenter, a political power of the first magnitude during President Grant"s second presidential term, whose daughter Lilian was a reigning belle. Equestrian exercise was not then quite so popular in Washington as later, but it had its devotees, among whom was Colonel Joseph C. Audenreid, U.S.A., an unusually handsome man with a decidedly military bearing. He was generally accompanied by his daughter Florence, then a child, and was often to be seen riding out Fourteenth Street towards the Soldiers" Home, which was then the fashionable drive.
John L. Cadwalader, a cousin of Mr. Gouverneur and now one of the most prominent members of the New York bar, was a.s.sistant Secretary of State under Hamilton Fish during the Grant _regime_. He was a bachelor and was accompanied to Washington 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 make way for a large apartment house. It was while the Cadwaladers were occupying this residence that I first made the acquaintance of Dr. S. Weir Mitch.e.l.l. Miss Mary Cadwalader brought him to see us in our Corcoran Street home and during the visit announced her engagement to him. He was then the highly 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 me pleasure to add that he suggested to me, while I was visiting in Philadelphia many years later, that I should write these reminiscences.