the Civil
War as a Confederate nurse and continued her kindly acts thereafter in
other fields of benevolence. She wrote a life of General Robert E. Lee
and several other books, and made a compilation of "Southern Poems of
the War," which was subsequently published under that title.

One may readily turn from Emily Virginia Mason to her life-long friend,
the daughter of Senator William Wright of New Jersey. It was during her
father's official life in Washington that Miss Katharine Maria Wright
met and married Baron Johan Cornelis Gevers, _Charge d'affaires_ from
Holland to the United States. After her marriage she seldom visited her
native country but made her home in Holland until her death a few years
ago. Her son also entered the diplomatic service of his country and a
few years ago was living in Washington.

After my father's death we continued as a family to live in our Houston
Street home in New York, but in 1853 we found the character of the
neighborhood, which had been so pleasant in years gone by, changing so
rapidly that we sold our house and moved to Washington. We secured a
pleasant old-fashioned residence on G Street, between Seventeenth and
Eighteenth Streets, which in subsequent years became the Weather Bureau.
Next door to us lived Mrs. Graham and her daughter, Mrs. Henry K.
Davenport, the grandmother and mother respectively of Commodore Richard
G. Davenport, U.S.N. Mrs. Graham was the widow of George Graham, who,
for a time during Monroe's administration, acted as Secretary of War.
While he was serving in this capacity, his brother, John Graham, was a
member of the same cabinet, serving as Secretary of State. Mrs.
Davenport was the mother of a family of sons known familiarly to the
neighborhood as Tom, Dick and Harry. In the same block lived Mr.
Jefferson Davis, who was then in the Senate from Mississippi. I remember
hearing Mrs. Davis say that it was worth paying additional rent to live
near Mrs. Graham, as she had such an attractive personality and was such
a kind and attentive neighbor. A few doors the other side of us resided
Captain and Mrs. Henry C. Wayne, the former of whom was in the Army and
was the son of James M. Wayne of Georgia, a Justice of the Supreme
Court; while across the street was the French Legation. Next door, at
the corner of G and Eighteenth Streets, lived Edward Everett. Mr. and
Mrs. Robert D. Wainwright lived on the next block in a house now
occupied by General and Mrs. A. W. G