The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1880-03-18
Alexandria aud Gen. Washington.

ton arrives, midway to Mount Vernon,
at the quiet town of Alexandria. There
lie may find, if he will but blow aside
the dust of a century, footprints of tho
Father of his Country that tell of his
ways as he moved round about his home.
Elsewhere the great chief is on horse
back, or sits high in some chair of state,
lofty and removed from common men
but in Alexandria he is dismounted and
afoot-a townsman and neighbor.
The town and Washington came to-,
gether into active life; for it was Just
as he grew from childhood into youth,
at his trother's home, Mount Vernon,
that the neighboring hamlet of Belhaven
grew into the town of Alexandria. Bel
haven was a tobacco warehouse and
some log-huts On the southern part of
a patent owned by the great grand
children of one John Alexander, who
in 1863 paid 5000 pounds of tobacco;
for nine miles of river-shore nearly
opposite what is now the District Of
Columbia. Just after this purchase,
Washington's great-grandfather had led
from the settled lands near the mouth
OF the Potomac a troop of militia to
punish the Dogne Indians for the
murder of Robert Hen, a herds
man, near what is now Mount Yer
non. He became enraptured with these
magnificent hills, and soon included
them in patent of 1000 acres. Over.
sixty years afterward this tract de-
scended to Lawrence Washington.
Georges elder brother, who married
daughter of Gel. William Fairfax, OF
Belvoir, the C5unty Lieutenant, and
became neighbor to his fatber-in-law
by settling at Mount Vernon. Hither
came young George Washington, fresh
from school. Having failed to be a
midshipman, he was becoming land
surveyor-a profession not SO opposite
as might seem; for in mathematical
methods the pursuits are identical, and
the survey of a wild country is, in peril
and adventure, not unlike a voyage at
sea. Into Belhaven young George
Washington rode every day. Tradition
says that he came ten times during one
week, each time upon different horse,
every one a fine animal. In those days
the fine rider of a fine horse readily
won his way to the popular heart. The
lad had borrowed in turn all the best
horses of the countryside, and he man
aged each with such skill and grace
that thereafter his future was made in
the village.
The family circle at Belvoir and
Mount Vernon included, besides the
visitor, Lord Fairfax, Baron of Cam
eron, Col. William Fairfax, his son
George William Fairfax, his sons-in-law
Lawrence Washington and John Car
lyle, and William Ramsey, cousin of
the Washingtons. These gentlemen
united with the Alexanders, who owned
the Belhaven land, and some village
traders, and established town at Bel
haven warehouse, designed as practical
matter to make money, and as matter
of taste to honor at the same time the
royal family of England and thesFair-
fax family of America. The new town
took shape with its streets at right
angles. One center street, Cameron,
fanked south by King, Prince and
Duke streets, and north by Queen,
Princess and Duchess streets. and these
streets crossed by another center street,
Fairfax, fanked by Royal street on one
side and the river on the other. Anx-
ious as the young surveyor, George
Washington, was to perfect himself in
his art, it is impossible to believe that
this plan was made by his relatives and
friends without his familiarity.
The lots of the new town were sold
on the 18th Of July, 1749. Among the
purchasers were Lawrence Washington,
John Carlyle, Adam Stephen, afterward
subaltern under Braddock, and one of
Wushington's Generals in the Revolu-
tionary army, and John Champe, father
of Sergt. Maj Champe, of Lees legion,
who feigned desertion in the hope of
capturing the traitor Arnold. The bids
were made in Spanish pistoles. The
lots, one-quartcr acre each, sold at from
SIS to $3.50 each. Young Washington
had no money to spare to buy town lots;
but he owned some land opposite Fred
ericksburg, and was already earning
doubloon day by surveying the Wild
lands of Lord Fairfax. Almost as soon
as this survey was completed, he was
commissioned Major in the Colonial
militia, and appointed Adjutant of the
frontier district, with headquarters at
Alexandria. From this center he Or
ganized the militia of the frontier
counties, selected drill for the
officers, attended and regulated musters,
and, on this limited field. first devel-
oped that mastery of detail and talent
for organization which, twenty-five
years later, organized on Boston heights
crude militia into Continental army.
There fingers yet III the traditions of
the town the dim figure of a tall, wiry,
srnburned young man, always on horse
back, of bitter" will, and yet of great
popularity; not a personal magnetism
that attracted individual men, but a
dominating power that won men in
mass by giving every one assurance of
safety under his lcad.-Willian +.
Co'ne, IN Harper's Magazine.
Religious Notions.