As I Remember
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
associated. 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
Wilcox, widow of the Hon. John A. Wilcox, 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. Wilcox
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 passed into history and is too well
known to bear repetition 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 Institution.
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 pronounce upon his scholarly
attainments nor upon the estimate in which he is held by the learned
world of to-day, but it may be assumed 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
Institution," 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 assumed 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 assume 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 pronounced blond, wore her hair in many ringlets
and was _petite_ 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 grasshopper 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