Ann Pamela Cunningham

Yesterday I posted a picture of Mt. Vernon in disrepair and the efforts of Ann Pamela Cunningham and the Mt. Vernon Ladies Association to restore it to its glory. However, there is much more to this story.

Ann Pamela was a member of the most ardently Loyalist family in America. I say that without equivocation. Her grandfather, Patrick, was the wealthiest man in the Little River District (present-day Laurens County). He was a Loyalist colonel who fought with distinction. Her great uncle was a Loyalist general, the highest-ranking Loyalist in the state. And, Ann Pamela’s cousin was none other than the notorious Loyalist psychopath Bloody Bill Cunningham.

After the war, Patrick Cunningham applied for readmission to the state. While he had fought with distinction, he had also fought with honor. He was allowed to return after being fined 12% of his holdings. In the 1780s, former Loyalist Colonel Patrick Cunningham was even elected to a term in the South Carolina legislature! Robert Cunningham and Bloody Bill Cunningham were not allowed to return, and they both moved to the Bahamas.

Ann Pamela was born in 1816. Her father (named Robert) was now successfully running Rosemont Plantation, and her mother (Louisa Bird Cunningham) had created the most impressive garden in the Upcountry. Ann Pamela lived in luxury and seemingly had a charmed life - until disaster struck. She had a horseback riding accident that left her an invalid for life.

Ann Pamela spent her summers in Philadelphia while she was receiving doctor’s treatment. Her mother escorted her to and from. While her mother was returning to Rosemont by way of the Potomac River, she noticed a decrepit mansion on a hill. She was aghast when she learned that the mansion was none other than George Washington’s beloved Mt. Vernon.

George Washington had no children. Mt. Vernon passed to his nephew Bushrod Washington, who also died childless. By the 1850s, Mt. Vernon belonged to John Augustine Washington, who was George Washington’s great-grand nephew. He was an absentee owner who could not keep the place up.

When Louisa Cunningham told her daughter about the decrepit state of Mt. Vernon, Ann Pamela began a letter-writing campaign to raise money to save it. Perhaps her most famous quote is “If the men of America are allowing the home of its most respected hero to go to ruin, then why can’t the women of America band together to save it.” Ann Pamela then formed the Mt. Vernon Ladies Association, and the women of America raised $200,000 to buy and preserve Mt. Vernon.

The story of Ann Pamela Cunningham and Mt. Vernon is the story of the healing of America. The American Revolution was a bitter civil war with bloody retributions abounding. Murderous retaliations occurred at whim throughout America, but nowhere more so than in Laurens County, SC.

Ann Pamela Cunningham - the granddaughter of a Loyalist colonel, the great niece of a Loyalist general, and the cousin of the most notorious mass murderer in South Carolina history - saved Mt. Vernon.

America was unified. Every state contributed. The glory of George Washington prevailed! Until, alas, the fabric of America was torn asunder.

However, the spirit of George Washington and the spirit of Ann Pamela Cunningham remained.

That spirit is what healed America, and that very same spirit is what inspires us today.