Getting Close to Father of the Country

Too grief-stricken to join the funeral cortege, Martha Washington sat in silence beside the second-floor window of her beloved Mount Vernon and watched the funeral of her husband on the lawn below.

Two hundred years later, another woman sat in the same silent room, watching a reenactment of George Washington’s funeral.

Thousands wearing black armbands gathered Saturday for the re-creation at the estate the first president built beside the Potomac River. Scholars and those who keep watch over Washington’s legacy worried that the Father of the Country is being forgotten and hoped to use the funeral to conjure Washington for the living.

The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Assn., which maintains and operates the plantation, conducted a two-year investigation of estate records and contemporary national press accounts to re-create the ceremony. A volunteer in full costume played each original participant. Original artifacts were reproduced, including the coffin in which Washington’s remains now rest in riverside woods on the manor.

Descendants Participate

The association called on volunteers or, where possible, descendants of original participants to help demonstrate the complex web of personalities that surrounded the presidency at the turn of the 18th century. Volunteer Ann O’Brien of Arlington, Va., was Martha Washington.

ZSun-nee Matema, 55, of Silver Spring, Md., is a sixth-generation descendant of Caroline Brannum, Mrs. Washington’s maid. Matema represented Brannum in the funeral procession and related details of her ancestor’s life to visitors later in the day.

Matema, who has painstakingly researched Brannum’s life for six years, said events such as the re-creation lead descendants of other participants in the original event to realize that slaves and servants were also historically significant, full characters with personal lives.

“I wanted to bring Caroline out of the shadows as the least-known person in the room when Washington died,” Matema said. “Even though I’m sure she was sad about George Washington, she was also worried what would now happen to her now.”

Details of Daily Life, Funeral Recorded

In the event, the slave took care of her mistress until Martha Washington died two years later, then went to Arlington House on the land that would become Arlington National Cemetery and cared for the children of Henry Lee, known as Light-Horse Harry Lee, father of Robert E. Lee.

The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Assn. curator, Carol Borchert, said Mount Vernon is in a unique position to gather intricate primary records rarely available elsewhere to researchers into the 18th century. Washington’s meticulous manner inspired those around him to record tedious details of his daily life and the funeral.

Those details helped the association to invoke Washington’s spirit at a time when Americans are beginning to identify him only as the man on the dollar bill, she said.

“They know he’s important, and they want him to be on their side,” said Richard Brookhiser, who wrote a book on Washington’s place in Americans’ minds. “He is a national sounding board, and many of the questions I get about him are crazy: ‘Did he smoke marijuana?’ ‘Was he gay?’ ‘Did he father illegitimate children?’

“Events like these remind people that the reasons he was important were his consistent character and contributions to the key institutions of our government.”