Georgetown sixty-four
years, coming there when eighteen years of age. He was for many years
chief steward of Union Hotel, and a remarkable man, respected and
honored by everybody. When he died, the press of the district noticed,
in a most prominent manner, his life and character. From one of the
extended obituary notices, marked with heavy black lines, the
following paragraph is copied:

"He was among the last surviving representatives of the old
school of well-bred, confidential, and intelligent domestics, and
was widely known at home and abroad from his connection, in the
capacity of steward for a long series of years, and probably from
its origin, and until a recent date, with the Union Hotel,
Georgetown, with whose guests, for successive generations, his
benevolent and venerable aspect, dignified and obliging manners,
and moral excellence, rendered him a general favorite."

Maria Becraft was marked, from her childhood, for her uncommon
intelligence and refinement, and for her extraordinary piety. She was
born in 1805, and first went to school for a year to Henry Potter, in
Washington, about 1812; afterward attending Mrs. Billing's school
constantly till 1820. She then, at the age of fifteen, opened a school
for girls in Dunbarton Street, in Georgetown, and gave herself to the
work, which she loved, with the greatest assiduity, and with uniform
success. In 1827, when she was twenty-two years of age, her remarkable
beauty and elevation of character so much impressed Father Vanlomen,
the good priest, that he took it in hand to give her a higher style of
school in which to work for her sex and race, to the education of
which she had now fully consecrated herself. Her school was
accordingly transferred to a larger building, which still stands on
Fayette Street, opposite the convent, and there she opened a boarding
and day school for Colored girls, which she continued with great
success till August, 1831, when she surrendered her little seminary
into the care of one of the girls that she had trained, and in October
of that year joined the convent at Baltimore as a Sister of
Providence, where she was the leading teacher till she died, in
December, 1833, a great loss to that young institution, which was
contemplating this noble young woman as its future Mother Superior.
Her seminary in Georgetown averaged from thirty to thirty-five pupils,
and there are those living who remember th