Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2 — John Shaqi
Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2Hoar, George Frisbie
History
Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2
Hoar, George Frisbie
United States -- History -- 1865-1921; United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1900
Another of her brothers who died at the age of eighty-eight,
when I was thirty years old, and at whose house I was often
a visitor, spent three weeks as Washington's guest at Mount
Vernon. Old Deacon Beers of New Haven, whom I knew in his
old age, was one of the guard who had Andre in custody. During
his captivity, Andre made a pen-and-ink likeness of himself,
which he gave to Deacon Beers. It is now in the possession
of Yale College.
I had from my mother the story of General Washington taking
Chief Justice Ellsworth's twin children, one on each knee,
and reciting to them the ballad of the Derbyshire Ram. This
tradition has remained in the Ellsworth family. I have confirmed
it by inquiry of the Rev. Mr. Wood, a grandson of Oliver Ellsworth,
who died in Washington a few years ago.
Besides the uncle to whom I allude, who died in 1856, Judge
Simeon Baldwin, who married two of my aunts, died in 1851,
aged ninety. He was a Member of Congress in 1803-5, and was
an intimate friend of Chancellor Kent, who was his classmate
and chum in Yale, and was intimate with the Federalist leaders
of the Hamilton party. I several times made visits in his
household before his death. President Jeremiah Day, another
uncle by marriage, was at the head of Yale for thirty years.
He died in 1867, at the age of 94.
My mother's sister, Mrs. Jeremiah Evarts, was born January
28, 1774, and died in 1851, at the age of seventy-seven. She
knew intimately many famous men and women of the Revolutionary
period. Her husband was an intimate friend of John Jay. She
had a great deal of the sprightly wit for which her son, William,
was so famous. She was at home at the time of Washington's
visit, then a child eleven years old, and opened the door
for him when he took his leave. The General, who was very
fond of children, put his hand on her head and said, "My little
lady, I wish you a better office." She dropped a courtesy
and answered, quick as lightning, "Yes, sir; to let you in."
Mrs. Evarts was a woman not only of sprightly wit, but of
great beauty. She liked to tell in her old age of a dinner
which John Hancock gave for her father and her, in Boston,
when she was a girl. She described her dress with great
minuteness, and added naively, "Didn't I look pretty?"
My mother, who was married in 1812, knew very intimately many
of her father's and mother's old friends who had been distinguished
in the public service in the Revolutionary period and the
Administration of Washington and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
She knew very well the family of John Jay. He and his wife
were visitors at my grandmother's after their return from
Spain. My mother was intimate in the household of Oliver
Ellsworth as in a second home. His children were her playmates.
She was also very intimate indeed with the family of Senator
Hillhouse, whose daughter Mary was one of her dearest friends.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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