Page:Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state (Vol. I).djvu/59

Rh to any, in that it made possible a record of the service given to their city by other women of Columbus as well.

MARGARET BLENNERHASSETT was not born in Ohio nor did she die there. Yet to omit from a history sponsored by newswomen the romantic tale of Blennerhassett Island and its high born and equally high strung mistress would outrage the journalistic instincts of every newspaper woman worthy of her craft.

For if ever a story dripped with human interest, it is that of the lovely lady who with her husband, Harman Blennerhassett, a direct descendant of King Edward III of England, took up residence in 1798 on the upper end of what was then known as Backus Island, in the Ohio River 14 miles below Marietta, Ohio.

Not only was Harman Blennerhassett of the line of English kings but also of Irish peers. This was moreover, a descent which his wife also could have claimed, had she so desired.

She did not and no wonder. Margaret Blennerhassett was her husband’s niece. She was the daughter of his sister, who was the wife of Captain Robert Agnew, Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man.

When Harman Blennerhassett was 31, handsome, talented, intellectual and heir to a fine estate, his sister happened to ask him to escort his niece home from school for her vacation. Harman complied, no more willingly perhaps than does the average brother on whom some such little job is wished. If so, his feeling changed rapidly. For when the 31 year old uncle and the 18 year old niece reached home, they were man and wife. This curious core of the full flavored story was not publicly disclosed until many years after the ill-starred principals were dead and buried.

Other high lights had been told and retold many times when, in the Century Magazine in 1901, Therese Blennerhassett Adams, a descendant, revealed in print the reason why Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett sought escape in the new world from the scandal they had planted in the old.

So—Blennerhassett sold all he had to his cousin, afterward Lord Ventrv, for the lump sum of $160,000.00 and started with his wife for America. For ensuing developments as well as for the romantic details already given, the editor is indebted to a booklet “ Blennerhassett Island and the Burr Conspiracy,” by Norris Schneider, recently published at Zanesville, Ohio.

In this colorful brochure the author describes how the exiled bride and groom sought a home in the west. How they went down the Ohio River In a keel boat, spent the winter at Marietta, enjoyed the country and its people so much that they finally decided to buy— for $4,500.00 — a tract of 170 acres occupying the upper stretch of Backus —which Blennerhassett renamed Beau Pre—Island.

The mansion they built there is also described in the pamphlet. Completed in 1800, it cost more than $40,000 .00. And this was $40,000.00 at its buying