Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1873-09-10
Washington. Birthplace I'm 1873.

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doubly interesting. Standing half
mile from the junction of Pope's Creel
with the Potomac River, it commanded
a view of the Maryland shore and of th'
course of the Potomac for many miles
The house was low-pitched, single
storied frame dwelling, with four rooms
on the first floor, and huge chime.
ut each end on the outside-the style o.
the better class of houses of those days
A stone, placed there to mark its site b!
G. W. P. Custis, bore the simple inscrip
ton:
'HERE, ON THE 11TH OF FEBRUARY
%. s.. 1882, GEORGE WASHINGTON WAS
BORN"
Such was its appearance in 1884 ol
1885, when Howe visited it. Its present
condition may be gathered from what
the writer of the letter in response tc
the London querist has to say about
the site itself, that being all that is left
of a place so memorable and so deserving
of perpetuation
II have had no opportunity to obtain
the sketch I promised you. Indeed,
there is virtually no material to make a
sketch of. The birthplace is now simply
an old field lying waste, with indistinct
vestiges of human habitation. An old
chimney stands which belonged to an
outhouse Qkitchen or laundry some
remains of cellar, and the foundations
of house in which tradition states
Washington was born. There was a
stone slab, with simple inscription,
placed on the spot some sixty years ago
by G. W. P. Custis, to denote the place,
but it was long ago removed from its
original position, mutilated and broken,
SO that only fragment remains"
That a place of such interest-one
might call it sacred-should be left to
decay and obliteration is no new thing
in Virginia. Enemies might we'll de-
clare that neglect of her mighty dead
is characteristic of the old common
wealth. The truth is, she has great
many dead to care for, and of late years
all her time has been absorbed in the
care of her living. But something has
been done, or attempted to be done, to
rescue Washington's birthplace from
oblivion. As far back as 1858 an act
was passed by the General Assembly of
Virginia, accepting from Lewis Wash
ington a grant of the "site of the birth
place of George Washington, and the
homes and graves of his progenitors in
America, and appropriating five thou
sand dollars ''to inclose the same in an
iron fence" etc. Hon. Henry A. Wise,
Governor of Virginia at the time this
act was passed, entered with zeal and
Skx khn kha
of which was entrusted to him by the
legislature-went in person to West
mOreland, examined carefully the sites,
with the owner of the ada
cent farm for right of way, adopted
plan for the Enclosures and tablets, and
began correspondence with mechanics
and artisans at the North with view
to the speedy completion of the work,
and-just then his term expired, the
war soon followed, and the matter was
of course dropped.
The money appropriated, together
with the accrued interest, is now in the
treasury of Virginia, and although
Governor Walker in his late message
did not bring the subject to the attention
of the Legislature, the elong-delayed work
will be consummated sooner or later,
and "a neat iron fence" with few plain
slabs will be erected on the hallowed
spot. But it strikes the present writer
that five thousand dollars, or even ten
thousand dollars. form rather small
sum for such an object, and that "a neat
iron fence" is not exactly the thing that
the place and its memories demand. ,
But not dollar more may be expected
Of Virginia at this time. She owes too
much, and has too little. If one of the
many Northern gentlemen who are
lavishing their hundreds of thousands
on colleges and other charities would
come to Westmoreland and put some
hing little better than "neat iron
fence" around the birthplace of Wash
ngton, he would do noble deed for
himself and for both sections of his
ately estranged country.-Lippincott's
Magazine.