Show IL washington still aves in the hearts of his cound elnen J 13 R I 1 I 1 V kil I 1 r A A N t wp n A kl all america is celebrating the two hundredth annever anniversary of geo george washington birth N ahli 2 month 1 above is shown the new national masonic memorial tiam named ed ta his 3 honor gr his birthplace which wu was recently tw r stored his tomb built according to plant plan taid laid down in n his bl will and gilbert stuarts stuart famous portrait ot of the FIM president e by CALEB JOIl I 1 spent some time not long ago looking up a lot ot of facts about george washington which are not set down in all the r schoolbooks I 1 got 86 new impression ot of the father ot of his country alter after visiting I 1 mount vernon where he be lived from his bis youth until his bis death and the city ot of alexandria where he was engaged in business for fifteen sears the ideas that most or of us have of 0 washington as a boy come from the first book about him written by parson mao son boa weems just alter after his bis death the tables fables which it contained became part of the tha washington tradition it was parson weems who told the lamous famous cherry berry c tree story to prove that wash ington never told a a lie that story was probably not true but it was one of the stories which have made most americans americana regard him as more like a marble status statue than a man of flesh and blood like the rest ot of us prom from all I 1 have been able to gather george washington was what we ot of today might call a regular tellow fellow he was a 9 natural leader to be sure in everything he ha went into but he was not the cold aloof individual before whom everybody stood in silent awe that some ot of his biographers have painted him on the contrary he was very decidedly a good mixer a jolly companion good company in any crowd and a most enthusiastic sportsman and that he was a good businessman Is proved by the tact fact that be was americas first millionaire he was the richest man in the united states when he be died and he had made most ot of it by his bis successful bucce ce 5 saul operations lia in real estate we celebrate birthday on february but in the calendar in use when he was born at popes reek creek C westmoreland county virginia just two hundred years ago it was february uth alth in 1756 england and the english colonies adopted the modern calendar and dropped eleven days out ot of the month ot of september i in n dellha that t year so that all anniversaries niver saries sarles tell t eleven days later few people bothered to change their birth dates and george washington never did but after his death some precise schoolteacher sort of people the kind who are always trying to set the world right said that to continue to celebrate the alth as birthday would be all wrong ile he was dead by then and nobody else elsa cared so it got into the schoolbooks as the augustine washington georges Oe orges father died when he was eleven and he went to live with his halt half brother lawrence wa washington sh ington at his farm on hunters creek which was later named mount vernon after admiral vernon of the british navy lawrences laurences Lawren ces great friend george went to a little school taught by the local minister until he was fifteen slid and when he was sixteen went to work lawrence washington had married a daughter of william fairfax who with his brother lord fairfax owned more land than anybody else in america he hired young george to go 0 out t into bolin the wilderness and survey the boundaries darles ot 0 f his property for three years that work took him into unexplored country clear to the ohio river he realized that land in the ohio valley was going to be worth a great deal as soon as roads roada were opened to it and from then on whenever he be had bad a chance he bought land I 1 in what was them the west it was because he was the only man in virginia who knew the ohio country that he got the chance to lead the colonists against the french in 1755 when he was 19 his bis brother lawrence became ul ill and the doctors ordered him to go to the west indies george went nent with him and caught smallpox in barbados which left his face pitted and scarred for the rest of his life lawrence washington cwashington died leaving george heir to mount vernon a large and prosperous farm george washington at twenty one lad had reached his full height ot of six feet three and as one of his intimates wrote had the largest bands ever seen on oa a human being his complexion was fair andi usually burned brick red by sun eun and wind his hair was fair with a slight client reddish tinge I 1 there much in the books about me life between the end of the french 8 and ad indian war ind and the begin hig of the revolution but about those fifteen years between the time when be was 27 and 42 1 I found stine records and a good many traditions which interested me ile he was 27 and on his bis way back to mount vernon when he stopped off in fredericksburg where he owned a house his father had bad left him and met the widow castle at a dance it seems to have hava been a case of love at first sight and they lost no time getting married martha dandridge cestla was 26 had two little children john and martha and ana a hundred thousand dollars A cifes m money oney belonged to her husband in those days and with this capital george washington was able to loin join the Fair faxes in real estate operations which paid them all handsomely the principal venture was the development of the little settlement of alexandria into a city 1 lord fairfax had bad bull built t himself a tawni town I 1 house on prince street george Wa washington shingo built one diagonally across the street which served not only us as a town house hours when be drove up from mount vernon halt half a dozen miles away but as an office from which to manage his increasing business affairs the fairfax house still stands but the washington house was burned years ago and only a tablet marks its site elte the george and martha took an active part in the social life of the lottle little colonial cay here george washington was made a mason and in the rooms of the old lodge of which he rose to be master I 1 saw many relies relics of his masonic days including the actual gavel he once wielded these washington relics are now installed in the tee new masonic memorial to washington on shooters hill in alexandria where thomas jefferson wanted to put the capitol of the united states washington in insisted 51 sted on building the city named tor for him on the maryland side of the po tomac 1 I own too much land around here and would be criticized he paid aid the ancient records and traditions of alexandria reveal that washington was a joiner in every sense of 0 the word besides the masons he belonged to the local fire company was captain ot of the militia company and one ot of the most popular figures at their social events in the old tavern where the young business busi nesa men of the town gathered tor for festive occasions Is the table where lie he sat with his bis boon companions and where bradl tradition has it he often led the singing of popular ditties his favorite was an old english song entitled the me derby real ram it if there had been such things at rotary notary and kiwanis in his day george washington certainly would have belonged to them to be a vestryman of christ church was one of the highest social distinctions distinction in alexandria and washington held that office for many years when at home at mount vernon he attended the little church of which parson weems his first biographer was the rector he was a great hor horseman semart and his favorite sport was fox hunting ills his diaries tell much about his care for his hounds and are filled with references to his hunting horses and adventures afield many of the present streets of alexandria run just as they were originally laid out by george washington the little school which he be built for the children of the poor and lor for which he left an endowment in his will still stands and Is still a school while a block of tenements which he built la Is still occupied there Is a tradition that washington when in fix his teens raced another boy on horseback down what Is now king street and won by running his horse into the river when the other led lad pulled up general career from 1774 when he was called to cambridge to advise with the new mew england colonists about an armed revolt against england to his death on december 12 1799 Is the part of history with which every schoolboy Is familiar but somehow I 1 feel as if I 1 knew washington better after digging into the story of his youth and young manhood especially those fifteen years when he was in fix the real estate business ln in alexandria |