Norwich bulletin., 1920-12-17
ODD INCIDENTS IN AMERICAN
 HISTORY
A roo LONG NEGLECTED TRaRUTE


 Our country has entirely too ire quently forgotten to pay tribute to those who deserved our very best, and in no instance is this more strikingly demonstrated than in our long neglect of the grave of the mother or tne Father of Our Country. Only little more than score of years have elaps- ed since a suitable shaft was placed over the grave of the woman who gave us one of if not our greatest citizens, whose birthday we celebrate today. Too often has the press of, what we consider. more urgent duties allowed us to forget even such little tributes that we owe to our eminents. One of the most striking things that came to the notice of Gen. Lafayette when he visited our country for the last time In 1925 was his finding that the grave of Washington's mother was practl- cally neglected, and that only little, inferior headstone marked her last resting place.
 Mary Washington died on the 18th of August, 17S9, only few months af- ter her son had been chosen the head of our government. Her home, at the time, was Fredericksburg, Va. She was in the S3d year of her age, and had been a widow forty six years. She was buried on the 2Sth, but the presi.-. dent did not hear of her death until the 1st of September.
 In a letter to his sister, Mrs. Betty Lewis, Washington wrote: Awful and affecting as the death of parent Is, there is consolation in knowing that Heaven has spared ours to an age be- yend which few attain, and favored her with the full enjoyment of her mental faculties, and as much bodily p4r four score Under these considera- tions, and a hope that she is trans ported to a happier place, it is the duty of her relatives to yield due sub mission to the decree ot the Creator. then I was last at Fredericksburg l took final leave of my mother, never expecting to see her again
 The last visit Washington refers to | in his letter was when he was on the road from Mount Vernon to New York l to be inaugurated on tne April preced- /; the mourning was general, press and l pulpit made note of the event, ana members of congress wore mourning 1 for thirty days.
 l In the passing of a resolution te 1 build a monument in memory of his
 mother, Washington wrote: 'I attrib- | ute all my success in life to the moral | intellectual and physical education which received from my mother" The funeral of Mary Washington was modest one, and for many year! ] afterwards her grave was entirel1 i neglected. In 1891 the citizens O. Fredericksburg had secured about twt thousand dollars for the building of monument over the grave when Silai E. Burrows, of New I ork, asked It,
 be allowed the honor of individual. erecting the monument" The geper ous offer was accepted and Presiden Jackson laid the corner stone on tn 7th of May, 1883. In the next fou years the base of the monument, wit its little Doric columns, was complet
 ed and the obelisk was on the grouni
 ready to be lifted into place when tn
 work was suddenly abandoned.
 After providing money for the com pletion of the work, MT. Burrows wen ]. to China, where he died, then the con
 tractor died, and the first monumen
 was never completed, its stones crum
 bled and feli, and around them, fo four years, surged the great armies Q the civil war.
 From time to time attempts wer
 made to build a new one, several time [ bills for that purpose having passe l the United States senate, but faiIe to pass the lower house. The Freder Iicksburg Mary Washington Monumen 1 Association was organized and chart cred in 1889, raised a comfortable sur
 of money. and received from the cit
 of Fredericksburg and others the Ian
 that was needed. The present monu |, ment was finally started. with the lay ing of the corner stone on October ? 3 1893, and on the 10th of May, 1894, tn
 new monument was dedicated wit Masonic ceremonies, and in the pres ence Of the president of the Unite C States and many other distinguishe
 guests.
 tTomorrow-Early Methods of Trans sI portation.)