Evening star., 1941-04-16
Speaking at ceremonies commem-

speaking at ceremonies COIllNtn-
Grating the 150th anniversary Of
the laying of the District of Co.
lumbia cornerstone at Jones Point,
Alexandria, Va, Representative
Bolles of Wisconsin, member of the
House District Committee. yester-
day expressed the hope that some
day suffrage may be granted to
the District.
Mr. Bolles was one of a number
of speakers at the historic occasion
at the old Jones Point Light House.
Others represented the District of
Columbia, the Association of Oldest
Inhabitants of the District, the
Washington Board of Trade, the
City of Alexandria, the Masonic
Order and the Daughters of the
American Revolution.
A 5-year-old boy, direct descend
ant of one of the participants in the
cornerstone ceremonies of century
and half ago, proved to be one
of the principal centers of human
interest at the celebration. He was
Peter Railey, the great. great, great,
grandson of Maj. Andrew Ellicott,
the engineer who located the site
for the cornerstone, participated in
the ceremonies, succeeded L'Enfant
in laying out the District of Colum-
bia and planned several early Ameri-
can cities.
Peter was accompanied by his
mother, Mrs. Howard B. Railey, of
2l25 Bancroft place NV. Mrs.
Railey is the former Miss Jessie
Ellicott Gilman. The lad was in
troduced at two different parts of
the ceremonies from the porch of
the old frame lighthouse, and was
photographed with the old corner
stone in its cavelike recess beneath
stone wall of the lighthouse on
the river front.
Masons in Olden Costumes.
The ceremonies were divided into
three parts. First. the Alexandria
Washington Lodge of Masons, No.
%, of which George Washington was
the first Worshipful Master, formal
ly met behind closed doors in its
ancient lodge hall in Alexandria,
with all its officers garbed in the
colorful Colonial costumes of $50
years ago.
Meantime, at the Jones Point
Lighthouse, the second part of the
ceremony got under way, with John
Clagett Proctor, first vice president
of the Association of Oldest In
habitants and originator of the
commemorative occasion, presiding.
When this second phase of the cere-
mony closed the costumed lodge Of
ficers arrived and proceeded with the
third part of the program, to re-
enact the cornerstone ceremony, in
ancient Masonic form, and rededi-.
cate the historic stone.
The deteriorating old frame light
house had been cleaned and the
yard cleared of weeds under auspices
of Mount Vernon CHAPTER, D. A. R.
of Alexandria, which now hold title
to the property and hopes some day
to make of it a national shrine.
Officers of the chapter, and of the
National Capital Park and Planning
Commission, including Thomas S.
Settle, who attended the occasion,
expressed the hope informally that
the place, which affords a magnifls
cent view of the Potomac River,
eventually would be turned into a
kind of wayside shrine on a traffic
loop off the Mount Vernon Memorial
highway Land between the light
house and the highway is owned
now by the War Department.
Ambitious for Capital.
Mr.. Bolles told the gathering that
as a member of the District Com
mite, even though a minority men,
ber, he would do his best to try to
make the Capital "the one great
city of the United States in all its
perfection" 81
"I hope to see the time" he added,
when the District will be given the
right they have in my own home
district, the right of a naturalized
citizen, to vote, and to say what
ought to be done in this District in
which they live"
District Commissioner John Rus
sell Young paid tribute to the vision
and inspiration" of the men who
laid the cornerstone. District En-
gineer Commissioner David Nc
Coach, jr., referred to the fact that
the once-lost cornerstone had been
redscovered by an engineer. He
predicted that even though part Of
the District had returned to vir-
ginia, there was still carried on q
spirit of helpfulnesss between the
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