Chap. 158.—An ACT to incorporate the Mary Washington Association
of America.

Approved March 6, 1878.

Whereas, by a memorial unanimously signed by leading
citizens in all quarters of the country, it appears that steps
are being taken for the establishment of an association of
ladies, akin to that of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association
of the Union, for the purpose of rescuing from desecratioa
and decay and perpetually preserving and protecting the
birth-place of General George Washington, the grave of his
mother in the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and all
other spots sacred from their connection with his life and
history, and not falling within the province of either the
Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association aforesaid or of the Monu-
mental association of Washington city; and further, when
time and means shall admit of founding, at the old Wash-
ington homestead or other suitable locality in the town of
Fredericksburg, an educational asylum, on the largest scale
permitted by the revenues of the society, for indigent female
orphans, or other fit objects of the charity, from every state
of the Union, to be dedicated to the memory, and called by
the name of the mother of Washington:

1. Be it, therefore, by the general assembly enacted, That
the ladies indicated in the said memorial, to-wit: Miss Mary
C. Lee, Mrs. B. L. Bassett, Miss Elizabeth Nicholas, Miss M.
W. B. Minor, Miss Mary Randolph Ball, Miss H. T. Lauriston,
Mrs. Blanche Q. Moffett, Miss Eliza Wasbington, Mrs. Nancy
Burnett, Mrs. R. J. Hicks, Mrs. General T. J. Jackson, Mrs.
Caroline Harris, Mrs. Mary Campbell, Mrs. General Custar,
Mrs. Rosalie Winston, Mrs. Commodore T. R. Rootes, Mrs.
Eleanor G. Carter, Mrs. Julia Ravenscroft Downman, Mrs.
Sallie West, Mrs. General J. B. Hood, Mrs. KE. L. Delany, or
@ majority of them and their successors forever, be and are
hereby constituted a body politic and corporate, under the
name and style of The Mary Washington Association of
America, and by this name and style shall be subject to all
the provisions, and entitled to all the rights, powers, privi-
leges, and immunities prescribed by existing laws, in so far
as the same are applicable to like corporations and not incon-
sistent with this act.

2. It shall be lawful for the said Mary Washington asso-
ciation of America to purchase from the owners any of such
spots, with a sufficient quantity of land contiguous, to have
and to hold the same in fee simple, and to have and exercise
over the use and management of the same, full power and
control, for the purposes set forth in their proposed consti-
tution: provided that the said Mary Washington association
of America shall have no power to alien the said lands, or
any part thereof, without the consent of the general assem-
bly, first had and obtained, and shall never, at any time,
make or collect any charge or fee for admission upon the
premises of the same: and provided further that if, from any
cause, the said association shall cease to exist, that then all
of said spots and lands, so purchased, shall become the pro-
perty of the state of Virginia.

3. It shall be lawful for the said Mary Washington asso-
ciation of America, to enter upon and hold, for purposes of
improvement, adornment, and perpetual protection, (as set
forth in the memorial, constitution, and documents accompa-
nying), the land, if any, belonging to the state of Virginia,
embracing and contiguous to any of the spots referred to:
provided that such possession shall cease and determine at
the expiration of five years from this date, unless, within that
time, the association shall have given indubitable evidence of
vitality and ability to carry its published designs into effect
in a manner satisfactory to the state of Virginia.

4, This act shall be in force from its passage.