Evening Star Newspaper, December 8, 1929, Page 104

s S e e AP S S S e THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., DECEMBER 8, 1929, History Seen in White House Funerals BY JOHN CLAGETT PROCTOR, HEN the writer attends the New Year vreception at the Whi‘e House, which he has done for a number of years, his mind natu- rally turns to the great events in the history of our. cwn country, and some- times even in world history, in which this old mansion has been the central setting-—a silent reminder of all our great wars, except the Revolution: of many of our greatest gala ocea- sions, and, alas, of some cf our saddest occa- siops as well. ° The ringing laughter of children and the enthusiastic gladness of their seniors, indeed, have only too frequentlyTsometimes without even a moment’s warning—given way to be- reavement and mourning, only too soon to be forgotten in turn by the thousands who an- nually 8nter its doors, bent almost entirely upon pleasure. Being right on the ground, so to speak, it might correctly be assumed that we Washing- tonians can picture in our minds much more vividly than does the stranger or visitor the events occurring in this stately edifice during our recollections, some even going back as fav as the marriage of Nellie Grant, and to the funeral held for President Lincoln, when the Nation’s heart may be truly said to have been bowed down by weight of woe. " The recent death of Secretary Good at Walter Reed Hospital and his funeral services from “the White House but remind the writer of & number cf similar sad uses to which this cele- brated building and its East Room have been put, not only during cur own time, but even since the death there of the ninth President William Henry Harrison, which occurred in 1841, and largely, it is said, from his being wor- ried to death by office seekers, as there were for some places as many as a dozen applicants. L. A. Goebright tells of an amusing incident which shcws the extent to which this unrea- sonable desire for office was carried at that time. IT seems that a certain Martin Renehan, known for his intelligence, wit and warm- heartedness, was ,an usher for the President, being a hold-over from the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren, and that upon a number of occasions a very polite, elderly man, of genteel appearance, made frequent visits to the White House for the purpose of seeing the President privately. His manner so appealed to Martin that he finally told him that if he would come some morning at 6 o’clock he would . make an effort to gratify his desire. Mr. Go- bright tells us: “The visitcr was punctual to the time. Gen. Harrison was an early riser. Martin went up- stairs gently and tapped at his door. Having received an invitation to enter, he did so. Th- general was sitting near the grate, in whica were a few expiring coals. ‘Is it possible,” Mar- tin said, ‘the weather being cold, that you have no more fire?” He replied: ‘Martin, when at home I was accustomeéed to a wood fire, and if I had wocd now, I'd replenish this fire myself, as I do not wish to call up my colored man’ (the one he had brought with him from Ohio). “Martin responded that he would supply ‘the requisite fuel, and added, ‘An elderly gentle- man, sir, has been repeatedly calling here. He is of respectable appearance and unassuming in his manners, and has elicited my sympa- thies. I therefore take the liberty of asking whether you will now give him a private audi- ence?’ “‘Where is he?’ “‘In the green room,’ replied Martin. “‘Show him up,’ said the President. “Martin accordingly showed him up and re- tired in order to give the stranger the full benefit of a strictly private interview. When the visitor had taken his departure Martin re- turned to the President’s room. “‘Martin,’ said the President, ‘you have been kind to that man.’ “‘I have; I took him by the hand.’ . “‘Are you aware,’ asked the President, ‘that he is looking for your place?’ “Martin replied: ‘Your Excellency, I expected " to go, as I am opposed to you in politics.’ “Gen. Harrison said: ‘John Quincy Adams told me all about you, and as long as I remain in the White House, the cabinet even can’t remove ycu. “Renehan responded: ‘I am the last Martin in the nest, and I thought you were going to put me to flight.’ “‘Oh, no,” the President replied, ‘two Mar- tins have already been banished from this house (meaning Martin Van Buren and his son), and it would be bad luck to banish you, the only remaining Martin. So you remain, and nestle in the battlements.’” PRESIDENT HARRISON did not live long ‘o enjoy—or occupy, whichever way you may care to put it—the chief office of the land, but died just one month to the day after his in- auguration; his death being the first, so far as the writer knows, to have taken place in the - White House, and his funeral was the first one from there as well. Harking back more than 88 years, we find the details of his death chroni- cled in the National Intelligencer of April 5, 1841, as follows: “President William Henry Harrison died at the President’s House, in this city, this fourth day of April, Anno Domini 1841, at thirty minutes before one o'clock in the morning. “* * * The week before last, pursuing the practice of nis active life, and his habit of early rising and exercise, the President, in the coursc of a long walk before breakfast, was overtaken by a slight shower, and got wet. The follow- ing day he felt symptoms of indisposition, which were followed by pneumonia, or bilious pleurisy, which ultimately baffled all medical skill, and terminated his virtuous, useful and illustrious life, on Sunday morning, after an illness of eight days. He expired a little after midnight, ! gurrounded by those members of his family who Famous East Room o f Foxecutive Mansion Has Been Scene of Final Ceremonies in Lives of Noted Americans— President William Henry Harrison Was the First of Chief Officials to Expire ' in White House. Ephraim - Elmer Ellsworth, colonel of the New York Fire Zouaves. were in the city, the members of his cabinet, and many personal friends. “# * * The last time the President spoke was at 9 o'clock—a little more than three hours before he expired; and the words which he then uttered were so remarkable that they deserve to be recorded and remembered. While Dr. Worthington and one or two other attendants Funeral Services at the White House for President were standing over him, having just admin- istered to his comfort, he cleared his throat, as if desiring to speak audibly, and, as though he fancied himself addressing his successor or some official associate in the Government, said: ‘Sir, I wish you to understand the true prin- ciples of the Government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more.” " Prom Harper's Weekly. His attending physician was Dr. Thomas Miller, who then lived on the north side of E street between Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets, and the consulting physicians were Drs. Frederick May, H. W. Wcrthington and Ashton Alexander. We are told that soon after his death was announced, “almost every private dwelling placed crepe upon the knocker and hall-handle of its door, and many of the very humblest abodes hung out some spontaneous signal of the general sorrow.” On the day of the funeral, which took place from the East Room of the White House, all stores and places of business in Washington were closed. The religious services were con- ducted by the Rev. W. Hawley, pastor of St. John's Episcopal Church, at H and Sixteenth streets, and the body was temporarily placed in the receiving vault cf Congressional Ceme- tery. The funeral car “was of large dimen- sions,” an account states, and “on the coffin lay the sword of justice and the sword of state, surmounted by the scroll of the Constitution, bcund together by a funeral wreath formed of the yew and the cypress. The car was drawn by six white horses, having at the head of eacia a colored groom, dressed in white, with white turban and sash, and supported by pallbearers in black.” N HOUGH the White House had been occupied for 41 years without a recorded funeral hav- ing taken place from there, yet it was to be but three years after the death of President Harrison that gloom shculd again envelop this historic structure, when the bodies of Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of State in the cabinet of President John Tyler; Thomas W. Gilmer, Sec- retary of the Navy; Virgil Maxcy, in the diplo- matic service; ex-Senator Gardiner of New York, and Commodore Beverly Kenncn, were - borne there after the disaster on board the frigate Princeton off Broad Creek, about seven miles below Washington. * The prominence and positions of those killed naturally makes this event all the mcre notable and histeric. Commodore Kennon had as his second wife Britannia Wellington, daughter of Martha Parke (Custis) Peter, the granddaughter of Mrs. Washington. Britannia Peter had mar=- ried Capt. Kennon at Tudor Place on Decem- ber 8, 1842, and was therefore left a widow after a brief married life of but two years. Largely because of the impcssibility of keep= ing from making errors even among the best of writers upon historic subjects, the writer has always deemed it safest to go back to' ths beginning of things and find out just what the press said on subjects like these at the time, and even then sometimes he finds it quite advisable-to sort of check up. The Intelligencer in its issue of February 29, 1844, the day following the explosion, gives a good account of this unfortunate affair an here it is, punctuation marks and all: v “Yesterday was a day appointed, by the courtesy and hospitality af Capt. Stockton, commander of the Princeton, for receiving as visitors to his fine ship (lying off Alexandria) a great number of guests, with their families, liberally and numerously invited to spend the day on board. The day was most favorable, and the company was large and brilliant, of both sexes; not less probable in number than four hundred, among whom were the President of the United States, the heads of the several departments, and their families. At a proper hour after the arrival of the expected guests, the vessel got under way and proceeded down the river to some distance below Fort Wash- ington. During the passage down, one of the large guns on board (carrying a ball of 225 * pounds) was fired more than once, exhibiting the great power and capacity qf that formi- dable weapon of war. “The ladies had partaken of a sumptuous i N Lincoln, April 19, 1865.