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I
THE FLOWERS COLLECTION
m KE one hundred and sev
enty-fourth anniversary of
George i.msiuugton's birth
— finds still in existence
many famous buildings
which are identified w.th
the historic events in
which he figured.
In fact, for the com
mander in chief of the
Continental forces merely
to spend a night under i
roof, may be said to have
assured to the structure
it covered a far longer life than other
wise would have been granted to it.
That reverence which even then was
extended to tire Father of his Country,
has availed to save from destruction
more than two score buildings which he
used as headquarters during the war of
the revolution.
It is now more than one hundred and
twenty-two years since Washington laid
down his arms, and retired to private
citizenship after having won one of *he
most unevenly matched wars in history.
Tet to this day scattered through the
thirteen original states can be found
many buildings in which jre planned out
his battles, sought retreat after defeats,
or made the base of new operations.
There has been no organized effort to
save these buildings. In many cases
they ’have been but poorly kegt. and can
not go much longer without rebuilding,
but private patriotism has acted where
public officials have been indifferent, and
one can construct a very vivid picture
of the war, and revive the. trials that
beset the commander, merely by going
from one to the other of houses in which
he sheltered during the conflict.
There are so many that it would be
impossible to mention them all.
Tn Westerfleld, Conn., they show the
Silas Dean house, where Washington
lived just after- the_war began, and wulM
the operations were around Boston.
TWO AT CAMBRIDGE.
Cambridge, Mass., points proudly to
two houses. First Washington lived in
the residence set apart Tor principals of
Harvard college. Then he moved to the
house of a fugitive loyalist, John Vassall.
Ijater this became the residence of Henry
W. Longfellow. the great poet, and hero
were written many of his most noted
works.
Many other eminent men have been res
idents and guests of this historic man
sion. Just to mention Tallyrand, La
fayette. Worcester and Everett gives a
fair idea.
Washington fiad many houses in New
York. None is more beautiful than the
building now known as the Jumel man
sion.
This was his TieatJUjuarters from Sep
tember 16 to October 21. 1776. Tt is also
rich in memories of Aaron Burr, who
married the widow of 'Stephen Jumel.
Jumel gained possession of the house
when Roger Morris and his wife fled be
cause their tory sympathies threatened
to get them in difficulties.
It was Mrs. Morris, who as Mary Pliii-
ipse, George Washington wooed in vain.
Cntil tlie evacuation of New York.
Washington lived in the Roger Morris
house. Harlem Heights. The location
of this building is now almost opposite
the intersection of One hundred and sixty-
tirst street, Tenth avenue and the old
Kingsbrfdge road. The ATiller house at
White Plains'is another of Washington’s
New York headquarters that still sur
vives.
During most of the retreat through
New' Jersey, Washington lived in camp,
but eventually he crossed the Delaware,
and took up his headquarters at the home
of Thomas Barelas- at Morri=.viife. £'*<-
Tills fine property at'ihe time of Wash
ington's occupancy was only a few years
old. I.ater It passed into the possession
of Robert Morris, the noted financier of
the revolution. It is still standing a mag
nificent, rambling stone mansion of the
kind popular in that period. In its spa
cious ball room was held a great enter
tainment in honor of Lafayette when he
came to the United States in 1824.
Moving, farther inland, Washington
gave the dignity of his august presence
to the two-story stone dwelling that had
been built by William Keith, a governor
of Pennsylvania, at Brownsburg, Pa.
This building has undergone no changes
whatever. It is still in the Keith family,
and walls, doors and even tlie paints re
main to a large extent unchanged. Wash
ington passed in this mansion one of the
most depressing periods of tlie war. It
was here he received the disconcerting
news that General Lee had been taken
a prisoner, a, mishap the more the fact
that the commander in chief had pre
dicted that it would take place unless he
joined tlie main army.
Washington left Keith's on December
20, and five days later made the never-
to-be-forgotten attack on Trenton that
resulted in the defeat of the Hessians,
and gave new hope to the continental
cause.
Tne Van Doren residence, still standing
just outside the village of Millstone,
shows where Washington had his head
quarters after the battle of Princeton.
NEAR PHILADELPHIA.
At Neshaminy, 20 miles north of Phila
delphia, is a headquarters of- Washington
rich in historic memories. It is a rougti
stone building, two stories in height, lo
cated near the bridge over the Little
Neshaminy creek. Here Washington held
Tlie Jumel Mansion, New York.
an important council of war, at which
the first time the young Marquis do.
Laiayette took his place as one ot Wash
ington's advisers. He had been commis
sioned major general only a few days be
fore.
Wiien Washington received, news of the
signal continental victory at Bennington,
he broke camp, and moved nearer the
city. He took up ills abode at Stenton,
near Nieetown, about 5 miles front the
heart of Philadelphia.
This mansion has an interesting his
tory that goes all the way back to the
days of William Penn. It has been pur
chased by an organization of patriot)'-
Philadelphia women, and is preserved as
a museum for relics of Washington and
other revolutionary heroes.
Tlie house of John Potts, founder of
Pottsfown, r.ad the commander in chief
for a guest briefly, then he moved to Pen-
nypacker's Mills. now known as
Schwenksville. This is the home of Go\-
ernor Pennypaeker, of Pennsylvania. Both
the Potts house and the Pennypaeker
house, in which Washington had his head
quarters, are still standing. The former
is used as a hotel.
Between the Skiooack and Morris roads,
about a mile from the present village of
Ambler, is another Morris house, which
answered for a time as the military head
quarters for the chief of the continental
forces.
From here to Valley Forge are a num
ber of buildings that saw the. commander
planning how. with his pitiful force, he
could hold back the forces of Lord Howe.
The White Marsh headquarters was a ver
itable baronial hell wncre Geoige Emlen
dispensed hospitality with a lavish hand.
The Valley Forge headquarters of
Washington is justly famed as one of
the holiest sh->:ies o? American freedom.
This o'.d stone house was the residence
of the founder at Ihe time when the for
tunes of the cause went to their very
lowest. It is now maintained' by Penn
sylvania. and being stoutly built, will
undoubtedly survive for long years to
come.
AFTER VALLEY FORGE.
From the time Washington quit Val-
ley Forge he was more or less on the
move. The shifting of his forces took
him to Fishkill. New York, and here
he took quarters at'the home of Colonel
John Biekerhoff. The house remains
as It was at that time. He also lived
for a time at the home of Colonel Der
rick Biekerhoff, a nephew of John.
This house has also been preserved.
The Wallace house at Middlebrook. N.
J.. is one of the best preserved struc
tures that Washington occupied. lie
wGnt 'there in December, 1778. Mis
fondness for the Wallace house was
shown when, having been away for a
time, he returned there in 1779.
Along the Hudson are a number of
houses that have the fame of being put
f° the service of their country's maker.
West Point is very proud of its Moore's
house, located in what is now called
Washington’s Valley, one mile above the
town.
Further up the river is the venerable
structure that did Washington service at
Newburgh. This had a military use.
It was situated -on a bluff that over
looks the river for 8 miles to West
Point. From this outlook he could watch
to find if the enemies’ ships had man
aged to make their way up the river.
This house was erected in 1760. and
stands today just as It did In Washing
ton’s time. It la a plain, one-story
building, built of stone with walls 2 feet
thick.
Among the other headquarters that
survive may be mentioned the Jacob
Ford mansion, at Morristown. N. J.; the
Pey mansion, at Preaknaas, N. J.; the
Robin soli houstL below West Poiu;,
which was also the headquarters of Ben
edict Arnold when he betrayed the
cause; the Hopper house, on the road
to Morristown, in New Jersey; the Van
Courtiandt house, at Peekskill; the home
of Joshua He-tt Smith, 2 miles below
Stony Point; the home of Chancellor
Wythe, in Williamsburg, Va : and Mount
Vernon, who r t IYc>f'ungton sl< "1 after
so'roit-ier ct 1. - v*.I «, ». * ‘No
vember !2 to 20, when he went to Phila
delphia.
It is a great list, and conveys a com
forting thought that the birthday of the
founder finds hallowed even of houses
in which lie slept during that time of
stress.
' if] IJ®
*3 I
If
0.e.0o—o—o-ceo-o-•
l The Motherhood of Beechy Daw ;
• •
J By Phillip V Mighels *
t ..o—o—o— i—o —o—o—o—c—
JN TWO PARTS—PART I.
Copyright by HARPER & BROS.
ED WOLFE and Company,
tanners of buckskin, sat
beside the spring working
patiently. The Wolf was
a stalwart Shoshone. The
“Company” consisted en
tirely of Ilia squaw, for
their little brown papoose,
amusing himself in the
sun, was har«-y to be
counted in the industrial
association.
The family of three
were up in the tln\ber
b-!t of a broad Sierra spur, in a gorge
or channel like a “Devil's Slide" of
titanic proportions.
The Indians were encamped in a cove
carpeted 'With dry grass, except about
the spring, where -the fringe was old
green. Buck and Mahala. the two Sho
shones. were absorbingly busy in tlie
Indian-summer sunlight. In the hands
of either a deer-skin was being denuded
of hair. This process was accomplished
at the expense of much energy. The
portion of hair which had come away
easily was already lying in a fresco
about the .workers. To rid the hides of
what remained, the Indian tanners -
worked at the surface with sharp bone
implements.
Not .fifteen feet above 'where the In
dians labored, the granite wall light.y
held a few hundred tons of snow in a
great, precipitous pear or hollow. It
was a new deposit, which had fallen
the previous week, and tlie only rem
nants, of which were a few- isolated
drifts, slowly melting in places shaded
from the sun.
The child was sitting quietl— in the
brown grass, grasping in his tiny fist
the Headless body of rattlesnake, the
yellow belly of which was twisted up
ward tortuously. Nearly naked as he
was, the small Shoshone chieftain had
an intaglio pattern of the grass and
twigs embossed in the soft bronze of
his pretty legs. He had been sitting
there on the grass for a long time. In
deed, he was now so weary of amusing
himself that it was with exceeding dif
ficulty he remained awake. His grip
on the dead snake play-felloiw was list
less.
Vexed with the clumsy Lotharios of
the lumber-camp below, with herself,
vexed with the fate which had dragged
her hack to the woods and the saw
mill from the charms of Boston. Beec’iy
Daw came sullenly toiling up the gorge.
She was escaping the undersired atten
tions of Hiram Thole. It was true, she
admitted, that Hiram had formerly ful
filled all her category of requirements
in a man, but that had been before
Boston. Her ideals had undergone a
change. She would never marry; her
life she intended to devote to art. She
Continued on Fifth Page.
Washington’s Headquarters at Valley Forge.