Madonna of The Trail *


This monument is located on U.S. Rt.40 just East of Beallsville, Pa., across from the Nemacolin Counry Club.
The monument was dedicated on Dec.8,1928, and rededicated in Oct.1978.
Inscriptions are on all four sides.
North Face
The National Old Trails Road.


South Face
Madonna of The Trail.  N.S.D.A.R.  Memorial to the Pioneer Mothers of the covered wagon days.


East Face

On this Historic spot, (the hunting ground of the friendly Indian Nemacolin), this monument is erected and dedicated to the memory of our pioneer Mothers.


West Face
Erected in nineteen-hundred-twenty-eight in Washington County,Pennsylvania, the oldest County West of the Allegheny Mountains. Named for the Father of our Country.


A bronze plaque placed at the foot of the monument reads:
Madonna of the trail. presented and dedicated Dec.8,1928 by the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Restored 1990 by the Pennsylvania State Society, Daughters of the American Revolution.
Mrs.Thomas G. Burkey, State Regent.
Rededicated June 23, 1990

How It Got There.


The Pennsylvania State Arts Commission refused to approve the monument on the grounds that it was not a work of art, and refused to permit it to be erected on any public property in Pennsylvania.
The Board of Directors of the Nemacolin Country Club, voted to donated the plot of ground where the statue now stands. The big problem was to raise $2,500 necessary to pay railroad freight charges, and cost of hauling, erection and landscaping.
Once more Nemacolin came to the rescue with the idea of the "Pioneer Fifty-Fifty Club," in which membership was limited to fifty persons who would each contribute $50 and this was quickly accomplished. Each member received an engraved certificate of membership. After all expenses were paid the balance was turned over to the Washington County Chapter, D.A.R. for repairs that might be necessary through the years.
The object of this club is best described in the "Articles of Association," which I quote:
"Recognizing that our pioneer mothers shared the trials and hardships of life fifty-fifty with our pioneer forefathers in blazing the trail of our nation, we do hereby agree to join ourselves in a Fifty-Fifty Club for the purpose of paying tribute to their memory in assisting in erecting and dedicating the "Madonna of the Trail" monument presented by the National Society, D.A.R., and to be erected along the National Old Trails Highway in the State of Pennsylvania; and in consideration of our membership in this club we each agree to pay a fee of Fifty Dollars, which entitles each member to a life membership fully paid and non-assessable in said club.
Said membership to consist of a closed list of fifty members and no new members shall ever be added; and when the membership is completed, the full amount of membership fees shall be turned over to the treasurer of the committee in charge of erecting said monument, and this charter list be placed in the sealed box at the dedication to go down in history as the only club of the kind ever organized with a full membership of fifty with full dues of fifty dollars and known as the "Pioneer Fifty-Fifty Club."

When the monument was unveiled and dedicated on December 8, 1928, the membership roll --25 men and 25 women, again fifty-fifty, was placed in the Memory Box in the base of the monument, "to be opened by the Washington County Chapter, D.A.R., December 8, 1978."

That box, along with the names, was "in pretty bad shape," when it was opened during the 1978 rededication ceremony.

There are 12 of these Statues across the country along Rt.40 from Bethesda Maryland, to Upland California.

* This information is from the' National Pike, Road of History, Romance' by Earl R. Forrest. It was published as a series of articles in the Washington Reporter, Washington, Pa.  1955.


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