Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-28
Virginia.
Died June II. 1854,
In the 18th wear OF her age

Patrick Henry was the father OF fifteen
children by two wives. His first wife was
Miss Sarah Shelton, the daughter of a poor
but respectable farmer living near his home
in York county. Virginia. DR.. Tyler. his
biographer remarks concerning this event:
Having attained the age of eighteen, be-
ing then entirely out of employment and
equally out OF money, Patrick rounded out
his embarrassments by getting married"
After living with him twenty-one years
ana bearing him six children, Sarah Shell
ton died in 1775. in the heat of the revolu-
tionary campaign. We know very little
about her, but she must have been a pa
tient. accomplishing, loyal woman; be-
cause. Ike many other men of genius, Pat
rick Henry was an impractical IMPROVE
dent. irresponsible person. His expenses
were always greater than his income. his
habits were not such as to contribute to
the happiness OF his home. and none but a
very good woman with angelic temper
could have lived with him for twenty-one
years
social scale. because. two years later Octo-
Der Z, III. he married one of the most
aristocratic and pretentious widows in Vir-
ginia-Mrs- Dorothea Spottswood Dan
bridge, a granddaughter of Alexander
Spottswood, perhaps the most eminent of
the royal governors of the Virginia colony
All his tribe were proud of their ancestry
and social position Whoever bore the name
of SpOttswOOd was entitled TO distinction
OF the second marriage. six sons and three
daughters came. all of whom We're living
a. the time OF Patrick Henry's death in
Jcne 1IGJ. The eldest of the daughters
Dorothea SpOttswood Henry married her
first cousin. George D. Winston a son of
Judge Edmund Winston. and Mr. Henry
made his home with them during the de-
cllning years Of his life. The Winstons re-
moved TO the neighborhood of Memphis and
took up a plantation in the thirties He
was an influential citizen in the town and
both are well remembered by the older resi-
dents. Their children moved west and have
been lost sight Of.
Martyrs for Memphis.
Near by the resting place of Mrs. Winston
are two conspicuous and rather elaborate
monuments-one Of them a hundred yards
or so to the eastward and the other in the
opposite direction. Both were erected by
public subscription and both mark the rest
ing places Of the remains OF women who
were outcasts until the yellow fever epi-
demic of 1873 when they sent the inmates
OF their houses to the north. opened their
doors to people who fell Ill and nursed them
with remarkable heroism until they them
eslVes succumbed to the disease. Both were
extraordinary cases. These Magdalens not
only turned their houses into yellow fever
hospitals but expended their money gener-
oasly Tor the necessities required by ply
sicians and nurses in other parts OF the
'Sfty-and both have since been reckoned
among the martyrs.
One of the monuments. which is a repre-
. 80 mai NAS VI all GDBGl DeStOWtng
q crown, bears this epitaph:
MATTE STEPHENSON,
The Martyr
She died for us October IS. 1873"
The epitaph upon the other monument
Reads
EMILY SUTTON
victim OF the epidemic
Died Oct T. 1873
"Let sweet-voiced mercy plead for her
Who calmly sleeps beneath this sod;
Nor erring mn in pride usurp
The province OF her Judge-her God"
No one knows who these two women
were or where they originally came from
They were human Notwithstanding about
lifes ocean. Both were supposed to be from
the north, and had lived in Louisville before
coming to Memphis. At the time OF their
death. which was toward the close of the
most appalling period in the history of
this city. when half the population fed in
fright and not enough were left to nurse
the sick and bury the dead, their bodies
were hastily deposited in the common bur
}al ground. But, after normal conditions
were restored and the physicians Sisters
Of Charity and others who had remained
through the summer told the story of their
herosm and devotion, a fund was raised
by subscription. lots were purchased IN the
best part of the best cemetery, their re-
mains were transferred, and these monu-
ments were erected.
There has been no yellow fever in Mem