MARY WASHINGTON'S GARDEN 



HEN Wakefield, in Westmoreland County, Vir- 

 ginia, burned April, 1735, the Washington family 

 moved to Pine Grove, more commonly known as 

 Ferry Farm. This farm was on the Rappahan- 

 nock River, opposite the town of Fredericksburg. 

 This home was the same plan and size as that at 

 Wakefield. Eight happy years passed, then in April, 1743, Augus- 

 tine Washington died after a brief illness. Mary Washington was 

 a widow thirty-seven years old with five children under twelve years. 

 Her stepson, Lawrence Washington, was living at Mount Vernon 

 and was her sole advisor. Her son George was only eleven years 

 old when he assumed the responsibilities of having grace and family 

 prayers in his home. George said, "All that I am I owe my 

 mother." 



'Washington, before setting out to take charge of the Colonial 

 troops, after the battle of Bunker Hill, persuaded his mother to 

 leave Ferry Farm and move to a small house he had bought a few 

 years before in Fredericksburg. Betty Lewis, her only daughter, 

 wanted her to live at Kenmore, but her mother had been accustomed 

 to her own home, her own servants, and her own manner of life. 

 The habit of command was strong within her. Her simple estab- 

 lishment had unfitted her to occupy a visitor's place in the fine 

 home at Kenmore. 



"My wants in this life are few," she replied to her daughter's 

 invitation. "I feel perfectly competent to take care of myself." 

 Her home still stands in Fredericksburg. In 1775, it was a 

 long, low cottage, with a hall and two rooms on the first floor and 

 a half story above. The house was part brick and part frame. 

 A detached building to one side of the cottage was the kitchen, 



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