Show H The Birthplace TN 0 9 ton 7 air e e eY a I tyty of Y e r j 4 L f c s sj sA j A k v 1 k eta D ky y n tr b ib i QA r wn vex dl GS n wa f i r 1 y 1 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON H N was George born 1 Most Americans believe that It was on February 22 2 1732 and that s why hy we observe e February 22 as Washington's As a matter of fact he be was born on 11 1732 nut But the reason rea- rea reason son ww b by e is a observe 22 in- in instead In stead of February 11 as his birthday Is because of the tinkerIng that man has done wIth the calendar down through the ages Without going Into all the technical details of the cal cal- calendar's early history suffice It to say that In the JulIan calendar year established by Julius Caesar and modified some hat by bv Au Augustus Caesar r was ten days ahead of the true tue solar y ear So Pope Gregory VIn ordered that th October 5 be regarded reg as October 15 thus dropping out 10 dos and also made some changes m in computing leap years But It was not until 1752 that the Gregorian year was adopted b by Great Britain and her cob colo- roes DIes Then 11 da days vs were ere dropped between Sep Sep- September September 3 and September 14 Twenty years before thIS a bo boy to whom hom had been given the name of George Washington was is born in s col- col colony col oily ony of In North AmerIca That event had bad actually taken place on 11 under the old calendar s system stem but when the Gregorian calendar was applied and the calendar pushed up Cp 11 days it made his Ius 22 So that IS hy vwe e celebrate on that date Where was vas George Washington bola Just IS as ashe he had two birthdays so did he have hl two 1 10 0 birthplaces that birthplaces that Is If we e listen to the aster aster- of different authorIties authorities and and just as a matter of 11 days of time separates his two 1 0 birthdays so so does a matter of a amile amile mile of distance separate hIS t two 0 birthplaces tf Back in 1923 19 3 there was organized in Wash Wash- Washington Ington DC D C by Mrs Irs Josephine Rust a descendant of John Washington the orIginal inal Washington emigrant to thIS country and by other Interested persons an association known n as the Wakefield rational l MemorIal association which was Incorporated under the laws of VIr- VIr VIrginIa Virginia ginIa for the purpose of restorIng Wakefield the house In which Washington was supposed to have been born Through the generosIty of John D Rockefeller Jr and other donors a large part of the planta- planta plantation tion of Capt Augustine Washington was as pur pur- purchased chased and Improvements made on It it In 1 1930 30 the tho federal government appropriated SO for forthe forthe the removal of the granite shaft erected in lS 1890 G to mark the site of WashIngton's birthplace and for the construction of a replica of Wakefield and the Improvement ement of the grounds All of this was established as the George Geore Washington Birth Birth- Birthplace Birthplace place rational Monument and placed under the jurisdiction of the national park serVIce nut But during thIs time there was ad advanced the disturbing theory by several specialists In Wash Wash- WashIngton Ington that the association hold had improved the wrong site as the birthplace of the rather Father of Isis Bis Country t lIe He was as not born at on the no 1 th thet et bank banI of Popes creek creeh so they sa said 11 but more than a mile away ny near the southeast bank of Bridges creel creeh where here the Washington famIly grave gra Is located The association w lS is positive enough that it was fiS right to go ahead with its work and the federal go got seemed satisfied nut But at the same time that disturbing theory would not dIe It has remained for Dr Charles 0 of the dh Ision of historical research in the Car Car- Carnegie negle negie InstItution of to make mahe a search In contemporaneous documents and to uncover evidence which seems to settle the question con con- conclusively clush ely and to prove pem e that the Wakefield site actually was as the birthplace of Washington The story of the Investigation In which Doctor Paullin made the e evidence which he foun found and the conclusions which he reached from them Ire are contained In a recent press release from the tho CarnegIe Institution upon the remainder of this article is based He sa says s In part The first land owned by the on the Popes Creek Creeh Bridges s Creek peninsula as w as purchased ed of David Dald Anderson In 1601 ty by John WashIngton grandfather I I the emigrant and great grand grand- father of George On this tract which contained lt O acres and which lay hy on Ue the sou southeast side of Bridges creek John established his home borne and graveyard When he died In 1077 John II one of his sons bons inherited the Anderson tract or home plantation Twenty T years year later Inter It passed to the wife He of John II at his Ius death and at her death to their son John III III On the death of John 1 I another son son Law Law- Lawrence Lawrence rence gt ther of George InherIted lands near the Potomac some miles north northwest est of Brill Bridges es creek In 1035 IG 5 Laurence rence purchased of the hell heirs 5 of Liston acres on the north north- northwest west est side of Bridges creek adjoining the lands lande of his brother John II On rence's Lawrences death In 1608 the Liston tract and other near by lands fell feB to Copt Augustine Washington father of George Augustine was dS mm married In 1715 and his first child as horn born In the folIo following mg year In 1718 he i F Ff R rry F 3 rf a- a purchased of Joseph Abbington 1 10 0 acres of the Popes Creek Bridges Creek peninsula lying on the north northwest side of Popes creek and Including the site of the recent Improvements at Wake Wake- Wakefield Wakefield field The tract may haw ha hae e a had a residence on onIt It for the purchase Included all houses edl- edl edifices buildIngs tobacco houses fences orchards and gardens I hm hate e discovered disco no document stating what Improvements if any Augustine made on the Abbington tract or gIving the date of his re- re removal moval to It That he be beas was as living there thele on February ar ary 23 1720 we e know certainly by a deed of uses of that date made by himself and his wIfe Jane of the one part and Lawrence Butler But But- Butler ler and George EskrIdge of the other part tn In 1 whIch occurs occur the clause u whereas the aforesaid Augustine Washington is seized In fee simple of one parcell and tract of land being the land where lie he now lives which h and he the said Au- Au Augustine Augustine gustine purchased of one Joseph Abington Six years vears before e the birth of his illustrious son lie he Is therefore known to hue hive been livIng In a house on the Popes creek side of the penin- penin peninsula peninsula sula lie He is also known to h have l e spent the last years of his life first on the Hunting Cl creek Mount Vernon plantation In Prince Willlam county and later on the Strother plantation near Fred Fred- Three of his children were ere born Lorn after he left count Almost Almot every year between 1734 1731 and 1739 has been given as the probable date of his removal I ha have e established the date as certainly between March 25 and No- No ember 18 1735 It is therefore conclusive that Augustine was 11 hung mg In a house near Popes creek bet between een 17 0 and 1735 his son George was born In 1732 Zhe early maps maIlS locating Georges George s birthplace near Bridges creek and the numerous writers locating It elsewhere than near Popes creel creek are certainly erroneous After hIS purchase of the Abbington tract Au- Au Augustine Augustine gustine Wa Washington continued to Increase his hol holdings on the penInsula In 1725 lie he bought nCI acres es on the Potomac 11 over er and In 1734 2 2 acres of lots Islands and marshes at the mouth of Popes creek In 1742 by an exchange e of lands with his cousin John IV IV lie he obtained a tract tracton on the southeast 1st side of Bridges creek which included in- in included the graveyard and the ancestral home home- homesite homesite site and for the first time an all of the Popes Creek Creeh Bridges Cl Creek eel penInsula was In the pos pos- possession possession session of a af W ashington The ancestral home site at Budges es creel creek therefore could not hl hate e been the birthplace of George since hIs father did not own it until 1742 The date of Its abandonment as an ances ancestral ancestral residence is not known n nOn On the death of Capt Augustine AUustIne Washington April 12 1713 the Popes Creek Bridges Creek plantation fen fell to his son Col Augustine who 11 used cd and dIed there George Washington ho regarded the geneal- geneal genealogy genealogy ogy of his family as of very ry little moment wrote of Col Augustine tlDe his half brother that he ll ed lived at the anCIent mansIOn seat In InVest West Vest moreland county where here he died and was In- In Interred interred in the family vault ault Col Augustine represented his counts In the tho House of Burgesses from 1755 or 1751 to 1758 On Washington his death his widow Anne Aylett Washing Washing- ton and her children including her eldest son William Augustine 1737 7 1810 ho inherited the plantation continued to occupy Its residence The widow Is de described by her illustrious brother In lt v as an heiress and In May l 1771 1 hen hen he wished her of as Popes Pope's thus locating her residence as aJ on or near that cr creek ck WIllIam Augustine Washington was as living In the house when hen it burned When he died In 1810 1510 It fell to his bis son George Geore Corbin Washington The possessions of George Corbin Washington dl did not include the whole hole of the peninsula In- In Inherited by hIs grandfather Col Augustine ash ash- inton Ington ashIngton In 1713 It did include o the plantation known nt at this time as first so clUed called b by William Augustine Washington according to the authority of William LanIer ton who ho dIed in 1033 the 1 he designation Is kno knot known t to have been In current use as early as 1773 J In 1813 George Corbin Washington then a res- res of Georgetown DC D C sold to John Jolin Gray of Stafford county Virginia for 0 pounds and 10 shillings the Wal plantation contain contain- ing containing Y acres together with t two 0 other small tracts tracts Later Wakefield came Into the pos pos- w c WA nr NA AL j M o R L N eY c o u r v t a ca 1 Washington as a young colonial militia From the miniature by Charles WIlson Peale 2 The colonial mansion and grounds at Wake field near Popes creek In d county Virginia The building typical of Eighteenth cen- cen cenI century century I tury ar was erected by the e Wakefield National Memorial association In po o operation with the federal government on the the site of the house In which Washington was born 3 The ancestral burYing ground of the Wash Wash- situated near Bridges creek In Westmore- Westmore Westmoreland Westmoreland land county as restored by the Wakefield Na- Na National National Memorial association and the federal gov- gov government government Here lie the bodies of the father grand grand- grandfather father great grandfather and other relatives of Washington 4 Map showing the area shaded desIgnated by the government as the George Washington Birthplace National monument All pictures except portrait of Washington courtesy National Park Service session of the through Its purchase In 1846 1840 by bv John F Wilson of Anne Arundel county Maryland and by Its gift to his son John D B Wilson who marrIed Betty a grand grand- granddaughter granddaughter daughter of WIllIam Augustine WashIngton Of great Interest Is the following provision In Inthe inthe the form of a memorandum found at the end of ofa ofa a deed made by George Corbin Washington to Gray The rhe said Washington further more makes over to the said ald Gray nIl all his right and title as from his father William WilHam Augustine Washington to the marshes In Popes creek bu but t reserves the family Bur Burying ing Ground at the Great Quarter sla slave e quarters also sixty feet square of ground on which the house stood In which General Washington was born If The title to the reservations passed from fro m George Corbin Washington to his son Lewis William and thence In 1858 to the state of VIr- VIr Virginia ginia which In 1882 transferred It to the federal government t In the go government increased increase d Its holdings by the purchase of eleven eIe en acres nd- nd adjacent jacent to the site upon which Custis had bad placed place d the slab In 1890 1806 it elected a granite monument 51 feet high on this site after exploring and an d mapping the foundations There Is no know kno knon n contemporary description o of f the orIginal house on the Custis site near Popes Pope s creel creek The nearest to one that I have found is that t gIven about 1832 by an ancient resident of the th e neIghborhood who remembered that It was a I low 10 pitched single storied fl frame ame building wIth h aI I four rooms on the first floor and an enormous chimney at each end on the outside If IfAn An anon anon- anonymous VIsitor of 1851 found the site In the mIdst t of a two hundred acre corn 6 ld marked only y by an old brick chimney a mammoth fig tree and a freestone slab Custis memorial memorIa On October 31 1878 anticipating the tion acquisItion ot of the site by the federal government See Sec Secretary of State Villiam M Evarts ts wIth a party which included Gen W T 1 Sherman and Charle s C Perkins of Boston made a trip to Popes creel creek from Washington on board the U S S Talla Tallapoosa Sherman mado a rough and not alto alto- altogether gether curate accurate a map of the region Ion and Perkins a sketch of the remains of a brick chimney lying Identifying it as belonging to a kitchen th It stood behind the house the site of which was as then bare In 1890 the army engineer corps explored and mapped the tho foundations of the Additional house houf c explorations It at Wakefield hive not rc revealed any other foundations of Importance the on Abbington tract That this house Is 18 the tho rests upon the eVIdence of these ex c of the traditIOn that it Is the true bIrthplace and of the chain or of facts that firms confirms con con- the evidence and the hn tradition It must be so accepted Q 0 by Union |