Hallowed Dust of Giants of Old Reposed Therein

If you want to find out whether or not some ancestor of yours rests in the 132-year-old Congressional Cemetery in southeast, you should go-of all places-to the House Appropriations Committee.

There you will find a 177-page typewritten report made by the War Department giving burial records as complete as it was possible to compile from cemetery records, and the vast military data of the War Department, yellowed newspaper files and other data. Actually, Congressional is the first national cemetery created by the Government.

The historic 30-acre tract, first resting place of the remains of Presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson; Henry Clay and some 50 senators of an earlier day and upward of 150 representatives, has been completely rehabilitated after years of neglect.

How It Came About

The renovation and the burial record compilation are the result of a chance visit of two Rhode Island senators some years ago.

The present Sen. Francis Green was visiting Sen. Peter G. Gerry. His host asked one Sunday morning what his guest would like to do. Sen. Green said his great grandfather, James Burwell, was buried in Congressional Cemetery and he would like to visit his grave.

Sen. Gerry recalled that his great grandfather, Elbridge Gerry, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, also was interred there. They found the cemetery in a sad state. Rank weed growth covered the acres where rest the bones of many heroes. Cenotaphs and headstones, many provided by a thoughtful Government, were crumbling and falling.

It took hours to find the Gerry grave and as for Sen. Burwell, well, the keeper said he just wasn't buried there.

Defied His Doctor

The circumstances of Sen. Burwell's death in December 1820, were too well known to his descendant to take the caretaker's word. Ill with a cold, the tart old legislator defied doctor's orders to vote on a bill during that month. He caught pneumonia, as his doctor feared, and died. It would have taken a week to get his body back to his native Rhode Island then, so he was given a state funeral at the Capitol and interred in Congressional. Sen. Green was much perturbed not to be able to find the Burwell grave.

Sen. Green was elected in 1936 and was put on the Senate Appropriations Committee and had language written in the 1937 War Department bill to include Congressional with Arlington and other cemeteries cared for by the Quartermaster General.

The persistent Green a few months later inquired how the work was progressing. When told it could not be done because there was not enough money, the Rhode Islander cited the specific authorization in the bill and demanded action. He got it.

Adding to the pressure on the House side was the interest of Rep. Edith Nourse Rogers who prepared a supporting resolution, later found unnecessary.

Results, Finally

And so, after two years and expenditure of a relative small sum, the old cemetery has been renovated to a par with other national cemeteries.

The Government's interest in this plot dates to 1807, when it was known as the Episcopalian Burying Ground and comprised 4 ½ acres. The Government sold part of its property there to the Washington Parish but in the succeeding years, gradually took over the property. About $50,000 was spent over the first 100 years of its existence to enlarge the grounds, build a chapel no longer existent, erect the receiving vault which has held the remains of many famous men and put up the now ancient iron picket fence around the place.

To recount all the public figures interred there would be tedious but the wide range of burials is interesting. Many bodies years later were removed by kinsmen and taken back to their native states.

One interesting group of graves marks "happy hunting ground" of many Indians who died while in Washington negotiating treaties for their tribes. Among them were Prophet, a Winnebago; Scarlet Crow, a friendly Sioux chief who was famed as a scout, Little Bee and others.

Lafitte's Nemesis

Among the early giants of Capitol Hill whose bodies were to be found there, were Commodore Daniel Todd Patterson, the gallant officer who subdued the pirate, Jean Lafitte in 1814, destroying his raiding flotilla; Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, Thaddeus Stevens, Pennsylvania's "great commoner," and many others.

The Civil War is reflected there also. There were numerous burials following the Battle of Bull Run in 1861. There is a monument to "21 girls who lost their lives in the Arsenal explosion in 1864" and graves of a number of Confederate prisoners.

Tobias Lear, secretary and trusted friend of George Washington, was buried in Congressional in 1816 and the record on President Adams is "President John Quincy Adams, later a Representative."

Several victims of "poison secretly put in food served in Washington during the inauguration of President Buchanan" lie there, including Mississippi's Gov. John Anthony Quitman. There also rest several secretaries of state, U.S. treasurers, and other high officials who died in office.

Interments fell off rapidly after the turn of the century. They ceased almost entirely after 1920. But in 1932, the cemetery gates opened again to receive the pall of a great musician who had lived his entire life within sight of the old burial ground. John Philip Sousa, the "band king," then was buried there.

Published by: Washington Daily News / By Charter Heslep

Publishing date: May 15, 1939