The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-12-30
MOTHER MADISON.
How the Good Old Lady is Pictured by
One of Her Descendants.

How the Good Old Lady is Pictured By
One of Her Descendants.
The mother of President Madison
lived to the great age of ninety ,ci sht
years. From her marriage to her
death she resided at Montpelier, the
ancestral seat of the Madisons, a row.
ing. old-fashioned mansion in Virginia,
filled with the mementoes of three or
four generations. This was her home
in 1856, when Braddock's defeat filled
the region with panic-stricken fugi-
tives, and there she lived when her
illustrious son retired from the Presi-
dency in 1917. She was still in cheer
full health when General Lafayette paid
his respects to her in 1925.
After her husbands death. in 1901,
her son, James, who inherited his
fathers landed estate, greatly enlarged
the mansion, but left the old part of it
unaltered, and reserved it for the ex-
elusive use of his mother. He held her
in the deepest veneration, and studied
her comfort and preferences in all the
arrangements of the house. She kept
her old servants about her, and lived
in all respects according to her own
fancy.
One aged negro man, who had waited
upon her for half century, still re-
fused at ninety years, when his head
was crowned with halo of snowy
hair, to give up his place behind her
chair. He sometimes slept upon the
post of duty, and stumbled about the
dining in an alarming manner.
Several negroes upon the estate were
older than Mother Madison; for SO she
was called to distinguish her from the
wife of the President. When General
Lafayette was at Montpelier in 1925,
he loved to stroll to the cabin of "Gran-
ny Millv," aged one hundred and four
years, whose youngest granddaughter
was seventy years old. Milly was
vigorous woman past fifty when La
fayette chased Lord CORVALLIS across
Virginia during the revolutionary war,
and there she was in excellent preser-
vation when he returned in 1925. He
would come smiling to the mansion
house bringing in his hand fresh egg
or bunch of flowers, the gift of Granny
Milly.
Mother Madison was an interesting
parsonage to the visitors that fire.
quented the house. She had to the last
her own special garden, laid out in the
formal and angular plan of the olden
time, and cultivated by her own
gardener Nothing modern or novel
was admitted to any portion of her
domain. At two o'clock every day,
when guests were at the house, she
held a reception in her quaint sitting
room surrounded by relics of the time
when George LII. was King. She sat
upon couch placed in the middle of
this large and comfortable apartment,
with table at her side, on which could
| always be seen her old Bible and
prayer-book, the stay and comfort of
her age. On the same table lay a num-
ber of pairs of gloves and stockin gs,
knitted by her own hands, and marked
with the names OF favored guests for
whom she had made them. Here she
received her company. chatted with
them pleasantly, and often gave them
gloves or stockings, as parting gift,
from the great heap before her. Thus
Mother Madison is pictured for us by
one of her descendants, the author oi
the "Memoirs of Dolly Madison" -
Youths Companion.