Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-06-16
MARY wAsHINeToNs TOMB.
A visit to the Grave of the Mother of
the ''Father of His Country"

A visit to the Grave of the Mother Of
the "Father of His Country"
Driven by "de man what knows mo-
bout F'ed'icksbu'g N emmy oder coach
man bout cher (about here), if the evil
dence of brother hackmen be of value, we
seek the burial place of Mary, the mother
of Washington.
The legend of the unfinished monument
is familiar to us all, as is the history of the
various attempts to revive in the hearts of
the American people active interest in the
work of repairing the wrong, done to
motherhood and to the memory of our
greatest chieftain. Yet we are conscious
of a shock when the carriage draws up
within few feet of the grave. A square
construction, seemingly composed of un-
mortared blocks of marble, supports Co
rinthian pillars set between BCttressed
corners. There are two columns upon each
of three sides; from the fourth, one is
missing. A marble obelisk, blackened by
mold and stained by the SHOWS and rains
of fifty-nine years, lies upon the ground at
the base of the "memoriap (lieaven save
the mark.
The intelligent coachman says his piece.
''Marthy, or Mary Wash'n'ton, or what
ever dey call 'er, been buried under dat al
monerment. Some folks say twas mighty
handsome monerment bout hund ed year
ago. Oder folks say tain neber been fin.
ish' no time Dom look like U eber will be
finish now. Ki-yil Whenfalks been dade
hund'ed years nobody gwine ter take dc
trouble ter put up a tombstone for 'em."
We are wiser than he on the last head
The recurring consciousness of this salves
the modification and pain induced by the
sight of the disgrace, and the recollection
of the abortive enterprises for the removal
of the blot from the national escutcheon
We do not add to our cicerone's stores Of
general information our knowledge that
the ground on which we stand, and the five
acres Immediately encompassing the grave
are the decided property of the Nationa,
Mary Washington Memorial association
that collections are steadily if not rapidly
being made by the organization for the
erection of a new and fitting monument
that the faith in ultimate success of the
women who have the movement in charge
has never wavered since they set th iii
hearts and heads upon righting Mary
| Washington i'll the eyes of republic that
is rather unthinking than ungrateful.
Our busy fancies fall to work instead
upon the shadowy outlines of the pile thai
is to do away with the fact and the memory
of the crumbling fragment before oul
bodily eyes. Two of us sit upon the hal
| buried obelisk, a third walks about tn,
| ruin, thrusting tentative cane into inter
stices and shaking q mournful head. Th,
tentacles of wire grass are digging out th,
disintegrated mortar, tufts of sheep mint
bruised by the intrusive ferrule, BREATH
pungently; a rank plant that may develo]
into "jimsen weed" leans impertinentl
toward us from the earth deposited upol
the top of the memorial by the winds O
sixty years, save one. Sir Oracle is look
ing over the wall into the small buryiny
ground behind the incomplete tomb a
motionless as the marble.
| The cornerstone of what we see was lai,
May Z, 1885, in the sight of $4,000 people
AS President Andrew jackson depositet
an engraved plate in the followed block
he is reported to have predicted that tn
American pilgrim will, in after ages, com
up to this high and holy place and lay hi
hand upon this sacred column May he re
call the virtues of her who sleeps beneath
and depart with his affections purified an,
his piety strengthened, while he invoke
blessings upon the mother of Washing
ton.-Marion Harland in Harper's Bazal