All throughout May, WTOP is celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with stories about the people and places shaping the D.C. region.
The Ye Washon headstone, located in Georgetown’s historic Oak Hill Cemetery, is a small, unassuming marker that not many people know exists.
Partially obscured by a bush on one side, you would never know this is the final resting place of the person thought to be the first Korean American ever born on U.S. soil.
“I think it’s deeply meaningful,” said KeunYoung Kim, deputy director of the Old Korean Legation in the District. “The stone is a powerful reminder of where we came from and the long journey Korean Americans have taken to be here today.”
The name Ye Washon, which means “a Korean descendant born in Washington,” was given to the son of Ye Cha Yun, a Korean minister from the Old Korean Legation. In the late 1880s, the legation became the first diplomatic entity established by the Republic of Korea in a Western nation.
Ye Cha Yun was not actually the first person to be in charge of the legation and its diplomatic mission. But when his predecessor fell ill, Mike Litterst, communications director and ranger with the National Park Service, told WTOP that, “He, by default, essentially becomes the minister, or what we might look at as the Korean Ambassador to the United States.”
While Oak Hill is not technically under National Park Service jurisdiction, it does recognize the cemetery on the National Register of Historic Places, Litterst said.
Kim and Litterst both told WTOP that Minister Yun and, in particular, his wife were covered extensively by the American media during their time in the U.S.
“His wife is a remarkable story in her own right,” Litterst reflected.
In a time when wives of her station were supposed to take a back seat, Mrs. Yun, also known as “Lady Bae,” shone instead, Litterst said.
“She openly embraces the role of essentially first lady of the Korean Legation,” he said.
Lady Bae and Minister Yun became close with many prominent families and made many friends in the D.C. social and political scene during their time. Litterst said records show as many as 800 people would attend events that the minister’s wife regularly hosted. Then, news broke that she was pregnant.
“Her pregnancy and (the child’s) birth are covered extensively in the American media,” Litterst said. “Not just in Washington, but papers in New York City follow it and cover it as well.”
In a cruel twist of fate, however, the baby boy, named Ye Washon, after the family’s home away from home, passed away at just two-months old in 1890.
“Oak Hill Cemetery records indicate that he passed from eczema, which is a skin condition we don’t commonly associate with being a cause of death, but that is what we have on record,” said historian Laura Lavelle.
Lavelle told WTOP that the circumstances that led to Ye Washon being buried at Oak Hill are both interesting and incredibly moving.
One of the prominent D.C. families who befriended the Yuns, the Phelps family, was led by patriarch Seth Ledyard Phelps, a U.S. naval officer, and later in life, a politician and diplomat. The building that the Korean Legation occupied and operated in D.C., a building that still serves as a museum to the Old Korean Legation today, was originally his home in Logan Circle.
Litterst said the Phelps family had close ties socially to the Yuns. Lavelle adds that the Phelps’ were so heartbroken by Ye Washon’s passing that they offered Ye Cha Yun and his wife a place in their family plot at Oak Hill to bury the boy.
“(It was) a gesture of friendship and love,” Lavelle reflected.
“The fact that a Korean diplomat’s child was welcomed into such a private family burial site speaks volumes about the respect and dignity that crossed cultural boundaries,” Kim added.
Today, Kim said, the marker serves as a tangible link to the past — one that transcends ethnicity and nationality — and serves as a reminder of the bond between our two nations.
“Reflecting on Ye Washon’s gravestone is not just about the past. It is about recognizing the roots that have shaped who we are today, and considering the stories we will write in the future,” Kim said.
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