White House (plantation)
White House is an 18th-century plantation on the Pamunkey River near White House in New Kent County, Virginia. It was the residence of Martha Dandridge Custis (1731-1802) and Daniel Parke Custis (1711-1757) after they were married in 1750. They had four children, two of whom survived childhood. However, Daniel Parke Custis, who was 20 years older than Martha Dandridge Custis, died in 1757.
The years before the civil war
The wealthy widow Martha Custis was courted by George Washington , whom she eventually married in 1759. Shortly thereafter, he resigned from the Virginia Military Commission and they moved to the Mount Vernon estate in Fairfax County . George and Martha Washington did not have children of their own, but they raised the two surviving children from Martha's first marriage. Marthas John Parke "Jacky" Custis (1754–1781) married Eleanor Calvert on February 3, 1774. The couple then moved into the White House. After living at White House for over two years, John Parke Custis bought Abingdon Plantation, where the couple moved in 1778. John Parke Custis died in 1781 during the siege of Yorktown . Martha and George Washington then had his two younger children, Eleanor Parke Custis (later Lewis) and George Washington Parke Custis . George Washington became the first President of the United States and his wife Martha became the nation's first First Lady , known as Lady Washington. The title of First Lady was then traditionally given to the President's wife.
In 1802, George Washington Parke Custis in the District of Columbia began construction of Arlington House with the intention of erecting a memorial to his step-grandfather (and adoptive father), George Washington, who had died in 1799. Arlington later became the home of his daughter Mary Anna Randolph Custis, who married Robert E. Lee in 1831 . Robert E. and Maria Anna Custis Lee had seven children, of whom three boys and three girls reached adulthood. Her second son, William Henry Fitzhugh Lee "Rooney", who was trained at Harvard, initially followed in his father's footsteps in the service of the US Army, but withdrew from the army in 1859 and became a planter. Rooney Lee moved to White House, which he inherited from his grandfather, who had died in 1857. He married Charlotte Wickham, a descendant of the lawyer John Wickham. They had two children, both of whom died in infancy. His wife Charlotte died in 1863. The mansion of the White House Plantation burned down in 1862. It was the second of three buildings that was destroyed by fire at this point.
The years during the civil war
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Virginia joined the newly formed Confederate States of America. Robert E. Lee, who had most recently been Superintendent of the USMA at West Point, was offered command of all Union forces by US President Abraham Lincoln, but he resigned in favor of his home state Virginia. His three sons joined him in the service of the Confederates.
Robert E. Lee's wife suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, which weakened her as she got older. In 1861 she was dependent on a wheelchair. At the beginning of the war, Mrs. Lee and her daughters were leaving Arlington House and were in their son Rooney White House's plantation when Union forces under General George B. McClellan made White House their supply base during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862 , an ultimately failed attempt to capture the Confederate capital, Richmond. General McClellan made arrangements for Mrs. Lee to pass safely through the Union Lines, and she moved to Richmond, where she lived at 707 E. Franklin Street for the duration of the war (in a house still preserved today).
During the Peninsular Campaign, Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of New York's Central Park , served as Executive Secretary of the US Sanitary Commission, a forerunner of the Red Cross in Washington DC, which cared for the wounded in the Union during the Civil War. Olmsted directed medical care for the sick and wounded at the White House until McClellan moved his troops on during the Seven Day Battle and relocated his headquarters to Harrison's Landing on the James River . The mansion of the White House Plantation was burned down.
After the civil war
Rooney Lee lost his wife and children during the war and was captured after the Battle of Brandy Station and came to New York as a prisoner of war . After the war, Rooney returned to the White House Plantation. In 1867 he married again. He had several children with his second wife, Mary Tab Bolling Lee. His younger brother Robert E. Lee, Jr. lived nearby at Romancoke Plantation in King William County .
After his mother's death in 1873, Rooney inherited the Ravensworth estate, an old Fitzhugh family estate (near present-day Springfield) in Fairfax County with 563 acres (2.28 km²) of land. In 1874 he moved there from the White House Plantation. Rooney Lee was elected to the Virginia Senate in 1875 and served there until 1878. In 1887 he was elected a Democrat to the US House of Representatives and had that seat until his death in Ravensworth in 1891. He was buried with his parents and siblings in the Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee University in Lexington , Virginia.
Connection to the White House
Although George Washington and his wife never lived in the White House in Washington, DC, now known as the Presidential Residence, construction on the building began during his tenure, and it is speculated that the name was derived from the White House plantation which it originated from the couple had many pleasant memories.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation : Martha Dandridge Custis Washington . The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation . 2009. Retrieved March 5, 2008.
- ↑ a b c d Bernice-Marie Yates: The Perfect Gentleman: The Life and Letters of George Washington Custis Lee . Xulon Press , Fairfax, Virginia 2003, ISBN 1-59160-451-6 , pp. 37-38 (accessed June 27, 2011).
- ^ A b John K. Amory: George Washington's infertility: Why was the father of our country never a father? In: Fertility and Sterility . Vol. 81, No. 3, March 2004. (online, PDF format) ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ The Papers of George Washington: Documents . The Papers of George Washington . 2009. Archived from the original on June 2, 2010. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 28, 2008.
- ↑ a b Perry, John. Mrs. Robert E. Lee: The Lady of Arlington . Multnomah Publishers, 2003, ISBN 1-59052-137-4 .
- ^ The Education of a Cadet . University of Chicago . Retrieved May 20, 2008.
- ^ A b c d e National Park Service : William Henry Fitzhugh "Rooney" Lee . National Park Service, US Department of the Interior . June 19, 2007 at 12:58 pm EST. Retrieved March 5, 2008.
- ^ A b c d New Kent County Planning Commission: New Kent County Comprehensive Plan: Existing Conditions . New Kent County Planning Commission . June 6, 2002. Archived from the original on October 31, 2007. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 4, 2008.
