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Show The Birthplace ofWashinaton r . - - m . f ft; "zmTifi M 4 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON """""lllKN whs Ceorge Washington born? ra'J' T Most Americans bt-lU-vo that It V'S-jV w:i 'H I- ebrtiarv 17. rj. und that a ) if whv we observe 1' rlirimry 22 as Washington's blrthdav. As a matter of fan he was born j V on February 11, 17;i2. lint Hie rea-W?T rea-W?T son w hy we observe February 22 In-W'lW In-W'lW stead of Feliniary 11 as Ills birthday UfeivSf ls UPl'"use ' tlle tinkering that man mxJLjl has done with the calendar down JVJkyiL til ronjili the ages. Without going Into f all the technical details of the calendar's cal-endar's early history, sulllce It to say that In 1582 the Julian calendar year (established (estab-lished by Julius Caesar aud modified somewhat by Augustus Caesar) was ten days ahead of the true solar year. So Pone Gregory XVIII ordered that October 5 be regarded as October 15, thus dropping out 10 days, and also made some changes In computing leap years. But it was not until 1752 that the Gregorian year was adopted by Great Britain and her colonies. colo-nies. Then 11 days were dropped between September Sep-tember 3 and September 14. Twenty years before this a boy, to whom had been given the name of George Washington, was born In England's colony col-ony of Virginia In North America. That event had actually taken place on February 11 under the old calendar system but when the Gregorian calendar was applied and the calendar pushed up 11 days It made his birthday February 22. So that Is why we celebrate on that date. Where was George Washington born? Just as he had "two birthdays" so did he have "two birthplaces" that ls, if we listen to the assertions asser-tions of different "authorities" and Just as a matter of 11 days of time separates his "two birthdays," so does a matter of approximately a mile of distance separate his "two birthplaces." Back In 1P23 there was organized In Washington, Wash-ington, D. C, by Mrs. Josephine Wheelwright Bust, a descendant of John Washington, the original orig-inal Washington emigrant to this country, and by other Interested persons an association known as the Wakefield National Memorial association which was incorporated nnder the laws of Virginia Vir-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 plantation planta-tion of Capt. Augustine Washington was purchased pur-chased and Improvements made on It In 1930 the federal government appropriated $SO,000 for the removal of the granite shaft, erected In 1S06 to mark the site of Washington's birthplace, and for the construction of a replica of Wakefield and the Improvement of the grounds. All of this was established as the George Washington Birthplace Birth-place National Monument and placed under the Jurisdiction of the national park service. But during this time there was advanced the disturbing theory by several specialists In Washington Wash-ington that the association had improved the wrong site as the birthplace of the Father of His Country! He was not born at Wakefield on the northwest bank of Popes creek, so they said, but more than a mile away near the southeast bank of Eridges creek, where the Washington family graveyard ls located. The association was positive enough that it was right to go ahead with its work and the federal government seemed satisfied. But at the same time that disturbing theory would not die. It has remained for Dr. Charles O. Paullin of the division of historical research in the Carnegie Car-negie Institution of Washington to make a search In contemporaneous documents and to uncover evidence which seems to settle the question conclusively con-clusively and to prove that the W:akefield site actually was the birthplace of Washington. The story of the investigation which Doctor Paullin made, the evidence which he found and the conclusions which he reached from them are contained in a recent press release from the Carnegie Institution, upon which the remainder of this article ls based. He says, In part: The first land owned by the Washlngtons on the Popes Creek-Bridges Creek peninsula was purchased of David Anderson In 16G4 by John Washington (I), the emigrant and great-grandfather of George. On this tract, which contained 150 acres and 'which lay on the southeast side of Bridges creek, John established his home and graveyard. When he died in 1677, John (II), one of his sons, Inherited the Anderson' tract or home plantation. Twenty years later It passed to the wife of John (II) at his death, and at her death to their son John (III). On the death of John (I) another son, Lawrence, Law-rence, grandfather of George, Inherited lands near the Potomac some miles northwest of Bridges creek. In 1095 Lawrence purchased of the heirs of David Llston 400 acres on the northwest north-west side of Bridges creek adjoining the lands of his brother John (II). On Lawrence's death In 1698 the Llston tract and other near-by lands fell to Capt Augustine Washington, father of George. Augustine was married In 1715 and his first child was born In the following year. In 1717-1718 he - .... rrr . purchased of Joseph Abblngton 150 acres of the iiA "s' Popes Creek-Bridges Creek peninsula, lying on eawfif5iEjl "VfS? the northwest side of Popes creek and Including . wist m T V lJ4',y the site of the recent Improvements at Wake- Jo- c o o V t v . field. The tract may have had a residence on f Crv) It, for the purchase Included "all houses, edl- , y' flees, buildings, tobacco houses, fences, orchards, l,, "cS. f purchased of Joseph Abblngton 150 acres of the Popes Creek-Bridges Creek peninsula, lying on the northwest side of Popes creek and Including the site of the recent Improvements at Wakefield. Wake-field. The tract may have had a residence on It, for the purchase Included "all houses, edifices, edi-fices, buildings, tobacco houses, fences, orchards, (and) gardens." I have discovered no document stating what Improvements, If any, Augustine made on the Abblngton tract, or giving the date of his removal re-moval to It. That he was living there on February Febru-ary 23, 1720, we 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-ler and Ceorge F.skridge, of the other part, In which occurs the clause, "whereas the aforesaid Augustine Washington is seized In fee simple of one parcell and tract of land, being the land where he now lives, which land he the said Augustine Au-gustine purchased of one Joseph Ablngton." Six years before the birth of his Illustrious son he Is therefore known to have been living In a house on the Popes creek side of the peninsula. penin-sula. He ls also known to have spent the last years of his life first on the Hunting creek (Mount Vernon) plantation In Prince William county nd later on the Strother plantation near Fredericksburg. Fred-ericksburg. Three of his children were born after he left Westmoreland county. Almost every year between 1733 and 1739 has been given as the probable date of his removal. I have established the date as certainly between March 20 and November No-vember 18, 1735. It Is therefore conclusive that Augustine was living In a house near Popes creek between 1726 and 1733; his son, George, was born In 1732. The early maps locating George's birthplace near Bridges creek and the numerous writers locating It elsewhere than near Popes creek are certainly erroneous. After his purchase of the Abblngton tract Augustine Au-gustine Washington continued to Increase his holdings on the peninsula. In 1725 he bought 215 acres on the Potomac river, and in 1734 25 acres of lots. Islands, and marshes at the mouth of Popes creek. In 1742 by an exchange of lands with his cousin, John (IV), he obtained a tract on the southeast side of Bridges creek which Included In-cluded the graveyard and the ancestral home-site, home-site, and for the first time all of the Popes Creek-Bridges Creek peninsula was in the possession pos-session of a single Washington. The ancestral home-site at Bridges creek, therefore, could not have been the birthplace of George, since his father did not own it until 1742. The date of Its abandonment as an ancestral ances-tral residence Is not known. On the death of Capt. Augustine Washington, April 12, 1743, the Popes Creek-Bridges Creek plantation fell to his son Col. Augustine, who lived and died there. George Washington, who regarded the genealogy geneal-ogy of his family as of "very little moment," wrote of Col. Augustine, his half brother, that he "lived at the ancient mansion seat In Westmoreland West-moreland county, where he died, and was interred in-terred In the family vault." Col. Augustine represented his county In the House of Burgesses from 1755 (or 1754) to 1758. On his death his widow Anne (Aylett) Washington Washing-ton and her children, Including her eldest son, William Augustine (1757-1810), who inherited the plantation, continued to occupy Its residence. The widow ls described by her Illustrious brother-in-law as an "heiress" and In May, 1771, when he visited her, as of "Pope's Creek," thus locating her residence as on or near that creek. William Augustine Washington was living in the house when It burned. When he died In 1S10 it fell to his son, George Corbin Washington. The possessions of George Corbin Washington did not Include the whole of the peninsula Inherited In-herited by his grandfather, Col. Augustine Washington, Wash-ington, In 1743. It did include the plantation known at this time as Wakefield, first so called by William Augustine Washington, according to the authority of William Lanier Washington, who died in 1933. The designation is known to have been in current use as early as 1773. In 1813 George Corbin Washington, then a resident res-ident of Georgetown, D. C, sold to John Gray of " Stafford county,' Virginia, for 6,229 pounds and 10 shillings the Wakefield plantation, containing contain-ing 981 acres, together with two other small .tracts. Later. Wakefield came again Into the pos- I 1. Washington as a young colonial mllltla officer. offi-cer. From the miniature by Charles Wilson Peale. 2. The colonial mansion and grounds at Wakefield Wake-field near Popes creek In Westmoreland county, Virginia. The building, typical of Eighteenth century cen-tury architecture, was erected by the Wakefield National Memorial association In co-operation with the federal government en the site of the house In which Washington wis born. 3. The ancestral burying ground of the Wash-Ingtons Wash-Ingtons situated near Bridges creek In Westmoreland Westmore-land county, as restored by the Wakefield National Na-tional Memorial association and the federal gov-ernment. gov-ernment. Here lie the bodies of the father, grand-father, grand-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 V Washington, courtesy National Park Service.) g. $ session of the Washlngtons through its purchase In 1846 by John F. Wilson of Anne Arundel county, Maryland, and by its gift to his son, John E. Wilson, who married Betty, a granddaughter grand-daughter of William Augustine Washington. Of great Interest Is the following provision in the form of a memorandum found at the end of a deed made by George Corbin Washington to Gray: "The said Washington further more makes over to the said Gray all his right and title as derived from his father, William Augustine Washington, to the marshes in Popes creek, but reserves the family Burying Ground at the Great Quarter (slave quarters), also sixty feet square of ground on which the house stood in which General Washington was born." The title to the reservations passed from George Corbin Washington to his son, Lewis William, and thence In 1S58 to the state of Virginia, Vir-ginia, which in 1S82 transferred It to the federal government In 1SS3 the government Increased Its holdings by the purchase of eleven acres adjacent ad-jacent to the site upon which Custis had placed the slab. In 1S96 it erected a granite monument, 51 feet high, on this site, after exploring and mapping the foundations. There ls no known contemporary description of the original house on the Custis site near Popes creek. The nearest to one that I have found is that given about 1S35 by an ancient resident of the neighborhood, who remembered that It was a "low-pitched, single-storied, frame building, with four rooms on the first floor and an enormous chimney at each end on the outside." An anonymous anon-ymous visitor of 1851 found the site In the "midst of a two-hundred-acre corn field, marked only by an old brick chimney, a mammoth flg tree, and a freestone slab" (Custis' memorial). On October 31, 1S78, anticipating the acquisition acquisi-tion of the site by the federal government, Secretary Sec-retary of State William M. Evarts with a party, which Included Gen. W. T. Sherman and Charles C. Perkins of Boston, made a trip to Popes creek from Washington on board the U. S. S. Tallapoosa. Talla-poosa. Sherman made a rough and not altogether alto-gether accurate map of the region and Perkins a sketch of the remains of a brick chimney, Identifying Identi-fying it as belonging to a kitchen that stood behind the house, the site of which was then bare. In 1S!)6 the army engineer corps explored and mapped the foundations of the original house. Additional explorations at Wakefield have not revealed any other foundations of Importance on the Abbington tract. That this house Is tha birthplace rests upon the evidence of these explorations, ex-plorations, of the tradition that it is the true birthplace, and of the chain of facts that confirms con-firms the evidence and the tradition. It must be so accepted. by Wastern Newspaper Union, |