Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-03

land which have been named In nonor OF the
Father of His Country, is that the very first
of these and therefore outranking all others
even the National Capital itSelf-in point OF
age is Washington. Va. the county seat OF
Rappahannock County, in his own home State
of Virginia
Not only this. but there is more than strong
possibility that this little Virginia town was not
only the very first to be named for George
washington but that it, again unlike the others,
guas named for him long before he had made
that name so famous. And, to give it even
further distinction there is every reason to be-
lieve that he laid it out himself when young
man and serving as surveyor OF all this section
for Thomas Lord Fairfax.
He was certainly surveyor OF Culpeper Coun-
ty, and what is Rappahannock now was Cul-
pepper territory at that time and for nearly a
century afterward 1t was in 1749, when Gull
pepper itself was only year old and was, in ef-
feet, the frontier of Virginia, that there APP
peared at her county seat young man VINO
subscribed himself as George Washington,
Gent" and, according to faded old entry In
one of the record books, "thereupon took the
usual oaths to his majesty's person and govern
Ment: and took and subscribed the adjuration
oath and test, and then took the oath OF sur
veyor, according to law"
1t is known that he ran the lines through all
OF this and the neighboring counties, and to
further subStantiate the story that has come
down through the generations only recently an
old record of his work as surveyor has come TO
light in which is this significant sentence
While in Culpeper County he went &c miles
north of the county seat, and there laid out
town" Washington is north of the county seat
of Culpeper and is just about &c miles distant,
and there is no trace or record of any other
town having been laid out, or even thought OF,
in that vicinity until more than SO years later.
WASHINGTON people were not surprised
"a when this entry came to light, for most OF
them are descendants Of families who were liv-
ing in that section when George Washington
was running his lines and as Col Menefee said,
when your grandfather has always told you
that his father and grandfather told him, why
of coarse you know it is So" Also, as they
point out, isn't one of the principal streets
called Gay" And wasn't that named by
Washington himself for Miss Gay Fairfax,
whom he much admired? Certain it is that
from the earliest time 1t has been Gay street
and the story of washington having named it
has, like other things in Rappahannock, come
down through the generations as a part Of
county history. 1t is this same county history
which tells of it having been town for half
century before it was regularly organized as
such by an act of the Virginia Legislature in
1896, this and official records which describe
it and tell Of cetrain property as being in the
town of Washington" many years before 1t was
regularly organized.
Delving into the records of the town of Wash
ington, one finds that the trustees John
Strother, James Green, Charles Browning, Ed
ward Pendleton and John Jet, gentlemen" and
that the land for the town site was part of
several tracts of land in Culpeper County Crap
pahannock being a part Of Culpeper at that
time), the property Of James Wheeler, James
JsSt George Calvert and William Porter" The
two principal streets running the long way OF
the town are Gay and Main These are crossed
by Middle street, most appropriately named, as
it is in the middle Of the town, and Middle Is
hanked on one side by Wheeler and Calvert and
on the other by Porter and Jet, thus preServ-
ing the names Of the original landowners.
The town has never outgrown its first
boundaries, in fact there are several places
where it has not quite filled them out but it is
like turning back the pages of history TO some
thing remote and unhurried, and very sweet, TO
visit this little Virginia town, where people take
all the time they want for living and therefore
enjoy their days and get real favor from life
which is entirely unknown in the streets of the
National Capital, not hundred miles away in
real distance, but, OH so far away in everything
else
The Lee Highway makes smooth pathway
through Main street, which isn't the prin-
cipaI street at all, that being Gay street,
block away the crest of the hill. For it is
on Gay street that the old brick court house is
found, under the shelter Of gnarled old locust
trees, and with accompanying one story brick
buildings which furnish shelter for the offices
OF county clerk and county treasurer There
are benches out under these locust trees, where
in Summer weather persons may sit at ease
and discuss the political questions Of the day
for the average Virginian has 1t in his blood
to dearly love politics. and the state OF the
crops on broad Rappahannock acres, or in the
apple orchards which climb the slopes OF the
surrounding foothills In soldierly rows.
It was bleak November afternoon when the
writer visited Washington and found brace OF
coIonels, the chairman Of the board OF super
viSors, and another prominent citizen gathered