HISTORY OF ARLINGTON
The land comprising the Arlington estate, 1,100 acres, was sold by Gerard Alexander to John Parke Custis in December, 1778, for a consideration of £11,000 Virginia currency. John Parke Custis never lived at Arlington, and on his death in 1781 his son, George Washington Parke Custis, inherited the Arlington estate. Mr. Custis lived at Mount Vernon, however, until after the death of Martha Washington, which occurred on May 22, 1802. He then took possession of the tract, changed the name to Arlington, after an old family seat on the eastern shore of Virginia. While he was building the mansion he lived in a small cottage on the Potomac. The two wings were built first. The central portion of the house, with its massive columns, is said to have been built from plans drawn by George Hadfield, an English architect, who came to this country with the intention of designing the new Capitol. The date when the mansion was completed is uncertain, but Mrs. Robert E. Lee is authority for the statement that it was completed just before the Civil War. The family lived in the wings for many years.
In 1804 Mr. Custis married Mary Lee Fitzhugh, daughter of William Fitzhugh, of Chatham, at Alexandria, Va. To this union four children were born, but only one, Mary Ann Randolph Custis (born October 1, 1808), lived. On June 30, 1831, she became the wife of Lieut. Robert E. Lee. Upon the death of her father, in 1857, title to the estate passed to Mrs. Lee.
On May 24, 1861, Union troops occupied Arlington, and it soon became an armed camp. Under an act of Congress passed June 17, 1862, certain commissioners of the Government were appointed to levy and collect taxes in Virginia and elsewhere; and if default in payment was made, to sell the real estate upon which the taxes were levied. Prior to January, 1864, the commissioners had adopted a rule by which payment of taxes in the district where the Arlington property was located would not be accepted unless tendered by the owner in person. Mrs. Lee could not comply with this rule, so she sent a cousin, Mr. Fendall, to pay the taxes. The money was refused, and he was informed that Mrs. Lee must be present in person.
On January 11, 1864, there was due only the sum of $92.07 on the 1,100 acres of the Arlington estate, together with a 50 per cent penalty, when the property was sold “according to law,” as stated in the tax certificate. The United States acquired title to the property at public auction by the payment of $26,000.
ARLINGTON MANSION—RECEPTION HALL
Upon the death of Mrs. Lee, in 1873, her eldest son, George Washington Custis Lee, according to the will of his grandfather, George Washington Parke Custis, became entitled to the Arlington estate. He at once took steps looking to the recovery of the property. After petitioning Congress in vain, he began suit in ejectment in 1877 at Alexandria, Va. In 1879 the United States Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Virginia decided he was entitled to the estate and that the United States did not have lawful title. The Department of Justice carried the case to the United States Supreme Court, which decided that the property belonged to Mr. Lee. The United States was thus faced with the question of whether to disinter the remains of thousands of soldiers and sailors and vacate the property, part of which had become a military post, or purchase the same. However, Mr. Lee was willing to sell Arlington for $150,000. On March 3, 1883, the Forty-seventh Congress appropriated the necessary money, and on March 31 Mr. Lee executed a deed which conveyed the title to the United States. The deed was recorded at the Alexandria County Courthouse on the 14th day of May, 1883, just 22 years, less 10 days, from the day, May 24, 1861, when General Scott’s soldiers crossed the Potomac River and took possession.
Mary Randolph, wife of David Meade Randolph, and a relative of the Custis family, is the first person known to have been buried at Arlington. In April, 1853, Mrs. Custis, wife of the owner of the estate, George Washington Parke Custis, died and was laid to rest in a little plot of ground beneath huge oaks not far from the mansion house. The master of Arlington died on October 10, 1857, and was laid beside his wife. To-day their graves may be seen, surmounted by simple marble shafts, within an iron-fenced inclosure, where lilies-of-the-valley cover the ground in profusion. The Quartermaster General’s Department has recently erected a marker beside the grave of Mrs. Randolph, giving a short history of her life.