Two women changed Edgar Allen Poe’s life for the better. They were his wife, Virginia Poe (1822 – 1847), and his mother-in-law Maria Poe Clemm (1790 – 1871). Both are buried with him at Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in Baltimore. The fact that they are buried with him shows their importance in his life.
Edgar Allen Poe, destitute and estranged from his Virginia family, came to Baltimore around 1832 to live with his aunt Maria Clemm at No. 3 Amity Street. Other family members lived there, including Maria’s 10-year-old daughter, Virginia.
The move changed the lives of Edgar, Maria and Virginia.
Maria was a plain and hard-working woman. She became a stabilizing influence on Edgar. In turn, Poe was devoted to her.
Once the 27-year-old Poe married Virginia when she was 13 years old, he took to calling Maria “Muddy.” Poe’s 1849 poem, To My Mother, reflects their affection for each other.
The marriage of these cousins with a startling age difference has been debated for years.
We know that Virginia was a young woman of startling beauty, with dark hair and brilliant eyes.
She herself wrote at least one poem, an ode to her husband for Valentine’s Day 1846.
Virginia possessed a memorable singing voice and played the harp and piano. One evening, she was performing when she suddenly began bleeding from the mouth. It was a sign of the tuberculosis that would eventually end her life on January 30, 1847.
Poe was despondent and remained so for the rest of his life, sinking into alcoholism and, some say, madness.
People in Baltimore never forgot the Poes. In 1875, a grave monument was dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe at Westminster Burying Ground.
To raise funds for a proper gravesite, Sara Sigourney Rice and fellow teachers encouraged students to contribute “pennies for Poe” and organized several special events.
Later, Maria and Virginia were reinterred with him.
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