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From Our Archives: I Saw Lincoln Slain

She found herself in Washington like millions before and since, a young woman from somewhere else—in this case Connecticut—quickly taken with her newfound closeness to the pomp of the Federal seat of government.

Back in 1865, Washington was also capital of a nation split by a brutal civil war entering its last months. Sarah Russell, a minister’s daughter, would twice see President Lincoln with her own eyes—at the White House on the evening of his second inauguration, March 4, and a few weeks later on Good Friday, April 14, Ford’s Theatre.

Currier & Ives

Jump ahead four decades to a roomy two-story home with picket fence on Lee Highway in the East Fall Church neighborhood.  Sarah Norton Russell Eastman (1847-1939), mother of two impressive young men and wife of a Union veteran, is placing her memories onto the modest lines of a composition book. Points of popular history supplement her recall and at times a fact or two come out wrong.

But it’s Mrs. Eastman’s brief glimpses of Lincoln, both in celebration and mortally wounded, that shine like well-kept heirlooms.

“His shirt was open showing blood on his chest.”

Arlington Public Library’s Virginia Room is home to the Eastman-Fenwick Collection, a large mix of personal papers, Civil War and World War I front-line correspondence, photographs, maps and other materials that include Sarah Eastman’s, and those of several generations including her granddaughter’s husband, Virginia delegate, state senator and gubernatorial candidate Charles R. Fenwick. The Arlington Democrat was a key proponent of regional mass transit and his name is attached to Metro’s Yellow Line span of the 14th Street Bridge.  Fenwick was also a political intimate of John and Robert Kennedy.

The Eastman-Fenwick House, 6733 Lee Highway, is still a family home.

 

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A transcription of Sarah Eastman's account of seeing Abraham Lincoln during March and April 1865:

 

My Recollection of the Assassination of

President Abraham Lincoln.

 

In January 1865, before the close of the

Civil War, I came to Washington to live, and

witnessed many of the exciting scenes of

that period.

 

I saw President Lincolns second

Inauguration and helped dress my Sister to

ride in a float in the parade, which was

an impromptu affair. Thirteen girls dressed

in white with red white and blue, carrying

flags rode on the float.

 

That evening I attended the reception to

President Lincoln’ second inaugural reception

The President at the White House. At the

front door a certain number of persons were

admitted at a time, and when the door was

closed the crowd surging back actually

lifted me off the my feet. After entering, persons

passed through the hall into the Blue

Room, and after shaking hands with the

President and Mrs. Lincoln passed into

the East Room, making their exit through

 

[page 2]

one of the windows onto a platform extending

from the windowsill to the front fence, then

down a few steps to the pavement.

 

My father had been a minister in

Connecticut, and was opposed to the Theatre, so it

was after long urging and the argument that

Ford's Theatre, April 1865

General Grant was to be at the Theater with the

President that evening, that he gave his consent

to my going. I sat in the dress circle nearly

opposite the box in which the President was seated.

The play was Our American Cousin. When the

Presidential Party came in, Lord Dundreary was

just asking the conundrum [“]Why does a dog

wag his tail[?”], and after the applause given the

President he repeated it. The play went

on, then at a moment when the stage was

clear there was a pistol flash and John Wilkes

Booth jumped from the box in which the

President was sitting onto the stage. In jumping

his foot caught in the flag decorating the box

and he apparently sat for an instant on the stage.

Rushing across the stage, about in the middle,

he turned, brandishing a dagger that glistened

[page 3]

in the gas light, and calling out “Sic Semper Tyranus [sic]”

was gone into the alley where a boy was holding

his horse. Being familiar with the Theater he

knew how to arrange the passages so that nothing

would obstruct his course.

 

For a moment every one was dazed, there was

quiet, but almost immediately word spread

around The President has been shot. Then the

confusion was awful. Women fainted, some tried

to climb over the backs of chairs, men rushed on to

the stage, some climbed to the box with water,

Laura Keene came on the stage and with arms

outstretched implored the audience to be calm.

Twice she came out in that manner. After that

she was in the box with Mrs. Lincoln.

 

In going out I reached the top of the stairs just

as the President was being carried down on a

stretcher. Laura Keene was following calling

[“]Make way for Mrs. Lincoln,[“] who was crying

[“]Let me get the assassin, Oh take me to him.[“]

His shirt was open showing blood on his chest.

He was taken to a house opposite where he

died the next morning.

 

[page 4]

There was a plot to assassinate some of

the Cabinet that night. Secretary of State Seward

was attacked, on his sick bed, and seriously

injured, his Son having a tussle with the assassin.

 

Secretary of War Stanton was an intended

victim but was not found where the plotters

supposed him to be. General Grant who was

advertised to be at the Theater was suddenly

called out of the city.

 

Accompanying the President and Mrs. Lincoln

was Major Rathburn [sic] and Miss Harris – afterward

married.

 

There were six persons in the plot

Mrs. Surratt, at whose house on H St near 5th NW

their meetings were held, her Son John H. Surratt,

Payne, who attacked Secretary Seward, Harrold [sic],

Atzerolt [sic] and Mudd. After trial three were

executed  - hung – on the grounds of Old Capitol Prison.

(The ground now occupied by the New Senate Office  Bldg.)

Mrs. Surratt, Payne, Atzerolt. The others were

banished to Dry Tortugus [sic].

 

A few words about Miss Keene

 

[page 5]

The performance that evening was

advertised as a Benefit, also her last night.

The President, with a full house must have

been an incentive to do her best. She was

gowned in white satin brocaded with pink

roses and green leaves, cut with tight bodice,

low neck, short sleeves and full shirt, in

which she made a pleasing picture.

 

I quote from a program which I have preserved.

 

Playbill. Smithsonian Institution

Benefit and Last Night of Miss Laura Keene

the distinguished managerist [sic], authorist [sic] and

actress. Supported by John Doytt and

Henry [sic] Hawk, in Tom Taylors celebrated eccentric

comedy. As originally produced by Miss Keene

and performed by her upwards of 1000 nights

Entitled, Our American Cousin.

 

Copied into this book February 1905.

Sarah N. Eastman.

Our Back Pages: Shreve’s in Cherrydale

Shreve’s Store on Lee Highway in Cherrydale was the second general store in Cherrydale, the first being Nelson’s. In addition to being a store it was also, for a time, the Cherrydale Post Office.

Double track trolley lines in front of the store ran to Great Falls in one direction and Rosslyn in the other. The tracks, which followed what is now Old Dominion Drive, were removed in 1935.

According to an article in the Sun newspaper, there was a water trough for horses in front of the store, which was filled from a nearby pump. When the pump was eventually electrified, the horses were so scared by the new device they wouldn’t drink!

As Lee Highway was not paved in the early years, the Shreve family often hitched their own road grader to their horse to smooth out the street.

The photograph above was taken circa 1910.

What About You?

What do you remember or have heard about Shreve’s or other stores in Cherrydale? We want to know!

Early Emergency Fire Response

From an oral history with Walter R. De Groot:
“Like I said, Fillmore Gardens [an apartment complex in South Arlington] before that was done, there was kind of a farm area there.  The county didn’t pick up trash.  You burned your trash and if you had a lot of waste, limbs and stuff breaking off the trees or raking leaves in the fall, you just drug them out [and] what you would have called “curbed” them…most of them were just drainage ditches and folks just dragged them out in the street and set them on fire.  And I think that’s how some of those field fires got going; either kids deliberately set them or farmers just burning waste and just caught the field on fire.

An interesting thing I had to learn was sound of sirens.  Every fire house had a code and you heard like the sound of the fifth cycle up and down, up and down, and you had to count those.  As I recall, Clarendon was three.  If they didn’t get many people they turned the siren on again and it would cycle up and down…  If you heard the siren, you called the dispatcher and the dispatcher would just immediately spit out an address and hang up, he was so busy.

Then of course later on, a lot of the volunteer firemen company’s would buy radios and all the boys would have what they called scanners, and they’d pick up any of the radio messages.  And of course whatever units were being dispatched you’d pick that up, that’s not my company, forget it.”

Virginia Room Oral History Collection
Walter  R. De Groot, Series 3, # 103
2004-05

The photograph above is the Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department building and trucks, ca. 1951.

What About You?

What are your memories regarding Arlington’s Fire Department or large fires in your neighborhood?

Homes of Character

Brumback Realty Company of Clarendon, founded by a father with six sons, was a builder in Country Club Hills in 1928-29. Country Club Hills was developed from 126 acres of beautiful hills and wooded land from the old Civil War era Grunwell estate and commanded a view of Washington, D.C. One of their architects was A.F. Thelander, who designed and built his own home in Country Club Hills at Rock Spring Drive and Avondale Avenue, facing the Washington Golf and Country Club.  The English Tudor, Colonial, and Spanish style homes combined brick and stone and included two car garages, variegated tile roofs and copper gutters and flashing. The first 15 homes sold for an average of $20,000 in 1929. The Virginia Room has some photos from Brumback Realty showing tastefully furnished interiors and the distinctive exteriors of homes that are still admired today.

The Virginia Room has a copy of Arlington Historical Society’s 1987 driving tour of Brumback Homes in Country Club Hills, Woodlawn, Woodmont, Lyon Park, Lyon Village and some individual streets.  The driving tour includes a quotation from Keith A. Brumback, President of Brumback Realty, Inc.  about the Burmback Policy of Doing Business:  “In my opinion, one of the most important and worthwhile lines of work any individual can undertake is that of providing families with attractive, comfortable homes in which all the joy of home-ownership can be experienced, without financial strain or worry on the family, and at the lowest possible price consistent with sound construction methods and good business practice.”

A Virginia Room Oral History interview of George and Frances Brumback provides more information on the Brumback Realty Company, the building of Country Club Hills and Mrs. Brumback’s career as a teacher at Cherrydale and Woodmont Elementary Schools.

What about you?  Do you live in a Brumback home?  Do you have any photos of your home and neighborhood? The Virginia Room wants to know.

When Arlington Did the Right Thing

"The time is always right to do the right thing."
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On August 28, the 48th anniversary of the "I Have a Dream" speech, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial will be formally dedicated in Washington D.C. Located in West Potomac Park and flanked by the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, the addition of the King Memorial creates a monumental trifecta of leadership and inspiration.

From left, seventh graders Gloria Thompson, Ronald Deskins, Lance Newman and Michael Jones enter the previously all-white Stratford Junior High on Feb. 2, 1959. Courtesy of Michael Jones.

As a child of nine in August of 1963, I had little knowledge of the man whose eloquence and personal courage undergirded a movement. I had no knowledge of the civil rights movement itself. African-Americans were just not a part of my everyday experience. Just as it is often observed that there are two Virginias, in 1963 there were two Arlingtons: the well-to-do, predominantly white North Arlington and the less prosperous, racially mixed South Arlington. It was a distinction that was more than just directional. There were few students of color in my elementary school, Stewart-Tuckahoe, when I attended from 1960-1966--a fact consistent with the 1960 Census, which reported only 7,063 foreign–born persons or 4.3 percent of the County’s total population.

High View Park in North Arlington and Arlington View and Green Valley (Nauck) in South Arlington were all that remained of the County’s African-American communities. High View Park, known in my day as "Hall's Hill," was a neighborhood not far from where I grew up. It epitomized the less prosperous and segregated Arlington: an enclave of substandard housing and dead-ended, unpaved streets that for much of its history had been literally walled from the white neighborhoods it bordered by a series of 7-foot fences.

The year of King’s speech, the Arlington Planning Commission established a committee to study how best to maintain residential neighborhoods, a study that led to the creation of the Neighborhood Conservation Program. On Feb. 13, 1965, the County Board approved a Neighborhood Conservation Plan for High View Park hailing the tireless efforts of the residents who spoke up for their neighborhood’s civic rights. Abraham Lincoln, whose 156th birthday was celebrated the day before, would have been proud.

As significant as this moment was in Arlington's pursuit of racial parity, it was but the latest example of the County’s black and white residents working together for common cause. A few years earlier, some of the High View Park champions--E. Leslie and Dorothy Hamm and Peggy Deskins – had joined Edmund and Elizabeth Campbell and others to face down Sen. Harry Byrd’s "massive resistance" and integrate the County’s schools.

The Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision to end school segregation "with all deliberate speed" rocked Virginia to its core in May 1954. The "political museum piece" that was Virginia, as characterized by political scientist V.O Key in his classic, "Southern Politics in State and Nation" [1949], was stuck on the horns of a dilemma, caught between the moral imperative to do right by Virginia and remain segregated, or to do the right thing. It was an issue that pitted being a Virginian against being an American. Arlington, having evolved from a bedroom community in the shadow of the nation's capital to a thriving, socially progressive community of residents whose political views were markedly different from those of the rest of the state, found itself at the center of the fight.

By 1956, political passions were running high in Richmond as "massive resistance" to the High Court's mandate was gaining momentum, giving rise to a plan to prevent any integrated schools from receiving state funds and authorizing the governor to order any such school to close. Meanwhile the NAACP was filing lawsuits across the state to force integration, including a suit brought on behalf of 15 African American and white parents and 22 students in Arlington.

The case was named for Clarissa S. Thompson, an African American student who wanted to attend Arlington's all white Washington-Lee High School instead of the all black Hoffman-Boston. After hearing oral arguments, Alexandria Federal District Judge Albert V. Bryan, who only four years before in writing the opinion in the original Prince Edward County school integration case* stated that racial segregation caused no hurt or harm to either race, ordered that the schools in Arlington be desegregated. Suits and countersuits ensued--deliberation without speed.

Finally, on Jan. 19, 1959 (birthday of Virginia native son Robert E. Lee), the state’s Supreme Court of Appeals, by a ruling of 5-2, overturned the Virginia legislature's "massive resistance" laws and its threat of schools closures, declaring them in violation of the Virginia Constitution. The issue of school integration had assailed Virginia’s traditional political culture, a culture that was oligarchic, parsimonious, suspicious of "big" government, discouraging of public participation in the affairs of state, obeisant to the way things were. Throughout the long, slow march to integration in Virginia, rhetoric trumped reason; fear mongering triumphed over fairness; delay prevented "deliberate speed." Traditional Southern values were pitted against unwanted northern influence--ideologues against pragmatists.

The press, too played a powerful role on both sides of the integration issue. For every Richmond News Leader editorial that intrepidly egged on the resisters, editorials in both the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot and The Washington Post and Times Herald, penned by Lenoir Chambers and Robert Muse, respectively, eschewed moral turpitude and urged action and acceptance.

Virginia fought the law, but the law won. On Feb. 2, 1959, Ronald Deskins, Michael Jones, Lance Newman and Gloria Thompson (sister of Clarissa) entered Stratford Junior High School, splitting a phalanx of approximately 100 helmeted Arlington police officers who were Little Rock-ready with gas grenades, masks and batons. Their walk to school irrevocably changed Virginia although at the time, they were unaware of its historical significance.

Years later, reminiscing at a panel discussion with 500 students at Stratford Junior High (now H-B Woodlawn), the four understated their roles on that important day citing their parents and other community leaders – blacks and whites -- as the true heroes of Arlington’s integration story. The integration of Stratford was but the first of many small steps toward integration. It would still be years before black and white children could sit alongside one another at drug store counters and drink Cokes, attend dances together, or compete on the same sports teams.

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* Prince Edward County Public Schools chose to close rather than integrate and remained closed from 1959-1964. It was the only county system in the country to do so.

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The material for this story came from the archives of the Arlington Public Library's Center for Local History. The attached bibliography will help interested readers learn more about these important events in Arlington’s history.

VA Room Oral Histories about Desegregation

  • Series 3, no. 26 Edmund Campbell
  • Series 3, no. 48 Dorothy Hamm
  • Series 3, no. 110 Ray Reid
  • Series 3, no. 112 John Robinson
  • Series 3, no. 061 Theda Henle

DVD:

Segregation/Integration Collections in the Arlington Community Archives

  • RG 7: Arlington County Public Schools
  • RG 7B: Hoffman-Boston High School Records
  • RG 9: Records of Citizen’s Committee for School Improvement
  • RG 18: Personal Papers of Barbara Marx
  • RG 19: Personal Papers of Elizabeth Pfohl Campbell
  • RG 69: Arlington County Public Schools: Desegregation Materials (copies culled from RG 7)

Vertical Files:

  • 5 Folders containing clippings, articles, memos, reports, etc. relating to desegregation

Books:

 

The Chain Bridge

The first bridge to cross the Potomac in the Washington area was constructed in 1797 when Georgetown merchants built the “Falls Bridge” at the “Little Falls.” 

The bridge was built to replace ferry service and was primarily used to drive cattle across to the Georgetown auction markets after the cattle had drunk heavily at Pimmit Run.

There have been eight bridges built on this site.  The original one was a covered wooden structure that collapsed in 1804, and the second was destroyed by floods after only 6 months.  In 1810, a third bridge was constructed that was truly a “Chain Bridge,” the name by which all subsequent bridges have been known.  Two chains were made from four-foot links of wrought iron and suspended from massive stone towers at either shore.  The bridge itself was 136 feet long and 15 feet wide.

This was a toll bridge which reported $9,000 in collected tolls in 1810.  Tolls, thought to be high, were:

  • Four Horse Carriage: 1 ½ dollars
  • Two Horse Carriage:  1 dollar
  • Four Horse Wagon:  62 ½ cents
  • Two Horse Wagon:  37 ½ cents
  • Gig:  36 ½ cents
  • Man: 6 ½ cents

It was a relatively low bridge, and floods were a continuing problem.  The third, fourth, and fifth structures were all swept away by high water.

The present Chain Bridge, a simple continuous steel girder structure, was built in 1939 with a vertical clearance between the bridge and the river of 45 feet.  Nevertheless, in times of severe flooding, such as that experienced during Hurricane Agnes in 1972, the water level was so high that it became within a few feet of the bridge’s floor.

 

Do you remember Chain Bridge during the 1972 flooding?

 

Walker Chapel

 

Home to one of the earliest church congregations in Arlington County, the unique history of Walker Chapel is that of both change and tradition.

Located at the present address of 4102 North Glebe Road, the original Walker Chapel was built in 1871, six years after the end of the Civil War, and only a year after the end of Arlington County’s occupation by the Union Army. Initially a junior church of the Mount Olivet Circuit, the chapel was situated on land donated by Robert and James Walker, whose father David Walker was buried in the adjacent Walker (Family) Grave Yard. The original building was a single room frame structure with a small belfry and basement, seated near the upper part of the graveyard. A new church was built at the opposite end of the cemetery in 1903, with further additions taking place in 1952 and 1954, including the construction of an education and administrative building. The original chapel continued to be used for Sunday School classes prior to its demolition in 1930. The photograph above was taken in August, 1996, before the extensive renovations of 1999; the result is the stately white brick church that stands today.

What about you? Have you been to Walker Chapel? We’d love to hear from you.

All Work and No Play

In 1949, Arlington established a formal Department of Recreation for the rapidly growing and developing county. However, the classes, clubs, and activities sponsored by the department mirrored the school system and were segregated. In 1950, a formal "Negro Recreation Section" was created "with a special emphasis on sports." Its director was Ernest E. Johnson, who was a central figure for African-Americans in Arlington who wished to participate in the Department's programs.

Johnson expanded the Negro Recreation Section to include classes for children in not only a variety of sports, but dance, theater, and music (including accordion classes), and community events like teen beauty pageants and parades. He was forward-thinking, documenting many of these activities in the early to mid-1950s with professional photographs; a collection of 78 of these images are held in the Community Archives. Johnson oversaw the development of Jennie Dean field and a new recreation center at Hoffman-Boston on S. Queen St. This center later became known as the Carver Center. Johnson's activities stretched beyond the Department of Recreation. He was the leader of Arlington's first African-American Cub Scout Pack (#589), chartered in April of 1952.

For the 1962-1963 fiscal year, the Negro Recreation Section was quietly changed to the Carver Section, with Johnson still as its supervisor. In 1964, the Negro Recreation Section disappeared in a department reorganization; Johnson became Supervisor of the Centers Section, overseeing "teen clubs, free classes, and meetings of non-Department sponsored clubs in the centers." With no fanfare at all, the county's Department of Recreation had become desegregated and Johnson was integrated into the department's existing administration.

Ernest Johnson continued to serve Arlington County, and on May 8, 1982, Arlington celebrated Ernest E. Johnson Day with a parade that ran from the Walter Reed Recreation Center to the Carver Recreation Center, a softball game that afternoon, a senior tea and a testimonial dinner that evening. A photograph from the event, showing Johnson (center) and his wife Mignon (left) is shown above. Johnson died in December 1992, after a life to service to the people of Arlington; his work let Arlington play.

What About You?

What are your memories of Arlington's Department of Recreation: classes, clubs, parks, and fields? We want to hear from you!

Infamous Arlingtonian Mary Ann Hall

Rixey Mansion, now part of Marymount University, stands on the site of Mary Ann Hall’s country house.

 

Mary Ann Hall, sister of Bazil Hall, the farmer and slave owner for which Hall’s Hill (now Highview Park) was named, also owned property in Arlington which she used as a summer home and country house. The main building of Marymount University, Rixey Mansion, now occupies the site of Mary Ann’s farmhouse.

Mary Ann was a high-class madam in Washington where she ran a brothel (located at the foot of Capitol Hill) for over 40 years. She bought the lot and had the brothel built to her specifications, a substantial house with four stories containing 25 rooms and a basement.

When the construction for the National Museum of the American Indian began, professional archeologists were called in to interpret the site where her house stood. The results of the excavation showed that the quality of materials at the site was better than that of the surrounding neighborhood. Tableware was expensive and seeds and bones found showed a nutritional diet that included substantial amounts of beef, poultry and fish as well as turtle, and fruits such as coconuts and berries. Also found were dozens of corks and bottles which seemed to indicate Mary Ann’s fondness for champagne.

A successful business woman, in 1853 she was able to purchase a farm in Alexandria County (now Arlington) to which she gradually added through 1869. As she grew older she spent more time at the farm and turned over business matters to her younger sister Elizabeth.

District of Columbia court records show that when she died, Mary Ann Hall was worth $87,000 (about $2,000,000 today) with no debts. A list of her belongings included Belgian carpets, oil paintings, plush red furniture and an ice box as well as a large number of sheets, mattresses, blankets, feather pillows and comforters.

Mary Ann never married, had children or kept a diary. She left no collection of personal letters or business ledgers, so there is little known about her as an individual. However, her obituary in the Evening Star described her as a person of unquestioned integrity and a heart open to “appeals of distress and a charity that was boundless.”

After her death in 1886, she was buried in Congressional Cemetery. The inscription on her grave monument reads:

Truth was her motto
Her creed charity for all
Dawn is coming.



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