or 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 _eclat_.

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.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

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.

For his first school he rented the building on the northeast corner of
Oronoco and Washington Streets, next to the house where the wi