Tag Archives: Mary Shelley

Suddath / Van Valkenburgh House

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The citrus grove featured the first Satsumas in North America. Robert Bruce Van Valkenburgh had brought them from Japan. He’d raised 17 volunteer regiments for the Union in the Civil War, included the one he commanded at Antietam. The Suddaths called this rambling house home for 70 years and dug old bottles from the bluff. Jessica climbed the roof as a child. 

The Grave of Confederate General Joseph Finegan

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The stone lamb lacks a head. The titled stone says, without dates or surnames, “JOSEPHINE and her LITTLE BROTHER.” Confederate Lost-Causers still tend the grave of Joseph Finegan.

What happened to Finegan’s plantation house during the Civil War was poetic justice.

The stone angel looked down over Diana when she visited the Livingstons’ grave like Mary Shelley visited the grave of her mother.