Mount Vernon

Well, we got our first official visitors! Yay for Natalie and Crystal for coming to play with us. Ok…I would like to say that they were coming to visit us, but Natalie rocked the State History Fair and made it to Nationals here in Washington DC. So we got to spend a couple days with them!

First was Mount Vernon! Preston and Emily had gone while we were in Utah and most of these pictures are from them.

These are pictures of George Washington’s mansion. He acquired it in 1752 and in the next 45 years he greatly expanded it to reflect his status as a Virginian gentleman. The inside was beautiful and full of detail and vibrant colors demonstrating the Washingtons’ wealth and style.

The back view of their home was the Potomac River. What a view, especially for a thriving metropolis that this area was and is.

This is the tomb that now holds George Washington and Martha. He died on December 14, 1799 in his bedchamber at Mount Vernon of, what we would call today, epiglotitis. Interesting eh? In his will, he directed that he be buried at Mount Vernon next to his wife Martha.

I loved the scripture that he had placed above his tomb. John 11:25-26 “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me shall never die, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”

The other statue is a memorial for all the slaves that worked for George Washington at Mount Vernon. The land was used as a cemetery for slaves and free blacks who worked for the Washington family. Any original grave markers have disappeared over the years and the identities of approximately 75 individuals buried there are mostly unknown.

George Washington acquired nearly 8,000 acres which made of the Mount Vernon estate. He filled it with gardens, flowers, trees, fresh produce, experimentation of new seeds and plants, and a whole lot of forest. He was a busy man overseeing farming, construction of his home, innovating new farming methods, fishing business, a whiskey distillery and gristmill, oh and… overseeing our country.

Preston and I were so fascinated by his life that we have since gone and bought a couple books about his life.

He was a man who:

-lost his father at age 11 and nearly joined the British army at 15.

-was ambushed in the French and Indian War, receiving bullets through his coat and hat but escaping without injury.

-held together a destitute army through the long and terrible winter at Valley Forge

-resisted plans to make him king and an army plot to take over the government

-made the Constitutional Convention credible by his presence and helped win ratification of the Constitution by his support

-sacrificed his desire for a quiet retirement to serve as the first President, and while serving, set a precedent of constitutional governance.

(The Real George Washington)

What an incredible man. There’s no doubt that the greatness of this country owes a lot to the life this man led.