Alexandria is a city that has produced leaders, elected officials, captains of commerce and industry, clergy, veterans, educators, and others. When it comes to those who shined with their words and pens, the list sure looks tiny, at least those from the nineteenth century. The novelist Constance Cary Harrison of Vaucluse comes to mind, but she bought her ink in Richmond and up north.
Several months ago, when we were looking at lost homes on Washington Street, we came across Sarah Whittlesey (1824-1896). Quite frankly, I had never heard of her or any others from that family. From 1848 to 1896, she lived at the southeast corner of Duke and S. Washington (torn down in the 1960s). Whittlesey became a poetess and novelist of some note, but her story is long forgotten.
Here is a brief history of her life. We include her brother Oscar and a few other Whittleseys.
The searcher of information on the Whittlesey family can find the book, “Genealogy of the Whittlesey-Whittlesey family” by Charles Barney Whittlesey. The author tells us the name was taken by persons living in Cambridgeshire, England on the Whittlesea Fens from the tenth century.
“Memorial of the Whittlesey Family in the United States” tells the reader John Whittlesey was the immigrant, who became a farmer and shoemaker at Saybrook, Connecticut. For generations, a branch of the Whittleseys lived in the "Constitution State." Their names can be seen chiseled on a number of stone war memorials in public spaces. In Old Saybrook, the John Whittlesey Jr. House and the Ambrose Whittlesey House are both listed on the National Register for Historic Places. The oldest part of the former is from 1693. The NRHP form tells us the family played an important part in the development of the Ferry District in Saybrook. John Whittlesey and his son were ferryman there.
The latter tells the story of Ambrose Whittlesey. The Whittleseys were “wealthy landowners and farmers, but also involved in the merchant trade and shipbuilding.” Ambrose sailed on the high seas as a captain.
Through the years, the Whittlesey family produced a number of notable citizens. They must have been incredibly proud of Charles W. Whittlesey (1884-1921). In the story of the “Lost Battalion,” he led his infantry troops in the Argonne Forest in December 1918. Outnumbered and cut off for five long days, Major Whittlesey refused to surrender. He received the Medal of Honor for his actions.
Like Sarah, Eliphalet Whittlesey (1821-1909) came from the Connecticut line. Born in New Britain and educated at Yale, his was a uniquely remarkable life. Eliphalet rose to become a pastor, a professor, and then a one-star general. He came to Washington after the war and helped found Howard University, as well as providing leadership to the Freedman's Bureau and the Board of Indian Commissioners. Whittlesey was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
Research by Donald Dahmann, historian at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House (“From the Close of the Civil War to the Closure of the Congregations at the Close of the Century), adds to our knowledge of Eliphalet Whittlesey. He was a Congregational Minister at the historic church on S. Fairfax Street, serving as a long-term supply minister during the late-1880s. Whittlesey had commanded an African American regiment in the Union Army during the Civil War.
Charles Whittlesey (1819-1874), born in Salisbury, Connecticut, made quite a name for himself in Alexandria. After the Civil War was over, he became active in Reconstruction efforts and practiced law. He lived on the 200 block of Prince Street, known today as "Gentry Row." This would have placed him in high circles in the seaport.
In May, 1866, the Unconditional Union Republican Party held a state-wide convention in Alexandria. Along with other members of the Presbyterian congregation such as Lewis McKenzie, Whittlesey served as a convention delegate. Whittlesey also served briefly as Attorney General of Virginia (Sep 1869 - Jan 1870).
In April, 1868, Charles Whittlesey, also a member of the congregation at Old Presbyterian Meeting House, attended a lecture on education at Liberty Hall. The Alexandria Gazette reported the place was “packed by the colored people of the city to listen to a lecture by John. M. Langston" (1829-1897), who became the first black man to represent Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives and a Civil Rights legend.
In 1869, Charles Whittlesey ran as the Republican candidate for U.S. Congress from Virginia's Seventh District. The race received a lot of press coverage. The Gazette hammered Whittlesey repeatedly as a Radical Carpetbagger. Although Whittlesey won in Alexandria, Stafford, and Louisa County, McKenzie (Conservative) defeated him 15,878 to 11,073.
Sarah Whittlesey’s life began in Williamston, North Carolina. The small town lies in Halifax County in the eastern part of the state, about 80 miles east of the capital in Raleigh. Like Alexandria’s early years, Williamston's lifeblood owed something to being a port on the river and the cultivation of tobacco using enslaved humans.
Sarah’s parents were Luman Whittlesey (1795-1868) and Elizabeth G. Peale Whittlesey (1806-1868). Luman was born in Washington, Connecticut, where he married, in 1818, Sarah Johnson Cogswell (1797-1821). They had two sons, Edgar Augustus Whittlesey (b. 1819) and Joseph Adolphus (b. 1820). A newspaper article in the Litchfield Inquirer (Nov. 1831), indicates a David Whittlesey of Washington, Connecticut was their guardian. Not much is known about Edgar and Joseph. Edgar might have gone to Texas.
Sarah had two handfuls of aunts and uncles on the father’s side. Luman’s brother, Harvey (1788-1861), lived in Farmington, Connecticut. Ralph (1801-1850), also might have gone west.
After his first wife passed away in 1821, Luman moved to Williamston. In 1823, he married Elizabeth G. Peale, a native Tar Heel. Luman taught at the Williamston Academy. Sarah was born in 1824. Two years later came Oscar Columbus.
In 1839, Luman wrote a letter to his brother, Harvey, who was living in Farmington. Luman gave him, “a very condensed account of my movements since I left Connecticut.” He farmed, taught school, and worked as a blacksmith. The hot work of the latter was probably to supplement his income.
Understandably, there is a paucity of newspaper coverage on the Whittleseys during their time in North Carolina. Richard Walser ("Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, Volume 6") fills in gaps. He tells us Luman had a farm and store in Palmyra, a rural community near Williamston.
Luman and his family returned to Williamston in 1841, before moving to Edenton five years later. The town lies on the banks of Albermarle Sound and shares a look and feel with Old Town Alexandria. Edenton had its own newspaper. Luman taught there for two years.
The men of the Whittlesey family could choose from a number of traditional roles and occupations. For women like Sarah, it was slim pickings. Education was the main road out of the rut. Sarah graduated from La Vallee Female Seminary in 1841. The school was located about 20 miles west of Halifax. In addition to the basics, students were taught Latin and French, music and science. Some of Sarah’s stories contain conversations in French.
The UNC University Libraries tells us the Seminary:
... was run out of a small building behind what is now known as the Gray-Brownlow-Willcox House. The school building had two floors in which there would have been space for classes to be conducted and for students to eat meals and socialize, and an attic area which was likely the living quarters for the students. La Vallee Female Seminary was forced to close in 1850.
Image from Edenton Sentinel, June 2, 1860.
Perhaps Sarah visited Halifax, famous for the Halifax Resolves, which urged the state’s delegates to vote for independence from Great Britain in April, 1776. On his Southern tour, George Washington stayed overnight there on April 16, 1791.
In 1842, at age 18, Sarah married Harry A. Smith of Massachusetts. The North Carolina Digital Collections tells us their union was “brief and disastrous.” She left Smith in 1846 and the divorce was drawn up four years later.
Most likely looking for greener pastures, Luman moved his family to Alexandria in 1848. They lived in a house on the southeast corner of Duke and Washington. The brick dwelling, demolished in the 1960s, stood out with a two-story veranda facing Washington Street. The census of 1850 shows Luman and Oscar as tutors. Sarah is listed as S.J.C. Whittlesey.
Photo: Left to right: Lafayette House, Duke and S. St. Asaph; site of Whittlesey House (bank at Duke and Washington); and Janney House, across Washington Street.
It’s hard to know what the family thought of Alexandria when they arrived. It seems they would have been impressed and pleased by its cosmopolitan nature as a seaport and being close to the nation’s capital. There's no doubt they were pleased by less of a wait for mail from Connecticut.
The town had grown from the smaller one of three by seven blocks that George Washington had known in colonial days. After the turn of the century, Virginia’s population stagnated, as farmers and others sought opportunities to the west. Alexandria’s glory days as a bustling seaport with tall ships was fading.
Nevertheless, in the 1850s, the Whittleseys would witness what Harold Hurst (“Alexandria on the Potomac”) details as a remarkable change. Factories and railroads brought jobs and paychecks. Victorian style architecture added to the stock of Georgian and Federals and occasional "Flounder."
The Whittlesey family lived in Alexandria from 1848 to their passing, as follows: Lunan and wife Sarah (1868), Sarah (1896) and Oscar until 1901. This was a distinct period of growth in the second half of the nineteenth century. T. Michael Miller described some of it as (The Alexandria Chronicle, Spring/Summer 1996):
Fine dwellings, modest wooden or brick row houses, and noisome manufactures were intermingled in an unzoned welter.
The Alexandria world the Whittleseys first saw can be seen in a color lithograph, "View of Alexandria, Virginia in 1845." The classic image has been used in a number of prominent books about Alexandria. The E. Sasche & Company of Baltimore provides a north to south orientation of the town.
For a more detailed look, we provide this marked map.
The Whittlesey home at Duke and Washington stood on the northern edge of the "Bottoms" or "Dip" neighborhood, and the western edge of a core of mostly residential homes that to this day maintains that distinction. The large swale that begins its downhill run from Duke southward is the first hint at the Bottoms neighborhood.
This portion of, "Bird's Eye View of Alexandria, 1863" by Charles Magnus gives the reader an idea of the area where the family lived. Their home stood one block below where one sees the horse and buggy at Duke and S. Columbus.
The family had a bird's eye view themselves of both the attractive homes to their west and The Bottoms to their south. They stood in contrast to each other. The Bottoms had drainage problems and most of its residents were low on the income range.
This dichotomy still exists today in that the homes south of King, east of Washington and north of Wilkes can fetch more than a million dollars. Zoning there is almost all single family residential, while the Bottoms is a mix.
While many homes were razed during the “Dip Renewal” phase of Urban Renewal, a few markers provide a glimpse into its past. 601 Wilkes is the site of the Alexandria Pottery, which provided employment to African Americans. The home at 408 S. Royal was once the dwelling of George L. Seaton. This part of Alexandria was Hayti, a smaller community within the Bottoms.
The Bottoms does shine its historic landmark, Alfred Street Baptist Church. Residents and worshippers take great pride in its past, present and continued bright future. A state highway marker tells the reader the church is:
is home to the oldest African American congregation in Alexandria, dating to the early 19th century. It has served as a prominent religious, educational, and cultural institution. In 1818, the congregation, then known as the Colored Baptist Society, began worship services here in the midst of the Bottoms, a free black neighborhood. By 1820 the church created its educational branch, providing religious and secular opportunities for both black children and adults. In 1855, free black craftsmen probably designed and built the brick church. Alterations to the building occurred in the 1880s and in 1994 the church constructed a new sanctuary.
Another distinct feature of Sarah’s world was S. Washington Street. Like today, landmarks include the Lyceum, churches and Lloyd’s Row of brick homes (photo by author). One might still call it Sanctuary Row
The Whittlesey home stood one block to the west of the corner of Duke and S. St. Asaph. Commodious brick homes built there and nearby before and during the Whittlesey's arrived stand today as sentinels of Old Town's beauty. In particular are the Lafayette House and the Dulany House. Some of Alexandria’s most impressive home lie on the nearby blocks. There's no doubt Sarah and her family would have enjoyed this part of the city, and perhaps made friends there.
Politically, Alexandria had first given their hurrahs and humphs to the Federal Party. Conservative Democrats held sway until the 1850s when the town, always putting business needs and internal improvements first, became a “Whig citadel.” Two years before the Whittleseys arrived, Alexandrians had voted 763 to 222 to retrocede back to Virginia. Of course, by laws hammered out by the planter-legislators, enslaved African Americans held no civil rights.
As in North Carolina, the Whittleseys would have seen both enslaved humans and free blacks. Their house stood on the northern edge of the “Bottoms” or “Dip” neighborhood, one of a number of African American communities. There was no greater contrast in the United States than free African Americans in Alexandria becoming successful citizens and raising families, and the horrible institution of selling off slaves that took place five blocks to the west of the Whittlesey home at the slave pen on Duke Street. They probably saw the wretched site of enslaved humans tied in coffles being marched to the waterfront, nevermore to be seen.
Also in their immediate vicinity stood a tannery (site Wilkes and S. Washington), and a Lancastrian School (site near Wolfe and S. Washington), where Luman found employment as a teacher. Steamboats plied the waters of the Potomac, about a half a mile to the east. Sarah surely took in plays at the theaters, and observed life at the market square, during parades and elsewhere. King Street was an emporium, and offered a number of book stores, including ones that would sell her poems and novels.
Sarah and her family lived just two blocks north from the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, which chugged through the Bottoms neighborhood on Wilkes Street. One block away towards King Street stood the Lyceum, a Greek Revival beauty finished in 1839 on S. Washington Street.
In April, 1852, at the Lyceum, her brother Oscar was selected as a member of a committee established to organize a Library Association. Also at the table were several distinguished citizens including Richard L. Carne, a father at St. Mary’s Catholic Church and brother of William, the city’s de facto historian.
Oscar tutored and also wrote some poetry. In August 1850, an ad appeared in the Gazette for:
“LaValle Seminary, just below the Exchange Bank, near the corner of Price and Water (Lee) streets. Messrs L. & O.C. Whittlesey respectfully announce to their patrons, and the public generally, that they will resume the exercises of their school, on the 2d day of September next.”
They also might have ran a school out of their home and Sarah might have taught the females.
One thing is for sure. Competition would have been keen. Alexandria had a stellar reputation for its academies and private schools, perhaps the reason Lunan moved the family to Alexandria. From 1828 to 1842, Benjamin Hallowell, the famed educator, set the bar high with his “Brimstone Castle” School for Boys on N. Washington Street. Also laudatory was the Alexandria Academy, just one block south of the Whittlesey home. Hurst also praises other such as the Alexandria Female Academy and the Belle Haven Institute.
Oscar got quite involved in the administration of Alexandria, becoming clerk of the Common (City) Council, serving on the Health Board, and a Trustee for the City School Board. After the war, he stepped into the fiery arena that was Reconstruction. He joined up with the Organization of the Union Republic Association, which the Gazette labeled the “Radical Caucus.” Lewis McKenzie served as President, Oscar as Secretary.
In 1871, the Alexandria Gazette showed Oscar as an examiner for annual inspection of the Snowden School. The “colored school house” was on S. Pitt between Gibbon and Franklin. Oscar was in high company that day with William F. Carne, the city’s de facto historian. The successful African American businessman George Seaton was also in attendance. Oscar and Carne “expressed themselves as greatly pleased with the examination.”
Readers of the Gazette had seen the Whittlesey name in the paper now and then. Elisha Whittlesey (1783-1863), was born in Washington, Connecticut and served as a member of the US House of Representatives (Ohio) from 1823 to 1833. In 1847, he was appointed General Collector for the Washington National Monument Society.
Readers of the Gazette first learned of Sarah Whittlesey in March, 1848 when the Gazette published her poem, “The Loved and Lost.” Seen in the upper left hand of page 4, the byline said, “Sarah J.C. Whittlesey Smith.” Her poem stood out in the seven-column page. (Note: Once Sarah got divorced, the Smith name was dropped. The most common use of her name was Sarah J.C. Whittlesey, with S.J.C. Whittlesey also used).
In April came “The Lily and the Rose.” followed by “Adolphus.” Oscar’s poem, “Analogical Musings,” was published in May 1848. More poems followed in 1849, 1850, including a few more by Oscar.
In June 1851, the Gazette published, “The Smile, From Mrs. Whittlesey’s Magazine.” Perhaps they thought Sarah was the author. In fact, Abigail Goodrich Whittlesey (1788-1858) penned the story. Born in Goodrich, Connecticut, she founded and edited Mother’s Magazine.
Sarah’s first book came out in 1852. “Heart Drops from Memory’s Urn,” was a collection of her poems. The Spirit of Age, a newspaper in Raleigh, the capital city of North Carolina, published it in their Poet’s Corner. The poem, written for “Sophie,” has this middle stanza.
Dearest, like the heaven’s seeming,
As life’s winding way;
Overcast, and brightly beaming,
Till the perfect day;
But when we are safely landed
Over Jordan’s tide,
When Time’s Army is disbanded,
On the other side.
G.E. French and Robert Bell on King Street sold the book with a price of $1.15, “handsomely bounded in muslin-gilt edges $1.50.” Ads were also seen in the Richmond newspapers and The Cecil Whig in Elkton, Maryland. The Gazette wrote:
“This lady’s poems, we trust, will meet with a favorable reception. Many of her productions have been highly complimented.”
Sarah had fans and readers in both North Carolina and Virginia. The Greensboro Times serialized some of her short stories, including “The Hidden Heart,” “Reginald’s Revenge,” “The Broken Vow,” and “Southern Field and Fireside.” The newspaper told its readers her first literary production had been published in the Edenton Sentinel in the summer of 1846. In that issue (June 2, 1860), they included a sketch of Sarah. Such images of her are rare.
Sarah developed a style that Walser describes as “genteel, false-feminine sentimentality.” The Living Writers of the South points out:
Miss Whittlesey is strongly Southern in her feelings, tastes, and style generally. In a lyric, she gives the following literal vent to that partiality.
And I long to go back to the beautiful ways
Of my beautiful South;
I’m weary of waiting, and wrathful days,
And woe’s wide mouth!
Other than the serialization of her poems in the papers, Sarah’s readers had to wait seven years for her next publication. “The Stranger’s Stratagem or The Double Deceit and other Stories” featured seven short stories, with an average of about 50 pages long. Sarah’s book was sold by three bookstores in town -- French’s, Robert Bell and George Siggers.
Also on the shelves were The Farmer’s Almanac; magazines by Harper and Frank Leslie; "Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington," by George Washington Parke Custis; "The Rivals, A Tale of Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton;" "Life of Andrew Jackson;" "History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion Virginia;" and "Heroines of History."
Readers of The Greensboro Times had gotten the first look at the book in the spring before. "Reginald’s Revenge" was promoted as, “A Prize Story written expressly for the Times.” The first five columns of the front page of April 17, 1858 issue was Chapter Five of the book.
W. Dodd of New York published the book. The stories were, The Stranger’s Stratagem, Reginald’s Revenge, Italia Alma, Lilia Rosely, The Drunkard’s Daughter, Eva Evylin, and The Gem.
The Gazette wrote:
We have received a handsome volume, published by Miss Sarah J C Whittlesey. A large number of our citizens have subscribed to the book in advance…. in one handsome volume, price $1.25 plain, with gilt edges and sides, 1.50 Robert Bell.
They also said:
“… a lady whose genius and accomplishments have been shown in various emanations of her mind, and her friends confidently anticipate that her present work will be most favorably received by the public. We trust it may not only be acceptable to readers, but add to the fame and increase the worldly prosperity of the fair author.”
Also that year, Southern Literary Messenger published a collection of poems, including Sarah’s “Summer is Over.”
Summer is over, and soon will close
The volume of Nature, fair.
Let us then read while the sunlight glows,
What they have written us there;
Emblem of life are the beautiful flowers,
Springing in Summer’s soft tread,
Blooming today in its sunlight and showers,
Tomorrow lie faded and dead.
Early in the morning on May 24, 1861, and less than 24 hours after Alexandria had voted to ratify the "Ordinance of Secession," Union troops marched into the city of 12,000. Colonel Elmer Ellsworth did his part by leading the 11th New York Zouave Regiment. Civil War buffs have discussed whether or not the appropriate words are an "invasion," an "occupation," or something else.
Image from historical marker at King and S. Pitt streets.
No matter. That morning, at King and Pitt streets, about five blocks from the Whittlesey House, hotel owner Jesse Jackson shot and killed Colonel Ellsworth. Seconds later, one of the Zouves killed Jackson. Blue uniforms would pepper the seaport for the next four years.
It’s hard to know what Sarah did during the Civil War. Like many white Alexandrians, she likely seethed behind the curtains at the site of Union soldiers, mourned when they heard of rebel losses, and cheered the victories of Robert E. Lee. The town was under full control of the Union army from May 1861 to the end of the war in 1865.
There’s no doubt Sarah would have been sad in 1865 at the sight of what Smith and Miller ("A Seaport Saga") described as the return of the "tattered remnants of the Seventeenth Virginia Regiment." In 1862 and 1863, she would have seen the influx of a large number of contraband, African Americans who had fled their owners and found an early form of freedom in Union-controlled Alexandria.
Almost directly across the Whittlesey home on S. Washington Street stood a two-part dwelling that was used during the war to assist contraband persons. In her book, "A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time, Julia Wilbur's Struggle for Purpose," Paula Whitacre tells us how Wilbur and Harriet Jacobs raised money and collected clothing for the needy new citizens. The brick building also served as living quarters at times. Still standing, it can be seen on the cover of "Alexandria, Images of America." It is thought that Wilbur and Harriet are part of the group that day. Perhaps Whittlesey witnessed the taking of the photo.
It's hard to know how much Sarah knew about Harriet Jacob and vice versa. On the surface, they did not have much in common. Both, however, had lived in Edenton and both escaped bad situations. Sarah was the victim of an arranged marriage to a man named Harry Smith of Massachusetts. As the NC Encyclopedia points out:
Four years later she abandoned Smith because of his "jealous tyranny," assisted in her escape by her friend D. William Bagley, who arranged to bring her and her trunk down a ladder from her locked room on the second floor of the house, and who transported her to a Roanoke River vessel making an instant departure.
The scar on Harriet’s psyche had cut much deeper. She endured enslavement and sexual harassment. After seven years of torturous hiding, Harriet also escaped by boat from Edenton.
Among the remarkable things she did in her life, Harriet penned “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, written by herself.” It was published in 1861. The following summer, Harriet traveled to Washington to help with the plight of the contraband. She wrote a letter to William Lloyd Garrison, vividly describing the terrible conditions for them in Alexandria. There were some caring people such as a Mrs. Dagans, but not enough.
Another place, the old school-house in Alexandria, is the Government headquarters fro the women. This is I thought, the most wretched of all the places. Anyone who can find an apology for slavery should visit this place and learn its curse. What but the love of freedom could bring these old people hither?
In October 1865, with the war over, Sarah picked up her pen and wrote, "The Three Bells."
The final stanza was:
Oh, soul, on ocean sailing
In Time’s storm-beaten barque,
Faith, Hope and Love — the Three Bells—
Will reach thee at the dawn,
And save thee from the sea-swells —
Hold out your light till morn!
That same month, Sarah wrote a letter to President Andrew Johnson. The reader today will shake their head at her prejudicial words and beliefs. Sarah slammed “negroes” as “a lazy people” and said that Northerners treated them cruelly. In line with what other conservative whites felt towards "carpetbaggers," she also said, “We should get along smoothly together, if Northern men would not interfere.”
Sarah’s next book was “The Bug Oracle,” a 96-page novelette. Irwin’s P. Beadles, a New York publisher, sold it in 1866. For some reason, Walser does not mention the book.
The Southland Writers tells us:
In 1866, the publishers in New York of a series of Dime Novels appropriated one of the Miss Whittlesey’s stories, The Bug Oracle, and published it without her knowledge or consent.
In January 5, 1867, Field and Fireside (Raleigh) published some of Sarah’s, “Bertha, The Beauty.” It appeared on pages 1, 2 and some of 3.
The “bug” makes an appearance in Chapter VII:
In solemn Indian file they marched down the long hall towards the pantry, where in obedience to Mr. Redmond’s directions, Aunt Cora, the cook, had placed the shell-bug on a blue plate, thinly sifted with flour, with another plate bottom up over to prevent its escape, and above all was smoothly spread a snowy napkin.
The Bug Oracle was a warm up for ”Herbert Hamilton, or the Bas Bleu" (1867). The setting is in Virginia. The Alexandria Gazette wrote:
The plot and story are interesting, and the whole production highly creditable to the talents of the fair writer.
The Living Writers of the South wrote:
She has written a great deal for the periodical press and has repeatedly carried off prizes for stories adapted to serial publication a la feuilleton.
After the war Oscar went to work for the Freedmen’s Bureau. In October, 1866, he was assigned to taking a census of the “negro inhabitants of this county.” Given that a significant number of “contraband” and Freedmen had poured into the city during the war, Oscar would have been quite busy this way. He joined up with the "Organization of the Union Republic Association," which the Gazette called the “Radical Caucus.” Lewis McKenzie, mayor (1861-1863) and powerful business magnate, served as President. Oscar was the Secretary. Charles Whittlesey, the lawyer, was assigned to preparing a constitution.
Sad news reached the Whittlesey family in January, 1868. Luman had passed away at the family home in Alexandria. His obituary in the Gazette included noting his graduating from Yale and living in Williamston as a teacher. Other sources note he taught at the Lancastrian School.
Elizabeth joined Luman in June. Her funeral took place at the family home on Duke Street. They were both laid to rest in the Trinity United Methodist Cemetery at the end of Wilkes Street. Their pair of tombstones lies just a few steps from the brick wall separating the cemetery with the Alexandria National Cemetery.
Perhaps because of her sadness and grief, Sarah did not write her next novel ("Bertha, the Beauty") until 1872. Walser (The North Carolina Encyclopedia) wrote the book is:
“Miss Whittlesey’s glory, This lengthy autobiographical novel has a detailed narrative of the struggles of the long-suffering heroine with her wicked husband.”
The Gazette wrote:
…”is a tale of truth, in the rose-hue of romance. The scene is laid in North Carolina, with glimpses of the five year’s war in Virginia, along with the moving panorama of historical facts.”
And:
“many of the scenes and incidents related, concerning the late war, occurred in this place and neighborhood, and will be recognized and remembered by our citizens.”
The New Orleans Republic wrote:
"The author has woven a rather entertaining, gossipy story of a North Carolina girl of half Yankee parentage and remarkable beauty."
In December 1866, Field and Fireside (Raleigh) had reported:
Our Great Serial, Bertha the Beauty, which has been written especially for us, by one of our most popular and accomplished Southern authors, Miss Sarah J.C. Whittlesey, will be commenced in our first issue in January. This is the most powerful and thrilling novel which it has ever been our honor to present to the readers of the journal.
The Philadelphia Inquirer advertised her book in September, 1871, noting the publisher was Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger of Philadelphia.
Sarah also made the news in February 1872. Reporting on George Washington’s annual Birthday celebration, still a big deal in Alexandria, the Gazette said:
Mayor Latham presented to the Chief Marshal, as the representative of the fire department, a beautiful wreath, as a tribute of gratitude from Miss Sarah J.C. Whittlesey, whose property was recently saved from destruction by the firemen, and read a very pretty and appropriate poetical address.
As Reconstruction continued to unfold, Charles Whittlesey continued his work to help African Americans in Alexandria. In April 1868, he attended a lecture on education at Liberty Hall. The Gazette reported the place was packed by the colored people of the city to listen to a lecture by John M. Langston, a "colored lawyer and employee of the Freedmen’s Bureau." Langston would go on to much fame. The US House of Representatives Archives writes:
One of the most prominent African Americans in the United States before and during the Civil War, John Mercer Langston was as famous as his political nemesis, Frederick Douglass. One of the first African Americans to hold elective office in the United States (he became Brownhelm, Ohio, township clerk in 1855), Langston topped off his long political career by becoming the first black man to represent Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 1869, Charles Whittlesey ran as the Republican candidate for U.S. Congress from Virginia's Seventh District. The race received a lot of press coverage. The Gazette hammered him repeatedly as a "Radical Carpetbagger." Although Whittlesey won in Alexandria, the Stafford, and Louisa County, McKenzie defeated him 15,878 to 11,073.
Sarah dropped off the radar screen after "Bertha, the Beauty." In 1889, J.B. Lippincott published, "Spring Buds and Summer Blossoms.” It included Oscar’s “Idle Hours.”
Sarah and Oscar dedicate their book to: “Our Father and Mother, who have crossed over the river and rest in the shade of the Tree of Life.”
The book includes a photograph of the two, with the latin phrase, Sumus soli duo. Oscar has his left arm touching Sarah’s right arm, with her right hand laying softly in his.
Pages 9 to 216 are Sarah’s poems. Pages 219 to 250 are Oscar’s poems.
One of the poems is titled, "To S.J.C.W. of Alexandria" by Arthur W. H. of Washington, DC. The next poem is Sarah’s response to Arthur W. H. This to and from also occurs for R.G.S. of Portsmouth. Another title is "To: Katy, of North Carolina."
The Gazette wrote the book was handsomely printed and bound. "The writings are far-famed, and this volume will be highly appreciated by the muse."
Sarah’s fans in Edenton read in the Fisherman and Farmer —
A lady friend has placed in our hands for notice a book of poems by Sarah J.C. Whittlesey, and Idle Hours by O C Whittlesey. Its 250 pages contain many touching lines written upon subjects of living interest, for the most part and expressive of tender emotion as well as great and reverential regard for the memories of other days.
It’s hard to know what Sarah did in her sunset years. Perhaps she and Oscar acquired or used the modern convenience of the telephone. By 1891, about 100 homes subscribed to the services of Southern Bell. Maybe she was one of the many Alexandrians who cheered on the arrival of the first electric trolley which rolled down King Street in 1892. It seems likely she attended the unveiling in 1889 of John Elder’s Appomattox memorial at Washington and Prince, just one block north of her home.
Sarah took her final breath at the family home in 1896. Her obituary in the Gazette pointed out:
Her father will be remembered by many who have now arrived at the middle-age sign post of life as their pedagogue in the old Lancasterian school on the site of which the present Washington building stands.”
It acknowledged her as:
“an educated lady and was possessed of a literary taste. Some of her productions showed that the writer possessed the spark of genius.”
The funeral took place at her home. Rev. Mr Williams, pastor of the ME Church South, conducted the services, and the interment was in, "the old Methodist church cemetery."
Note: I was unable to find where Sarah was laid to rest. As mentioned, her father and mother’s tombstone lies in the Trinity United Methodist Church.
After trying so hard as a reformer in Alexandria, it seems very likely Oscar would have been saddened in his final years. In the landmark decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, the Chief Justices voted 7 to 1 against Plessy. This solidified Jim Crow laws across the south.
In Alexandria, Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas had been hanged in 1897 and 1899. Both took place within steps of where Oscar had served as clerk of court.
One bright moment for Oscar might have been the appearance of Frederick Douglass, who spoke at Lannon's Opera House in September, 1894. This turned out to be one of the lion's last roar, as the great one passed away the following April.
Oscar drew his last breath in February, 1901. The Washington Post (Feb 23) wrote:
Oscar C. Whittlesey died at Alexandria Infirmary this morning at age 75. He was born in Connecticut and came here early in life with his father, who was a well-known educator. During the Civil War deceased was one of the collectors of taxes, later clerk of the common council. recent years he had been one of the magistrates of the Fourth Ward. Brother of Sarah, who attainted considerable literary fame. The deceased was also literary in his tastes.
After the turn of the century, Alexandria finally saw significant growth in its population. World War II brought jobs to Washington and fueled the massive wave of suburbia all around the city. Alexandria’s population of 18,000 in 1920, which was only 4,000 more than when Sarah and Oscar had passed away, leapt to 61,000 in 1950. As part of the Lost Cause, historical markers pointed out the stories of the Confederates. Jim Crow laws were not dismantled until the 1960s.
Marker-wise, the city is making an excellent effort to tell more and more of the stories of the past, with a notable push to include the struggles and successes of African Americans. The Appomattox memorial and historical marker that stood just one block from Sarah’s house was taken away in early 2021.
All these things are appropriate and needed. We must, however, be careful to not push aside the stories of Alexandrians such as Sarah Whittlesey.
Quite frankly, the chances for a marker for Sarah seem slim. Paired with her brother Oscar, however, a marker would give the reader insight into the world they lived in. And, as far as we know, there are no markers for any novelists in Alexandria, much less for a woman.
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