The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1932-03-31

cost 9 pence; a cold meal, 8 pence;
lodging, with clean sheets, 80 pence;
twenty-four-hour stabling and fodder
for horse, 6 pence; and corn or oats,
per gallon, 6 pence. When it is re-
membered that the Virginia shilling
was worth 16 2-3 cents of our money,
we see that a hot dinner cost 1914
cents and other service in proportion.
From Staunton, Washington rode to
Fredericksburg by way of Charlottes-
vile, making the 114-mile journey in
three days and still being fit enough
to play billiards the evening he ar
rived.
On Wednesday, February 4, 1855,
Washington set out for Boston to lay
case of military precedence before
Gen. William Shirley, commander in
chief of the British forces in America.
He reached Philadelphia the following
Sunday, and took five or six days to
look around the city.
He apparently made the 80 inter-
vening miles to New York in two days
following. And what must the New
York of that day have meant to the
young Virginian, who had spent the
last three years mostly in the prime
val forests or fighting French and In
dams on the savage frontiers.
A Visit to New York
There was the "Microcosm" to visit
described at the time as a world in
miniature, which took % years to
build. Washington's enthusiasm for
it is written in his accounts, for on
two separate occasions he enters items
''for treatg. Ladies to We Micro
cos)m." There was also a rout at
Mrs. Baron's, and tips to the servants
in the household of Beverly Robin
son, son of the speaker of the Virginia
House of Burgesses. The young Off
GER was always punctilious in tipping
the servants in households where he
was entertained, and equally so in en-
tering these items in his account
books-two traits that have aided a
great deal in tracing his travels.
Two days before he was twentyfour
years old he set out on the last leg of
his journey to Boston, and the "Penn-
sylvania Gazette" carried the news
that Colonel Washington, of Virginia,
but last from Philadelphia, left this
city New York; for Boston,"
On his way to Boston he stopped
with a Mr.. Malone, in Rhode Island.
He entered tip for the latter's SER
want of pounds and another item of
pounds for broken bowl.
In Boston he stopped at Cromwell's
Head tavern. He saw General Shir-
ley, who decided the question of COM
mand at Fort Cumberland in his ia
vor; visited a man-of-war in the har-
Dor, lost some money at cards at the
governors house and then set off for
Virginia. But at the governors he
had met such people as John Adams,
and made a deep impression by his
recital of conditions in western Vir-
ginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Unconsciously he again was playing
into the hands of destiny, for John
Adams was one of those who 10 years
later Joined with Thomas johnson of
Maryland in making him commander
| in chief of the American forces.
Another interesting phase of Wash
ington's travels began when he de-
termined to make personal survey
of the frontier with view to estab
fishing a chain of forts at the impor-
tant passes, in the hope of damming
the Indian tribes behind the Allie
gheny divide.
During the French and Indian War
days, villages and towns near the
frontier had not yet begun to take
shape, except in the case of county
seats. Places were known as "John
Smiths Plantation" civilian Scott's
Mill" "Tasker Tosh's Fort" "Big
Lick" etc. The changing ownerships
of five generations, together with the
substitution of bridges for fords, have
obliterated these names from map and
memory alike.
1t was necessary, therefore, to ge
patiently through scores of massive
land-grant books, dozens of old deed
books, and all the survey records that
have survived, in order to find out
where the early settlers lived.