Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1898-02-17
CHARLES MOREAU HARGER
HIS EARLY BOYHOOD.
Brief Account of the Family of
MushinHton.

George Washington was cast Tor his
career hy very scant and homely
training. Augustine Washington, his
father. lacked neither the will nor the
means to set him handsomely afoot.
with as good a schooling, both in books
and in affairs. as was To he had; he
would have done all that liberal and
proNidcnt man should do Ia advance
his boy in the world had he lived t.
go with him through his youth. II,
owned land i'm four counties, more tina
$500 acres all told. and lying upon
both the rivers that refresh the fruit
full northern neck, besides several plots
of ground in the promising village of
Fredericksburg, which lay opposite his
Lands upon the Rappahanmock; and
one-twelfih part of the stock of the
Principle Iron company, whose mines
and furnaces in Maryland and Virginia
yielded better profit than any others
in the two colonies. He had command
cd ship in his time. as so many of his
neighbors had in the maritime prov
ince. carrying iron from the mines To
England. and no doubt bringing con-
Wet laborers back upon his voyage home
again. He himself raised the ore from
the mines that lay upon his own land.
close to the Potomac, and had it carried
the easy six miles TO the river. Matters
were very well managed there, Col.
Byrd said, and no pains we've spared to
make the business profitable. Capt.
Washington had represented his home
parish of Truro, too, in the house of
hurgesses. where his athletic figure, his
ruddy skin and frank gray eyes must
have made him as conspicuous as his
constituents could have wished. He
WAS a man of the world, every inch,
generous, hardy, independent. He
lived long enough, too, TO see how stat
wart and capable and of how noble a
spirit his young son was to be, with
how manly a bearing he was to carry
himself in the world: and had loved
him aud made him his companion ac-
cnrdingly. But the end came for him
| before he could see the lad out of boy
hood. lie died April L., l7l3, when he
was but 40 years of age, and before
George was II: and in his will there
was of course. for George only a young
or sons portion. The active gentle
man had been twice married. and there
were seven children TO be provided for.
| Two sons of the first marriage sur
yived. The bulk of the estate went,
as Nirginian custom dictated, 10 Law
renee, the eldest son. To Augustine
the second. fell most of the rich lands
in Westmoreland. George, the eldest
born of the second marriage, left to
the guardianship of his young mother
shared with the four younger children
the residue of the estate. He was to
inherit his fathers farm upon the Rap
pahannock, TO possess, and to cultivate
if he would, when he should come OF
age; but for the rest his fortunes
were to make. He must get such serv
iceable training as he could for life
of independent endeavor. The two old
| err brothers had been sent TO England Il
get their schooling ami preparation fol
| life, as their father before them had
been to get his-Lawrence TO max,
ready to take his fathers place wher
| >hOulu
was at first planned, to fit himself foi
the law. George could now look fol
nothing of the kind. He must con
tinue as he had begun, to get such ele
mentary and practical instI uction a.
was to be had of schoolmasters in Vir
ginia, and the young mothers car,
must stand him in the stead of ia
theirs pilotage and oversight.
Fortunately Mary Washington was
wise and provident mother, a woman o
too firm a character and too steadfast
courage to be dismayed by responsible
ity. She had seemed only a fair an,
beautiful girl when Augustine Wash
ington married her. and there was
romantic story told of how that gal
liant Virginian sailor and gentleman
had been literally thrown at her fee
out of carriage in the London street
by way of introduction, where she, toe
was a visiting stranger out of Nir
ginia. But she had shown singula
capacity for business when the ru
mantle days of courtship were over
Woodrow Wilson, in lIarper's Maya
; | 1in