Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-12-21
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improved much in grammar and
spelling and during the war he de-
! pended greatly on his aids, Hamilton
and Harrison to conduct his cor
respondence. But his association with
educated men and his study for good
models finally made him an excellent
letter writer as we can now perceive
in his published writings
I He followed the business of survey
ing for four years, enjoying the out
door life, going fox hunting on Sum
days and romping with the girls when
ever he had a chance for he was very
! fond Of female society. From the age
of 16 until he married he was always
in love, sometimes with one beauty
and sometimes with another While
! residing at Lord Fairfax's be wrote as
! follows to one of his youthful cor
| respondents a copy of the letter, with
others being preserved in his journal:
Il pass the time off much more
! agreeabler than what l imagine I
should as there's very agrewable
Young Lady lives in the same house
where | reside Colo George Fairfax's
| Wife's Sister, that in a great measure
cheats my thoughts altogether from
| your Parts | could wish to be with you
down there with all my heart but as it
! is a thing almost impractakable shall
rest myself where I am with hopes of
shortly having some Minutes of your
transactions in your Parts which will
be very welcomely received
/
| There was certain "lowland
beauty" who has been the subject of
much discussion with whom the young
surveyor was madly in love but who
she was has never been clearly ascer-
tanned. She apparently did not re-
turn his affections as seems clear from
the following lines in his journal:
Oh, ye gods, why should my poor re-
sistless heart
Stand to oppose thy might and
power?
At last surrender to cupid's feathered
dart
And now lays bleeding every hour
For her that's pityless Of my grief
and woes
And will not on me pity take.
He frequently lapsed into poetry
in this way, and there is preserved an
acrOstic that he wrote to one Frances
Alexander, but his muse gave out
when it had gotten as far as Frances
AleXa.
When he was 10 he was appointed
adjutant of one of the military dis
tricts and three years later he applied
to the governor for the position of
lieutenant colonel in the Virginia mill
tia and received it.
Love Affairs
When he returned from his first
campaign, resting at Mount Vernon, he
received the following letter from one
of his brother officers that sheds a lit |
tie light on his love affairs:
Il imagine you by this time writes |
his friend plunged in the midst of
delight heaven can afford and en-
chanted by charmes even stranger to |
the Ciprian dame" and a footnote by
the writer contains the name of Mrs |
Neil" Who this lady was history
does not record.
Washington became quite a hero
after his return from the campaign |
under Braddock, as we'll he might be. |
and in a postscript to a letter he re-
ceived he is informed that Mrs Cary
and Miss Randolph ioyn in wishing
you that sort of glory which will most
indear you to the fair sex
The next year, 1856, he made a |
journey to Boston on military business
CT in hD+
and returning. IT was there he met
the beautiful Mary PHILIPPE, the daugh-
ter of large landholder in New York,
and, brief as the period was, Wash
ington once more lost his heart and
!prOhered his hand with it, The
young lady's affections, however,
were otherwise engaged and she de-
clined the young Virginian's proposals,
and later she married Lieutenant
Colonel Morris. In the war of the
revolution, when Washington's army
was encamped near New York city, he
used the Morris mansion for his head
quarters, the Morrises being loyalists
and having gone to England.
! In 1853 Washington at last met his
! fate in the person of the rich widow,
Mrs. Martha cambridge Gusts, and
pressed his suit with such ardor that
the lady yielded. He was married
/ Jan. 6, 1859.
This marriage made him one of the
richest men in the country and paved
the way to his future renown. John
Adams in one of his jealous fits after
ward asked: Would Washington have
ever been commander of the revolu-
tionary army or president of the
United States if he had not married
the rich widow of Mr. Custis?" Old
John was not the only person to ask
that question. Years afterward, when
the city of Washington was being laid
lOut, the commissioners had a good
deal of difficulty with David Burns,
Whose farm was to be part Of the
future capital. Washington, who was
then president. took great interest in
laying out the city and demonstrated
with Mr. Burns about his attitude
Whereupon the old Scotchman grufiy
responded: Il suppose, Mr.. Washing
ton, you think people here are going
to take every grist from you as pure
!, grain, but what would you have been
) if you had not married the Widow
| Custiso"
Were Washington's love affairs end
= ed when he married? There are those
who say not. Mr.. Ford in consider
Ing this question says that stories of
his immortality are banded about in
clubs, a well-known clergyman has