Part 26 (1/2)
Alfred Friendly, the well-known newspaper man.
Next door, where there is now a big apartment house, used to be a large, double brick house, which was for many years the home of Abraham Herr, who with the Cissels conducted an important flour-milling business in Georgetown. His son, Austin Herr, was a fine figure of a man, and was, I think, a promoter. I distinctly remember as a little girl his return from a trip to China and the tales of all the treasures he had brought back with him--not so common then as now.
At No. 1669, in the eighties lived one of the oddest characters--Mrs.
Dall. She had come from Ma.s.sachusetts many years before to teach at Miss English's Seminary. While there she received frequent visits from young Mr. Dall who was an a.s.sistant at Christ Church while finis.h.i.+ng his course at the Episcopal Seminary near Alexandria. The gentleman stayed so late sometimes--probably until eleven o'clock--that Miss English had to ask him to mend his ways. The courts.h.i.+p resulted in a marriage, but before long the bridegroom went off to India as a missionary to convert the heathen. After some years the news came that, instead, he had been converted to Hinduism. At last he was coming home. It was in the spring and, of course, there had to be a spring cleaning, which took several days. One night about twelve o'clock, when the peace of the old-time world, minus the automobile and blaring radio, lay over old Georgetown, the clop-clop of horses' hoofs was heard coming up Congress Street, stopping in front of Mrs. Dall's. Then there was a great knocking on the door--a window was raised and a voice called: ”Who is that?” ”It's Henry.” Came back from the wife: ”Well, I'm in the midst of house-cleaning. Go on down to the Willard and stay until I send for you.” A warm welcome, and one not approved of by the neighbors who had heard the conversation through their windows.
Mrs. Dall was not very popular in Georgetown, it being overwhelmingly Southern in its sympathies and she being an abolitionist. I can dimly remember her padding down 31st Street, for so her progress might be called from the form of footwear she wore, it had no form--the queerest, high, shapeless boots. She wore a little close-fitting bonnet and a long, loose, grayish cape. She was a most particular person in some ways. A lady who lived there as a housekeeper said she was never allowed to leave her thimble on the window sill for a few moments; and it was well known that when a caller rang the front door bell the maid who answered had orders to scan the costume closely. If there was ”bugle tr.i.m.m.i.n.g” among its adornments the caller was shown into the parlor on the right side, where the furniture was all stuffed and no harm could be done, but if the clothes were devoid of the s.h.i.+ny, scratchy gear, she might safely be allowed to enter and sit upon the polished mahogany of the room on the left of the hall. She used to have a sort of salon for long-haired scientists and exponents of all sorts of ”isms.”
Another story I've heard was about her going out to Normanstone to stay for a rest. One morning after breakfast, having had a plentiful helping of oatmeal with lots of cream, her hostess remarked to Mrs. Dall how well she looked. ”Yes,” she said, she ”felt well,” and ended up with ”a little starvation is always good for one.” Is it a wonder she wasn't greatly beloved?
[Ill.u.s.tration: LLOYD BEALL]
A very handsome and imposing old gentleman, Mr. Joe Davis, who was a bachelor, lived here in the nineties. I remember him always, in his frock coat and high silk hat. This was where Mr. and Mrs. Fulton Lewis lived for many years and where their son, Fulton Lewis, junior, the noted radio commentator, grew up.
The house has been for several years the home of the Honorable and Mrs.
Francis E. Biddle. He was the Attorney-General under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Mrs. Biddle, whose pen name is Katharine Garrison Chapin, is an eminent poet.
Adjoining Tudor Place on the north live the Bealls, descendants of Lloyd Beall, who sold his patrimony in southern Maryland and converted the proceeds to equipping and sustaining his company during the Revolutionary War. He was adjutant on the staff of General Alexander Hamilton and was wounded at Germantown. Later he was captured by the British, but escaped by swimming the Santee River. The effect of this performance is shown by the water-logging on his commission which he carried in his pocket.
After being mustered out of the army he came to live in Georgetown, but just where his home was I cannot discover. He served as mayor of the town three times--in 1797, 1798 and 1799.
Upon the reorganization of the army he was reinstated, and died in command of the a.r.s.enal at Harper's Ferry. The Bealls who live here are also descended from Francis Dodge and from William Marbury.
In the seventies Frederick L. Moore came in to Georgetown from the country and built his home next door, so as to be between his two friends, John Beall and Joseph H. Bradley. The Bradleys no longer own this house nor their ancestral estate which was Chevy Chase, where the club of that name now is. Abraham Bradley came with the government from Philadelphia, as a.s.sistant Postmaster-General. He made his home in Was.h.i.+ngton City and then bought Chevy Chase as his country estate. He was living there in August, 1814, when the British came to Was.h.i.+ngton.
It is said that several members of the cabinet took refuge with him there during those two or three dreadful days and brought with them valuable records. His old house was mostly destroyed by fire several years ago.
His grandson, Joseph Henry Bradley, built the house at number 1688 31st Street. At the time of Lincoln's a.s.sa.s.sination he was living out in the country near Georgetown. He bore a remarkable resemblance to John Wilkes Booth and on April 15, 1865, the night after the tragic event in Ford's Theater, he was driving home in his buggy along a lonely road when he was held up by policemen and arrested. When he protested, he was told that he was John Wilkes Booth and was taken to jail. He insisted he was not, but to no avail. After a good while he got in touch with friends who identified him and he was released and went home. His wife had thought that her colored servants had been behaving strangely all day, but though living not more than five miles from the scene of the great tragedy, she herself had no knowledge of it.
In later years Mr. Bradley and his father, Joseph Habersham Bradley, who practiced law together, served as counsel in the famous John Surratt trial.
This house is now the home of Robert A. Taft, Senator from Ohio.
Chapter XVI
_Evermay, the Heights, and Oak Hill_
Evermay, on Montgomery (28th) Street, is one of the show-places of Georgetown. Its fascinating garden is shown every spring for the benefit of Georgetown Children's House by its owner, the Honorable F. Lamot Belin, at one time Amba.s.sador to Poland. He removed the cream-colored paint from the old house, revealing the lovely old-rose brick, and built the wall and the lodge at the gate when he bought the place in 1924.
Evermay used to extend all the way down to Stoddert (Q) Street. The original boundary is the little old stone in the corner of the property of Mrs. Thomas Bradley on Q and 28th Streets.
Evermay was built by Samuel Davidson with proceeds from the sale of property to the United States government. This included land for the northern part of the ”President's Square,” (the David Burns-Davidson property line pa.s.sing directly through the White House) and adjacent Federal property including Lafayette Park. He willed his estate to Lewis Grant, a nephew in Scotland, upon condition of his a.s.suming the Davidson surname.
Samuel Davidson is buried in the portion of Oak Hill Cemetery which was formerly part of the estate. Mr. Davidson must have been rather a strange person; certainly he was determined not to be bothered by people, for this is the advertis.e.m.e.nt he published:
Evermay proclaims, Take care, enter not here, For punishment is ever near.
Whereas, the height called Evermay, adjoining this town, is now completely enclosed with a good stone wall in part and a good post and rail fence thereto, this is to forewarn at their peril, all persons, of whatever age, color, or standing in society, from trespa.s.sing on the premises, in any manner, by day or by night; particularly all thieving knaves and idle vagabonds; all rambling parties; all a.s.signation parties; all amorous bucks with their dorfies, and all sporting bucks with their dogs and guns.
My man, Edward, who resides on the premises, has my positive orders to protect the same from all trespa.s.sers as far as in his power, with the aid of the following implements, placed in his hands for that purpose, if necessary, viz:--Law, when the party is worthy of that attention and proper testimony can be had, a good cudgel, tomahawk, cutla.s.s, gun and blunderbuss, with powder, shot and bullets, steel traps and gra.s.s snakes.