The Holbrook news., 1912-01-12

crate it with the fingers of
 progressI Those who go to
 the home in which he lived and died wish to see in what he lived and diedl Let one spot in this coun- try be saved from change!"
 These words formed 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 licity which she detested, and had planned and executed much of the task while she lay near to death.
 Miss Cunningham was an invalid, bedridden, when she began the move ment for the salvation of Washing tons home. In carrying 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
 It was in 1853 that Miss Cunning hams mother, on her way from the north to the family home in South Car olina, journeyed down the Potomac river and passed Mount Vernon. She saw the home of Washington by moon light and noticed that ruin had laid a heavy hand on the place. Already the roofs of the mansion and the other buildings needed repairs, and in the grounds there were signs of neglect and disorder.
 State and Nation Wouldn't Buy.
 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 property and preserve it as a place of interest for succeeding generations. He had expected to receive $250,0O0 for the buildings and 200 acres of the land. Both Virginia and the United States had refused to make the purchase.
 Mrs. Cunningham, musing over the tragedy in the country's indifference toward 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 suffer ing greatly, the reply was:
 q will do it."
 Miss Cunningham's home was the center of brilliant circle. When she told her friends of her determination to save Mount Vernon they made com ments 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 let ter to the "Women of America" mak- ing 1t an appeal for their united effort to collect enough money to buy and preserve the neglected home and for gotten grave of Washington. This jet ter. which she had signed "The South ern 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 monthly magazine. the Mount Vernon Record, explaining the progress in col lecting funds and carrying on the movement. She then formed the Mount Vernon Ladies' association, which would be perpetual. made up of vice-regents and governed by regent. | and charged with the duty of restor- ing Mount Vernon to exactly what it | had been when Washington occu- pied 1t
 Her plan was to raise $200.000 to | huv Mount Vernon and the surround | ing 200 acres and then give 1t to Vir- i einia to hold as a sacred place forever. | Afterward it was decided to purchase the uroperty and have the association ownsit and keep 1t up. Although the resnonses to the Southern Matron's" call for help began from the start, the work of organizing such an associa- lion and of getting $2O0.0O0 was slow and discouraging. But in 1855 the whole country awoke to the bigDess and beauty of the project.
 All over the country fairs were giv- en and women went to work individu- ally to collect money. Philadelphia formed clubs and set up boxes for contributions. Everything was going like a summer breeze, when suddenly the business men of Philadelphia be- gan to discourage the work by saying they disapproved of women mixing in