Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/79

Washington at the siege of Yorktown, and died November 5, 1781, aged twenty-eight. The son had his early home at Mount Vernon, pursued his classical studies at St. John's College and at Princeton, and remained a member of Washington's family until the death of Mrs. Washington in 1802, when he built Arlington House on an estate of 1,000 acres near Washington, which he had inherited from his father. After the death in 1852 of his sister, Eleanor Parke Custis, wife of Major Lawrence Lewis, he was the sole surviving member of Washington's family, and his residence was for many years a favorite resort, owing to the interesting relics of that family which it contained. Mr. Custis married in early life Mary Lee Fitzhugh, of Virginia, and left a daughter, who married Robert E. Lee. The Arlington estate was confiscated during the civil war, and is now held as national property and is the site of a national soldiers' cemetery. Mr. Custis was in his early days an eloquent and effective speaker. He wrote orations and plays, and during his latter years executed a number of large paintings of Revolutionary battles. His "Recollections of Washington," originally contributed to the "National Intelligencer," was published in book-form, with a memoir by his daughter and numerous notes by Benson J. Lossing (New York, 1860).