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| Source Alexandria Gazette courtesy of Arlington Public Library |
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| George Washington Parke Custis Adopted Son of George Washington |
On June 4th
1816, Custis traveled approximately sixty miles
down the Potomac River on his ninety-ton topsail schooner called the Lady of the Lake. The journey began near
his home of Arlington House located on a hill across the Potomac River from the
City of Washington.[i]
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| Arlington House |
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| Arlington House |
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| View of Arlington House |
He was accompanied
by Samuel Lewis, the son of George Lewis a nephew of Washington, and William
Grymes, son of Benjamin Grymes an officer in Washington’s Life Guard. The trip
down the Potomac River took them past Washington’s Mount Vernon estate toward
the Westmoreland County birthplace of Popes Creek.
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| A View of Mount Vernon |
Upon arriving at Popes
Creek, the boat was anchored and the passengers took smaller boats to shore. Custis’
own account of the event indicated the schooner anchored in eight feet of water
some distance from the land. Smaller boats were taken to the mouth of the creek
where the group proceeded upwards to the site of the Washington home.
The group
was then escorted to a spot where brick remnants marked the foundation of the Popes
Creek home. The house was destroyed by a fire that occurred December 24th
1779. The location subsequently became known by the name “Burnt House
Plantation.”[ii]
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| Map of Birthplace along Popes Creek in Westmoreland County |
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| Ariel view of Birthplace of Popes Creek in Westmoreland County |
The bricks that previously
formed a chimney were gathered and used to construct a pedestal on which to
place the marker. Accounts indicate the freestone marker while transported was wrapped
the in the Star Spangled Banner. The
first stone marker was unwrapped and positioned on the pedestal. The historic
marking occurred more than eighty years after Washington’s birth. The event
concluded with the group firing a cannon in salute to Washington.
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| Source: Harper’s Weekly dated 24 February 1866; George Washington Parke Custis’ Recollections |
Sixteen years
later, the Alexandria Gazette in an
article of March 6th 1832 reported passengers in steamboats still
passed the birthplace unaware of the significance and proximity describing the
location – remote but a mile over the
water’s surface; and hid from his view by a fringe of wild shrubbery.[iii]
In 1851, Custis
wrote the Editor of the Alexandria
Gazette. His letter published April 16th described his recollections
of the trip he took with descendants of four Revolutionary patriots to place
the first historic marker at the birthplace.[iv]
The Popes Creek
property remained in the Washington family until after the Civil War.[v]
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| Interpretation of the birthplace at Popes Creek |
Custis was the
first to recognize the significance and necessity for identifying and preserving
the location Washington’s birthplace.
The George
Washington Birthplace National Monument was originally settled by Washington’s
grandfather John. It is managed by the United States Department of Interior’s
National Park Service. To visit the birthplace one travels to the Northern Neck
of Virginia by vehicle to 1732 Popes Creek Road in Colonial Beach. From
Washington’s boyhood home of Fredericksburg, visitors travel
thirty-eight miles down Route 3 East until approaching Route 204 on the left
side of the road. After turning onto Route 204, the entrance to the park is
located two miles down the road with the visitor center to the right.
The ancestral
burial ground is also on the property not far from the Potomac River.
Washington’s father Augustine Washington is buried in the cemetery along with
George’s grandparents.
Custis and his
sister Eleanor Parke were adopted by Washington after the death of Martha’s son
John Parke Custis who died of camp fever in December 1781 following Charles
Cornwallis’ surrender after the Battle of Yorktown. The children were part of Washington’s
family during his terms as President in New York and Philadelphia. Eleanor affectionately
called Nelly was ten and Custis was eight when they arrived in New York for
Washington’s first term.
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| Eleanor Parke Custis "Nelly" who married George Washington's Nephew Lawrence Lewis |
In later years, both
Custis and his sister were custodians of Washington relics and took pride in
distributing Washington relics to friends of George and Martha Washington. The
homes of Custis and his sister, in their adulthood, were shrines to their
adopted parents. It was Eleanor Parke Custis who eventually sold many of the
relics that now comprise the Washington collection at the Smithsonian
Institution.[vi]
On July 4th 1848, Custis attended the
ceremony and laying of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument. He also
wrote a series of essays that first appeared in the National Intelligencer and after his death were compiled and
published in 1859 and 1860 in a book entitled Recollections and Private Memories of Washington.
[i] With the
marriage of his daughter Mary Anna Randolph Custis, George Washington Parke Custis
became the father-in-law of Robert Edward Lee. The home of George Washington
Parke Custis is now the Robert E. Lee Memorial with the remainder of the
plantation land part of Arlington National Cemetery and Fort Myer (Joint Base
Myer-Henderson Hall).
[ii] Page
116 of Harper’s Weekly dated February
24, 1866, notes “George Washington’s birthplace was destroyed before the
Revolution. Upon its site George W.P. Custis, Esq., Washington’s Aid-de-camp [sic],
places a slab of free-stone, represented in the above engraving. The house was
precisely the same in appearance as the Residence of the Washington Family,
shown in the engraving opposite. It was a plain homestead of one story and
attic, situated on the ‘Wakefield Estate’, ….The stone which marks the site was
deposited in its place in June, 181[6]. It was
enveloped in the Star-Spangled Banner, and laid upon the spot by four
Revolutionary patriots and soldiers. The pedestal was constructed of bricks
from the old chimney that once formed the hearth about which Washington played
in his infancy. This was the first monumental stone ever erected to the memory
of Washington…” In 1858, the state of Virginia purchased the Popes Creek
property. However, in 1882, the federal government purchased the property
maintained by the National Parks Service.
[iii] The
Alexandria Gazette, dated 6 March 1832 (transcript at Arlington House –
National Park Service) reports:
“Washington’s Birth Place. At a
time when all that relates to Washington attracts so much attention, and when
his tomb is made the subject of a nation’s anxiety, a notice of the Birthplace
of the Father of his Country will not be deemed in appropriate. We have a note
from Mr. [George Washington Parke] Custis, of Arlington, which contains the
memoranda of some incidents relative to the subject which have not before been
published.
Gen. Washington was born on a plantation
called Wakefield [called Popes Creek during the childhood of the Washington
children and later named Wakefield by future generations], now the property of
John Gray, Esq., of Travellers Rest lying on Pope’s Creek in Westmoreland
County (Virginia) The House which he first saw the light was about 300 yards
from the Creek, ½ a mile from its entrance into the Potomac. The mansion has
long since fallen into ruins. [no mention of fire] some of the trees of ‘olden
day’s, are yet standing around it. There is nothing there at present to
interest, except the recollections which must crowd upon the mind, while
contemplating the birthplace of Washington.
In 181[6], immediately after the
ratification of the treaty of peace, Mr. Custis repaired in his own vessel to
the birth place, having prepared a stone with a suitable inscription to be
deposited on the ruins of the Mansion. Mr. Custis was accompanied in the
execution of this pious duty by Samuel Lewis, Esq., great nephew of Washington
and the late Wm. Grymes, Esq., the son of an officer of the revolution who held
a command in the body guard. The party landed at Wakefield, bearing in their
arms the stone, encircled by the star spangled banner and having gathered
together as much materials from the remains of the ancient mansion, as would
serve for a rude pedestal, they deposited the stone thereon, with the
inscription: - ‘Here on the 22d of February 1732,” Washington was born. The
duty performed, the Party re-embarked, and, hoisting their colors, fired a
salute from the vessel, thus completing the interesting and surely not
unimpressive ceremonial, of placing the first stone of the monument.
A late writer, speaking of this
interesting place remarks: -‘…It is surprising that it [Wakefield or more
appropriately Popes Creek] should be so little known and visited. Not one in a
thousand of the passengers in Steamboats has any knowledge that this ‘solum
natale, of him whom the whole world honors, is remote but a mile over the
waters surface; and hid from his view only by a fringe of wild shrubbery.’
Will not Wakefield [Popes Creek]
like Mt. Vernon, in after time, be the resort of Patriotic Pilgrims?”
[iv] George
Washington Parke Custis wrote to the Editor of the Alexandria Gazette and on 16
April 1851 (transcript at Arlington House – National Park Service) the
following was published:
“THE FIRST STONE.
Arlington House, April 14th 1851.
To the editor of the Alexandria Gazette:
Observing
in your valuable journal, of a late date, the notice of a STONE placed on the
ruins of the House in which the beloved Washington first saw the light, permit
me to offer you a brief account of that interesting event, as it occurred six
and thirty years ago.
In June
1815, I sailed in my own vessel, the ‘Lady of the Lake,’ a fine topsail schooner
of ninety tons, accompanied by two gentlemen, Messrs LEWIS and GRYMES, bound to
Pope’s Creek, in the county of Westmoreland, carrying with us a slab of
free-stone, having the following inscription:
HERE,
The 11th of February, 1732 (Old Style,)
WASHINGTON
Was Born.
Our pilot
approached the Westmoreland shore cautiously, as our vessel drew nearly eight
feet water, and the pilot was but indifferently acquainted with so unfrequented
a navigation.
We anchored
at some distance from the land, and taking to our boats, we soon reached the
mouth of Pope’s or Brydge’s Creek, and proceeding upwards, we fell in with
MCKENZIE BEVERLY, Esq., and several gentlemen on a fishing party, and also with
the overseer of the property that formed the object of our visit. We were
kindly received by these individuals, and escorted to the spot where a few
scattered bricks alone marked the birth place of the Chief.
Desirous of
making the ceremonial of depositing the Stone, as imposing as circumstances
would permit, we enveloped it in the ‘STAR SPANGLED BANNER’ of our country, and
it was borne to its resting place in the arms of the descendants of four
revolutionary patriots and soldiers – SAMUEL LEWIS, the son of GEO. LEWIS, a
captain in Baylor’s Regiment of Horse, and nephew of Washington; WILLIAM
GRYMES, the son of BENJAMIN GRYMES, a gallant and distinguished officer of the
Life Guard; the Captain of the vessel, the son of a brave soldier wounded in
the battle of Guilford; and GEORGE W.P. CUSTIS, the son of JOHN PARKE CSTIS, aid-de-camp
to the Commander-in-Chief, before Cambridge and Yorktown.
We gathered
together the bricks of the ancient chimney, that once formed the hearth around
which WASHINGTON, in his infancy had played, and constructed a rude kind of
pedestal, on which we reverently placed the FIRST STONE, commending it to the
respect and protection of the American people in general, and the citizens of
Westmoreland in particular.
Bidding
adieu to those who had received us so kindly, we re-embarked and hosited our
colours, and being provided with a piece of Cannon and suitable ammunition, we
fired a salute, awakening the echoes that had slept for ages around the
hallowed spot; and while the smoke of our martial tribute to the birth place of
the Pater Patriae still lingered on the bosom of the Potomac, we spread or
sails to a favoring breeze, and speeded joyously to our homes.
Such was an
act of filial love and gratitude performed more than a third of a century ago-
such is the history of the FIRST STONE to the memory of WASHINGTON.
Health and
respect, my dear sir,
George
W.P. Custis”
[vi] Charles Moore
notes in The Stepfatherhood of George
Washington, V. George Washington Parke Custis, Daughters of the American
Revolution Magazine, Volume LIX, Number 11, November 1925: “Arlington House (as
Mr. Custis called the mansion) became a repository of a large and most interesting
collection of relics of the Washingtons, that were either given to him by his
doting grandmother, or that fell to his lot in the final division of the
household goods, or that were purchased from less affluent possessors. First
and foremost of these treasures was the capacious bed on which the General and
Mrs. Washington talked and slept, and on which he died. That bed is now in the
room they occupied at Mount Vernon. The tent that sheltered the General during
the Revolution in after years was often pitched on the Arlington lawn for the
awed admiration of Washingtonians and old residents of Georgetown, who were
ferried across the Potomac to attend annual sheep-shearing festivals…”