Evening star., 1901-05-04
INSPIRED BY ENVY
Alleged Cause Of Society's War on
Mrs. Eaton.
DAUGHTEROF WASHINGTON LANDLORD
Notable Incident of the Admins
tration of President jackson.
HER PEACEFUL OLD AGE

/ HEN PEACEE UL OLD AGE
Beneath the sturdy forest trees that
shade the terraccd hills overlooking Rock
| creek a tract known for over fifty years as
| Oak Hill cemetery, are the tombS and
| graves of many of the most prominent peo-
| pie of this nation and District. Some of
| these wrote their names indelibly on his
| torys pages by deeds of renown, the record
| of battles on sea and land being incomplete
without them, while others won victories
in the peaceful walks of life. The victim
| of the most stubborn conflict which ever
| took place in the circles of Washington
society-Mrs Margaret l.. Eaton, nee Peggy
O'Neale-over whom there was no small
amount of commoton during the adminis-
| tration of President Jackson 1S29-39. also
| lies buried here beside her husband Gen.
| John II. Eaton. Doubtless among the dead
| populating the terraces are some of her as
sailants, and cordially as they may have
hated her, they are now neighbors
Whatever may have been the grounds for
| the social onslaught made upon her by the
society people when she was introduced by
General Eaton, then Secretary of War. to
the ladies of President Jacksons household
and ladies of the cabinet, there is said to
be but little doubt that envy and jealousy
were partly. if not wholly, the incentive.
Certain it is that naught could be said
against the respectability of her father. one
OF the original settlers of the city of Wash
ington, other than that he was an inn
Keeper and she had grown up in public
mouse. The management of public houses
at that day was looked on a highly
spectacle business, and there no more
danger of a girls character being affected
in well-regulated house of that day than
there is in the finest hotels of the present
time.
The father of Peggy Eaton was Mr.. Will
lam Q Neale, who was not a native of Ire
land nor the keeper of a low groggery, but
OF royal Irish descent and man of means
He came of the stock headed by Lord
O'Neale, the Earl of Tyrone a famous
warrior Of the Emerald Isle in the sixteenth
century.
VIM. ONeale, the father of Margaret or
Peggy. was of the first settlers of
Washington, coming here shortly after the
city was laid out (about 1888. with his
W1fe khoda, and settled in the west end
pelhg then about twenty-eight years of
age. he was one of the early members of
Federal Lodge of MasonS, the first lodge
established in the District and for several
years operated the Federal Mills on Rock
creek, having his residence on 10th street
north of 1 street, and owning a number of
lots in that neighborhood About 800 Mr.
y Neale opened a public house at the
northwest corner of 2lst and [ streets. and
later erected the row of threo-Story brick
buildings extending eastward known after
as Gadsbys row. These buildings were
situated near the temporary quarters of
some of the departments and not far from
the PresldentS S house.
Gets IL Good PATRONAGE.
ONeale's tavern soon had goodly pa
tronage Of people in official life and was
favorite stopping place for southern
people, particularly Tennesseeans-Sen
Williams and Representatives Claiborne,
Hogg, Marr and Rhea from that state be-
ing among the first. Gen Eaton from
about 1911, and Gen. Jackson, subsequent
ly, made their homes at O'Neale's Hotel
"hlch later took the more dignified name
OF the Franklin House. About 1898 Mr.
John Gadsby, who had been a successful
landlord in Alexandria and Baltimore.
bought out this hosiery and continued 1t
1or several years. 1t was here that Lafay-
cite was entertained during his visit in
is2o,6, and where he was given a banquet
pE the city councils, a memento of which,
some of the silver plate-is sacredly pre-
served by some of Mr.. Gadsbv's descend
ants.
Under the name of the Franklin House
Mr Gadsby conducted the place till ISIS
when he became the lessee of tho Nat;ono1
then new hotel. In the meantime Nv
% Neale had established himself at what
| is now No. 2U0t L street Conducting the
hotel business till his death in 1887. and
y Neale's Hotel was managed several vears
after by his widow, Mrs. Rhoda O'NeaIe
wEo died IN 1850 in her ninetieth year and
was buried at Oak Hill.
.it property above alluded q Mr.
y Nea!e owned a square two of ground
near dupont Circle on which he had a com
lortable house, surrounded by highly cuIti-
waited grounds, where he and members OF
the family and friends Were wont to spcnd
the summer months. He was one of the
most popular of men, rather too open heart
ed ana generous for hotel keeper and at
times, though raised in the PRESBYTERIAN
Ialth, would give way to drinking. In the
days when fitness and worth oyerba lanced
political predictions he was four times
elected a member of the city councils
lSl6,l'.lS and '19-from the first ward. The
Whole FAMILY. parents, three daughters and
son. We're blessed by nature In form. fea-
ture and complexion and were like the
father in disposition. The son John who
was for a time officer of dragons was
for many years looked on as one of the
handsomest men in Washington and is well
remembered as prominent in the local mill
tary circles of half century ago.
1t is not surprising that ere the DAUGHTERS
passed their teens they were never at a loss
for a beau, and that there We're many suit
ors for their hands. Notwithstanding there
was no undue haste manifested TO enter the
| marriage state, even by the vivacious
Peggy.
Peggy was in her twentieth year. when.
June 16, 1916, she became the wife of Pur-
ser John B. Iimberlake of the navy, men,
Der of leading Virginia family. The duties
of her husband requiring his absence they
resided under the fathers roof at the hotel
There were two children born of this mar
| they We're early left fatherless Purser Tim
berlake, while homeward bound on the old
frigate Constitution. committed suicide at
Port Mahon because of alleged irregulari-
ties in his accounts. His duties were as
sumed by another officer of the frigate
who, it was alleged, also fell short in his
accounts, and being dismissed from the
navy. he figured in scene with President
jackson at Alexandria several years after
Before it was known that by the death OF
| Mr.. Timberlake there was widow at the
O'Neale House, another daughter Mary
had. in October. 1924. married Lieut.. Grimes
Randolph, an assistant surgeon in the
United States navy. AS before stated, Gen
Eaton, then closing a senatorial career of
| eighteen years. had long been a patron of
O'Neale's, both at the Franklin House and
| the earlier hotel which bore his name.
Peggy Becomes Wife of Gen. Eaton.
| The widow Timberlake, being free, as was
| Gen. Eaton, they were married about Jam
uary l, 1929. While the first marriage en-
| titled the wife to move in society, her mar
| riage to a senator was a promotion to
| higher sphere, and later. by reason Of Gen.
Jackson calling her husband to the office of
of Ct oh