El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1919-02-15


! Georges half brother. who represent
] ed FAIRFAX county in the Virginia
house OF Burgesses- The house of
Burgesses talked and legislated in
Z terms OF tobacco. Courts levied fines
in tobacco. The very church fees
were paid In tobacco a Fairfax
county minister's salary Of that time
! IS recorded in Fairfax court house as
! -16 zoe pounds OF tobacco per annum "
a prerOgative Of the Nestry of the
Established church was the right 10
appoint -'prOcessloners' 10 enumerate
the tobacco plants in the parishes.
Tobacco Receipts rs Currency.
Nirginian currency consisted largely
OF notes representing tobacco in ware
houses. The sheriffs fees We're in to-
bacco. He got go pounds of Nir-
glula tobacco FOR hanging a telOu. 20
pounds for pill0ryinE offenders. 10
pounds for putting unpopular persons
into the stocks. 20 pounds for fog
ging them and the same quantity for
ducklnE scOlds.
BY decree Of the law makers, it
was ordered that a pillOry, a pair Of
stocks, a whipping post and a ducking
stool were 10 be erected in c0nvel-
lent proximity: and the county fall
ing 10 provide these handy ornaments
was 10 be fined 5000 pounds Of to-
bacco.
Members Of the house Of Burgesses
were paid $50 pounds Of tobacco a
day. In Fairfax court house there
are records showing that the travel
ing expenses Of the members from
that county 20 the capital at VIII
Mamsburgh were 1870 pounds.
A law passed in 1862 provided that
any parent refusing 10 have a child
baptized by a lawful minister
should be fined 1000 pounds Of to-
bacco, half OF which was to be paid
10 the informer.
The same amount was the fine for
stealing hog, but there was a fur
Their provision in the case OF that es- I
Unable animal that in case OF in I
ability TO pay in tobacco. the thief [
must serve one year 10 the deSpOiled l
owner and one year TO the infOrmer. I
This solicitude for property rights in /
hogs was due not so much to virtues I
inherent in Virginia hogs as hogs. as I
to the fact that Virginia planters /
turned their hogs loose 10 forage for /
themselves in woods and swamps, and /
thus hog stealing was a crime against Z
the community akin 10 cattle rustling I
in the later days Of the western open 4
ranges.
only one other member OF the ami |
nal kingdom was estimated at a still /
higher price in tobacco This was a /
member Of genus Homo. A law passed !
in the same year (I662l provided that
every shipmaster bringing any Qua
ker 10 the colony was TO be fined /
5000 pounds.
Nearly every planter had hogs by
the thousand that fattened without
thought or labor on his part-lilies Of
the field. as II were Possibly this
unearned increment added flavor TO
the already divine flavor Of Virginia
hams.
On Gen WashinEton's land there
were so many hogs that the inveu-
tory which accounts for all other
livestock infinitely, contents itself
with referring to them as count
less a record Of the plantation !
ling number Of $50 were slaughtered
annually for the use Of the family
md the negroes
The Virginia Land System.
The whole Nirginian system was a
iystem OF large land holdings whose
cultivation was made possible, OF
curse. by the slave system which few
lad begun AT that time so much as TO
question George Washington grew
- in q region where men counted
heir possessions not by hundreds Of
lcres, but by thousands. The county
II Westmoreland, where he was born.
lad been huge enough to make state
y itself, and every few decades it (
lad been split into new counties. each
snormous in extent Thus Stafford I
county had sprung from Westmore-
and, and Prince William from Stat {
ord. and Fairfax to which George ]
vas brought by his father when he {
vas five years old. had been Just Z
levin from Prince William.
IN Fairfax county his half brother. ]
-aWrences son Of his fathers first
Ito Miss Dandridge) ac-
Iuired big tract on the banks Of {
he Potomac from the Fairfaxes into ,
which family he married He named Z
he estate Mount Vernon. IN honor Of ]
.dmiral vernon, OF the British navy.
.nder whom he had served as volun-
eer at the siege Of Carthagena: and 2
{ was this estate which appears TO :
ave been the first really large and :
ich possession that came into George / :
FaShington's hands. Lawrence Wash :
1gton died shortly before the French :
nd Indian wars began, and when
laJ- Cater colouen George Washing :
on OF the Virginia militia. returned T
n 1853 from his first unlucky ex-
edition against the French at Fort
luquesne on the Ohio, he went TO
iount Vernon, which had become his
y Inheritance, and there began that
ainstaking study OF agriculture, sys-
ematic land improvement and con-
.nuous acquisition Of new land. which
[ last made him the most extensive
lanter or farmer in the republic, and
ne Of its very richest men
George WashingtOn's Holdings.
His total land holdings in 1888 I
-heu he died. we're 56.475 acres. OF 7
lese $500 acres were in Fairfax
ounty alone and about 1000 were in ]