Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1894-05-17

ioi4e'-0lo are MIS-. natllUa w. Emory,
widow of the late Gen. William Ii.
Mrs. Elizabeth Blair Lee. a
daughter Of the late Montgomery
Blair, who was postmaster-yeneral
under Lincoln, and the widow of the
late Admiral Lee, of the United States
navy; and Miss Maud l.. Dividge, the
daughter of Walter Dividge, one of the
prominent lawyers of this CITY, Assoc
clated With them on the board of
managers are the President and the
chief justice of the United States, the
governor Of Virginia, Frank Riggs, the
banker; Blair Lee and Keginal Fendau,
well-known citizens of Washington,
who act as counsel and advisers Of the
ladies'
The monument is the result of sug-
gestion made by Mrs. Hetzei, who lives
on her plantation down in Virginia dur
ing the summer time, and visits Wash
1ngton to spend the winter. She is the
widow Of an officer of the United
States army. who was killed in the
war with Mexico, and is over IS years
OF age. One day in the spring of 1889,
while visiting Mrs. Waite, she spoke
with indignation over a scandal just
then raging at Fredericksburg over an
attempt to make the burial place Of
the mother of Washington the
lauon ana expressed her re-
greet that the grave was allowed to re-
main unhonored. The organization of
an association to remedy this disgrace,
with her hostess as president and her
self as secretary, was the result. This
was just before the Johnstown flood,
which, when it came, drove thoughts of
all else from the mind, and nothing was
done until the following October. Then
contributions were asked from the
women of America, and an auxiliary or
ganization was formed Of the ladies of
Fredericksburg, who purchased the
property and transferred it to the
parent organization.
The monument does not stand upon
the site of the house in which George
Washington was born, as many suppose.
He was born near the village Of Wake
field, on the bank of the Potomac River,
sixtyfve miles below Washington.
The monument has been raised over
his mothers long-neglected grave, a
quarter of mile Or more beyond the
city limits of Fredericksburg, on what
was once the farm of Col. Fielding
Lewis, husband of her daughter Betty.
There was general mourning through
out the country when Mrs. Washington
died. Many Of the newspapers turned
their column rules and published elab-
crate obituaries. Congress passed APP
propriate resolutions, and all the mem
bers Of the Senate and House wore Grape
upon their arms for thirty days. Special
memorial services were held in churches
everywhere, as If she had been high
dignitary Of the government. Eminent
orators pronounced eulogies upon her
character, and recognized her influence
in shaping the career of her son and
through him the destinies of the Amer
lean colonies.
But her grave remained unmarked.
1t was understood after her death that
Congress would appropriate money for
suitable tomb and monument, and it
is supposed that the family neglected to
provide one because Of that expecta-
ton. In 1926 public attention was first
called to the omission by George Wash
ington Parke Custis, the grandson OF
Martha Washington and the adopted
son of the first President, who said that
had she been living in the Middle Ages
monuments would have been erected
to her memory at the capital, and she
would have been called the Mother OF
Romans" "When another century has
elapsed" he said, "and our descendants
have learned the true value of liberty,
how we'll the fame of the paternal chief
will be told in story and in song! Nor
will then be forgotten she who first
bent the twig to incline the tree to
glory. Then, and not till then, will
youth and age, maid and matron, aye,
and bearded men, repair to the now
neglected grave Of the mother OF Wash
ington."
The appeal of Mr.. GUSTS awakened
some interest throughout the country,
but the subject was soon forgotten. The
Kenmore estate passed out OF the hands
owners buried the dead of two gener-
atoms on the same mound, and the con-
struction of d low brick wall to enclose
the family burying ground made the
neglect of the grave that lay outside OF
it more conspicuous and lneXcusable.
In 1888 Cyrus Burrows, patriotic cltl-
zen Of New York, offered to bear the
whole expense of erecting a monu-
ment, and obtained a design that was
fantastic and most inappropriate. The
cornerstone was laid with Masonic
ceremonies on TIE morning OF May 1,
1888, by Andrew Jackson, then Presl-
dent of the United States, IN the pres
ence of the cabinet. the supreme court,
many OIllC0fS Ol Iu6 army teiAA Ai"'. ,
and between 10000 and l5,00O, specta-
tors. Gen. Jackson delivered long
eulogy and poem by Mrs. sigourney
was read. A sudden reverse in the TOR
tunes of Mr.. Burrows prevented hlm
from furnishing the funds necessary
for the completion of the monument,
and the deliberately carved columns
and shaft were Clipped to pieces by
yandal relic-hunters as they lay halt
concealed in the grass for more than
forty years, until the armies that were
camped about Fredericksburg carried
the last of themaway..
In selecting the design for the ne"
memorial, the ladies have not been IN
mindful of the character of Mary Wash,
ington, for it is simple, dignitled aud
stately. and undoubtedly most appro-
nriate for the character of the woman
over whose bones it has been reared; 1t
is in ti1,italv moro s,'itahlo than the elo''
crate affair which Mr.. Burrows pro-
posed to erect sixty years, ago. The
raising of the necessary funds and the