all her fine clothes. The whole walls were hung thick with
dresses of silk and satin and velvet pelisses trimmed with
fur; braided riding-habits; mantles of damasked black silk;
band-boxes piled from floor to ceiling full of wonderful
bonnets, some of tremendous size, fine large leghorn straw,
costing from fifty to one hundred dollars; also veils that
would reach to the knee of fine old English lace; gold and
silver ruching; and fine embroidered cashmere turbans, a
perfect museum of fashion from 1800 to 1840."
To another visitor Mrs. Cruger explained that it had long been her
custom to put aside each year two gowns made in the fashion of that
year.
In her old age she liked to be alone. Frequently she would send every
one from the house that she might bathe at night. Once her physician
urged her to keep her maid near her. "Why?" she asked; "because I am
afraid? afraid of what? of death? Death will not come to me for twenty
years yet." She was then ninety years old, and she lived to be nearly
one hundred and two. She is buried, by the side of her two husbands,
in Old Stone Church Cemetery on the hill above Elm Grove. A rough
monument carries inscriptions to the memory of the three pioneers
whose lives, as has been pointed out by a local historian, "covered
the Indian War, the Colonial Period, the War of the American
Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Civil War."
LXXXVIII
THE CASTLE AT FORT NIAGARA, NEW YORK
THE OLDEST BUILDING IN THE NORTHERN UNITED STATES, WEST OF THE MOHAWK
"The story of Fort Niagara is peculiarly the story of the fur trade
and the strife for commercial monopoly," Frank H. Severance of the
Buffalo Historical Society said in an address delivered at the fort in
1896; "and it is, too, in considerable measure, the story of our
neighbor, the magnificent colony of Canada.... It is a story replete
with incidents of battle and siege, of Indian cruelty, of patriot
captivity, of white men's duplicity, of famine, disease, and
death,--of all the varied forms of misery and wretchedness of a
frontier post, which we in days of ease are wont to call picturesque
and romantic. It is a story without a dull page, and it is two and a
half centuries long.... I cannot better tell the story ... then to
symbolize Fort Niagara as a beaver skin, held by an Indian, a
Frenchman, an Englishman, and a Dutchman, each of the last three
trying to pull it away from the others (the poor Dutchman early bowled
over in the scuffle), and each European equally eager to placate the
Indian with fine words, with prayers, or with brandy, or to stick a
knife into his white brother's back."
The story begins in 1669, with the first efforts of the French to
secure possession of the Niagara country. It includes also the romance
of the building of the _Griffon_, the first vessel on the Great Lakes,
and the episode of the early fortification of the late seventeenth
century. But it was not until 1726, the year of the building of the
stone castle near the mouth of the Niagara River, that the fort had
its real beginning. The French felt compelled to build the fort
because the activity of the English was interfering with their own fur
trade with the Indians, and their plan to build Fort Oswego would
increase the difficulty. No time was to be lost; Governor Joncaire
felt that he could not wait for the approval of the authorities at
home. To these latter he sent word that he must build a fortress, and
he asked for an appropriation; to the Indians he declared that he
wished to have a mere trading station. His real purpose was indicated
when he wrote to France that the building "will not have the
appearance of a fort, so that no offence will be given to the
Iroquois, who have been unwilling to allow any there, but it will
answer the purpose of a fort just as well."
The first step was the construction of two barques for use on Lake
Ontario, to carry stone and timber for the building, and later, to
cruise on the lake and intercept traders bound for Oswego.
After the construction of the barques had been begun, the consent of
the five Iroquois nations was secured. Longueuil promised them that it
would be to them "a House of Peace" down to the third generation and
farther. To Gaspard Chaussegros de Lery, engineer, was committed the
building of the structure. He determined to make it fireproof.
"Instead of wooden partitions I have built heavy walls, and paved all
the floors with flat stone," he wrote in a report sent to France. The
loft was paved with flat stones "on a floor full of good oak joists,
upon which cannon may be placed above the structure."
The trade with the Indians at the completed stone house on the Niagara
increased. So did the activities of the English. Governor Burnet of
New York craftily persuaded the Onondaga Indians that their interests
had been endangered by the building of the French fort, since it
penned them up from their chief hunting-place, and was therefore
contrary to the Treaty of Utrecht; they agreed with him that the
Iroquois had no right to the territory, which was really the property
of the Senecas, and they asked the Governor to appeal to King George
to protect them in their right.
Therefore the suggestion was made that they "submit and give up all
their hunting country to the King," and sign a deed for it.
Accordingly Seneca, Cayuga, and Onondaga sachems deeded to the English
a sixty-mile strip along the south shore of Lake Ontario, which
included the Niagara frontier, the Niagara River being the western
boundary.
"From this time on the 'stone house' was on British soil; but it was
yet to take the new owner a generation to dispossess the obnoxious
tenant," Frank H. Severance writes in "An Old Frontier of France."
The story of the next thirty years is a story of plots and
counter-plots, of expeditions threatened and actual, of disappointing
campaigns, of imprisonment and cruelty and death. More than once
Indians promised the English that the house at Niagara should be
razed. Spies reported that the defences at the castle were in bad
shape; "'tis certain that, should the English once attack it, 'tis
theirs," one report ran. "I am informed that the fort is so
dilapidated that 'tis impossible to put a pin in it without causing it
to crumble; stanchions have been obliged to be set up against it to
support it." Another report disclosed that if the cannon were fired
the walls would crumble.
But the French were not ready to give up. They felt that Fort Niagara
was the key to the Ohio Valley, which they wished to control. They
strengthened the defences of the fort. The defeat of Braddock at Fort
Du Quesne and the strange decision of General Shirley to stop at
Oswego instead of continuing with his force to Niagara, gave the
French a new lease of life.
In 1759 came the end of French rule. General Prideaux's expedition
from New York began the siege of the fort early in July, and after
several weeks it capitulated. Until 1796 the English flag floated
above the "castle." The commander of this post, like the commanders of
six other forts, refused on various pretexts to surrender to America,
in spite of the terms of the treaty of 1783. Attempts were made to
secure possession, but none of them were successful, and it was not
until 1794 that Great Britain agreed to evacuate Niagara and the other
forts still held, "on or before the 1st of June, 1796."
Seventeen years later, in 1813, the British flag again replaced the
Stars and Stripes over the historic building, but the fort was
restored to the United States in 1815. Since that time it has been a
part of the army post that has been more important because of its
history than for any other reason.
The Daughters of the War of 1812 have placed a suitable tablet on the
Old Castle, and are interested in the proposition that has been made
to turn the venerable edifice into an international museum, which
shall commemorate the one hundred years of peace between Great Britain
and America.
In 1917 the eyes of the nation were once more turned on the fort by
Lake Ontario, for it was made a training ground for officers who were
to be sent to the battle front in France and Belgium. The castle,
nearly two hundred years old, and strong as ever, again witnessed the
gathering of patriots, and the spot that had echoed to the tread of
French who had yielded to the English, of English who had driven out
the French, and of Americans who had driven out the English, became
the parade ground of Americans who were making ready to stand side by
side with French and English for the freedom of the world.
[Illustration: THE SCHUYLER MANSION, ALBANY, N. Y.
_Photo furnished by Hon. Martin H. Glynn, Albany_
See page 391]
LXXXIX
THE SCHUYLER MANSION, ALBANY, NEW YORK
THE RALLYING PLACE OF THE CONSTITUTIONALISTS
When Catherine Van Rensselaer married Philip Schuyler, on September
17, 1755, he was a soldier who had been engaged in the campaign
against the French at Crown Point. She was glad when he resigned, in
1756, but he returned to army life in 1758 and at intervals for more
than twenty years he continued his military service. Two days after
the Battle of Bunker Hill Congress made him a major-general. During
his three years in the army of the Colonies, he was the subject of
continual abuse on the part of those who felt that he had conducted
carelessly his expedition to Canada and the campaign against Burgoyne.
He was able to stand up against the public clamor because Washington
had confidence in him and because he was twice given a clean bill of
health by a court of inquiry.
During this season of misunderstanding he was sustained by his wife,
who was a remarkable assistant both in his home and in public affairs.
During the years when he was frequently incapacitated by gout she
carried on much of his work for him, and so enabled him to maintain
his place in the councils of the nation.
It was in 1760 that Mrs. Schuyler first showed her great executive
ability. While her husband was absent in England, where he had been
sent by General Bradstreet, she superintended the erection of a new
house, a spacious mansion of yellow brick that is to-day as staunch
as when it was built.
From the beginning the Schuyler mansion, the home of the first citizen
of Albany, was noted because of the boundless hospitality of its
mistress. All were welcomed who sought its doors. One notable company
was made up of nine Catawba warriors from South Carolina, who were on
their way to ratify a covenant with the Six Nations at the close of
the Cherokee War. They were met at the wharf by Major Schuyler and
taken directly to the house.
Among the visitors to Albany in 1776 were three Commissioners
appointed by Congress to visit the Army of the North, one of whom,
Benjamin Franklin, was so wearied by the journey from Philadelphia
that he was sincerely grateful for Mrs. Schuyler's care. One of the
Commissioners said later of General Schuyler, "He lives in pretty
style, and has two daughters, Betsey and Peggy, lively, agreeable
gals." He was delighted to learn that the motto of Philip Schuyler and
his household was, "As for me and my house, we will serve our
country."
Another of the fortunate men who were privileged to be in the house
for a season was Tench Tilghman, an aide-de-camp of General
Washington. He wrote in his journal of "Miss Ann Schuyler, a very
Pretty Young Lady. A brunette with dark eyes, and a countenance
animated and sparkling, as I am told she is." Later he met "Miss
Betsey, the General's 2nd Daughter." "I was prepossessed in favor of
the Young Lady the moment I saw her," he said. "A Brunette with the
most good natured dark lovely eyes I ever saw, which threw a beam of
good temper and Benevolence over her entire countenance. Mr.
Livingstone informed me that I was not mistaken in my Conjecture for
she was the finest tempered Girl in the World."
Tench Tilghman was to renew the acquaintance in 1779, when Betsey and
her parents spent a few months in Morristown, New Jersey. Alexander
Hamilton also was there, and he secured Betsey's promise to be his
bride.
The marriage took place at the Albany homestead on December 14, 1780.
A few months later the young husband, having resigned from the army,
was studying law in Albany and was a welcome addition to the Schuyler
household.
Two years after the wedding came one of the incidents that has made
the mansion famous. Because of the General's influence with the Indian
allies of the British, a number of attempts were made to capture him;
the British wished to put him where he could not interfere with their
plans. One summer day, when Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Hamilton's sister
Margaret, was in the house with her baby Philip, a party of Tories,
Canadians, and Indians surrounded the house and forced an entrance.
Mary Gay Humphreys, in "Catherine Schuyler," tells what followed:
"The house was guarded by six men. Their guns were in the
hall, the guards being outside and the relief asleep. Lest
the small Philip be tempted to play with the guns his mother
had them removed. The alarm was given by a servant. The
guards rushed for their guns, but they were gone. The family
fled upstairs, but Margaret, remembering the baby in the
cradle below, ran back, seized the baby, and when she was
halfway up the flight, an Indian flung his tomahawk at her
head, which, missing her, buried itself in the wood, and
left its historic mark to the present time."
After the attack on the mansion Washington wrote to General Schuyler,
begging him to strengthen his guard. The following year the
Commander-in-chief was a guest at the mansion, while in 1784 he spent
the night there, after an evening consultation with Schuyler, while
Mrs. Washington visited with her friend Mrs. Schuyler.
Lafayette, Count de Rochambeau, Baron Steuben, Charles Carroll of
Carrollton, John Jay, and Aaron Burr had a taste of the delights of
life at the mansion. The latter was destined to defeat General
Schuyler for reelection to the Senate, as he was to be in turn
defeated by the General. The British General Burgoyne and his staff
also were entertained in the mansion, after General Schuyler's victory
at Saratoga, and this in spite of the fact that much of the General's
property had been destroyed by Burgoyne's order.
For many years the house was famous as the meeting place of the
friends of the young nation. Frequent conferences were held in the
library on the proposed constitution. It is said that many sections of
the document were written there by Hamilton, and the steps of the
campaign for the ratification of the document were outlined within the
historic walls. When, at last, the victory was complete, General
Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton walked at the head of the gay
procession that hailed the news with joy. The whole town was
illuminated, but the most brilliantly lighted building was the old
mansion.
During the years that followed General Schuyler's health failed
gradually, and he became more than ever dependent on his wife. When
she died, in 1803, he did not know what to do without her. To
Hamilton he wrote:
"My trial has been severe. I shall attempt to sustain it with
fortitude. I hope I have succeeded in a degree, but after
giving and receiving for nearly a half a century, a series of
mutual evidences of affection and friendship which increased
as we advanced in life, the shock was great and sensibly
felt, to be thus suddenly deprived of a beloved wife, the
Mother of my children, and the soothing companion of my
declining years. But I kiss the rod with humility. The Being
that inflicted the stroke will enable me to sustain the
smart, and progressively restore peace to my wounded heart,
and will make you and Eliza and my other children the
instruments of my Consolation...."
General Schuyler died in November, 1804, four months after the duel
with Burr in which Hamilton was slain.
The mansion in which he spent so many happy years was long an orphan
asylum, but in 1911 it was purchased by the State. On October 17,
1917, it was dedicated as a State Monument.
[Illustration: WENTWORTH HOUSE, PORTSMOUTH, N. H.
_Photo by Halliday Historic Photograph Company_
See page 395]
XC
THE WENTWORTH HOUSE, PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE
THE SCENE OF THE ROMANCE OF LADY WENTWORTH
When, in 1750, Governor Benning Wentworth began to rebuild for his
mansion at Little Harbor, two miles from the business centre of
Portsmouth a farm-house which dated from the latter part of the
sixteenth century, he thought more of comfort than of architecture.
Evidently those who later added to the house thought as little of
architecture as the original builder; the product became such a
strange conglomeration of wings and "L's" that it is difficult to see
which is the original portion. Once the house contained fifty-two
rooms, but a portion has been torn away, and the structure as it
stands is not quite so spacious, though still large enough for a
hotel. Even the cellar is tremendous, for Governor Wentworth provided
there a place for his horses, to be used in time of danger. Thirty
animals could be accommodated there.
Many of the rooms are small, but some are of impressive size, notably
the Council Chamber, where meetings that helped to make history were
held, and the billiard room, where the owner and his associates were
accustomed to go when the strain of business became too great.
Longfellow thus describes the house:
"It was a pleasant mansion, an abode
Near and yet hidden from the great high-road,
Sequestered among trees, a noble pile,
Baronial and colonial in its style;
Gables and dormer-windows everywhere,
And stacks of chimneys rising high in air--
Pandaean pipes, on which all winds that blew
Made mournful music the whole winter through.
Within, unwonted splendors met the eye,
Panels, and floors of oak, and tapestry;
Carved chimney-pieces, where on brazen dogs
Revelled and roared the Christmas fire of logs;
Doors opening into darkness unawares,
Mysterious passages, and flights of stairs,
And on the walls, in heavy gilded frames,
The ancestral Wentworths with Old-Scripture names."
While Governor Wentworth was an important figure during the days
preceding the Revolution, the mansion is celebrated not so much
because of his political service as because of the romance of his
second marriage.
Martha Hilton, the heroine of the romance, was "a careless, laughing,
bare-footed girl." One day a neighbor saw her, in a short dress,
carrying a pail of water in the street. "You, Pat! You, Pat! Why do
you go looking so? You should be ashamed to be seen in the street!"
was the shocked comment. But the answer was not what the neighbor
expected. "No matter how I look, I shall ride in my chariot yet,
Marm."
The story of what followed is told by Charles W. Brewster, a historian
of old Portsmouth:
"Martha Hilton afterwards left home, and went to live in the
Governor's mansion at Little Harbor, doing the work of the
kitchen, and keeping the house in order, much to the
Governor's satisfaction.... The Governor has invited a dinner
party, and with many other guests, in his cocked hat comes
the beloved Rev. Arthur Brown, of the Episcopal church. The
dinner is served up in a style becoming the Governor's
table.... There is a whisper from the Governor to a
messenger, and at his summons Martha Hilton comes in from
that door on the west of the parlor, and, with blushing
countenance, stands in front of the fireplace. She seems
heedless of the fire--she does not appear to have brought
anything in, nor does she seem to be looking for anything to
carry out--there she stands! a damsel of twenty summers--for
what, no visitor can tell.
"The Governor, bleached by the frosts of sixty winters,
rises. 'Mr. Brown, I wish you to marry me.' 'To whom?' asks
his pastor, in wondering surprise. 'To this lady,' was the
reply. The rector stood confounded. The Governor became
imperative. 'As the Governor of New Hampshire I command you
to marry me!' The ceremony was then duly performed, and from
that time Martha Hilton became Lady Wentworth."
Longfellow's record of the incident is given in the poem, "Lady
Wentworth":
"The years came and ... the years went, seven in all,
And all these years had Martha Hilton served
In the Great House, not wholly unobserved:
By day, by night, the silver crescent grew,
Though hidden by clouds, the light still shining through;
A maid of all work, whether coarse or fine,
A servant who made service seem divine!
Through her each room was fair to look upon;
The mirrors glistened, and the brasses shone,
The very knocker at the outer door,
If she but passed, was brighter than before."
Then came the strange marriage scene:
"Can this be Martha Hilton? It must be!
Yes, Martha Hilton, and no other she!
Dowered with the beauty of her twenty years,
How ladylike, how queenlike she appears;
The pale, thin crescent of the days gone by
Is Dian now in all her majesty!
Yet scarce a guest perceived that she was there
Until the Governor, rising from his chair,
Played slightly with his ruffles, then looked down
And said unto the Reverend Arthur Brown:
'This is my birthday: it shall likewise be
My wedding-day, and you shall marry me!'"
Governor Wentworth died in 1770, three years after the coming to
America of Michael Wentworth, a retired colonel in the British Army.
Mrs. Wentworth married him, and he became the second lord of the
mansion. During his residence there Washington was welcomed to the
house, one day in 1789.
Martha Wentworth, the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Wentworth,
married Sir John Wentworth, an Englishman, and they lived in the old
house until 1816, when the property passed to a family of another
name.
[Illustration: WARNER HOUSE, PORTSMOUTH, N. H.
_Photo by Frank Cousins Art Company_
See page 395]
There are a number of houses in Portsmouth which tell of the ancient
glories of different branches of the Wentworth family. Perhaps the
most famous is the Warner house, which was begun in 1718 by Captain
Archibald Macpheadris, and was finished in 1723, at a cost of L6,000.
Mrs. Macpheadris was Sarah Wentworth, one of the sixteen children of
Lieutenant Governor John Wentworth, and sister of Governor Benning
Wentworth. Their daughter, Mary, married Hon. Jonathan Warner, who was
the next occupant of the house. The property is known by his name,
rather than that of the builder--perhaps because it is so much easier
to pronounce! The house is now occupied by Miss Eva Sherburne, a
descendant of the original owner.
The Warner house has a lightning rod, which was put up in 1762, under
the personal supervision of Benjamin Franklin. It is said that this
was the first lightning rod erected in New Hampshire.
[Illustration: _Photo Copyright by Detroit Photographic Company_
WADSWORTH-LONGFELLOW HOUSE, PORTLAND, ME.
See page 400]
XCI
THE WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW HOUSE, PORTLAND, MAINE
WHERE HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW SPENT HIS BOYHOOD
_The old house by the linden
Stood silent in the shade,
And on the gravelled pathway
The light and shadow played._
_I saw the nursery windows
Wide open to the air;
But the faces of the children,
They were no longer there._
_The large Newfoundland house-dog
Was standing by the door;
He looked for his little playmates
Who would return no more._
_They walked not under the linden,
They played not in the hall;
But shadow and silence, and sadness
Were hanging over all._
_The birds sang in the branches,
With sweet familiar tone;
But the voices of the children
Will be heard in dreams alone!_
_And the boy that walked beside me,
He could not understand
Why close in mine, ah! closer,
I pressed his little hand!_
When Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote these lines perhaps he was
thinking of the home of his boyhood in Portland, which his
grandfather, General Peleg Wadsworth, built in 1785.
The house was the wonder of the town, for it was the first brick
building erected there. The brick had been brought from Virginia.
Originally there were but two stories; the third story was added when
the future poet was eight years old.
Longfellow was born in the house at the corner of Fourth and Hancock
streets, but he was only eight months old when he was carried within
the inviting front doors of the Wadsworth house, and the mansion was
home to him for at least thirty-five years.
He was only five years old when he declared that he wanted to be a
soldier and fight for his country. The War of 1812 was then in
progress. His aunt wrote one day, "Our little Henry is ready to march;
he had his gun prepared and his head powdered a week ago."
But, agreeing with his parents that school was a better place for him
than the army, he began his studies when he was five years old. A year
later his teacher gave him a certificate which read: