History of Narragansett Pier, (Washington County) Rhode Island United States of America

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Biographies:

Varina Anne Davis, author, was born in the executive mansion of the Southern Confederacy, Richmond, Va., June 27, 1864; daughter of Jefferson and Varina (Howell) Davis. She was educated chiefly by her father and mother and studied the French and German languages and literature abroad, principally at Carlsruhe, Baden, in Germany, and in Paris. She became known as "the Daughter of the Confederacy," the name having been given her by Gen. John B. Gordon. This adoption by an entire people brought her prominently forward at reunions and other public meetings in the south. She was in Paris when her father died on Dec. 6, 1891, and on her return to America she located with her mother in New York city and from there made frequent journeys in Europe and the East. At the assembling of Confederate veterans at Atlanta. Ca., July 21, 1898, she was the guest of honor and during the ceremony she was exposed to a sudden shower which caused the illness resulting in her death. She was accorded a public funeral at Richmond which was without precedent as an expression of grief for the loss of an American woman. She received sepulture in Hollywood cemetery by the side of her illustrious father, and the Daughters of the Confederacy and some of the Confederate camps, assisted by the contributions of her friends in the North and West, erected a suitable tomb to her memory. Her more notable contributions to current literature were: Snake Myths; The Women of the South Before the War, and The Home Life of Jefferson Davis. She published Life of Robert Emmett and two novels: The Veiled Doctor (1892); and A Romance of Summer Seas (1898). She died at Narragansett Pier, R.I., Sept..18, 1898.

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

Harriet Lane Johnston, niece of President Buchanan, was born in Mercersburg, Pa., in 1833; daughter of Elliot T. and Jane (Buchanan) Lane, and granddaughter of James and Elizabeth (Speer) Buchanan. James Buchanan immigrated to America from the north of Ireland in 1783, and settled near Mercersburg, Pa. His eldest son was James Buchanan, fifteenth President of the United States. Harriet Lane's mother died in 1840, and her father in 1842, and she became an inmate of the beautiful home of her bachelor uncle at "Wheatland." She was educated at the Convent of the Visitation, Georgetown, D.C. She visited England in 1852 with her uncle, who had been appointed U.S. minister to the court of St. James, where she was received into English society; becoming an unusual favorite with the queen. She also travelled on the continent, spending two months with the family of U.S. Minister Mason in Paris, France. When her uncle was inaugurated President in 1857, she became the mistress of the White House and her success was immediate and permanent. She received a visit from the Prince of Wales in 1860, and as the first lady of the administration, she accompanied the President when he escorted the prince on his visit to the tomb of Washington at Mt. Vernon, and on the return home of the prince, the queen acknowledged the courtesy extended in an autograph letter to Miss Lane, while the prince addressed his thanks to the President, and sent to Miss Lane a set of engravings of the royal family. At the close of the administration she resumed her duties of hostess at "Wheatland." She was married in January, 1866, to Henry Elliot Johnston, and after several weeks in Cuba, she assumed new duties at her home in Baltimore, Md. Her son, James Buchanan Johnston, died in March, 1881, when fourteen years old, and her other son, with her husband, subsequently. She inherited the estate of her uncle and divided her time between Baltimore and "Wheatland" until after the death of her husband, when she removed to England, She died at Narragansett Pier, R.I., July 3, 1903.

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

Isaac Myer, lawyer and author, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., March 5, 1836; son of Isaac and Margaretta (Shade) Myer; grandson of Benjamin and Sarah (Riggs) Myer and of Peter and Susannah (Warner) Shade, and a descendant of Martin Janszen Myer and of Edward Riggs, whose son Sargeant, Edward Riggs, fought in the Pequot war with the men from Roxbury, and settled in Newark, N.J., in 1666. Martin Janszen Myer emigrated to America from Holland in 1653 or earlier, and was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, and Edward Riggs emigrated from Nazing parish, Waltham Abbey, Essex county, England, in the spring of 1633, and settled in Roxbury, Mass. He was originally of the Anglican Church but emigrated as a Puritan. Isaac attended the academies of Philadelphia, was graduated from the law department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1857, and practised in Philadelphia and New York. He was married in June, 1889, to Mary H. (Abbott) Sharpsteen, then of New York. He was U.S. commissioner of western Pennsylvania in 1863 et seq. He was elected to membership in numerous societies, including the Numismatic and Antiquarian society; the Royal Numismatic society of Belgium; the New England society, the Holland society, the Society of Colonial wars, the Huguenot Society of America; the American Oriental society; the New York and Pennsylvania historical societies, and the Society of American Authors. His library, which was rich in Oriental subjects and included many valuable manuscripts of his own, he bequeathed to the Lenox library. He devoted himself to literary and arch?ological work and is the author of: Presidential Power over Personal Liberty (1862); The Waterloo Medal (1885); The Qabbalah; The Philosophy of Ibn Gebirol, or Avice-bron (1888); On Dreams by Synesius (1888); Scarabs (1894); The Oldest Books in the World; Taken from the Papyri and Monuments (1900). He died at Narragansett Pier, R.I., Aug. 2, 1902.

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