The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1934-02-16

house when 1t burned. When he died In 1910 1t
fell to his son, George Corbin Washington.
The possessions of George Corbin Washington
did not include the whole of the peninsula In
herited by his grandfather Col. Augustine Wash
ington, in 1743 1t did include the plantation
known at this time as Wakefield, first so called
by William Augustine Washington, according to
the authority of William Lanier Washington,
who died in 1888. The designation Is known to
have been in current use as early as 1773.
In 1918 George Corbin Washington, then res
ident of Georgetown, D. c., sold to John Gray Of
Stafford county, Virginia, for 6229 pounds and
10 shillings the Wakefield plantation, contain
ing 9S1h acres, together with two other small
tracts Later Wakefield came again into the pos
session of the Washingtons through it's purchase
in 1S46 by John F. Wilson Of Anne Arundel
county, Maryland and by its gift to his son,
John E. Wilson, who married Betty grand
daughter of William Augustine Washington.
of great interest is the following provision In
the form of memorandum found at the end Of
a deed made by George Corbin Washington to
GRAY: 1.-THE said Washington further more makes
over to the said Gray all his right and title as
derived from his father, William Augustine
Washington to the marshes in Popes creek, but
reserves the family Burying Ground at the Great
Quarter (slave quarters), also sixty feet square
of ground on which the house stood In which
General Washington was born"
The title to the reservations passed from
George Corbin washington to his son, Lewis
William. and thence in 1858 to the state Of vir-
ginia which in 1882 transferred it to the federal
government In 1883 the government increased
its holdings by the purchase of eleven acres ad-
iacent to the site upon which Custis had placed
the slab In 1896 it erected granite monument,
81 feet high on this site, after exploring and
mapping the foundations.
There is no known contemporary description of
the original house on the GUSTS site near Popes
creek The nearest to one that have found is that
given about 1885 by an ancient resident of the
neighborhood, who remembered that it was a
"low-pitched, single-storied, frame building with
four rooms on the first floor and an enormous
chimney at each end on the outside" An anon
ymous visitor of 1851 found the site in the "midst
of Northumberland corn field, marked only
by an old brick chimney, mammoth fig tree,
and freestone slab" (Custis' memorfaD.
On October 81, 1875 anticipating the acquisi-
ton of the site by the federal government, Sec
rotary of State William NJ. Evarts with party,
which included Gen. w. T. Sherman and Charles
c. Perkins of Boston, made trip to Popes creek
from Washington on board the q. S. S. ITALIA
poosa Sherman made rough and not alto
gether accurate map of the region and Perkins q
sketch of the remains of brick chimney, identi-
flying it as belonging to kitchen that stood
behind the house, the site of which was then
bare.
In 1896 the army engineer corps explored and
mapped the foundations of the original house.
Additional explorations at Wakefield have not
revealed any other foundations of Importance on
the Arlington tract That this house is the
birthplace rests upon the evidence of these ex-
plorations, of the tradition that 1t Is the true
birthplace, and of the chain of facts that con-
firms the evidence and the tradition. It must
be so accepted
cby western Newspaper Union