WAKEFIELD - GEORGE WASHINGTON’S BIRTHPLACE

By Janet Grunst


As we celebrate George Washington’s 280^th birthday, what better opportunity to explore the place he was born. Wakefield is located in Westmoreland County, part of the Northern Neck of Virginia, just 38 miles east of Fredericksburg. It is situated on the Potomac River, between Mattox Creek and Popes Creek.

In 1657 John Washington came to Virginia from England aboard the merchant ship Seahorse of London as its second officer. When the ship attempted to sail away with its full cargo of tobacco into the Potomac, it ran aground on a shoal in Mattox Creek. While waiting for the ship being readied to sail, John Washington formed a friendship with a local planter, Colonial Nathaniel Pope, and more particularly an attachment with his daughter Anne. A 700 acre parcel of land was Colonel Pope’s wedding gift in 1658 when John Washington married Anne Pope. John became a planter and increased his land holdings to 10,000 acres. In 1664 he moved his family into a new home on Bridges Creek, 4 miles east of Mattox Creek. His son, John later received the Bridges Creek property.

Pope’s Creek 

John and Anne Washington had three children; Lawrence, John and Anne.  Their son, Lawrence, who was born at Bridges Creek, married Mildred Warner of Warner Hall in Gloucester in 1686 and their family settled west of Bridges Creek.  Lawrence and Mildred Washington also had three children; John, Augustine and Mildred.                              

Augustine married Jane Butler in 1715. He inherited some of his father’s property, and in 1717 & 1718 also purchased 200 acres on the west side of Popes Creek. Between 1722 & 1726 Augustine completed the home on Popes Creek that he and his family would live in until 1735.  Augustine and Jane had four children, before she died in 1729.

In 1731 Augustine married Mary Ball. They had six children. George, their oldest, was born in 1732 in their Popes Creek home (later known as Wakefield). With additional purchases and trades Augustine Washington combined the Bridges Creek property with that of Popes Creek, including the family graveyard.

Augustine also increased his land holdings to include an iron furnace near Fredericksburg and another property further up the Potomac in Little Hunting Creek. These two locations would later become George Washington’s homes.

                    

George lived he first three and a half years at the Popes Creek Plantation until the family moved to the Hunting Creek Plantation (later known as Mount Vernon). The Popes Creek plantation, a vibrant farm was inherited by George’s half brother, Augustine Jr.

Reproduction of Wakefield Mansion

On Christmas day 1799, the home accidentally caught fire and burned. The owner at that time was General Washington’s nephew William Augustine Washington, who then moved his family several miles away.

It is uncertain when the house was named Wakefield but it is believed that it was called that around 1773. The property was also sometimes referred to as Burnt House Plantation. The house was never rebuilt though the land continued to be farmed. The State of Virginia eventually acquired the land to preserve the site of the birthplace. In 1923, Mrs. Josephine Wheelwright Rust, a distant relative of the former President, organized the Wakefield National Memorial Association to rebuild a replica of the first home of George Washington.

If you visit Wakefield you will find it a lovely setting, complete with main house, outbuildings, cemetery, herb and flower garden, walking trail and picnic area. The George Washington Birthplace National Park is administered by the National Park Service.

In future posts I’ll share something of George Washington’s other early homes. 

Hometown Tourist

I had the privilege of attending St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. St. John's charter spun off of King William's School's, giving us the right to say we've existed since 1696, though in fact the preparatory school didn't become the college until 1790. But walking those old brick pathways for four years, making frequent trips across the street into Historical Annapolis, I acquired a severe case of enamoring with the city and its history.

After graduating from St. John's in 2004, my husband and I moved to the Annapolis suburb of Arnold and stuck around for another nearly-two-years. So after just about 6 in this beautiful old town, I thought I knew it pretty well. I was excited to pitch a story set there. And when the editor asked for a full, I realized quickly that there were a lot of things I'd never taken the time to notice about this place I called home for so long, and which the internet just couldn't tell me.

Luckily, I still have friends in the area who were quite happy to play tourist with me. =)

Last December, my friend Kimberly and I happily parked in the garage across from our alma mater and made our way to West Street and a building we'd always avoided like the plague--the Visitor's Center. There we took photos of the 3-D Historical map (color-coded by the era in which the buildings were constructed), gathered brochures, and debated taking an official tour. Deciding against that, we set out on foot. Our first aim: Church Circle.

Stopping in the middle of the sidewalk like the tourists we used to grumble about, we brandished our cameras and took photos from every conceivable angle. Of buildings. Of plaques. Of street signs. We noted the old spellings of things that were given on signs, the years for each street and community. I jotted down descriptions of courtyards and even made a sketch of the apparently-haphazard stonework in the foundation of some of the buildings (pebbles in the mortar . . . who'd have thought of it?)

But the best moment for both me and Kimberly was when we walked up to the old entrance of the State House. My camera battery was, by now, dead--special thanks to the cold air that sucked it dry. But that didn't stop us. We stood on the black and white marble squares of the portico, looked through the stately white columns, and plotted.

You see, my heroine had to flee from this very spot, run from the hero as if the hounds of Hades were on her heels. And she had to somehow end up at City Dock. How, I wondered, would she have done it?

I'd looked at maps, but maps never reminded me of how the hill sloped down, how the hill pulled one's feet toward Cornhill Street. However, when we fled down the steps and put ourselves in Lark's shoes, it was easy to determine what path she would have taken, where it would have put her out, and how she would have ended up dangerously close to the docks.

Once down there, Kimberly and I took a happy turn through a few shops and museums, studied another awesome 3-D rendering of the town circa 1790 (perfect!), and then treated ourselves to lunch.

Six years I lived in or around Annapolis. But only in those three hours did I really see the place as Lark and Emerson would have. I've never been so glad to live relatively close to a setting!

Tools of the Trade: 18th Century Reenactors--Through a Portal in Time

On September 24 and 25 I’m going to be at the Prairie Days at Shawnee Prairie Preserve near Greenville, Ohio. Held annually the last full weekend of September, this event focuses on the prairie way of life in and around 1780–1810 and will feature, crafts, games, and reenactors demonstrating the trades of the time period. This annual free family event attracts around 4,000 people to Shawnee Prairie Preserve each year. If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll come out and join us.

Although I’ve attended a number of reenactment events and visited many historical sites such as Williamsburg over the years, this will be my first foray into the reenactor’s world as more than just a spectator. I decided to go dressed in period-appropriate costume, so I’m in the process of assembling my ensemble—which is a lot of fun in and of itself! I was invited by a young woman who e-mailed a few years ago to tell me how much she enjoyed the American Patriot Series, and we’ve kept in touch. Her parents are reenactors, and her father works at Shawnee Prairie. So this spring she asked if I’d like to participate in the festival. It sounded like a great opportunity to get up close and personal with the reenactor’s world, especially as I was also asked to help judge the pie baking contest. Yum!

All this has reminded me that for students and writers of historical fiction and nonfiction, events like this are wonderful research resources, as are historical sites such as Williamsburg that feature docents in period costume interpreting the lives of actual people of the day. But they’re equally enjoyable and profitable for anyone who is interested in the lives of people from earlier times. Actually walking through restored or recreated sites, handling period objects and seeing demonstrations of how they were used, tasting period dishes, smelling the campfires and the earthy scents of native flora and fauna, and even experiencing the discomforts our ancestors had to deal with gives you a perspective that you can’t get otherwise. It’s truly like stepping through a portal in time.

I guarantee that you don’t live far from fascinating historical sites and parks, many you may never have heard of, that lift history out of the dusty pages of books and bring them to vivid life. Every year all across this country there are events set during a wide range of periods, including American colonial, trappers and traders, French and Indian War, American Revolution, early 1800s, Civil War, and even Medieval and Renaissance. Finding reenactment events/historical sites in your area or around the country is as easy as doing an online search.

One of the best sites for ReWar reenactors is Americanrevolution.org, which lists numerous links to American Revolutionary War reenactor organizations that provide schedules of their events. Reenactor.net has information and links for reenactor organizations from all eras. One interesting site I found is We Make History, an organization that offers both public and private historic balls, reenactments, living history, historical education, support of historic sites and more, according to their website. You’ll find a schedule of their public events on their site. It sounds as if they’re not only educational, but also a ton of fun.

The photos in this post are pictures I took at one such site in my area, Rock Castle, Tennessee, a couple of years ago during the Daniel Smith Frontier Days. If you’ve never attended a reenactment, I hope these will tempt you to step out of modern life and into history for a few hours or days!

Road Trip Research Inspires Writing

A lot of writers dread researching details for the settings of their novels. There is so much reading to do; so much time spent searching the Internet for information. Some of it can dampen inspiration. But there is a way to make research one of the most enjoyable aspects of your writing life and kindle that flame of inspiration, and here’s how.

You can find inspiration in your own backyard whether your setting is local or distant. To keep this post brief, I will outline for you steps you can take to find inspiration in your research that is local.

1. Begin online by searching your county’s historical sites. A good source is your local historical society website. Make a list of sites according to places that are from the time period your novel is written in. For example, your heroine lives in a Revolutionary War period manor house. You can visit one nearby to feel the ambiance of such a place, soak in the architecture and lifestyle.
2. Pack a lunch, your camera, and a notebook! Gas up the car and set out through country roads to these locations. But watch for interesting little known places along the way.
3. Explore plantations, fortresses, battlefields, old houses, and small towns. I’m fortunate to live in a historically rich area in Maryland. I’m currently writing a series entitled ‘Daughters of the Potomac’. Not far from me are the Potomac River, Harpers Ferry, Rose Hill Manor, and Schifferstadt House, all places where my books will be set or places that are representative of places in the stories. In visiting them, taking photos and notes, my heart swells with inspiration, and history comes alive in my mind, much more so than reading a document online.
4. Now, while you drive throughout the countryside, keep an eye out for interesting places you may not find listed, such as old houses, memorials, old cemeteries, and churches. They will be out there, and they are worth a pause.

So here are a few links to the places I have visited that have inspired my writing.

Frederick County Historical Society

Rose Hill Manor 

Frederick County Landmark Society:

Fort Frederick

I hope you enjoy your time researching your story!

Blessings,

Rita Gerlach

http://ritagerlach.blogspot.com/

When the One Church Must Travel

For much of the history of Annapolis, Maryland, it had but one church--St. Anne's Episcopal. The first St. Anne's was built along with the State House and King Williams School in Maryland's capital in 1696. It was the church of Church Circle, one of the two centers of Annapolis life. All Annapolis streets lead from the spokes of a wheel from State Circle or Church Circle (build deliberately to showcase the separation of church and state).

The parish grew along with the city, and the original church was added to, amended, expanded, and . . . thought rather ugly. Writers of the time likened the building to a barn, rather than a church. So in 1775, plans for a new, impressive church were laid out, the old building was razed, building materials were brought in for the second St. Anne's.

And war broke out. Collective sigh from all the Annapolitans. Rather than erecting a new church, all those building supplies were given to the war effort and a fort. Church Circle sat empty. Forsaken. Forlorn.

And worship? Where did that take place?

Well, for a while services were held at King William's School, directly across the street from the State House, but quarters were rather cramped. So the church moved to the old theater on West Street (theater having been outlawed a few years prior), where it met until St. Anne's was finally rebuilt in 1793, after 18 years.

I had the pleasure of visiting the new St. Anne's (dating from 1858) when I went to Annapolis to research Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland. Having no clue how old the current building was, my friend and I gazed with awe at the gorgeous stained glass windows (two of which are Tiffany) and the impressive cathedral style. On my way out I grabbed up the brochures they had in the vestibule, and I read them when I got home. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that my characters in 1783 would have been going to the theater for worship, rather than a church, and that Annapolis in fact had no church at the time!

But as I wove this fun fact into story, I realized that it is fact a wonderful example of the Lord's hand. Sometimes man's best intentions go awry. Sometimes even sound plans that we intend for His glory get sidetracked. Sometimes when we look at the place our dreams should be, we see only emptiness and piles of rubble.

But He always prevails. The faithful will always find a way to worship Him. And though our vision may remain dormant for a time (imagine their feelings after 18 years of transition!), His perfect plan will come to fruition in His perfect time.

Today, St. Anne's is still one of the pillars of Annapolis, and its inspiring history still stands proudly alongside the tales of our founding fathers. And personally, I love imagining the spirit of those good Marylanders who weren't to be deterred by a little thing like no church to meet in. Who surely understood as they fought for our liberty that it was the people who really make a church . . . and a nation.