Weekly Trinity journal., 1865-06-17
From the Washington Huteligencer, May 9Th
Arlington and its ProprietOrs.

ago Robert E. Lee, then a Lieutenant Colonel of
cavalry in the Union army, and now Commander
In-Chlef of the rebel army, with his family
in the happy possession of that magnificent in
heritance. More than one-half of the estate,
consisting of thousand acres, was covered with
a splendid forest of oak and other timber,
and productive fields adorned by the hand of
culture. To-day what change The venerable
ancestral mansion, erected by the honored
by adoption of the Father of his Country, and
for half century his cultivated and delightful
home, is now in the center of vast cemetery of
those who have fallen in the the service of their
country. Two hundred and fifty acres of this
estate surrounding the mansion have been per-
manently appropriated for burial purposes by
Government, and enclosed by substantial and
handsome fence.
Nearly five thousand soldiers have already
been there buried, and the number is daily grow
ing larger In 1853, Mrs. Gusts, the mother of
Mrs General Lee died in the Arlington mansion,
and was buried in a sequestered and delightful
grove near the mansion and in 1857 Mr. Gusts
died, and his remains were deposited by her side,
a vast concOurse Of people of every rank testify
ing their reverence for the departed by their
presence at the obsequies That sequestered
grove thus selected by its the last rest
ing-place for himself aud his, has been in the
tempest Of the times invaded the forest has
been transformed into Il field of the dead, and
the two marble columns marking the remains of
George Washington Pafke GUSTS and Mary Lee
Fitzhugh, his wife. now rise in the midst of more
than four thousand patriot soldiers graves
Nearly the whole of the timber and wood has
been swept away from the entire estate and used
for war purposes The Freedmen's Village is
established upon one portion Of the land thus
cleared, and it is all being put under cultivation
by contraband negro labor.
Mr. Gusts inherited this estate from his father,
who was the son of Mrs. General Washington by
q former husband. Soon after his mother died,
in 1902, he then about twenty-five years of age,
came here from Mount Vernon, and with his
young and accomplished wife took up their resi-
dence in the Arlington Mansion, which he had
then just erected and which evermore their
beautiful and cultivated home The fruits of
this union were four daughters, all of whom died
in infancy, except Mary GUSTS. the wife of Cen
! eral Robert E. Lee. Mr.. GUSTS father, John
Parke GUSTS, was an aid-de-camp to General
Washington, and died of a camp fever in 1871,
contracted al the siege of Yorktown, at the age
of twenty-seven years. He had married at nine
teen years of age, Eleanor Calvert of Mount
Airy Maryland, descendant of the second Lord
Baltimore, when but fifteen years Of age and at
twenty-three she was thus made q widow with
four children.
General Washington fastened to Ethan, Ma
ryland, where the husband was sick, only to see
him in his dying moments This the only
surviving child of Mrs Washington, the daugh-
ter having died some years before. He was
deeply affected, and said to the mother 81
adopt the two young children my own" These
were Eleanor Gusts, then two and a-half years
of age, who died at seventeen, of consumption
and George Washington Parke Gusts, then six
months old. General Washington took unwea-
ried pains in training this son of his adoption
desiring to give him solid and liberal education
but his efforts failed Tie son was averse to
study, though possessed of good abilities, and
.fo
his life and very large fortune, inherited from
his father and mother, to agriculture and pleas
ant literary pursuits. He was possessed of much
natural eloquence and wrote with a ready and
cultivated pen, as the columns of the InteHgencer,
to which he often contributed, bear testimony.
He of the first persons in this country
to embark in the raising of Merino sheep. He
naugurated an annual convention for the promo
ton of agriculture and domestic manufactures,
known over the country as the Arlington Sheep
shcaring. These gatherings were at Arlington
Springs, beneath the shade of a venerable oak,
the banks of the Potomac For many
years, on the 30th of April a large concourse
gathered TO the ceremonies.
Prizes, provided at the expense of Mrs. Gusts.
awarded to those presenting the best speci-
mems of sleeps wool and domestic manufactures.
He had at one time large and splendid flock of
sheep of the choicest breeds, which, however,
were plundered by thieves and dogs, till at last
two only remained, and these for several years
held solitary sway in the domain. Mr.. GUSTS
took delight in paintings but the six paintings
now hanging in the hall of the Arlington man.
sion, representing battles and Revolutionary in
cidents, painted by him, evince rather a sorry
capacity of the author in that direction. The
walls of this mansion were, however, adorned
with some fine specimens of the art. Among
them were several splendid original portraits of
Washngton-one by the elder Peale and another
IvS art and oil f,,I
trait of his mother by the latter-named artist
All these family pictures were taken away by the
Lee family when they went into the rebellion
The mansion is occupied by the officer in
command of the post and his subordinates. The
dining hall is used as an Office In this room are
three old fashioned bookcases, containing some
four hundred Volumes principally old books
broken sets, and of very small value. The par
lor adjoining the hall is not occupied, the only
article in it being mahogany sideboard, which
came from Mount Vernon. In the parlor beyond
two sofas and six stuffed mahogany chairs
covered with scarlet velvet; two marble-top
tables, sideboard, and piano stool matching
the chairs. On the walls are several course
large portraits, and one or two fine oil paintings
There are also two old engravings, of classical,
NEUROLOGICAL character, hanging with the rest
The room in the southerlv wing and used by
General Lee for Office, is used as a bed
room, and all the upper part of the mansion is
used for a like purpose The building is not
injured. The fower-garden has been enclosed
by new fence, and is laid out and tastefully
adorned this Spring.
The grave OF each soldier is neatly marked by
wooden slab at the head and the foot painted
white, inscribed with the name of the soldier,
and his company and regiment and at a lit
tie distance these slabs have the appearance of
marble. The mounds to be neatly covered
with sod.
General Robert Edmund Lee is the son of Cen
eral Henry Lee, of Revolutionary memory and
known as Light Horse Harry" whose mother
was the beautiful Miss Grimes General Wash
ington's first love, and whom he celebrated MS
:. the lowland beauty" General Lee was twice
married. BY the first marriage he had two chill
dren Henry ian officer in the war of 1922, and
Lucy. By the second wife-a Miss Carter of
Shirley.-he had FIVE children, two daughters
Anna and Mildred and three The sons
were Charles Carter, Robert Edmund, tthe
GENERALLY, and Sidney Smith the last named an
officer in our navy, and now in the rebel army.
OPALs-The editor of the San Andreas Regis
ter was shown, last week, some of the opal stones
recently discovered near Mokelumne Hill. He
;,,hadIa1 in tha lava ar