The Xi'an Files: Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon is arguably the most famous home in America. It was the home of the first president of the United States, George Washington. Many people had told us to visit Mount Vernon, so we took the opportunity. The house and grounds were impressive. We learned the land was first acquired by George's grandfather, who passed it down to his father, his half brother Lawrence then inherited the land. When Lawrence died, his widow leased it to George and when she died in 1761, George inherited it.

The outside of the house is made of wood logs and painted white, before the paint dried they applied sand to it, giving the house a stone look. This made the house look more expensive and grand than it was.

George Washington never had children of his own, but Martha brought two children into their marriage. Her daughter died at age 17 of epilepsy and her son at age 26. George and Martha raised his two youngest children.

George Washington believed in conservation. All fences were made of already fallen trees. He to design a fence by intertwining trees together, making a natural fence. However, he was never able to make this fence.

George Washington was a farming innovator. He rotated crops in his fields, is the first in America to have a composting area, and used left over fish from his fishing enterprise to fertilize the crops. He also constructed a sixteen sided barn used to tread wheat.

The treading wheat process was when the slaves would put an acre of wheat on the floor of the barn and then a team of 3 horses would walk around the barn. This would shake the wheat off, onto the floor below, leaving the sheaves. Slaves would then throw the trodden sheaths out of the barn,a nd put another acre onto the floor, repeating this process. Overall, an acre of wheat was processed each hour. George had plans to build three more wheat treading barns, but it was very expensive and at the cusp of the Industrial Revolution, which meant it was cheaper for him to invest in a reaper than this process.

Mount Vernon produced 100 different crops and became the largest distillery in America. It was also the biggest distributor of fish along the east coast and the biggest exporter of fish from America.

At one point Mount Vernon stretched for 8,000 acres but is smaller today.

Some interesting things that I learned about George Washington include: his famous dentures were made of human and animal teeth and ivory, he was 6'2" tall and weighed 175 pounds, he died of a throat infection and was considered to be of lower Virginian class when born, but his military service and wife's money and success of Mount Vernon helped him work his way up in society.

The girls loved looking at the old buildings and animals, running through the forest, riding a boat down the Potomac River, making a colonist hat, sewing an American flag and following and filling out a treasure map.