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Show L.ost'S00w?gresimenf i h iN V:," ' .'! '-4 Mi - "I? . , . ' t IVM til :'4 I i v V Tv ' " . If - - I s: ,V N x x x Nyft-, x -r,: gn - 1 1 1 " I CQ ;.?' The"Congress'ional Burying G round", Ya Shi nqton , D- C T By ELMO SCOTT WATSON OST: T00 Congressmen! I Such Is the wording of I la headline or a want-ad. v j Whicb might have up- ( . "" 'Ffc penred la the newspapers throughout the country re- cently. thereby providing newspaper pamgraphers with ample material for one of their well-beloved fiJI jests at the expense of LhbkoJ our representatives in the national legislature. Although Al-though such a statement has nothing to do with the 530 men and women who are now In session at Washington, Washing-ton, It Is true, nevertheless. Ask Anson An-son Wold ! Anson Wold Is the man who has Just seen his great work, "Eiograph- s leal Directory of the American Con- gress 1774-1927,' go to press. Mr. Wold, who was brought to Washington Washing-ton from Minnesota 29 years ago by Senator Knute Nelson, was for many years a clerk in the census bureau. Four years ago the congressional joint committee on printing, headed by Senator Sen-ator Moses, of New Hampshire, authorized au-thorized the publication of a new congressional con-gressional directory, and Mr. Wold, secretary of the committee, was assigned as-signed to the task. For the last four years he and his assistant, F. L. Frid-ley, Frid-ley, have been at work on the gigantic task of compiling the biographies of 9,000 men and women who have served in the two houses of our national legislative leg-islative body. Now their work is done, and within a few weeks libraries throughout the country will receive w-- copies of the work, which libraries say Is one of the most used volumes In their collections. But despite the fact that Mr. Wold and Mr. Fridley have sent out something some-thing like 35,000 letters, communicated communicat-ed with persons In nearly every part of the world and toiled unceasingly to make the directory complete in every ev-ery detail, there are In It 500 biographical biograph-ical "blanks" that they still are trying try-ing to fill. The roster of those who served in congress, of course, Is complete. com-plete. But the "blanks" have to do s. with birthdays, burial places, profes-" profes-" - sions and politics. Take, for instance, the case of William Wil-liam Wilson. He is listed In the directory di-rectory thus (and his Is the shortest biography In the book)""Wilson, Wil liam, a representative from Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania ; was elected to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth congresses (March 4. 1815 March 3, 1SI9)." Or this one, "Woodruff, Thomas M a representative represent-ative from New York ; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-ninth congress (March 4, 1845 March 3, 1847) ; engaged en-gaged in the furniture business In New York city, where be died about 1S54 or 1S55." Here are some other unsolved mysteries: Alexander Wilson Wil-son was a representative from Virginia Vir-ginia In the Ninth and Tenth congresses con-gresses but neither the date of his birth or the date of his death is known. For that matter it is not even known where he lived In Virginia. Asariah Boody, a representative from New York, died as recently as 1SS3. and yet his burial place is unknown. Alfred Moore Gatlin, of North Carolina, Caro-lina, served in the Eighteenth congress. con-gress. Then he moved to Florida, which was then a wilderness, and no further trace of him has ever been found. ., As an illustration of the difficulties which the two congressional biographers biograph-ers have experienced, take this case: -'- - for two years they searched for u granddaughter of Francis Scott Key. who wrote (he "Star-Spangled Haulier," Hau-lier," hoping that she niiht he related to or know something about two other oth-er Keyes who were Maryland representatives repre-sentatives In congress. They found her eventually but learned that she knew nothing about either of the two men. Then there Is the case of a distinguished distin-guished Marylander, John Ilansou, who was president of the Continental congress In 17S1-S2, and who Is often referred to as "the first President of the United States," since he served as President under the Articles of Confederation. The directory says that Hanson Is buried at Oxon Hill in Prince Georges county, Maryland, but Mr. Wold admits that this may be only tradition, since Hanson's grave has never been found. Maryland historians his-torians have tried to solve the mystery mys-tery without success, and a Boy Scout organization has dedicated itself to make a search and help locate the grave. Not only has the progress on the directory been hampered by the absence ab-sence of reliable information but by receiving Information which turned out to be misinformation. Frequently this was supplied to them by well-meaning well-meaning relatives or descendants who had no more authentic data than that offered hy family tradition, which is notoriously unreliable. Curiously enough some relatives or descendants refused to supply any Information at all, declaring that the congressional relative or ancestor had dishonored the family name. One such case concerned con-cerned a representative who had withdrawn with-drawn from congress -when his state seceded from the Union at the opening of the Civil war. Other difficulties are explained In the foreword to the biography by Mr. Wold. Prior to 1809 apparently no effort was made to publish a directory direc-tory of congress. The earliest known directory is entitled "Places of Abode of the Members of Both Houses of Congress, First Session of the Eleventh Elev-enth Congress." This was a pamphlet of 15 pages, published by R. C. Welghtman In 1809, and contains the name3 and locations of boarding houses, arranged alphabetically, which are followed by names of senators and representatives residing therein. "Directories, containing added congressional con-gressional Information, compiled and printed under contract by private firms." the foreword continues, "appeared "ap-peared from time to time. Though still printed by contract, the congressional congres-sional directory for the. first session of the Thirtieth congress, issued in 1S48 by J. & G. S. Gideoo, assumed an official air by bearing the title-page words 'Compiled and published for the use of Congress by the Postmaster of the House of Representatives.' Similar Sim-ilar information was carried on titles up to and including the first session of the Thirty-eighth congress. "At the beginning of the second session ses-sion of the Thirty-eighth congress, a joint resolution, approved February 14, 1S65. was unanimously adopted, providing pro-viding for the compilation and publication publi-cation of the first congressional directory di-rectory under the supervision of the joint committee on public printing The committee held numerous sessions, ses-sions, obtained and examined like publications pub-lications issued in foreign countries, and finally decided upon n work similar sim-ilar In essentials to The House of Commons, published in London since 1S;12. "Biographical sketches of senators and representatives appeared In 18(17 in the first edition of the congressional congression-al directory for the second session of the Fortieth congress. In the compiler's- note It is called a 'proof ed-1 ed-1 1 Ion,' and has approximately 2,'15 hi ogriiphles of senators, representatives and territorial delegates. "It Is referred to as being Incomplete, Incom-plete, and In. lSUS was replaced by a second edition which contained a few more sketches. The directory for the third session, printed In 1S09, contains approximately 'JSO biographies. "The work of preparing and publishing pub-lishing a biographical directory to include in-clude all the preceding congresses was first undertaken by Charles I.aninan In lSfiO. It bears the Imposing title, "Directory of the United States Congress." Con-gress." There have been at least six subsequent editions, which were Intended In-tended to gi.'e up-to-date and authentic authen-tic biographical data. Since Mr. I.an-man's I.an-man's last volume, however, the succeeding suc-ceeding compilers nppear to have done little more than to add such Information Informa-tion as could he obtained from the congressional directories published during each session of congress. It seems that no elTort to correct, revise or perfect the work of former compilers com-pilers was ever attempted, and thus original errors were perpetuated." Filling in some of the "blanks" Id the new directory would have ben easy, though, for the compilers, If nil of the dead congressman had been, buried In the congressional cemetery established for that purpose In the early days of the Republic. That cemetery cem-etery is one of the most Interesting and historical spots In the city of Washington today. In 1S07 Christ Episcopal church In Washington first established this burying ground, and a few years later It was chosen as a place of burial for senators and repre-senatlves repre-senatlves who died while in office. Since that time 109 government officials offi-cials have been buried there and monuments mon-uments have been erected over a hundred hun-dred of those graves. In addition 83 cenotaphs have been placed in honor of members of congress who have been buried in other cemeteries. Up to 1S35 practically every meia-ber meia-ber of congress who died In office was buried there. Means of transportation transporta-tion were so limited that few families were able to convey the bodies ol their dead from the capital. But a transportation facilities grew better this practice finally ceased. By an act of May 23, 1S7G, congress abo'ished the custom of erecting cenotaph! and provided that thereafter monuments should be authorized only when the deceased congressman was actually buried in the cemetery. The first congressman to be hurled was Ezra Darby, of New Jersey, who died January 23. 180S. George Clinton, Clin-ton, Vice President of the United States, was first buried there, and years elapsed before his body was taken tak-en to his old home In New York. But other notables still sleep there. One of them is Tobias Lear, the faithful private secretary to George Washington. Washing-ton. Near by are the graves of Push-Ma-Ta-Ha, the noted Choctaw chief; Scarlet Crow, another famous Indian warrior; William Wirt, an attorney general of the United States, and Abel P. Upshur, a former secretary of state and secretary of the navy. One monument monu-ment has a particular romantic interest. Beneath it, side by side in a single grave, rest the bodies of Capt. Beverly Kennon and Abel Parker Upshur, victims vic-tims of nn explosion of a gun aboard the American frigate. "Princeton." ir 1844. Both were natives of Virginia, and the two men formed a friendship in early youth that lasted until thf grave. |