Standard history of the city of Washington from a study of the original sources

Introduction

The history of the city of Washington divides itself almost necessarily into two distinct periods; that preceding and that following the removal there of the National Government. The characteristic features of these two periods are so divergent as to practically demand distinct methods of treatment for each.

Among the many projects of a public nature which President Washington sought to promote, none was closer to his heart than the establishment of the Capital of the Nation upon the banks of his beloved Potomac. The story of that event is a chapter in Washington's life. The recital of the more prominent facts connected with an incident with every aspect of which President Washington was so closely associated can scarcely fail to arouse a desire for the more intimate details which lend color to the sketch; that desire to know the actors as living personalities which Browning felt when he penned the lines :

"Ah, did you once see Shelley plain,

And did he stop and speak to you,

And did you speak to him again?

How strange it seems and new!"

This element of color and detail, it is believed, could in no way be more effectively supplied than by telling the story, so far as possible, in the words of the participants. From the documents and records in the Government archives it is possible to give an almost complete story of the establishment of the city of Washington in the actual language of the men who achieved it ; and believing that in the words of Washington, Jefferson, L 'Enfant, Carroll, Johnson, Stuart, Thornton, Scott and White, this story could be told with more intense interest than in any words of his own, the compiler endeavored, in giving this portion of the city's history, to utilize to the fullest possible extent such of their writings relating to the subject, as are still preserved.

The adoption of this method of treatment for the period in question was first suggested by an examination of the remarkable collection of documents — itself a history of the founding of the city — prepared by Mr. Hugh T. Taggart, and constituting the greater part of the record in the celebrated

VI History of the City of Washington

Potomac Flats cases. In addition to this source of inspiration, the writer is indebted for many valuable suggestions to Mr. H. C. Gauss, whose recent investigation of the title of the United States to lands in the District of Columbia on behalf of the Congressional Commission created for that purpose in 1908 gave him a particularly intimate acquaintance with the subject. An expression of deep appreciation is due, also, to Mr. Edward F. Concklin, of the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds, for many courtesies, extending over a period of several months, during which every facility was accorded for examining the records and correspondence of the Federal Commissioners who laid out the city; and to Mr. Thomas Griffin, Jr., of the Bureau of Kolls and Library of the State Department, and Mr. John C. Fitzpatrick of the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress and his staff for assistance rendered in examining the documents in their respective departments.

The period of the city 's history subsequent to the removal of the Government to Washington in 1800 was necessarily incapable of the same character of treatment as that given the period preceding that event. The review of the city government from 1800 to the creation of the Territorial government in 1871 is in large part based upon the city charters and ordinances. The general history and the topical chapters have been compiled from such available sources of information as were deemed reliable, including newspaper files, directories, the statements of municipal and corporation officials and the publications of the various institutions and corporations mentioned.

In the preparation of the special chapters on art, literature, music, the drama, monuments, and of much of the material relating to colonial and Indian history and to the subjects of schools, inaugurals, social life, and local events, covering the period from 1800 to 1871, the writer was greatly assisted by Miss Alice R. James. For the preparation of the chapters on the location and establishment of the city, and on its government and general history, he is indebted to the assistance of Mr. Philip Tindall, formerly of the District of Columbia bar. WILLIAM TINDALL.

Washington, July 18, 1914.

Chapter I

The Period Prior to the Adoption of the Site on the Potomac for the Permanent Seat of Government.

AS the beholder looks upon the Capital of the Nation today, with its wide, shaded streets, magnificent buildings, restful parks, costly monuments, and thousands of trees, it requires a vigorous play of the imagination to picture the swamps and forests which they have replaced and to realize that where is now the teeming population of a metropolitan city were once the tepees and campfires of the primitive Indian inhabitants.

Some of the ancient Indian village sites in the present District of Columbia named by archaeologists are : one at Little Falls on the west bank of the Anacostia; one between First and Second Streets, southeast ; one on the crest of the hill on the Virginia side of the Potomac at Chain Bridge; another opposite the foot of Analostan Island on the Virginia side ; another at the mouth of Four Mile Run; and yet another at the south end of Long Bridge ; while the abundance of flint debris on hills bordering Rock Creek, show that vicinity to have been a popular Indian resort for making arrow-heads.

The site where our National Capital now spreads its streets and avenues was formerly the center of the one-time powerful Algonquins, the sub-tribe of this great family having their village here being the Powhatans. They were in possession when Captain John Smith explored the region and had been for hundreds of years previous to that time. All the tribes of the Algonquins met in council here and the place of these national meetings was on the delta between the Potomac and its Eastern Branch. The council-house stood at the foot of the very hill on which now stands the lofty American Capitol. The Indians also came here in great numbers during the fishing season and called the vicinity their ' ' fishing ground. ' '

The first white men to explore the Potomac, though they do not appear to have come as far up as the present site of Washington, were in all probability Spaniards.

The story of the first Spanish settlement as gathered from the Spanish records by Buckingham Smith is related by the Catholic historian Shea in a paper contributed by him to the New York Historical Society. The story as thus given is that a Spanish vessel came up the Potomac in the first half of the Sixteenth Century and carried away to Mexico the brother of the Chief of Axacan. Giving to the letter "x" its Spanish pronunciation approaching the German " ch, " the Spanish name Axacan becomes almost the exact equivalent of the English Occoquan. This Indian was baptized in the Christian Church and sent to Spain. In 1566 the Spanish Admiral Pedro Menendez sent a vessel with two Dominican fathers to set up a mission at Axacan but the party was frightened away. The enterprise was taken up four years later by a party of Jesuits under Father Segura. The latter expedition reached Axacan September 10, 1570, bringing with them the Indian who had been taken away by the Spaniards years before and who had been given the name Luis de Velasco, and who was relied upon to protect the party from the attacks of the Indians. Velasco 's wild nature reasserting itself, he deserted the missionaries and participated in their slaughter by the Indians. In the following spring a Spanish vessel arrived with supplies for the mission and carried the news of its fate back to Menendez who proceeded to Axacan and hung at the yard arm eight of those who had participated in the killing of the missionaries, though Velasco had escaped to the mountains. With Menendez the Spanish flag departed forever from the Potomac. The Spaniards named the Chesapeake the Bay of St. Mary and the Potomac the Espiritu Santo.

Parkman in his ''Pioneers of New France" mentions letters from Menendez to Philip II of Spain reciting that in 1565 and for some years previous the French above the Gulf of St. Lawrence had received buffalo skins — six thousand in two years — from the Indians who had brought them down the Potomac and up the coast in canoes. Mr. Hugh T. Taggart in a paper read before the Columbia Historical Society argues that the voyage from the Potomac to the St. Lawrence in heavy laden canoes was an impossibility and that the French must have done their trading with the Indians on the Potomac.

Captain John Smith, probably the first Englishman to explore the Potomac, as well as other rivers emptying into the Chesapeake Bay, said in his valuable and remarkable "General History of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles : ' '

' ' The fourth river is called Patawomecke, 6 or 7 myles in breadth. It is navigable 140 myles, and fed as the rest with many sweet rivers and springs, which fall from the bordering hils. These hils many of them are planted, and yield no lesse plentie and varietie of fruit, then the river exceedeth with abundance of fish. It is inhabited on both sides. First on the south side at the very entrance is Wighcocomoco and hath some 130 men, beyond them Sekacawone with 30. — The Onawmanient with 100. And the Patawomekes more than 200. Here doth the river divide itself into 3 or 4 convenient branches. The greatest of the last is called Quiyouh, trending Northwest, but the river itselfe turneth Northeast, and is still a navigable streame. On the Westerne side of this branch is Tauxenent with 40 men. On the North of the river is Secowocomoco with 40. Somewhat further Potapaco with 20. In the East part is Pamacaeack with 60. After Moyowance with 100. And lastly, Nocotchtanke with 80. The river aboue this place maketh his passage downe a low pleasant valley overshadowed in many places with high rocky mountaines; from whence distill innumerable sweet and pleasant springs. ' '

Some historians deny that Captain Smith saw the present site of Washington and others assert that it is very uncertain, but whether he stood on the exact site of this city or not, it is reasonably certain that he came this far north on the Potomac. He tells of being entertained near the present site of Mt. Vernon, at Toags, which place appears on his map as Tauxenent, on the Virginia side of the river; at Mayaones opposite, on the Maryland side; and at Naeotchtant or Nacotchtanke, which was situated within what is now the District of Columbia.

He went on up the river until his navigation was prohibited by immense rocks over which the water poured, so that it appears he went to or nearly to the falls.

William Stith, writing in 1746, tells of Captain Smith's voyage up the Potomac River, his encounters with tribes of Indians, the finding of the antimony mine, et cetera, and then says:

"Towards the Falls of Patowmack, they met several

Parties of Indians in Canoes, loaded with the Flefh of Bears,

Deer, and other wild Beafts."*

This early navigator and explorer was one of the most striking and interesting characters of our Country's history, although he is accused of exaggeration and even of prevarication in recording his own deeds. One writer calls him "an egotist and a braggart,"! but the same accuser says later: "If John Smith, in his many writings, sometimes boasted more than other men, he had also done more," and one to do was the sort of person needed then, as at all times. Smith was truly brave or he would not and could not have faced all the dangers to be met in exploring a country of savages, many of whom were unfriendly to the white people.

Nor were his explorations made simply for adventure. He drew a map of Virginia, very accurate, considering all the difficulties in his way, and preserved many valuable records of the country and Indian tribes that would be lost to the world but for his pen.

His descriptions of some of the natural advantages of Virginia in those early days, which country includes the Potomac and its cities, are interesting. "This Virginia," he says, "is a country in America betweene the degrees of 34. and 45. of the North latitude. The bounds thereof on the East side are the great Ocean: on the South lyeth Florida: on the North

*The History of Firft Discovery and Settlement of Virginia. fAinsworth R. Spofford.

nova Francia : as for the West thereof, the limits are vnknowne. ' ' Of the climate he said :

"The sommer is hot as in Spaine; the winter colde as in Fraume or England. The heat of sommer is in Iune, Iuly and August, but commonly the coole Breeses ass wage the vehemencie of the heat. The chiefe of winter is halfe December, Iunuary, February, and halfe March. The colde is extreme sharpe, but here the proverbe is true that no extreme long continueth.

"In the yeare 1607 was an extraordinary frost in most of Europe, and this frost was founde as extreame in Virginia. But the next yeare for 8. or 10. daies of ill weather, other 14 daies would be as Sommer."

In general praise of Virginia he said :

"The mildnesse of the aire, the fertilitie of the soile, and the situation of the rivers are so propitious to the nature and vse of man as no place is more convenient for pleasure, profit and mans sustenance," and concluding a chapter of praise in 1612, he wrote :

"So then here is a place a nurse for souldiers, a practise for marriners, a trade for merchants, a reward for the good, and that which is most of all, — a businesse (most acceptable to God) to bring such poore infidels to the true knowledge of God and his holy Gospell."

He tells of the soil and shows considerable knowledge of its properties, as he does of nearly everything that comes under his observation. This vigorous pioneer, trying to build a successful colony, was observant of every advantage in the new country, and when he was placed at the head of the colony his work and reports all tended to the good of the English settlement, regardless of individuals, some of those considering themselves gentlemen above the indignity of labor, bringing forth reprimand from the practical Captain, and contemptuous remark in his reports of the proceedings of the colony. He forced every man to work or go without provisions, a law he realized to be necessary if the settlers were to be kept from starving. He showed his impatience with the would-be idlers when he wrote, in 1608 :

"At this time were most of our chief est men either sick or discontented, the rest being in such dispaire, as they would rather starue and rot with idlenes, then be perswaded to do anything for their owne relief e without constraint." Captain Smith gives us a very good conception of the

Indians of this part of the country in the Seventeenth century. Of their dress the Captain tells us :

' ' For their apparell, they are some time couered with the skinnes of wilde beasts, which in winter are dressed with the haire, but in sommer without. The better sort vse large mantels of deare skins not much differing in fashion from the Irish mantels. Some imbroidered with white beads, some with copper, other painted after their manner. . . . We have seen some vse mantels made of Turkey feathers, so prettily wrought and wouen with threads that nothing could be discerned but the feathers, that was exceeding warme and very handsome. . . . They adorne themselves most with copper beads and paintings. Their women haue their legs, hands, breasts and face cunningly imbrodered with diuerse workes, as beasts, serpents, artificially wrought into their flesh with blacke spots. In each eare commonly thy haue 3 great holes, whereat they hange chaines, bracelets, or copper. Some of their men weare in those holes, a smal greene and yellow coloured snake, neare halfe a yard in length, which crawling and lapping her selfe about his necke often times familiarly would kiss his lips. Others wear a dead Rat tied by the tail . . . he is most gallant that is most monstrous to behould."

Of their houses :

"Their buildings and habitations are for the most part by the riuers or not farre distant from some fresh spring. Their houses are built like our Arbors of small young springs (sprigs) bowed and tyed, and so close covered with mats or the barkes of trees very handsomely, that not withstanding either winde raine or weather, they are as warme as stoones, but very smoaky ; yet at the toppe of the house there is a hole made for the smoake to goe into right over the fire."

In these houses or arbors he says of the sleepers that "they

lie heads and points one by the other against the fire : some

covered with mats, some with skins, and some starke naked lie

on the ground ; from 6 to 20 in a house. ' '

' ' For their musicke they vse a thicke cane, on which they pipe as on a Recorder. For their warres they haue a great deepe platter of wood. They cover the mouth thereof with a skin, at each corner they tie a walnut, which meeting on the backside neere the bottome, with a small rope they twitch them togither till it be so taught and stiff e, that they may beat vpon it as vpon a drumme. But their chief e instruments a Battels made of small gourds or Pumpion shels. Of these they haue Base, Tenor, Counter-tenor, meane and Trible. These mingled with their voices sometimes 20 or 30 togither, make such a terrible noise as would rather affright than delight any man."

He tells too of their terrible sacrifices, some of them so horrible as to make the reader shudder.

Indian characteristics are summed up in these words :

"They are inconstant in everything, but what feare constraineth them to keepe. Craftie, timerous, quicke of apprehension, and very ingenuous. Some are of disposition fearefull, some bold, most cautelous, all Savage. . . . They are soone moued to anger, and so malicious, that they seldome forget an injury: they seldome steale one from another, lest their coniurers should reveale it, and so they be pursued and punished."

Robert Beverly gives us a picture of the physical Indians of those days in these words :

"They are ftraight and well proportioned, having the cleaneft and most exact Limbs in the World : They are so perfect in their outward Frame that I never heard of one fingle Indian that was either dwarfish, crooked, bandyleg 'd or otherwife miffhapen."

He also tells of finding in a sack

"some vaft Bones, which we judged to be the Bones of Men, particularly we meafured one Thigh-bone, and found it two Foot nine Inches long."

The next Englishman to ascend the Potomac as far as Washington, of whom we have authentic record, was Henry Fleet, an English fur-trader and explorer.

Fleet was a man of sense, and brave almost to the point of fool-hardiness. He mixed with the Indians a great deal and became familiar with their language and customs, which enabled him to preserve, in his journal and letters, much of the history of his time, as well as to encourage the people of England to emigrate to the new world. We learn most that is known of his explorations in New; England and Virginia from his journal. July 4, 1631, he wrote :

"We weighed anchor from the Downes, and sailed for

New England, when we arrived in the harbour of Pascat-

towaie the 9th of September, making some stay upon the

coast of New England. From thence, on Monday the 19th

of September, we sailed directly for Virginia, where we

came to anchor in the bay there, the 21st of October, but

made little stay. From thence we set sail for the river of

Potowmack, where we arrived the 26th of October at an

Indian town called Yowaccomoco, being at the mouth of

the river. . . . Here I was tempted to run up the river

to the head, there to trade with a strange populous nation,

called Mohaks, man-eaters, but after good deliberation,

I conceived many inconveniences that might fall out. ' '

He has much to say of his New England explorations, but

nothing more of Virginia until April, 1632, when he mentions

having difficulty in getting to Virginia. May 16, 1632, he wrote :

"We shaped our course for the river Potowmack, with the

company of Captain Cleybourne, being in a small vessel."

He described the trip up the river and in June he arrived at the rushing part of the river, or falls, now known as Little Falls, four miles above Washington, and described the locality, thus : ' ' This place without all question is the most pleasant and healthful place in all this country, and most convenient for habitation, the air temperate in summer and not violent in winter. ' '

He traveled yet further up the river:

"The 27th of June I manned my shallop, and went up with the flood the tide rising about four feet in height at this place. We had not rowed above three miles but we might hear the Falls to roar about six miles distant."

It must have been on his way back from this expedition that Captain Fleet was captured by Indians or chose to stay at a village on the Piscataway creek, and there, two years lajter, some English explorers under Leonard Calvert found him. These explorers landed at a point near the present Colonial Beach,* then further up at Marlborough Point on Potomac creek,

*Dr. James D. Morgan, Columbia Historical Records, Vol. 7.

where they were treated in a friendly manner by the Indians. After a visit they sailed on the Piscataway creek, where they encountered "the natives armed and assembled upon the shore to the number of five hundred, ready to dispute his landing, "t but they succeeded in convincing the savages that they had only friendly intentions. After this adjustment of intentions they were hospitably treated by the Indians and Captain Fleet, who acted as interpreter, and good feeling was established all around.

The Englishmen, who were seeking a place in which to settle, decided that this point was too far up the river and returned to Blackistone 's Island, near the mouth of the river, taking Fleet with them. The Captain acted as friend, guide and interpreter, he by this time being thoroughly familiar with the wild Indian country through which they traveled. Some of his descriptions of the upper Potomac, which were later published in England, caused many immigrants to turn to the new country over seas.

Captain Fleet ever continued to be interested in the growing colonies and in 1638 we find him a member of the Maryland House of Assembly and later, 1652, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.*

We do not read of other white settlers visiting the site of the District of Columbia until the close of the Seventeenth Century, when a company of Irish and Scotch came over and started a colony in Maryland within the present limits of the District. Of the land ceded to these settlers three tracts lay within the boundaries of the City of Washington. ♦ These refugees seem to have been good managers and to have succeeded accordingly. They called their new home New Scotland and worked their farms in peace and quiet, little dreaming that land where their produce grew would one day be the territory of one of the proudest cities of one of the greatest nations of earth's history.

One of these early proprietors, Robert Troop, called his

tHistory of Maryland, by James McSherry.

*Dr. Morgan, Columbia Historical Records, Vol. 7.

farm ' ' Scotland Yard, ' ' and it comprised what is now Southeast Washington. Another, Francis Pope, named his place Rome, and called a small stream at the foot of his hill, Tiber River. It is told of this dreamer, that he predicted a greater capital than Rome would occupy that hill and that later generations would command a great and nourishing country in the new world. He related that he had had a dream or vision, in which he had seen a splendid parliament house on the hill, now known to us as Capitol Hill, which he purchased and called Rome, in prophetic honor of the great city to be.

His title to the land may be somewhat convincive of his prophecy, as it was deeded under the name "Rome," June 5, 1663. It reads : '

"Layd out for Francis Pope of this Province Gentleman

a parcel of land in Charles County called Rome lying on

the East side of the Anacostian River beginning at a

marked oak standing by the riverside, the bounded tree of

Captain Robert Troop and running north by the river for

breadth the length 200 perches to a bounded oak standing

at the mouth of a bay or inlet called Tiber. ' '

His furrows have long since given place to streets and

buildings ; his stream still flows in the old course, less glorious,

perhaps, though more useful, as it now serves the modern use

of a city sewer.

Some of the descendants of those early Scotch and Irish farmers were among the first proprietors of the City of Washington and many of their descendants have continued to help build the capital and the country to the present day.

Many of the great men and women of our Country have come down from these old Scotch-Irish pioneers, who settled not only on this site, but all along the Potomac River and other parts of the then known country. They were people who had been persecuted in their own country, and their determined efforts for freedom and prosperous homes, together with like determination in other home-makers of the different colonies, gathered in force and importance, making a people of sturdy mould, of like desires and of democratic principles, who were, at a later day, to break all bans and form a new country on the earth, — a country of freedom for all people.

The Seventeenth Century closed and the Eighteenth advanced many years without any remarkable event disturbing these workers, living their contented lives, with plenty of work to occupy them and much beauty to behold in the great woods, hills and rivers, on which floated majestic swans in great numbers, fish abounded in the waters, and birds of the air, now no longer known to this region, often passed overhead in flocks of thousands and tens of thousands during migrating seasons.

As time progressed and English subjects were occupying their plantations and smaller tracts in the new world, the French were broadening their claims until finally encroachments on their part caused Britain 's children to become alert and question their safety if encroachment continued unmolested. So, as preparation against possible invasion, ammunition and other army supplies were sent to Virginia, which colony then occupied large territory in the West.

The English governor, Robert Dinwiddie, a Scotchman, was ordered in 1753 to write a protest to the French Commandant, which done, the Governor looked about for a trustworthy messenger to carry the message. A young man then only twenty-one years of age, George Washington, who had already served his country in several useful capacities, was selected for the important duty, and history tells of his successful trip througK almost insurmountable difficulties.

Chevalier de St. Pierre received the young envoy with courtesy, but his reply to the English protest was a refusal to comply with the request, which unwelcome answer Washington was compelled to carry back through the winter woods, a trip through which in those early days, was almost Herculean. It is recorded that an Indian guide attempted to shoot Washington during this return trip and that his life was also endangered by a fall into the Alleghany River, at that time filled with floating ice.

It is known how, after this failure to bring about amicable relations, the English, in 1754, sent the ill-fated expedition under General Braddock against the French, which was the beginning of hostilities that ended only after years of fighting, in English victory. This long French and English war is matter of history, mentioned here only to bring forward George Washington, who then played a conspicuous part and was later to take such active part in the history of his country.

Governor Dinwiddie's choice shows the esteem in which the young Washington was held at twenty-one, and this respect of his elders began at a much earlier age. During his early years George Washington was learning to be a surveyor, gaining rough and valuable experience in Virginia wilds with Indians and other woods inhabitants. At sixteen Lord Fairfax engaged him to survey his lands of thousands of acres and the lad proved himself capable of such a performance. The government surveyors engaged in laying out the Appalachian forest reserve have recently reported finding the marks left by Washington in running the lines of Lord Fairfax's lands.

These early incidents of Washington's life had an important if indirect bearing upon the subsequent establishment of the National Capital. As will be noted later, one of the important considerations which determined the selection of the present site was its accessibility to the country west of the Allegheny Mountains by way of the Potomac River, the Cumberland Pass, and the headwaters of the Ohio River. It was this route which Washington traversed in the occasion of his mission to the French and again in company with the Braddock expedition. After the close of the Revolution he again, in 1784, journeyed across the mountains by the same route. His familiarity with the importance of the Western Territory* and of the advantages of the Potomac route which he acquired on thes^ trips was doubtless an important factor among the influences which brought Congress to adopt the site on the Potomac for the Federal City.