The first person buried at Arlington wasn't a soldier or a sailor killed in the Civil War, but Mary Randolph, a socialite who decided to publish a cook book as a way to earn money when her family hit on hard times.
Originally published in 1824, The Virginia House-Wife was the first-of-its-kind cookbook published in America. It is still in print today with its most recent edition published in 2013. Intended for a regional audience, the book emphasized fresh ingredients common to Virginia and other areas of the South.
After Mary's youngest son was injured from a fall while serving in the Navy, her cousin George Washington Park Custis, the owner of Arlington Plantation, allowed him to stay at the estate during his convalescence. Mary moved to Arlington House to care for her son and her devotion took a toll on her own health. He died and Mary passed away four years after the publication of her book, not realizing that she would continue to be one of the most famous women in Virginia for the next forty years, though the civil war.
When it became clear that Mary would not regain her health, she selected one of her favorite spots on the plantation as her final resting place, about 100 feet south of the Arlington House front porch. She died on January 23, 1828. She was 65 years old. Today her grave is located in Section 2, Grave S-6. The brick wall surrounding her grave was to protect it from free roaming cattle.
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