CEMETERIES

the most prominent inhabitants of the place, belonging to different denominations of Christians in the eastern part of the city.  These projectors of this celebrated repository for the dead, in a most commendable spirit, placed the prices of the lots so low that individuals in humble circumstances could avail themselves of equal advantages with their more prosperous neighbors.  It was agreed by the association that as soon as they should be reimbursed for the money expended in the purchase of the ground and in its improvement the entire property should be placed under the direction of the Protestant Episcopal church, and vestry of which was an incorporated body.
     Among the original signers to the subscription paper were Henry Ingle, George Blagden, Griffith Coombs, S. N. Smallwood, Dr. Frederick May, Peter Miller, John T. Frost, and Commodore Thomas Tingey.  It is believed that the first interment was that of Hon. Uriah Tracey, a member of the United States Congress from Connecticut.  The site, as described in 1841, was four hundred and seventy-eight feet by four hundred and thirteen feet, with a gentle slope toward the south.  The ranges of lots are designated north and south by letters, and east and west by numbers.  One of the most conspicuous monuments in this cemetery is that to the Hon. George Clinton, a pyramid of freestone about twelve feet high and reared on a broad base.  One side presents a bold relief profile likeness, cut in marble, beneath which appears the following inscription:

     "To the Memory of George Clinton.  He was born in the State of New York on the 26th of July, 1739, and died at the city of Washington, 20th of April, 1811, in the seventy-third year of his age.  He was a soldier and statesman of the Revolution, eminent in counsel, distinguished in war.  He filled with unexampled usefulness, purity, and ability, among many other high offices, those of governor of his native State, and of Vice-President of the United States.  While he lived, his virtue, wisdom, and valor were the pride, the ornament, and the security of his country; and when he died, he left an illustrious example of a well-spent life, worthy of all imitation. 
     "This monument is affectionately dedicated by his children."
     There is also a splendid pyramidal monument erected to the memory of Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, Vice-President of the United States at the time of his death.  He died suddenly on his way to the Capitol to preside in the Senate, Nov. 23, 1814, at the age of seventy years, thus fulfilling his own injunction, "It is the duty of every citizen, though he have but one day to live, to devote that day to the service of his country."

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     There is also a monument to the memory of Major-General Jacob Brown, who died in 1828, at the age of fifty-three years.  In 1839 it was under the care of Christ Episcopal Church.  A general receiving vault stands on one of the main avenues, erected by Congress for those for whom no graves had been prepared.  It is of freestone, has an iron door, and is surrounded by a neat iron paling which encloses an area devoted to trees and shrubs.  The rule with reference to this vault is that bodies may remain therein for two months, when they must be removed and interred.  In early days, however, this rule was not rigidly enforced, as the remains of the author of the "British Spy" were permitted to remain in the vault ten months.  To him his friends and the members of the bar had promised to erect a suitable monument, provided his burial was permitted in the cemetery; but the pledge was not redeemed, and the remains of the illustrious Wirt were, after a long delay, at length thrown into an obscure grave to molder with the common and undistinguished dead.  William Pinkney, of Maryland, the most eminent orator of his age, also lies buried here.
     Besides the above-named distinguished dead, many others buried in this cemetery, to present a complete list of whom is manifestly impracticable.  The cemetery is well worth a visit from the stranger.

     OAK HILL CEMETERY is located on the heights of Georgetown and bordering on Rock Creek.  It was previously known as "Parrott's Woods."  It owes its origin to W. W. Corcoran, who purchased fifteen acres of land of Lewis Washington, and when the charter for Oak Hill Cemetery Company was obtained from Congress, Mar. 3, 1849, he conveyed this land to the company for the purposes of a cemetery.  The size of the cemetery has since been increased, until now it contains nearly forty acres.  The incorporators were Lorenzo Thomas, John Marbury, Edward M. Linthicum, and George Poe.
     There have been buried in this cemetery a great many distinguished personages.  One of these was Edwin M. Stanton, the great War Secretary of President Lincoln.  To his memory there has been erected a gray granite monument about twenty feet high, tapering from base to top like a slender pyramid.  It bears the inscription: "Edwin M. Stanton. Born December 19, 1814.  Died December 24, 1869."
     There is also a monument to General Jesse Lee Reno, who was killed at the battle of South Mountain, Sept. 14, 1862.  There is one to the memory of Hon. Samuel Hooper, a Representative in Congress from Massachusetts, who died Feb. 14, 1875, and also

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one to Alexander de Bisco Bodisco, Russian minister to the United States, who died Nov. 23, 1854.  Charles B. Fisk, chief engineer of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, is also remembered by a monument.  There are two mausoleums-one erected by W. W. Corcoran, the other being that of the Van Ness family, transferred from its former position on H Street.  This latter is said to be a copy of the Temple of Vesta.  Professor Joseph Henry has a monument in this cemetery.  He was born Dec. 17, 1797, and died Jan. 13, 1878.  This cemetery is also the last resting place of John Howard Payne, author of "Home, Sweet Home."  He was born June 9, 1791, and died at Tunis, Algiers, Apr. 9, 1852.  Others of more or less note lie within these sacred precincts, but further mention is forborne.
     ROCK CREEK CEMETERY lies immediately north of the Soldiers' Home.  It contains one hundred acres, upon which is also St. Paul's Church, Rock Creek Parish.  In colonial times the land was given to this parish to be held in perpetuity for church purposes.  A portion of the ground has long been used for burying purposes.  The cemetery was staked in in 1852, by the rector and vestry of Rock Creek Parish, ten or more acres being inclosed in a substantial manner.  It was then highly ornamented by nature, and regularly appropriated to the purposes above mentioned.  At that time Rev. David Kerr was rector, and the vestry consisted of John Agg, James M. Carlisle, William H. Dundas, Darius Clagett, George McCeney, Erasmus J. Middleton, C. H. Wiltberger, and Hezekiah Davis.  Since then, part of the "Glebe" as the whole piece of ground has long been known, was surveyed and laid out for cemetery purposes.   It is for the most part shaded by forest trees of great age, and being secure from the encroachments of the city, it is a favorite place for the sepulture of the dead.  At the present time, the cemetery committee is composed of Rev. James A. Buck, John Miller, and General Thomas I. Pitcher; the secretary and treasurer is J. B. Wiltberger, and the superintendent, M. L. Moudy.

     GLENWOOD CEMETERY is located on Lincoln Avenue, about half a mile from Florida Avenue, on high ground overlooking the city, and is about one and a half miles north of the Capitol building.  It contains about ninety acres of ground, and is laid out on the plan of Greenwood Cemetery, New York.  It was incorporated July 27, 1854, and dedicated by Rev. Dr. Butler, Aug. 1, 1854.  The act of incorporation was amended Feb. 27, 1877, the control and direction of the cemetery by this amendment being committed to a board of trustees, annually elected by the lot owners.

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     ARLINGTON CEMETERY is one of the principal national cemeteries in which repose so many of the dead soldiers of the Union.  It lies across the Potomac, in Virginia, directly west of South Washington and directly south of the Aqueduct bridge at Georgetown.  It is elevated more than two hundred feet above the Potomac, and the old estate of which the famous Arlington Mansion was the homestead originally contained eleven hundred acres.  It was the property of Daniel Parke Custis, the first husband of Mrs. George Washington.  Washington left it to his wife's grandson, his own adopted son, George Washington Parke Custis, who died in 1857, leaving the estate to his daughter, Mrs. Robert E. Lee, during her lifetime, and then to his grandsons, Custis and Fitzhugh Lee.  As it was not the property of General Robert E. Lee, it could not be confiscated; but because of the large accumulation of taxes upon it, Virginia ordered it to be sold, and it was bought in 1864 by the Government of the United States for $23,000.  In May, 1865, it was established as the first of the eighty-two national cemeteries for the remains of the Nation's dead.  Some years afterward George W. Lee, the eldest son of General Lee, brought suit to recover the estate, upon the ground that it had been illegally sold, and after a long litigation established his claim.  He then conveyed it to the Government for $150,000.  The cemetery contains two hundred acres of land enclosed by a low wall of masonry.  The ground is shaded by oaks of two hundred years' growth, and the drives and walks wind around and through beautiful green lawns, and parterres of flowers and variegated plants . There are some fifty or sixty acres of graves, the soldiers buried here numbering sixteen thousand, two hundred and sixty-four, the graves being arranged in regular rows, the natural level of the grass rolling over all.  Each grave is marked by a white marble headstone, bearing the name of the soldier buried beneath, so far as the names were known.  There are also buried in the cemetery the remains of a few of the soldiers of the Confederacy.
     Perhaps the most interesting monument in this cemetery is the tomb erected to the memory of the dead soldiers, two thousand, one hundred and eleven in number, who could not be identified.  They were gathered mostly from the battlefields of Bull Run and the road to the Rappahannock.  The inscription upon this tomb reads as follows:

     "Beneath this stone repose the bones of two thousand, one hundred and eleven unknown soldiers, gathered after the War from the fields of Bull Run and the Route to the Rappahannock.  Their remains

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could not be identified, but their names and deaths are recorded in the archives of their country, and its grateful citizens honor them as of their noble army of martyrs.  May they rest in peace.  September, A. D. 1866."
     The effect of the entire cemetery is to suggest neatness, coolness, and rest.  A visit to the cemetery can scarcely fail to awaken or to enliven the spirit of patriotism, over which the varied forest trees, the oak, the chestnut, the walnut, the hickory, the elm, cast no shadows of mourning.  While they laid down their lives, their country has survived.
     Other cemeteries in or near Washington are the following: BATTLE GROUND, Brightwood Avenue; GRACELAND, Fifteenth and H streets Northeast; HARMONIA BURIAL GROUND, Brentwood road, two miles from the city; MOUNT OLIVET, Bladensburg road; PROSPECT HILL, Lincoln Avenue; and SOLDIERS' HOME, National.