To James Madison from Lawrence T. Dade and Others, 24 June 1827
From Lawrence T. Dade and Others
24th June 1827
Sir
The citizens of Orange Court House and its vicinity, intend to celebrate the anniversary of American Independence at the Orange Hotel; and most respectfully request your company on that Occasion
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM: “Dade L. & others.”
1. Edmund Pendleton Taylor (1791–1840) was a physician who lived at his plantation, Meadowfarm, north of Orange, Virginia, and at Spring Garden in the town of Orange Court House. He treated Dolley Madison’s eye malady in 1836 (Mary Taylor Brewer, From Log Cabins to the White House: A History of the Taylor Family [Wooton, Ky., 1985], 347; Miller, Antebellum Orange, 26; Anna Coles Payne to John Payne Todd, 14 Sept. 1836, ).
2. Thomas Towles Slaughter (1804–90) was an Orange County, Virginia, physician and surgeon and near relation to JM on William Madison’s side (Chapman, “Who Was Buried in James Madison’s Grave?,” 271; Philip Slaughter, A History of St. Mark’s Parish, Culpeper County, Virginia, with Notes of Old Churches and Old Families […] [Baltimore, 1877], 159; , glossary).
3. Richard Meriwether Chapman (1789–1858) was a justice of the peace and a trustee of the town of Orange Court House (, glossary).
4. Philip S. Fry (1801–59) was deputy clerk of Orange County, Virginia, 1817–44, with the exception of two years between 1830 and 1835, when he was in Kentucky. He served as county clerk from 1844 until his death (F. Johnston, comp., Memorials of Old Virginia Clerks, Arranged Alphabetically by Counties […] [Lynchburg, Va., 1888], 271–73).
5. Lawrence Hay Taliaferro, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, served as a major in the Mexican War until ill health forced him to retire (George S. Jack, History of Roanoke County, and E. B. Jacobs, History of Roanoke City and History of the Norfolk & Western Railway Company [Roanoke, Va., 1912], 194–95).