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Our Holidays - Their Meaning and Spirit; retold from St. Nicholas by Various
page 61 of 111 (54%)
_February 22_

GEORGE WASHINGTON

Born February 22, 1732 Died December 14, 1799


Washington was the first President of the United States, and the son of
a Virginia planter. He attended school until about sixteen years of age,
was engaged in surveying, 1748-51, became an officer in the Continental
army, and President in 1789. He was re-elected in 1793. He was
preƫminent for his sound judgment and perfect self-control. It is said
that no act of his public life can be traced to personal caprice,
ambition, or resentment.


=THE BOYHOOD OF WASHINGTON=

BY HORACE E. SCUDDER

It was near the shore of the Potomac River, between Pope's Creek and
Bridge's Creek, that Augustine Washington lived when his son George was
born. The land had been in the family ever since Augustine's
grandfather, John Washington, had bought it, when he came over from
England in 1657. John Washington was a soldier and a public-spirited
man, and so the parish in which he lived--for Virginia was divided into
parishes as some other colonies into townships--was named Washington. It
is a quiet neighborhood; not a sign remains of the old house, and the
only mark of the place is a stone slab, broken and overgrown with weeds
and brambles, which lies on a bed of bricks taken from the remnants of
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