OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 219 



FATHER OF OUR COUNTRY 



86. GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON, first president of the 

 United States, was born at Pope's Creek, Westmoreland Co., 

 Va., February 22, 1732. His great grandfather, JOHN WASHING- 

 TON, was a Yorkshireman, and crossed to Virginia in 1657. The 

 family was prominent in the history of the province, each gen- 

 eration contributing materially to its social, political and eco- 

 nomic life. Tradition records that the future statesman's boy- 

 hood was guided by an unusually devoted mother of scrupulous 

 fidelity and firmness. To her is due his retention as an Ameri- 

 can, for his older half-brother secured for him a warrant in the 

 British navy as midshipman, and he only forewent its acceptance 

 on her earnest remonstrance. 



His school work prepared him for a surveyor and from the 

 age of sixteen until nineteen he employed himself at this pro- 

 fession. His surveys of the Allegheny valleys and hills con- 

 stituted a remarkable contribution to the provincial organiza- 

 tion and some of his benchmarks serve as bases for the modern 

 division of land in Virginia. 



In 1851 he was commissioned an adjutant of the Virginia 

 militia with the rank of major, and although he journeyed 

 shortly thereafter to the West Indies with his half-brother 

 Lawrence, he was ultimately given charge of one of the grand 

 military divisions of the province. The death of Lawrence per- 

 mitted him to succeed to Mt. Vernon and he began a series of 

 agricultural operations whose details will be recounted later. 



The French and Indian Wars established his military repu- 

 tation. His trip to the Ohio Valley to interview the commander 

 of the French forces as an emissary of GOVERNOR DINWIDDIE 

 permitted him to learn much of the country and tactics of 

 savage warfare, and "from that moment," says WASHINGTON 

 IRVING, "he was the rising hope of Virginia." His defense of 

 Fort Necessity and his service as aide-de-camp to GENERAL 



