WEDDED CHRISTMAS DAY – A very pretty at-home wedding took place at Oatlands, Loudoun county, on Monday morning last…. being Mr. Morgan Beach, of Alexandria, and Miss Elizabeth Grayson Carter, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Carter, of Oatlands. After the ceremony an elegant wedding breakfast was served.
Alexandria [VA] Gazette, Dec. 28, 1893
Loudoun County, Virginia
Scenic Loudoun County, bordered by the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west and the Potomac River to the north and east, is Virginia hunt, horse, and wine country. Dozens of wedding venues – including wineries, farms, and historic manors – dot its mostly-bucolic landscape. Oatlands Historic Home and Gardens, located on the eastern slope of Hog Back Mountain at Goose Creek just south of Leesburg, is centered around a restored ca. 1804 Federal-style mansion and features beautiful terraced gardens, outbuildings of varied ages and states of repair, and eight miles of trails. As a National Historic Landmark, marriage ceremonies at Oatlands are rare occurrences. In 1893, however, “a very pretty at-home wedding took place” in the salon of the Oatlands manor house.
Oatlands in the late 19th Century
Once-widowed and childless Elizabeth O. Grayson Lewis (family reference 114) married 58-year old bachelor George Tasker Carter of Oatlands in 1835. Two sons survived to adulthood, both still boys upon their father’s death in 1846. Confederate sympathizer Elizabeth’s preserved Civil War-era diary concisely depicts day to day life at Oatlands, home to 15 or more extended family members and, in 1860, more than 100 enslaved laborers and domestic servants.
Elizabeth’s oldest son George Carter (1142, 1838-1926) married neighbor Kate Whiting Powell (1839-1903) in 1863. Their four children were all born at Oatlands. Each knew and were influenced by their grandmother before she passed away in 1885 at age 88. Namesake Elizabeth Grayson Carter 11422, born in 1867, is called “Gracie” in the diary.
Rev. Sewell Hepburn
Episcopal Rev. Sewell S. Hepburn, who from 1871-1875 rode circuit to various church missions around Leesburg, is mentioned four times in Elizabeth’s diary. Rev. Hepburn wrote about his experiences at Oatlands:1
“Mrs. [Kate Powell] Carter was a relative of Mrs. [Selina Powell] Hepburn, and a woman of rare character. Through her zeal and wise planning, an abandoned blacksmith’s shop, just out of the lawn and near the overseer’s house, had been fitted up for a chapel, and here I was to have service once a month. It was the only organized religious gathering for the immediate community at that time, which was ‘the day of small things.’ …. Oatlands is on the pike from Leesburg to Aldie, and borders Goose Creek. It is one of the most valuable and attractive plantations of the many in Loudoun. It embraces twelve to fifteen hundred acres of unusually fine land. The family dwelling is one to please the most fastidious taste. The walk-in, terraced garden is . . . a charm. In the lawn, a grove of forest trees adds greatly to the attractiveness of the place.… Oatlands had not suffered materially in the war. It was still in good physical condition. The great retinue of servants had been depleted; still, there were enough to meet the demands of the place.… My work here was most pleasant, made so by the family owning the place. Oatlands became my headquarters when in the neighborhood. From there I radiated through the surrounding country.”
A Christmas Wedding
Maintaining Oatlands was a money drain for George and Kate Carter. They utilized the mansion for a girls school for a time and, later, a boarding house, both with limited success. They had likely already decided to sell the main house and much of its acreage when 26-year old daughter Gracie Carter met 32-year old Morgan Beach, an Alexandria attorney and graduate of Yale and the University of Virginia Law School, whose forebears were Connecticut Unionists. The couple were engaged a mere two weeks.
“WEDDED CHRISTMAS DAY – A very pretty at-home wedding took place at Oatlands, Loudoun county, on Monday morning last…. being Mr. Morgan Beach, of Alexandria, and Miss Elizabeth Grayson Carter, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Carter, of Oatlands. After the ceremony an elegant wedding breakfast was served.” 2
In 1993, Oatlands historic site staff opened the house for special Christmas season tours, decorating the home and reenacting the 1893 wedding based on family written and oral history, including Kate Carter’s diary and Grace Carter Beach’s memoirs. According to the latter, “The day before Christmas, the walls and portraits were decked with holly, crowfoot, and ivy. The mistletoe was hung from the chandeliers and over every doorway, and there were many doorways at Oatlands. The tree was… never trimmed until Christmas Eve. We never had any candles on the tree as Mother was afraid of fire, but we had everything else – yards of colored paper chains, paper flowers made by us, lots of the little lady apples strung on red or silver thread, little dolls dressed in finery, colored balls and… yards and yards of popcorn strings as we thought this made the tree look snowy.” 3
George and Kate Carter sold Oatlands mansion and 60 surrounding acres in 1897, living out their lives at “Little Oatlands,” a smaller home on the property. The manor house and gardens were beautifully restored by the wealthy Eustis family in the early 1900s, whose descendants donated the house and property to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1964.
“It was precisely 9:45 o’clock when the bride entered upon the arm of her father, becomingly attired in a white peau de soie gown, white tulle veil caught up with lilies of the valley, and carrying a white prayer book bound with silver. Only members of the families and a few of the most intimate friends of the young people witnessed the ceremony…. An elegant wedding breakfast was served after which the bride donned a stylish traveling dress, and the party were driven to Leesburg, where they took the train at 1 o’clock for a trip. Upon their return they will make their home in Alexandria.” 2
Grace and Morgan Beach had four children, and had been married 45 years when Morgan, longtime Clerk of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, passed away at age 77. Grace Carter Beach followed in 1949 at age 81.
1 Rev. Hepburn quoted in: Adams, Augusta, The Church of Our Savior, Oatlands, Virginia, © 2001 Church of Our Savior, Hamilton, VA pgs. 3-6. Sewell and Selina Hepburn are the grandparents of actress Katherine Hepburn.
2 “Wedded Christmas Day,” Alexandria Gazette, Dec. 28, 1893
3 Calos, Katherine “Oatlands Plantation Christmas Wedding,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, Nov. 14, 1993 pg. H1
No Comments