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Archaeologists Find George Washington's Boyhood Home-UPDATES

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Bianca
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« on: July 02, 2008, 08:39:05 pm »



This undated image provided by National Geographic and
George Washington Foundation, archaeology technician
Erin Goslin washes archaeological material at the site of
the Washington family house in Stafford County, Va.

Archaeologists, students and volunteers worked for five
seasons before positively identifying remains of the house,
occupied by the Washington's beginning in 1738.


AP Photo/National Geographic,

Adrian Coakley
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Bianca
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« Reply #1 on: July 02, 2008, 08:44:16 pm »







                                   Washington's boyhood home found, but no hatchet






By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID,
AP Science Writer
Wed Jul 2, 2008

VIDEO:

http://gmy.news.yahoo.com/
 
WASHINGTON - The archaeologists were delighted to at last find the remains of George Washington's boyhood home but got stumped when they looked for evidence of the cherry tree and rusty hatchet.
 
"This was the setting for many important events in Washington's life," David Muraca, director of archaeology for The George Washington Foundation, announced Wednesday.

Most biographies offer little detail of the first president's youth, so the discovery may provide insight into Washington's childhood, he said. The site is located at Ferry Farm, just across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, Va., about 50 miles south of Washington.

Philip Levy, associate professor of history at the University of South Florida, found evidence that the house was a one-and-a-half-story residence perched on a bluff overlooking the river.

"If George Washington did indeed chop down a cherry tree, as generations of Americans have believed, this is where it happened," said Levy. The researchers said the artifacts they have recovered did not include a hatchet.

"There is little actual documentary evidence of Washington's formative years. What we see at this site is the best available window into the setting that nurtured the father of our country," Levy said.

Three likely locations were excavated over seven years. The site where the foundations of Washington's home were discovered was built during the first part of the 18th century — Washington was born in 1732 — fit the type of house in which Washington would have lived and also yielded artifacts likely linked to his family.

"Now that we have identified the home, we can begin understanding Washington's childhood," Muraca said, as well as dispel some of the folklore surrounding the president's life. For instance, the tale of Washington's chopping down the cherry tree with a hatchet and confessing to his father has never been proven.

"We see a county-level gentry home," he said. Washington's father "was wealthy within the county ... not on the colonial level but locally important, and we see a home befitting that status." The house measured about 53-feet by 37-feet, with a central hallway and two rooms on each side of the hallway.

The eventual goal, Muraca said, is to rebuild the home as it was in the 1740s.

Levy and Muraca spoke at a teleconference organized by the National Geographic Society, which helped fund the work. Research at the location has continued for seven seasons.

The 113-acre Ferry Farm — itself a National Historic Landmark — was known as the former home of the Washington family, but previous attempts to locate the house itself had been unsuccessful.

Most of the wood from the home was reused by builders on other structures or was damaged in the Civil War, and part of the foundation eroded away, the researchers said.

But after digging through layers of dirt the archaeologists found two chimney bases and stone-lined cellars and root cellars.

The cellars held a large number of artifacts including pieces of the house's ceilings and painted walls, fragments of 18th century pottery and other ceramics, glass shards, wig curlers and toothbrush handles made of bone.

Muraca said they also recovered larger objects such as pieces of a tea set that probably belonged to George's mother, Mary Ball Washington; wine bottles, knives, forks and 10 pieces of a group of small figurines that might have stood on a mantel.

They also discovered a well-used pipe bowl, blackened from smoking, that was marked with a Masonic crest. Washington joined the Fredericksburg Lodge of the Masons in 1753.

"While we can't say that this was George Washington's pipe, we can wonder about it," Levy said.

And there were burned remains of a fire at the farm on Christmas Eve, 1740, which Washington mentioned in letters. During the Civil War the farm served as a staging site for Union soldiers attacking Fredericksburg.

Washington was known to swim in the Rappahannock and to take the ferry to Fredericksburg and grew to adulthood at the farm. But he spent less time there as he got older.

He eventually moved to his half-brother's estate at Little Hunting Creek, south of Alexandria, Va., later renamed Mount Vernon.

In addition to National Geographic, the research is funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia, The Dominion Foundation, the Mary Morton Parsons Foundation and many individuals.

___
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« Reply #2 on: July 02, 2008, 08:46:35 pm »




An undated handout image from the National Geographic
shows the excavated site of the boyhood home of George
Washington near Fredricksburg, Virginia.

(Courtesy of National Geographic Society/
Handout/Reuters)
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« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2008, 08:49:32 pm »



This undated image provided by National Geographic and
George Washington Foundation, shows fragments of ex-
pensive, hand-painted pottery, part of a Creamware tea
set. This fashionable set was used on the site during the
time that Mary Ball Washington lived there and her son
George owned the property.

The pottery fragments were unearthed from one of the
stone-lined cellars in the house's center.


(AP Photo/National Geographic/
George Washington Foundation)
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« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2008, 08:52:56 pm »



This undated image provided by National Georgraphic and
George Washington Foundation, shows eighteenth-century
wig curlers of various sizes were found in one of the cellars
of the Washington house by the archaeologists digging at
Ferry Farm.

Wealthier 18th-century colonists used imported objects to
curl the hair and wigs of both men and women, and even to
style the manes of their horses.


(AP Photo/National Geographic/
George Washington Foundation)
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« Reply #5 on: July 02, 2008, 08:59:15 pm »



This undated image provided by National Geographic and
George Washington Foundation, shows the lid of an
Astbury ceramic teapot, probably part of a high-style tea
set owned by Mary Ball Washington, George's mother.

Various pieces of the set were found during excavations of
a stone-lined cellar that once lay beneath
George Washington's boyhood home.

(AP Photo/National
Geographic/George
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« Reply #6 on: July 02, 2008, 09:03:24 pm »



In this undated image provided by National Geographic and
George Washington Foundation, the well-preserved bowl of
an 18th-century pipe, darkened from heavy use, was a key
discovery at the site of the boyhood home of
George Washington.

The pipe, found in one of the cellars of the house, bears a
Masonic crest.

Washington joined the Masons while living there.


(AP Photo/
National Geographic,
Adrian Coakley)
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« Reply #7 on: July 02, 2008, 09:06:45 pm »



This undated image provided by National Geographic and
George Washington Foundation, George Washington
Foundation director of archaeology David Muraca, left, and
GWF research fellow Philip Levy examine evidence of a fire
that damaged the Washington family home in 1740.

Muraca and Levy led a team of dozens who identified and
excavated the house at Ferry Farm in Stafford County, Va.

(AP Photo/
National Geographic,
Adrian Coakley)
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« Reply #8 on: July 07, 2008, 09:23:00 am »








                                             Tracing young George Washington



                                 Diggers believe they've finally found his boyhood home






By Frank D. Roylance |
Baltimore Sun Reporter
July 3, 2008

After a century of speculation, seven years of digging in the Virginia dirt, and two false starts, archaeologists believe they have finally found traces of George Washington's boyhood home, called Ferry Farm, on the Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg.

Thousands of mid-18th-century artifacts, including a broken tea set, along with the home's complex design, are providing historians with hard evidence that is enabling them to reconstruct, for the first time, the physical and economic circumstances of the first president's formative years.

The clues suggest that Washington did not grow up in the rustic cabin often portrayed in 19th-century drawings, but rather in a relatively comfortable, eight-room, one-and-a-half story clapboard house.

"Most were living in one- or two-room houses in this period," said Mark Wenger, a consulting architectural historian on the project. "I wouldn't say this was three times as large, but it is quite a bit larger than normal houses we see on this landscape" in the mid-1700s.

The diggers found nothing to support the fanciful tale of how young George chopped down his father's cherry tree with his hatchet and confessed rather than tell a lie. Such stories about Washington's boyhood emerged in the popular literature after the president's death in 1799.

Paul Nasca, the staff archaeologist at Ferry Farm, said his crews uncovered several hoe blades, but no hatchets.
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« Reply #9 on: July 07, 2008, 09:27:06 am »











Washington's pipe?



Among the most intriguing items recovered was a pipe bowl decorated with Masonic symbols. Washington is known to have joined a Masonic lodge in Fredericksburg in 1753 while living at Ferry Farm. He was 21.

"One can't say this is George Washington's pipe, but we can certainly wonder about that," said David Muraca, director of archaeology at the George Washington Foundation, which operates the Ferry Farm site and museum.

The dig was sponsored by the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Dominion Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the Mary Morton Parsons Foundation and many individual donors. In addition to the main house, the work also uncovered the home's kitchen and slave quarters. Future workers will seek other outbuildings, gardens and orchards.

There are plans to reconstruct the home and several outbuildings as they looked in the 1740s. They will be integrated with educational programs on the site, called George Washington's Boyhood Home at Ferry Farm - a 113-acre National Historic Site and museum operated by the George Washington Foundation. None of the farm's original buildings survive.

Historians believe the Washingtons - Augustine, his wife, Mary, son George and five other children - moved to Ferry Farm in 1738, when George was 6 years old. Augustine Washington wanted to be nearer the Accokeek Creek Iron Furnace, which he managed.

During his 15 years there, George witnessed the death of his baby sister, Mildred, in 1740. Historians once believed that a fire that year destroyed the original home and forced the Washingtons to rebuild. Burned plaster and lathe, and other evidence from the dig, however, suggest that the fire damaged only part of the house, which was repaired and expanded.

The future general and president is known to have swum in the Rappahannock, and often took the ferry across to Fredericksburg. He learned the surveyor's trade and applied for his first military commission while living at the home.

George Washington's father died at Ferry Farm in 1743. His mother did not remarry, and the family fell on hard times. George, who inherited the 600-acre farm, once complained in a letter of having too little hay to sustain his horse for a ride to visit his brother.

But Muraca said colorful fragments of a fine Wedgewood tea set suggest that good times had returned a decade before Mary Washington moved to Fredericksburg in 1772.

"She does have adult children. They could be helping her out," Muraca said.

Washington grew tobacco, wheat and corn at Ferry Farm. In 1753, he moved to another family property, called Little Hunting Creek, which he later renamed Mount Vernon.

When his mother finally moved, the old place was leased and later sold to tenants. By the 1830s, the house was in ruins. It was finally destroyed during the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg and its exact location was forgotten.
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« Reply #10 on: July 07, 2008, 09:28:13 am »








The long search



Several previous attempts to find the site failed. This one began with crews digging a large number of small test pits, Muraca said. When they turned up household artifacts from the right period, including broken tableware and pipes, the diggers noted their locations. Eventually, they focused on three "areas of interest" and started digging more seriously.

After two years of excavations, the first potential house site turned out to be too early, Muraca said.

"It looked more like the 17th-century structures we're used to seeing farther east in the Tidewater," he explained, and was "totally unrelated to the Washingtons."

Artifacts from the second site seemed to point to the right period. But after two more years of digging, that spot, too, began to look wrong, Muraca said. A critical piece of pottery put it squarely in the mid-1800s.

So, the archaeologists turned to the third site.

They began the work three years ago and immediately found traces of a very large building for the period. It featured a stone foundation, the remains of two stone fireplaces - one at either end - and two stone-lined cellar holes for food storage.

Best of all, the team's discoveries dated to precisely the right period. They also aligned with room-by-room property inventories taken after Augustine Washington's death.

"Every day we excavated, we felt better and better," Muraca said. "We felt without a doubt we had found the Washington house."

The dig uncovered fragments of cutlery, stemware, glassware, ceramics and bone from table waste - all providing clues to the family's wealth and well-being. One of the most unusual was a type of bead previously known only from a slave necklace found in a grave site in Barbados.

Philip Levy, an associate professor of history at the University of South Florida who oversees the USF field school at Ferry Farm, said the home site on the Rappahannock placed Washington at the nexus of the trans-Atlantic trade and the young colony's westward expansion.

While he lived there, Washington considered enlisting in the Royal Navy but turned instead toward the interior, helping to survey the western wilderness.

The Ferry Farm discoveries reveal the comparative comfort the family initially enjoyed, Levy said, helping to dispel the folklore that came to surround Washington's youth.

Augustine Washington, while not a player in colonial-level politics, was nevertheless "a very powerful, wealthy man within the county," Levy said.



frank.roylance@baltsun.com
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« Reply #11 on: July 07, 2008, 09:32:18 am »



George Washington Foundation director of archaeology David Muraca (left)
and GWF research fellow Philip Levy examine evidence of a fire that dama-
ged the Washington family home in 1740.

Muraca and Levy led a team of dozens who identified and excavated the
house at Ferry Farm in Stafford County, Va.

(AP photo/National Geographic / July 2, 2008)
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« Reply #12 on: July 07, 2008, 09:37:32 am »










                                                           At Ferry Farm





Major events in George Washington's life that took place while he lived at Ferry Farm:



• His sister Mildred died in 1740.

• The house caught on fire on Christmas Eve 1740 and was repaired.

• His father died in 1743.

• Washington learned surveying.

• He learned how to behave in society by writing out the Rules of Civility (a book of etiquette based on maxims in a 1595 French manuscript).

• He applied for his first military appointment on June 10, 1752. The letter is in the collection of the foundation and was generated at Ferry Farm.

• Washington became a Mason at Fredericksburg Masonic Lodge No. 4 on Nov. 4, 1752.
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« Reply #13 on: July 07, 2008, 09:47:52 am »

                              








Ferry Farm is the boyhood home of George Washington. Augustine Washington moved his family to this property in 1738, when his son, George, was six years old. George received his formal education during his years here, and forged friendships in the neighborhood that lasted the rest of his life. In 1754, George moved to Mount Vernon while his mother, Mary Ball Washington, stayed on at the farm until 1772, when she moved to town.

 



                                             



Ferry Farm is open daily from 10 to 5 for self-guiding tours that offer the freedom to roam the 80+ acres of the property at your own pace. Learn more about George Washington's boyhood years when you view the exhibits in the Visitor Center.




                                                         


See archaeologists at work in the archaeology lab and at the dig site. Understand more about the natural environment by visiting the demonstration garden and hiking the nature trails.


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« Reply #14 on: September 06, 2008, 12:11:55 pm »










                                                  Local treasure to be reburied


 
 

By Uriah A. Kiser
Published: August 27, 2008

FERRY FARM — One of the nation’s most significant archeological discoveries is going away to be preserved for the next generation. A team of archeologists discovered the foundation of George Washington’s boyhood on July 4, after seven years of searching.

The foundation sits along the Rappahannock River across from Fredericksburg. Legend has it that it is the site where the first president cut down the cherry tree and confessed it because he couldn’t tell a lie. It is the place where Washington spent his youth before eventually becoming a surveyor and a soldier in the British Army.

The site revealed a house that measured to be 53 feet long by 37 feet wide, said David Muraca, archeology director for the George Washington Foundation.

Similar homes of its time are known to have only a few rooms, leading historians to believe Washington’s parents were well-to-do farmers.

Muraca said two previous excavations of the site during the 1990s failed to locate the home. In an earlier interview, Muraca said this was the most important find of his career, spanning more than 25 years.

Muraca said Tuesday that since the site has been open for more than three years, the time has come to cover it back up to prevent erosion from possible storms and winter frosts.

The George Washington Foundation has invited the public to a farewell ceremony at the south Stafford site on September 13. Paula Raudenbush, a spokesperson with the George Washington Foundation, said residents are invited to view the site once more and then visit a companion exhibit located in the main building at Ferry Farm. There they will display artifacts found from the house site.

Muraca said the teams of archeologists working at the site would stop working this weekend. He said the foundation has plans to cover the site with a tarp until the ceremony and then it will be buried for good.

“I don’t expect to ever see the remains of the site again, but it feels right and it is the way things should be,” said Muraca. The archeologist said his teams went to great lengths to preserve the site. He added that with new technologies and practices, it is feasible for a new group of archeologist to return in 25 years
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