A journey through time.
In 1748, Lord Fairfax led an expedition to the region known as the “upper valley” of Virginia (now Jefferson County, West Virginia), a paradise of natural beauty hidden by the sheltering mountains. Lord Fairfax’s young surveyor, George Washington, was so enthralled with the splendor of the area that he staked out large claims for himself and exhorted his younger brothers Charles and Samuel to do likewise. And this they did. Charles Washington, also a surveyor, laid out a village in 1786 that he immodestly named Charles Town. Other Washingtons poured into the area until, by 1861, it was said that Jackson’s Stonewall Brigade, formed at Harpers Ferry, read like the Washington family tree.
By the mid 1800s, Jefferson County had become a highly civilized “squirearchy,” known on both sides of the Atlantic as a sanctuary of culture and taste. In Europe, Charles Town enjoyed a reputation as a literary colony. Large library collections supplied the intellectual stimulus for enlightened inquiry, and close proximity to Washington, DC, fueled a lively interest and involvement in national affairs.
Beallair Plantation and Gardens Thomas Beall (1748–1819) of Georgetown was the original builder of Beallair (also known as Beall Air) in the late 1700s. A friend of George Washington, Thomas Beall hosted the General in 1791 in his Georgetown residence during the planning of the new national capital. (In 1963, the Thomas Beall house in Georgetown was purchased by Mrs. John F. Kennedy when she left the White House.)
Thomas Beall’s daughter Elizabeth married George Corbin Washington (1789–1854) in 1807. Upon his death,Thomas Beall left Beallair to George and Elizabeth Washington, whose son Lewis moved to Beallair in 1840 at the age of 28, at which time he added the front portion of the mansion.
Lewis would soon meet Ella Moore Bassett, a direct descendant of George Washington’s sister. She grew up at the Bassett plantation, Clover Lea, not far from Richmond. She and Lewis later married at Clover Lea and settled at the Beallair plantation. The couple was part of an elite “royalty” in 19th-century Virginia society who could call themselves part of our nation’s founding family.
Lewis Washington became John Brown’s principal hostage in the famous raid in 1859 on the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Along with the capture of Colonel Lewis Washington, Brown and his men confiscated from Beallair a sword that once had belonged to Frederick the Great. U.S. Marines under the command of Robert E. Lee freed Lewis Washington two days later.
When the Civil War began, Lewis Washington led his own raid on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, stripping machinery and shipping it to Richmond. For this he was put on the Union wanted list. He and his recent bride, by then pregnant, fled Beallair to live with her parents at Clover Lea. During the Civil War, Ella’s husband represented the Confederacy on a special diplomatic mission to France, while her brothers fought in the Confederate army.
During her time at Clover Lea, Ella developed a warm friendship with Union cavalry General George Custer, whose troops encamped near Clover Lea. Custer set up guards at Clover Lea to prevent any Union troops from disturbing the estate. He then persuaded General Phillip Sheridan to give safe conduct to Ella to return to her beloved Beallair.
Upon her arrival in the spring of 1865, she found that the plantation had been treated as abandoned property and the furnishings had been confiscated. Ella learned that a necessary first step in the return of Beallair would be a presidential pardon for her husband, still in France. She took up residence in Georgetown and began a campaign for the pardon, appealing directly to the new president, Andrew Johnson, until the pardon was approved. In due course, Beallair and its furnishings were returned to the Washingtons, including a cash payment for missing items.
Although hundreds of former Confederates were clamoring for presidential pardon during the postwar months, the pardon for Lewis Washington was secured quickly and directly. This gained Ella some notoriety in Washington. Her distinguished lineage, charm, beauty, tenacity, and ability to persuade made Ella a popular figure in Washington society. She used her growing influence with President Johnson to seek pardons on behalf of many former Confederates.
Lewis and Ella Washington lived at Beallair until his death in 1871. Upon her death in 1898, Ella was celebrated in the local Charles Town paper as “a lady of rare conversational powers and decided literary culture.”
