George Washington

“ A settlement sprang up about the springs at an early date, which finally became a prosperous village under the name of Bath, and was made the county seat when, in 1820, the county of Morgan was formed. Washington bought lots here, built a cottage and stables, and passed summers here with his family. His half-brother, Lawrence, spent nearly a year at the springs for the benefit of his health before going to England and later to Barbadoes. The property-right in the springs is in the state of Virginia, and is held for the benefit of the public. ”

“ Fairfax, were occasionally guests at Mount Vernon, as Washington's diaries show. I am inclined to believe that while it is true that Washington entertained a high regard for the Cary family and particularly the ladies, there is nothing but the lightest gossip to create an inference that there ever was even an incipient affair of the heart between either of the Misses Cary and Washington. ”

“ Joist Hite came to Virginia from Pennsylvania in 1732 with his family, settled on the Opequon creek about five miles south of the town of Winchester. The year before he had bought from John and Isaac Van Meter a warrant for nearly 40,000 acres of land in the Shenandoah valley which they had obtained from Governor Gooch of Virginia in 1730. Capt. Hite brought with him from Pennsylvania sixteen families, all of whom settled in the same vicinity on fine arable ground. They were all judges of good lands and devoted to agriculture. ”

“ As the lands to the west of him, and particularly those in the Shenandoah valley beyond the Blue Ridge, began to attract settlers the travel on the road past his house became considerable, and as a matter of accommodation to the public he opened an ordinary and kept a store for general merchandizing. Neville's Ordinary was a land mark, and is to be found on Fry and Jefferson's Map of Virginia, as well as on Governor Pownall's and other early maps of Virginia. In 1750 Washington surveyed for Mr. Neville 400 acres of land. By marriage George Neville was related to the Fairfax family of Virginia. ”

“ Williams' Gap, in the Blue Ridge, is on a line nearly due east from Winchester. It derived its name from a Mr. Williams, who kept a ferry over the Shenandoah river on one of the roads from Winchester into Loudoun and Fairfax counties. This name still attaches to the gap and appears on the early maps of Virginia. It is a notable fact that all or most of the important gaps through mountain passes in the United States were well worn buffalo paths and Indian trails when first visited by white men. ”

“ The South Branch of the Potomac, of which the Indian name was Wappotomaka, rises in Pendleton county, West Virginia, among the spurs of the Alleghany and North mountains, and meets the North Branch about 20 miles below Cumberland, Md. The latter branch has been accepted as the dividing line between Maryland and Virginia, although now known to be neither as long nor as large as the South Branch. ”

“ These settlers gradually attracted others until a village was developed. This spring or one near it, an example of the great springs which are to be found in most limestone regions, furnishes the town of Winchester, to the present time, with an abundant supply of pure potable water. The site of the town was, all things considered, well chosen, in a fertile region and on the line of travel, whether across the valley to the Alleghany mountains and the waters of the Ohio river beyond, or along the great valley of the Shenandoah. ”

“ Dutch.—As early as 1730 there was a considerable settlement in the Shenandoah valley, of German immigrants and their descendants, who had first settled in Pennsylvania and then removed to, and taken up lands in, the valley of Virginia. They selected, chiefly, the good limestone lands with their centers of population near the head-waters of the Opequon creek, in Shenandoah, and the south-western part of Frederick county. They were all Protestants in religion. ”

“ The office and art of the surveyor were held in high esteem by the early settlers. It is, therefore, not surprising that the people for whom surveys were executed, made special efforts to give the surveying parties good dinners, even going so far as to [29] set before them "wine and rum punch." I may add here that there is neither tradition nor record that Washington was ever known to have been indiscreet from youth to age in the use of wine or strong drinks.
[18] Feather beds, a great luxury in former times, have nearly gone out of use among well-to-do people. ”

“ Removing thence to Wright's Ferry, opposite the town of Columbia, where he obtained a Maryland title to a 500 acre tract of land called "Peach Bottom," and built himself a small stone house. The land, however, was on disputed territory, and claimants under the laws of Pennsylvania finally dispossessed him. His next move was to a locality in what is now Washington county, Md., where he located and settled upon a [31] tract of 1,400 acres on the Antietam creek, called "Long Meadows," and began trading with the Indians. ”

“ Land surveying was then a profitable and genteel pursuit in the colonies, and it comported well with Washington's tastes and inclinations. While visiting his brother at Mount Vernon, he had repeatedly amused himself and entertained guests of the house by surveying, in their presence, the garden, or a field, and rapidly drawing plats of them as an exercise. A few maps of such early surveys have been preserved. One of them, of Lawrence Washington's turnip field, bearing date 27 Feb., 1747-8, is reproduced in fac-simile in this publication. ”

“ The journal here presented to the public is, in the main, confined to Washington's daily entries, memoranda and field notes of surveys of land situated between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany mountains.
Unfortunately the records of his surveys are not consecutive, and it is quite evident that they represent but a part, and probably but a small part, of the land surveyed by Washington for Lord Fairfax and others. The notes of surveys here published are all that can be found or that are now known to exist. ”

“ It is a matter of tradition that Lawrence was at about the age of 15 sent to England to be educated, and leaving college he received a captain's commission to serve in a regiment raised in Virginia to take part in the expedition against Carthegenia, 1740-42, under the command of Admiral Vernon.
The expedition failed of its purpose, and Major Lawrence Washington returned to Virginia in the fall of 1742. He shortly after became engaged to Anne Fairfax, which induced him to resign from the army. ”

“ Thomas Lee, whose second son, Richard Henry Lee, was to become so conspicuous a patriot of the Revolution, and John Hanbury, a wealthy London merchant, were original members of this company, into which still other men of substance and standing were admitted, and to which, in 1749, the British government gave a charter, as "The Ohio Company," with a grant of half a million acres of land, to be located between the Monongahela and Kanawha rivers, on the south side of the Ohio. ”

“ Emigrants to America brought over with them the domesticated bird to its native land, but under a borrowed name. Washington, in his journal, April 7, 1748, records the fact that one of his men that day had killed a wild turkey weighing 20 pounds. The domesticated bird, when permitted to attain the age of two or three years, and being well fed during the winter months, often reaches the weight of 30 pounds or more. ”

“ Henry Van Metre or Meter.—There was a numerous family of the Van Meters in Virginia and they were among the earliest settlers in the valley of the Shenandoah, on the South Branch and along the upper Potomac. Kercheval, in his History of the Valley of Virginia, says this family came from New York and New Jersey. It is evident that they were people of energy and thrift, judges of good land. ”

“ Fairfax [19] favored the early protests by the colonies and petitions to the king in the interests of the colonies, but opposed measures looking to forcible resistance. Washington consented to act as his agent while he was absent, presuming his stay in England would be of short duration. But a complication of matters detained him abroad so that he instructed his agent to sell off his stock at "Belvoir" and lease the property. A sale was accordingly held on the estate in August, 1774, which continued two days. ”

“ The wealthy employed a person whose special duty it was to carve the meats into proper and convenient pieces and his was the only knife in the dining hall. When the fork was first introduced into England, its employment was ridiculed as an effeminate practice, as may be seen in the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, and others where the persons using it are referred to as "your fork-carving-traveler." ”

“ Cate's marsh and Long marsh—these are names of small streams which flow from the foot hill of North mountain to the Shenandoah river and have along their course considerable meadow or marshy land. Long marsh is of sufficient importance to be named upon the maps of Virginia. ”

“ It is the purpose of the editor to prepare a complete collection of all the writings of George Washington, from his youth to the close of his eventful life, with that literal exactness as to text which can only be assured by the careful efforts of an experienced copyist and expert proof reader having access to and comparing in every possible case the copies with the originals. ”

“ James Genn, a licensed surveyor in Virginia, much employed by Lord Fairfax, and frequently mentioned by Washington, and whose name often appears signed to surveys in which the latter was engaged, as the surveyor or director, is doubtless the person to whom reference is here made. ”

“ The North American Indians, particularly during the early colonial wars, took the scalps of their enemies, preserving and exhibiting them with savage pride and occasionally wearing them as decorations and trophies. The assembly of Virginia, in 1755, established a reward of £10 for every scalp [34] of a male Indian above the age of twelve (Hening's Statutes, vol. VI, p. 551) . In 1757 this sum was raised to £15, and £30 more for every scalp taken within the next two years (Hening, VII, p. 122) . Maryland and Pennsylvania also offered rewards for Indian scalps. ”

“ Its productive soil at the same time bountifully rewarded the husbandman for his labor. As the Frederick county courts were held at Winchester, the people adopted the southern habit of calling the place where the courts met by the name of the county, thus it was frequently spoken of as Frederick Town and is so designated in several of the early maps. Fort Loudoun was erected here by direction of the Assembly of Virginia in 1756, under the immediate supervision of Major Washington. ”

“ The Chinese, who claim to have led the rest of the world in most of the economic inventions, seem to have overlooked the table fork and do not even now use it in cutting or conveying food to the mouth but employ in its stead the "chop sticks" which, it must be said in their praise, they use with skill and dexterity. ”

“ During the early spring of 1748 the demands for surveys were [12] more than usually pressing by actual settlers in the Shenandoah valley. Lord Fairfax engaged the youth, George Washington, to proceed with George William Fairfax, his agent, as recorded in this journal, to execute certain commissions and meet a pressing demand. His surveys and reports gave entire satisfaction and led to his steady employment by his titled patron, principally as a director of his lordship's land office and of the surveys, preparatory to sale. ”

“ Saterday 26 Travelld up ye Creek to Solomon Hedges Esqr one of his Majestys Justices of ye Peace for ye County of Frederick where we camped when we came to Supper there was neither a Cloth upon ye Table nor a Knife to eat with but as good luck would have it we had Knives of own. [26]
[26] Knife and fork at table.—Polished nations have usages [35] which, at first view, appear natural or common to all mankind. This, however, is not the fact. That there was a period in the history of our race when the knife and fork were unknown to the furnishings of the table, cannot well be doubted ”

“ Manors were formerly called baronies and entitled the rightful possessor to lordships, and such lord or baron was empowered to hold domestic courts for redressing misdemeanors, nuisances and settling disputes among tenants. Among the manors of limited privileges in Virginia may be enumerated the "manor of Greenway Court," with a domain of 10,000 acres. ”

“ River so excessively high by Reason of y. Great Rains that had fallen up about y. Allegany Mountains as they told us which was then bringing down y. melted Snow & that it would not be fordable for severall Days it was then above Six foot Higher than usual & was rising we agreed to stay till Monday we this day call'd to see y. Fam'd Warm Springs [20] we camped out in y. field this Night Nothing Remarkable happen'd till sonday y. 20th
[19] Cohongoruton—the Indian name by which the Potomac river was known to the Six Nations and other tribes of Indians. ”

“ Oaks on Short Hills thence over the Hills No 35° Et Two hundred and Six Poles to a Large white Oak on the Hills or Ridges from the Mountains thence So 55° Et Three hundred Poles to a Hickory red Oak and Maple on the Mountain Side thence So 35° Wt Two hundred and Six Poles to the Beginning this Sixth Day of November 1749
November 7 1749 Then Survey'd for Mr Josh How a certain Tract of Waste and ungranted Land Lying in Augusta County and on the Lost River of Cacapehon and bounded as followeth Beg. ”

“ Hunters in new settlements often built what they called blinds near these licks in which to conceal themselves, and waited there for the game to come, as they were pretty sure to do, almost daily, and at times in considerable numbers, when they could be readily killed. ”