History of Mount Airy, (Carroll County) Maryland United States of America

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Biographies:

George Washington Parke Custis Biographical Sketch

George Washington Parke Custis, author, was born at Mount Airy, Md., April 30, 1781. His father, John Parke Custis, was a stepson of George Washington and his aide-de-camp at the siege of Yorktown, Va. The son was brought up at Mount Vernon, and attended St. John's college, Annapolis, Md., and the College of New Jersey, but was not graduated. In 1802 he left Mr. Vernon and erected on the heights opposite Washington, D.C., on the large estate derived from his father, "Arlington House," a stately mansion which, previous to the civil war, was the home of Robert E. Lee, and after the war became the office of the National Cemetery, Arlington, Va. In early life he was married to Mary Lee Fitzhugh, and their daughter, Mary Randolph, became the wife of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Mr. Custis was a fluent speaker, an amateur playwright, painted several pictures of battles of the Revolution, and published Recollections of Washington in the National Republican, republished, with a memoir by his daughter and notes by B. J. Lossing, in 1860. He died at "Arlington House," Alexandria county, Va., Oct. 10, 1857.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor