Evening star., 1939-11-26

hIioWl, IllOuSl IL WAS PROBABLY III
the neighborhood of 1893, and
Taney likely took up his residence
there some time subsequent to
January Z, 1906, when he and Anne
Phoebe Charlotte Key were married
In the Key mansion at Terra Rubra.
In 1923 Judge and Mrs. Taney
moved to Baltimore and there he
continued to reside until he came
to Washington in Andrew Jackson s
cabinet in 1881.
Years after the Taney home in
Frederick was vacated by the noted
Chief Justice it was occupied by
the Frederick novitiates of the
Society of Jesus. About 10
years ago a board was formed for
the purpose of turning this historic
Landmark into a national shrine
and memorial to Chief Justice
Taney and his wife, Anne Key
Taney, and since then the place
has been filled with many relics and
mementoes of the judge and his
wife, who were separated only when
the latter died in September, 1855,
after happy married life of nearly
so years. The original Advisory
Board of the Roger Brooke Taney
Home in Frederick included the
late Gov. Albert c. Ritchie as hon.
orary chairman and Edward S.
Delaplaine as chairman and the
latter, who, about a year ago was
appointed a member of the Mary
land State Court of Appeals, is still
quite actively interested in the
Taney home and museum.
Washington Associations.
Of course, in Washington, we, too,
are interested in the celebrated
judge who read the majority de-
cision of the court in the famous
Dred Scott case, for, after all, he
spent the better part Of his life in
this city, to which he came as At
torney General in President jack
sons cabinet, July 20, 1881, and the
following day he also became Sec
retary of War ad interim, position
he held throughout the remaining
days of July, When Lewis Cass sue
ceeded him as Secretary of War.
This was during the period of the
celebrated upheaval in President
Jacksons cabinet, the cause being
attributed to the vivacious wife of
Gen. John M. Eaton, otherwise
known as Peggy O'Neale.
At first Judge Taney resided near
the Post Office Department, then
located in the Blodget Hotel, on the
north side of E street, between Sew
enth and Eighth streets. Later, in
1884, he was making his home in
the Presidents Square, or what we
would now call Lafayette Square.
From here he moved to James Cuth-
bert's Tavern, on the north side of
Pennsylvania avenue, between Third
street and John Marshall place. In
1850, he was stopping at Brenner's,
on the opposite side of the avenue
to Cuthbert's. Peter Brenner, prob
ably the same person, was then
keeping a fancy store on the north
side of the avenue near Cuthbert's.
Blagden'S Row Home.
The house in which Judge Taney
lived and died was the end one to
the west of five houses built in 1852
by Thomas Blagden and locally
known as Blagden's row. Douglass
zeveley, in writing of this row in
1902, said:
"Almon Baldwin's son, already re-
ferred to, was the architect of these
houses and they were known when
originally built as Blagden's row.
I think this name for them is still
retained. Robert Toombs of Geor-
gia, at that time United States Sem
ator, occupied one of these houses;
also Chief Justice Taney and the
Minister from Peru to this country.
In comparatively recent years Sem
ator Christiancy of Michigan was
an occupant of one of the houses.
Thomas Blagden was the son of
George Blagden, who came from
England and settled in this city in
1893, where the son was born in
October, 1903, and he continued to
have his home here until his death,
February 2, 1870. Mr.. Blagden's