Kimball enterprise. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1883, 1883-08-03
CONGRESSIONAL CEMETERY
Notable Public Men Who Lie in It
The Story or the Prlnceton's Fatal
Gun Explosion.

l
Notable Public Men Who Lie in It
The Story or the Prlnceton's Fatal
Gun Explosion.
The Washington correspondent of the
Providence Journal. in describing the
cemeteries at the National Capitol, SAYS:
1.-THE Congressional and Oak Hill Gem
eteries are the two most thiclky popu-
lated with those who in their lifetime
were Of public note. 1t is in past-and-
gone fashion to be buried in the Con-
gressional, but now and then one whose
friends lie there is taken to join them,
and occasionally new lots are, believe
sold This cemetery is at the Capito!
Hill end Of the city. There are public
men, goodly number, lying here, as
for instance: A consecutive two of the
earlier Vice Presidents, George Clinton
and Elbridge Gerry; William Writ, At
torney. General; A. A. Upshur, Secre.
tary of State and previously of the Navy,
who, with Commander Keenan,, Chief
of the Bureau of Construction; Secretary
Of the Navy Gilmer, Virgil Maxey aud
David Gardiner of Gardeners Island. N.
T., were killed in February, 1874, on
board the corvette sloop of
war Princeton. by the
bursting Of gun when near Alexandria
on their return trip from an excursion to
Mount Vernon. President Tyler, Colo
mel and Mrs. Tuley of Virginia, and
many others on board escaped without
injury. President Tyler, the following
June, married Miss Julia Gardiner,
daughter Of one of the victims, who with
her sister Margaret, was present at the
catastrophe. Judge wilkins, Secretary
OF War, it is recorded, was saved by wit
icism. He had been standing beside Sec
retary Gilmer, and perceiving that the
gun was about to be fred, exclaimed:
Though Secretary of war, do not like
this firing. and believe shall rum" So
saying, he retreated. Mrs. Gilmer sa,
on deck with face that grew pale as
death, as she saw herself widowed in an
instant. Five hundred guests were on
board; they had just dined and the
toasts were being drunk. Shortly be-
fore the explosion, Secretary Upshur
had been called on for his toast. He ac-
cldently took up an empty bottle and
lightly remarked that "the dead bodies''
(the empty bottles) must be cleared
way before he could give his toast. By
towards him; he repeated his joke,
which drew from Captain Stockton,
commander of the frigate, the reply
that there were plenty Of living (botties)
to supply the place of the dead.
The President then gave
the toast: The Princeton and her three
guns, etc. The leading gentlemen then
withdrew from the table to ..make room
for others, and within ten minutes Sec
retary Upshur himself, and four of the
participants with him at the banquet,
were dead bodies Five hearses were
escorted by Postmaster-G General Wick
life to the executive mansion, where
the body Of Colonel Gardiner, the father
Of the presidents betrothed wife, re-
mained till the funeral All this is di-
gression, but it .,vivifies the names on
those grim headstones wonderfully to
connect them with scenes Of warm
blooded, real life.
tary and friend of Washington, who
committed suicide here in 1916, is also
buried in the Congressional Cemetery
as are Major Generals Macomb and
Jacob Brown, each of whom, in his day,
was Commander-in Chief Of the army.
The Wainwright family; Alexander Dali
las Bache, founder of the coast survey
service; Surgec n General Joseph Lovel,
Q. S. A; gallant Midshipman Frederick
Rogers, who was drowned at Norfolk in
1928, while trying to save his comrades
in life and death; Midshipmen Slidell
and Harrison; Pus-ma-ta- -ha, q Choctaw
Chief, the white mans friend; Secretary
of State Forsyth, and number ofyoung
lady operatives at the arsenal at the
time of the explosion during the war,
who lie in one tomb, are pamong others
interesting to note in this cemetery"