Marcia Burns (1782-1832)

A founding member and "indefatigable worker" for the Washington Female Orphan Asylum. She was known as the "Heiress of Washington" having inherited her father's 700-acre farm that is today downtown Washington D.C. The sculptor Horatio Greenough (1805-1852) wrote this to her memory: "Mid rank and wealth and worldly pride; From every snare she turned aside; She sought the low, the humble shed; Where gaunt disease and famine tread; And from that time, in youthful pride; She stood Van Ness's blooming bride; No day her blameless head o'er past; But saw her dearer than the last".