Captains of Industry; or, Men of Business Who Did Something Besides Making MoneyParton, James
History
Captains of Industry; or, Men of Business Who Did Something Besides Making Money
Parton, James
Industrial arts -- Biography
There are still a few old men, I believe, at Nashville who remember
General Jackson's demeanor on the race ground, and they confirm the
record of Mr. Flower. After a ride of a thousand miles or so, he
presented his letter of introduction to Mr. Jefferson at Poplar Forest,
and had a cordial reception. The traveler describes the house as
resembling a French chateau, with octagon rooms, doors of polished oak,
lofty ceilings, and large mirrors. The ex-President's form, he says, was
of somewhat majestic proportions, more than six feet in height; his
manners simple, kind, and polite; his dress a dark pepper-and-salt coat,
cut in the old Quaker fashion, with one row of large metal buttons,
knee-breeches, gray worsted stockings, and shoes fastened by large metal
buckles, all quite in the old style. His two grand-daughters, Misses
Randolph, were living with him then. Mr. Jefferson soon after returned
to his usual abode, Monticello, and there Mr. Flower spent the greater
part of the winter, enjoying most keenly the evening conversations of
the ex-President, who delighted to talk of the historic scenes in which
he was for fifty years a conspicuous actor.
George Flower and his party would have settled near Monticello,
perhaps, but for the system of slavery, which perpetuated a wasteful
mode of farming, and disfigured the beautiful land with dilapidation.
He had, meanwhile, sent home word that prairies existed in America, and
in the spring of 1817 his partner in the enterprise, Morris Birkbeck,
and his family of nine, came out from England, and they all started
westward in search of the prairies. They went by stage to Pittsburg,
where they bought horses, mounted them and continued their journey, men,
ladies, and boys, a dozen people in all. The journey was not unpleasant,
most of them being persons of education and refinement, with three
agreeable young ladies among them, two of them being daughters of Mr.
Birkbeck, and Miss Andrews, their friend and companion.
All went well and happily during the journey until Mr. Birkbeck, a
widower of fifty-four with grown daughters, made an offer of marriage to
Miss Andrews, aged twenty-five. It was an embarrassing situation. She
was constrained to decline the offer, and as they were traveling in such
close relations, the freedom and enjoyment of the journey were seriously
impaired. Then Mr. Flower, who was a widower also, but in the prime of
life, proposed to the young lady. She accepted him, and they were soon
after married at Vincennes, the rejected Birkbeck officiating as father
of the bride.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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