Just across the street from our home lived Mr. and Mrs. Bernard P. Mimmack and the latter's mother, Mrs. Mary Bailey Collins, widow of Captain Charles Oliver Collins of the U.S. Army, and a typical representative of the New York gentlewomen of former days. She was one of the Bailey family, which was much identified with the history of New York, and she and her daughter, Mrs. Mimmack, were valuable additions to our community. Of Mr. Mimmack, only recently deceased, I can speak only in terms of the warmest praise. He was a true friend to me and many times during my widowhood placed his ripe judgment and wide experience at my command.
As I first remember Professor and Mrs. Joseph Henry, they were living with their three daughters in a portion of the Smithsonian Institution. He was a man whose public career and private life commanded universal respect, while his scientific discoveries, both at Princeton College and at the National Capital, marked him as one of the most distinguished men of his day. I am not qualified to pronounce upon his scholarly attainments nor upon the estimate in which he is held by the learned world of to-day, but it may be assumed that the eulogistic words of the late Professor Simon Newcomb, himself a scientific giant, represent the truth. "Professor Joseph Henry, first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution," he wrote, "was a man of whom it may be said, without any reflection on men of our generation, that he held a place which has never been filled. I do not mean his official place, but his position as the recognized leader and exponent of scientific interests at the National Capital. A world-wide reputation as a scientific investigator, exalted character and inspiring presence, broad views of men and things, the love and esteem of all, combined to make him the man to whom all who knew him looked for counsel and guidance in matters affecting the interests of science. Whether anyone could since have assumed this position, I will not venture to say; but the fact seems to be that no one has been at the same time able and willing to assume it."
The society circle in Washington in 1873 was small compared with that of to-day. There was much less form and ceremony, fewer social cliques and a greater degree of affability. The "Old Washingtonians" were more en évidence than now and the political element came and went without disturbing in any marked degree the harmony of the social atmosphere. There were, however, many in public life whose families were cordially received into the most exclusive circles of Washington society and enriched it by their presence. Mrs. Hamilton Fish held social sway by the innate force of character and general attractiveness with which nature had so lavishly endowed her. Mrs. James G. Blaine, whose husband was in Congress when I first knew them, shared in his popularity. Mrs. George M. Robeson, wife of Grant's Secretary of the Navy, lived on K Street and kept open house. The Secretary of the Treasury and Mrs. William A. Richardson, who lived in the old Hill house on H Street, were well known and very popular. Francis Kernan, the junior Senator from New York, with his wife and daughter, was seen everywhere. Thomas Kernan, their son, who eventually became a Roman Catholic priest, was a great dancer and a general favorite. Roscoe Conkling, the senior Senator from New York, was socially disposed, but his wife, who was a sister of Horatio Seymour, although well fitted for social life, took but little part in it. She was a pronounced blond, wore her hair in many ringlets and was petite in figure. Senator and Mrs. Henry L. Dawes and their intellectual daughter, Miss Anna, were highly esteemed by Washingtonians. General Ambrose B. Burnside, Senator from Rhode Island and a widower, lived on H Street, where he lavishly entertained his friends. Senator Joseph R. Hawley and wife of Connecticut and the latter's bright sister, Miss Kate Foote, resided in the Capitol Hill neighborhood; while Senator Henry B. Anthony, also of Rhode Island and a widower, was famous for his grasshopper turkeys, with which he liberally supplied his guests at his home on the southwest corner of H and Fourteenth Streets. This was the period when William E. Chandler was beginning his prominent and successful political career. He lived with his first wife and interesting family of boys on Fourteenth Street below G Street.
The social leader in Washington in 1873 was Mrs. Frances Lawrence Ricketts, whose husband, General James B. Ricketts, U.S.A., had served his country during the Civil War and on account of disabilities was awarded a handsome pension. They lived on G Street between Eighteenth and Nineteenth Streets and her Friday afternoons were festive occasions. Mrs. Ricketts was no mean philanthropist in her way and a certain wag once wrote—
Here comes Mrs. Ricketts
With a pocketful of tickets.
The doggerel had a basis in fact as she frequently appeared in public with tickets to sell for the benefit of some charitable object; and she sold them, too, as but few had the courage to refuse her. She was an exceedingly fine looking woman with a cordial manner and graceful bearing. Mrs. Julia A. K. Lawrence, her mother, the widow of John Tharp Lawrence, originally of the Island of Jamaica, lived with her, was quite as fond of society as the daughter, and, although advanced in years, seemed to have more friends and admirers than any woman I have ever known.
One day by chance I met her in the drawing-room of a mutual friend, Mrs. Sallie Maynadier, where she shocked us by fainting. One of my daughters wrote her a note of sympathetic inquiry and received in reply the following answer. I regarded it as a somewhat remarkable note as its writer was then approaching her ninetieth birthday.
Pray accept my grateful thanks, my dear Miss Gouverneur, for your kind attention in writing me such a lovely note. I wish I had known you brought it. I would have been so much pleased to see you in my room, which I could not leave yesterday though very much better. I think the fainting was from the heat of Mrs. Maynadier's parlour and the agitation of the previous day, at the prospect of parting with my very dear friends in the delicate state of dear Kate Eveleth's health! I hope to hear to-day how she bore the journey, the beautiful day very much in her favor! I can not close this note without expressing my sincere wish that your mamma and yourself will be so kind as to come and see me during the winter. I know that Mrs. Gouverneur does not "pay visits" but as I can no longer have the pleasure of meeting you at our dear friend's I hope she will make an exception in favor of such an old woman as myself, one too who has known and loved so many of your father's family for generations, dating back to President Monroe's family, when I was a child in England and used to play often with your grandmamma [Maria Hester Monroe]. Can you believe that a vivid memory can turn back so many years? Ask your mamma to favour me and come yourself to see
Yours very truly,
Julia Lawrence.