Stranica 141 [141]
OCR
HisToRtec. {GARDENS ORY VERGINIA days. That was "Aunt" Elinor and her room—where every skater was privileged to go to repair skates or, in colder weather, to get warm. She was Mrs. Anderson’s sempstress, a fine example of the best of the colored race, dying from a broken heart a few weeks after the death of her mistress. A pretty story has always been told of the courtship of General Anderson and his first wife, Sally Archer, the daughter of Dr. Robert Archer, surgeon in the “old army," as the United States Army has always been spoken of by those who were in it before 1861, and who left it then or before. His home was in Norfolk; his summer home, Olivera, was where the town of Phoebus now is, but he was stationed at Fortress Monroe. He had several daughters. Coming into his home one day he announced that a handsome young lieutenant, who had just graduated second in his class, engineers, at West Point, had been detailed there to build a fort on the Rip Raps, and that whoever guessed his first name might have him. Sally, not quite seventeen, said, in her gentle, soft voxe, "Joseph" ; and, in reality, in a few months she became the wife of this young lieutenant, was the mother of his children and his devoted companion for forty-four years! But, to the garden and house! The latter was a typical Colonial house of grey stucco, the spacious front porch with its Corinthian columns surmounted by the Greek pediment. Through the porch passed not only the best of the town, but also “the stranger within its gates’’—for this home was known during its whole existence for its unbounded hospitality, here and abroad. General Lee’s frequent visits there during the War Between the. States brought happiness to all, the children included. His love for, and recognition of them, was ever present. One of the daughters of the house tells how he always drew her, a little girl, to his side on the sofa in the family sitting-room, raised her hand and kissed it with the affection of a father, the deference of a gallant! On their return from Europe in September, 1871, Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson Davis and their family came directly here, and Mrs. [86]
