The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-02-06
BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON

- ~
- that just century and a
I1N half after the Christmas day
y Z/mU fire which in 1880 destroyed
KIN Wakefield, the old colonial
w homestead in which the
Father of His Country was born, the
foundations had been laid for a new
Wakefield to rise upon the original
site and by the time of the great
Washington bicentennial celebration
next year the restoration of this his
t0ric home will have been completed.
Credit for the restoration of Wake
field is due principally to the Wake
field National Memorial association,
which originated in the summer of
1928 among residents of Westmore-
land county, Va, who felt that 1t
was matter of national concern that
Washingtons birthplace was still
comparatively unknown to most Amer
leans and that pictures of houses
falsely represented as the birthplace
were being published. Their cause
was taken up by leaders in various
patriotic organizations and high gov
eminent officials, and since that time
plans for the restoration have gone
forward steadily.
At the start the association faced
serious difficulty, for no one could say
with certainty in what sort of house
Washington was born. There were a
wide variety Of opinions, some assert
ing that the Wakefield house was only
mere cabin, others that it was a real
colonial mansion, and still others
claiming that Washington was not
born at Wakefield at ALL Students of
history, however, under the auspices
of the association began researches
which led them to what they consider
the truth of the matter. No stone
was left unturned (and this familiar
saying is literally true in this easel
in the quest and no document, how
ever remote In its bearing, was left
unexamined. When oil the evidence
had been collected, sifted and used in
final decision, the actual plan was
formulated. Then an architect was
entrusted with the task of reproduc-
ing the house and the plans which he
drew up have been approved by the
National Fine Arts commission.
The next task was to acquire the
land upon which the restored home
was to stand, and this was made pos
Sible by John D. Rockefeller, Jr, who
purchased 267 acres Of the Wakefield
estate and organized a corporation to
hold the tract in trust for the Wake
field organization. The actual site of
the house where a monument was
erected with funds provided by a con-
gressional appropriation has been I'M
der the jurisdiction of the War de-
partment, but early last year the War
department turned it over to the ma
tiOnal park service of the Interior de-
partment, which has officially desig-
mated 1t as the George Washington
Birthplace National monument. The
national park service is cooperating
with the Wakefield association and
! the United States Commission for the
Observance Of the Two Hundredth
Anniversary of the Birth Of George
Washington in the plans for rebuild
ing Wakefield.
The Washington family first settled
on part of the present Wakefield
estate In March, 1865, full century
before the Revolution. Col. John
Washington, the great-grandfather Of
George Washington, had come to
Westmoreland, Va, in 1856. He died
and was buried there in 1876. Maj
Lawrence Washington and Maj. John
Washington, his sons, succeeded him
An the ownership of Wakefield.
After their marriages, the family
lived on separate parts of the Wake
field estate until the house in which
George Washington was born was
burned, In 1850. After that, the
Washingtons continued in other houses
ON the land, and descendants still live
on part of the same Wakefield estate
continuous possession, in whole or
In part, for 266 years, eight genera
lions.
1t was at Wakefield, then, that
George Washington was born on Feb
ruary %, 1892, according to the mod
J ern calendar. Between three and four
years later the family moved to their
. estate of $500 acres which embraced
the present Mount Vernon. There
shington passed about four more
= rs Of his boyhood. Then he moved
Ain with his parents, this time to
King George county, Va, to an estate
4 with mansion house') which had
previously belonged to William Stroth-
er. located approximately two miles