Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-06-03

| but a good deal more as a steamer
sails. For that distance the northern
neck is a peninsula seldom more than
twenty miles wide, and sometimes
hardly half so much.
| Above Fredericksburg the distance
between the Potomac and the Kappa
hammock widens until two or three
counties are included in the width of
the neck, instead of merely one George
Washington's three homes in the neck
were Wakefield his birthplace in
| Westmoreland county. the farm oppo-
site Fredericksburg in Stafford county
and Mount Vernon, in Fairfax county.
The two original immigrant Wash
| ingtons, the brothers John and Law
renee, settled in the northern neck
little more than 260 years ago. Georges
father removed to Stafford county from
Westmoreland, but many of his rela-
tives remained in Westmoreland and
the neighboring counties far down the
neck, and there many Of their descend
ants still live.
| cally called Mr.. Lal," has a pleasant
| and well kept farm only little way
| from the lonely field in which stands
the monument marking the site of
George Wdshington's birth. He tends
his lands as Georges father was ac-
customed to tend the neighboring plan
| tation and exercises fishing privileges
on the Potomac, hard by.
Them Washingtons are smart peo-
ple," was the comment of a simple
neighbor when asked about the family.
He spoke with no sign of awe, exactly
as he would have spoken of them
Joneses" or them Smiths"
Another of the name and blood serv-
ed as states attorney in the adjoining
county Of King George, not a highly
paid office, you may guess, since the
population Of the county is less than
5000. There are still others of the
name and blood scattered through the
central counties of the northern neck
| and there are descendants Of Wash
| ington's uncles in various parts of the
United States, some Of them bearing
the name of Washington, others bear
ing other names.
An old gentleman directly descend
ed from the Washington family died
in poverty about twenty-five years
ago at Wilmington, Del. Some who
saw him in his coffin thought they dis
covered in his face a likeness to Geo.
| Washington. A Virginian who for
more than twenty years has been a
broker on one Of the New York ex-
changes is a descendant of the Wash
ington family, although he does not
bear the surname.
The Washingtons who have stayed
| in the northern neck have attracted
no special attention for the most part
| Their homes are less than 100 miles
| from the city of Washington, but are
somewhat remote in time, for the
| northern neck below King Georges
county Is one of the most inaccessible
| regions Of the Atlantic slope. A rail-
| way Is slowly penetrating the neck,
| but as yet most points south of Fred
ericksburg are reached only by means
| of steamboats, on one river or the 9TH
er, and usually the voyage to the out
er world consumes a day and night.
Except in the part of the northern
| neck that touches the Chesapeake or
| the lower Potomac or Rappahannock
/ o1n
| customs cling. The very fruit trees
are in some instances scions OF those
| imported by the seN enteenth and early
| eighteenth century settlers. The fig is
cultivated here, and on the road from
| the Potomac to Washington's BIRTH
| place grow cherry trees that have
| sprung from seed to be traced back to
| a tree as old as that which Washlng-
ton felled with the traditional hatchet.
1t is still a rich and beautiful coun-
try, with fine farms, and neat little
ports on either river, and wherever
the tourist touches he will hear inter-
esting traditions of the Washingtons.
| Other famous Virginia families, among
| them the Lees, Settled early III Ihe
northern neck, and some of their home
steads still stand.
| A northerner looking up his Nr-
ginia ancestors learned not long ago
| that a man of his own name was living
far down the northern neck. He wrote
for data bearing on his ancestors, and
| after many weeks received a letter
| from his cousin many times removed
but a letter that shed no light upon
the family. He of the northern neck
| although he had lived for seventy
years within seventy-five miles or the
region in which his family had origi-
nally settled, knew of no ancestor FUR
ther back than his father.