I have had it in my mind for a few days to blog about George Washington’s birthday today. But I cannot tell a lie; I know next to nothing about George Washington. So I went to the library today in search of a book about him. I decided to check out Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington by his Adopted Son, George Washington Parke Custis, with A Memoir of the Author, written by his daughter; and Illustrative and Explanatory Notes, by Benson J. Lossing. This book was published in 1860, and the copy I checked out is a first edition with engraved and tissue-protected plates and all sorts of interesting fold-out documents. It also has a wonderful collection of handwritten notes in the margains. I was a little surprised that it was still circulating.

So look for me to know more about George Washington in the weeks to come.

George Washington is mentioned in two “Little House” books. In Farmer Boy, Almanzo and Alice tip-toe into the forbidden parlor, where Washington’s picture looks sternly from its frame between the windows. (See Chapter 18, “Keeping House.”) We don’t have a single historical figure’s portrait hanging in our home, and if we did, it would most likely be of Robert E. Lee than a former president, and I say that in all honesty. By the way, George Washington Parke Custis was the father-in-law of Robert E. Lee.

George Washington is mentioned several times in Little Town on the Prairie. In Chapter 19, “The Whirl of Gaiety,” the Ingallses attend the debate: “Resolved. That Lincoln was a greater man than Washington.” (I wonder who won?) In the same chapter, George Washington is one of the wax figures displayed in Mrs. Jarley’s Waxworks. Later, in Chapter 24, “The School Exhibition,” Laura points to the schoolhouse portrait of President Washington as she tells about about his poor boyhood, his work as a surveyor, his defeat by the French at Fort Duquesne, and then of his long, disheartening years of war. She told of his unanimous election as the First President, the Father of his Country, and of the laws passed by the First Congress and the Second, and the opening of the Northwest Territory.

I’m not sure that there are many students today who learn that much about the Father of our Country.