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By Eileen M. Carlton
Laura Ratcliffe: A woman of history and heroism: Laura Ratcliffe Hanna's life was one of contradictions, so it is not surprising that her burial place, a small plot alongside the Worldgate Marriott Hotel and near the Dulles Toll Road, is the final contradiction.
For this was a reclusive woman, a woman who valued above all else her privacy and the preservation of the rich farmland that gave her sustenance.
Laura was a Southern beauty, as photographs will attest, and there were many men, according to family legend, who sought her hand in marriage, but she did not marry Milton Hanna until she was 50.
And Milton Hanna had fought for the Union.
She was a quintessential lady, refined and gentle, who found herself racing across the muddy nighttime fields of her family's pastures and fields on Feb. 7, 1863, to warn Confederate Col. John Singleton Mosby of a plot to capture and kill him.
Mosby -- the "Gray Ghost" who had now foiled Union forces yet again -- wrote in his memoirs, "I observed two ladies walking rapidly toward me. One was Miss Laura Ratcliffe ... But for meeting them, my life as a Partisan would have ended that day."
Her soul of propriety did not deter her from the inherent duplicity of life as a spy. Long after that fateful meeting with Mosby, she would leave him money and notes with military intelligence critical to the success of his campaign. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources approved in 2000 an historical highway marker for the spot where she left the messages and money. It is now known as Mosby's Rock.
Today her home, Merrybrook, lies among one of the most heavily trafficked and developed areas in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The current owners, Win and Dave Meiselman, have made it their mission to see that this simple and elegant home near Frying Pan Park in Herndon -- one of the last antebellum homes in the area -- receives the same recognition and long-term protection as Mosby's Rock.
role_document role_documentAlthough surrounded by the burgeoning development of the Dulles corridor, Merrybrook is not, Win said, in imminent danger. However, no one can predict what will happen in the future, and this is why The Friends of Laura Ratcliffe was formed -- to be a steward of the property even after the Meiselmans are not there to protect it.
The Friends need funds to maintain this house, its grounds and its outbuildings. A gala is planned for this Sunday, June 1, in Leesburg, to help provide that.
"Eight [antebellum] houses have been destroyed that were significant, and this is the last one," Win said. "It's also the only standing home where Laura lived. A little cottage she lived in with her mother and sisters was destroyed about 10 years ago. This house means a lot to people around here."
According to historical records, Laura Ratcliffe lived in Merrybrook from 1869 until her death in 1923.
In addition to managing the estate itself, she also volunteered her time as a nurse. DDE_LINK2Confederate Major Gen. J.E.B. Stuart DDE_LINK2 first saw Laura tending the wounded at his camp Quivive in Fairfax. Soon after, he wrote a poem dedicated to her. One of the phrases was " ... were I that soldier ... "
The Friends of Laura Ratcliffe's Web site, lauraratcliffe.org/Merrybrook.html, reports that Stuart also presented her with a gold-embossed brown leather album with the following inscription on the front page: "Presented to Miss Laura Ratcliffe by her soldier-friend as a token of his high appreciation of her patriotism, admiration of her virtues, and pledge of his lasting esteem."
The album was signed not only by Stuart but also by many other soldiers who fought with him, including Mosby and Brigadier Gen. Fitzhugh Lee. She quietly kept this memoir, as well as Stuart's gold watch chain, among her possessions at Merrybrook after the war. These items were discovered in her effects after her death.
Beauty and history in one
Laura Ratcliffe did not have any children, and the Meiselmans are not related to any of the other members of her family. The devotion they feel for this house and its former occupant grows out of an appreciation for its beauty and its history.
Win explained that the Meiselmans' journey to Merrybrook began in Boston and took them to Minnesota before Dave was offered the opportunity to start a graduate economics program for Virginia Tech in Reston 37 years ago.
"I was back in Minnesota. I asked him that when he came east, I had only one request -- ‘I want an old house,'" Win recalled. "The real estate agent didn't have an old house. The next time he came east, I came with him."
The agent mentioned Merrybrook was on the market but cautioned Win her husband wouldn't like it.
Win remembered that it was a cold March day when they arrived at the property.
"We crossed this wonderful little bridge that no longer exists and came into Shangri La," Win said. "We came into trees, huge trees, marvelous trees. There's 200-year-old maple trees ... one huge, huge silver beech that was added to list of Remarkable Trees of Virginia. People come to paint, to photograph, to look at it. As soon as we saw it, we loved it."
Inside, she continued, there are three staircases and a dining room built in 1824.
"When people built houses on land in the early 1900s and wanted to establish a place, they had to build a room 16 by 20 feet to establish a homestead," Win said, "and the dining room pretty well matches those measurements. The bedroom above the dining room is the same size."
Strong determination
Life was not easy for Laura.
The husband Win said had pursued Laura for years before she agreed to marry him was killed in a farming accident seven years after their marriage.
After the war, she found herself in charge of not only her farm, but also the farms of other family members.
"She was a lady of strong character," Win said. "After the war she was essentially the manager of all the farms and plantations that had belonged to her family all up and down Centreville Road, through to Chantilly. DDE_LINK1She rode to each of them each week. DDE_LINK1 During the war, they had fallen to ruin."
The Meiselmans and the approximately 160 members of Friends of Laura Ratcliffe are determined that Merrybrook will not follow this pattern.
"As we gradually learned about Laura and how the house grew, I realized we had something very precious,'" Win said. "... The organization [The Friends of Laura Ratcliffe] is only a year and a half old. The reason we began it is because the house is endangered. And so in order to preserve it, we knew there should be some kind of organization to protect it."
The house has been placed on both the state and national registers of historic places, but this does not mean it is completely safe forever.
"In order to preserve the house we must raise funds," Win said. "In order to keep it, to use it for public purposes, it must be accepted by some other entity like a park authority to preserve it. Friends [of Laura Ratcliffe is] committed to preserving it."
Contact the writer at ecarton@timespapers.com