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SidelightsBy ilSIB WHITE HAINESRemembrances of 18*3When I recently read As I Remember by Marian Gouv-erneur, published 1911, J learned for the first time that “the Baker place,” Waverley Farm, was owned at the time of the Civil War by .Mr. and Mrs. Samuel L. Gouverneur, Jr.Mr. Gouverneur was a grandson of President James Monroe; Mrs. Gouverneur, the daughter of Judge James Campbell; of New York. With their background of life in the highest circles of social and diplomatic life in New York. Washing-ton, and abroad, life at the farm, just outside the city limits ofOld Fredericktown, must have taken on a gaiety it had not known before, although it had enjoyed the ownership of some distinguished individuals.At the time the Gouverneurs bought Waverley they were visiting at Needwood with Samuel L Gouverneur, Sr., who had married for his second wife, Miss Mary Digges Lee, a grand-daughter of Thomas Sim Lee, second governor of Maryland, 1779. His first wife was Miss Mane Hester Monroe, the youngest daughter of President Monroe, according to As I Remember.In a chapter of her book entitled, “The Civil War and Life in Maryland,” Mrs. Gouverneur tells of driving down the national highway, “commonly called the Hagerstown pike, to the country seat of ex-Govem-or Philip F. Thomas, two miles from Frederick, within the shadow of the Catoctin mountain,” and being so favorably impressed that they purchasedit.She states that they changed the name from Waverley to “Po-ue-sang,” which was the name for a Chinese Mission and meant “a small, hill.” The Gouverneurs had just returned from China where he held the office of Consul of the United States. A chapter in the book entitled “Sojourn in China and Return describes this phase of the writer’s long,, active and most interesting life. Gouverneurs Buy WaverleyIf the Gouverneurs had left Washington in 1863 because the Civil War was making things uncomfortable, they soon found they had moved right, into it.In August they had just gotten settled when the Confederate guerrilla chief, John S. Mosby visited them. They were spared depredations possibly because a nephew, James Monroe Heiskell, at the age of sixteen had joined Mosby’s band.Soon after, Gen. Bradley T. Johnson, a native of Frederick, and some troops visited them. The general in his courtly manner asked their name. When told it was Gouverneur, he at once said “I suppose you are a relative of Mr. Gouverneur of Maryland Tract?”“I admitted the fact although I was not quite sure it was discreet as the Union sentiments of my father-in-law werewell known and I was talking to a Confederate officer,” Mrs. Gouverneur writes.She makes an interesting story of the preparations made to hide the silver, horses and other valuables as soldiers of either side approached down the long lane to the house. The silver was buried in the garden and the horses, with sacks tied over their heads, were led intothe cellar.Afraid the children would give away the secret she tells of the punishment she threatened them if they dared to mention “horses” or “Rebel devil” while any soldiers werearound. _Many years later the Gouverneurs again met Gen. Johnson at their home, then in Washington, when he and his wife came over from Baltimore to attend the wedding of one of the daughters, Ruth Monroe Gouverneur, to the General s cousin, Dr. William Crawford Johnson. The latter couple were the parents of Miss Emily C. Johnson who lives around the corner on North Bentz Street, opposite Baker Park.A sidelight on Gen. Johnson’s visit in 1863. While they found no horses, his men took all the saddles and with axes broke upto the cellar, where they spent the day.“We were glad the Monocacy battlefield was four miles away, sbe comments.Southern Soldiers Preferred“Although northern in our sympathies, we sometimes preferred visits from the Confederates owing to greater consideration from them,” Mrs. Gouverneur wrote.“The Union soldiers always searched thehouse looking for concealedRebels, since many of ourfriends and neighbors were Southerners at heart.”The approach of Union Gen.David Hunter was regardedwith terror since he was said to have the unpleasant duty of sending people suspected of Southern sympathy farthersouth. One of those who suffered was the popular Dr. John Thonias McGill and his sick wife. Years later, when the Gouverneurs met him at the home of Judge and Mrs. John Ritchie, he became highly excited as they discussed the events of the war years, she recalls.In her book Mrs. Gouverneur takes care of the Barbara Fritehie incident by saying she did not see Stonewall Jackson’s troops march on Frederick but they were aware of his presence there, and there was a woman with such a name who “lived and moved and had her being in that city.”The Gouverneurs heartily rejoiced with the North when the war was over. After one winter at the farm they had made their home at the hotel in Frederick going back to Po-ne-sang only for the summers. They sold it in 1868.Besides the servant problem^ other annoyances and discouragements were, no running water in the house and the cistern in the yard going dry. Water was obtained from a neighbor’s spring. All this was aggravated by the fact that Mr. Gouverneur knew nothing of of farming the fertile acres. This was eased by the bringing of an Irish immigrant family from New York, one of whom was John Demsey, to work on the place, I learned from the book.Social Life ResumedSocial life, suspended during the war, became active afterward. Listed among the visitors were Judge and Mrs. William P. Maulsby; Richard M. Potts and his brother George Potts; Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Trail; the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. George Diehl and daughter Marie; Mrs. John McPherson and her daughter, Mrs. Worthington Ross; Dr. and Mrs. Fairfax Schley; Judge and Mrs. John Ritchie; Mr. and Mrs. Jacob M. Kunkel; Rev. Marmaduke Dillion - Lee, rector of All Saints, shortly replaced by Rev. Osbourn Ingle. There were many others with*Tlliterh£aridFAedHoitouisaiho1Jbe;nomiHobelchlt;tie1Frofha!theseipiteajpaintinbe;wacuipapatheSUi!pitonwhom they formed friendships,including Father John McElroy, a Jesuit priest at the Catholic Church; Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, whom they met at the home of Mrs. Margaret Goldsborough, and the Hon. Lay-fette S. Foster, the vice-president pro tempore of the U.S., an old friend who liked to spenda weekend with them.This is only a few of the local people mentioned in this chronicle of events of one hundred years ago.I had talked to my neighbor, Miss Johnson, who spoke of her grandmother’s wonderful memory for names and places. She said she doubted if many errors occur In the “Rememberane-es” for which Mrs. Guoverneur gives much credit to her daughter, Mrs. Roswell Randall Hoes for assistance in writing and editing.When I met Laurence Gou-. veneur Hoes, president of the James Monroe Memorial Foundation, speaker in January to the Historical Society of Frederick County on the subject of “The Monroe Doctrine, Yesterday and Today,” I had hoped to learn a little more about his grandmother and her “Remembrances,” but one of his first questions on arrival in Frederick was about the farm, called Waverly, which his grandparents had owned during the Civil War. His talk was confined raost-..wo — ...... - ly to the Monroe side of thefences so they could make; famiiy.cH' rDtro3t if neeessarv! jjext week I hope to'tell youa little about Waverly as it is today and of its historic background reaching back to 1773.lasty retreat if necessary ! rhe preparations were time-she writes, as next day the ion soldiers were camped all und and some officers dined ;h the family.rhe servants had all fled at : approach of the first “Reb-Debbles,” as they called :m, and the Gouverneurs 1 only a Chinese maid they mght from China, but the of-ers were pleasant and con-jial. The next day came an-ier transition and the “Reb-” were back dining on the nnants left by their adver-eneral Jubal Early’s army sed near by and sent an or-ly to request a map of Fred-:k County, which they could supply. Later, prior to the tie of the Monocacy, the se was chosen for the Unarmy, as a “position” be-se of its location on a hill imanding much territory. ! family was told it wouldoofAi* tVum if thAV WAfttNews FromBridge ClubsFrederickMembers of the Frederick Bridge Club held their weekly game at the Holiday Inn on Monday evening.Winners were: North - South, first Mr. and Mrs. Manuel M. Weinberg; second, Charles Crum and George Hedstrom; third, Dr. Harry Gray and Mrs. Robert Gray, and fourth, Samuel Birely and Ross V. Smith. East-West winners were, first, Mrs, Robert McKinney and C m d r. Leon Eisman; second, Mrs. Weldon Harper and Mrs. May-belie Feaga; third, Marloweft* in/! Q/Wf Wftltv. and 1 mirthanpitPaevanamiofw*haanClSphoatPlitoiB r fie wianmClwRlt;V.NiMue5cVJFc»koiaia:KriZvN
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News
Frederick, Maryland, US
Fri, Feb 07, 1964
Page 3
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USA 06 Jun 2018
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