Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1856-07-01


COL. FREMONT.
There IS a discrepancy in the biographies of
Fremont which have been published as to his
birthplace. Some of the accounts state that he
was born in Virginia, others in South Carolina,
and others again in Georgia. The following,
from the Boston Telepgrah is said 10 be correct:
John Charles Fremont was bornat Savannah,
Georgia, January 81, 1918. His parents were
residents Of Norfolk, Va, but at the time OF his
birth, they were on a journey through the
Southern States His father was born in France,
near Lyons Having been taken prisoner by
the English, while on the way to join his rcla-
tives in St Domingo, he Afterwards escaped and
came to the United States.
'fBeing a young man of fine taste and consid-
cradle skill in painting, ne soon made friends
and found employment. At Norfolk, Va, he
found the lady who became his wife, and who is
described as q Young Virginia lady of remark
able beauty. And it is added that they were
married contrary to the wishes of her family
John Charles Fremont was their Oldest child
There were two other children daughter, who
died at the age of seventeen, and a son, the
youngcst child, who died at the age of twenty
'Col. Fremonts father died when these
children were all very young the Oldest being
but four years of age, leaving his bereaTed lam
ily in very dependent aud destitute
cea. The widow removed with her children
and. poverty from Norfolk to Charleston, 5. C.,
where she fixed her permanent residence"
We have no disposition in the general to
meddlc with the private history Of people; but
when that private history relates to men pre-
scented for the highest Office in the gift of the
nation, and is brought to light by the press, 1t
is nothing more than proper that 1t should be,
in the main, correct. 1t Is due to truth and
history. It would indeed be strange, if 50 yong
n man as Col. Fremont were elected President
that the simple record l. of his parcntage or birth
had either been lost entirely to history, or so in
hn-Itrv n uTraNn
fact correctly.
To the good or bad fortune, as it may be, of
this city. it is connected with the history of Col.
Fremont's parentage. About the first OF the
present century, there resided in this city, a
revolutionary veteran, who had served ialthful-
ly in the war of the Revolution. This veteran
was Col. John Pryor. He lived on the ground
which lies between the canal and the river, west
of the Petersburg railroad depot, and east OF the
Armory. He had there surrounding his house
q garden, where people were admitted for q
small fee, and where refreshments could DC pro-
cured. This was called "PryOr's garden" The
old Colonel was n victim of rheumatism, and
locomotion to him was difficult He moved
with a shufling step, and took a long time to go
n very little way-inGccd he was a disabled,
stif:limbcd old soldier, and his physical forces
had from exposure and hardship suffered no
little abatement.
The veteran Col. Pryor took it into his head
that be needed n wife, and that he would be much
better off with one, than to remain a rheumatic
old bachelor, with no one to love, or rather no
one to his linen and sew on his buttons
So he sought the hand in marriage OF q young
girl-who she was it is not matcria! to know; nor
docs our informant remember whether she was
very beautiful or not. Suffice it TO say, she yield
ed to the suit Of the veteran soldier, and became
Mrs. Pryor-misstress of the garden, and mis-
trsss of a long framed building, said to have re-
sembled very much that dwelling so long occu-
pied by the late James Gray, andwhich was pull
sd down 10 make room for the fine dwellings Of
Mr.. John Mabin and that erected by Mr., Gray.
Its main feature was a somewhat spacious apart
ment in tho centre. On either hand were
long wings, of smaller dimensions, except their
length. than the centre. AT the extremities OF
these two wings stood two offices, apparently
to promotes the harmony of the general design.
i've are The more particular in describing the
building, because, as will be seen, a Judgment
was made in one of these Offices by an enemy
Of the ColoneFs domestic happiness.
At this time there lived in Richmond a French
teacher named Fremont, who taughtin the acad-
cmy of the celebrated French scholar and gen.
tlenlan, Girardin. 81 Fremont is described as
having been a small, swarthy individual, with
some French peculiaritics, strongly developed.
Some Of the Oldest inhabitants say that Colonel
Pryor employed Monsieur Fremont to teach his
youaS wife French Certain It's, that he rent
ed of the Colonel one of the little offices above
uC8EEAQEur UuA " AA1 LAAGaAAor 80 - SStNNA~-I "
the Coloners table. What progress the lady
made in studying French is %notknown; but, du-
ring the interviews with her teacher, there grew
up in her breast sentiments and feelings incon-
sistent with her relations to Col. Pryor. How
long this state of things existed, we are not in
formed; but the result was, that Mrs. Pryor and
NJ. Fremont fed from the city to Norfolk, aud
there, for a time, lived together-he, 1t Is under
stood, pursuing the vocation of an upholsterer,
which was supposed to have been his original
trade. They did not, however, reside long in
Norfolk, but went to the far outh-wher the
present candidate for the Presidency was born
possibly to Savannah, though some reports say
Charleston.
We cannot say whether the parties were ever
married. Certain it is that old Col. Pryor, was
never divorced from his wife, who thus left him
more forlorn than he was when she married him.
The question arises, could there have been a
legitimate marriage without n divorce?
Iii proper to add that Col. Pryor, after some
time brooding over the bad treatment he suffer-
edin the desertion Of his wife, assuaged his grief
by marrying another young woman, who re-
mained with him until his dcath-he dying, 1t
is hardly necessary to add, without Issue. The
abduction Of his first wife by the F%renchman,
who showed not the slightest regard for his prior
claims, was a sore subject to the old Colonel
These incidents in the life Of the progenitor Of
the free soil candidate for the Presidency, show
that he was at least a disciple Of FTee-Love, If
not Of Observation-Disclosures Dispatch.
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