Show ig 11 st en r tj 0 11 L aa RZ 4 4 14 R A R 5 a a the ional burying ground wash inq D C by ELMO SCOTT WATSON OST congressmen I 1 such Is the wording of L a headline or a want ad which might have hare appeared in the newspapers throughout the country re bently thereby providing newspaper parag raphers with ample material for or one of their well beloved sesta jests at the expense of our representatives senta tives in the national legislature AI at though such a statement has nothing a to do with the men and women who are now in session at washing ton it la is true nevertheless ask an eon son avold I 1 anson wold Is the man who has just seen his great work bolograph Blo graph leal directory of the american americ an con gress 1774 1927 27 go to press mr wold who was nas baroug brought gh t to washing 1 ton from minnesota ax 29 years ago by senator knute neison elson was for many years a clerk in the census bureau four years ago the congressional joint committee on printing headed by sen ator moses of jew hampshire au theorized thorl zed the publication of a new con gressional gressi directory and mr wold secretary of the committee was as signed to the task for the last four years he and his assistant F p L frid ley have been at work nork on the gigantic taste task of compiling the blo bloam biographies ap hies of men and women who have hae served in the two houses of our national leg Islat lve lye body hov ow their work Is done and v ithan a few weeks libraries throughout the country will receive copies of the work which libraries say r ay Is one of the most used volumes in their collections but despite the fact that mr air wold and mr bridley have sent out something like letters ed with persons in nearly every part of the world and tolled unceasingly unceasing ly to make the directory complete in ev cry detail there are in it bolograph blo graph leal ical blanks that they still are trying to fill the roster of those who served in congress A of course Is corn com but the blanks blank sl have to do with birthdays burial places place protes and politics take for instance the case of WU ilam wilson lie ile is listed in the dl oll rectory thus and his Is the shortest shorter t biography in the book wilson wll wit llam haw a representative from penury vanla was nas elected to the fourteenth and find I 1 fifteenth congresses march 4 1815 march 3 1819 or this one woodruff druff thomas M a represent ataye from new lork elected as a democrat to the twenty ninth congress 0 march 4 1845 march 3 1847 en in the furniture busl business nes in new tork york city where he died about 1854 or 1855 1835 here are tire some other unsolved mysteries alexander wll wit a representative from virginia 4 in the ninth and tenth con grosses but neither the date of his birth or the date of bis his death Is known for that matter it la Is not even known where he lived in virginia asariah boody a representative from new york died as recent recently 17 ns as 1885 andyes his burial place is unknown alfred moore gatlin of north carolina served in the eighteenth con gross then be bg moved to lloreda llor 11 orida lda which was then a wilderness aldno further trace of him has ever been found ag As an illustration of the difficulties the two congressional bolograph blo graph ers chave have experienced take this case fora f or two years they searched for a granddaughter of francis scott key who wrote the star spangled ban ner hoping that she might be related to or know something about two wo otil er keyes who were maraland mar land representatives sent senta ath tives es in congress they found her tier eventually but learned that she knew nothing about either of the two men then there la Is the case of a distill marylander john hanson who was president of the continental congress in 1781 82 and who Is often referred to as the first president of the united states since he r bened en ed as president under the articles of confederation the directory says that hanson Is burled buried at hill uil in prince georges county maryland but mr wold admits that this may be only tradition since hannons nan Han sons grave grane has never nener been found maryland his torlang have tried to solve the mys tery without success and a boy scout organization 2 has dedicated itself tj to make M ake a search and help locate the grave not only has the pro progress ress on the directory been hampered by the ab sence bence of reliable information but by rec receiving ehing information which turned out to be misinformation frequently this was supplied to them by well meaning AP relatives or descendants who had no more authentic data than tint thit offered by family tradition which Is notoriously unreliable curiously enough t some relatives or descendants refused to supply any at all declaring that the congressional relative or ancestor had dishonored the family name one such case con corned a representative who had with ith drawn drann from congress when his ills state seceded from the union at the opening of the civil war other difficulties are explained in the foreA foreword ord to the biography by mr sir ainold old prior to 1809 apparently no effort was made to publish a diree tory of congress the earliest known directory 11 Is entitled places of abode of 0 the members of both houses of congress first session of the alev anth congress this was a pamphlet of 15 pages published by n R 0 weightman in 1899 1809 and contains t the he names and locations of boarding a houses arranged alphabetically which are followed by names of senators and represent representatives athes residing therein directories containing added con gressional gress lonal information co compiled in plied and printed under contract by private firms the foreword continues lap appeared from time to time though still printed by contract the bonore conore congles s directory for the first session session of the thirtieth congress issued in 1848 by J G S gideon assumed an tin official air by bearing the title page words complied compiled and published for the uso use of congress by the postmaster of the house of representatives sim liar ilar information was carried on titles up to and including the first session of the thirty eighth congress at the beginning of the second sea ses slon sion of the thirty eighth congress a it joint resolution approved february 14 1805 1865 was unanimously adopted providing tor for the compilation and bubli cation of the first congressional congress tonal dl oll rectory under th the e supervision of the joint committee on public printing the committee held numerous ses alons obtained and examined like publications licati ons issued in foreign countries and finally decided upon a work sim liar in essentials to the house of commons published in london since 1852 V biographical sketches of senators and representatives appeared in in the first edition of the cong congress lon nl at directory for the second session of the fortieth congress in the corn com pliers a note it Is called a proof ed lalon 1 and has approximately bl ill ogra phles of senators representatives and territorial dele delegates a ates it Is referred t to 0 as being and in 1868 was mas replaced by a second edition which contained a few more sl etches the directory for the third session printed in esgo contains approximately biographies the work of preparing and pub a biographical directory to in elude all the preceding con congresses dresses was first undertaken by charles lanman in 1859 it bears the imposing title directory of the united states con gress there have been at least six subsequent editions which were in tended to gh give e up to date and anthen tic biographical data since ur mr lan mans last volume homeier ho how ever neier the succeeding compilers appear to have done little more thin to add such informs tion as could be obtained from the congressional directories published durf during each session of congress it seems that no effort to correct revise or perfect the work of former corn com pliers was ever attempted and thus original errors were pe perpetuated I 1 petua ted filling in ir some of the L e blanks blaul sly in the new directory would have been easy though tor for the compilers it if all of the dead congressman bad had been burled in t the he con congressional 0 cemetery celete y established for that purpose in the early days of the republic that cem eatery Is one of the most interesting and historical spots in to the city of washington nashin ton today in 1607 christ episco episcopal aal church in washington first established this burying ground and a few years later it was chosen as a place of burial for senators and depre ce natives who died aled while in office since that time government boffl dais have haae been burled buried there and mon have lave been erected 01 over er a it hun dred of those graves granes in addition 85 cenotaphs have been placed in honor of members of congress who have been burled buried in other cemeteries up to 1835 practically every mem mern ber her of congress who died in office was as burled there means of transports tran tion were so limited that few families were able to convey coney the bodies of their dead from the capital hut but as transportation facilities grew better till his S practice finally ceased by an act of slay may congreso congles con gres gresi abolished the custom of erecting C cenotaphs no and provided that therea thereafter er monuments should bo be authorized only when the deceased con congressman bressman was actually buried in the cemetery the first congressman to be burled buried was ezra darb darby Y of new jersey who died january 28 1808 L george corge clin ton vice president of the united ted states was first burled buried there and scars elapsed before his ills body was tak tal en to his ills old home in lew new york but other nol notables ables still sleep ili there e are one oti ot them la Is tobias lear the f iltha fol at private secretary to george ashl ashing ng ton near by are the graves of push mata ma ta iia ila the noted choctaw chief scarlet crow another famous indian warrior william wirt an attorney general of the united states and abel 1 P upshur a EL former secretary of state and secretary of the navy one bonu ment has a particular romantic interest beneath it it side by side in a single grave rest the bodies of capt beverly kennon and abel parker upshur vie alms of ant an explosion of a gun aboard allard the american frigate princeton in 1844 both were natives of virginia and the two men formed a friendship in earl youth that lasted until the grave |