Evening Star Newspaper, May 8, 1921, Page 67

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MAY & 1921—PART Historic Battlefield of Yorktown May Become Government Property U. 5 A Unknown, U two stories high. with a pyramidal 3 Lieut. Voorhees Dye, N roof, shingled. Until recently it was ership to the American People—Daugh- : ters of American Revolution Behind Project. | | ;r.—'i.;;“’{‘-'“,,‘.bp..‘n_\- R i P i TR s 2 iz tself to a brand- ent building | peg a s the superin- Little Town, Built 200 Years Ago. Has Been acsoss tho e e e i e ouse of vene aspect, by the First National Bank o 5 | Some Peculiarities ‘ of Great Musicians ANDEL had an odd habit of toss. ing sheets of manuscript from wrote then Peopled With the Fighting Troops of Many Nations—Where Great Victory of Revolution Was Won and Last Act of Drama Was Staged. Monuments and Historic Spots. THAT little ol square brick build- ing on the corner is the birth- place and the cradle f the American | tariff system. Ona might say that it | the table as fast as h was the first nurse of protection, At RIS A | sy Taté. it bease thin lageud: “Evect. | TNS Mightest wais in thne was ot ¢ HE flelds of Torktown may be|ers of government as of commerce.” od THo—Firat " Custom Mouse in|Utmost importance to him. There 2 On the north side of the hase of | An Fas P 3 SRS oLy, one antn LVING, i SRy g | America—Was Port of E or Ne ¥ taken over by the United States | 0" Lt horuy iy, of the base Tl 18 Port of Entry for New | ) could read his manuscript. Ha York, Philadelphia ern Cities.” Mrs. § Smith, in charming little pamphlet on old York- [town, writes ““The old customhouse, which and held forever as a national |pursuance of a resolution of Congress r North- battlefield park A bill to do ifl;‘fll’!?d October 1]7\|’ and nn‘\u 4 . ; * |of Congress approved June 7. 1880, this pends in Congress and its pas to commemorate the victory by which sage is urged by the Daughters of the |the independence of the Un States American Revolution. It is this patri- \'\':" achieved.” otic society which brought forth ‘Mwm;‘:‘l“fln“.." )‘_:j(; wedt 5 idea and inspired the drafing of the|in the history of the country we bill and its presentation ® Congress. |ours: sl often wept while comps Some of his saored writings are bl | ted with tears. He was blind during the last years of his life i S " lou r stands now in a good te of pres. | Schubert was marve et i state of pres- |, T attention to composition. When {ervation, was the first customhouse | p. was composing, his features {in America. Yorktown being the first | worked, his eyves flashed and his port of entry, ull vessels doing busi- | 1im This unnatural ex ° of the monu- call = 5 “The provisional peac Nothing less than the c.actment of | ., Giqerad Novembe i and | B e | Eltsmien S oomy control of him the plan for bringing these flelds un- the definite treaty of peace em- el a | until the fever of composition passed der the ownership of the American ber 3, 1783. between the United States :'om- rst to this port for papers be- | gway. He seldom made alterations will satisfy the D. A. R., and |0f America and George HI. K of ore going on in s scores Ehs ) people 'y The building is said to have been| Gluck often had his servants carr _!Great britain and Ireland. declare great numbers of people not members | is Britanic majesty acknowlodges of that order approve the proposal. If the =said United tates, Viz. New you should walk the streets of ll(lle‘)l{s?:;,i“»“!”'fl l.\lu«[smnux»u.-'r ¥ r:n...\ c f ; and and _Province antations Yorktown, see ils houses that “ere‘k'ohflt‘l'lu ut. New York. New Jerse built two hundred years ago and 100k | Pennsylvania. Delaware. Maryland on the acres of land within and out- | Virginia. North Carolina, South Caro |lina and Georgia. to free, sover- e reate = his piano out to the lawn. His fines erected in 1715. but this date is not|inepirations came to him when plas authentic.” Mrs. Smith has a picture | ing in the garden eral bottles « the old customhouse and in front | champagne were placed convenient of §t 18 an : between the | Tear him. His theory was that € an ox harnessed between the | jright sunshine was fuvorable to in shafts of a cart. A colored man is on | spiration. and he always worked in the cart, and although his features When possible Gluck was fifty years side the town, all tumbled with |\ |eign and independent state Sy 2 i lold before he wrote an opera of any trenches and redouts that were peo- gl cannot be made out in a little print, 'l WO 3 pled with American, French and Eng- o} i it is a two-to-one bet that the fizure! Chopin, unlike most musical genuis N acre of green turf thickly dotted I the es, was a late riser. He praocticed s is that of Old Willic Marsha lish troops during the revolution and with troops of the Union and the Con- federate states during the civil war. iter carrler of Yorktown t 'Kh"-hu‘-rlv- umulv: h: :K;':("::n a a Vi o ’ . pported at his e as “ s dead and Willie is years older, but | nenily injured. He never compose: instead of driving a truck he drives | except when seated at the piano, an The ox|lom at this time with buttercups sur rounds the base of the monument. | | Around the lot is an iron picket fence | it would perhaps seem to you that| - RC TC O e abens o an A ) ¥ he alw had the lights turned this tragic and historic ground should < ate.opensior 1 + bay horse of patient, gentle man- he alwaya had the lights turned ou cient road which s the main street | ners, and with a barrel in his care | SR N VA% (GPINREE 8 BUEK be held by the nation and that these earthworks, camping grounds and battlefields should pe preserved. The last act of {he drama of the American revolution was staged in Yorktown and on the fields that lie :::;:.u,’:n:'ll::"u:h’;;,;:ew‘::t't: house in the village, though this dis break the backbone of the American |tinction is diputed Some inhabitan “rebellion” against the Kingdom of [of Yorktown hold that a brick build fi:ell Bnluldn Pnimb_le the ‘v'md‘e n?: ing now a part of a hote' is the old- United States of America taking its |8t structure of the town. place among the nations and “bring | Yorktown' has suffered three fires ‘ to justice” those brave and patriotic |that claimed many buildings; other|western part of northern Virginia 1544 His home was Sherwood Forojeral i com {of the village of Yorktown. Acro: the road and nearly opposite the monument lot is a brick house, one story and attic high. still a home that is bright and fair. that was buiit in 1699. It is believed to be the oldest | serves drinking water to many r tent that he could not properly it I A VIEW OF HISTORIC YORKTOWN FROM THE AIR. (UL 8. Air Serviee photo.) nally cruciform. as so men who dared to set up this republic, |, - = b2 this part of Virginia lay within the est, near Greenway . und he died | troops participa churches were, it Was re Were trapped and . captured. There buildings have passed away in flame | 0 PG B L Hd* Yorktown, together |at Richmond, January %, 1362 The 3 its present wdrangular Cornwallis, an earl, a distinguished |and smoke because of an upset light-|\ith other towns. settlements and | county clerk of York is Flovd Hullo- em. The bell that calls the Episco- soldier of the king, veteran of cam- |ed candle, an overturned coal oil lamp | farms, suffered those depredations' way: the commonwealth attorney, W. | yg gory is that Gen. Nelson said i O TRLOWR: (5] PraTerowe aigns that had brought Imposing |or blazing fagots fallen out of an open|wh ave been the accompaniment E. Hall. and the sheriff, W. F. L | Basa sl g PR ; church in 1 by Good victories to British arms, and com- fireplace. Many houses have crumbled |or all <. These are some of the|son 1 want 1 perty of mine Queen Anne and it tolled and pealed v reasons Yorktown has declined from Diagonally across the n n saved that s ‘s as a refu; for the ‘:u:!H the little church was desecr its once high state town. An-|from the monument lot and sep . P nd fired by the other reason is that Yorktown is a! steamboat town. and it is the railroad town which has grown fast and be- come big and rich.. But recently there came a change in the tide of events which brought many people to York- town and caused several new houses to be built and business to expand Those events were the world war. improved roads and the automobile. The York river in front of, above and below Yorktown. which had been the anchorage of British and French | ]fleets, became a rendezvous or base | [for an American fleet with thousands ¢+ |of men. A mile or two above York- town the government took over eleven thousand acres of land as a Navy mine depot and aviation fleld. A mile or two below Yorktown the government took over a large tract,: including part of the Surrender farm. | as a naval fuel oil station. The depot and the station are still maintained. but it ought not to be necessary to! write that the activity of those places has been very much reduced. How ever, they still make such a demand | for native or resident labor and at| such a wuge rate that farm owners, have difficulty in obta dents in the village. This is artesian | terpret the music before him. Seatr water and is preferred by many of | In the midst of a small select cir the residents to mere well water. It| b 6481l extemporized and imy S tenta o mere wolL mater | visea lHel vealicediti o bl intar s deep illie's son, Youne | whenever he was melancholy. He h Willie, throws over or makes fast|d Superstitious dread of the figu the lines of the Baltimore-Richmon? | pe¥e “:““:‘n"um i live in a hou ; s T EAal e at number, nor o boats that stop at Yorktown. The boat |a journey on that date . — ot UP from Baltimore to West Point at thel Boethoven never allowed his mers head of York river (whence it is a]#Nt to enter his study. He i . NATIONAL MONUMENT AT YORKTOW) OOTOBER 19, 1881, THE CENTENARY OF CORX GEORGE WASHINGTO? CORNERSTONE LAID ON mander of a force valiant, disciplined because of neglect and the weight of and well effcered, and strong and years. Some have been destroyed by {takes in suburbs some of which are {rather far removed from the main WALLIS' SURRENDER TO | ning labor to till their lands. The government opened Camp Eustice, about eight miles from Yorktown, and Langley | Field and a balloon school are u few | miles to the southeast i % | * x o % | THE opening of these war activities or agencies brought a boom to Yorktown. The good roads movement, | begun before the world war, was ac- | celerated and the general government | joined in building roads for the use’ of the war plants. Tourist travel in' automobiles is becoming quite heavy. Yorktown lies on a good road irom Washington by way of Fredericks- | burg to Newport News, and travclers between Iic 1ond and Newport News imay pass through the old viilage over | hard, smooth roads. The historic ap- | which Yorktown makes because | of its situation in the revolution and in the civil war and its nearness to Williamsburg and Jamestown draw ! to it many pilgrims by wheel. | Yorktown during the American revolution had a population of 3,600. The number of inhabitunts today is estimated to be 300, the number of white inhabitants being 125, and ool- ored, This includes chlidren, and district, a single house and its fami- | ly being classed as a suburb. After one leaves the main street it requires intimate knowledge of the village boundaries to tell where Yorktown | ends and the country begins. Man- agement of public affairs of the vil- | lage is under a board of trustees, the board being Sydney Smith, chairman; DING CITIZENS COURTHOUSE N from the 1699 housc (the home of Conway Shield, for many years com- monwealth attorney for York coun- ty) by one of those sandy lanes called streets ever since the town York was laid off in 1691 by Lauren Smith, surveyor. s&tands one of the great colonial houses of the United States. it is surrounded by a garden whose beauty arrests many pilzrims| and which occupies land equzl to a city square. Around that garden is a Al | | brick wall. tall ax a man, and ciothed | in ivy and pink roses. The house. of brick and sandstone. is partly over-| grown with ivy and nearly screened| from the view of persons passing! along the road by box tr f es thirty feet | nigh and proportionat wide and dense. It is u famous house and was| the home of a man closely identified| with the young republic and the s i me is prominent maximum distinction P, the mother country. What du old bell did from 1514 until 1 not been tol in ew s tones rolled softly ove Yorktown and the bea utif his fricnds. | When Gen. Magruder and his Con- the has but in that year back ple it was hung. Its the fields of 1 York er until the civil war came on. shert run by rail to Richmond) lands at the Yorktown wharf, or rather morning and the boat from Wes Point to Baltimore stops there about 8 o'clock in the evening. Some of the most conspicuous carth- works in the town of York are opposite the Nelson house, which ix now the property of Capt. George P. Blow. a man of wealth, good taste and patriotic sen- timent. He has converted the parade of the old fort into a park with tennis courts. Benches on the ramparts allow tired tourists to overlook s fine a {scene of river, field and forest as is to be had in the United Stai The bluff on which these old British works stand is about seventy feet above the river, there a mile wide and eighty to a hun- dred feet deep. A little to vour left as you look over thig scene is Gloucester point, famous in the operations for the defense and offense in the campaign of Yorktown. It juts out into the river so that the York between the tip of the floats against it, at 4 o'clock each| that this room should remain exact! he le I}, mo matter how d y he dust lay ‘on_the precious music: manuseripts. He seldom looked | the glass when he tied his stock Lalf the time he forgot to brush hi< hair. Every morning he carefulls counted out seventeen beans from the coffce canister for_the coffee serve: for his breakfast. When he composed fle Would pour cold water over his iands. and often people below him would compluin of the witer thas souked through his floor. 5 Haydn arrayed himself & in full court dress —aword SayPhak ruff and silver buckles. He sajd that he could never write so well as when 4 massive diamond ring, which tne 1z vqu ror of Austria had given him was ,on his finger. “Thepaper on Yhich he wrote must be of superfing ity o & most i ove for practical joking got the be ter of him. One night in church he CUt off the queue of one of the oth e sters \igs. For this offense he agner had hi garalner had his tomb made in the moment he could times insisted on inspect this sepulcher. {himself and i | Pimself, .and emitting {while he wWorked. [came when the thu n I winds howled and !hed::i Liszt smoked large black wigars, l\Vhen Eiving lessons he walked up and down the room, muttering tn volumes of G ¥ _of accompanime his remarks He smoked L‘onu!:tnl}’\: Meverbeer's happiest inspirations roared, the n dashed in deluging sheets down the window panes of his study. well equipped as armies were meas- (storm. Some famous old hom ured in that time, surrendered. HIHY‘balter(—d down by French and great Americans have said that the [can guns during the American republic was born at York- bardment of 1781 town. | Others were destroyed by Bri W {troops and sailors in the cou wer: | Conway H. Shield, vice chairman: H.|of Yorktown, was the place of Ameri- | M. Clements, Thomas Lackey, W. b, | o5 Jorkionn, o Yeor ™ nged to = and bom- | Cooke, T. W. Crockett and George L.|his descendants. It was the home of Smith. Yorktown is the seat of York | Thomas Nelson. was the headquarters sh | county. The county judge is Gardi- |of L,ord Cornw: during the B of | ner Tyler. u son of Johin Tyler. who | period of the siege, and was hreached N the centennial of the surrender, | Nemy forays in the war of 1812.°01d [ was elected Vice President of the by a cannop shot fired by Thonias Gadbbes I 147 tone | POUses sustained casualties in the| United States March. 1841. and on |son. % ober 19, . the cormer stone | course of Gen. McClellan’s “peninsula | the death of President William Henry |° Cornwallis had made his headquar- of & national monument was laid at, campaign” when, in 1562, he sought | Harrison succeeded to the office -of | ters in the house of another Nelson in Prehistoric Races. THE Indians of that part of Amer. ica in which we live had not ad. vanced beyond the stone age at the time of the coming of Columbus, and though there is a theory lhIlvlhll Yorktown. That monument stands o capture Richmond by fighting his ! i'res ) i way up the “southern neck whi mear the east edge of the village, i), "thy¢ peninsula, deeply indented by the midst of earthworks that in 1781 [ rivers, bays and crecks n were British defenses and in 1862 |places. wide in places. whic Raims nt was | between the rivers York and James ~were Confederate. The monume B et e ot koA render was made, because that spot was then a matter in dispute, and to- day there is no certainty about it, gh the field in which the sur- render took place has been identified and the spot where t sword of the British commander passed to the rep- resentative of the American com- mander is shrewdiy conjecture The heuse in which the articles of surrender were signed is standing. Inscriptions on the monument which was built among the Yorktown earthworks tell synopsis of the drama acted there, and as that drama was of vast import to the people of Amerien and of vast influence on many other peoples, those inscrip- tions eught to be of interest. On the south face of the monument's base the historian has written in granite leteers that “at Yorktown, on October 19, 1781, after a siege of nineteen by 5500 Americans and .7.000 h troops of the line, 3.500 ginia militia, under command of Gen. ‘Thomas Nelson. and thirty-six French ehips of war, Barl Cornwallis, com- mander of the British forces at York and Gloucester. surrendered his army of 7,251 efficers and men, 340 sea- men, 244 cannen and 24 standards to His Excellency George Washington, commander-in-chief of the combined forces of America and France; to His Excellenoy the Comte de Rocham- besu. commanding the auxiliary troeps of His Moat Christian Majesty in America, to His Excellency the Corate de Grasse, commander in chief the naval army of France in Chesapeake. On the east side of the monument the historian has engraved this story: “The treaty concluded Feb- ruary 6 1178, between the United States of America and Louis VI, King of France. declare the essential and Gireet cnd of the present defensive sllianee is te maintain effectually the liberty and movereignty and inde- rrow in h lays ¥ % between aot set on the spot where the 8Ur-| he norty and south shifted to the lent and served until March 4, 1845 John Tyler was born at Green- way, Charles City county, Va.. March 29,1790, and was twice married, his first wife being Letitia, daughter of Robert Christian. and his second, Miss Julia Gardiner of New York. to whom he was married June Yorktown. The French brought under fire and Cornwallis and his st moved to the Thomas Nel hou: It is related that Gen. Washington requested the French not to fire on this house, because it was the home of a fine American patriot, governor of Virginia and at that moment gen it " pendence absolute and unlimited of | HOME OF THOMAS NELSON, GENERAL AND REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. HEADQUARTERS the said United States as well in mat- OF CORNWALLIS IN SIEGE OF YORKTOWN, He sleeps in the cemetery of Grace opal Church, a pistol shot from his great brick | is a flat stone Thomas Nelson, Jr. On his grave Mover of the Re ganiaConvention instructinz Telogates in Congress to move that Colonies Free States—Signer of Independence— Virginia—Com- mander of Virginia's forces. All for Liberty.” Generations of Nelsons before Thomas Nelson and Independent the Declaration | the colo and there also rest the bones of many women who sh and American | guns as they roared out the birthday song of this republic. graves would i music of ¥ But these old make another Grace Church was built in 1700, and withstood storm and war until 1814, when a marauding party from Brit ish warships burned it. tially rebuilt in 1 It was par- o—that is, s OLDEST YORKTOWN HOUSE, BUILT IN federate force fell back from York- town to Williamsburg in the early days of May, 1862, McClellan and his blue-clothed legions moved in. York- town was theirs! It is said that some time later a federal magazine exploded, or it may have been an ammunition wagon, and the old bell was jarred from the bel- fry and was cracked by its fall. It is” said that Union soldiers sent the bell north as a souvenir of their outing in Virginia, and that it Ye- mained in the north until the York- town centennial in 1881, when it was sent back to little Grace Church, hav- ing been recast. Its voice is as fresh and mellow as when it came out to ¢ of Virginia in 1725, er sin home in the steeple of Grace Church people in Yorktown will tell you that it has pealed more merrily for mar- riages and tolled less sadly for fu- nerals Across a narrow lane west of the Nelson House garden is a strange structure built of bricks, not imported fiom England, but made in the colony probably by English immigrant brick- makers and in English brick molds. At any rate, these colonial bricks were and | it was brought back to its| point and the steamboat wharf at York- town is only about half a mile wide. Across the river a ferryboat, which makes steam by burning oil, plies back and forth. The road from Washington and Fredericksburg strikes the York river at Gloucester point and many ma- chines are ferried by this boat. The old earthwork which has been parked is also owned by Capt. Blow. He is the owner of other parts of the York- town fortified fields, and his offer to do- | nate certain histoNé acres to the govern- | ment, announced at the convention of the D. A. R. at Washington, aroused enthusiasm among the daughters. Half a mile southeast of the monu- ment and adjoining the field in which the surrender of Cornwallis took place is Yorktown national cemeter, where {of the | few 1 part of the continent was inhabited by another race before the coming Indian, it is but @ theory, ang which seem to g ustai; have been brought to light, 2 There were prehistoric races ip what we call South America, Mexico and the Southwestern states of the United States which adv; far beyond that stage o}l‘addt\’:ldo‘lrnnced called the stone age. They V\Dor:M in gold, silver, copper ang bmn:‘ wove cloth of excellent texture, m.a" pottery and gave it artistic decora: tion, und must have had considecapre knowledge of human anatomy, h. cause they practiced such forms of surgery as trephining broken ki) and setting broken arms and legs in splints. Scientists wor ing under lh’I direction of the American Museum t"f | Natural History have = ¥ ha u | skeletons in SR New Mexico wit 'Il'.:ll:;'kr‘ndagrs‘ which held the spling 3 nearly crumble b thouek y bled. could by Among some of the prehistori the chief weapons of war were crons with stone or copper heads, and it is thought that a large percentage of casualties must have been in the form of broken skulls. Trephined skulls belonging to men of @ lon. lime antedating the coming of the whites have been found. It Is ase sumed that races that hkd progressed 50 far as to mend broken skulls and leg and arm bones must also have learned a good deal about drugs for relief of internal maladies. Our own Indians knew something of this sub- ject, because they used a decoction of holly leaves as a purge and emetic, took steam baths. made a brew of that plant which we call bonesoct as a sudorific or a8 a medicine to induce sweating. and they used various plants, such as spicewood and sasea- sleep all that is mortal of 1,446 unknown and 757 known federal soldiers whose bodies were taken out of shallow battle- field graves after the peace of Appo- mattox. These men fell in the fighting around Yorktown in the peninsula cam- paign. No national cemetery is better maintained than this. Its greenery is the greenest and its flowers are as bright as flowers can be. On the ranks of little white tombstones one reads: Peter Mc- fras, as febrifuges. or medicines for the alleviation of fevers. They dis- covercd the value of numerous min- eral springs. some of which we use today on the advice of the most learned physicians. Whether our rude stone age Indians made these dis- coveries. or learned of the uses of these plants and springs from the more advanced peoples to the south and west of them is a question.