_Along First Street (N) from Cox's Row to High Street (Wisconsin Ave.)_
On the northeast corner of First Street (N) and Frederick (34th) Street
stands the row of houses which John Cox built. Colonel Cox was for many
years most prominent in all the affairs of Georgetown, serving as its
Mayor longer than any other one man from 1823 to 1845--22 years. John
Cox was of English descent. He was born in 1775 during the Revolution,
was the youngest of four children, and being left an orphan as a small
child, was raised by an uncle who was a banker in Baltimore. He later
lived for a while in Philadelphia, and from there came to Georgetown. He
first married Matilda Smith, a sister of Clement Smith, well known as
the first cashier of the Farmers' & Mechanics Bank, later its president.
They had three children, one of whom was named Clement. By his second
marriage to Jane Threlkeld he had seven children.
In the War of 1812 he served as a Colonel. He was a large property owner
in Georgetown, besides being a well-to-do merchant. He built the row of
houses on First (N) Street, called by his name and lived for a while in
the house on the corner. That must have been during the period of his
first marriage, for after Jane Threlkeld became his wife they built a
lovely house on part of the Berleith estate, next door to the old
Threlkeld which had been burned, and called it The Cedars. It stood
where the Western High School now stands, and it is difficult to
realize now that there, in my memory, was a home surrounded by a mass of
trees and vines and was most delightfully private and charming. It was a
quaint and lovely old cream-colored mansion, a portico on its north
front, two long piazzas as usual, along the south side of the house. In
later years I myself went there to the private school kept by the Misses
Earle, whose father, George Earle purchased the place.
Colonel Cox was celebrated as a dandy. "He would saunter down town in
silk stockings and pumps, not getting a spot upon himself, while other
men would be up to their ankles in mud, for in those days there were no
pavements." Stepping-stones were placed at the corners of the streets
standing rather high above the roadway to facilitate the pedestrians.
Colonel Cox had moved up to The Cedars when, as mayor in 1824, it fell
to his lot to act as host for Georgetown to the Marquis de Lafayette,
when he made his famous visit.
A new arrival was imminent in the Cox family, so it was not advisable to
have the party, which he wished to give, at his home. Consequently, he
used one of these houses which was vacant at that time, number 3337; had
it furnished from top to bottom, his eldest daughter, Sally, acting in
her mother's place as hostess for the distinguished party invited to
meet the hero of the hour.
It is said that one young lady in her enthusiasm fell upon her knees
before the Marquis and impressed a kiss upon his hands. There was a
fashion in those days of decorating the floor by painting a pattern
around the edges with colored chalks--garlands of roses entwined with
the flags of the two countries. A marvelous supper was served; it is
said it included 600 reed birds. It is to be hoped it also included
other things more substantial than this high-sounding but sparsely
covered game.
The coach of Colonel Cox was at the disposal of the honored guest during
the period of his stay. When he made his formal entry into the District
of Columbia, having come by way of Baltimore, he was escorted by a troop
of cavalry from Montgomery County commanded by my grandfather, Captain
Henry Dunlop, a Georgetonian, then farming the family plantation, Hayes,
seven miles north of town.
Tradition says that number 3337 had a tunnel leading to the river. Some
such large opening was discovered when the owner excavated recently to
make a pool in the garden. In 1860 this house was the home of William A.
Gordon, for many years chief of the quartermaster's department. It was
from here that his eldest son of the same name left to enter the
Confederate Army. William A. Gordon, senior, born in Baltimore, had gone
to the Military Academy at West Point, and while there a terrible cry
arose about the poor quality of food furnished for the cadets. Mr.
Gordon was one of the three young men selected by the corps to go to
Washington to interview the President on the subject. The answer he gave
them was that he would see that conditions at the Academy were remedied,
but his advice to them was to send in their resignations immediately, as
there would be no career there for them after this.
From about 1865 to 1892 Mr. and Mrs. William Laird, Jr., made this
house their home. Mr. Laird was for forty years cashier of the Farmers'
and Mechanics' Bank, and was greatly respected. When he resigned he was
presented by the officials with a very handsome silver punch bowl, ladle
and tray and a large silver loving cup. He died suddenly a month or two
after giving up his business and his widow did not survive him long.
Mrs. Laird was Anna Key Ridgely, a charming person. They had no
children, nor had his brother, who never married, so this name, long so
honored here, has disappeared from Georgetown.
To return to the corner house. It was for several years the home of
Commodore Charles Morris, one of the eminent officers of the early U. S.
Navy. He made a remarkable record in the War with Tripoli, his earliest
achievement being on the occasion of the recapture and destruction of
the frigate _Philadelphia_ in the harbor of Tripoli in 1804. Midshipman
Morris, then nineteen years old, volunteered for the service and was the
first to stand on the deck of the _Philadelphia_ and commence the work
of destruction. At the beginning of the War of 1812 he held the rank of
lieutenant--and became executive officer of the _Constitution_, Captain
Isaac Hull being in command.
On the 17th of July, 1812, a very calm day, the frigate met a fleet of
British vessels, and the enemy thought they had an easy prize, but by a
combination of towing and kedging by means of the _Constitution's_ boats
and anchors, an extraordinary escape was made which, as Captain Hull
stated at the time, was conceived by Lieutenant Morris. Its successful
execution commanded the admiration of his countrymen and won the
applause even of the British officers.
Commodore Morris was chosen to escort Lafayette back to France on the U.
S. S. _Brandywine_, and while on a visit to the general his portrait was
painted by Amy Shaffer and sent back to Mrs. Morris as a gift from the
Marquis.
In 1842 the property was bought by James Keith who was a great friend of
General Washington, Mr. Keith's daughter married Mr. Forrest, and their
son French Forrest was an officer in the United States Navy, but like
many others in this part of the world, went into the Southern Navy
during the Civil War. At the time of his funeral W. W. Corcoran, who was
a very intimate friend, was a pall-bearer. In those days it was the
style for the mourners to wear a long streamer of crepe around their
hats and hanging down a foot or two. Little Douglas Forrest, the son of
the deceased, began to cry, saying he "wanted some funeral on his hat."
Mr. Corcoran took him in hand and insisted that he should have his wish
and be arrayed like the other mourners.
In the other houses of that row lived, at number 3335, just before the
Civil War, a family named Semmes from New Orleans who had several
daughters considered very beautiful. Cora Semmes became the wife of
Colonel Joseph Ives, a brilliant young engineer officer of the United
States Army, who, although of Northern birth, espoused the Southern
cause. He was put on General Lee's staff, and later transferred to be
aide-de-camp to Jefferson Davis where, in Richmond he and his wife
became prominent and useful in entertaining distinguished foreigners, as
she was noted for her charm as well as her beauty.
In number 3333 Judge Robert Ould resided. His father had been one of
the founders of the Lancastrian School. Mattie Ould, whose name still is
a synonym for grace, beauty and wit, spent her childhood here. After the
Oulds went to Richmond this house was for a time the home of Henry
Addison, while he was mayor. Later on the Cropleys lived in it.
William Hunter lived for a great many years in number 3331, when he was
Assistant Secretary of State. Women of my generation still remember him
for his love of little children and his gifts to them of toys and
goodies.
Across on the southeast corner of First (N) Street and Frederick (34th)
Street at 3340 is the house which Harry Hopkins, the great friend of
Franklin D. Roosevelt, bought and moved to with his new wife and his
daughter Diana, when they left the White House where they had been
living for a year or more. This was his home at the time of his death.
On this street used to live the Marburys before they moved to The
Heights, and also the Wheatleys of whom there were several households in
Georgetown in the latter part of the last century.
A block eastward on the same side of the street is another row of
charming old houses, built about 1800 by Colonel James Smith, "lately
returned from the Revolutionary War." In the one on the corner of First
(N) and Potomac Streets used to live Mrs. Gannt and her daughter Clare
and Mrs. Gannt's sister Mrs. Smith. I think they were descendants of the
builder of the row. Their old home was for a time occupied by Mr. and
Mrs. Blair Thaw, the former a poet, the latter an artist.
Third from the corner at 3259, in the middle of the 19th century lived
Dr. Lewis Ritchie who had an extensive practice. I think he was the son
of Dr. Joshua Ritchie. This house was the home of Hon. and Mrs. Lewis A.
Douglas when he was the sole representative in Congress from Arizona.
Later he was Director of the Budget and within recent years Ambassador
to the Court of St. James. This house is now the home of Mrs. McCook
Knox who is very well known in connection with the study of Early
American Portraits and has been connected with the Frick Art Reference
Library of New York since its inception. In the front room of the attic
of 3259 were doors of rough hewn wood with old iron bolts leading into
rooms of the two adjoining houses. The story is that in the War of 1812
this row of houses used to be watched. A soldier would be stationed on
the corner, but the "questionable person" never emerged, he could escape
through the attic rooms and come out at the end of the row.
No. 3257 is now the home of Hon. and Mrs. Richard B. Wigglesworth of
Massachusetts.
The old home of the Shoemaker family was at 3261. While he was Assistant
Secretary of War it was the home of Hon. and Mrs. F. Trubee Davison and
is now the home of Hon. and Mrs. James J. Wadsworth of New York.
All of this part of Georgetown west of High Street (Wisconsin Avenue)
used to be called Holy Hill, because of the great number of Irish who
dwelt in the neighborhood. On Saint Patrick's Day there were parades and
fights, and all kinds of excitement.
There were also a good many respectable colored Catholics, and near
here, on Potomac Street, dwelt a family of Coakleys. Magdalen Coakley
thought she was the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary. She got herself
up to look like the Virgin, in sweeping white robes and a sky-blue veil
and cloak. She was not a very dark negress and had a fine countenance
and striking figure. She used to go about the streets blessing little
children and wanting to baptize them, followed, of course, by a string
of boys making fun of her. She would go up to Trinity Church and stand
by the door; but once she wanted to help the priest give Communion, so
they had to forbid her coming. Of course the poor soul thought she was
being persecuted, but she took it in a Christian manner and prayed all
the harder, on the street and everywhere. She lived to be an old woman
still wearing her picturesque costume.
Her sister, Frances, was nurse for three generations for the Hein family
whose home was at number 3249 N Street, now entirely changed by its
modernized roof and steps.
Samuel Hein had emigrated from Koenigsberg, Germany, as a young man, and
had become an American citizen. He was fifty-six years in the Coast and
Geodetic Survey, retiring as its disbursing officer. He was an ardent
Union man, and during the four years of the Civil War kept the Stars and
Stripes flying from one of his windows. All through the two terrible
days after the Battle of Bull Run, when the Northern troops were
streaming through Georgetown, Mr. Hein maintained a soup kitchen for the
soldiers in his back yard. His wife was the daughter of John Simpson who
lived on the corner of High Street (Wisconsin Avenue) and West (P)
Streets. Her brother, James Alexander Simpson, was a rather well-known
portrait painter. They were quite a musical and artistic family.
One son Charles Hein was an artist and had his studio in a little frame
house still standing on 31st (Congress) behind another house, opposite
the post office. There he took pupils. He was very picturesque in
appearance, tall and dark, wore a drooping mustache, low collar with
flowing black cravat and wide-brimmed black hat and cape.
Another son Col. O. L. Hein in an interesting book called _Memories of
Long Ago_ tells this story:
One day in the spring of 1861, as I was passing the residence of the
pastor of St. John's Church, The Rev. Mr. Tillinghast, quite near
our house, I was attracted by the sight of a dashing young Cavalry
officer, who was showing off the paces of his handsome black charger
to the Minister. I lingered nearby, greatly enjoying the equestrian
performance, and upon its conclusion I was informed by the
clergyman, that the name of the young officer was William Orton
Williams, and that he was the military secretary of Lt. General
Winfield Scott.
In the following year I was shocked to read in a local newspaper the
account of the trial and conviction of Williams and his cousin, Lt.
W. G. Peter (resident of Georgetown) as spies under the assumed
names of General W. C. Auton and Major Dunlop, of the Union Army, by
a drumhead Court Martial, and their conviction and execution by
hanging. In recent years I was informed by my wife's mother, Mrs.
Ross, that she remembered Williams quite well, and that he was
engaged to Miss Anne Lee, the daughter of General R. E. Lee; but
that she died, on the outbreak of the Civil War. Mrs. Ross was a
cousin of General Lee, and a freqeunt visitor at Arlington before
the secession of Virginia.
Williams was of distinguished ancestry, the son of Capt. William G.
Williams, a graduate of West Point of the class of 1822, who was
mortally wounded at the Battle of Monterey, Mexico, while serving on
the staff of General Zachary Taylor, and his mother, America Peter
was the daughter of Thomas Peter, a prominent citizen of
Georgetown, whose wife Martha Parke Custis was the granddaughter of
Mrs. George Washington and an aunt of Mary Custis the wife of
General R. E. Lee.
Just next door to this house is the site where, even before 1780, stood
the Columbian Academy of which Mr. Rogers was the principal and of which
Dr. Balch became the head in 1781. It was a large, two-story frame
building, having a high entrance porch, where hung the bell. It stood on
a hill which commanded a fine view of the river from the study rooms
upstairs. Adjacent to the schoolroom was a large garden in the middle
of which was a jessamine arbor. Two of General Washington's nephews were
students of the school and lived with the principal.
Here was housed the Columbian Library which was opened in 1803. In later
years the present building was erected but having a very different
appearance. Here lived Hugh Caperton a well known lawyer.
I myself lived here as a very small child when I was two or three years
old and one of my very first memories is being dared by my brothers and
sisters to jump off the stone wall fronting the street, about four feet
high. I felt as if I had to jump from the Washington Monument, but I did
it, with no ill effects.
It was after that the home, for many years, of the Barbers. Old Mrs.
Barber moved there with her grandchildren when she sold her home where
the United States Naval Observatory now stands. She was the daughter of
Major Adlum whose home was The Vineyard where the Bureau of Standards is
now. His place was well named for he was a great horticulturist, the
first to domesticate the Catawba grape. It grew wild in North Carolina.