The Washington herald., 1911-10-01
HOW A WOMAN SAVED
MT. VERNON TO NATION
Miss Ann Pamela Cunningham Overcame
Superhuman Obstacles in Purchasing
Shrine on the Potomac.
From Woman's World,

This is the story OF a great woman:
great work. 1t tells OF fight undertaken
without hope of fame or gain, a battle
waged against tremendous obstacles and
J unspeakable agony, a victory untarnished
by vanity or self-claim. 1t shows YOU a
woman who, graphing with the problems
OF finance. meeting the requirements o1
leadership and conquering legislatures
State and national bequeathed to heI
country a lasting inspiration, a home
of hallowed memories and mighty
dreams, With hands shaken by suffer.
ing she wove in toll and dIscouragemenr
a cloth of gold that trails its jeweled
edges down the pathway Of the years
forever beautiful
She was Ann Pamela Cunningham. and
she saved Mount Vernon-gave the home
and tomb of Washington to the people
Of the United States. With the gift she
made this provision:
! Let no irreverent hand change it: no
vandal hands desecrate IT with the fingers
| OF progress! Those who go to the home
in which he lived and died wish to see in
what he lived and died. Let one spot in
/ this grand country of ours be saved from
! change"
Worked as an Invalid.
These words formed the warning with
which she rounded out her work of saw
ing Mount Vernon. To achieve success
she had worked many years. had found
| ed and carried to perfection the first
woman's association OF the kind in the
United States. had subjected herself to
publicity which she detested and had
planned and executed much of the task
while she lay near to death. Miss Cum
ningham was an invalid bedridden.
when she began the movement for the
salvation of Washingtons home. In car
rying out the work she was Transported
from city to city on air beds, and once
so nearly dead from pain and exhaustion
that her life was despaired of by her
physician and friends. When she signed
the charter for the purchase of the Mount
Vernon property her anguish had been so
Keen as TO create doubt OF her being in
her right mind
The secret Of her success Law in the
fact that intellectually she was superb,
The motive which urged her on was such
a sublimation of patriotism as is seldom
seen.
II was in 1858 that Miss Cunningham's
mother on her way from the North to
the FAMILY home in South Carolina. jour-
neyed down the Potomac River and passed
Mount Vernon. She saw the home of
Washington by moonlight and noticed
that ruin had laid a-heavy hand on the
place. Already the roofs of the mansion
and the other buildings needed repair.
and in the grounds there were signs of
neglect and disorder.
This was at a time when John Angus
tine Washington. unable to keep up the
estate which George Washington had
farmed with profit. had sought TO have
the national government or the State OF
Virginia buy the property and preserve
II as a place of interest for succeeding
generations. He had expected to be paid
S25O.0O0 for the buildings and two hundred
acres OF the land. Both Virginia and
the United States had refused to make
the purchase
'I VIII Do IT.
Mrs. Cunningham, musing over the
tragedy in the cOUntrv's indifference to-
ward the home and grave of its father,
had this thought
IF the men of the United States will
not save Mount Vernon, why cannot the
women do it,
When she repeated this to her daughter
then bedridden and suffering greatly, the
reply was:
Il will do it,
Miss Cunningham's home was the center
of brilliant and aristocratic circle.
Not particularly attractive in good looks,
the frail young woman charmed all who
knew her or heard her brilliant conversa-
ton. When she told her friends of her
determination TO save Mount Vernon they
made comments of two kinds One was
that her health was not such as to allow
her to undertake the work. The other
was in the form of ridicule. the statement
that no mere woman could succeed in
such a task.
She disregarded the Encouragement
and the laughter and addressed a letter
to Women of America, making it a
ringing appeal for their united effort to
collect enough money to buy and pre-
serve the neglected home and forgotten
grave of Washington. At the very out
set she voiced the sentiment which guided
her throughout the struggle: her ambition !
to make Mount Vernon the shrine of the |
patriotism. This letter. which |
she had signed The Southern Matron,"
was followed by many others. and all Of |
them were published in the newspapers |
of the country.
To supplement this she got out a /
magazine. the Mount Vernon |
Record" explaining the progress in col /
leCtng funds and carrying on the move
ment. She then formed the Mount Yer |
non Ladies' Association. which should
be perpetual. made up of vice regents
and governed DN a regent anu
with the duty of restoring Mount Yer
non to exactly what it had been when
occupied II.
Responses to her appeals were almost
in the South. The North
ern press also took up the subject, but
complained that Miss Cunningham was
too sectional. since she expected the
work to be done and the money to be |,
given by Southerners. Newspapers of
the North claimed that since Washing |
ton was the father of the whole country
every State should contribute to the Il
movement. Miss Cunningham realized
the justice of this claim and immedi-
ately extended the association, so that
i was composed of a vice regent from
each State. She was the regent.
Her plan was to raise 100000 to buy
Mount Vernon and the surrounding 200
acres and then give il to Virginia to
hold as a sacred place forever. After
ward il was decided to purchase the )
and have the association own it
md keen It up. Although the responses ,
20 the Southern Matron's" call for help !
began from the start the work of or ,
yanizing such an association and of get
ing 5000 900 was slow and discouraging.
But in 1850 the whole country awoke to
he bigness and beauty of the project.
AL over the country fairs were given
md women went to work individually to
collect money. Philadelphia formed .
lubs and set up boxes for contributions
Everything was going like a summer :
,reeZe when suddenly the business men
Il Philadelphia began to discourage the
work by saving they disapproyed of