Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1873-08-07
Washingt0n's Birthplace in 1873.

natural DeauC1eS az well, the place was
doubly interesting. Standing half a
mile from the junction Of Pope's Greek
with the Potomac River, it commanded
q view Of the Maryland shore and of
the course of the Potomac for many
miles. The house was low pitched.
single-stored frame dwelling, with four
rooms on the first floor, and a huge
chimney at each end on the outside
the style of tho better class of houses
Of those days. A stone, placed there
to mark it's site by G. W. P. Gusts,
bore the simple inscription:
HERE, ON THE 11TH of FEBRUARY,
60. So 1882, GEORGE WASHINGTON WAS
BORN"
Such was it's appearance in 1884 or
1885, when Howe visited it. Its pres
ent condition may be gathered from
what the writer of the letter in response
to the London querist has to say about
the site itself, that being all that is left
of place SO memorable and so deserv
ing OF perpetuation
~ have had no opportunity to OBJ
tain the sketch I promised you. In
deed, there is virtually no material to
make a sketch Of. The birthplace is
now simply an old field lying waste,
with indistinct vestiges of a human
habitation. An old chimney stands
which Belonged to an clubhouse (kitchen
or laundry, some remains OF cellar,
and the foundation of house in which
tradition states Washington was born.
There was stone slab, with simple
inscription, placed on the spot some
sixty years ago by G. w. P. GUSTS, to
denote the place, but it was long ago
removed from its original position.
mutilated and broken, so that onlv a
fragment remains.
That u place of such interest-.one
might call it sacred-should he left to
decay and obliteration is nonew 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 a great
many dead to care for, and oflate years
all her time hos 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 az 1858 an
act was passed by the General Assem-
bly, Of Virginia, accepting from Lewis
Washington a grant of the este of the
Of George Washing
Ton, and the home and graves
Of his progenitors in Ameri-
ca" and appropriating five thou
sand dollars to enclose 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 alacrity upon the work, the execu-
ton of which was entrusted to him by
the legislature-went in person to
examined carefully the
sites, negotiated with the owner Of the
adjacent farm for right of way, adopt
ed plan for the Enclosures and tablets,
and began a correspondence with me-
chanics and artisans at the North with
a 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,
Jill uOb bilHS VIC SuDJcCV W VAC AGtcu'
ton Of the Legislature, the loDg-de-
layel 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 dol
lars, or even ten thousand dollars, form
rather a small sum for such an object,
and that ga neat iron fence" is not
exactly the thing that the place and its
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 tousands on colleges and
other charities would come to West
anu put something a little
better than ga neat iron fence" around
the birthplace of Washington, he would
do noble deed for himself, and for
both sections of his lately estranged
Magazine for
duUu8t.