El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-04-04

made to it in a newspaper. Burr called
upon Hamilton to aVOW or disaVOW its
authorship. Hamilton refused, and the
challenge that led to the duel followed.
wife of Alexander Hamilton, but she
was greater as his widow. Within a
few years she had experienced not only
the shock of two violent deaths bv
duels-thOse of her eldest son and her
husband-but the deaths of her mother
her father and her sister. In addition,
her eldest daughter had gone insane.
With the death of Hamilton she was
left with seven children to support, ana
she had little or no means, her fatheP
had been rich in land, but not IN
money.
The light Of youth faded from her
face the day the widows cap replaced
the Marie Antoinette couture She set
about to educate and support her chill
dren, and she did it we'll Aside from
that she devoted her life to vindicat-
ing the name of her husband. She
journeyed the country over to interview
public men and to collect letters and
documents bearing upon events in his
life. That so much remains today
bearing upon his history is due to Bet
sy HamiltOn's efforts.
She had a great mind for detail She
made record of every place where he
had lived and wherever she had lived,
so pOsteTity should know and mark
the spots Among the houses in New
York where she and Hamilton dWelt
were those at 81 Wall street 56 Pine,
So Partition NOW Fulton street,. Lib
erty near Broadway, 26 Broadway (noW
the site Of the Standard Oil building),
and later, Hamilton Grange, where
Hamilton planted the 13 trees, sym
bolicaI of the 13 original states. She
dwelt also, for a short time, at So Stone
street, while Hamilton was absent in
Philadelphia.
A Visit From James Monroe.
There is a story that once she was
travelling on a boat on the Hudson,
when she stepped on the deck, saw
Aaron Burr, and demanded to be put
off at the next landing. II we did
not have the authority of her grandson,
DR.. Allan McLane Hamilton, for pro-
nOuncing the story untrue. it would
ring false. She was not the sort Of
woman to scream. 1T would have been
Burr who would have sought flight
from the boat
An insight into her character IS bet
ter given by her interview with James
Monroe, years after he had been pres
ident of the United States. He was one
Of those who had been instrumental in
exposing HamiltOn's relations with the
Reynolds woman He was very old.
and she was very old He went to visit
her. 1t was a visit OF friendship, he
told her, and he wished to be friends
with her once more. for they would not
long remain on earth She looked at
him calmly and then told him that I'M
less he came to beg forgiveness for the
great wrong he had done, no lapse OF
time, no nearnesS TO the grave, could
make any difference in her feelings to-
ward him.
A remarkable woman was Betsy
Hamilton. For so years after Burr
shot Alexander Hamilton to death, she
lived She was 81 when she died and
the greatest honor she could show to
any visitor at her home in H street, in
washington. was TO let them Ioucn the
sword her husband wore at Yorktown,
and to drink from the punch bowl of
George WashingtOn.-COp 1914,
by the Wheeler Syndicate, Inc
Next week. The love stories OF
Thomas jefferson and Belinda BurWeI