ach trees. Cotton was grown
there which was the color of nankeen; it was spun, woven, and used in
its natural color, without being dyed. Also, there was grown a variety
of maize of deep purple color, used as a dye.

John Mason had also a town house which we shall mention later. He, like
most of the men in this community, was engaged in the business of
shipping tobacco. The majority of his trade seems to have been with
France, from letters of his father to him, in which the great George
offered to help out his son in his shipments by letting him have some of
the hogsheads he had on hand.

John Mason had been a general in the Revolution, and was at the head of
the militia here, and also owned a ferry operating to the Virginia shore
from the foot of High Street (Wisconsin Avenue). The ferry was worked by
a great iron chain.

In 1835 Analostan Island was purchased by William A. Bradley, nephew of
the Abraham Bradley who came to Washington with the Government in 1800
as Assistant Postmaster General. For many years it was a wilderness,
with only traces showing of its once famous house, but not long ago it
was purchased by the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Association.

Robert Peter's house stood on High Street (Wisconsin Avenue), about
where Grace Church now stands. He owned the whole block between Congress
(31st) Street and High Street (Wisconsin Avenue), up to Bridge (M)
Street. It was called Peter's Square. At the age of forty, after he had
lived nearly fifteen years in George Town, he married Elizabeth Scott,
the daughter of George Scott, High Sheriff of Prince George County. They
had eight children.

Their eldest son, Thomas, was married in 1795 to Martha Parke Custis,
the second granddaughter of Mrs. Washington. The bride was sixteen, the
groom twenty-seven. The wedding took place at Hope Park near Fairfax
Court House, where Martha's mother, the former Eleanor Calvert (Mrs.
John Parke Custis), had been living since she became the wife of David
Stuart, one of the Commissioners laying out the City of Washington.
Soon after their marriage, Mr. Peter gave to Thomas and his wife one of
the six houses he had built for his sons on lots across Rock Creek in
the new city. The one he gave them was 2618 K Street, and is still
standing. It was there that General Washington stayed with the young
couple so often. Martha was very lovely in appearance, and very devoted
to her step-grandfather, and he, apparently, to her.

Robert P