Milford chronicle., 1896-03-20
wAsHINafoNs ANcEsroRs.
A succession OF Fine old Country Gen.
tlemen.

tlemen.
Change of time and of affairs. the stir
of growing life in Virginia as she ceased
from being mere eolorS and bceame
n sturdy commonwealth Boosting her
own breed of gentlemen. merchants and
scholars, and statesmen laid upon the
Washingtons. as upon other men.
touch OF Transformation. Seventy-siN
years had gone by since John Wash
ington came out of Bedfordshire and
took up land on Bridges creek. in West
moreland, in Virginia. and still his chill
dren were to be found in the old seats
he had chosen at the first. They had
become thorough Virginians with the
rest, woven into the close fiber of the
new life. Westmoreland and all the
counties that lay about it on the nortli-
ern neck We're strictly piece with the
rest of Virginia, for all they had waited
long to be settled.
There the Washingtons had become
country gentlemen of comfortable es-
tate upon the accepted model john
Ind begotten Lawrence, and Lawrence
had begottcn Augustine. John had
thriftily taken care to see his offspring
put in a way TO prosper at the very
first. He had acquired substantial
property of his own where the land
Law very fertile upon the banks of the
Potomac. and he had, besides, by three
marriages made good very close con
neetiop with several families that had
tbriven whereabouts before him. he
had become a notable figure. indeed,
amongst his neighbOrs ere he had been
many years in the colopy-a colonel
in the militia, ana Their represc WatiNe
in the house Of burgesses, and they MAD
not waited for his death to call Tie
parish In which he lived Washington
parish. His SONS and grandsonH,
| though they Stacked a little the pace
he had set them in his energy at TIC
outset, throve none the less substantial
" upon the estates he had left them
abated nothing of the dignity and
worth they had inherited, lived simply
and kept their place Of respect In the
Darish and state. Wars came and went
without disturbing incident for them
as the French moved upon the borders
by impulse Of politics from over sea,
and then long peace set in, equally With
out incident. to stay the whole genera
ton, while good farming went quletll
forward, aud politicians at home and
in the colonies planned another move
in their game.
1t was in the midseason OF this TIM
of poise, preparation apd expectancy
that George Washington was born, OF
the 22d of February, in the year 1882
about ten in the morning" William
Gooch, gentlest of MprlboroHgh's cap
tains, being governor in Virginia. h'
came into the world at the plain hu'
spacious homestead on Bridges creek
fourth son, fifth child, of Augustine
Washington and of the third generation
from John Washington, son of the one
time rector of Purleigh. The home
stead stood upon a green and gentl
slope that fell away at but little dis
lance 10 the waters of the Potomac
and from it could be seen the hraa'
reaches of the stream stretching wild
to the Maryland shore beyond, am
flooding with slow tide 70 the gFea
bay below. The spot gave token of til
quiet youth of the boy, of the year
Of grateful peace in which he was t
learn the first lessons of life, ere wa
and the changing fortunes of his coun
try hurried him to the field and to tn
eouncil.-Harper's Magazine;