Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas. Page: 11 of 1,110
vii, 9-1011 p. incl. ill., ports. : ports. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this book.
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GEORGE WASHINGTON.
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rr~~~~~^EORGE WASHINGs"i
TON, the " Father of
fhis Country" and its
,B4ll , first President, 789'97,
was born FebruK;
ary 22, 1732, in Wash4>
ington Parish, West.^
^ moreland Co u n ty, Virginia.
'p[~ His father, Augustine WashA,.^
ington, first married Jane Butln
er, who bore him four children,
and March 6, I730, he1 married Mary Ball. Of six
-w children by his second marriage,
George was the eldest,
the others being Betty, Samuel, John, Augustine,
Charles and Mildred, of whom the
youngest died in infancy. Little is known
of the early years of Washington, beyond
the fact that the house in which he was
born was burned during his early childhood,
and that his father thereupon moved
to another farm, inherited from his paternal
ancestors, situated in Stafford County, on
the north bank of the Rappahannock, where
he acted as agent of the Principio Iron
Works in the immediate vicinity, and died
there in 1743.
From earliest childhood George developed
a noble character. He had a vigorous
constitution, a fine form, and great bodily
strength. His education was somewhat defective,
being confined to the elementary
branches taught him by his mother and at
a neighboring school. He developed, however,
a fondness for mathematics, and enjoyed
in that branch the instructions of a
private teacher. On leaving school he resided
for some time at Mount Vernon with
his half brother, Lawrence, who acted as
his guardian, and who had married a daughter
of his neighbor at Belvoir on the Potomac,
the wealthy William Fairfax, for some
time president of the executive council of
the colony. Both Fairfax and his son-in-law,
Lawrence Washington, had served with distinction
in 1740 as officers of an American
battalion at the siege of Carthagena, and
were friends and correspondents of Admiral
Vernon, for whom the latter's residence on
the Potomac has been named. George's
inclinations were for a similar career, and a
midshipman's warrant was procured for
him, probably through the influence of the
Admiral; but through the opposition of his
mother the project was abandoned. The
family connection with the Fairfaxes, however,
opened another career for the young
man, who, at the age of sixteen, was appointed
surveyor to the immense estates of
the eccentric Lord Fairfax, who was then
on a visit at Belvoir, and who shortly afterward
established his baronial residence at
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Lewis Publishing Company. Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas., book, 1892; Chicago, Illinois. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth20932/m1/11/?rotate=90: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Public Library.