March 2022
GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND Happy Tombstone Tuesday
I did some traveling last week and one of the places I wanted to visit was Gathland State Park, 900 Arnoldstown Road, Jefferson MD. I wanted to see the tomb of George Alfred Townsend and visit his home which is also the home of a large stone monument dedicated to the memory of Civil war correspondents. The A. T. (Appalachian Trail) also passes through Gathland. It’s a great place to park and hike a portion of the trail. George was born on 30 January 1841 in Georgetown, Delaware. Son of Stephan and Mary Milbourne Townsend. He married Elizabeth Evans Rhodes (1842-1903)in 1865 they had 2 children. They made their home on an estate they called Gapland in Crampton’s Gap on South Mountain, Maryland. Townsend became a household name in the U.S.A. when in April of 1865, he reported on President Abraham Lincoln's assassination at Ford’s Theater by the stage actor John Wilkes Booth. As Booth and his co-conspirators attempted to escape capture, Gath rushed to Washington to report on this national news. From April 17 until May 17, Gath reported on Booth’s capture and death and the capture and executions of his co-conspirators. Using his political connections, Townsend was able to interview high-level military and government personnel, police detectives, and eyewitnesses. He attended the co-conspirators’ trials, heard their verdicts, and watched their executions by hanging. Overall, Gath wrote nine “Letters” to the New York World, describing and analyzing the events that followed President Lincoln’s death. Shortly after, Gath’s “Letters” were bound together and published as The Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth (1865). As one of the few first-hand accounts of the Lincoln assassination, Gath’s book is a rare primary source of information used by many Lincoln scholars even today. George built several buildings on his estate including a mausoleum. Over the door, there is an inscription “Good Night Gath”. George died 15 April 1914 at his daughter’s home in New York City. He and his wife are buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pa
The arch was completed in 1896, at fifty feet tall and forty feet wide, this monument has many architectural themes that were incorporated into the drawing stage. Looking at the monument today, you can see how Gath also incorporated his love for art and nature. In her book “George Alfred Townsend,” Ruthanna Hindes describes the monument best: “Above a Moorish arch sixteen feet high, built of Hummelstown purple stone are super-imposed three Roman arches. These are flanked on one side with a square crenelated tower, producing a bizarre and picturesque effect. Niches in different places shelter the carving of two horses’ heads, and symbolic terra cotta statuettes of Mercury, Electricity, and Poetry. Tables under the horses’ heads bear the suggestive words “Speed” and “Heed”; the heads are over the Roman arches. The three Roman arches are made of limestone from Creek Battlefield, Virginia, and each is nine feet high and six feet wide. These arches represent Description, Depiction, and Photography.” “The aforementioned tower contains a statue of Pan with the traditional pipes, and he is either half drawing or sheathing a Roman sword. Over a small turret on the opposite side of the tower is a gold vane of a pen bending a sword. At various places on the monument are quotations appropriate to the art of war correspondence. These are from a great variety of sources beginning with Old Testament verses. Perhaps the most striking feature of all are the tablets inscribed with the names of 157 correspondents and war artists who saw and described in narrative and picture almost all the events of the four years of the war.” [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12613560/george-alfred-townsend] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Alfred_Townsend] [http://allenbrowne.blogspot.com/2012/05/empty-tomb-and-lost-monument.html] [https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=2038](https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=2038) [https://southmountaincw.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/tell-it-not-to-gath-a-brief-biography-of-george-alfred-townsend/
