The La Fayette-Lawrason association rightfully includes the name Cazenove to commemorate the role played by Alexandria's noble French-speaking citizen on the happy occasion of La Fayette's visit. Really his name was De Cazenove for his family was both Huguenot and noble. They had fled France in 1688 and settled in Geneva, Switzerland, where they were prominent bankers for over one hundred years. When the French Revolution broke out, the radical Swiss threw the French aristocrats into jail; then, becoming frightened at their tyranny, they released the patricians. Among those incarcerated were the De Cazenove family. After their release Antoine Charles de Cazenove and his elder brother were sent by their parents to America to avoid the Revolution. They landed in Philadelphia and were the guests of some cousins there by the same name. The two brothers married sisters, the Misses Hogan of Philadelphia.
Later, the elder brother returned to Geneva. Antoine Charles Cazenove (for by this time our young Frenchman had become imbued with the spirit of republicanism and dropped the De as un-American), moved to Alexandria about 1794 and founded the banking house of Cazenove & Company. Head of a large shipping business, he maintained his own wharf and warehouses; was French consul; one of the founders of the Alexandria Water Company and of the cotton factory; and an active member of the old Presbyterian Church. He owned three or four black slaves who spoke only French. During the yellow fever epidemic in 1803, when forty to fifty people were dying in a day, Cazenove refused to leave Alexandria. He contracted yellow fever and was one of the few persons to have the disease and survive.
After Mrs. Lawrason put her Alexandria home at the disposal of General La Fayette, Antoine Charles Cazenove was invited to act as host. When the Alexandrians crowded outside the Lawrason house demanding a sight of and a speech from La Fayette, Cazenove introduced him. La Fayette was "chez lui"; the whole visit passed off with great éclat.
The great General on departure referred to his entertainment in Alexandria as "the most pleasing hours of his life." A gratified city council presented Mrs. Lawrason with a silver cup in recognition of her generous and hospitable act. This, duly inscribed, is cherished to this day by her great-granddaughter, Mrs. Donald M. Hamilton of Georgetown, in Washington, D.C.
Chapter 26
Enter the Quaker Pedagogue: Benjamin Hallowell
Benjamin Hallowell came to Alexandria in 1824 to open a school for boys. He was then twenty-five, with no fortune, a large debt, a dependent mother, a new and young bride.