ouse 14 Lafayette Square, now Jackson Place, still
standing but very much altered, was owned and occupied by Purser and
Mrs. Francis B. Stockton and the latter's sister, daughters of Captain
James McKnight of the Marine Corps and nieces of Commodore Stephen
Decatur. Purser Stockton once told me that he had purchased this home
for seven thousand dollars. The house prior to his ownership had been
the residence of a number of families of distinction, among others the
Southards and Monroes.

After giving up our home in New York I made a visit of some weeks to my
friends, the family of William Kemble, who was still residing on St.
John's Park in New York. While there we were invited to an old-fashioned
supper at the home of Mr. Peter Goelet, a bachelor, on the corner of
Nineteenth Street and Broadway, presided over by his sister, Mrs. Hannah
Greene Gerry. Upon the lawn of this house Mr. Goelet indulged his
ornithological tastes by a remarkable display of various species of
turkeys with their broods, together with peacocks and silver and golden
pheasants. As can be readily understood, this was a remarkable sight in
the heart of a great city, and caused much admiration from passers-by.

It has been said that at one time William W. Corcoran's father kept a
shoe store in Georgetown, and that the son, one of the most conspicuous
benefactors of the city of Washington, was very proud of the fact. I
have also heard it said, although I cannot vouch for the truth of the
statement, that the son cherished his father's business sign as one of
his valued possessions. Whether or not these allegations agree or
conflict with the explicit statement concerning his father made by
William W. Corcoran himself, is left for others to judge. The latter
wrote concerning his father: "Thomas Corcoran came to Baltimore in 1783,
and entered into the service of his uncle, William Wilson, as clerk,
beginning with a salary of fifty pounds sterling a year.... He brought
his family to Georgetown and commenced the shoe and leather business on
Congress Street," etc., etc. Be the facts as they may, a witticism of
William Thomas Carroll was a _bon mot_ of the day many years ago in
Washington. Upon being asked upon one occasion whether he knew the elder
Mr. Corcoran, he replied: "I have known him from first to _last_ and
from _last_ to first." Mr. Carroll for thirty-six years was Clerk of the
Supreme Court of the United States, and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney
pa