by Beth Hahn

(Editor’s Note—As women’s history month is being celebrated in Falls Church this coming Saturday in Cherry Hill Park, see story in News Briefs, this essay on the role of women in Falls Church is presented).

The Falls Church Women’s History Group Marks America’s 250th by Honoring Local Women Who Turned Ideals into Action. Come this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Cherry Hill Park for the 2026 Falls Church Women’s History Walk.

The story of Falls Church is best told through the lives of some of its most daring, accomplished, and consequential residents—the women of Falls Church.

Since its founding in 1699, Falls Church has been shaped by the women who saw a need and found a way to make their community better. The Falls Church Women’s History Walk honors these pioneers, abolitionists, suffragists, educators, entrepreneurs, politicians, historians, artists, and activists. Their civic engagement and dedication have helped establish Falls Church as a vibrant, responsive and well-loved community.

As our nation prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Falls Church Women’s History Group invites the community to reflect not only on the words penned in 1776, but on the generations of women who labored—often quietly and at great personal risk—to ensure those promises of liberty and equality extended to all. The Declaration proclaimed that “all men are created equal.”

Yet for much of our nation’s history, women, African Americans, and immigrants were excluded from full citizenship. In Falls Church, courageous women stepped

forward across centuries to narrow that gap between principle and practice. Their

stories illuminate how the revolutionary ideals of freedom and self-governance have

been carried forward—not just in legislatures and battlefields, but in classrooms,

churches, homes, and city halls.

In the shadow of the 1769 brick church that still stands today as the Falls Church

Episcopal, Sarah Wren quietly advanced the cause of freedom. After inheriting several

enslaved people following the death of her husband, architect and builder James Wren,

Sarah ensured that they each learned to read before emancipating them—an act of

profound defiance in an era when literacy among enslaved people was often

criminalized. By linking freedom with education, Sarah Wren embodied the revolutionary

belief that liberty requires knowledge.

A generation later, Betsy Read carried that conviction forward. The daughter of

abolitionist and lay preacher John Read, Betsy risked violence to teach Black adults and

children to read and write in and around Falls Church.

With her father and uncle, Hiram Read, she organized secret classes for enslaved people and for those crossing into Union lines, defying local laws and the wrath of Confederate sympathizers. When it became too dangerous to gather at her uncle’s home, Betsy went house to house, quietly continuing her lessons. In 1864 her father—serving in the Union Home

Guard—was captured and executed by Confederate soldiers. Betsy and her aunt

braved hostile territory to retrieve the body.

Betsy’s courage reminds us that the Declaration’s promise of life and liberty demanded sacrifice long after 1776. Harriet Foote Turner, a free woman of color working on the Fitzhugh plantation, also understood the sacrifice required to secure freedom. In 1851, entrusted to transport 12 newly purchased enslaved people from the Alexandria slave market, she instead posed as their owner, forged travel passes, and led them north to freedom in Canada. Unable

to return safely to Falls Church, she nevertheless maintained ties to family and later

purchased land for relatives on what would become the site of Tinner Hill. Her daring act

stands among the boldest expressions of self-determination in our local history.

For Eliza Henderson, liberty was not an abstraction but a hard-won reality. Enslaved in

Washington, D.C., she endured sexual assault and, after attempting escape, was sold

away from her family to Mississippi. There she married and bore a son.

Following the Battle of Vicksburg, Eliza seized her chance. Carrying her infant son—hidden inside a trunk for protection—she followed Union troops back to Washington and her family.

After emancipation, Eliza purchased land at what is now Broad and Washington Streets in Falls Church, where she operated a grocery store for many years, transforming

survival into prosperity and rooting her family’s future in the very soil of a town once

shaped by slavery.

As the nation wrestled with women’s political rights, Mattie Gundry reshaped Falls

Church civic life. After moving here in 1893, she founded the Virginia Training School for

children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities in 1899, leading it for nearly half a

Century.

In 1908 the Falls Church Town Council elected her as a school trustee—making her the first woman in Virginia to serve in that role—only to be declared ineligible because she did not have the right to vote.

Undeterred, she became active in the Women’s Suffrage League of Fairfax in 1913 and continued advocating until ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. In 1921 she became one of the first two women elected to the Falls Church Town Council, serving three terms. Mattie Gundry’s life illustrates how the ideals of representative government must be defended and expanded.

Mary Ellen Henderson devoted 32 years to teaching and leading Falls Church’s

“Colored School,” where classrooms lacked heat, running water, and janitorial services.

In 1936, she documented the stark disparities between Black and white schools and

presented her findings to the city council. Her advocacy led to the construction of a new

school for African American students. Her persistence affirmed that equal protection

under law must include equal investment in children’s futures.

The struggle to realize the Declaration’s promise continued into the modern era. In

1961, Marian Costner Selby became one of the first African American students to attend

George Mason High School, and in 1964 she became the school’s first African

American graduate. She went on to break barriers in the Fairfax Education Association

and the Fairfax County Planning Department. Her quiet courage and dignified resolve

helped integrate both classrooms and professional spaces.

Jackie Bong Wright fled Communist Vietnam with her three young children in 1975 and

quickly made civic participation her mission. After moving with her children to Falls

Church, she established the Indochinese Refugees Social Services, organized

vocational training courses for immigrants, and founded the Vietnamese American

Voters Association, registering thousands of new voters between 2000 and 2004.

Recognized by Washingtonian Magazine and awarded the Gold Medal of Liberty and

the Gold Peace Statue, she has devoted her life to empowering citizens and advocating

for victims of sex and labor trafficking. In her work the revolutionary principle of freedom

and government by the people finds renewed meaning.

As we approach America’s 250th birthday, the Falls Church Women’s History Group

celebrates not only the authors of the Declaration of Independence but also the women

who insisted its ideals apply to everyone. From emancipation and secret schools to

suffrage campaigns, integration, and voter registration drives, these women transformed

lofty language into lived reality.

Their stories remind us that liberty is not self-executing. It must be taught, defended, expanded, and renewed. In honoring the women of Falls Church, we honor the enduring work of making independence meaningful for every generation.