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Jeannie Blackburn Moran (née Blackburn; known after marriage as Mrs. F. Berger Moran; 1841-1929) was an American author, sociologist, and civic leader.
Early life
Jeannie Blackburn was born on May 1, 1850 on the Blackburn estate of "Spring Grove", in Jefferson County, Virginia (now West Virginia). Her parents were Dr. Richard Scott and Sarah Anne Eleanor McGill (Thomas) Blackburn.
The earliest representative of her family in the U.S. was Col. Richard Blackburn (1705-1757) of Colonial stock, who was Moran's great-great-grandfather. He came from Yorkshire, England, in 1730, and established his home in Prince William County, Virginia, naming it "Rippon Lodge" after the estate of his grandfather, Lord Blackburn, of England. Richard was an architect and the designer of Mount Vernon, as well as many other examples of Colonial architecture in Virginia, notably the Pohick Church Estate. His son,Col. Thomas Blackburn, a patriot of the Revolutionary War, served as aid-de-camp to General George Washington. Thomas married Christian, daughter of the Rev. James and Sarah (Brown) Scott of Dettingen Parish,Prince William County, Virginia; and their daughter, Annie, married in 1785 the favorite nephew of General Washington, Judge Bushrod Washington, associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the U.S., who inherited Mount Vernon from President Washington. Their eldest son, Capt. Richard Scott Blackburn, married Judith Ball, a relative of May Ball, who was George Washington's mother. their son, Major Thomas Blackburn, married Elizabeth, daughter of John and Margaret (Zenill) Sinclair, first cousin of Lord Sinclair of Cathesnest Castle, Scotland; and descended on the maternal side from the Zenill family who built the Mayflower and came to the u.S. on that vessel. Mrs. Moran father married, in 1833, Sarah, daughter of Col. John Thomas and Sarah Eleanor McGill, a descendant of the Episcopal clergyman, Rev. James McGill, who cooperated with Lords Calvert and Baltimore in securing church rights in Maryland and whose tomb bears the record that he was the last Early of Orford, England.
Moran's mother was a sister of Francis Thomas , Governor of Maryland, who served as Minister to Peru from 1872 to 1875, and was a descendant of Betty Edwards, Maid of Honor to Queen Anne of England.
Moran's sister, Jane Charlotte, married John Augustine Washington, 2d, a nephew of Justice Bushrod Washington, from whom he inherited Mount Vernon, and whose son, John Augustine Washington, 3d, turned it over to Richard Blackburn Washington in 1860. Another sister, Eleanor, also married a great-grandnephew of George Washington, and her brother, Lieut. John Sinclair Blackburn, was Aid on Gen. Payne's staff in the Civil War.
Moran was educated in the classics by private tutors, supplemented by several years of travel abroad, investigating religious, racial and social conditions of various European countries and in the Far East. She was regarded as an authority on sociology.
Career
Moran was active in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), of which she was a charter member. She was the founder and was regent of the first DAR chapter in Virginia (the Albemarle Chapter), as well as the founder of the Mount Vernon Chapter, in Alexandria, Virginia. She served as the Virginia State chair of the International Relations of Virginia DAR, and was a member of the Committee of International Relations of the National Society of the DAR. Moran was a donor of the bronze doors of the Memorial Continental Hall, the national headquarters of DAR.
Moran was a member of the Colonial Dames of Virginia; member of the descendants of the Colonial Cavaliers; and a charter member of the Colonial Dames Club of Washington. She was one of the founders of the Art Club and assisted in securing the Monroe House for the home of this club; co-founder of the Washington Opera Company; and the third woman founder of the Congressional Country Club. She was a member of the Chevy Chase Club, United Daughters of the Confederacy, League of American Pen Women, Virginia Society, Southern Society, New York Society, Philadelphia Society, and the Maryland Society.
During World War I, Moran was one of nine chaperons for wounded soldiers of the Allies sent to Washington. She was also active in Red Cross work and the sale and purchase of Liberty bonds.
The governor of Virginia appointed Moran to be a delegate to the Monroe Convention, held in Richmond, Virginia, 1923.
She was a founder of a sewing school for young African American women at Charlottesville, Virginia, which idea spread throughout the Episcopal churches of Virginia and proved an important contribution to the education of African American girls. Sissieretta Jones, a member of the sewing school, was aided by Moran to develop her talent as a singer.
Moran was the originator of the plan for the Mammy memorial to the "South's Black Mammy to be erected in Washington, D.C. on land donated by Congress. Later, she was co-instrumental in the selection of a memorial fountain to President Theodore Roosevelt that was to be erected in Washington, D.C.
Moran was the author of numerous magazine and newspaper articles. She was the author and editor of a number of books, among which were Broken Idols, Twin Souls, Finding Aunt Nacy, Nan Robbie, Dog Rouser, Tom Dinkel's Visit to the Home of Santa Claus, Miss Washington of Virginia, and Little Buttercups.
Personal life
She married Francoise Berger Moran. They had two children, Arabella Adams and Eleanor Berger.
Following her marriage, she resided in Comyn Hall, a Colonial mansion in Charlottesville, Virginia, built by her husband and named after the estate of his maternal ancestors in Wales.
Moran owned a mansion in Washington, D.C. at 2345 Massachusetts Avenue, on Sheridan Circle, a replica of Petit Trianon. Diplomats and statesmen during several administrations met here. She encouraged talent by sponsoring theatricals on her private stage. A patron of the arts, she owned many rare antiques and paintings by European masters.
References
- ^ "MORAN, Mrs. Francoise Berger". Who's who in the Nation's Capital. Consolidated Publishing Company. 1926. p. 414. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John; Dick, Charles; Homans, James Edward; Fay, John William; Linen, Herbert M.; Dearborn, L. E. (1926). The Cyclopædia of American Biography. Press association compilers, Incorporated. pp. 430–31. Retrieved 7 December 2024. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.