Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1873-08-07
Wash1ngton's Birthplace in 1873.

natural beauties as we'll, the place wa.
doubly interesting. Standing half .
mile from the junction of Pope's Creel
with the Potomac River, it commanded
view Of the Maryland shore and oil
the course of the Potomac for man,
miles. The house was low-pitched,
single-stored frame dwelling, with foul
rooms on the first floor, aud 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 its site by G. W. P. Gusts,
bore the simple inscription:
HERE, ON THE 11TH of FEBRUARY
%. S; , 1882, GEORGE WASHINGTON WA:
BORN"
Such was its appearance in 1894 o,
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 promised you. In.
deed, there is virtually no material tc
make sketch Of. The birthplace i,
now simply an old field lying waste,
with indistinct vestiges Of a human
habitation. An old chimney stands
which belongedto 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 a 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 it's original position,
mutilated and broken, so that only q
fragment remains.
That place of such intercst-.one
might call it sacreil-should be 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 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 az 1858 an
act was passed by the General Assem-
bly, of Virginia, accepting from Lewis
Washington grant of the este of the
birthplace 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
Westmoreland, 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,
did not bring the subject to the atten.
ton of the Legislature, the 1Ong-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 small sum for such an object,
and that ga neat iron fence" is not
exactly the thing that the place and its
memories demand. But not a dollar
more may he 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.
moreland anu put something little
better than "a neat iron fence" around
the birthplace OF Washington, he would
do noble deed for himself, and fol
both sections of his lately estranged
couutry.-Lippincotts Magazine to'
august.