The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-13
LITTLE STORIES IF NOTABLE PERSONS Dolly Madison Set Precedents
 at White House PETTUS IS A KINSMAN Interesting Account of the Alabama Senator's Courtship-He Will Be
 e6 Years Old Next
 Month.
PETTUS IS A KINSMAN
BY FREDERIC j. HASKIN.

| Dolly Payne Todd in Philadelphia, he 1 little reckoned that the demure Quakeress was to reign at then unbuilt White House in the future city of Washington as the most regal of republican queens | The White House has had many mis- tresses, but none has left a greater inn press upon history as a woman of in- | fiuence and power than Dolly Madison. | Although the delightful story that she | cut the portrait of General Washington from It's frame and carried 1t away when 1 the British drove her from the White House in 1914, may be only fabrication, there are many stories of her life which are quite true, and her own letters and memoirs have a distinctive place in the contemporary history of the early days of | the republic.
 Naturally many of the interesting stories of her life center about Hare wood, the Washington manor near Charlestown, w.. Va, where she be- ctme Mrs. James Madison. Harewood is beautiful stone house built in 1752 to 1756 by Colonel Samuel Washington under the personal superlntendence of his brother, George Washington. Steps have been taken recently to preserve 1t as a memorial of its patriotic associa- tions, just as Mount Vernon has been cared for. Colonel Samuel Washington's son, George Stephen Washington, was a favorite nephew of the first President. When but boy he married Lucy Payne, sister of Dolly Payne. When John Payne was forced to move from Virginia, be- cause of the prejudice against Quakers, and went to Philadelphia, his daughter Dolly was married to John Todd, an estl- mable young man. In the great yellow fever epidemic Dollys husband died and lett her with baoy boy.
 Within a year she met James Madison, the father of the constitution, and one day to be President of the United States Martha Washington, who was cousin of Dolly Payne. by marriage, approved the courtship and MT. Madison pressed his suit warmly. The result was that she went to Harewood to be married in the home of the Washingtons. Years afterward when George steptoe Washing ton had died, his widow lived much in Washington. Ter hister was then mis- tress of the White House and the queen of society. Both sisters had long since forsaken the simplicity of their Quaker father. s f.,
 Mrs. Washington met Judge Thomas Todd, justice of the supreme court of the United States, and one of the most eminent Kentuckians of the day They became engaged and Mrs. Madison re- turned the courtesy which her sister had extended to her in her widowhood. So it came that Thomas Todd and Lucy Payne Washington were married in the White House. It was the first White House wedding. Thomas Todd, Lucy Payne's last husband, and John Todd, Dolly Payne's first husband, were of diff ferent families. Judge Todd was one of the first Kentuckians to come into po- litical prominence He was clerk of all the ten constitutional conventions held In Kentucky. while that state was try ing to gain admission to the Union, and was distinguished jurist
 His son. Charles s. Todd. became noted diplomatist and was sent to Colom- bia in the twentles to unravel the tan- gled relations of the United States with the South American republics. Later he was sent by President Tyler to be min ister to Russia, and there laid the foun- dations for the friendship between the most liberal republic and the most auto cratic despotism on earth, which friend- ship has since continued. A son of Charles S. Todd Is still living in Shelbyville, Ky He is one of the only two surviving Kentuokians who fought in the war with Mexico as captain.
 It is interesting to note in this con- neetion that this family of Todds was not the same as the family founded by Levi Todd, friend and companion of Dan- iel Boone, who was one of the first set tiers of Kentucky, and who lost his life in the disastrous battle of Blue Lick when his brave band of pioneers was overcome by the Indians in the last of the Kentucky fights with the redskins. Levi Todd was the grandfather of an other mistress of the White House, Mrs. Abraham Lincoln.
 The wide range covered by American TO- mances is illustrated by the fact that a man who came to the United States from Italy without penny was forced to for give his son for marrying member of the Washington family while the Wash ington descendants maintained marked silence concerning their own opinions of the marriage. Miss Mary Caroline Wash ington Bond was the great granddaughter of George Steptoe and Lucy Payne Wash ington. Her early girlhood was spent in Virginia and Washington, and she looked upon historic Harewood as part of her sentimental dowry.
 She made her debut in New York at charity ball a few years ago, and there met Attillo P. Morosini, son of Giovanni Morosini. Her beauty captured the young man and an earnest courtship followed. His father was a Cathohc, she was Protestant. So the marriage was secretly planned and secretly solemnized. Her father forgave. The man whose son thus married into the Washington family Is one of the most remarkable examples of what man can do in America He IS of illustrious ancestry himself, tracing his family back to one of the reigning doges of Venice. but he came to America with the exiled patriot, Garibaldi, abso- lutely penniless.
 One day he found a lost child in the street and carried it home. The father of- fered to reward him with money, but Morosin declined. He then offered a job and Morosini took it. The man was Pres-
 dent Harsh of the Erie railroad. and young Morosini became a clerk in the offices of that corporation. He was called "the silent Italian" by his fellow clerks, but his ability and devotion to | duty briught him to the attention of Jay | Gould, when that financiers became head | of the Erie. Morosini was made auditor. l When Gould left the Erie, Morosini went pyfth hf,,, rv