Eugenia Washington | |
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| Born | June 27, 1838 "Megwillie", near Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia), US |
| Died | November 30, 1900 (aged 62) Washington, DC, US |
| Resting place | "Glencairne", Falmouth, Virginia |
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| Occupation(s) | Historian and civil servant |
| Employer | United States Post Office Department |
| Known for | Co-founding the Daughters of the American Revolution and founding the Daughters of the Founders and Patriots of America |
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Eugenia Scholay Washington (June 27, 1838 – November 30, 1900) was an American historian, civil servant, and a founder of the lineage societies, Daughters of the American Revolution and Daughters of the Founders and Patriots of America.
Washington was born in 1838 near Charles Town, Virginia, in present-day West Virginia. She was the daughter of William Temple Washington, through whom she was a great-grandniece of George Washington, first president of the United States, and a grandniece of Dolley Payne Todd Madison. Following her family's relocation to Stafford County, she and her family witnessed the Battle of Fredericksburg first hand during the American Civil War.
Due to her family's limited financial resources after the war and her father's illness, Washington accepted a position as a clerk within the United States Post Office Department in Washington, DC, to support her family. There, Washington was one of the four co-founders of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (with Mary Desha, Mary Smith Lockwood, and Ellen Hardin Walworth). Washington had reportedly been inspired by her experiences during the American Civil War to found an organization for preserving the shared heritage of women from the North and South of the United States. Washington was the DAR's first Registrar General, and was made "number one" on the "grand roll" of the society's membership. In 1898, Washington founded another lineage society, the National Society of Daughters of the Founders and Patriots of America, with the broader goal of preserving the history of the American colonial era.
While visiting a relative in Louisiana around 1870, Washington attended a Roman Catholic mission. She later converted to Roman Catholicism from her Episcopal faith, after which she became a prominent lecturer of the Catholic faith. Washington never married, and she died in 1900. Washington was interred beside her mother at the Moncure family burial ground of her sister's estate, "Glencairne", in Falmouth, Virginia.