SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1925.
THE CHINA MAIL.
ROMANCE of the MOTHER of
of her
of herOUNTRY
STARTHA AS
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S BRIDE FROM A PAINTING FANERLY “OWNED BY GEORGE W. PARNE ČUST
CUSTIS
VEEZY WAS)
экзем съдру
ORICAL CPISODE)
ZAARPHA WASHED
(FROM
Story of Martha Dandridge, the Virginia Girl Who Became the Wife of George Washington and the Mistress of Mt. Vernon..
[BŞ RENE BACHE
One engagemein ring--twa pounds, eisteen aliillings”
it is the most interesting stem in al the aereants of pervoml" expenditure which George Washington so enrefully
kept thrangbout his bik The ring was for Martha, Dandridge, Custin, and wis
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Such was the physical ases of the young offeer who lost his hour to the fain lieu of Janiel Parke Custis. He had lost it several timen before, as hi tory and his own rather mushy love pecins evenmil. But in the previous
staners his addresses had heen reject
purchased in May, 1758. “Presumably || ezt, largely, as it would appeur, because
the luty was antisfied with it, though the price was certainly muskont,
Martha, the daughter of a Virginia': géntleman, named Joha Dandridge, wens Born in New Kôňu Geanty, in the year 17:14. When a girl seventeen the fell in love with a youth only a twelve- month older than herself, Daniel Parke Custik, the sọn and "heir of John G.-| Cantis, who was one of the King's coun- cillors for Virginia. The boy was madly infaronted with her, by: his father; refused to consider the match. He had other plans for his son, haying"decided that he should marry. Evelyn, the beautiful and accomplished doughter of Colonel William : Byrd, of Westover,
It was the old story of love's young.
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he was poor, and therefore regarded as undesirable party. At the time when he enray to mirari the widow Cuatis he was a rich mun, having inherited the Mouni Veraon, estate, as well as sther property, from his half-brother” Lawrence.
Martha Dandridge Custin was a great nutrimoniul "eutch,” and doubtless Washington, who highly appreciated the usefulness of money, was not un regandful of the fortune, shu would bring him. But unquestionably he was vincerely in love with her. He was a man of strong passions, and there is reason to believe that his walnur was brisk and rapid, inusmuch as he bought | the engagement ring before, the end at
dream and stern parental opposition, | the fateful month of May in which the
and it worked out in the sun! way. two first met.
M. Custis carried his opposition far
-as to threaten to disinherit bật sop;
but the boy, determined to have the giri
he wanted, was equally obstinate, and
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Nevertheless, no immediate announce.
ment of the engagement was made; for
¦ Daniel Parke Custis had been dead lean
than a year. When, eight months Inter,
Anally the father yiekled, even going no they were married, Martha was some-
far as to write, “I give my free coment
to the ion of my son with Miss Martha Dandridge"
Virginia's Wealthied Widow. And xe those two were wo But it the summer of 1757 the young husband died. In the meantime his father had passed away, and Martha, at twenty. five years of age, found heulf the richest widow in Virginia, owning' fine mursion in Williamsburg, plantation near the city, maing alures, md $100,000 in bonde und mortgages. She had two children, a boy and a girl.
She was in the fullest bloom of youthful womanhood, pretty rather than beautiful, somewhat below mirkle height, with a lovely figure, dark hair and hazel eyes, a winning smile, and frank and engaging manners.
At that time she had never seen her destined second husband, and their first mecting wns the result of · purest accident. On a pleasant day early in May, 1758, Colonel George Washington was in his way from Fort Duquesne to Williamsburg, for the purpose of laying certain military matters before the Governor and Council of Virginia. He was in uniform, and accompanied only by a negro orderly. While crossing the ferry over the Pamunkoy River he was necosted by an elderly gentleman named Chamberlayne, whe invited him to rust
while at his house in the neighbour 'hood.
Washington at first declined, pleading | argent business, but finally consented to stop for dinner. On reaching the house, he was introduced to a charming young widow, Mra. Custia, who stoying there as a gaunt. While dinner was in progress his orderly held the hornen at the horseblock oulike, ready for immediate departure. But the orderly waited rid waited, and his master did not reappear. The sug rank west, and at Washington lingered. He was so fascinated by Mrs. Curtia that he could not tear himself awny The upshot of the matter was
in
WAK
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| what nervous about comments which she thought likely to be made; and she explained to friend that the reason for hastening the union was that her property affairs were getting mixed and needed a man to look after them.
A Great Society Event They were married at the widow's house in Williamsburg, January 17, 1759, old style according to the modern, calendar, January 28-by the Rev. David Momam, rectar of the neigh- bouring "parish church of St. Peter's. The wedding, needless to say, WIS attended by everybody, who was uny- body, the Governor of Viginiu coming in a coach and six.
The Castis mansion in Williamsburg was commonly called the White House, or sometimes the Six-Chimney Hote. This is a rather odd fact, inunmuch us Martha was the only President's wife who was destined never to occupy the White House at Washington,. Of course, the latter was not a white house until it was painted white after it partial destruction by the British in 1814, But it is not true that she was never in the White House at Washington, for, she und her husband went through it when it was nearing completion, on a tour of inspection,
age.
John Parko Custis had married a lady of Lord Baltimore's family, and by her he had two children, a son und a
OYE OF/347 OF CHINA PLATES PRESENTED TOMERS VERSONG,
BY FRENCH OFFICERS /
PHE AMERICAN ARMY
ALIFELE
The Mount Vernon estate to-day covers only two handred and thirty- Heven neren. In George Washington's half square miles, and many forms time ita area was about twelve and a
ZZAS MAASAAMOZONE
SZAKE CARRIAGE, USED BY HERSELF.
GENERAL MALEW YORKT MAHALLE
HE WAS RESIDEN
Burgesses, which was, regarded as a curiosity. A philosopher with an inventive turn of mind in Philadelphin, Dr. Franklin, had devised, a new nort of heater which he called a "baso- burner, but most. people thought it crank idea,
KÄRNTYYA' PERSHLAYGRODEJN
HOME AT /TOCANT ROY Supplemented by a contrivance Tesem- his wife. On the second evening after bling a Dutch oven, which was sut her arrival Martha igave her fist directly upon a bed of live embers. "drawing room" dr levee,
Notwithstanding a lack of modern" kirs. Washington had just passed her culinary conveniences, Mrs. Wunhing-fly-eighth birthday, and was inclined tou had the reputation of being a to stoutness, yet retained not a littla eapital cool, and her puddings and of her former comeliness. Three weeks pivu were famous the country round. after her arrival in New York, hor She .did not disduin to super- husband was taken very ill with a intend the preparation of a dinner At carbuncle on his thigh. He thought he Mount Vernon only two duily menl was going to die; his sufferings were wer' Herval. Dinner was at 3 pm, intense, and he was obliged to undergo and after the custom of that period, painful surgical operation. For everything, including the dessert,, was several weeks the sidewalk in front of put on the table at once. Usually the house was spread with straw, and Martha would curve, the principal a chain was stretched across Chorry roust herself. I is painful to be Street. obliged to state that the best people- "A" Mare To The Quaker City.. in those days ate with their kniven, Congress having decided to remove Mrs. Washington had a set of forks the capital to Philadelphia for a period with three tines (then deemed very of ten yearn, while the city of Wush- luxurious table furniture), but they ington was being prepared an 'For did not serve well for eating murh manent sent of the government, "the- things as pena
President, and his wife transferred their The mistress of Mount Vernon had residence to the Quaker City, where ut her disposal a chariot drawn by four they occupied a house on the south horne, in which, going to and from side of Market Street, near Sixth, which Alexandria, or visiting neighbouring had been tenanted a few years earlier estates, she must have made an impres by Benedict Arnold. It was a large sive appearance, with coachman, and double house of red brick, with a wall footman and a postillon riding ahead-enclosing a garden shaded by lofty all three of them negro slaves dressed treek. in the Washington very of scarlet, white and gold. -
Martha Blarts For New York
Death Of Her Husband. On the ninth day of March, 1797,
In 1793 come a great epidemic of Washington and his bride lived in
yellow fever, which by September the Custis mansion until the close of
wiped out more than three thousand the session of the Virginia House of
Mrs. Washington was not able to Byes in Philadelphia, The President, Burgensen, to which he was a delegate.
attend, her Husband's inauguration in lar he wrote in letter at the time, Then he took her and her two children
Now York, March 4 1780. She was found himself and his household "prac- to Mount Vernon, which was thereafter
busy at Mount Vernon through April | tically blockaded"; and, fearing for their home. The children named
It is mighty cold at Mount Vernon
and the Arat half of May, putting the the safety of his family, he took them John Parke Custis and Murtha Parke estate at Arlington (across the Palomar Apart from the alaves' quarters there could do in frigid weather was to keep shipping c, linen, silverware, and
hi the winter time; but the best Martha affairs of the household in order and to Mount Vernon," making the trip "la Cuntia. At fifteen years of
from the city of Washington); and had
four days, which was considered re- Martha Parke Custis, nick-named an only daughter, Mary, who becuma) of which, the "spinning house" (which
ure several outlying buildings, in one big fires of wood going in the principal other necessaries to Manhattan Island. harkable speed. By November: the "Patsy," died of consumption. Her the wife of Robert E. Lee, the lender still stands), sixteen negro women
"rooms." Think how chilly the hallways,
On the seventeenth day of May she
fever. had 'nearly died out, and they brother John served as aide-de-camp of the Confederacy.
must have been. Brrr! It makes started for New York in a coach and
were nble safely to return to were kept continually at work, spinning and shiver to imagine it. And the bod-four, under escort of a troop of horse, to General Washington during the Revolution. He died in November, 1781.
Philadelphia.. and weaving materials for clothing rooms in which there were no fire taking with her the two grandchildren, of "eump fever" (typhus), contracted
Discomforts Of Mount Vernon places! at Yorktown.
The estate was practically self-sup.
There was a fireplace in the bed. Nelly, and George Custis; Her entire Washington, having surrendered the.
Journey resembled a royal progress, the master and mistress was made husband, and before daybreak on porting. Even the clothing worn by room which Martha occupied with her every town and village through which cures of late, journeyed with his were embraced within its limits. It most of it. at all events-at. Mount winter mornings a slave woman would
she passed receiving her with fringfamily back to Mount Vernon, this time
wood for fuel was obtainable from the
como in quielly and light a fire in it..
of cannon and pealing of bells, walot atay. Martha was delighted to be, at home again; but, alas! she had less to its master · were more than "uru Washington's own sheep.
'young. Kirle 'scattered flowers. in har Unlimited
than three yeare of happiness before Lights And Cooking. path. The weather was balmy and
ber. Her husband suffered an attack other game were plentiful: the river whale all lamps and candles, the latter house of Governor Livingston; and next
For illumination in the evenings | pemutiful, t approve of slavery, however, and was nearby forest, Deer, wild turkeys, and Martha was obliged to depend, usta,
of acute laryngitis, being taken ill At Elizabeth she was received at the
December 13, 1790, and died within his people, as he called them, their was full of fish and oysters. The high moulded from tallow furnished by the morning her husband, necompanied by sixty-eighth year.
twenty-four hours, being then in hig Martha's Grandchildren.
freedom, were it not for the fact that cost of living hever bothered Martha.
Mount Vernon shoep. When she want a number of distinguished gentleinen, apprehension in regard to the: bdy and menially mixed with his own black attended by many discomforts.
There in a curiously general mis- the "dower nugrees," originally the pro
Martha took the shock with great And yet, from our present-day point to bed, she took a lighted candle with came to meet her. perty of his wife, had become so matri-
They arrived in fortitude, but declared that she would girl whom General Washington, adopt chattels that much suffering must
of view, life at Mount. Vernon was her, and other folks in the hoose did time for breakfast, having left Man-not long survive her husband. After
The likewise
hatten, Island at 5 am his death, she retired to a small cham- ed. The understanding entertained by necessarily result from most people that they worn ra manumission.
luxurious mansion had not ingle The kitchen (an anybody who visite After breakfast the party went in ber on the third floor of the unreston int room. There was no running water Washington's children.by her first hur- **
Mount Vernon to-day may see) was carriages to Elizabeth Point, whore at Mount Vernon, the single small. in the houses no plumbing of any kind. detached from the mansion, being con- they embarked. In Washington's "sinte window of which, looking out toward hand. But, as hare made clear they were not; they were her grandchildren which Martha found herself called purposes come from, a well, and There was no rangs, Martha, is she was at that time a metropolis of about manded a view of the hero' tomb
The mansion at Mount Vernon, ayor All the water needed for bathing or nected with the latter by covered way bargo, Ox roaching New Yorky which the south and down the Potomac, com It is worth mentioning hore, by way of upon to preside, was a typical "great w
in pails.
had aben ond, would not have known 30,000 inhabitants, they were saluted. She survived him two and a half. parenthesis, that Nelly Castle married ( house” of the time, a very tezurions there wa
was, of course, no central-what it was meant for innemanar as by the firing of thirteen gans at the ears. Long tayward her remains General Washington's secretary, a young realderce though it was not all hoiting. Indeed, there were not even apparatus of the kind had not thea hoon Battery, and theiring, crized filled the and thase of the General were, trau man named Lewis, and Hyed to have after the Revolution that Washington any stova In 21 Virginin at that grandchildren of her own. Her brother added the library at the south end and period there was daly one staysia big: 1 hugs open fireplace, wherein hung big house at No Cherry Street which had where today in two white marble
invented,««The cooking was done, in, * stroels while they wore!
tha deized from the old-tomb to knew one George, inherited from his father the the "banquet, ball" at the north and one, for burning wood, in the House of iron pots, this culinary equipment being been malte ready for the President zád,", "sarcophagly they lie side by stak
that he allowed himself to be persuaded was George Washington Parke Cuntis; hundred and fifty slaves. He did not the girl was Eleanor (Nelly) Custis.. Washington adopted them.
daughter, who survived him. The bay was a baroniat domain, and belonging Vernon, The wool was grown by
10 stay over night; and, going on to Williamsburg the next morning, ho returned as quickly as possible, remain Upon the death of their father, General, often heard to any that he would give ing at the Chamberlaynes for several dayn,
No Longer An Ineligible' Bultor. Washington was
thea twenty-alx years old The widow Curtis war & few months his sunior. He was over six foot tall, muscular, with a long face and large nose, his blue-grey oyes over- hung by heavy brows Hia face was somewhat pock-marked, from smallpox contracted in Barbados while he was thore, seven years earlier, with his invalid half-brother Lawrence. The chin was strong, and, only now and then did his firmly-seb lips tergal, defective teeth.