Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-03-05
Alexandria and General Washington.

| A1CAuAuIl0 6uu uCuCIHk w H.
The pilgrim who visits the nations
capital to visit the grave of Washington
arrives, midway to Mount Vernon, at
the quiet town of Alexandria. There
he may find, if he will but blow aside
the dust of century, footprints of the
Father OF his Country that tell of his
ways as he moved round about 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 AMI
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 brothers home, Mount Vernon,
that the neighboring hamlet of Bella
ven grew into the town of Alexandria.
Belhaven was tobacco warehouse and
some log-huts on the southern part of q
patent owned by the great-grandchil.
dren of one John Alexander, who in
1863 paid six thousand pounds of to-
bacco for nine miles of river.shore
nearly opposite what is now the District
of Columbia. just after this purchase,
Washingtons great grandfather had
led from the settled lands near the
mouth of the Potomac troop of mill
tia to punish the Dogne Indians for the
murder of Robert Hen, herdsman,
near what is now Mount Vernon. He
became enraptured with these. magnifi-
cent hills, and soon included them in q
patent of seven thousand acres. Over
sixty years afterward this tract de.
scended to Lawrence Washington,
Georges elder brother, who married a
daughter of Colonel William Fairfax,
of Belvoir, the county lieutenant, and
became neighbor to his father-in-l law
by settling at Mount Vernon. Hither
came young George Washington, fresh
from school. Having failed to be q
midshipman, he was becoming land
survey or--a profession not so opposite
as might seem for in mathematical
methods the pursuits are identical, and
the survey of wild country is, in peril
and adventure, not unlike 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 an animal that would have
delighted General Grant. In those
days the fine rider of fine horse read
| lily won his way to the popular heart.
The lad had borrowed in turn all the
best horses Of the country side, and he
managed each with such skill aud 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 Gamer
on, Colonel William Fairfax, his son
George William Fairfax, his sons-in.law
Lawrence Washington and John Car
lyle, and William Ramsay, cousin of
the Washingtons. These gentlemen
united with the Alexarders, who owned
the Belhaven land, and some village
traders. and established town at Bel
haven warehouse, designed as a practi-
Cal matter to make money, and as a
matter OF taste to honor at the same
time the royal family of England and
the Fairfax family of America. The
new town took shape with its streets at
| right angles. One center street, Cam
eron. hanked south by King, Prince and
Duke streets, and north by Queen. Prin
cess and Duchess streets, and these streets
crossed by another center street, Fair
fax, fanked by Royal street on one side
and the river on the other. Anxious rs
the young surveyor, George Washing
ton, was to perfect himself in this art,
it is impossible to believe hat this plan
was made by his relatives and friends
without his familiarity.
The lots of the new town we're sold
on the 18th of July, 1749. Among the
purchasers We're Lawrence Washington,
John Carlyle, Adam Stephen, afterward
a subaltern under Braddock, and one
of Washington's generals in the Revo-
lutionary army, and John Champe.
father of Sergeant-major Champe, of
Lees legion, who feigned desertion in
the hope of capturing the traitor Ar
mold The bids were made in Spanish
pistoles. The lots, one-quarter acre
each, sold at from SIS to $3.50. Young
Washington had no money to spare to
buy town lots but he owned some land
opposite Fredericksburg, and was al
ready earning a doubloon day by sur
veying the wild lands of Lord Fairfax.
Almost as soon as this survey was COM
pleted, he was commissioned major in
the Colonial militia, aud appointed ad-
jutant of the frontier district, with
headquarters at Alexandria. From this
center he organized the militia of the
frontier counties. selected drill-masters
for the officers, attended and regulated
musters, and on this limited field first
developed that mastery of detail and
talent for organization which, twenty
five years later, organized on Boston
heights a crude militia into Cont
mental army. There fingers yet in the
traditions of the town the dim figure of
tall, wiry, sunburned young man, al
ways on horseback, Of "bitter" will,
and yet of great popularity; not per-
sonal magnetism that attracted indi. I
vidual men, but q dominating power
that won men in mass by giving every
one assurance of safety under Ii. lead.
--WILLIAM F. CARNE, in aarper's
Magazine,
OK Dir.-Apd now Cincinnati has
society for the promotion of matrimony,
wb;ch WAS orpanfy%a two wears ago.