Records of Cemetery Disclose Interesting Facts on Notables
Discoveries Made by Superintendent of Congressional Grounds In Check-up on Tombstone Repairs
Repairs to tombstones marking the graves of dead Congressmen in Congressional Cemetery, America's first national cemetery, have resulted in the unearthing of long-forgotten items about Dolly Madison and other historical notables, it was revealed yesterday. The discoveries were made by William M. Heinline, cemetery superintendent, in a check-up of ancient files in connection with the War Department's supervision of the repairs ordered by Congress for the stones marking the burial sites of Congressional dead. Faintly lined pages in musty records reveal the burial and subsequent transfers of the remains of Dolly Madison, who as the wife of Jefferson's Secretary of State and later during the eight years of James Madison's Presidential tenure, dominated the activities in the White House social whirl.
Orphan Asylum Director
It was during this latter period that she became the first director of the City Orphan Asylum, contributing both time and money to the service of the orphaned youth of the Capital.
"I never enjoyed anything so much," she said of this activity.
As the widowed "venerable" Mrs. Madison she lived on the northeast corner of Lafayette Square with her beloved niece, Anna Payne, who married James H. Causten of this city.
Philip Hone, a New York merchant after a Washington visit, wrote concerning her in his journal for March, 1842: "She is a young lady of fourscore and upwards, goes to parties and receives company like the queen of the new world."
Upon her last public appearance in February, 1849, at a White House reception, Mrs. Madison received an overwhelming ovation, according to the diary of President Polk upon whose arm she made a triumphal tour of the lower rooms of the White House.
Impressive "Public" Services
When she died the following July there were impressive "public" funeral services at St. John's Church, attended by the President, his cabinet, foreign government representatives and other prominent officials and friends. Mrs. Madison's remains were placed in the public vault at Congressional Cemetery "on July 16, 1849."
This further transcript from the Congressional Cemetery records tells its own story:
"Journal III, 1849-1856," under date of "February 10th, 1852." "Mrs. Dolly Madison Est. Dr. to removing the remains of Mrs. Madison from Public Vault to Mr. James Causten's family's Vault, USD 1.50."
The USD 1.50 is crossed through with two lines to indicate that the bill was paid.
The Causten vault near that of John Gadsby of Gadsby's Tavern fame, is of red brick with white marble entablatures which bear the heading, "Inexorable Death's Doings." It has the date 1835 over its entrance. Among those whose remains now repose there according to the inscription on the entablature on the right hand of the entrance is Mary Elizabeth Carvallo, wife of Manuel Carvallo, one-time Minister of Chile at Washington, and daughter of James H. and Elizabeth Causton.
According to Mr. Heinline, a descendant, Luis Amenbar, special commissioner of the government of Chile, while on a mission to America last fall, paid his respect to his maternal forbear.
Transfer of Body
This extract from the Day Journal of the Congressional Cemetery of January 12, 1858, ends Dolly Madison's connection with it and its burial vaults. "Permission given L. Williams to remove the body of Mrs. Madison, Causten's family vault to Virginia." At Montpelier it was interred by the side of her husband and a simple white monument erected over the grave, her name being misspelled "Dolley" by the marble worker in charge of the task.
It is thought that her son, Todd, by her first marriage, who was always lacking in filial devotion to his mother and who repaid repeated efforts in his behalf by nearly reducing her to penury in her declining years, lies in an unmourned grave in the Congressional Cemetery.
An unusual transcript is that of a personal letter from President Polk to the superintendent of the cemetery concerning the burial there of Henry Stephen Fox, British envoy to the United States from 1835 to 1843. It will be remembered that President Polk, during the course of the Oregon boundary dispute with Great Britain, in his administration, said to our commissioners, "The only way to treat John Bull is to look him straight in the eye. I consider a bold and firm course the pacific one."
In his letter dated September 16, 1847, to the cemetery sexton, Mr. Polk said: "You are hereby requested to set apart in the Congressional Burial Ground an appropriate spot for the interment of the late Mr. Fox, formerly Envoy Extraordinary and Ministry plenipotentiary of her Britannic majesty to the United States.
Other recods indicating the Congressional Cemetery use as a national place of burial prior to the Civil War include the following notations on many of similar station in public life:
"April 7th, 1841, General William Henry Harrison, Public Vault. Removed to Ohio, June 10th, 1841."
"Lund Washington, son of General Washington's half-brother and first organist of Christ Church, April 7th, 1841."
"February 2, 1848, Honorable John Quincy Adams, Public Vault. Removed March 6th, 1848, to Massachusetts."
"October 24, 1850, by Sam'l Kirby, Remains of General Zachary Taylor removed from Public Vault to Lexington, Kentucky. USD 1.00"
Congressional Cemetery is located at Eighteenth and Pennsylvania avenue S.E., adjacent to the Anacostia River or "Eastern Branch of the Potomac," as it is often familiarly referred to by Capitol hill residents.
A number of the old tombstones in the Congressional Cemetery date back to 1804 and 1805, and are an indication of its early association with the establishment of the national seat of Government here in 1800.
Ingles Among Founders
Henry and John Ingle, who were among the founders of the cemetery, are buried there. Henry Ingle was the great-grandfather of Miss Ella Moore of 180 Thirty-first street, in what was once old Georgetown.
March 30, 1812, Henry Ingle, who since 1807 had been a registrar of Christ Church, the oldest Episcopal parish in the District, established by act of the Maryland Legislature in 1794, deeded to its vestry the nucleus of what has since come to be universally known as Congressional Cemetery.
In 1817 the vestry of Christ Church set aside 100 burial sites for the interment of deceased Government officials, and in 1823 deeded 300 more to the United States for the same purpose.
For over 50 years thereafter this cemetery became recognized as a national burying ground for all Government officials who died holding Government office and for other famous men and women whose careers or official connection justified placing their bodies in graves set aside for public use and deeded to Congress.
Shortly after the Civil War this practice was very generally abandoned.
There also grew up the placing of memorial markers over the last resting places of Congressmen and other Government officials. Some 85 of these "bee-hive" markers of sandstone still remain in the cemetery and are receiving belated care from the United States Government.
Two Vice Presidents of the United States, Gerry and Clinton, were at one time buried in Congressional Cemetery. Gov. Clinton was later removed to New York State.
For a time after the tragic explosion of the ill-fated S.S. Princeton, on the Potomac River during President Tyler's administration, Secretary of State Abel Upshur of Upshurs Neck, Accomac County, Va., was buried in Congressional Cemetery in the same grave with his devoted aide, Capt. Beverly Kenyon, both having lost their lives in this catastrophe. Both were afterwards removed.
It is also the last resting place of Secretary of War, John O. Rawlins, Tobias Lear, secretary to Gen. Washington, and of Robert Mills, the first Federal architect. His white marble monument erected by the architects of America commemorates his genius in giving to us the Washington Monument and the Treasury Building.
By Jessie Fant Evans
Published by: The Evening Star
Publishing date: February 13, 1938