The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1879-08-22
AARON BURR.

AARON BURR.
The House at Port Richmond, n. ",
in Which He Died.
CPhiladelphia Press LIetter.l
L walked up little street from the
wharf, lined with beer saloons, shops,
etc., and saw at the corner quite u
large house with wooden columns
reaching up to the roof, ON which was
written, aThe Port Richmond Hotel"
This, said I, must have been o big
house in its day, so will drop in here
and see if they know anything about
Aaron Burr.
The hotel is now used chiefly for
drinking beer and playing billiards.
It has two stories and half under the
piazza of six columns, and an older
end building, like q kitchen, with a
high brick chimney. The roof OF the
built very early in the century. After
taking a glass of beer and q cigar
casually asked the landlord if he had
ever heard of Aaron Burr out in that
neighborhood.
eyes, sir" he said, sit was in 1886.
He died in the room on the left as you
came into the house, and on tho Sec
ond floor"
ssC,n I sec that room?" asked.
He said, aWith pleasure" &" and sent
a boy up with me. I found the room
to be of q good size, square, with two
front windows looking out on the cool
shaded porch and the beautiful water.
There was a mantel somewhat carved,
as the joiners in those days were quite
nice in glueing and piecing architect
ural bits of things around the fireplace.
The ceiling was rather low; the hall
outside the door was ON the balcony.
There was not stick of furniture in
the room, and the floor was q little un-
even, as If it had shrunk with time.
sat down in this room little whilc
and made a sketch Of it. a.
No person in the house knew any
thing definitely about the ctrcum-
stances of Burr's death, or how he
happened to come to that place to die.
They said they didn't know whether
he had ever lived there or not. ~. :.
Not far behind this house is q public
square Mt the centre of Port Richmond
village, on which are clIns and other
trees, and little Episcopal church,
with q steeple and yellowisf bricks,
stands Mt the corner. chanced TO
look over tho directory of the neigh-
DOA AAOOoS 0A<A OsA SAAo A1~AA~0 O~
Edwards. That seemed to give me a
clcw of why Burr came to Staten
Island, because his mother was tho
daughter of Johnathan Edwards, and
his cousins settled in this region of
New Jersey and Staten Island. A
stranger said to me: "You go up here
and find Mr.. Cloos. Flo is writing a
history of Staten Island, and perhaps
he can tell you all about it," I had
quite q distance to walk to another
village, though all the villages on the
north shore of Staten Island are incor-
porated into one town under the gen.
eral name of Edgewater. Along my
road were numerous old houses With
sort Of apron-like roofs, turning up at
the ends, which knew to be built by
the Dutch about and before tho reyo-
tutionary times. The Dutch continued
to speak their own dialect down to
about 1740, and they built their houses
after tho fashion Of their ancestors with
windows low to the ground and often
a very low story under the roof and
with fiat windows there.
went up Il little lane, hardly wide
enough for two wagons to pass, and
found Mr.. Cloos to bo an old gentleman
of Dutch descent, who had published
newspapers in various parts Of the
State, but had lived for long time on
Staten Island. He was Temperance
man, and had excited the more recent
population by agitating the question OF
their keeping their saloons closed on
Sunday. He looked at me with that
peculiar vitreous eye and open Punch
like countenancc, somewhat rubicund,
Of the old Mynheers, and then said in
Il quiet way Snow, sir, you arc talk
ing to one of the very few men who
saw Aaron Burr on his death bcd."
elbow is that?'' asked, with some
interest.
"Well, sir, it was about the year
1886, when I had n commission as
notary Oh this island, that Judge Ed
wards, one of my neighbors, came to
me and said: IMr. Clcos lit may have
been Cloot), there is n man up here at
the hotel I think in his last illness,
and he wants to make deposition to
get his pension as a revolutionary SOL
dier. Will you come around and take
it?" went around to the hotel and 1
went up to the room you have seen in
tho second story, and there I saw a
nI,,ooSf inSiunifiranf looking old