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Daughter of the Gilded Age – Edith Eustis

Experience the Gilded Age at Oatlands!

This special Afternoon Tea will be held in the Drawing room at Oatlands’ Mansion, a room decorated in the style of Edith Eustis.

Enjoy a delicious menu, including champagne, and enjoy costumed interpreters who will make the event seem that much more authentic.

See a special exhibit of vintage clothing in the Carriage House.

  • Oatlands Gilded Age Tea
    Gilded Age Tea
    $150.00
    Purchase

Daughter of the Guilded Age

Edith Eustis’ early years

Edith Livingston Morton was born into a family of wealth and social prominence in 1874.  She was well educated and expected to marry, have a family and take her place in society.  Her mother raised her five daughters not only to enjoy and lead society, but also to “be responsible ….”

Anna Livingston Reade Street Morton with daughters including Edith shown holding a doll.

Levi_Morton

Edith’s father, Levi Parsons Morton, was wealthy and powerful. He was Vice-President of the United States and then Governor of New York during the Gilded Age.

Levi Parsons Morton, ca. 1876

The Gilded Age refers to the period after the Civil War to roughly the year 1900. The term was purportedly coined to refer to a metaphorical thin layer of gold that covered a society with many problems. It may also refer to the accumulation of immense wealth by a handful of families. The Morton family’s Rhinebeck, New York residence, Ellerslie, is where Edith spent part of her early years.

Ellerslie, Rhinebeck, N.Y.

Edith was educated in New York and France (1881-1885) when her father served as U.S. Minister to France.

Edith Morton is shown here at age 16 in 1890 with her diploma.

The opulence of the Gilded Age is the world that a young Edith Morton entered as she came out into society toward the turn of the 20th century.

Edith was accomplished in social skills but she also had interests of her own. She was described as a “brilliant pianist” in a Washington Post article. She wrote an article entitled “Why Should Girls Have Nothing to do?” for the journal Charities, and she later wrote a novel, Marion Manning.

Edith in 1895 at age 21.

Edith married William Corcoran Eustis on April 30, 1900 at Grace Church in New York City.

The Eustises lived at the Corcoran mansion on Lafayette Square across from the White House.  There she carried out her social duties as a respected Washington Hostess.  These social gatherings might be a tea or party at her house or being a guest of the French Ambassador and Mrs. Jusserand to honor the Russian Ambassador.

New York Times excerpt, 1900

Mansion 1904
Mansion 1904

In 1904 Edith and William Eustis purchased the run-down Oatlands Mansion and acres of land to use as a country home and horse property.

Edith wanted to restore the original home, not re-work it to suit any trendy fashions. She updated the overgrown walled garden to reflect a European pleasure garden while maintaining most of the original infrastructure of the garden. Read more about the garden.

Oatlands Mansion, 1904

Dinner Theatre

by StageCoach Theatre Company and Pure Perfection Catering

Dearly Beloved and Departed

A Murder Mystery Party
Written by Terry Smith
Produced by Jerri Wiseman

Directed by R. Aaron Thompson

Drucilla and Chuck invite you to the wedding of the century. The richest woman in the world, Drucilla Long, is getting married to a nobody – a true rags-to-riches story.  But in the middle of her wedding, tragedy strikes. Drucilla never makes it to the altar. Was it the mother-in-law, a mafia hit gone wrong, or something more sinister? Come listen to clues, participate in the mystery, and find the murderer before they kill again.

Performances will be held June – August 2022.

Oatlands in Leesburg – June 4, 18, 25, July 2, 23.
Doors and Buffet at 6:30pm. Show at 7:15pm. Please arrive at 6:30pm.

$70 ticket price includes buffet dinner catered by Pure Perfection and the show. Beer, wine, cocktails and canned sodas will be available for separate purchase. [MenuBaby Spinach, Cucumber, and Tomato with Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing, Braised Beef Bourguignon with Carrots, Onions, and Mushrooms, Chicken Piccata with Lemon Caper Sauce, Rice Pilaf, Grilled Vegetables, Strawberry Mousse Cake, Soft Rolls with Butter, Coffee and Iced Tea Station] StageCoach Theatre requires proof of vaccination and an ID at the door. We ask that you wear masks when not seated at your table. All StageCoach Theatre actors and staff involved with the show are fully vaccinated. We must keep the safety of our patrons and staff a priority.

Dearly Beloved and Departed – A Murder Mystery Party
02 July 2022

Dearly Beloved and Departed – A Murder Mystery Party

The Carriage House, 20850 Oatlands Plantation Lane
Leesburg, Virginia 20175
+ Google Map
$70.00
Find out more
Dearly Beloved and Departed – A Murder Mystery Party
23 July 2022

Dearly Beloved and Departed – A Murder Mystery Party

The Carriage House, 20850 Oatlands Plantation Lane
Leesburg, Virginia 20175
+ Google Map
$70.00
Find out more
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Martin Buchanan, Civil War

Tagged With: Civil War, Military

Martin Buchanan left Oatlands in 1863 and enlisted in Company G of the 2nd United States Colored Infantry. He served throughout the Civil War. He returned to Loudoun, bought property in nearby Gleedsville, and raised a family there. A descendant of the Buchanans has served their country in every war since.

Philip, John & James Buchanan, WWII

Tagged With: Military, WWII

Three of Martin Buchanan’s grandsons, served in World War II. From left to right: Philip in the Navy; John in the Army; and James in the Air Force. James, shown here in his chauffeur uniform, worked as a chauffeur for the Eustis and Finley families until the early 1970s.

William Eustis, WWI

Tagged With: Eustis, Military, WWI

William Eustis served as the personal secretary to General Pershing during the First World War.

Valentine B. Johnson, WWI

Tagged With: Military, Oatlands History, Virginia History, WWI

Valentine B. Johnson served during World War I and made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. He was killed during the War and is memorialized on the WWI monument on the courthouse lawn. Sadly, he and his cousin, Sandy Johnson, as well as African American men across the country,were honored for their war service on monuments that segregate their names from the white soldiers who served. Despite fighting for their country, the war’s survivors returned home to segregated schools, restaurants, and other barriers that did not recognize them as equal citizens.

George Carter and the Introduction of Slavery at Oatlands

Robert King Carter
Robert Carter I

George Carter’s grandfather, Robert “King” Carter, started the Carter family dynasty in Virginia. He was born at Corotoman Plantation in Lancaster County, Virginia, to John Carter (1613–1669) of London, England, and Sarah Ludlow (1635–1668) of Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire, immigrants to the colony of Virginia.

At age 28, Robert Carter entered the General Assembly of Virginia as a Burgess from Lancaster County. In 1726, as President of the Governor’s Council, he served as acting Governor of Virginia after the death of Governor Hugh Drysdale. As an agent of Lord Fairfax – Carter served two terms totaling nearly 20 years, as agent for the Fairfax Proprietary of the Northern Neck of Virginia. He began to acquire large tracts of land for himself in the Rappahannock River region of Virginia. Carter acquired some 20,000 acres (81 km2), including the 6,000-acre (24 km2) Nomini Hall Plantation, also spelled “Nomoni” or “Nominy.”

When Carter became representative of Fairfax’s interests again in 1722, serving from 1722 to 1732, he secured for his children and grandchildren about 110,000 acres in the Northern Neck, as well as additional land in Virginia west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Carter died on 4 August 1732, in Lancaster County, Virginia. He was buried there at Christ Church. He left his family 300,000 acres of land; 3,000 slaves, counted as personal property; and £10,000 in cash, as stated in the academic genealogical study, A Genealogy of the Known Descendants of Robert Carter of Corotoman (1982), written by Florence Tyler Carlton.

Image source: “Robert Carter I.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, July 31, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Carter_I#/media/File:Robert_Carter_I.JPG.

Robert Councilor Carter III
Robert Carter III

Robert Carter III was the grandson of Robert “King” Carter. Also known as Councilor Carter because of his service on the Governor’s council in Williamsburg, one of the large landholdings Robert Carter III inherited from his father was the 11,000 acre Goose Creek tract in Loudoun County. Councilor never lived on the tract; rather, he leased the land to numerous tenant farmers who paid him an annual rent.

In addition to the Goose Creek tract, Councilor had numerous landholdings throughout Virginia, encompassing tens of thousands of acres, and he enslaved over 500 people. Over the course of his life, he came to view slavery as immoral and in 1791 he filed a Deed of Emancipation in Northumberland County, Virginia, for the gradual manumission of the people he enslaved. The laws at that time permitted enslavers to free the people they held in bondage as long as certain conditions were met. Councilor’s “Deed of Gift”, as it is known, is believed to be the largest private emancipation in American history, and one that is not well-known.

George Carter Portrait
George Carter

None of Carter’s ten surviving children shared their father’s belief about the institution of slavery. In 1798, his son, George Carter, inherited 3,400 acres of the Goose Creek tract and landholdings in Fairfax and Prince William counties. By the 1800 census, George is recorded as enslaving 17 people on his Loudoun property.  It was on this land that he established his farm that he named Oatlands and constructed on Goose Creek a large grist mill, saw mill, nail factory, and the county’s only known oil mill for pressing flaxseed. In 1817 he successfully petitioned his neighbor and newly-elected president, James Monroe, to establish a post office at the mill site. This enclave of businesses became a thriving commercial hub which continued into the mid-20th century.

George Carter’s success as a farmer and businessman was dependent on enslaved labor. Enslaved men, women and children farmed the land, tended the 4 ½ acres of garden near the house, cared for the family, and probably worked at the mills.  The number of people held in bondage grew from 17 in 1800 to 133 recorded in the 1860 census, right before the start of the American Civil War.

Carter died in 1846, and his wife Elizabeth O. Carter continued to run the plantation as her husband did – with the help of overseers, farm managers, and enslaved labor. She kept a diary from 1861 to 1872, recording the temperature, wind direction, and everyday activities at Oatlands and Bellefield, her other plantation that was near Upperville. Her entries include numerous references to certain enslaved people, probably those who were domestic slaves with proximity to the family and those who provided domestic or personal tasks outside of the house. From the diary we get a glimpse of life during and after the Civil War.

Elizabeth O. Carter Portrait
Elizabeth O. Carter
Basil Turner
Bazil Turner
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Guided Tours by appointment.

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20850 Oatlands Plantation Lane
Leesburg, VA 20175
Tel: 703-727-0670

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