Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-05-05


pathizer! There is absolutely nothing upon
which to rear the elaborate sdi1cs Of great
ness or to point the small innuendoes which
certain writer's have sought to pile upon
this plain, unassuming woman.
She was Washington's mother, and there
all the honor lies! AS MARY, the mother
of Washington" she will live In the hearts
of the people while the republic endures,
Just as the memory Of Mary. the mother of
Christ, lives. q model of the upright and
pure in heart.
Her Personal Appearances.
OF the personal appearance Of Washing
toms mother so little Is known that the
widest conjecture has been INDUCED in
concerning her. In her later days she was
described by a grandchild as "a woman Of
medium height of dignifed and rather
stately presence" This was probably the
case. though her eccentrcities of attire
must have marred the general ensemble
bit of "circumstantial evidence that has
ffoated to the surface In recent years may
be accepted as a description of her as she
appeared at an earlier age. In 1854 some
one found in a deserted mansion on the
York river a torn fragment of an old letter
which ran literally as follows:
WMSBURG, ye 9TH of Octr 1922
Dear Sukey. Madame Ball of Lancaster
and her Sweet Molly have gone HON.
She Knows. She is about 16 yrs old, is
taller than Me, is very Sensible, Modest
and Loving. Her Hair is like unto Flax
Her Eyes are the color Of Yours and Her
Chekes are like May Blossoms. l wish you
could see her.
And there this fragmentary bit Of history
stops short. There does not seem to be
much doubt of its authenticity. though the
name Of the writer is gone. There are ref
erenees In those early years to the Rose
of Epping Forest and the Belle of the
Northern Neck" so that the fact Of her
girlish beauty seems established.
In 1929 Mary Ball went to England to her
brother. Joseph Ball, who lived at "Strat-
ford by Bow, nigh London" And there she
made her home until her marriage. She
was twenty-five at that time, and It has
been much. but fruitlessly. commented up
on that the Rose of Epping Forest"
should have remained unpluckei to such an
age In community where sixteen was the
rule and later marriages the exception. The
records left are not explicit. but 1t would
seem that at this time only Mary and her
brother were left, all the other members of
the family being dead. Two years later as
shown by the genealogical table of the
American branch of the family. written for
an English heraldry officer by George WASH
ington himself, Augustine. less than two
years after the death OF his first wife, mar
ried Mary Ball, March q, 1880"
An Unrecorded Wedding.
Where did that wedding take place? No
You can find one writer who is sure that II
was solemnized in England, and another
will tell you with just as great a show of
truth that it came off in Virginia There
is legend in Cookham, England. that 1t
took place there but the old records of the
church there have been burned. Augustine
Washington was in England on business.
and met the Virginia BELLE then a fading
spinster of twenty-Six and desiring a moth
er for his sons, married her. probably at
her brothers house. Indeed. more than
likely, because on this side the water she
had neither kith nor kin to give her away.
1t Is not improbable that they had met in
Virginia, and that when Washington began
to think of a second wife he may have
crossed the ocean for the purpose of win
ming her. One is inclined to feel exasperat-
ed with Washington, for, generally so pre-
else about such matters, he neglected one
of the vital items regarding his mother, and
yet he was careful to put in the family record
the. exact hour Of his own birth! How one
longs for the enterprisng reporter, when one
runs up against such a circumstance like a
brick wall cutting Of all progress In the