The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1911-12-06

died. Let one spot in this grand coun-
try Of ours be saved from change!"
These words former the warning
with which Ann Pamela Cunningham
rounded out her work of saving Mount
Vernon. To achieve success she had
worked many years, had founded and
carried to success the first woman's
association of the kind in the United
States had subjected herself to pub
liciity which she detested, and had
planned and executed much of the task
while she lay near to death.
Miss Cunningham was an invalid,
bed-ridden, when she began the move
ment for the salvation of Washing
toms home. In carrying out the work
says the Womans World, 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
1t was in 1853 that Miss Cunning
hams mother, On her way from the
North to the family home in South
Carolina, journeyed down the Poto-
mac River and passed Mount Vernon.
She saw the home of Washington that
ruin had paid heavy hand upon. Al
ready the roofs of the mansion and the
other buildings needed repairs. and
III the grounds there were signs of
neglect and disorder.
This was at a time when John Au-
gustine Washington, unable to keep
up the estate which George Washing
ton had farmed with profit, had sought
to have the National Government or
the State of Virginia, buy the proper
~ and preserve it as a place of inter-
est for succeeding generations. He
mad expected to receive $25O,OOO for
the building and two hundred acres
OF land. Both Virginia and the Unit
ed States had refused to make the
purchase.
Mrs, Cunningham, musing over the
tragedy lii the country's Indifference
toward the home and grave OF it's
father; had this thoughts
IF the men of the United States
Will not save Mount Verhen, why can
not the women do it?"
When she repeated this to her
daughter, then bedridden and suffer-
ing greatly, the reply was:
81 will do it."
Miss Cunningham home was the
centre of brilliant circle. When she
told her friends of her determination
to save Mount Vernon they made COM
ment Of two kinds: One was that her
health was not such as to allow her
to undertake the wor.;; the other was
in the form of ridicule, the statement
that no mere woman could succeed in
such task.
She disregarded the Encouragement
and the laughter and addressed a let
ter to Women of America" making
1T an appeal for their united effort to
collect enough money to buy and pre-
serve the neglected home and forgot
ten grave of Washington. This letter,
which she had signed "The Southern
Matron," was followed by many 9th
ers, and all of them were published
in the newspapers of the country.
To supplement this she got out a
monthly magazine, the Mount Vernon
Record, explaining the progress in
collecting funds and carrying on the
movement. She then formed the
Mount Vernon Ladies' Association,
which should be perpetual, made up
of vice rcgents and governed by a
regent, and charged with the duty of
restoring Mount Vernon exactly to
what 1t had been when Washington
occupied it.
Responses to her appeals were al
most instantaneous in the South, The
Northern press also took up the sub
ject, but complained that Miss Cum
ningham was too sectional, since she
expected the work to be done and the
money to be given by Southerners.
Miss Cunningham realized the Justice
of this claim and Immediately extend
ed the association so that 1t was com
posed of vice regent from each
State. She was the regent.
Her plan was to raise 100000, buy
Mount Vernon and the surrounding
20 acres and then give it to Virginia
to hold as sacred place forever. AT
terward it was decided to purchase