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Theodore Roosevelt

Oral History – Working at Oatlands

Tagged With: Bachelor Cottage, Edith Eustis, Mountain Gap School, Stilson Hutchins Hall, Theodore Roosevelt

Stilson Hutchins Hall was employed at Oatlands for several years before the Eustis family purchased Oatlands in 1903. Hall lived in a small cottage on the property, along with both his parents and his brother. Today, we call this quaint building the Bachelor’s Cottage. The two-story structure stands to the west of the mansion, and behind the greenhouse (still in existence, and the second oldest in the country).


Hall had firsthand knowledge of the extensive property renovations required to convert the dilapidated former plantation house into a country estate home fit to host honored guests, including a United States president!


What was it like growing up in the Oatlands community in the early 20th century? Working at Oatlands offered some special opportunities for one local working class boy. The following excerpt is taken from an interview conducted by Architectural Historian Thomas N. Slain, of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, on July 27, 1973. Hall describes what it was like to be a young boy and meet President Theodore Roosevelt!


“Mrs. Eustis sent us to Washington to meet Theodore Roosevelt when he was President and he took us into his study…He talked with us quite a while. He gave each of us a blank cartridge he got on the Russian-Japanese battlefield. I have mine at this time. Theodore Roosevelt talked to us like his own children. He had all kinds of guns, ammunitions and trophies that he had himself shot and mounted in his study. I didn’t at the time, but of course I realize now that he was so gracious to us because Mrs. Eustis had sent us there. Mrs. Eustis was a lady who usually got what she wanted. That is not critically speaking—she knew what she wanted.”


During Hall’s lifetime, the community of Oatlands was largely agricultural and consisted of a busy blacksmith’s shop doing repair work for farmers–fixing their wagons, small machinery, and shoeing horses.


He describes Edith Eustis as being a woman who was very connected to the community and wanted ways to bring people of the community together. She built and paid for the parish house at Oatlands and was largely responsible for getting a minister to preach in that parish house. Edith was also very interested in education and personally supplemented the salaries of the teachers of the Mountain Gap School for a number of years in order to ensure that students benefited from college educated teachers.

Hall and his brother received their early education at the Mountain Gap School. The one-room school house stands along route 15, just north of Oatlands. He advanced to the Leesburg High School around 1908.

Mountain Gap School, 2020


Hall mentions in the interview, “…every time I set foot on Oatlands I think I’m setting foot on ground that’s hallowed to me. I was very young when I went there, I never associated with rich people…or seen them at least… And to get to Washington to see the President of the United States…well, I had a high regard for the President of the United Sates, at that time. I was thinking he was king…and a man of morals…”


We’re lucky for all the interviews and oral histories collected for Oatlands through the years. The bank of our knowledge depends on the accumulation of their experiences to better interpret our 200-year-old history.

The Roosevelt Connection

Tagged With: engagement, Eustis, letters, Levi P. Morton, love, Theodore Roosevelt

Young Edith Morton

Following the announcement of their engagement in 1900, William Corcoran Eustis, and Edith Morton experienced an avalanche of congratulatory letters. One in particular caught our eye.

The author of the letter seems sentimental, referencing a poem, the final line of which is, “love is best.” Who could this romantic be?

Roosevelt
Roosevelt

Is that what it looks like? You better believe it! Edith received a sweet letter from then Governor of New York, Theodore Roosevelt.

Edith enjoyed impeccable connections; her father, Levi P. Morton, served as the 22nd Vice President under Benjamin Harrison.

While we certainly agree with Teddy’s sentiment that, “Nothing in the world in any way compares with happy love”, finding letters like these comes close!

See the complete letter below:


Dear Miss Morton, March 25, 1900

You have touched and pleased me very much by writing me of your engagement; will you think me very old-fashioned if I say, of your great happiness? Nothing in the world in any way compares with happy love. Do you know or care for Browning’s “Love among the Ruins”? Give my warm regards and heartiest congratulations to Mr. Eustis. I feel as though I were fairly well acquainted with the whole Eustis family. Indeed, if by any possibility I can, I shall be at your wedding. Mrs. Roosevelt is away in Cuba, whither she has gone with a very nice Louisiana fellow, John McIlhenny, a lieutenant in my regiment, in her train[?].

Faithfully yours,

Theodore Roosevelt

Governor Roosevelt illustrates his own interesting affiliations when he mentions his close friend, and fellow Rough Rider, John McIlhenny. If this name appears familiar, take note when next you see a bottle of Tabasco sauce.

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