The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-10-10
Andrew JacksOn's Wife.
The Romantic Story of Miller's Daugh-
ter-The Place of her Birth on the
Eastern Shore of Virginia.
PHILADELPHIA Record.


Few sections of Virginia are richer in
historic interest than the strip of sea-
bound soil comprising the counties of
Accomac and Northampton, which is
familiarly known as the Eastern Shore,
and which has just been brought into
wider public notice by the construction
of the new all-rail route from this city
by way or Norfolk. The 1rsr IanG-
sighted by the adventurous Captain John
Smith from the deck of his ship was
Cape Charles and the first Indians seen
by the English were the tall natives of
what is now Accomac county. There
also was born the unfortunate Upshur,
whose tragic death on board the Prince
ton shocked the nation as have few
other events of peaceful times.
Not far from the birthplace of the
famous Henry A. Wise was planted the
first seeds of Presbyterianism in the
United States. Francis Meckamill was
the Asbury of the Presbyterian Church
and organized its first congregation in
this country on the Eastern Shore of
Virginia. He died and was buried in
Accomac county, which is thus, through
him, the birthplace Of the American
Presbyterian Church. Down in North
ampton, a few miles from quaint East
vile Court House, is the ancestral home
of the Custis family-the original Ar
lington estate, from which the heights
above Washington take their name.
Here the ancestors of Martha Washing
ton lived in Colonial splendor when the
country was loyal to the King. Parts
of the ancient burial ground of the
Custis family still remain, and one mar
BILE slab, ivy mantled and blackened by
time and the elements, has this curious
inscription:
Under this tomb lies ye body of
YE HONORABLE JOHN CUSTIS, ESQ.,,
Of the City of williamsburg and Parish of Benton,
Formerly of Hungus Parish,
On the Eastern Shore of Virginia,
and County of Northampton,
the place of his nativity,
Aged II, and yet lived but years.
Which was the space of time he kept Bachelors
House, at Arlington, on the Eastern Shore of
Virginia.
The paradox which concludes this in
scription is variously explained, but ira
dition says that the poor fellow married
a vixen, who led him a sad dance
through life. He had spent seven years
with none but his servants at Arlington,
a careless bachelor, happy to ride cross
country and keep late hours with the
young bucks of the day over bottle of
rum and the solacing influence of a pipe
and tobacco. When he finally became
a Benedict he lost his liberty and count
ed himself dead from that day.
A half.score of miles below Accomac
Court House, on the bend of an ill-kept
country road as it emerges from forest
of pines, is one of the landmarks of the
country battered, storm beaten mill.
The summer tourists who goes out OF
his way to visit this antiquated structure
is at once impressed by the tran
guilty of the scene. The twitter of a
bird, the almost inaudible splashing Of
the little stream falling over the dam,
or the melancholy murmur of the breeze
passing through the high tops of the
pines are the only sounds to be heard.
AS for motion, except the lazy turning
of the great moss-covered water-wheel,
moving its green and shiny flukes with
solemn slowness, as if protesting against
such unseemly haste, there is none.
The old mill itself is almost ruin, but
it is still used by the neighbors to crush
their grain, and there is miller there
at times, and flour of a primitive kind
may be manufactured beneath its tum-
bled shingles and falling brick walls; /;
but, as the tourists generally finds it, its
only inhabitants are the musk rats and
the owls, and its most important use
appears to be to afford principal and
striking feature of this bit of picturesque
Eastern Shore landscape.
The dwelling house connected with
this old relic long since disappeared.
More than hundred years ago its roof
protected little black-eyed girl, the
story of whose romantic career makes
one of the most interesting chapters OF
American history. This girl, born