The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-14
Wuff1efl
PATRICK HENRY,s GRAND-

PATRICK HENRY's GRAND
 CHILD DEsTITUTE.
 It seems the irony of Fate that the only surviving grandohild of the great and famous Patrick Henry. once beautiful girl. who early in the sos was a belle of Virginia. alone and un- known. without money or friends. should be the charity inmate of home for old ladies. An exchange has the following to say on the subject:
 "Penniless and forgotten at the ad- vanced age of SS years. Virginia Henry Beasley. the only surviving grandchild of the great Patrick Henry, is a char ity inmate of the Old Ladies Home in Ithaca. N. Y. Day after day she sits in her armchair in a basement room of the home dreaming of happy days in Old Virginia and praying for death to claim her.
 Mrs. Beasley has been an inmate of the home for the last nineteen years. yet such a complete silence does she maintain concerning her former days. that very few in Ithaca know who she is.
 Nathaniel W. Henry, her father. was a son of the great Virginian whose oratory kindled the fires of the Revo- lution and stirred up the disheartened colonists to cast of the yoke of Brit ish rule in the colonies. At Wood Ridge, a beautiful little hamlet just outside of Danville, Va, lived Nathan iel Henry, who early in the century was one of the most prominent lawyers in the State. Here hel owned vast estate of many hundreds of acres ana a fine mansion. MT. Henry kept 100 slaves and lived amid all the luxuries that the time afforded.
 "Six children were born to him, of whom Virginia was the youngest. Of such surpassing beauty was she that he named her Virginia, which to him was the most exalted of names.
 ''The children all married prominent men, virginias heart being won by John Beasley, wealthy merchant Husband and wife lived extravagantly in Lynchburg for many years.
 After his death his wife. in almost destitute circumstances, could not be comforted. During the great civil strife, she lived with different relatives and was an eyewitness of many of the battles. Her sympathies were with the South. After the war she made her home with a sister in Lynchburg and remained there until 1880. Then she realized what a care she was to her sister and her family. so she asked to be sent to the home.
 since then she has occupied her basement room, With only d IeW pieCSS of the antique furniture which her fa- ther had given her as a wedding pres ent.
 Although her face is wrinkled and grooved by the ravages of time and worry there still remain traces of the once beautiful girl who early in the aOs was one of the belles of Virginia.
 Mrs. Beasley, as she Is known to people here. is fast becoming totally infirm, but yet she manages to walk around at times and visit the few peo- pie she knows.
 Tn telling of her past life she fre- auently wanders off from the subject. and 1t Is difficult to obtain much in- formation from her. However, Prof. Moses Colt Tyler of Cornell University consulted her several times while writ ing his biography of Patrick Henry. which is now considered the best work of the famous Virginian. As she was born fifteen years after her grandfath- CTS death, of course, she remembers nothing of him, but in her face there still remains the firmness and deter ination that marked the famous orator when he thrilled the Congress with his fiery eloquence.