Evening star., 1932-02-21

of Fairfax County, Va, in which
Mount Vernon IS located, the last
will and testament of Gen. Wash
ington and that of his wife, Mrs.
Martha Washington. The visitor
who sees them in the glass case, where they
are kept side by side. will notice the brief
inscriptions which tell how they were admitted
to probate, the one In January, 1900, and the
other in June, 1902. But there is not given
the rather romantic story of what happened
to these two famous papers long after the
death of their authors.
At the outbreak of the war between the
States, Fairfax County being ON the border and
the scene of early military activities, it was
thought wise to remove Gen. Washingtons
will to Richmond. This was done, and follow
ing the surrender Of Richmond it was found
among a mass of unassorted documents in the
State Capitol, and after q while was returned
to Fairfax. It had gotten in poor condition,
which became worse as the years went on, due
to the constant handling which was permitted,
but fortunately, in 1910, under an order of the
court, the putting together Of the pages, many
of which had been broken into small pieces.
was undertaken by william Berwick, an Eng
lishman then employed in the Library Of Con-
gress and said to be the foremost living expert
in that line Of work.
The task which he performed at Fairfax
resulted in the document being restored to its
each page protected by a covering Of trans
parent silk paper and there is now no prospect
of any material change ever occurring in the
texture of the paper or the clearness OF the
writing. It will have a better fate In that
respect than the Magma Charta. preserved IN
the British Museum, which is wholly llegible,
and the Declaration Of Independence, kept In
the Library of Congress, which is also llegible.
Had the will not been quickly removed by
frio ham Of 10 outbreak of the 1t
would certainly have been among the valuable
books and manuscripts which were destroyed
or carried away by those who were at the time
in no friendly mood, and many OF which Will
never be recovered. In the list OF the LOST
archives is the viii Of Washington's neighbor
and friend, George Mason OF Gunston Hail.
which can be read In the record book, where
it was transcribed. But the original, written
by the same hand that penned the Virginia
Bill Of Rights and the first complete constitu-
tion of government known to the world, has
vanished.
I IERE is what happened to Mrs. Washing
] tons will: It was one Of the documents
carried away when Fairfax was in possession
of Federal troops, and In 1908 it was purchased
by the late J. Pierpont Morgan from Mary
Espy Thomson, who made the following state
ment to Mr. Morgan at the time Of its pur-
chase:
Lieut. Col David Thomson commanding
the S2nd Regiment, Ohio Volunteer 1nfan-
try was during the Spring or Autumn Of
1862, stationed at Fairfax Court House, Va.
His headquarters were in the Court House
building The safes had previously to this
been broken open by the Blenkers, COM
mand of men noted for their reckless van
dalism. The papers were on the floor. and
had been destroyed in large quantities, used
to kindle fires. My father, going into the
Office found his men shoveling the material
from the floor for this use, called them to
stop, and, looking over them, found the docu-
ment in question. Just preceding his death,
in 1892, he gave the document to me to be
done with as thought proper"
Whether the will had survived the war or,
II SO, what had become of it was not generally
known until some 10 years after MI. Morgan's
purchase, when . gentleman who had exam
ined his collection casually mentioned to q citi-
zen of Fairfax that he had seen it there. This
information was impaired to the regent OF q
local Daughters Of the American Revolution
chapter, who In 1913 wrote Mr. Morgan's son
requesting that he return the win to the Fair
fax authorities but this he declined to DO.
Offering instead to send q photostat copy. In
January 1914, the Virginia Legislature passed
an act authorizing and directing the Governor
who was then Mr.. Henry O. Stuart, to make
a formal demand On Mr.. Morgan, and IN the
event Of it not being complied with. directing
the attorney general. who was then M. john