Spa
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
HEN was George Washington Lorn?
Most Americans believe that it
was on February 22, 1732, and that's
why we observe February 22 3
Washington's birthday,
As a matter of
on February 11, 1
son why we observe Februn
a
stead of February 11 as}
is because of the tinker!
has done with the
through the ages. Wit}
all the technical details of the cal-
endar's early history, suflice it to
say that in 1582 the Julian calendar year (estab-
lished by Jullus Caesar and modified somewhat
by Augustus Caesar) was ten days ahead of the
true solar year. So Pope 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.
jut it was not until 1752 that the Gregorian
year was adopted by Great Britaln and her caolo-
nies. Then 11 days were dropped between 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 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.
that is why we celebrate on that date,
Where was George Washington born? Just
he had “two birthdays” so did he have
birthplaces"-—that is, If we listen to the asser.
‘wand just as a
matter of 11 days of tim> separates his “two
tions of different “authorities
2 2 * a Ff » ¥ ie "
birthdays,” so does a matter of approxin
3 » ta Hee Tod byw ld a. a **
mile of distance separate his "iwo birthplaces
Back in 1023 there was organized In Wash.
ington, D. C., by Mrs. Josephine Wheelwrigh
=
Rust, a descendant of Joh ngton, the orig-
inal Washington emigrant to this o« try. and
by other Interested ns an association known
as the Wakefleld National Memorial association
which was incorporated under the laws of 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 planta-
tion of Capt. Augustine Washington was pur-
chased and improvements made on it. In 1030
the federal government appropriated $80,000 for
the removal of the granite shaft, erected in 1806
rk the site of Washin~ton's birthplace, and
construction of a replica of Wakefield
he improvement of the grounds. All of this
vas established as the George Washington 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 Wash.
ington that the association had improved th
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 sald,
but more than a mile away near the southeast
bank of Bridges creek, where the Washington
family graveyard Is 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 remaiged for Dr. Charles 0, Paullin of
the division of historical research In the Car-
negie Institution of Washington to make a search
in contemporaneous documents and to uncover
evidence which seems to settle the question con-
clusively and to prove that the Wakefield 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 is based. He says, in part:
The first land owned by the Washingtons on
the Popes Creek-Bridges Creek peninsula was
purchased of David Anderson In 1004 by John
Washington (I), the emigrant and great-grand.
father 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 (11), one
of his sons, inherited the Anderson tract or
home plantation, Twenty years later it passed to
the wife of John (Il) at his death, and at her
death to thelr son John (III).
On the death of John (I) another son, Law.
rence, grandfather of George, Inherited lands
near the Potomac some miles northwest of
Bridges creek. In 1005 Lawrence purchased of
the heirs of David Liston 400 acres on the north-
west side of Bridges creek adjoining the lands
of his brother John (Il). On Lawrence's death
in 1008 the Liston tract end other near-by lands
fell to Capt. Augustine Washington, father of
George,
Augustine was married In 1715 and his first child
wou born In the following year. In 1717-1718 he
purchased of Joseph Abbington
Popes Creek-Dridges Creek pen
the northwest side of
Popes creek and ineluding
the site of the recent Improvements at Wake
field. The tract may have
it. for
fices, bul
(and) gardens™
a residence on
purchase included houses, edl-
tobacco houses fences, orcl
mrds,
I have discovered no document stating what
improvements, if any, Augustine made on the
Abbington tract, or giving the date of his re.
noval to it. That he was living there on Fehro-
ary &. 1720, we know certainly by a “deed of
uses” of that date mad 3 himself and his
wife, Jane, of the one part, and Lawrence But.
ler and George Eskridre, the other part.
which occurs the clause, “whereas the aforesals
Augustine Washington is seized In fee simple o
the land
now fives, which land he the said Ag
one parcell ar
ne purchased of one Joseph Ablngton™
Six years before the birth of his illustrious
therefore known to have been ly ng
he Popes creek side of the penin.
aise Known tn | & spent the last
{Ife first on the Hunting creek (Mount
Mantation In Prince Willlam county
later on the Strother plantation near Fred.
ericksburg. Three of his ¢!
he left Westmor
epi
between int and 1TH been given as
were Lorn after
O8t every Year
the
probable date of hi moval. [ have established
the date as certain!
h 25 and No-
vember 1S pg 4g it is fry wanelusive that
Augustine living in a house near Popes creek
between 1726 and 1705; his son, George, was
born in 1732. The early maps lo
birthplace near Bridges creek and the nomerons
writers locating it elsewhere than near Popes
creek are certainly erroneous
J 18,
ating George's
After his purchase of the AbLbis gion tract An-
¥
'
hia
holdings on the peninsula, In 1725 he bought 215
gustine Washington continoned to increase
acres on the Potomae river, and In 1734 20 acres
islands, and marshes at the mouth of
Popes ereek. In 1742 by an exchange of lands
with his cousin, John (IV), he obtained a tract
on the scatheast side of Dridees creek which in.
of lots,
cluded the gravesard and the ancestral home.
site, and for the first time all of the PPones
Creek-Bridges Creek peninsula was In the pose
session of a single Washington,
The ancestral homesite at Dridges ereek.
therefore, could not have been the birthplace of
George, since his futher did not own it until}
1742, The date of its abandonment as an 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 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 West.
moreland county, where he died, and was in
terred in the family vanit.”
Col. Augustine represented hiz county In the
House of Burgesses from 1756 (or 1754) to 1758.
On his death his widow Anne (Aylett) Washing.
ton and her children, Including her eldest son,
William Augustine (1757-1810), who inherited
Le plantation, eontinued to occupy its residence,
The widow Is described by her illustrious
brother-in-law as an “heiress” and in May, 1771,
when Le visited her, as of “Pope's Creek.” thus
locating her residence as on or near that ereek.
William Augustine Washington wus living in the
house when It burned. When he died In 1810 it
fell to his son, George Corbin Washington,
The possessions of George Corbin Washington
did not include the whole of the peninsula in.
herited by his grandfather, Col. Augustine 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 1s known to
have been In current use as early as 1773,
In 1813 George Corbin Washington, then 8 res
ident of Georgetown, D. CC, sold to John Gr.y of
Stafford county, Virginia, for 6,220 pounds snd
10 shillings the Wakefield plantation, eontsin.
ing 081% acres, together with two other small
tracts. Later Wakefield came agaln intv the pos
1151
1. Washington as a.young colonial militia offi
cer. From the miniature by Charles Wilson
Peale.
2. The colonial mansion and grounds at Wake.
field near Popes creek in Westmoreland county,
Virginia. The building, typical of Eighteenth cen.
tury architecture, was erected by the Wakefield
National Memorial association in co-operation
with the federal government on the site of the
house in which Wachington was born,
3. The ancestral burying ground of the Wash.
instons situated near Dridges creek in Westmore.
land county, as restored by the Wakefield Na.
tional Memorial zssociation and the federal gov.
ernment Here lie the bodies of the father, grand
father, great.grandfather and cther relatives of
Washington,
4. Map showing the area (shaded) designated
by the government as the George Washington
Dirthplace National monument,
(All pictures, except portrait of WashinZton,
courtesy Naticnal Park Service.)
y of the Washingtons throug!
by John F
Wilson who marr
aughter of William Angustin
Of great interest Is the folio
the form of a memorandum 1 at the end of
a deed made hy George Corbin Washington to
Gray: “The sald y further more makes
over to the sald id and title as
derived from father, illlam Augnstine
Washington, to the marshes in Popes creek, but
reserves the family Burying Ground at the Grent
¢
Quarter (slave quarters), also sixiy
of ground on which the honse stood
Ceneral Washington was born”
‘he title to the reservations 1 EE from
s
h
George Corh'n Washington to is son. Lewis
, und thence In 1558 to the stnte of Vien
ich In 18R2 trane’errend 11 to the federal
overnment, In 1553 the government ineresgsed
its holdings by the purchase of eleven acres ad.
Jacent to the site upon which Custis had placed
the slab, In 1806 it erected a granite monument,
51 feet high, on this site, after exploring and
mapping the foundations.
There is no known contemporary description of
the original house on the Custis site near Popes
creek. The nearest to one that [ have found is that
given about 1835 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 anon
ymous vigitor of 1851 found the site in the “midst
of a two-hundred-acre corn field, marked only
by an old brick chimney, a mammoth fig tree,
and a freestone slab” (Custis’ memorial).
On October 81, 1878, anticipating the acquis
tion of the site by the federal government, See.
retary of State William M. Evarts with a party,
which included Gen. W, T. Sherman and Charles
C. Perking of Boston, made a trip to Popes creek
from Washington on board the U. 8 8 Talla.
poosa. Sherman made a rough and not alto
gether accurate map of the region and Perkins a
sketch of the remains of a brick chimney. Ident!
fying It as belonging to a Kitchen that stood
behind the house, the site of which was then
bare,
In 1804 the arthy engineer corps explored and
mapped the foundations of the original house
Additional explorations at Wakefield have noi
revealed any other foundations of Importance or
the Abbington tract, That this house is the
birthplace rests upon the evidence of these ex
plorations, of the tradition that It is the true
birthplace, and of the chain of facts that con
firms the evidence and the tradition. It mus
be so accepted,
© by Western Newspaper Union,
Explaining Lack of Effort to
Fight Weakness.
In Vienna recently the police had
to be called out to cope with the
crowds at the funeral of a rabbi who
had a reputation for performing mir
acles,
From across the border in Hun-
gary, Poland, Rumania and Czecho-
slovakia, tens of thousands came,
hoping that at his open grave the
gpirit of the holy man would secure
for them their heart's desire,
All who felt that what meant hap.
last hope to his funeral. At the end
a sack was flung into the grave. In
it were thousands of written re
quests for miracles,
So in this day
people who pin
acles,
When we stop to think . bout it, it
comes to us that this Is true not
only of the simple folk of still
medieval regions. Many of us right
here, while we do not follow miracle
workers or send notes to spirits, still
do hope for miracles to bring us
happiness, We may not do this con-
sclously, But what other explanation
is there for the lack of effort on our
own part to make our way of life
conducive to the happiness we seek?
We all know, In our own hearts,
of qualities within ourselves that
militate against our enjoyment of
content and happiness, We know
things we do that hurt us, or those
we love, which Is the same thing,
And yet, do we fight those weak-
the most part we just go along, live
ing In the game way from day to
', falling short of the realization
inner joy that should be Ours,
Burely, we
putting off happiness.
ting for a miracle!
must be wal
€. Bell 8ynd
The Usual Insect
Wife {hearing husha
home after hours) —\Who is
Husband—Er-hardly anybody, dear,
read on ,..¥
. and your checks, to vithoud
Do they Possess the ns ral
m a
1 t : ¥
IaKe-UupP 18 simpie . . .
cheerfulnes
Lack of hen
may also Ir
S88. is
to
eral
should kmpr
More Like It
Te —] Ww
hours.
in this Way
The simple method pictured above
is the way doctors throughout the
world now treat colds.
It is recognized as the QUICK-
EST, safest, surest way to treat a
cold. For it will check an R
ordinary cold almost as
fast as you caught it,
Ask your doctor abou!
when you buy, see that we
the real BAYER Aspirin Tabl
They dissolve almost ins 3
Ard thus work almost instantly
when you take them. And for a
gargle, Genuine BAYER Aspirin
Tablets dissolve so completely
they leave no irritating pare
ticles. Get a box of 12
tablets or a bottle of
24 or 100 at any
drug store.
DOES NOT HARM
THE HEART
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