CONTENTS VII. THE FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION VIII. THE SECOND BUNKER HILL ORATION IX. THE PREPARATION OF THE LESSON BIBLIOGRAPHY CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES INTRODUCTION I GEORGE WASHINGTON GEORGE WASHINGTON was born on February 22, 1732, at Bridges Creek, Westmoreland County, Virginia, in the homestead of his father, Augustine Washington, beside the wide waters of the lower Potomac River. His ancestor, John Washington, had come from England to America in 1656. The family shared in the prosperous life and growth of Virginia; and, when Washington was born, his father owned more than five thousand acres of land, and was acquiring wealth in the directing of mining and commerce. The father died in 1743, leaving to his eldest son the best part of the estates, including Hunting Creek, afterward named by the heir Mt. Vernon; and to the other surviving son of his first marriage the lands about Bridges Creek. George Washington. then but eleven years of age, was left to the care of his mother, the second wife, Mary Washington. He had the prospect, when he should become of age, of the farm, where he then lived with his mother and the younger children in Stafford County, across the Rappahannock from Fredericksburg. It was a high-spirited, vigorous, resourceful stock from which Washington was descended. His school life was not such as it would have been, if his father had lived to a greater age. The sexton, Hobby, at his home on the Rappahannock, led him in the first steps of knowledge. Later he went to school to Mr. Williams at Bridges Creek, where, by the aid of Mather's Young Man's Companion, he made exact progress in arithmetic, surveying, measurements, legal forms, and didactic rules of behavior, as his preserved manuscripts, written in a well-rounded hand, faithfully show. If his father had lived, he might have had the opportunity to complete his education in England, as his father and brothers had. In place of this, however, he had the vigorous experience of hunting and journeying in the wilds, and he had also the society of his brother Lawrence at Mt. Vernon and of Lord Fairfax, the accomplished scholar and gentleman, at Belvoir, not far away, and later at Greenway Court near the Shenandoah. Participation in the social and business life of the men of that time on the banks of the Potomac brought forward at an early age the independent and manly character of the young Washington. In 1748, when he was but sixteen years of age, Lord Fairfax set him to work to survey and make maps of extensive estates beyond the Blue Ridge. Through vast forests and over swollen streams, among stray Indians and ignorant emigrants, he carried out his work with patience and skill to the pleasure of his employer, so that Fairfax secured for him an appointment as official surveyor. For three years, on old land and on new, he had all he could do in this strenuous occupation. His brother Lawrence, suffering from consumption contracted at Carthagena, where he had served under that Admiral Vernon from whom Mt. Vernon was named, must needs go to the West Indies, and Washington went with him in 1751. His accounts of the Barbadoes are agreeable reading. This was the only time that Washington was outside of his country. The sea voyage proved unavailing, and his brother died in 1752, leaving to Washington the care of his estate, of his wife and little daughter, and making |
