Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-22


I ~ minders of the First President of
the United States in various parts
of the city--monumentS, Statuary
paintings, and old buildings he has visited
here when the city was forest and almost in
the condition it had been left by the Indian
upon the approach of the white man. And
not far away, his home at Mount Vernon;
Wakefield, where he was born; his mothers
home at Fredericksburg, and the old Ferry
farm lust to the north of the Rappahannock,
where he spent his childhood days all reached
within a few hours ride of Washington.
Associations and surroundings have much to
do with shaping the lives of a people, and the
contact with this patriotic atmosphere of the
Father of His Country undoubtedly has had its
influence upon the people of the District, who
are noted for going over the top wherever
their assistance is requested in a worthy cause,
and they do so fervently and enthusiastically,
as Washington himself would have them do.
If YOU were to ask the ordinarily informed
person who built the Washington Monument
he would no doubt quickly answer, the Gov
ernment just the same as he would answer If
he were asked who supports the National
Geological Park, and the chances are that in
both CAGES his answer would be wrong.
THE conception of forming the Washington
- National Monument Society for the purpose
Of building the Washington Monument, we
see the structure today was the thought of
George Watterston, son of David Watterston,
a native of Jedburg. Scotland, who came to
this country in 1888, and to the city OF Wash
ington in 1891, the year the corner stone of the
District of Columbia laid He was stone
mason and evidently went to work on the Cap
itOl Building when that structure was begun
two years later and continued to be so engaged
until the Summer of 1899, when he opened
marble yard near the Capitol, together with
Robert Speiden, who advertised themselves
ctr EdiOb1rOh However
firm dissolved one year later.
Rather a strange coincidence, David Waiter
ston died in the City of Washington on Wash
ington's birthday February %, 1928, in the
SEVENTEEN year of his age, and, according to
the Intelligencer, he one of the oldest in
habitantS of Washington.
George WatterSton, the son, born in
New York Harbor, on october %, 1888, and
naturally was brought to this city with his
father and here he witnessed the laying of
the corner stone of the Capitol September ID,
1898 when he was nearly 10 years of age.
Though not a native of the District, yet in
all other respects he was typical Washing
tonian-comng here as a child, growing into
manhood here and living here until his death
in the early part of February, 1854.
His education obtained at Charlotte Hall,
a picturesque institution we see on our motor
trips the road leading from Washington into
lower Maryland and between Waldorf and
Leonardtown, in historic st. Marys County.
4dtST HE SIuOicu 1a", anu lAoI OPCl'CN OIL VA
fee in Hagerstown Md But the death OF
rich uncle in Jamaica we are told by William
Dawson Johnston, lied him to give up his Of
flee in this place and make trip to the West
Indies" He disappointed in the lot his
uncle had provided for him there and, return
ing to this country, took up the practice of law
in Washington in partnership with Thomas
Law.
In October, 1911 he was married in this city
to Miss Maria STANLEY, the ceremony being
performed by the Rev. Mr.. Breckenridge, and in