The Man named Captain Henry Summers Millan
Chapter one
Forward with Faith: Inspired by Family Pioneers
Sometimes I will look at the pictures of noble ancestors in my albums in times like this. But on this night, there were no faces in mind, just the whole of all the pioneer stories wrapped together. In remembering them, I felt could keep moving, keep walking, and keeping faith.
I have realized as I reflect on the lives and sacrifices of the Ancestor pioneers that the specifics of our journey's don’t really matter — not because the details of our personal pain and triumphs are insignificant, but simply because we all have our trails to blaze, we all have our trials to face. Our stories may differ, but the principles that can help us all are the same. My story about Captain Henry Summers Millan and family, how they lived their lives while taking that big step traveling from Fairfax, Virginia to Palmyra, Missouri and then Iowa.
On a tree-shaded hill on the edge of a small Iowa town, lies a small cemetery. The summer breezes play through the trees, causing the leaves to respond with gentle sighs and whispers. The name on the stone caught my attention. Their it was, the tombstone of my ancestors, Mr. Captain Henry S. Millan. It was only years later I decided to pick up a pen and a empty notebook, I started writing in my journal once again as a hobby, that I had the time to pursue the mystery of Captain S. Millan's identity.
My research brought to light bits and pieces of his life. Slowly the statistical form of Henry Millan emerged, but the human substance of the man was still missing. Well then a series of events occurred that made it possible to see Henry as he appeared to his family and friends.
When Henry married the young Caroline Matilda Farr, the daughter of Samuel Ratcliffe Farr and Matilda Willcoxon, he purchased a deserted Vine-Clad Stone House that had been the property of the British who had fled Virginia during the Revolutionary War. He was partial to the permanency of a Stone house and liked the ancient trees and spacious lawns surrounding this one. Using the help of his slaves he proceeded to renovate the house and furnish it for the large family that he hoped to have. Soon, however, his young bride became unhappy with the lonely isolation of her home in the country. They only lived there for several years.
Susanna's journal makes the image of her father come to life. He took an active part in politics and worked hard for the election to the presidency of his friends and fellow Virginians John Tylor and including William H. Harrison.
The story I'm about to write is of the fears that young Caroline Farr Millan experienced in the Stone house. At night the moaning of the wind and the scurrying of little feet in the attic disturbed her. Her Servants insisted that the sounds were those of the ghosts of the "Britishers" who were lying in wait for their mistress, planning to carry her off. The Captain was disgusted with the "ghost"talk, but when he realized how unhappy his wife was, he reluctantly gave up his beloved stone house and purchased a frame one from a relative who that placed him and his brother and sisters on opposing sides. The bewildered father grieving over the death of two children.
The story about Henry Millan concludes with a final and dismal death. It is poignant largely because Henry at one time commanded a very formidable reputation, and to see such a man die so ignominiously on a "Cow catcher" strikes us all as tragic and unnecessary. Your probably wondering what a cow catcher is while your reading my story. A cow catcher is a device attached to the front of a train in order to clear obstacles off the track. In the locomotive industry a cow catcher is more commonly referred to as a pilot.
Mr Millan's daughter Susanna sees him as a practical business man who seems almost surprised with himself when he discovers, that his compassion is stronger than his business sense. We have no idea what he wrote his sister in Virginia at the close of the war, although his sisters letter reveals that he must have suffered greatly. We think that Henry may have taken his own life to save his family any burden which further establishes Henry's basic "human substance." Mr. Millan acted as sheriff of Fairfax County, Virginia for several years. In 1835 he removed with his family from Fairfax to Palmyra, Missouri.
In Eastern part of Virginia near the city of Alexandria and the District of Columbia stood an ancient stone structure built by the British Government, for what purpose I do not know but it was evidently built to stay, as it was very strong, large and well appointed in every particular. The grounds were large and very beautiful laid out over looking the Potomac Valley.
The house was built sometime around 1765 and was used in the time of the revolution for officer quarters and also for a kind of prison. It wasn't until after the war the house was vacated. Now with the research on going we do know that the house wasn't for sale and couldn't be rented out until 1826. It was rescued from the bats and owls. Henry had been waiting for sometime now for a suitable place for his lady love and this one because it looked clean and fixed up. What it would probably cost to rent and keep up the place, never entered his head.
On day he was out on business which called him by that house, so Henry reined up and viewed the landscape. In his mind he thought how wonderful it would be to began life in such a place. So far ahead of where his parents left off. The captain's mother, whose name was Mrs. Susanna Summers, who had twins three times. So it did look wise for the Captain to want a large house. His 2nd Great Grandfather, the old John Summers who bought some land where Alexandria stands under letters patent from the Colonial government, and built the first house. His great great grandfather had died in 1790, he was over one hundred years old, leaving over four hundred descendants all honorable and some of them largely indentified with the history of the state as Judge Lewis Summers and G.W. Summers, who were uncles of the Captain G.W. Summers having served several terms in Congress from West Virginia under Harrison and Tyler both. Well, the house was taken and he lost no time in visiting his sweetheart and letting her know he was ready for her, he had found a house that would be probably large enough. Caroline wasn't to happy with the size of the house as there were around fourteen-twenty rooms, but anyway the Captain was ready and his wife Caroline had finished her pillowslip full of home knit stockings and made her dozen patch work quilts as no Virginia girl ever marries until she has.
The couple had got married in due time, taking possession of the stone house or as much of it as they could occupy. This young couple were bonafide Virginians raised in the hot bed of slavery, Princi Pally in the lap of the slaves. I might say, and of course had heard the regulation amount of ghost stories as children love to go to their quarters and listen to them during the evening until hair stood at end and would be scared to go back home. The house looked rather weird to the bride as she thought of the many untenanted rooms that would be a fine place for ghosts. This young couple had their share of slaves given to them on their wedding day, but as the parents on both sides were living at the time and in god health, the family pocketbook had not been divided.
A colored Servant woman told her young mistress Caroline not to live in that house., it was haunted, the Servant replied "cause a young man had died there in time of the war," and every night Mrs. Caroline could hear this man singing and the black woman could hear this as well and would worry that young mistress would be carried off to the spooks. The Captain prided himself on his valor. He was not afraid of spooks and he was going to break his wife of such foolishness.
Mr. Millan's work always called him from home most of the time, his wife sometimes felt lonely and at times she would go to sleep before night set in. sometimes she would grab her shawl and walk down to the gate to wait for her husband to arrive. He was always horse back and Caroline could hear his horses feet on the turnpike a long way off. Caroline often had to stand and watch as she waited. She would be so afraid to go back inside the big stone house, which Caroline had a weird feeling, and then appear imagine that she had seen a pair of eyes at every window. The trees mostly poplar were bare at the season of the year and white they seemed to reach out their arms to embrace Caroline in their chilly grasp. One evening as she stood listening as she heard her husbands horse hoofs on the road at a brisk trot, all of a sudden she didn't hear anything. In a short time the horse walked up to the gate by himself. Caroline was very scared and worried about her husband. She started to cry, and then yelled out, "Oh Henry!" and pretty soon up came Captain Henry, laughing at her fears. No doubt anxious for the reconciliation that he did not deserve.
In the summer time this stone house was completely aneloped in vines and shrubbry that it had been growing wild, so many years until it was a regular wilderness. It was going to be a task once it got warmer. The Captain was disgusted with all ordinary mortals that had to live in small or wooden houses. No indeed this one was none too large for him." But the spooks? replied his wife." They never trouble small houses or that are not very valuable."
The weather is warm now and Caroline spends most of her time outside on a favorite rustic seat, at her needle work, an art in which she was perfectly well skilled. Her mother Mrs. Matilda Willcoxon Farr had sent her daughter down to Washington to a school and learned how to do needle work. Caroline never knew how to cook in the kitchen. The Virginians never in those days taught their daughters any house work, but if they did in those days, then there wouldn't be any work for a color survant to do.
The Captain is 23 years old now, but still only a boy, and always enjoyed playing a prank on everyone, but pretty soon he would play his last. He came home late at night with his eye tied up, arm in a sling, and just limping terribly, he knocked at the door, which his wife opened the door and fainted from being so scared.
The old Colored Servant said, "Marse Henry, 'pears like you never will quit your foolishness, no how."
So that stopped the game trying to cure Caroline from being a coward but he never succeeded; but he promised to stay at home next day and investigate the spooks.
Henry was taken all around the the big house to where the noises where heard. Well, the first place was an empty room where the mutterings were heard up the chimney, so he went to the fireplace and sure enough there was a funny noise as if someone was trying to extricate themselves . He looked into the fireplace up the chimney and took his cane and reached up and brought down a nest of swallows and the old bird made such a muttering at being so dethroned. This was spook number one.
"Now," he said, "Hannah, where is the next one?"
Hannah the survant said "Come right this way, Marse Henry, in the blue room where that poor fellow died who was kept prisoner during the war."
There he found how the fellow was still singing his own requiem. There was a broken pane of glass and when the wind blew it which made a singing noise. that was number two... In the other part of the big house was a hole in the wall that had been a noise when the wind came down when the wind came down it. This was number three.
Captain Said, "Now Hannah, what do you think of yourself nor for scaring your Mistress in this way?"
"Hannah replied, My husband said their is someone who wants this house worse then you and the ghost is going to run you out of it."
The Millan family had been their for about a year now and found all the ghosts face to face. Many people who looked at the place wanted to buy the house, but Henry wasn't about to give the big house up and he would say it wasn't for sale every time. "No doubt, "said the Captain, but the fellow that built this house expected to end their days here in peace, but "Man proposes and god disposes."
I suppose after the Boston tea party and a few other little episodes in which the colonists used gunpowder a little recklessly, they concluded that the new world was not so desirable after all, so went home to England wiser if not better men. The English are fond of tea but that in Boston Bay was too strong.
"And so it was in 1773 the Bostonians drowned the British tea, like indians dressed, no British law, Nor king, nor governor they know."
One day in the early autumn the wife Mrs. Catherine Farr had told her husband that she was expecting a visitor, to come and stay some time and thought she would be company for her, and the Captain was delighted. He liked company, he was very hospitable, as all Virginians are. So they accordingly made all arrangements for company.
So one fine morning the last of March there suddenly came up a storm, the most terrific one they had ever seen. The sun refused to shine, the heavens were darkened, the rain came in torrents, the thunder was deafening, the lightning struck all around, the cattle and horses all ran for shelter, the tall old tree poplars bent and swayed under the weight of the storm. The black folks all fell to their knee's, and then all was hushed. In a few minutes a faint wail told them a little stray lamb had fallen from the clouds, begging for protection. S without bandbox or bundle, their daughter announced that she had come to stay. Of course Henry and Catherine hardly knew how to entertain so distinguished a guest as she appeared to be.
I imagine the wife Catherine Farr felt a little embarrassed just then, but they had to make her welcome, although I think the room they had fitted up for their visitor was more suitable for a young gentleman. They were at a loss how to entertain herself and all other noises, spooks, and all that they all stopped. Well now, the Captain begins to realized they have a daughter a real live one too, with a voice to be heard in those old halls and in many other places.
Well, the black folks had something to do now, and the poor fellow who died in the blue room had stopped singing his own requiem and sang lullabies instead. Well, over this affair the Captain felt quite important., there may have been other men who had daughters , but he didn't remember them at all. The work that had kept him so busy riding day and night had lost it's importance., he could take a day or two as well as not. When this prodigy was six weeks old it must be taken to church, and as Pohick, Episcopal was nearest, she was taken there, and it was there she gave her first concert, to the utter disgust of the entire congregation.
The Captain was not one bit discouraged but the mother threw the prima donna on the bed when she got home and told the proud father if he wanted that thing taken to church again, he could take herself, and he said "mother, didn't you observe what a fine voice she has?
"She said, "Yes, and I think every one else did, too."
"Well, said the father, "we will take her to Alexandria next time. I know she will do better." He had let everyone know he had a daughter, and it was some comfort to him anyway. Well she was carried all around the country to please her father, each time showing off her voice culture more and more. The Captain was not one of these kind of men who think boys aren't the nicest things in the world. He thought a lot of nice Virginia girls would be just grand and he had his share later on.
Pohick was the church that President Washington always attended, and it made the old church very dear to all the people around there. The high back pew was always pointed out with pride to strangers. They have lived in the house two or three years now and the wife is beginning to want a house of her own, and a smaller one, so they looked around and found a farm they could buy a few miles west and closer to Grandmother Farr. It is near Bullsrun, and Centerville where the daughter could go to school.
Mount Gilead House
Chapter Two
The Captain and his family are about to leave the stone house mansion, but not without some regrets on his part, but to the delight of his wife who wanted a smaller and a newer house of her own. This place was a two story frame house, about a quarter of a mile from the road with Gilead trees around it, but as usual with all the farms around there it had an avenue of poplars leading from the road gate up to the house. The poplars were so tall that you could climb to the top and see the Blue Ridge Mountains, which of course were many miles to the west from the house. Their was a Dogwood tree which I never heard of it and was close to the house. It had large white blossoms and was very fragrant.
The Mount Gilead is located in Centreville,Virginia and was built about 1783 as an ordinary tavern. Henry and Caroline Farr Millan rented the Mount Gilead Place. When they moved to that plantation they had daughters, Susanna being the oldest, Margaret, Josephine and Catherine who was born there. They also had a daughter Caroline who died at the age of three years old, and a son who died at a very young age.
There were so many peaches on the farm from which brandy was made. How the children, black and white, hailed with joy the first frost that would make the chestnuts fall. This spring furnished water for all the farm for any purpose. It had to be carried in buckets to the house. Susanna had seen her black mamie"Survant" carry three buckets at a time from the spring. Susanna explains how her survant carried those buckets.
"Well, She stooped down and sat one on her head and then the other ones in each hand." I have seen her come into the kitchen with water streaming over her face. She told me she remembered a time when she could dance with one on her head and not spill a drop. This spring was the beginning of a little stream that runs through their garden that she loved so well.
There was a cotton field, which was not common around there at all, but the progressive captain, I think wanted to see how many thins his place was good for., and besides, those colored men must have something to do. They also raised tobacco. Virginia isn't a cotton state, but the captain wanted to try all before settling on someone's crop.
Once a month the captain would go to muster, or drill as it's called now, at the country seat fairfax court house. Of course he was always horseback and often took his daughter on his horse before him on a pillow. He would leave her at Grandma Matilda Farr's place during the parade and several times he took her on the field to see the fun, perhaps, but more likely to let folks know he had a daughter, even if someone didn't know it. She rode around with him often enough to become familiar with such terms as the military calls like, forward march, right about face, shoulder arms, and she heard old Colonel Coleman calling Captain Henry's company, parade, parade! The old Colonel and the Captain have both been called to reinforce the army above.
The Colonel that Susanna remembers was buried with great honors and the captain who died only ten years ago, passed away with a blessed assurance of a mansion not made with hands eternal in the heavens and where stars in the crown count for more than those on the shoulder straps. Often when Susanna went home she got the colored children out and used her fathers knowledge of drill on them to forward march with a stick and she was their captain. Now the Captains daughter is six years old and of course growing up.
Her Grandma Matilda Farr wanted to bring Susanna to Fairfax, but her parents could not spare her, so it was decided to send her to Centreville, one mile west and had to be taken on a horse every morning until she got older. Her father took her the first time to school, the teacher Mr. Williams came out and said, Hello, Henry so that's the girl I suppose?" the captain said, "Yes, and she is a little spoiled too, being the only one now." You will have to handle her a little careful at first, but she will be alright."
So the next day Susanna was at school and the teacher had asked her to come shake hands with some lady, but Susanna said that she wouldn't, so the teacher sent Susanna back to her seat. When the lady left the teacher called her up and said, "What ought I do with you for not minding me?"
"Susanna said, "My father said you must handle me careful."
Susanna wrote about having a little sister and brother since moving to Mount Gilead and both have been taken and laid beside their ancestors. My dear sister Caroline was three years and six months, and the brother was one year and seven months which is the cause of the eldest being the only one again and spoiled.
One early morning, while we were at the table eating breakfast, a colored servant came running in the kitchen and said out loud, "Master Henry, I come for you all, Miss Mamie Farr is dead."
Mrs. Matilda Willcoxon Farr was found dead in her bed with her smoking pipe lying beside her still warm. She probably died with heart disease. That was the first sorrow that had come into the family. When we started to leave, Aunt Hannah, our black Mammy carried little Carrie (Caroline) out to the wagon, and she hugged Mrs. Mammy and whispered to her, "Auntie, I will bring you some "Backer" Hannah was a great smoker. It would be the last time Carrie would see Auntie or her home either for Carrie had took sick and died at Grandma's, and of course we had two funerals.
Well, Susanna was carried every morning on the horse for one year, and someone always went with her if she walked and helped Susanna across Bulls Run which had large flat rocks laid across stepping stones a few feet apart.
Sometimes I will look at the pictures of noble ancestors in my albums in times like this. But on this night, there were no faces in mind, just the whole of all the pioneer stories wrapped together. In remembering them, I felt could keep moving, keep walking, and keeping faith.
I have realized as I reflect on the lives and sacrifices of the Ancestor pioneers that the specifics of our journey's don’t really matter — not because the details of our personal pain and triumphs are insignificant, but simply because we all have our trails to blaze, we all have our trials to face. Our stories may differ, but the principles that can help us all are the same. My story about Captain Henry Summers Millan and family, how they lived their lives while taking that big step traveling from Fairfax, Virginia to Palmyra, Missouri and then Iowa.
On a tree-shaded hill on the edge of a small Iowa town, lies a small cemetery. The summer breezes play through the trees, causing the leaves to respond with gentle sighs and whispers. The name on the stone caught my attention. Their it was, the tombstone of my ancestors, Mr. Captain Henry S. Millan. It was only years later I decided to pick up a pen and a empty notebook, I started writing in my journal once again as a hobby, that I had the time to pursue the mystery of Captain S. Millan's identity.
My research brought to light bits and pieces of his life. Slowly the statistical form of Henry Millan emerged, but the human substance of the man was still missing. Well then a series of events occurred that made it possible to see Henry as he appeared to his family and friends.
When Henry married the young Caroline Matilda Farr, the daughter of Samuel Ratcliffe Farr and Matilda Willcoxon, he purchased a deserted Vine-Clad Stone House that had been the property of the British who had fled Virginia during the Revolutionary War. He was partial to the permanency of a Stone house and liked the ancient trees and spacious lawns surrounding this one. Using the help of his slaves he proceeded to renovate the house and furnish it for the large family that he hoped to have. Soon, however, his young bride became unhappy with the lonely isolation of her home in the country. They only lived there for several years.
Susanna's journal makes the image of her father come to life. He took an active part in politics and worked hard for the election to the presidency of his friends and fellow Virginians John Tylor and including William H. Harrison.
The story I'm about to write is of the fears that young Caroline Farr Millan experienced in the Stone house. At night the moaning of the wind and the scurrying of little feet in the attic disturbed her. Her Servants insisted that the sounds were those of the ghosts of the "Britishers" who were lying in wait for their mistress, planning to carry her off. The Captain was disgusted with the "ghost"talk, but when he realized how unhappy his wife was, he reluctantly gave up his beloved stone house and purchased a frame one from a relative who that placed him and his brother and sisters on opposing sides. The bewildered father grieving over the death of two children.
The story about Henry Millan concludes with a final and dismal death. It is poignant largely because Henry at one time commanded a very formidable reputation, and to see such a man die so ignominiously on a "Cow catcher" strikes us all as tragic and unnecessary. Your probably wondering what a cow catcher is while your reading my story. A cow catcher is a device attached to the front of a train in order to clear obstacles off the track. In the locomotive industry a cow catcher is more commonly referred to as a pilot.
Mr Millan's daughter Susanna sees him as a practical business man who seems almost surprised with himself when he discovers, that his compassion is stronger than his business sense. We have no idea what he wrote his sister in Virginia at the close of the war, although his sisters letter reveals that he must have suffered greatly. We think that Henry may have taken his own life to save his family any burden which further establishes Henry's basic "human substance." Mr. Millan acted as sheriff of Fairfax County, Virginia for several years. In 1835 he removed with his family from Fairfax to Palmyra, Missouri.
In Eastern part of Virginia near the city of Alexandria and the District of Columbia stood an ancient stone structure built by the British Government, for what purpose I do not know but it was evidently built to stay, as it was very strong, large and well appointed in every particular. The grounds were large and very beautiful laid out over looking the Potomac Valley.
The house was built sometime around 1765 and was used in the time of the revolution for officer quarters and also for a kind of prison. It wasn't until after the war the house was vacated. Now with the research on going we do know that the house wasn't for sale and couldn't be rented out until 1826. It was rescued from the bats and owls. Henry had been waiting for sometime now for a suitable place for his lady love and this one because it looked clean and fixed up. What it would probably cost to rent and keep up the place, never entered his head.
On day he was out on business which called him by that house, so Henry reined up and viewed the landscape. In his mind he thought how wonderful it would be to began life in such a place. So far ahead of where his parents left off. The captain's mother, whose name was Mrs. Susanna Summers, who had twins three times. So it did look wise for the Captain to want a large house. His 2nd Great Grandfather, the old John Summers who bought some land where Alexandria stands under letters patent from the Colonial government, and built the first house. His great great grandfather had died in 1790, he was over one hundred years old, leaving over four hundred descendants all honorable and some of them largely indentified with the history of the state as Judge Lewis Summers and G.W. Summers, who were uncles of the Captain G.W. Summers having served several terms in Congress from West Virginia under Harrison and Tyler both. Well, the house was taken and he lost no time in visiting his sweetheart and letting her know he was ready for her, he had found a house that would be probably large enough. Caroline wasn't to happy with the size of the house as there were around fourteen-twenty rooms, but anyway the Captain was ready and his wife Caroline had finished her pillowslip full of home knit stockings and made her dozen patch work quilts as no Virginia girl ever marries until she has.
The couple had got married in due time, taking possession of the stone house or as much of it as they could occupy. This young couple were bonafide Virginians raised in the hot bed of slavery, Princi Pally in the lap of the slaves. I might say, and of course had heard the regulation amount of ghost stories as children love to go to their quarters and listen to them during the evening until hair stood at end and would be scared to go back home. The house looked rather weird to the bride as she thought of the many untenanted rooms that would be a fine place for ghosts. This young couple had their share of slaves given to them on their wedding day, but as the parents on both sides were living at the time and in god health, the family pocketbook had not been divided.
A colored Servant woman told her young mistress Caroline not to live in that house., it was haunted, the Servant replied "cause a young man had died there in time of the war," and every night Mrs. Caroline could hear this man singing and the black woman could hear this as well and would worry that young mistress would be carried off to the spooks. The Captain prided himself on his valor. He was not afraid of spooks and he was going to break his wife of such foolishness.
Mr. Millan's work always called him from home most of the time, his wife sometimes felt lonely and at times she would go to sleep before night set in. sometimes she would grab her shawl and walk down to the gate to wait for her husband to arrive. He was always horse back and Caroline could hear his horses feet on the turnpike a long way off. Caroline often had to stand and watch as she waited. She would be so afraid to go back inside the big stone house, which Caroline had a weird feeling, and then appear imagine that she had seen a pair of eyes at every window. The trees mostly poplar were bare at the season of the year and white they seemed to reach out their arms to embrace Caroline in their chilly grasp. One evening as she stood listening as she heard her husbands horse hoofs on the road at a brisk trot, all of a sudden she didn't hear anything. In a short time the horse walked up to the gate by himself. Caroline was very scared and worried about her husband. She started to cry, and then yelled out, "Oh Henry!" and pretty soon up came Captain Henry, laughing at her fears. No doubt anxious for the reconciliation that he did not deserve.
In the summer time this stone house was completely aneloped in vines and shrubbry that it had been growing wild, so many years until it was a regular wilderness. It was going to be a task once it got warmer. The Captain was disgusted with all ordinary mortals that had to live in small or wooden houses. No indeed this one was none too large for him." But the spooks? replied his wife." They never trouble small houses or that are not very valuable."
The weather is warm now and Caroline spends most of her time outside on a favorite rustic seat, at her needle work, an art in which she was perfectly well skilled. Her mother Mrs. Matilda Willcoxon Farr had sent her daughter down to Washington to a school and learned how to do needle work. Caroline never knew how to cook in the kitchen. The Virginians never in those days taught their daughters any house work, but if they did in those days, then there wouldn't be any work for a color survant to do.
The Captain is 23 years old now, but still only a boy, and always enjoyed playing a prank on everyone, but pretty soon he would play his last. He came home late at night with his eye tied up, arm in a sling, and just limping terribly, he knocked at the door, which his wife opened the door and fainted from being so scared.
The old Colored Servant said, "Marse Henry, 'pears like you never will quit your foolishness, no how."
So that stopped the game trying to cure Caroline from being a coward but he never succeeded; but he promised to stay at home next day and investigate the spooks.
Henry was taken all around the the big house to where the noises where heard. Well, the first place was an empty room where the mutterings were heard up the chimney, so he went to the fireplace and sure enough there was a funny noise as if someone was trying to extricate themselves . He looked into the fireplace up the chimney and took his cane and reached up and brought down a nest of swallows and the old bird made such a muttering at being so dethroned. This was spook number one.
"Now," he said, "Hannah, where is the next one?"
Hannah the survant said "Come right this way, Marse Henry, in the blue room where that poor fellow died who was kept prisoner during the war."
There he found how the fellow was still singing his own requiem. There was a broken pane of glass and when the wind blew it which made a singing noise. that was number two... In the other part of the big house was a hole in the wall that had been a noise when the wind came down when the wind came down it. This was number three.
Captain Said, "Now Hannah, what do you think of yourself nor for scaring your Mistress in this way?"
"Hannah replied, My husband said their is someone who wants this house worse then you and the ghost is going to run you out of it."
The Millan family had been their for about a year now and found all the ghosts face to face. Many people who looked at the place wanted to buy the house, but Henry wasn't about to give the big house up and he would say it wasn't for sale every time. "No doubt, "said the Captain, but the fellow that built this house expected to end their days here in peace, but "Man proposes and god disposes."
I suppose after the Boston tea party and a few other little episodes in which the colonists used gunpowder a little recklessly, they concluded that the new world was not so desirable after all, so went home to England wiser if not better men. The English are fond of tea but that in Boston Bay was too strong.
"And so it was in 1773 the Bostonians drowned the British tea, like indians dressed, no British law, Nor king, nor governor they know."
One day in the early autumn the wife Mrs. Catherine Farr had told her husband that she was expecting a visitor, to come and stay some time and thought she would be company for her, and the Captain was delighted. He liked company, he was very hospitable, as all Virginians are. So they accordingly made all arrangements for company.
So one fine morning the last of March there suddenly came up a storm, the most terrific one they had ever seen. The sun refused to shine, the heavens were darkened, the rain came in torrents, the thunder was deafening, the lightning struck all around, the cattle and horses all ran for shelter, the tall old tree poplars bent and swayed under the weight of the storm. The black folks all fell to their knee's, and then all was hushed. In a few minutes a faint wail told them a little stray lamb had fallen from the clouds, begging for protection. S without bandbox or bundle, their daughter announced that she had come to stay. Of course Henry and Catherine hardly knew how to entertain so distinguished a guest as she appeared to be.
I imagine the wife Catherine Farr felt a little embarrassed just then, but they had to make her welcome, although I think the room they had fitted up for their visitor was more suitable for a young gentleman. They were at a loss how to entertain herself and all other noises, spooks, and all that they all stopped. Well now, the Captain begins to realized they have a daughter a real live one too, with a voice to be heard in those old halls and in many other places.
Well, the black folks had something to do now, and the poor fellow who died in the blue room had stopped singing his own requiem and sang lullabies instead. Well, over this affair the Captain felt quite important., there may have been other men who had daughters , but he didn't remember them at all. The work that had kept him so busy riding day and night had lost it's importance., he could take a day or two as well as not. When this prodigy was six weeks old it must be taken to church, and as Pohick, Episcopal was nearest, she was taken there, and it was there she gave her first concert, to the utter disgust of the entire congregation.
The Captain was not one bit discouraged but the mother threw the prima donna on the bed when she got home and told the proud father if he wanted that thing taken to church again, he could take herself, and he said "mother, didn't you observe what a fine voice she has?
"She said, "Yes, and I think every one else did, too."
"Well, said the father, "we will take her to Alexandria next time. I know she will do better." He had let everyone know he had a daughter, and it was some comfort to him anyway. Well she was carried all around the country to please her father, each time showing off her voice culture more and more. The Captain was not one of these kind of men who think boys aren't the nicest things in the world. He thought a lot of nice Virginia girls would be just grand and he had his share later on.
Pohick was the church that President Washington always attended, and it made the old church very dear to all the people around there. The high back pew was always pointed out with pride to strangers. They have lived in the house two or three years now and the wife is beginning to want a house of her own, and a smaller one, so they looked around and found a farm they could buy a few miles west and closer to Grandmother Farr. It is near Bullsrun, and Centerville where the daughter could go to school.
Mount Gilead House
Chapter Two
The Captain and his family are about to leave the stone house mansion, but not without some regrets on his part, but to the delight of his wife who wanted a smaller and a newer house of her own. This place was a two story frame house, about a quarter of a mile from the road with Gilead trees around it, but as usual with all the farms around there it had an avenue of poplars leading from the road gate up to the house. The poplars were so tall that you could climb to the top and see the Blue Ridge Mountains, which of course were many miles to the west from the house. Their was a Dogwood tree which I never heard of it and was close to the house. It had large white blossoms and was very fragrant.
The Mount Gilead is located in Centreville,Virginia and was built about 1783 as an ordinary tavern. Henry and Caroline Farr Millan rented the Mount Gilead Place. When they moved to that plantation they had daughters, Susanna being the oldest, Margaret, Josephine and Catherine who was born there. They also had a daughter Caroline who died at the age of three years old, and a son who died at a very young age.
There were so many peaches on the farm from which brandy was made. How the children, black and white, hailed with joy the first frost that would make the chestnuts fall. This spring furnished water for all the farm for any purpose. It had to be carried in buckets to the house. Susanna had seen her black mamie"Survant" carry three buckets at a time from the spring. Susanna explains how her survant carried those buckets.
"Well, She stooped down and sat one on her head and then the other ones in each hand." I have seen her come into the kitchen with water streaming over her face. She told me she remembered a time when she could dance with one on her head and not spill a drop. This spring was the beginning of a little stream that runs through their garden that she loved so well.
There was a cotton field, which was not common around there at all, but the progressive captain, I think wanted to see how many thins his place was good for., and besides, those colored men must have something to do. They also raised tobacco. Virginia isn't a cotton state, but the captain wanted to try all before settling on someone's crop.
Once a month the captain would go to muster, or drill as it's called now, at the country seat fairfax court house. Of course he was always horseback and often took his daughter on his horse before him on a pillow. He would leave her at Grandma Matilda Farr's place during the parade and several times he took her on the field to see the fun, perhaps, but more likely to let folks know he had a daughter, even if someone didn't know it. She rode around with him often enough to become familiar with such terms as the military calls like, forward march, right about face, shoulder arms, and she heard old Colonel Coleman calling Captain Henry's company, parade, parade! The old Colonel and the Captain have both been called to reinforce the army above.
The Colonel that Susanna remembers was buried with great honors and the captain who died only ten years ago, passed away with a blessed assurance of a mansion not made with hands eternal in the heavens and where stars in the crown count for more than those on the shoulder straps. Often when Susanna went home she got the colored children out and used her fathers knowledge of drill on them to forward march with a stick and she was their captain. Now the Captains daughter is six years old and of course growing up.
Her Grandma Matilda Farr wanted to bring Susanna to Fairfax, but her parents could not spare her, so it was decided to send her to Centreville, one mile west and had to be taken on a horse every morning until she got older. Her father took her the first time to school, the teacher Mr. Williams came out and said, Hello, Henry so that's the girl I suppose?" the captain said, "Yes, and she is a little spoiled too, being the only one now." You will have to handle her a little careful at first, but she will be alright."
So the next day Susanna was at school and the teacher had asked her to come shake hands with some lady, but Susanna said that she wouldn't, so the teacher sent Susanna back to her seat. When the lady left the teacher called her up and said, "What ought I do with you for not minding me?"
"Susanna said, "My father said you must handle me careful."
Susanna wrote about having a little sister and brother since moving to Mount Gilead and both have been taken and laid beside their ancestors. My dear sister Caroline was three years and six months, and the brother was one year and seven months which is the cause of the eldest being the only one again and spoiled.
One early morning, while we were at the table eating breakfast, a colored servant came running in the kitchen and said out loud, "Master Henry, I come for you all, Miss Mamie Farr is dead."
Mrs. Matilda Willcoxon Farr was found dead in her bed with her smoking pipe lying beside her still warm. She probably died with heart disease. That was the first sorrow that had come into the family. When we started to leave, Aunt Hannah, our black Mammy carried little Carrie (Caroline) out to the wagon, and she hugged Mrs. Mammy and whispered to her, "Auntie, I will bring you some "Backer" Hannah was a great smoker. It would be the last time Carrie would see Auntie or her home either for Carrie had took sick and died at Grandma's, and of course we had two funerals.
Well, Susanna was carried every morning on the horse for one year, and someone always went with her if she walked and helped Susanna across Bulls Run which had large flat rocks laid across stepping stones a few feet apart.