555ed

AT CUMBERLAND, MARYLAND

We have but little more to add to the pages which have gone before. Of this last phase of Mr. Cary's life, only one contribution from his pen has come down to the present writer. This is a printed copy of his lecture delivered in the Lutheran Church of Cumberland, February 27, 1849 and printed that year at the office of his paper, the Civilia
In this address, Mr. Cary reviews the stirring events of the recent revolution in Europe, which emptied or shook thrones right and left and marked the end of the old order. He remarks:
"The spirit of liberalism was awakened throughout Europe. Men roused themselves from the lethargy of political servitude.... Subjects, hitherto forbidden, became the fruitful themes for investigation and harangue. The press, too, long muzzled, began once more to illuminate the popular mind.... It was evident that the masses were beginning to understand their rights, and to compre- hend the sources of their wrongs.... We have witnessed the agonies of great nations, and seen governments over- thrown which bid fair to endure for ages. We have seen all the evil passions of man let loose upon the world to stalk abroad reckless of restraint, human or divine. We have listened to the promulgation of doctrines, which, if carried into effect, would overthrow the settled order of things throughout the world. We have watched the struggles of the oppressed against their oppressor.... We have watched with painful anxiety the progress of liberal principles, and seen them at one time in the ascendant and
then crushed to earth.... A new order of political relations has sprung up."
"During the past year, the relative importance of our country has been greatly enhanced by the course of European events. Since the establishment of our government, it has been evident that we were destined to exercise a potent influence upon the future history of the world. Never until now has our country loomed up before the nations in all the magnitude of its true importance."
Next, describing our new West on the Pacific Ocean, and the proposed transcontinental railroads, the speaker concludes with a touch of prophecy:
"Then will our country become not only the central point of the civilization and refinement of the world, but in actual truth, the heart through which will circulate the lifeblood of nations."
In the great moments of history one seldom finds an ac count by a contemporary observer showing a more complete understanding both of the importance and the meaning of current events.
All the other papers left by Mr. Cary in Cumberland at the time of his death were destroyed--including a collection of his editorial writings for the Miners Journal and the Cumberland Civilian.
Fortunately we can fill this gap, in part at least, by a few notes on his last years published sixty years afterwards, by his daughter Constance, then Mrs. Burton Harrison, in her "Recollections Grave and Gay." Constance was eleven years of age at the time of her father's death.
She writes of him:
"My father, an old-line Whig of the enthusiastic type, yet had a great personal admiration for and loved to talk about his "Uncle Jefferson" the "Father of American Democracy." Certainly he induced all of us, and our children after us, to look with appreciation upon Jefferson's splendid originality of thought, and fearless expression of opinion; still more upon the breadth of his interest in the whole
human field of intellectual endeavor, which made him a pharos in his time.'
She then continues:
"My father was at the time of his death just entering upon his fortieth year (a period traditionally dreaded by Cary men as likely to cut short their mortal span), living in the beautiful mountain town of Cumberland, in Maryland, where he was editor of its leading newspaper, The Cumberland Civilian. Bred in the practice of literary study, well equipped in history, a classic by descent from men educated at English universities and owners of the best libraries in the State, he was also an ardent Whig politician and has left printed pamphlets, speeches, and editorials without number, breathing the fiery spirit of his creed. One of my earliest recollections just before Christmas 1847 was being taken to a hotel in Cumberland to visit his idol, Henry Clay, then an aged man, who lifted me in his arms and kissed me, to my secret discomfiture as I thought him dreadfully old and ugly. A gentleman pres- ent remarked: "Little girl, you must never forget that you started in life with a kiss and a blessing from the immortal Henry Clay." "Of that interview I ought to have retained a silver pencil-case, which I promptly lost. "My father, very indulgent to his only girl, used to delight me with endless stories. Particularly did I relish those of the French-Indian campaign in that very neighborhood and of youngColonel
Washington's return from the disastrous venture, to Mount Vernon where our mother's grandfather, Col. William Fairfax of Belvoir, his son, George the Tory (Washington's old comrade in surveying),
and George's fascinating wife, Sally, our father's great-aunt, had hastened to console the young Achilles sulking in his tent, by kind notes and visits. "I loved all the gossip about the Mount Vernon and Belvoir families, and felt as if they still lived in my day. Then there were Indian massacres of the most exciting sort, the scenes of occurrence in the mountain fastnesses around us; and often was I bid to travel over sea and hear about the motherland and the people we sprang from there. But, affectionate to England, my father believed with all his heart in the ideal of our own republic and its institutions. He
used to describe how its borders would go on broadening till it compassed the whole mighty continent; and once pointed out to me suddenly, in the red glow of sunset, the splendid cleft in the Alleghanies through which a river and a railway ran, westward of the town. "That, my daughter, is the gateway for the future greatness of our land," he said, so impressively that I looked to see some actual titanic form with trailing garments sweep outward through the gorge.
"I did not enjoy that school, nor yet the lessons in Latin imposed upon me by my father, at the hands of the amiable and learned Rev. Hillhouse Buel, in his study at the rectory.
"The rule of our house was firm if loving. There was no weak yielding by either parent to our whims. Our pleasures were of a simple sort, long walks on the hills, flower- picking, skating in winter, and sledding over "jumps" on the steep snow-clad heights above our home; excursio
Flintstone, Frostburg, and the Mines, tea-parties with our little friends, and, at rare intervals, a show at some town-hall, into which we walked proudly with free tickets as children of the editor. I think we heard Mme. Anna Bishop sing. My brothers sled bore her name in crimson letters.
"A vivid memory of my father is of an occasion when, my busy mother going off for one of her rare holiday jaunts to Berkeley Springs, and leaving her children and their nurse in his care, I awoke in the night crying for her and would not be consoled. No one heard me, no one answered, and I sprang out of bed and ran barefooted down the stairs. There, in the little study where he was accustomed to sit half the night (in an arm-chair I still possess) and make clippings from exchange journals for The Civilian I beheld the editor buried in reading, snowed in with news-papers. At my timid note of alarm, he looked up, frowned a little, then smiled tenderly, and bounding up the steps, caught me in his arms, pressed me to his breast, carried me down to his den, and after a brief delicious time of cosset- ing and soothing, carried me back to bed, and stayed by me, tender as any mother, till I slept.
"With his death, our Cumberland home was broken up forever."
He died, as did his son Falkland a few years after him, of typhoid fever. This plague, due to lack of sanitation and polluted food and water, was epidemic in America until the turn of the present century.
As he died, a young man in Kentucky with longish hair and yet longer knee-boots was getting ready to set forth for Yale College, and in later life was to marry Archibald Cary's daughter. The two men never me
As Mr. Cary's grandchildren grew up in New York, they knew almost nothing of the man who had died so long ago. His name, it is true, was given to his daughter's youngest son, but when that youngster, in turn reached man's estate, he dropped the "Cary' from his signature. The only personal touch of this grandfather which survived was his arm chair, in which the present writer best remembers his own father seated after breakfast every morning, reading the New York Sun. New York, from the age of President Grant to that of President McKinley was chiefly devoted to thoughts of making money, and at that hazardous pastime Archibald Cary, in his time, had never been a success. Indeed, except for the necessity of providing for his growing family and for his yearning to buy more books, lack of money seems to have caused him little concern.
This account of his life and character shall end with a leaf from the diary of his elder sister Jane:
"Two years and a half had elapsed since our mother's death, when tidings came of the illness of Archibald our youngest brother, he had been seriously ill from the first, three weeks had elapsed with increasing suffering and danger, and now the letter said there was but little hope, the disease was dysentery, the weather very unfavorable being the hottest and most trying part of our summer, the
first weeks of Sep. The day after, just at twilight came a telegram from Alexandria, "A. Cary died Sep. 20th." This was sudden indeed. He was cut off in the prime of life, being only thirty-seven. [nine] His talents were of a high order, his scholarship considerable, while in knowl- edge of belles lettres, and varied powers as a writer and converser, few could be found to surpass him. At the University of Va. where he graduated with the highest honors, he was one of the first in deportment as well as scholar- ship. He practiced law for some years, and subsequently edited a paper in Cumberland, Md. In society, of which he was very fond, he shone. His reading was, as I have said, almost universal, his appreciation, his sympathy were infectious. Where he appeared in a genial circle, the hours went by unheeded. He was the first called of our house-hold band. My youngest brother! While I make this brief record, with a heart brimful of memories of home, of your boyhood, the high hopes of your youth, the many disappointments of your manhood, your untimely death, bitter and unavailing grief checks the current of my thoughts, and I lay down the pen unable longer to pursue a subject so fraught with sadness.
J.C.S."
Through the misty years of nearly a century which has passed since Archibald Cary lived, moved and had his being, his grandson has followed with growing sympathy and understanding this figure of a past age. The fragmentary records of his career have brought him close to one, at least, of his descendants. When the present writer's own time comes to join the ever-growing family circle at Ivy Hill Cemetery, near Alexandria, he takes vast comfort in the knowledge that he will lie forever close to this Virginia gentleman.
To those others of his descendants who have the patience to read these pages, may the memory of Archibald Cary of Carysbrook always
"Smell sweet and blossom in the silent dust."
----------------------------------------------
Virginia's Decendants
Family of Constance Fairfax Cary
CONSTANCE FAIRFAX3 CARY (ARCHIBALD2, WILSON JEFFERSON1)1 was born April 25, 1846 in Fairfax County, Virginia2, and died November 21, 19203. She married BURTON NORVELL HARRISON November 26, 18674. He was born July 14, 1838 in New Orleans, Louisiana4,5, and died March 29, 1904 in 1712 N Street, Washington, D C6,7.

More About CONSTANCE FAIRFAX CARY:
Fact 1: Arranged the poem of 'My Maryland' to the music of a German air7
Occupation: Author8

More About BURTON NORVELL HARRISON:
Burial: 1904, Ivy Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia9
Graduation: 1859, Yale University10
Occupation: Professor of mathematics and astronomy at University of Missouri; Attorney; Secretary to Mayor Wickham of New York; Private secretary to President Jefferson Davis11,12

Children of CONSTANCE CARY and BURTON HARRISON are:
i. FAIRFAX4 HARRISON13, b. March 13, 1869, New York City, New York14,15; d. Unknown; m. HETTY CARR CARY16,17, June 06, 189417,18; b. August 06, 1871, Baltimore County, Maryland19,20; d. Unknown.

More About FAIRFAX HARRISON:
Education: Yale University: Columbia University20
Occupation: Attorney; President of the Southern Railway Company20
Residence: Washington, D C; "Belvoir," Fauquier County, Virginia21,22

ii. FRANCIS BURTON HARRISON, SR22, b. December 18, 1873, New York, New York23,24,25; d. Unknown; m. (1) MABEL JUDSON26; d. Unknown; m. (2) DORIA LEE27; b. , London, England27; d. Unknown; m. (3) MARY CROCKER28, June 07, 190029; b. , San Francisco, California29; d. November 25, 1905, Long Island, New York30.

More About FRANCIS BURTON HARRISON, SR:
Graduation: Yale University, 1895; New York Law School, 1897; University of Philippines31,32
Military service: Served in the Spanish-American War33
Occupation: Attorney; vice president of the McVickar Realty Company34
Public Office: Governor General of the Philippine Islands; Represented the 13th district of New York in congress34,35
Residence: New York City, New York; Baguio, Philippine Islands35,36

Notes for MARY CROCKER:

"KILLED UNDER AUTO. NEW YORK, November 25th, 1905.---Mrs Francis Burton Harrison,
wife of former Congressman Francis Burton Harrison, of New York, was killed to-day
by the overturning of an automobile, in which she was riding with a party of friends
from San Francisco. The car was running down a steep hill in Long Island City, when
a break in the steering gear caused the accident.
Mr and Mrs Laurence I Scott, of San Francisco, and Charles T Crocker, also of San
Francisco, a Yale student and brother of Mrs Harrison, were injured. Mr Scott suffered
a fractured rib and is in a serious condition. His wife was shocked senseless, but
later revived. Mr Crocker was bruised and the chauffeur slightly hurt. Mrs. Harrison's
neck was broken.
Mrs Harrison was Miss Mary Crocker, daughter of the late C F Crocker, of San Francisco.
She was one of the three children who divided a fortune of $12,000,000 and $15,000,000
left by her father.
To-day's automobile ride was part of Mrs Harrison's program in entertaining Mr and Mrs
Scott, who were intimate friends of the Crocker family, and who came here recently on a
visit. The party was riding from New York to Hempstead Colony, Long Island, and it was
about noon when the accident occurred.
LAUGHTER TURNED TO GRIEF Mrs Scott told the details of how the merry party
in the midst of laughter from Mrs Harrison were without warning hurled sharply from the
road and thrown into a ditch, two of them rendered unconscious and pinned under the
heavy machine. The automobile had just started down what is known as Thompson's Hill.
This place is a favorite speedway for automobiles.
As the car began to glide swiftly down, Mr Scott and Mr Crocker were examining a road
map, while Mrs Harrison and Mrs Scott were talking together and laughing. The chauffeur,
Mrs Scott said afterward, turned about in his seat and remarked that something was wrong
with the steering gear.
PLUNGED INTO A DITCH The next instant the machine swerved sharply. The chauffer's
frantic efforts to guide it back into the road were fruitless and the car plunged toward a ditch
at the side of the road, with a telegraph pole looming directly in its course. It struck the pole a
glancing blow and then toppled into the ditch.
Mrs Harrison was thrown under the machine, her head being pinned down by the heavy
vehicle. She was unconscious, and it was afterwards found that her neck had been broken.
Beside her, also pinned down by the car, was her brother, but he was not severely
injured and was able to free himself from the car.
The other three--Mrs. Scott, Mr Scott and the chauffeur--had been thrown clear of the
machine. Mrs Scott was hurled across the ditch, although still conscious, was unable to
move for some time. The chauffeur also, like the other members of the party, was
stunned.
No one was near the point when the accident occurred, the road being almost deserted at
the time.
The first persons to realize the terrible situation were Mr Crocker and the chauffeur,
who tried to free Mrs Harrison and found that they could not lift the machine. Mr Scott,
with a broken rib, also joined them, but still the machine pressed upon the unconscious
woman. Mrs. Scott had by this time been restored to her senses, and it was decided
to send for help.
DIES ON THE WAY TO HOSPITAL Assistance, however, was already at hand, two farm
hands having seen the accident and run across the fields. Another automobile came along
about the same time, and the men were able to raise the machine. Mrs Harrison was dying
when her friends lifted her up. She was hurried to St John's Hospital in Long Island City; but
she expired before reaching the institution. Later an ambulance was sent for Mr and Mrs
Scott, who after treatment at the same hospital were able to return to New York in a carriage.
Mr Harrison was at his office in New York when first informed of the accident, and was
told that his wife was seriously injured. He did not know of her death until he called
at St John's Hospital.
Mr and Mrs Harrison were married in 1900. At the last gubernatorial election in New York
Mr Harrison was candidate for the office of Lieutenant-Governor.
Mr and Mrs Scott had been staying at the Arlington Hotel. Mr Crocker left New Haven
yesterday to come to New York for the automobile party.
Constant Ravert is the name of the chauffeur. To-night it was reported that his shoulder
had been dislocated.
Mrs Harrison's body will be sent to San Francisco and placed in the Crocker vault.
Former Congressman Harrison was grief sticken to-night, remaining at the hospital with
the body of his wife.
CAUSE OF THE ACCIDENT In explanation of the cause of the accident, it is said
that the chauffeur threw off the clutch and allowed the automobile to run under its own
momentum, which carried it along very rapidly. In some manner the thrumbscrew worked
loose on the steering-gear handle, releasing a knuckle joint which allowed the driver to
control the gear underneath the machine with the wheel. As soon as the steering gear was
released from the wheel grip the front wheels swerved around. Then the car turned over.
This is the second accident in which Crocker has been hurt. Several years ago, while
speeding an automobile in California, he collided with a bridge support and was taken out
of the wreck with both legs fractured.
Mrs Harrison was regarded as one of the best automobilists among women of her set.
Frequently she drove her brother's 40-horsepower car at high speed, acting as her own
chauffeur."
[Du Bellet, Louise Pecquet, Some Prominent Virginia Families, Volume II, J P Bell Company Publishers, Lynchburg, Virginia, 1907, 96-98.]

More About MARY CROCKER:
Burial: 1905, Crocker vault, San Francisco, California37
Cause of Death: Broken neck received in an automobile accident37

iii. ARCHIBALD CARY HARRISON, b. October 21, 187638; d. Unknown; m. HELEN BATES WALLEY38; d. Unknown.

More About ARCHIBALD CARY HARRISON:
Residence: New York39