As I Remember
house for himself, he selected a residence suited to his tastes and
directed a builder to erect one like it. Speculative building was
entirely unknown, and if any resident of the District had embarked upon
such a venture he would have been regarded as the victim of a vivid but
disordered fancy.
Mrs. C. R. Latimer kept a fashionable boarding house in a large brick
dwelling facing Lafayette Square where the Belasco Theater now stands.
Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton Fish boarded with her while the former was a
Representative in Congress, and Mr. and Mrs. Sanders Irving, so well and
favorably known to all old Washingtonians, also made this house their
home. Many years later it was the residence of William H. Seward, and he
was living there when the memorable attempt was made in 1865 to
assassinate him. As is well known, it subsequently became the home of
James G. Blaine. When Hamilton Fish was elected to the Senate, he
purchased a house on H Street, between Seventeenth and Eighteenth
Streets, which was afterwards known as the "Porter house." Previously
it had been owned and occupied by General "Phil" Kearny.
The shops of Washington in 1845 were not numerous, and were located
chiefly upon Pennsylvania Avenue, Seventh Street then being a
residential section. The most prominent dry-goods store was kept by
Darius Clagett at the corner of Ninth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
Mr. Clagett, invariably cordial and courteous, always stood behind his
counter, and I have had many pleasant chats with him while making my
purchases. Although he kept an excellent selection of goods, it was
usually the custom for prominent Washington folk to make their larger
purchases in Baltimore. A little later Walter Harper kept a dry-goods
store on Pennsylvania Avenue, near Eighth Street, and some years later
two others appeared, one kept by William M. Shuster on Pennsylvania
Avenue, first between Seventh and Eighth Streets, and later between
Ninth and Tenth; and the other by Augustus and Thomas Perry on the
corner of Ninth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Charles Demonet, the
confectioner, made his appearance a little later on Pennsylvania Avenue,
between Seventeenth and Eighteenth Streets; but Charles Gautier, on
Pennsylvania Avenue, between Twelfth and Thirteenth Streets, was his
successful rival and was regarded more favorably in aristocratic
circles. Madame Marguerite M. Delarue kept a shop on the north side of
the same avenue, also between Twelfth and Thirteenth Streets, where
small articles of dress dear to the feminine heart could be bought.
There were several large grocery stores on the south side of
Pennsylvania Avenue, between Sixth and Seventh Streets. Benjamin L.
Jackson and Brother were the proprietors of one and James L. Barbour and
John A. Hamilton of another, although the two latter had their business
house at an earlier day on Louisiana Avenue. Louis Vavans was the
accomplished cook and caterer, and sent to their rooms the meals of
many persons temporarily residing in Washington. Joseph Redfern, his
son-in-law, kept a grocery store in the First Ward. Franck Taylor, the
father of the late Rear Admiral Henry C. Taylor, U.S.N., was the
proprietor of a book store on Pennsylvania Avenue, near Four-and-a-Half
Street, where many of the scholarly men of the day congregated to
discuss literary and current topics. His store had a bust of Sir Walter
Scott over its door, and he usually kept his front show-windows closed
to prevent the light from fading the bindings of his books. The Center
Market was located upon the same site as at present, but of course it
has since been greatly enlarged and improved. All the stores on
Louisiana Avenue sold at retail. I remember the grocery store of J.
Harrison Semmes on Ninth Street and Louisiana Avenue, opposite the
Center Market; and the hardware store kept by Joseph Savage on
Pennsylvania Avenue, between Sixth and Seventh Streets, and at another
time between Third and Fourth Streets.
On Fifteenth Street opposite the Treasury was another well-known
boarding house, conducted by Mrs. Ulrich and much patronized by members
of the Diplomatic Corps. Willard's Hotel was just around the corner on
the site of the New Willard, and its proprietor was Caleb Willard.
Brown's Hotel, farther down town, on Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth
Street, was a popular rendezvous for Congressional people. It was first
called the Indian Queen, and was kept by that prince of hosts, Jesse
Brown. After his death the name was changed to the Metropolitan.
The National Hotel on the opposite corner was the largest hostelry in
Washington. It boasted of a large Southern _clientele_, and until
President Buchanan's administration enjoyed a very prosperous career.
Subsequent to Buchanan's inauguration, however, a mysterious epidemic
appeared among the guests of the house which the physicians of the
District failed to satisfactorily diagnose. It became commonly known as
the "National Hotel disease," and resulted in numerous deaths. A notice
occasionally appeared in the current newspapers stating that the
deceased had died from this malady. Mrs. Robert Greenhow, in her book
published in London during the Civil War, entitled "My Imprisonment and
the First Years of Abolition Rule at Washington," attributes the
epidemic to the machinations of the Republicans, who were desirous of
disposing of President Buchanan. John Gadsby was its proprietor at one
time, from whom it usually went by the name of "Gadsby's." President
Buchanan was one of its guests on the eve of his inauguration.
When I first knew Washington, slavery was in full sway and, with but few
exceptions, all servants were colored. The wages of a good cook were
only six or seven dollars a month, but their proficiency in the culinary
art was remarkable. I remember once hearing Count Adam Gurowski, who had
traversed the European continent, remark that he had never anywhere
tasted such cooking as in the South. The grace of manner of many of the
elderly male slaves of that day would, indeed, have adorned a court.
When William L. Marcy, who, although a master in statesmanship and
diplomacy, was not especially gifted in external graces, was taking
final leave of the clerks in the War Department, where as Secretary he
had rendered such distinguished services under President Polk, he shook
hands with an elderly colored employee named Datcher, who had formerly
been a body servant to President Monroe, and said: "Good-bye, Datcher;
if I had had your manners I should have left more friends behind me."
Some years later, and after my marriage into the Gouverneur family, I
had the good fortune to have passed down to me a venerable colored man
who had served my husband's family for many years and whose name was
"Uncle James." His manner at times was quite overpowering. On entering
my drawing-room on one occasion to greet George Newell, brother-in-law
and guest of ex-Governor Marcy, I found him seated upon a sofa and
apparently engaged in a "brown study." Referring at once to "Uncle
James," he inquired: "Who is that man?" Upon my replying, "An old family
servant," he remarked: "Well, he is the most polite man I have ever
met."
Some years later my sister, Mrs. Eames, moved into a house on the corner
of H and Fourteenth Streets, which she and her husband had built and
which she occupied until her death in 1890. I naturally shrink from
dwelling in detail upon her charm of manner and social career, and
prefer rather to quote an extract from a sketch which appeared in one of
the newspapers just after her death:
... During the twenty-eight years of her married life in
Washington Mrs. Eames's house was one of the favorite
resorts of the most conspicuous and interesting men of the
nation; it was a species of neutral ground where men of all
parties and shades of political opinion found it agreeable
to foregather. Though at first in moderate circumstances and
living in a house which rented for less than $300 a year,
there was no house in Washington except, perhaps, the
President's, where one was sure of meeting any evening
throughout the year so many people of distinction.
Mr. and Mrs. Marcy were devoted to Mrs. Eames; her _salon_
was almost the daily resort of Edward Everett, Rufus Choate,
Charles Sumner, Secretary [James] Guthrie, Governor [John
A.] Andrews of Massachusetts, Winter Davis, Caleb Cushing,
Senator Preston King, N.P. Banks, and representative men of
that ilk. Mr. [Samuel J.] Tilden when in Washington was
often their guest. The gentlemen, who were all on the most
familiar terms with the family, were in the habit of
bringing their less conspicuous friends from time to time,
thus making it quite the most attractive _salon_ that has
been seen in Washington since the death of Mrs. Madison, and
made such without any of the attractions of wealth or
luxury.
The relations thus established with the public men of the
country at her fireside were strengthened and enriched by a
voluminous correspondence. Her father, who was a very
accomplished man, had one of the largest and choicest
private libraries in New York, of which, from the time she
could read, Mrs. Eames had the freedom; in this library she
spent more time than anyone else, and more than anywhere
else, until her marriage. As a consequence, it is no
disparagement to any one else to say that during her
residence there she was intellectually quite the most
accomplished woman in Washington. Her epistolary talent was
famous in her generation.
Her correspondence if collected and published would prove to
have been not less voluminous than Mme. de Sevigne's and, in
point of literary art, in no particular inferior to that of
the famous French woman.
After three or four months spent in Washington, I returned to my home in
New York; and several years later, in the spring of 1848, suffered one
of the severest ordeals of my life. I refer to my father's death. No
human being ever entered eternity more beloved or esteemed than he, and
as I look back to my life with him I realize that I was possibly more
blessed than I deserved to be permitted to live with such a well-nigh
perfect character and to know him familiarly. From my earliest childhood
I was accustomed to see the sorrowing and oppressed come to him for
advice. He was especially qualified to perform such a function owing to
his long tenure of the office of Surrogate. Widows and orphans who could
not afford litigation always found in him a faithful friend. With a
capacity of feeling for the wrongs of others as keenly as though
inflicted upon himself, his sympathy invariably assumed a practical form
and he accordingly left behind him hosts of sorrowing and grateful
hearts. A short time before his death I visited a dying widow, a devoted
Roman Catholic, whom from time to time my father had assisted. When I
was about to leave, she said: "Say to your father I hope to meet him
among the just made perfect." This remark of a poor woman has been to me
through all these years a greater consolation than any public tribute or
imposing eulogy. Finely chiseled monuments and fulsome epitaphs are not
to be compared with the benediction of grateful hearts.
The funeral services were conducted, according to the custom of sixty
years ago, by the Rev. Dr. William Adams and the Rev. Dr. Philip
Milledoler. Members of the bar and many prominent residents of New York,
including his two physicians, Doctors John W. Francis and Campbell F.
Stewart, walked behind the coffin, which, by the way, was not placed in