Evening star. [volume], September 08, 1946, Page C-2, Image 35

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
A view of Alexandria's water front in 1834, when this city was a part of the District of Columbia.
•—From »n Old Print.
Retrocession of Alexandria County
HE retrocession of Alexandria
which includes today all of
Arlington County, the greater part
of the present independent city of
Alexandria and Falls Church, 100
years ago yesterday, is an epochal
event in connection with the life of
the Nation's Capital.
The act of CongresST providing for
* site for "establishing the tempo
rary and permanent seat of the
Government of the United States,”
which was not to exceed 10 miles
square, to be located on the River
Potomac, "some place between the
mouths of the Eastern Branch and
the Connogocheague,” was approved
July 16, 1790. But this, of course,
did not include any part of Virginia,,
which, it would seem, was contrary
to President Washington's desire.
And so, on January 24, 1791, we find
the President writing to Congress:
County, District of Colum
bia, to Virginia, a territory
"Gentlemen: In execution of the
powers w'ith which Congress were
pleased to invest me by their act
entitled, ‘An act for establishing
the temporary and permanent seat
of the Government of the United
States’ * * * I have not by this
first act given to the said territory
the whole extent of which it is
susceptible in the direction of the
river; because I thought it impor
tant that Congress should have an
opportunity of considering whether
by an amendatory law they would
authorize the location of the residue
at the lower end of the present lo
cation so as to comprehend the
Eastern Branch itself and some of
the country on its lower side in the
State of Maryland, and the town of
Alexandria in Virginia; if, however,
they should think that the Federal
territory should be bounded by the
water edge of the Eastern Branch,
the location of the residue will be
made at the upper end of what is
now directed. * • •”
The result of the President's
request was the passage by Con
gress of an amendatory act, ap
proved March 3, 1791, repealing so
much of the original Residence Act
"as requires that the whole of the
district or territory, not exceeding
10 miles square shall be located
above the mouth of the Eastern
Branch,” and making it lawful "for
the President to make any part of
the territory below the said limit,
and above the mouth of Hunting
Creek, a part of the said district, so
as to include a convenient part of
the Eastern Branch, and of the
lands on the lower side thereof,
and also the town of Alexandria.”
Virginia Passes Act
Ceding Territory
The Amendatory Apt of March
3. 1791, paved tne way lor the in
clusion of what was then Alexandria,
and what is now Arlington County.
Virginia, anxious to have the Cap
ital located within its own boun
daries. and in anticipation of this,
had already, by its General Assem
bly. passed the act of December 3,
1789, for the cession of 10 miles
square or any lesser quantity of
territory for the permanent seat of
the General Government, and an
earlier and more liberal tender was
made June 28, 1783.
Naturally, President Washington
was desirous to have Alexandria
made a part of the new Capital City,
to which he was more than a neigh
bor or visitor, and in many respects
he was actually a fellow-townsman.
So closely was he tied up with
the place that his recollections could
well have included the village of
Belhaven, founded some time be
tween 1732 and 1746, and which
superseded the earlier settlement
of Hunting Creek Warehouse.
The <irst President’s personal
contact with Alexandria began at an
early date, when he made frequent
horseback trips to this busy settle
ment, then one of the principal
tobacco ports in the Colonies.
Washington’s Ties
With Old Alexandria
Washington's activities in this old
Virginia city were many-sided. It
was from here, in 1754, that he set
out to cross the wilderness to de
liver Gov. Dinwiddie’s message to
the French commander at Fort Du
quesne, and it was here, in the
Market House Square, that he
marched at the head of 150 soldiers
on dress parade, when he was but
22. Soon afterward these same men
turned their faces toward the Ohio
River, and after meeting the French
in battle, capitulated at Fort Neces
sity, on the date of the month that
was later to be celebrated as Amer
ica’s Independence Day.
However, Washington was not to
be outdone when he had authority
for extending the District lines into
Virginia, and that he moved quickly
is evident from the fact that in
about two weeks from the time the
agreement had been reached with
landowners, the ceremonies con
nected with the placing of the initial
stone occurred. The Commissioners
apparently were in so big a hurry
In officially laying down the four
cornerstones of the District that
• temporary stone was used at Jones
}
By John Clagett Proctor
Point, and it was not until June,
three years later, that the perma
nent stone was put in position.
The exercises connected with lay
ing the cornerstone were conducted
[ under the auspices of the Lodge No.
22, A. F. & A. M. of Alexandria,
chartered under the grand juris
diction of Virginia, April 28, 1788,
and of which Gen. Washington be
came the first worshipful master.
This lodge is now known as Alex
andria-Washington Lodge, No. 22,
and thousands of tourists annually
visit its lodgeroom to see the
Masonic relics connected with the
life of the first President.
There is not an abundance of
I dria County to Virginia, at the time
1 there seems to have been much merit
i in the request, but looking at it to
|day, the Congress certainly acted
j very unwisely in parting with so
'valuable a territory. The first at
tempt of Alexandria County to sepa
rate from the District was made as
early as March, 1824. when the proj
ect was put to a vote and defeated
by its residents 404 to 286.
Again in 1846, a more successful
effort was made of what Wilhelmus
Bogart Bryan says:
“The same condition of financial
and trade troubles in the case of
Alexandria, six years after the bank
episode, inspired largely the move
|t,ion was unproductive. The situa
tion was a desperate one. As Con
gress had already contributed to the
enterprise and there was no prospect
of help coming from that source,
the town turned to the Legislature
of Virginia. There it met a warm
welcome, and in a few days after
the receipt of the resolutions of the
Common Council of Alexandria ask
ing the consent of the Legislatures to
the return of Alexandria County to
the State, a bill to that effect be
came a law. Then Congress passed
Members of the Association of Oldest Inhabitants celebrating the 150th anni
versary of the laying of the cornerstone of the District of Columbia at Jones Point,
April 15, 1941. From this point was started “The Ten Miles Square
literature extant regarding the lay
ing of this stone, and the historians
have to rely considerably upon a
thoughtful writer who happened to
be present and contributed to a
Philadelphia paper a brief account,
a part of which follows:
“Alexandria, April 21, 1791.
“On Friday, the 15th instant, the
Hon. Daniel Carroll and Hon. David
Steuart arrived in this town to
superintend the fixing of the first
cornerstone of the Federal District.
“The Mayor and commonalty, to
gether with the members of the
different lodges of the town, at 3
o'clock, waited on the commissioners
at Mr. Wise’s, where they dined,
and. after drinking a glass of wine
to the following sentiment, viz:
" May the stone which we are
about to place in the ground remain
an immovable monument of the wis
dom and unanimity of North Amer
ica,’ the company proceeded to Jones
Point in the following order:
rirsi. me town sergeant.
“Second. Hon. Daniel Carroll ano
the Mayor.
“Third. Mr. Elliott and the re
corder.
"Fourth. Such of the Common
Council and aldermen as were not
Freemasons.
"Fifth. Strangers.
“Sixth. The master of Lodge No.
22, with Dr. David Steuart on his
right and the Rev. James Muir on
his left, followed by the rest of the
fraternity, in their usual form of
procession.
“Lastly. The citizens, two by two.
Slone Is Placed
With Much Oratory
“When Mr. Elliott had ascertained
the precise point from which the
first line of the District was to pro
ceed, the master of the lodge and
Dr. Steuart, assisted by others of
their brethren, placed the stone.
After w'hich a deposit of corn, wine
and oil was placed upon it and the
following observations were made by
the Rev. James Muir:
“ Of America it may be said, as of
Judea of old, that it is a good land
and large—a land of brooks, of
waters, of fountains and depths that
spring out of the valleys and hills—
a land of wheat, and barley, and
vines, and fig trees, and pomegran
ates—a land of oil, olives, and honey
—a land wherein we eat bread with
out scarceness, - and have lack of
nothing—a land whose stones are
iron, and out of whose hills thou
mayst dig brass—a land which the
Lord thy God careth for; the eyes
of the Lord thy God are always
upon it; from1 the beginning of the
year even unto the end of the year.
“ May Americans be grateful and
virtuous and they shall insure the
indulgence of Providence; may they
be unanimous and just, and they
shall rise to greatness; may true
patriotism actuate every heart; may
it be the devout and universal wish;
peace, be within thy walls, O Amer
ica, and prosperity within thy pal
aces. Amiable it is for brethren to
dwell together in unity; it is more
fragrant than the perfumes on
Aaron's garment; it is more refresh
ing than the dews on Hermon’s hill.’ ”
As to the retrocession of Alexan
r
mcnt which resulted in the restora
tion of the town and county of Alexl
andria to the State of Virginia. For
In order to secure the coal trade
from Cumberland, when the great
western canal was finished, the town
of Alexandria had burdened itself
with debt to build the Alexandria
Canal and the aqueduct. After 12
years of labor that costly and, for
that day, difficult engineering work
had been completed. Then, owing to
lack of money, the work on the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal stopped
while still short of the proposed
terminus at Cumberland, and the
money put into the Alexandria sec
a bill restoring Alexandria County
to the State of Virginia, and the
citizens by special rote gave their
consent and the thing was done.”
lo carry out the provisions of this
act, passed by Congress July 9, 1846,
President Polk appointed as com
missioners for this purpose Robert
Brackett, George Washington Parke
Custis, G. W. D. Ramsay, George1
W. Smoot and James Roach, who
caused polls to be opened in Alex
andria County September 1 and 2,
1846, from 10 a m. to 6 p.m., when
all free white male citizens of the
"tSee ALEXANDRIA, Pag^CXiT
An Eye for an Eye,
A Tooth for a Tooth
In Ireland
WE ARE BESIEGED
By Barbara Fitzgerald. (G. P.
Putnam s Sons; $2.75.)
Reviewed bv
JAMES K. BOYLAND
°resident, American Keltic Institute,
and Member of the Staff of the
Library of Congress
Barbara Fitzgerald's recent novel,!
"We Are Besieged,” is the story of
an Anglo-Irish family, who lived in
Ireland during the troubled period
following the 1916 rebellion. The
story is written in a very graphic
and interesting manner, giving an
accurate account of the historical
events introduced in the course of
the narrative.
The earliest recollection of the
heroine, Caroline Adair, is the burn
ing down of her uncle's home by the
Sinn Feiners. This occurred at the
time when the Black and Tan were
having an eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth. The terrible con
flict raging throughout the country
was mirrored in the individual fam
ily household, w’here mother was
against daughter and brother against
sister.
We witness the tragic hate and
suspicion tha't wrecked the maimed
life of Caroline's own father and
mother. Her elder sister was driven
frantically to seek relief in a love
less marriage, which in turn resulted
in the death of her real lover. Caro
line herself triumphs in the end. but
only after a long and bitter struggle.
We cannot but admire the frank
ness with which the author takes
for granted, and admits the real
cause of so much strife, bitterness
and heartache, namely, religious
bigotry. She tries very hard to be
impartial, and docs not spare either
side. She traces step by step the
relentless struggle of Carolines
mother against everything and
everybody that savored of Sinn
Fein or Roman Catholicism. Other:
characters throughout the story
just as candidly portray the same
stupid intolerance and hate toward
everything Protestant.
“We Are Besieged" will have ac
complished a noble task, if preju
diced readers on both sides will take
to heart the message clearly and
fearlessly given by the author. They
will see how inane and stupid they
really become when they allowr re
ligious fanaticism to dominate their
lives.
French Follies and Other Follies,
by Francis Steegmuller. (Reynal &
Hitchcock.) A collection of sketches
hitherto published in the New
Yorker.
Seeing Things, by John Mason
Brown. (Whittlesey House.) A col
lection of Mr. Brown's Saturday Re
view columns.
Among the
Authors
By Carolyn Coggins
Samuel Putnam has done an Eng
lish translation of a book regarded
as one of the major works of 20th
century scholarship, a classic in
the field of social anthropology.
It was first published in Brazil 13
years ago as "Casa-Grande and
Senzala." written by Gilberto Freyre.
When it appears here shortly in
English it will be called "The Mas
ters and the Slaves." It’s a story
of racial admixture and the cultural
possibilities of the interbreeding of
Portuguese, Indians and the Negro
as illustrated in Brazilian life.
★ * * *
The story of the United Fruit
Co. will be told in a book com
ing early next year, to be called
"Empire in Green and Gold."
Charles Morrow Wilson, who has
written it, also authored "Ambassa
dors in White,” a story about Amer
ican tropical medicine published
four years ago. It was considered
an important vehicle in improving
inter-American relations and the
book has been widely read in South
America.
Brief Reviews
MYSTERIES.
Dead to Rights, by Dennis Allan.
(Mill.) Complicated doings center
around an old house on Gramercy
Square. Average.
Fear No More, by Leslie Edgley.
(Simon & Schuster.) Beautiful
young secretary gets framed for
murder. Lively.
The Case of Caroline Animus, by
Dana Chambers. (Dial.) One of
those things where a brilliant de
tective (Jim Steele* solves a 20
year-old crime.
The Murder of the U. S. A., by
Will F. Jenkins. (Crown.) Probably
a forerunner of a whole series on
the coming atomic war—the popu
lation of the United States is largely
killed off within 40 minutes by an
unknown aggressor.
Oh, Murderer Mine! by Norbert
Davis. (Handi-Book.) Murder on
the campus of a California univer
sity.
SPORTS.
Target Archery, by Robert P
Elmer. (Knopf.) A history and a
very comprehensive text on the
subject. Illustrated.
POLITICS.
After Hitler Stalin? by Robert
Ingrim. (Bruce.) A survey of con
ditions designed to demonstrate
that Stalin proposes to carry on
the Nazi threat though under an
other name.
Truman Speaks, edited by Cyril
Clemens. (Mark Twain Society.)
The principal speeches and ad
dresses of the President.
/ 7XOSE PRODUCTION \
LINES ACL PUTTING ON ]
THE BEST PARADE Of J
THIS MEMORIAL DAY. \ I
^--^DONALD! ) J
Cartoon by Jim Berryman, typical of the series of cartoons
by the two Berryman’s, father and son, of The Evening Star,
ivhich were selected to illustrate Donald Nelson's book, “Arsenal
of Democracy."
Again Proving That Salem Has a Place
Of Permanence in American Literature
THE SALEM FRIGATE
Bp John Jennings. <Doubleday & Co.; $3.)
Reviewed by NELSON R. BURR
Library o) Congress Staff
Here is Salem in the bold days
between the war of '98 with France
and the War of 1812. Not the
Salem of Hawthorne, when steam
was displacing
sail and the
wine of life was
settling on the
lees, but some
thing much lus
tier.
Salem builds
the frigate Es
sex. Tom Tis
dall ships on her
as a surgeon.
His rival in love,
Ben P ric e—;
rather diabolic
character Haw
thorne might
have conceived
John Jennings.
—has worked on her as a master
carpenter, and nailed his heart to
her keel. He marries Patience
Nowell, loved by Tisdall, who mar
ries Selina Hackett, the high-strung
heiress of a rich merchant, and
finds that she already has had an
affair with Ben.
On the Essex the two men live
higji adventure, while the odd quad
rangle gradually collapses. The
weaker sides go—Selina probably by
suicide after Tom leaves her for
the sea, and Ben in battle. Tom
comes back from sea—to Patience.
These lovers are not deeply ana
lized, and one keeps wondering how
Hawthorne would have dissected
these independent people in the
liberal Salem of Unitarian Dr.
Bentley rather than the Puritan
town of Arthur Dimmesdale.
Like Hawthorne and Hergesheimer
before him, Mr. Jennings proves
that Salem is a permanent part
of American literature. It was a
place where people dared to think
and act for themselves. Only such
places produce people worth writing
about, and this story does them
justice.
Mr. Jennings has done a lot of
solid historical research. His famous
naval officers really live; his sea
fights are real—the splinters sing
like hornets, and the resulting sur
gery is howling and gory.
His work ought to satisfy ar.d
hold the growing host of readers
who turn to the historical novel
as the surest way of understanding
old America.
A Century of the Sewing Machine
Troubles of the united
States Patent Office in the
shifting of units from Rich
mond to Washington brings
to memory the agency's first major
headache a century ago.
On September 10, 1846, a patent
was issued to Elias Howe, jr., on
the “first machine having eye
pointed needle and shuttle-making
lockstitch." Thereafter was set in
motion some 10 years of patent
litigation and the beginning of mil
lionaires in America.
Ask any school child who invented
the sewing machine and he will
prattle, “Elias Howe." Yet a perusal
of the biographies of the first of
these sewing machine men leaves
the question as to who was its in
ventor as open as is the question of
who invented the automobile.
The idea of a machine that would
use a needle and thread for the
purpose of sewing two or more
pieces of cloth together in the mat
ter of r human hand appears to
have been first thought out by an
By Jack Murphy
Englishman. Thomas Saint, who. as
far back o' 1790, was granted a
patent on a machine for sewing
leather, but so far as Is known.
Saint's idea was never put to prac
tical use.
Second figure to appear is the
sewing machine world was Barthe
lemy Thimmonier, a poor French
tailor, who became so absorbed with
the idea of a machine to sew the
seams of garments that he was re
garded as crazy. In 1830, after five
years of tinkering, he produced a
sewing machine which made the
chain stitch by means of a hooked
needle like a crochet needle, and
was granted a patent. In another
year he had 80 of his machines at
work on uniforms for the French
Army. Then one day a mob of
infuriated tailors, who looked on his
machine as dangerous competition,
smashed every machine they could
find and Thimmonier was forced to
flee for his life.
Those Were the Happy Days
—By Dick Mansfield
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Development of America's first
practical machine, that of Walter
Hunt in 1834, was laid aside for a
time for fear of taking the bread
out of seamstresses' mouths. Hunt,
a New York Quaker, noted for his
invention of the safety pin (so in
dispensable in the nursery), put to
gether a devise which contained
nearly all the essential parts of the
best modem machines. The inven
tion appears to have then dropped
out of sight until 15 years later
when, after the successful introduc
tion of the sewing machine and the
ensuing litigation for patent .profits,
esential parts of the Hunt machines
was found among the rubbish in a
Gold street, New York, garret.
Tq Elias Howe, jr., who is char
acterized by Erederick L. Lewton,
curator. Division of Textiles, United
States National Museum, in his "A
Brief History of the Sewing Ma
chine,” as a man "not very profi
cient in his trade of machinist and
not inclined to put forth much ex
ertion” came honors and millions.
Essential facts in the Howe his
tory are fairly well known. Poor,
as were most inventors, his life fol
lowed the New England pattern of
from farm to mill. In July, 1845, he
completed a model machine on
which he sewed all the seams on
two suits of wool clothes. This pio
neer of the millions of sewing ma
chines made since that date, after
crossing the ocean many times and
having been used as an irrefutable j
witness in many courts, can now be
seen in the Smithsonian Institu
tion here.
Howe’s Sewing Machine
At the Smithsonian
Howe’s machine, which Is often
described as a device which uses a
lockstitch and an eye-pointed nee-1
die, the second which he built, was
granted United States patent No.
4750 in September, 1946. It, too, is
in the Smithsonian.
Isaac Merrit Singer of Boston was j
the first to build a successfully op
erating and practical machine. j
When, in 1851, the news came that1
Singer had invented a machine that;
would continuously sew, Howe ap- '
peared at the Singer door with the |
demand that the latter pay $25,000
for infringement of the Howe pat
ent. Singer, who had started his j
business with $40, declined, and a
long chain of litigation began.
In the judication, Singer justified '
his right to make the machines on i
the claims of Walter Hunt, who also
had used an eye-pointed needle and |
a shuttle to force a lockstitch. But
Hunt had failed to apply for a pat
ent, the courts decided his machine
was never completed in the sense
of the patent law and did not antici
pate the patent granted to Howe.
Inventors Involved
In Patent Litigation
Ablest among the early inventors
in the field of mechanical sewing
was Allen B. Wilson of Adrian,
Mich. Far removed from any con
tacts with the New England invent
ors, without having seen a sewing
machine or without any knowledge
of Howe’s work, he completed a
practical machine in 1849. Instead
of using a shuttle pointed at one
end and moving back and forth in
a straight line, he made a shuttle
pointed at both ends which moved
in a curved path, forming a stitch
at each forward and backward
stroke.
Wilson won his second patent in
August, 1851, and Introduced the,
A
a
| rotary hook, an Ingenious substitui
for the shuttle. His third patent, th*
stationary circular disk bobbin, came
the next year and in 1854 he patent
ed the universally used 4-motion
feed. By this time the Wheeler. Wil
son & Co. factory was turning out
many machines and became involved
in the series of cross patent suits in
which all the major inventors were
engaged.
A Virginian, James Edward Allen
Gibbs, also contributed to mechan
ical sewing. While on a visit to his
father in Hookbridge County, Va.,
he happened into a tailor’s shop
where there was a Singer machine
working on the shuttle principle. Im
pressed with the ability of the ma
chine, he, however, thought it too
heavy, complicated and cumbersome
and that the price was exorbitant.
Also a poor man, he worked odd
hours and developed the first prac
tical single chain-stitch sewer. He
took his machine to Philadelphia
and interested James Willcox, a
model builder, in it. After some mi
nor patents were taken out Gibbs
received the most important one in
June. 1857. This association with
Willcox led to the formation of the
Willcox & Gibbs Sewing Machine
Co., which also played its part in the '
patent litigation struggle.
The story is not complete without
the name of William O. Grover, a
Boston tailor, who devised a double
locked chain-stitch machine and was
granted a patent in February, 1851.
A company was formed and there
after reorganized under the name
of Grover & Baker Sewing Machine
Co., the principals being, beside
Grover, William E. Baker, another
tailor; Jacob Weatherill, mechanic,
and Orlando B. Potter, lawyer. This
company built in Boston a most
complete factory for the production
of machines.
Sewing Machine Trust
Was First One Formed
Potter, through his ability as an
attorney, secured one-third of the
company without investment at the
start and became its president. He
was the promoter of the first trust
of any prominence formed anywhere.
It became known as the '‘combina
tion."
The celebrated suit between Howe
and I. M. Singer & Co. was decided
by Judge Sprague of Massachusetts
in 1854, eight years after the Issu
ance of the patent to Howe. Verdict
soon followed against the Wheeler
Wilson Co., Graver & Baker Co. and
other infringers of Howe's patent.
Howe, thus in absolute control of
the sewing machine business, de
manded and received $25 royalty for
every machine sold. But the battle
in the courts was far from over. As
each manufacturer improved his
machine, he was charged with in
fringement by others and costly liti
gation cut heavily into profits.
Finally Attorney Potter persuaded
the various interests to pool all the
patents covering the essential fea
tures, which would enable them to
control the industry, instead of con
tinually fighting and trying to de
vour one another, and the long bat
tle in which Patent Office employes
played no small part, came to an
end.
Some idea of the scope of the
‘‘combination" may be seen in the
estimate that Howe received not less
than $2,000,000 in the form of roy
alties before his patent licenses ex
pired. Singer’s estate, on his death,
was estimated at $13,000,000.
i