On July 24, 1924 our youngest daughter Anna Irene, was married in Baltimore, Maryland, to Mr. John Carroll Donohoe, only son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Donohoe of Washington, D. C. His parents are both natives of Virginia, but have been living in Washington many years. Irene’s husband is a tall, dark complected, dark blue-eyed man, and was a World War soldier, and was overseas for a year or more during the latter part of the war. After the armistice, he returned to the United States, was discharged from tne service, and was given a civil service position as an accountant in the General Accounting Department of the government.

About a year, or a little more, to be exact in September, 1926, Irene, who since her marriage had still been working for the government, resigned her position. With the exception of about two months after her resignation during which she and her husband lived with his parents in southeast Washington, they have been making their home with us.

On March 10, 1926, at Sibley Hospital, this city their first child, a son, was born, and was named John Carroll Donohoe, Jr. for his father. He was a small, black eyed, dark haired, little baby, and for a few months seemed to be rather a frail child, then he began to grow rapidly and when he was two years old was a large well grown child for his age. As he was our first grandson and his paternal grandparents only grandchild we all felt very proud of him, and not only his grandparents but his aunts just doted on him.

In May, 1925, our daughter, Nelle, went back on a visit, during her vacation, to Hermitage, Missouri. After a few days visit with her aunt Mattie Coon and family and other Hermitage relatives and friends, she returned home accompanied by her little niece, Josephine Pitts, our deceased daughter, Inez’s daughter, and her aunt Mattie Coon, my wife’s sister.

We were all exceedingly glad to see sister Mattie and little Josephine. Mattie was looking fine and very young for one of her age, but Josephine had been in poor health for some time. We immediately had our family doctor, John E. Walsh, M.D. to treat her and after a week or two she began to slowly improve. Mattie stayed with us about three weeks, and we never enjoyed any of the visits of our relatives since we have been in Washington more than we did hers, and we regretted very much when the time came for her to return home and sincerely wished that she could have stayed with us much longer.

Josephine stayed with us until the first of September, when in order to be there in time for the opening of the public school she returned home accompanied on the trip by our daughter Bernice, who after spending a few days with Hermitage relatives in Hermitage and Springfield, Missouri, she returned home and resumed work for the federal government.

In the fall of 1925, Misses Zelma and Ruth Lindsey, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Lindsey of Springfield, Missouri, visited us. They were enroute to New York City, where Zelma obtained a position as a stenographer and Ruth attended Columbia University, one of the greatest educational institutions in the United States They expected to remain in the great metropolis until the end of the collegiate year. We enjoyed the visit of our nieces very much and regretted its brevity.

During the spring or early summer of 1926, Mary, Nelle and Bernice visited their cousins, Zelma and Ruth, in New York City. They spent a few days in the chief city of the nation and saw many places of historical and commercial celebrity. While they were there they saw for the first time the Atlantic Ocean, a wonderful sight to them. They enjoyed their visit immensely.

The fall and early winter of 1925 passed without any illness of any consequence in our family but early in the year 1926, I had an attack of stomach trouble caused largely, I think, by a disorder of the liver, and resulting in an excessively acid condition of the stomach. I got treatment from Dr. A. B. Little of Takoma Park. He administered some very drastic liver remedy which almost prostrated me and followed this with a preparation of magnesia bismuth and some other ingredient, and the effect was so depressing that my circulation became very weak and my condition became alarming. But to relieve this I took ammonia with good results, and after a while was feeling some better. I discontinued the doctor's treatment, procured from the drug stare some Nature's Remedy tablets and Stewart's Dyspesia remedy and after using this treatment a short time, the stomach and liver disorder was greatly relieved. The stomach trouble, which was an excessively acid condition perssted and I had to continue the remedies I was using indefinitely. While not entirely relieved of the distressing malady, I became much better in many respects. I received much relief from acidity by not using such articles of diet as have an acid reaction and make use of such as have an alcaline effect. I had to eschew very acid fruit such as apricots and peaches and also tomatoes, but pears, apples and prunes seemed to agree with me, especially evaporated or dried prunes.

In the early part of the summer of 1925, my wife’s brother, Eugene, and his wife Pearl visited us. They were delegates from the First Baptist Church of Springfield, Missouri, to the National Baptist Association then in session in Washington, D. C. We were very agreeably surprised to see them, as we had very recently had a letter from them which stated that Pearl had been quite ill with rheumatism in the back, called lumbago, and was suffering intensely and hardly able to walk or move about the room without great pain. She had been in this condition some time, and was only partially relieved of the intensity of the suffering, when they had the opportunity to become delegates from the Baptist Church of which they were members, to the National Association of the Church at the National Capital. At first they thought that on account of Pearl’s physical condition, they would have to decline their appointment as delegates, but just in the nick of time Pearl unexpectedly got much better, and as they desired very much to visit us, they decided to avail themselves of this opportunity to do so, and also to have the pleasure of their church and to see the National Capital.

They stayed with us all of the time when not in attendance at the association, or under Bernice’s guidance, sightseeing in the city and visiting Mount Vernon, the home of the first President and wife. They remained with us three or four days and we never did enjoy the visit of any of our people better than we did theirs. Pearl was almost entirely well of her trouble when they arrived in Washington and continued to improve while they were here. Finally, just a day or so before the association closed, they decided they must continue their tour through the east. We regretted very much that they could not remain longer with us, we had all enjoyed their short stay with us so much. They went from Washington, on board a ship on the Atlantic Ocean to New York City where they visited their daughters, Zelma and Ruth, and took in the sights in America’s greatest city. From New York City they returned home via Chicago, the big metropolis of Illinois.

I think it was in the year 1926 though it may have been the previous year that in company with our daughters, Mary and Bernice, I went to Mount Vernon, one of the most historically famous places near the Nation’s Capital, and most frequently visited by sightseers from all parts of the United States as well as visitors from foreign countries. We went by the electric railway and made the trip, it seemed, in only a few minutes, probably less than half an hour. The George Washington Mansion, home of the father of his country and his excellent wife, Martha Custis Washington, and known throughout the civilized world as Mount Vernon, is a low frame building of colonial style of architecture with a large porch supported by large columns in front. It is similar to many other mansions of distinguished citizens in various parts of Virginia and Maryland who were participants in the official business and social functions of the country during the years when Washington was its most distinguished soldier and official. We spent a day viewing the various interesting things in and about the Mansion, saw the parlor, the dining room, the kitchen and the bedrooms of the great President and his wife and of Nellie Custis, Washington’s adopted daughter. There were many pieces of colonial style furniture in the different rooms, which looked ancient and very interesting. On the outside in the extensive grounds, we saw the beautiful gardens filled with lovely flowers of many kinds, the garden supposed to be a replica of what it was when under the personal supervision of Washington; the old barn, where the many riding and driving horses were kept in post-revolutionary days, and the old buggy in which Washington often rode during the last years of his life at Mount Vernon, a short distance from the mansion is the tomb of Washington and his venerable wife which with bared heads we viewed in silence. Late in the evening after spending one of the most enjoyable days since our arrival in the East, we returned to our home.

An event occurred a little less than a year after we came to Washington that I have forgotten to mention. That was the inauguration of President Warren C. Harding. The presidential campaign of 1920 had been a very exciting one. The issues of the campaign were principally those that grew out of the great World War. Since the armistice and the return of thousands of War veterans to the United States, more than a million of laborers were out of employment. Agricultural products, which had borne an enormously high price by reason of the unusual demand for them in the war wrecked sections of Europe, and the great demand for such products to feed the huge armies engaged in the war, had greatly decreased in price, so much so that agriculture all over the nation was almost ruined, and there was great discontent among the people. And as is usually the case, whether right or wrong the administration of President Wilson was blaraed for the woes of the country and the hard times. The national debt had arisen to the enormous amount of more than $26,000,000,000. Government bonds had fallen from more than par to 85 cents on the dollar and there was a widespread cry for relief from the deplorable conditions that existed.

The result was the election of then Senator Warren C. Harding, by an overwhelming electoral and popular vote majority over his Democratic opponent, ex-Governor James M. Cox also of Ohio, Senator Harding being the oresidential candidate of the Republican Party. On Inauguration Day, March 4, 1921, accompanied by Mary, Nelle and Bernice, Irene having stayed at home with her mother, I went down to the capitol early in the morning in order to get as good a place as possible to witness the inaugural ceremonies, which were to be outdoors, or rather just back of the front steps of the Capitol. It was real cold that March morning and we had to wait some time before the inauguration proceedings began. We had only standing room just across the plaza from the Capitol. Soon after noon the distinguished Senator Harding and the presidential party appeared just back of the Capitol steps, the oath of office was administered by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, ard the newly obligated President of the United States delivered his inaugural address. He was a very eloquent speaker and as the Capitol was equipped with electrical amplifiers, we could hear his address fairly well from where we stood. He spoke about an hour, I think, and the vast audience listened to his hale and very patriotic address with profound attention. The remarks of the President were frequently interrupted by tremendous applause, and was seemingly well-received and heartily approved by the great multitude, which surrounded the Capitol in front of the speaker for a distance.

After the inaugural ceremonies were ended, the President and Mrs Harding, accompanied by a number of distinguished statesmen constituting the presidential party and a large military guard of honor followed by the Marine Band and a long procession of civilians, passed near to where we stood and we saw the President and his wife very distinctly. President Harding was a large, portly, and very intelligent-looking gentleman and was one of the most able of the presidents of recent times. After witnessing the passage of the President and party on their way to the home of the new chief executive, the White House, and viewing the long procession, we returned to our home, wearied after our long stand in the cold of that raw March day, but not withstanding the discomfort of the weather, we felt well repaid tor having gone and having had the greatest experience of our lives.

In tne fall of 1921, on November 11th, the first anniversary of Armistice Day on which the World War was ended, the body of a World War soldier whose name was not known, and to be forever designated as the Body of the Unknown Soldier of the World War was brought from one of the battle fields of that war where, after the battle, the body had been interred, to the Nation’s Capital of the United States for burial in the National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia. On that day we went down to Pennsylvania Avenue, near the Capitol to witness the procession of high civil officials, military and civilians following the casket containing the unknown soldier being conveyed in a carriage drawn by horses, and guarded by mounted sodiers

On both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue, along which the procession was to pass, a large tape was stretched to prevent spectators lined up on the sidewalks from getting on the street while the procession was passing. We obtained a good place on the avenue and awaited the coming of tne bier of the unknown soldier, and the procession accompanying and following it. After waiting some time, we saw in the distance the horse drawn vehicle and the accompanying cavalry, immediately following the military were a namber of persons afoot-- we had learned were the President and Vice-President of the United States, members of the President’s cabinet, menbers of the Senate and House of Congress and other high officials of various states, then a large body of mounted federal soldiers who were followed by a long procession of civilians in automobiles. Soon after we first saw it the bier passed us, and then the distinguished footmen in single file on each side of the center of the street. As they passed we distinctly saw President Harding, Secretary of State Hughes, and other cabinet members and other dignitaries. The procession was a long time in passing us. After it passed the White House and along the entire route previousiy designated, the President and other officials and many military men and civilians followed the bier of the unknown soldier to the National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia where with military and civil ceremonies, the body of the unknown soldier representing the American soldiers and sailors slain in the World War, was laid in its final resting place, a soldier’s grave in an American soldier’s cemetery. President Harding delivered the address at the grave of the deceased soldier. It was one of the most solemn and pathetic ceremonies throughout, ever witnessed by the citizens of Washington and others who were there. After the ceremonies, we, i.e., Mary, Nelle, Bernice and I who had witnessed the ceremonies returned home, sadder and much more weary than when we departed in the morning. We did not go to the burial of the Unknown Soldier at the Arlington Cemetery.

Chapter twenty-seven continued...