Dr. William Brown and His Dwelling
[212 South Fairfax Street. Owners: Honorable and Mrs. Howard R. Tolley.]
Between George Mason's house, Gunston Hall, and Mount Vernon, on Highway
1, about seventeen miles south of Alexandria, stands the colonial church
of Pohick. There is an old cemetery behind a brick wall, beginning at
the very door of the church and rambling over an acre or so of the yard.
Among the tombs is that of one man peculiarly and intimately connected
with the town of Alexandria.
He was one of the forty-odd officers of the Revolution to go from here,
one of the twelve or more charter members of the Society of the
Cincinnati, prominent for his contribution to his profession, and
remembered for his friendship and association with Washington. His tomb
was not originally placed at Pohick. It stood for many years in the
private graveyard at Preston, now the site of the Potomac railroad
yards, and was removed when that vandal of our port, "Progress" claimed
the site.
Let us trace the worn letters on the old stone:
In Memory of/William Brown, M.D./(Formerly Physician General to the
Hospital of the United States)/who died on the 11th day of Jan'y
1792/in the 44th year of his age;/This Tablet is inscribed/by/his
affectionate & afflicted widow/His zeal & fidelity as a Patriot/His
patience, diligence & skill as a Physician/His benevolence, curtesy &
integrity as a Man/Secured him/the applause of his country/the honor
& emoluments of his Profession/the respect of the Wealthy/and/the
veneration of the Poor/Let/the grateful witness of his virtues in
domestic life/add/that as a Husband, Father & Master he was tender,
instructive & humane/that he lived without guile/and died without
reproach.
Dr. Brown's grandfather was Dr. Gustavus Brown who emigrated to Maryland
in 1708 and in 1710 married Frances, the daughter of Colonel Gerard
Fawke. Their son, Richard Brown, returned to England to prepare himself
for the church. Richard's son, William, was born in Scotland in 1748;
was educated at the University of Edinburgh, graduated in 1770, and came
to America. This is Alexandria's Dr. Brown.
This young Scotsman, gentle born, learned, traveled, handsome, came to
Virginia at the age of twenty-two. He began to explore the south side of
the Potomac, and his path often led to Dumfries and to the homes of his
relations there, the Reverend James Scott's family, at the rectory, and
the Blackburns at Rippon Lodge. Sometimes the carriage was brought out,
or the horses saddled, or even the barge manned, and off to Mount Vernon
the family would go.
It was always pleasant at Mount Vernon for young people. Never the week
went by but some of them gathered for dinner or to spend the night, and
often both. When Washington returned from Alexandria, where he was
attending court on May 19, 1772, he found his guests included Colonel
Blackburn and lady, from Rippon Lodge, Miss Scott, Mrs. Blackburn's
sister (both were daughters of James Scott, rector of the Church at
Dumfries), Miss Brown and young Dr. Brown. "This company spent the night
and went away the next morning."[116]
Whether this was the beginning or the culmination of the romance, none
now can tell, but by 1774 Miss Scott was already Mrs. Brown, and the
mother of two very small sons, William Jr. being born that year. The
young family was doubtless residing in General Washington's town house,
and for this there is the authority of the General himself. In a letter
to his nephew, Bushrod, dated November 1788, he writes, "If you could
accomodate yourself to my small house in Town (where Doctr. Brown
formerly lived) you shall be very welcome to the use of it rent
free."[117]
Previous to this, in 1785, Lund Washington's ledger reveals that he had
received L40 from Dr. Brown on account of Gen^l Washington for "Rent of
House in Alexandria."[118] In the General's own account ledger he refers
to Dr. Brown's rent as having been fixed by "M^r L^d Washington at L60 a
year for My House," and the sum is cancelled due to advances made by Dr.
Brown and for professional services.[119]
In July 1783, Dr. Brown purchased from John Mills the white clapboard
house that has been identified as his Alexandria home. He purchased
twenty-six additional feet south on Fairfax Street adjoining his
dwelling house, from Robert Townshend Hooe and Richard Harrison,
merchants, on July 10, 1790. This property became his garden.
[Illustration: Dr. William Brown's clapboard residence]
An Alexandria tradition and the Brown family belief is that the house
was built by him prior to the Revolution. It is, indeed, very old and
probably dates between 1757, when the property was mortgaged by William
Ramsay to John Dixon of White Haven, England, and 1783, when the
property was sold to Dr. William Brown by John Mills, for the sum of
L280, indicating a substantial structure. There was at least one house
on lot No. 65, and Dr. Brown's house is the only one standing on that
lot today at all indicative of a pre-Revolutionary dwelling. If the
house was not built by Ramsay, the probability is that it was built by
Mills between 1777 and 1783, which is doubtful, as building during the
Revolution was so difficult as to make it almost impossible.
The home of the young Browns was the gathering place for the elite of
Alexandria and the countryside. The Washingtons dined and passed the
evening frequently. The Blackburns came often from Rippon Lodge, the
Brown cousins from Port Tobacco, and of course Dr. Craik from around the
corner. Colonel Fitzgerald, Colonel Swope, and Colonel Lyles were all
near neighbors.
The Doctor was a man of fine attainments. Active in the church, he
served as vestryman at Christ Church; public spirited, he was the moving
force in the founding of the Sun Fire Company; and the Alexandria
academy was largely his idea. It was in great part due to his efforts
that Washington was aroused to take an active part in this project, to
contribute L50 annually, and at his death to will L1,000 to this
institution.
At the outbreak of the war with England, Washington showed his
confidence by appointing Dr. Brown Physician-General and Director of
Hospitals of the Continental Army. He served throughout the Revolution.
Brown wrote and published the first _American Pharmacopoeia_ in 1778,
"For the sake of expedition and accuracy in performing the Practice, and
also to introduce a degree of uniformity therein throughout the several
hospitals," the title pages read.
It was due to hardships suffered at Valley Forge that he died in 1792 at
the age of forty-four years. The following notice appeared in the
_Virginia Gazette and Alexandria Advertiser_ for Thursday, January 19,
1792:
On Friday, last, after a tedious and excrutiating illness, the iron
hand of relentless Death arrested and hurried that amiable citizen,
DR. WILLIAM BROWN, to the World of Spirits, "from whence no Traveller
returns!" All the love we bore him could not add one "supernumerary
gasp." He long felt the approaches of vital dissolution--no vain
laments--but sustained it with religious intrepidity, such as marks
the dignity of a Christian Hero.
He felt the force of Republican Principles early in life, and stept
forth, in the infancy of the American war, to oppose the British
King.--How often have I heard him, with the ardour of a Patriot,
expatiate on the firmness and virtues of a Hampden and a Sidney!
Viewing with horror the piteous situation of our virtuous and wounded
Soldiery--the derangement of the hospitals and medical department--he
relinquished his domestic ease and lucrative employment, and offered
his services to the Continental Congress. They were accepted--How he
conducted the interesting and important charge, the testimony of that
respectable body and his grateful country have long declared. Having
arranged and reformed the constitution of the army allocated to his
care, and reduced the wild and extravagant practice to system and
order, he left the service, and resumed his vocation in this Town; in
which he discovered the most exemplary tenderness, and unusual depth
of professional knowledge. He was sagacious by nature, inquisitive
and comprehensive, improved by study, and refined by sentiment. He
was equalled by few in the social and domestic virtues of politeness
and benevolence. He was the accomplished Gentleman, and finished
Scholar--the best of Husbands, and the best of Parents. The Poor and
needy ever experienced the humanity of his tender and sympathetic
soul. He was a man to hear "Afflicktion's cry." The loss of so much
charity, friendship and beneficence but claims the tributary tear;
But, temper your grief, ye pensive Relatives, and afflicted Friends--
"The toils of life and pangs of death are O'er;
And care, and pain, and sickness are no more."
He is gone, we fondly hope, to chant anthems of praise to an
approving God! Though the struggles of nature are agonizing and
prevailing, yet disturb not his gentle shade by impassioned
woe!--"The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; Blessed be the
name of the Lord."
[Illustration: Hall and stairway in Dr. Brown's House]
There are not many reminders left of the good Doctor. In the Library of
Congress a few bills rendered to Colonel John Fitzgerald for outfitting
ships' medicine boxes and attending sick sailors; a letter from one
Thomas Bond of Philadelphia written in April 1784 to Colonel Fitzgerald
stating that his brother "goes to Virginia to study Physic under Dr.
Brown." In the Virginia State Library is a tax report showing that for
the year 1784 he owned eight slaves and one cattle, and that in 1789 the
Doctor had three blacks and two horses. The minutes he wrote as clerk
and treasurer of the Sun Fire Company are preserved and, of course, a
few copies of his _Pharmacopoeia_.
The Dr. William Brown house stands today much as it stood during his
lifetime. Architecturally and historically it is one of the most
interesting in Alexandria. No great house, this modest home built of
white clapboard over brick and sitting close to the ground, rises two
and one-half stories, hiding behind its stout doorway some of the best
and certainly the most original woodwork in the old town.
One enters a spacious hall, the wide board floors of which are worn with
the passing of many years, and colored by use and time a deep amber.
Running around the hall is paneled wainscoting in alternating vertical
and horizontal panels. The stairway rises from about the middle of the
hall in easy steps to the second floor, the spindles are rather
primitive and the entire stairway has a provincial air. The white
baluster rail is matched by a handrail and supported by half a matching
newel post; wherever the cornice breaks, it turns against itself. An
amusing feature, one found sometimes in old houses, is an inside window
opening from the back drawing room into the hallway.
If the stair is simple, certainly the woodwork in the upstairs front
room is most ambitious. Mantel, overmantel and matching cupboards cover
one entire wall, the chimney end of the room. The mantel is flanked by
two fluted pilasters, reaching from floor to denticulated cornice. Above
the shelf is a rectangular dog-eared panel, in each of the four ears of
which is a rosette. Under the shelf, oblong panels carry out the same
design, divided by a carved half urn. The shelf is supported by consoles
and decorated by a fret that returns around the urn. The cupboards on
each side of the mantel have, at the top, circular glass doors,
surmounted by an arch and keystone. The bottom doors are wood paneled.
The remainder of the woodwork is conventional, plain chair rail,
baseboard and trim.
[Illustration: Dr. Brown's upstairs parlor]
The kitchen with its Dutch oven in the great brick chimney; the large
fireplace where the old crane still hangs sturdily enough to support
Mrs. Brown's best dinner, are in an excellent state of preservation. One
is intrigued by some very ancient and peculiar waterworks that formed a
part of the sanitary equipment in the culinary department and which
function to this day. There is a heavy hand-hewn stone sink and a copper
caldron with its own firebox and ashpit. Formerly a large oaken bathtub
stood in the back room off the kitchen and the water heated in the
copper caldron was available to both rooms. An old brass spigot that
served the bathtub remains.
At Dr. Brown's death the house passed to his widow. She left it in trust
for her daughter, Sarah Maynadier, and the Maynadier grandchildren at
her death in 1813. The house remained in the Maynadier family until
April 26, 1842, when the property was purchased by James Green for
seventeen hundred dollars. In 1940, the present owners, the Honorable
and Mrs. H.R. Tolley, acquired the property.
Dr. Brown's home has fallen into sympathetic hands. Today Queen Anne
chairs and piecrust tables grace the parlor. From the hall comes the
vibrating tick-tock of a fine old clock. Logs blaze cheerfully in open
fireplaces, the flames reflected in old and polished silver. The hall
window frames Catherine Brown's garden, which is divided into three
sections, one shut off from the other by wall or fence, making private
living areas of each. Old trees, brick walks, ivy and flowering shrubs
add their attractions. A tall brick smokehouse stands sentinel, all that
remains of a number of outbuildings which clustered, village fashion,
about the dwelling.
[Illustration: Dr. William Brown. From a miniature.
(_Courtesy Mrs. Bessie Wilmarth Gahn_)]
[Illustration]