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Show before the Revolution. Col. John Washington, great-grandfather of the President, had come to Westmoreland, Va., In 1656. He died and was burled there In 1676. MaJ. Lawrence Washington Wash-ington and MaJ. John Washington, his sons, succeeded him. After their marriages the family lived on separate parts of the Wake-field Wake-field estate until the house in which George Washington was born burned. After that the Washingtons continued in other houses on the same land, and descendants still live on part of the same Wakefield estate a continuous possession, in whole or In part, for 264 years eight generations. Mount Vernon Estate. It was at Wakefield, then, that George Washington was born, February Feb-ruary 22, 1732. Between three and four years later the family moved to their estate of 2,500 acres which em- I braced the present Mount Vernon. There Washington passed about four years of his boyhood. Then his parents par-ents Augustine Washington and his second wife, ?fary Ball, a member of another early Virginia family moved to an estate in King George county, about ' two miles east of Fredericksburg. Fredericks-burg. There his father died, In 1743. His half brother, Lawrence Washington, Washing-ton, with whom George was great favorite, inherited Mount Vernon ; another an-other half brother, Augustine, Jr., received re-ceived Wakefield as his patrimony and George was to have still another farm when he grew up. Mrs. Washington retained the King George county estate. es-tate. As there was a good school near Wakefield, and none near his mother's estate, George spent much of his time at Wakefield until he was sixteen rears old, when he returned to Mount Vernon, Lawrence, upon his death, having left him the estate. Incidental to the restoration of Wakefield there has been a better appreciation ap-preciation gained of the circumstances of Washington's family. Much of our own American story has grown out of the old Weenis . biography, published shortly after Washington's death. That gave us the cherry tree story and other incidents of his life, many of which were doubtlessly true. It pictured pic-tured Washington as springing from a lowly lineage and having that sort of a cultural background well calculated to produce a man who would lead the revolt against monarchial oppression. Family of Aristocrats. The truth of the matter as these researches re-searches show, is that Washington's forbears were Intense royalists and closely allied to the house of Stuart Wakefield Made Shrine Worthy Its Memory 'LMmi a The birthplace of vl Washington long re-Mfe'jk re-Mfe'jk malned a desolate and WjC deserted spot on the f!fetTfJrj banks of the Potomac, Jtft&tA set ln tne most beauti-VV'a beauti-VV'a ful environment of na-S$Hs na-S$Hs ture, . but with no one iw there, save a few simple sim-ple negro folk and ghosts of the past, to tell its significance. sig-nificance. In the past the site has not been easy to find. Lying some 100 miles south of the National Capital. Wakefield was not shown on the maps. There was little or no Information available about this historic spot where Washington was born and where he spent the greater part of his boyhood. Known by few, it was difficult to get to except by water. In the colonial era, civilization followed the waterways, and the homes of the plantation owners along the Potomac were built upon some inviting spot close to its shores. ' The broad river was their artery of commerce. Wakefield Wake-field burned before railroads and highways high-ways supplanted the river. It was never rebuilt, so when highways came they passed Wakefield by. So the birthplace remained, neglected neg-lected and forlorn, until only a few years ago when the Wakefield National Na-tional Memorial association was formed with the. purpose of building on the original site as exact a replica of the house ln which Washington was born as painstaking research and tedious study would enable it and to restore the vast acres of the plantation to something more of its size of Washington's Wash-ington's boyhood. House a Mansion. To reconstruct the home was a task of no easy proportion. For many years very little reliable Information was obtainable as to the size and character of the old structure. There were a variety of opinions extant. Some contended it had been a cabin ; others, a mansion. Some thought it was made of wood ; others that It was of brick, and still others that It was a structure of combined wood and brick construction. After considerable study, however, experts of the association asso-ciation arrived at what they believe to be the truth that the structure was built of Colonial brick of home manufacture. man-ufacture. Excavations on the site established es-tablished the nature of the construction construc-tion and the type of brick used. The bricks for the new Wakefield are being produced from the original clay pit on the Wakefield estate. Research also established that the house was a mansion man-sion of considerable proportions, after the style of the big Virginia plantation homes of that period. Old Colonial Family. Many, of the original furnishings, saved from the fire, are still in the hands of descendants of the family remaining In the neighborhood of the old mansion; These have been turned over to the association. The state of Virginia has constructed a road to the site and the federal government has been asked to dredge and Improve the harbor and to reconstruct the wharf In order to accommodate visitors vis-itors by boat from the Potomac. The Washington family first settled at Wakefield in 1665. a full century In fact. It was their close adherence to the royal household and the consequent conse-quent oppression of the Cromwell followers fol-lowers that forced Col. John Washington Wash-ington to leave his rich estates in England Eng-land and flee to the shores of Virginia. Vir-ginia. Thomas Washington, an uncle of the founder of the American family, was attached to the court of Charles I, which gave the family a secure social standing ln England. He accompanied his sovereign to Spain, where he died and was buried on the grounds of the British embassy. A brother of Thomas, and father of the man who fled to America, was Rev. Lawrence Washington, Wash-ington, proctor of Oxford university, one-of the chief royalist strongholds In England. As far back as the family history goes in England, the Washing-tons Washing-tons belonged to the aristocratic landed land-ed gentry and were fervent supporters of the' throne. So, too, with the American branch. At Wakefield, in Washington's youth, the stables held upward of thirty riding horses. The restoration of Wakefield gives the nation another Washington shrine second only to the beautiful home to which he retired after his years of honorable service both In war and peace had won for him the title, "Father "Fa-ther of His Country." Kansas City Times. |