Evening star., 1916-10-08

tives a Letter from the Secretary Of
War transmitting letter from the
chief OF engineers with a report & OF
a report of the Attorney General re-
garding title to the lands embraced
within said fats" In that report the
Rambler finds the following reference
to the tract of the Government Hos
pital for the Insane:
Copies Of the quit-claim and trust deed show
ing the partition of the original st. Elizabeth
tract between Juliana and David Barry (mother-
sonl and also copies Of deeds. David Barry to
George Semmes and Thomas Bla3den ct uI. to
the United States, were furnished by W. B.
Acker, chief Of patents and miscellaneous iivi-
sion OF the Interior Department, and are hereto
attached. The Blagden tract fronts on the An
acostia river and is all Of the river front that
this reservation has now, so for our purpose this
10 the most important component. The Blagden
tract and the tract decided by David Barry to
George Semmes the same in most of their
bounds and identical on river front. SO It is to
be supposed that their descriptions the same
as far as the coincidence goes. This is not the
case, as there are many discrepancies which will
tion Of metes and bounds Mr.. Acker has had
the copies of these deeds checked the second
time. SO the discrepancies are errors and omis-
sions 1t is impossible to locate the errors. 90
there Is no preference in adopting one or the
other: besides. monuments were planted
marking any of the corners in either Of these
liable. have made attempt to rerun any Of
the old courses My survey consists Of locating
verifying them by descriptions in deeds, which
would be hopeless case.
The tract of ST. Elizabeth has been re-
ferred to as a royal grant" That may
have very influential sound, but the
fact is that the grant of st. Elizabeth
was made by Lord Baltimore in 1863.
1t was one of the early grants Of the
proprietary to lands now included with
In the boundaries of the District of CO.
Iumbia- One George Thompson, of whom
the Rambler has found few records,
seems to have been the master land
holder IN this region in those remote
times In 1852 he was granted a tract
called Blue Plains. and in the same
year tract. consisting Of 1.400 acres,
on the north side of the Eastern branch,
called Duddington. which now forms a
large part of the site of Washington
In 1863 this George Thompson obtained
grant from the proprietary, to two
other tracts which are now within the
District. One of these was called St
Elizabeth and the other Giesborough.
st. Elizabeth. Giesborough and Blue
Plains are still familiar names to Wash
ingtonians Blue Plains Is the site of
the Home for the Poor and Aged, and
a large part of Giesborough, long the
home Of George Washington Young and
his descendants. Is now owned by the
Firth-Sterling Steel Company. Each of
these grants has been divided into other
tracts bearing names that are familiar
to local residents and examiners of land
records
In delving for information about these
old. lands and the settlers on them, AMI
in their neighborhood. the Rambler came
upon an old book at the District build
ing containing the county of Washington
assessments for 1855. James D. Barry's
wealth had considerably declined by that
year, but he was assessed at $19.500, be-
ing owner of 374 acres of land assessed
at $50 per acre. a house at $500. furni-
ture at 500. four horses at 5000, four
cows at $40, two wagons at s75 and thrae
carts at S75.
The rich man Of that locality in 1855