Show N SACRED SHRINE OF AMERICAN DEVOTION ON MEMORIAL DAY 6 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON F THERE is one place in IF the united states toward which more than to any other the hearts of americans turn on Afe memorial morial day it is arlington national cemetery in virginia there tile the first Alc memorial morial day exercises were held on may 30 1868 after gen john A logan commander in chief of the grand army of the republic had issued his historic order no 11 setting aside this day each year for honoring tile the civil war dead the principal speaker on this occasion was gen james A garfield later president of tile the united states and at that time was inaugurated the custom of honoring the unknown dead as well as those whose names are known for the principal ceremony at that first Ale memorial morial day celebration was decorating with flags fla s and flowers a monument that had been erected to the memory of 2111 unidentified dead found on the fields fiella S of bull run and the route to the rappahannock Kappa Rappa hannock there in 1921 was entombed the unknown soldier of the world war to give the nation its most precious shrine and there as a crowning glory has been erected the magnificent ent amphitheater of classic design in which the president of the united states on each memorial day speaks to the nation and tor for the nation in paying tribute to its soldier dead truly this is hallowed ground round and arlington is a hallowed name rich in sentiment arlington Is also rich in tradition and in historic association its story goes back to the year eggo when sir william Ber berkeley icelen royal governor of virginia oby by authority of king jung charles II 11 by the grace of god and by the discovery of john cabot granted to robert clowser II Il a sea captain acres of land including the present site of arlington for bringing settlers to virginia clowser as is said to bae sold his grant the very same year to the alexander family for six hogsheads hog of tobacco but they do not seem to have taken advantage of what was obviously a good bargain until 1735 when hen john and gerald alexander asserted title under the grant made GO CC years previously and their title was sustained on christmas day of 1778 gerald alexander sold two tracts on the potomac to a certain john parke custis one of these tracts embracing 1100 acres and including the present national cemetery bro brought aught pounds sterling in virginia currency john parke custis was the son of col daniel parke custis who had bad married seventeen year old martha dandridge the reigning belle of williamsburg then the leading city in the old dominion daniel parke custis died in the spring of 1757 1737 leaving besides his widow and their two children john parke custis and martha parke custas an estate valued at more than an historic marriage A little more than a year later a young officer in the virginia colonial troops who had distinguished himself at braddocks braddicks Brad docks defeat came a wooling the widow custis ing ills name was george washington and he and martha dandridge custis were married on january 6 1759 washington grew passionately fond of his two stepchildren step children and when martha parke custis died on june 19 1773 at the age of seventeen he was almost heartbroken heart broken meanwhile tier her brother john parke casus had become deeply smitten with the charms of miss eleanor calvert second daughter of benedict calvert of mount airy md a descendant of lord lattimore baltimore ili his marriage took place in february 1774 at the beginning of the revolution young custis promptly offered hla his services to his country and as an n aide to washington lie se served arved with distinction down to the siege of yorktown there however he be contracted camp fever feier and bufore before the surrender took place he was forced to leave his post ile he was removed to the home of his uncle colonel bassett at eltham where be ae died on november no ember 5 1781 leav ing ig his young widow and four small children this second blow wis was almost as great a one to was washington ing ton as the death of martha parke custis had been ne he immediately adopted as his la own the two yo ger children eleanor parke custas and george washington parke custis who were taken tea to mount blount vernon and placed la 14 the care of mrs lund washing 77 I 1 4 2 q 17 0 o arlington house built by george washington parke custis on his estate now arlington national cemetery ton whose husband was managing the hie generals property at that place when permanent peace came and washington again took up ills his residence at mount vernon lie he and mrs washington as assumed umed intimate and active care of the two children who proved of much comfort to thern in their declining years why named arlington in 1796 what are now the arlington lauds lands were allotted by the court to the legal representatives of john parke custis who had died ites tate by the law of primogeniture the estate descended to namesake george washington parke custis it was 0 W P custis who named it arlington after the custis aric ancestral estral home in northampton Kort hampton county on the eastern shore of vir virginia inin george washington parke custis had an interesting 7 career from the time he was six months old until the death of his grandmother martha washington ton on slay may 22 0 J george washington parke custis he was continually under her guidance an and it influence or under tile the instruction st of ills his famous adopted father perhaps no other american boy ever h had ad better advantages offered him than young custas had in his day As a child he met all of the great men who had bad taken part in the american revolution and when washington became president he was taken with him to the lie in new york and later to philadelphia in both places he frequently came in contact with the builders of the republic as well as the most cultured and retired element with which the first president continually surrounded himself lie he was educated along the most practical lines in the best schools of ills his day forming the foundation for his big subsequent taste for art and literature and equipping him as well tor for the sp speakers Lakers platform which he delighted in filling in after years following the death of his ill s grandmother he made ills his home for two years w with ith his sister bister who had married ma maj J lawrence lewis in in anticipation of ills his own marriage to mary lee fitzhugh he began building arlington mansion or lee mansion as it later was called to tills this house designed after the temple tempie of theseus in athens greece he brought ills his sixteen year old bride in 1804 a and nd for the next nest halt half century the sage of arlington as he became known was 11 leading figure in the life of the national capital there were few men of note whom he did not know and few men who did not know him lie was popular with the people of washington for whose entertainment lie he generously threw the grounds of his estate open they were glad to take advantage of ills hi hospitality even though lie he was regarded as something of an eccentric character relics of the Washing torill arlington house became the repository tory of a large and interesting collection of relics of the which were given to him by his doting grandmother or fell to his lot in tile the final division of the household goods or which he purchased from less affluent possessors these included among other things tile the bed in which ton died and the tent which had sheltered him during the revolution the latter was often pitched on the arlington lawn tor for the aei admiration of residents of georgetown and washington ft ho bo wore ere ferried across the potomac Io tomac to attend the annual sheep shearing festivals which custis held since the breeding of merino sheep was one of ills his hobbles A barbecue was the reward of 0 those who attended these festivals and an oration by custis was the penalty at least that Is tile the way one of his descendants put it it although he was one of the wealthiest men of ills his day custis was often hard pressed tor for ready cast cash on one occasion he be asked the bank to defer payment of a note for 63 65 and in he applied to the bank of the untied united states for a loan of in order to finance a trip to france there he proposed to go to obtain from lafayette all of his revolutionary war papers and Ms his personal recollections of washington tor for a book on the private memoirs of the life and character of washington which custis proposed to write besides aspiring to be the blagra biographer of ills his adopted father custis also had ambitions as a painter a poet and a playwright As the litter latter he be wrote such productions as launch of columbia or our blue jackets forever Nat national tonal dream of pocahontas of the first settlers of virginia and an operetta called the railroad Toca pocahontas hontas was played in charleston rind and columbia S C and 11 rhe railroad was produced at the old national theater in washington anti and also ran for severt nights in baltimore writer of melodrama pocahontas roca hontas was criticized as being too melodramatic and custis wrote to a friend melodrama Is all the go now and even in historical plays you must sprinkle show and pageant and things to please the senses as well as the judgment the play Is in london in the hands of washington irving and john howard payne who will under their able auspices bring it out on the london stage it if successful there why I 1 may be considered here as something of a dramatist but it if custas never became known as something of a dramatist he Is remembered for many other reasons one of them Is the fact that it was in his mansion on june that ills his only daughter mary ann randolph custis was married to a young lieutenant in the engineers go with ills his state when it left the union although it meant the sacrifice of everything which he held dear on april 22 1801 colonel and mrs lee left Arli arlington nifton for richmond where he I 1 mediately immediately entered the military service first of virginia and later ot of the confederacy from the date of their departure arlington asling ton was occupied only by servants and soon afterwards a force of union troops commanded by colonel heintzelman took charge of it first burials after the first battle of bull run Mc Dowells army entrenched itself on arlington heights the mansion was occupied by officers soldiers were encamped on its grounds and two strong forts were built there for the defense of washington after the battles of the wilderness quartermaster gen M C meigs ordered burial at arling arlington ton tor for all soldiers dying in the military hospitals in and around washington the official records of such burials begin with ith may ilay 13 1864 so arlington has been a burial place of soldier dead for nearly three quarters of a century when the baill bodies es of the unknown soldier dead burled buried between the potomac and the R kappa appa hannock were in arlington it brought the total of civil war burials there to 1 As for the process by which arlington became a national cemetery it came about in this way in III by act of congress a property tax was levied in all the states for the conduct of the war this tax totaled 92 tor for the arlington property and since it was unpaid the property was ordered sold on january 11 the government was empowered to bid the property in and to use it for educational and military purposes the price paid was 26 in george washington custas lee brought suit to la circuit court for tile the ejectment of persons living on the estate the federal government had rented out parcels of land to small far farmers vi i bile on one corner of the property a village of nearly 1000 persons had grown up lee won his case in the lower court and in the supreme court upheld of the verdict the government then had made itself a party to the sult suit and following tile the handing A VW 7 P ar katok the tomb ot of the unknown soldier in arlington e corps ot of the united states army ills name dame was robert edward lee and through that marriage the name of another famous virginia family became linked with arlington the approaching storm of civil war ivar greatly troubled the mind ot of tile the waster master of arlington but lie ho did not live lire to see it break lie ile died on october 10 1857 custas had bequeathed the arlington alouse estate of acres to his daughter and at her death to tier her eldest son george washington custis lee colonel leo lee obtained leave from tile the army to go to arlington to settle the custis estate and during his brief stay there brought order out of the chaotic conditions into which it bad fallen in the last days of custis life it was at arlington that lee made ills bis momentous decision to down of the supreme court decision it agreed to pay lee the lv ho be asked as a compromise this sum was appropriated by congress and turned over to lee after the close of the civil war arlington house or the lee mansion as it became k known because of its association with the great leader I 1 of the lost cause remained a deserted mansion in recent years however it has been restored and completely furnished with original pieces of furniture or faithful reproductions of them and contemporary articles so that a visit to it takes one back to the days when the sage of arlington ruled there and gave the band of ills his daughter in marriage to the nian man v who ho was destined to become one of 0 the greatest captains of t nil all time p v tern t rn Nem New paim waver vol valm |