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Virginia’s Founders and Friends

In the last quarter of the 18th century, an unusual collection of brave, talented and visionary men came together to lay the foundations of the United States of America.

Collectively known as the Founding Fathers, these men fought overwhelming odds to win independence from Great Britain and then created our democratic form of government that has been a lasting beacon of hope for 225 years.

Four of these men were Virginians who played pivotal roles in commanding the Continental Army, fighting for and being wounded in that army, writing the Declaration of Independence and becoming the Father of the Constitution. They would go on to become four of our first five presidents.

In November, I journeyed to Virginia to find out about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe as real people, more than images on currency, in statues and on the side of a mountain. I visited their homes and other sites associated with their lives in hopes of getting a better understanding of them as flesh-and-bones human beings.

 

George Washington

“One of our tag lines is ‘Discover the real George Washington,’” said Melissa Wood, director of media relations at Mount Vernon, the estate on the Potomac River in northern Virginia that Washington loved and to which he returned whenever he had a break from public life.

“Most of the things known about Washington are myths: the cherry tree, the wooden teeth, throwing the rock across the Rappahannock. Our goal is to bring the guy off that dollar bill, that stiff old man, and bring him to life. He is more exciting than the myths.”

Mount Vernon does an excellent job of breathing life into that dollar-bill figure through a combination of state-of-the-art exhibits, interactive movies and Washington’s personal artifacts — such as his famous false teeth, made of human, horse and cow teeth, not wood — in its new museum and education center. After exploring the museum, groups can take tours of the mansion and walk in Washington’s footsteps.

“The mansion is interpreted as 1799, the last year of his life,” said a guide, who interspersed the tour of the 21-room mansion with such observations as “Washington was considered by Jefferson to be the best dancer in Colonial Virginia,” and “Washington thought first and foremost that he was a farmer.”

The tour includes the bedroom with the bed in which Washington died and his private study with the specially designed swivel chair he used as president. “It’s the most important chair in the house,” said Wood. “It’s where he would have written the other Founding Fathers.”

About an hour south, across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, archaeologists are discovering more about Washington’s boyhood and the factors that shaped his character.

“George Washington lived here from ages 6 to 22,” said Dave Muraca, director of archaeology at Ferry Farm. “When you come here, you hear that essential story of how this place shaped him. This place helped make him the guy he was.”

Construction will begin this summer on a reproduction of the house where Washington lived with his widowed mother, Mary, and his siblings, on a bluff overlooking the river. The home’s site has been definitively located after years of archeological digs, including a couple of false starts.

“People have been looking for the house for more than 20 years. We are putting the house back on its original foundation,” said Muraca. “We have come up with what we think it looked like.”

Across the river in Fredericksburg, “you can walk through town and get lots and lots of Washington stuff,” said Julie Perry, manager of the town’s visitors center. “It’s littered with Washington connections.”

They include the Rising Sun Tavern, owned by his brother; the Mary Washington House, where his mother spent the last years of her life; and Kenmore, the restored Georgian house of his sister.