Augustine and Mary were ordinary people, farmers and landowners who worked hard and raised a family long before any of today’s modern conveniences. The family settled at Ferry Farm on the banks of the Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg, Virginia where they raised eight children, three from Augustine’s first marriage and five from their own. Augustine’s first wife, Jane, passed away at the age of 30.
Pictures of Augustine reflect a very soft, placid, passive individual. Looks can be deceiving. Historian Henry Wiencek writes, “At six feet tall, Augustine is remembered for his backwoods brawn… An account from the time describes how Augustine could “raise up and place in a wagon a mass of iron that two ordinary men could barely raise from the ground.” Interestingly, it’s also noted that Augustine balanced this formidable strength with a mild-mannered demeanor…”1 Besides this, Augustine served as a Justice of the Peace, sat on the county court, and was known as a hard-driving businessman.
In total, Augustine had 10 children, however two passed away in infancy. George, born on this day in 1732, was the oldest child of Augustine’s second marriage. George’s life took a dramatic turn when he was 11. His dad had been riding in a storm and evidently, contracted some illness. At the age of 48, Augustine died and George was left with the management of a small estate and 11 enslaved individuals who worked the farm.
With only a basic education in reading and math, George experienced on the job training. He learned surveying from a neighbor. By the time he turned 17, he received his first official commission to survey Culpepper County. It is estimated that he completed 200 surveys of over 60,000 acres.
When George was 21, he went into service for the Lt. Governor of Virginia. After uncovering a plot by the French to wage a war in the Ohio Valley, George left the protection of his group to warn the Lt. Governor. This nearly cost George his life as he almost drowned, starved, and froze to death. However, the message was delivered,
and George was immediately promoted to Lt. Colonel and given the job to raise an army to attack the French. George was destined to even greater things in his life, and he fulfilled many roles of service that brought great honor to his family name.
By now, you might have figured out that Augustine, Jane, Mary, George, and nine other children all had the same historically significant name: Washington. Augustine, though, never would have guessed that he was fathering the child who would become the first president of the United States. George certainly never would have imagined himself in that role, either. Biographers tell us that he knew he was a leader, however, he preferred to pursue his goals quietly and without fanfare.
How did an 11-year-old fatherless boy become our first president? That’s quite a leap! Proverbs 22:6 gives the answer. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Augustine wasn’t training a president; he was training a child. He trained him in hard work and morality. He trained him to take responsibility. He trained him to lead. This was all BEFORE the child was 11. Augustine trained George in the basics. It was now up to George to apply those in life.
We have even greater things to teach our children. Deuteronomy 11:18-21 says, “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. (19) And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (20) And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: (21) That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.”
We have a job to do and that’s all we can do. It’s now up to the kids to apply those principles to their lives. It’s up to them to do the right thing with the good direction provided to them.
George did a good job. His dad would be proud!
1https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/family/father/
