? I ADI IkJf^TY^kl SACRED SHRINE OF AMERICAN I* ? ? / \I\LIMVJ I WIN DEVOTION ON MEMORIAL DAY I* By ELMO SCOTT WATSON IF THERE is one place in the United States toward which, more than to any other, the hearts of Americans turn on Memorial Day, it is Arlington national cemetery in Virginia. There the first Memorial Day exercises were held on May 30, 1868, after Gen. John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, had is sued his historic "Order No. 11," setting aside this day each year for honoring the Civil war dead. The principal speaker on this occasion was Gen. James A. Garfield, later president of 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 Memorial Day celebration was decorating with flags and flowers a monu ment that had been erected to the memory of 2,111 unidenti fied dead found on the fields of Bull Run and the route to the Rappahannock. 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 mag nificent amphitheater of classic design in which the President of the United States on each Memorial Day speaks to the na tion and for the nation in pay ing tribute to its soldier dead. Truly this is hallowed ground 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 1669 when Sir William Berkeley, royal governor of Vir ginia, "by authority of King Charles II, by the grace of God and by the discovery of John Cabot," granted to Robert Howser, a sea captain, 6,000 acres of .land, including the present site of Arlington, for bring ing settlers to Virginia. Howser is said to have sold his grant the very * same year to the Alexander family for sfcc hogsheads of tobacco. But they do not 'seem to have taken advantage of what was obviously a good bargain nntil 1735 when John and Gerald Alexander asserted title under the grant made 66 years pre viously and their title was sus tained. On Christmas day of 1778 Gerald Alexander sold two tracts on the Potomac to a certain John Parke Custis. One of these tracts, embrac ing 1,100 acres and including the present national cemetery, brought 11,000 pounds sterling in Virginia currency. John Parke Custis was the son of Col. Daniel Parke Custis who had married seventeen-year-old Martha Dandrldge, the reigning belle of Williamsburg, then the leading city In the Old Dominion. Daniel Parke Custis died in the spring of 1757, leaving besides his widow and their two children, John Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis. an estate valued at more than $100,000. An HUtoric Marriage. A little more than a year later a young officer In the Virginia col onial troops, who bad distinguished himself at Braddock's defeat, came a-wooing the Widow Custis. His name was George Washington and he and Martha Dandridge Custis ? were married on January 6, 1759. Washington grew passionately fond of his two step-children and when Martha Parke Custis died on June 19, 1773, at the age of seven teen he was almost heart-broken. Meanwhile her brother, John Parke Custis. had become deeply smitten with the charms of Miss Kleanor Calvert, second daughter of Bene dict Calvert of Mount Airy, Md., a descendant of Lord Baltimore. His marriage took place in Feb ruary, 1774. At the beginning of the Revolu tion young Custis promptly offered his services to his country and as an aide to Washington he served with distinction down to the siege of Torktown. There, however, he contracted camp fever and before the surrender took place he was forced to leave his post He was re moved to the home of bis uncle. Colonel Bassett, at Eltham where he died on November 5. 1781, leav. ing his young widow and four small children. This second blow was almost as great a one to Washington as the death of Martha Parke Custis bad been. He Immediately adopted as hla own the two younger children, Kleanor Parke Costlt and George Wash^pgton Parke Custis. who were taken to Mount Vernon and placed la t)M car* of Mrs. Lund Washing Arlington House, Built by George Washington Parke Custis on His Estate, Now Arlington National Cemetery. ton, whose husband was managing the general's property at that place. When permanent peace came and Washington again took up his resi dence at Mount Vernon he and Mrs. Washington assumed intimate and active care of the two children, who proved of much comfort to them in their declining years. Why Named "Arlington" In 1796, what are now the Arling ton lands were allotted by the court to the legal representatives of John Parke Custls who had died Ites tate. By the law of primogeniture Mhe estate descended to Washing ton's namesake, George Washing ton Parke Custis. It was G. W. P. Custis who named it Arlington, aft er the Custis ancestral home in Northampton county on the eastern shore of Virginia. George Washington Parke Custis had an interesting career. From the time he was six months old until the death of his grandmother, Mar tha Washington, on May 22, 1802, George Washington Parke Custia he was continually under her guid ance and influence or under the in struction of his famous adopted fa ther. Perhaps no other American boy ever had better advantages offered him than young Custis had in his day. As a child he met all of the great men who had taken part In the American Revolution, and when Washington became President he was taken with him to live In New York and later to Philadelphia. In both places he frequently came In contact with the builders of the re public. as well as the most cultured and retired element with which the first President continually surround ed himself. He was educated along the most practical lines in the best schools of his day, forming the foundation for his subsequent taste for art and literature, and equipping him as well for the speaker's' platform, which he delighted in filling in aft er years. Following the death of his grand mother, he made his home for two years with his sister, who had mar ried MaJ. Lawrence Lewis. In 1802, In anticipation of his own marriage to Mary Lee Fitzhugh he began building Arlington mansion, or Lee mansion, as it later was called. To this house, designed after the Tem ple of Theseus In Athens. Greece, he brought his sixteen-year-old bride In 1804 and for the next half century the "Sage of Arlington," as he be came known, was a 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. He was popular with the people of Washington for whose ^entertainment he generously threw the grounds of his estate open. They were glad to take advan tage of his hospitality even though he was regarded as something of an eccentric character. Relics of the Washington* Arlington house became the re pository of a large and interesting collection of relics of the Washing tons which were given to him by his doting grandmother, or fell to his lot In the final division of the household goods or which be pur chased from less affluent posses sors. These included among other things the bed in which Washing ton died and the tent which had sheltered him during the Revolu tion. The latter was often pitched on the Arlington lawn for the awed admiration of residents of George town and Washington who were ferried across the Potomac to at tend the annual sheep-shearing fes tivals which Custls held, since the breeding of merino sheep was one of his hobbies. A barbecue was the reward of those who attended these festivals and "an oration by Custis was the penalty" ? at least, that is the way one of his descendants put it Although he was one of the wealthiest men of his day, Custis was often hard pressed for ready cash. On one occasion he asked the bank to defer payment of a note for $65 and in 1831 he applied to the Bank of the United States for a loan of $12,000 in order to finance a trip to France. There he proposed to go to obtain from Lafayette all of his Revolutionary war papers and his personal recollections of Washington for a book on "The Private Memoirs of the Life and Character of Washington" which Custis proposed to write. Besides aspiring to be the biogra pher of his adopted father, Custis also had ambitions as a painter, a poet and a playwright As the lat ter he wrote such productions as "Launch of Columbia, or "Our Blue Jackets Forever." "National Dream of Pocahontas, of the First Settlers of Virginia,* and an operetta called "The Railroad." "Pocahontas" was played In Charleston and Columbia, S. C., and "The Railroad" was pro duced at the Old National theater in Washington and also ran for seven nights in Baltimore. Writer of Melodrama "Pocahontas" was criticized as be ing 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 l^ondon stage. If successful there, why, I may he considered here as something of a dramatist" But if Custis 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 30, 1831, that his only daughter, Mary Ann Ran dolph Custis, was married to a young lieutenant In the engineers go with his state when It left the Union, although it meant the sacri fice of everything which he held dear. On April 22, 1861, Colonel and Sirs. Lee left Arlington for Rich mond, where he Immediately en tered the military service, first of Virginia and later of the Confed eracy. From the date of their de parture Arlington was occupied only by servants and soon afterwards a force of Union troops commanded by Colonel Helntzelman took charge 1 of it. Firat Buriala After the first battle of Bull Run, McDowell's army entrenched Itself on Arlington Heights; the mansion was occupied by officers, soldiers were encamped on its groundB and two strong forts were built there for the defense of Washington. Aft er the battles of the Wilderness, Quartermaster Gen. M. C. Meigs or dered burial at Arlington for all soldiers dying In the military hospi tals In and around Washington. The official records of such burials be gin with May 13, 1864, so Arlington has been a burial place of soldier dead for nearly three-quarters of a century. When the bodies of the unknown soldier dead, burled be tween the Potomac and the Rappa hannock, were relnterred In Arling ton it brought the total of Civil war burials there to 16,000. As for the process by which Ar lington became a national cemetery. It came about In this way: In 1862, I by act of congress, a property tax was levied In all the states for the conduct of the war. Tills tax totaled $92 for the Arlington property, and. since It was unpaid, the property was ordered sold on January 11, 1864. The government was empow ered to bid the property In and to use It for educational and military purposes. The price paid was $26,- | 800. In 1877 George Washington Custls Lee brought suit in circuit court for the ejectment of persons living on the estate. The federal govern ment had rented out parcels of land to small farmers, while on one cor ner of the property a village of ? nearly 1,000 persons had grown up. I-ee won his case In the lower court, and In 1882 the Supreme court up held the verdict. The government then had made Itself a party to the suit, and following the handing The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington. corps of the United States army. His name was Itobert Edward Lee and through that marriage the name of another famous Virginia family became linked with Arlington. The approaching storm of civil war greatly troubled the mind of the master of Arlington but he did not lire to see It break. He died on Oc tober 10, 1857. Custls had bequeathed the Arling ton House estate of 300 acres to his daughter and at her death to her eldest son, George Washington Cnstis Lee. Colonel Lee obtained leave from the army to go to Arling ton to settle the Costls estate and during bis brief stay there brought order oat of the chaotic conditions Into which It bad fallen In the last days of Costls' life. It was at Arlington that Lee made hi* momentous decision to down of the Supreme court decision. It agreed Jo pay Lee the $150,000 he naked as a compromise. This sum was appropriated by congress and turned over to I>*e. After the close of the Civil war Arlington house, or the Lee mansion as it became known because of its _as?clAllon wlih.. the great leader of the i/ost Cause, remained a de serted mansion. In recent years, however. It has been restored and completely furnished with original pieces of furniture, or faithful re productions of them and contempo rary articles so that a visit to It takes one back to the days when the "Sage of Arlington" ruled there and gave the hsnd of hli daughter In marriage to the man who was des tined to become one of the greatest captains of all time. C We*t?rn N?w?pip?r Unloa. 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