Evening star., 1924-03-30


ments and graves in Virginia TO
which reference was
The Grave of made in this column
Lieut.. Herris. printed in The Star
of March 90, 1874. from Representa-
tive william NJ. Robbins of North
Carolina is of interest. It referred
to a previous publication in The Star.
which stated that the tombstone Of
Lieut.. William Herris, who died in
1908. which was IT'LL recently extant
in Fairfax county" was ne oldest
in the United States. Representative
Robbins said:
whether that tombstone is the
oldest in the United States / know
not, but doubt 1t. for Lieut.. Herris
died. not in 1908, but in 1893. / well
remember seeing his tomb in 1851.
when soldering near Old Dumfries,
Va. 1t is situated about hundred
yards south of Neapsco creek and
west of the main road. some three or
four miles northeast of Dumfries, and
is in Prince William, not Fairfax,
county, ! believe. A clump of small
trees marked the spot wh@a ! saw
1t. A large, thick slab OF freestone
tEnglish probably rests @n carved
filters, about two feet high- The fig
ure of a Sphinx is chiseled on the
upper fourth of the slab. an hour
glass at the foot and a drawn sword
at one side, and the inscription is
very quaint and excellent. concluding
thus: a faithful friende. goode
Christian and kinde neighboure.' The
last words, indeed the character Of
the tomb itself, sufficiently prove
I that Iiewt' Herris died a member Of
a settled community and not a mere
rover in the wilds. as he would have
done had he died there in 1908. But
perfectly remember the date, 1898.
hope this interesting relic of the
past still remains"
A joint select congressional COM
mittee was in session at this time
fifty years ago in
The Kilbourn vestigating District
=. affairs with particu-
Transaction. lar reference to the
proceedings of the territorial govern
ment and especially the boaIA Of
public works. concerning which
| number of District citizens had
"memorialized" Congress in protest.
| One of the items of dispute related
| to the purchase of a certain tract of
! land just north of the White House
| for the improvement of which con-
siderable public money had been
spent in grading and filling. Hallett
] Kilbourn, one of the purchasers, was
placed on the witness stand and de-
| clined to answer certain questions.
long controversy growing out of his
| refusal with interesting court pro
cedure afterward. Regarding the
1 land in question, The Star, in its
| issue of March %. 1874. said:
"The New York Sun and kindred
sheets speak of the ground covered
| by the kilbourn and Latta purchases
as bowling gilderness in an obscure
suburb of the city. out of the line OF
| improvements and only brought INTO
market by forced and uncalled-for
| improvements by the board of public
works. for the benefit Of the specu-
| lators who purchased it. The plain
| fact is that the ground In question
| is directly north of the White House
and Is almost within stones throw
of the very cream of upper-tendom-
! the mansions of the Corcorans, the
! Riggs, the Fishs, the Thorntons. the
| Summers and all the rest. The fash
jionable Arlington Hotel overiooks
| the whole tract. AS everybody knows.
III lies in the direct line of the city's
main growth. which is northward,
| and nothing has prevented its com
! ing into the market heretofore but
the fact that IL was intersected by
4 a watercOurSe anu neeueu uTblHd&e
and sewerage. That this tract, so
near the executive offices and three,
of the government departments.
Treasury. War and Navy, and ad-
| jacent to the diplomatic quarter, cab
1 met ministers and the elite OF Wash
! ington society, should have remained
| so long in this waste condition. q
malarious plague spot, was one OF
+, he many disgraces of the city unSer
| the old regime. That it would be re-
claimed, paved and severed. under
| any general system OF Improvement,
was Inevitable, and it needed no gift
of prescience or any collusion with
\ the board OF public works on the
part OF keen. wide-awake real estate
men to see that the price of ground
must advance largely in that part
of the city when those improvements
were made. That, we believe, tells
| the whole story OF the Kilbourn-T4at-
! ia purchases"
I