Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1891-04-16
AARON BURR'S DAUGHTER
The Most Brilliant and Beau
tifui Girl of Her Day.
THE SAD TRAGEDY OF Her LIFE
Death Came as She Was Co
ing to Her Father.
An Interesting and Pathetic Chapter of
History--The Heir Upon Whom Such
High Hopes Were Centred Goes to an
Early Grave.

ST. Louis Post Dispatch.
Aaron Burr and his daughter Theo-
dosia are subjects of perennial interest,
apparently; for whatever is written
about them, be it true or false, good,
bad or Indifferent, always attracts an
attention rarely bestowed upon matters
of far greater Importance. The popular
demand seems to produce a correspond
ing supply, the quality of which, how
ever, so far as accuracy is concerned,
seldom matches the quantity. The latest
contribution to this department OF
biographical literature is the following
Associated Press telegram:
NEW YORK, March 30.-Funeral SER
vices were held on Saturday night at the
Home for Aged Men, in Classen avenue,
Brooklyn, over the remains of Lawrence
Gardiner, who died in the institution on
Friday night at the great age of so
years. Gardiner was the law partner of
Aaron Burr, and in his day was recog-
nized as one of the most brilliant mem
bers Of the New York bar His father
was a member from New York in the
First Congress, and died Of a wound re-
ceiyed in duel. The son was born in
Kingston, this state, in 1900, and gradu
ated from Columbia College. lie en-
tered into partnership with Burr in 1926,
and was to have married Burr's beauti
full daughter, Theodosia, in 1927, but
she sailed from Charleston for New
York and was never heard of again.
During the time De Witt Clinton was
mayor of New York Lawyer Gardiner
delivered Fourth of July Grafton from
the city hall steps. lie was the Beau
III al y,f
his day, and spent a fortune of several
millions of dollars in generous living.
During the later years of his life, before
entering the Home, he was an assistant
in the law office of ex-Judge Birdseye,
He leaves son and daughter. The in
terment was in Trinity cemetery, this
city
The only portion of the above story
which | care to notice is that concern
ing the alleged engagement of Gardiner
to Theodosia Burr, the absurd impossi-
bility of which will appear from two
well-l1nown facts, evidently quite un-
known to the author of the telegram.
Theodosia, born in 1888, was married TO
Joseph Aston of South Carolina in
1861, and was lost at sea in January,
1Sl3-that is, IA years before the date
when it was said she was to have married
Gardiner. The latter was-if his age at
the time of death was correctly given
only one year old when his alleged pro-
spective bride became the wife Of an
other man.
MARRIED LIFE OF THEoDosIA.
The beauty and brilliancy Of the girl
of 1S-retained until sickness and sor-
row had ruined them-are among the
fascinating traditions of American
social history. Such woman, daughter
Of the Vice President of the United
states, would naturally have a multi
tude of sutors. From them she selected,
with her fathers entire approval, the
scion of one of the oldest families in
South Carolina, who afterwards became
the governor of that state. A son-the
only ehild-was born to them in 1902;
and this boy named Aaron Burr Aston,
exceptionally bright and attractive, be-
came the idol Of his parents and grand
father. The first letter Burr received
after his arrival in New York from
Europe, in the summer of 1872, an
nouneed the death of this idoliZed boy.
The mother, whose health had long
been seriously impaired, was conn
pletoly prostrated by the blow, and, in
deed, never recovered from it. The de-
sire to see her father-from whom she
had been separated for years-was in
tense, He could not come to her, she
must go to him. He sent us an escort a
medical friend, Dir. Timothy Green.
This gentleman found Mrs. Aston in
such a feeble condition that u land
Journey to New York was impossible.
Therefore passage was engaged on the
Patriot, schoOner-rigged pilot-boat,
which had been privatecring in southern
waters, and was about returning north
with her guns slowed in the hold.
THE FATAL VOYAGE.
The schooner sailed from Georgetown
December Both, 1872 Governor Alston
accompanied his wife outside the harbor
and then babe her what proved to be an
eternal farewell Tie vessel was never
afterwards heard of, and there is no
doubt went down with all on board in a
terrific storm which prevailed off Cape
liatteras a few days after her departure.
The anxiety Of the father in New York
and the husband in Charlcston,as weeks
passed without news of the loved one,
can be ilnagined-not described. 1t is
said that Burr, long after hope was prac-
tically at an end, would walk every day
down to the Battery and gaze seward,
as if he expected TO catch glimpse of
the sails that might bring back his lost
daughter to his lonely arms. The feel
ings of the husband during this period
of awful suspense are shown in the fol-
lowing letter to Col. Burr:
THE HUSBANDS LITTER.
February 25, ls13.-Your letter of the
10th, my friend, is received. This assur-
ance Of my fate was not wanting
Nassau, as late as January 30th, connected
with your letter from New York of the
2Sth, had already forced upon inc the
dreadful conviction that we had no more
to hope Without this victim, too, the
desolation would not have been complete.
then, is the end of all the hopes we had
formed. You may well observe that you
feel severed from the human race. She
was the last tie that bound us to the
species. What have we left? In surviving
the Both day of June (the day on which his
son died1, | thought I could meet
| have staggered under this in
manner that | am glad had not a wit
ness. the Oaks (their country home) for
some months visited only at intervals,
was the asylum sought. 1t was there, in
the chamber of my wife, where everything
was disposed of as usual; with the clothes,
the books, the playthings of my boy
around me, that | Sustained this second
shock, doubled in manner that could
not account for. My son seemed TO have
been terminated, to have been restored to
me- and to have just persisted again with
his mother. 1t was the loss of both PRESS
ing upon me at the same moment.