22961[Diary entry: 30 September 1784] (Washington Papers)
30th. Set out early—Captn. Hite returning home and travelled 11 or 12 Miles along the River, until I had passed thro’ the gap. Then bearing more westerly by one Bryan’s —the widow Smiths and one Gilberts, I arrived at Mr. Lewis’s about Sundown, after riding about 40 Miles—leaving Rockingham C[our]t House to my right about 2 Miles. From Brocks Gap, GW rode southwest for several miles along the...
22962[October 1784] (Washington Papers)
October 1st. Dined at Mr. Gabriel Jones’s, not half a mile from Mr. Lewis’s, but seperated by the South fork of Shannondoah; which is between 80 and a hundred yards wide, & makes a respectable appearance altho’ little short of 150 Miles from its confluence with Potomack River; and only impeded in its navigation by the rapid water & rocks which are between the old bloomery and Keys’s ferry; and...
22963[Diary entry: 1 October 1784] (Washington Papers)
October 1st. Dined at Mr. Gabriel Jones’s, not half a mile from Mr. Lewis’s, but seperated by the South fork of Shannondoah; which is between 80 and a hundred yards wide, & makes a respectable appearance altho’ little short of 150 Miles from its confluence with Potomack River; and only impeded in its navigation by the rapid water & rocks which are between the old bloomery and Keys’s ferry; and...
22964[Diary entry: 2 October 1784] (Washington Papers)
2d. I set off very early from Mr. Lewis’s who accompanied me to the foot of the blew ridge at Swift run gap, 10 Miles, where I bated and proceeded over the Mountain. Dined at a pitiful house 14 Miles further where the roads to Fredericksburgh (by Orange C[our]t House) & that to Culpeper Court House fork. Took the latter, tho in my judgment Culpeper Court House was too much upon my right for a...
22965[Diary entry: 3 October 1784] (Washington Papers)
3d. Left Quarters before day, and breakfasted at Culpeper Court house which was estimated 21 Miles, but by bad direction I must have travelled 25, at least. Crossed Normans ford 10 Miles from the Court Ho[use] and lodged at Captn. John Ashbys occasioned by other bad directions, which took me out of the proper road, which ought to have been by Elk run Church 3 or 4 Miles to the right. GW took...
22966[Diary entry: 4 October 1784] (Washington Papers)
4th. Notwithstanding a good deal of rain fell in the night and the continuance of it this morning (which lasted till about 10 Oclock) I breakfasted by Candlelight, and Mounted my horse soon after day break; and having Captn. Ashby for a guide thro’ the intricate part of the Road (which ought, tho’ I missed it, to have been by Prince William old Court Ho[use]) I arrived at Colchester, 30 Miles,...
22967From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 10 October 1784 (Washington Papers)
GW’s letter to Governor Harrison marks his return to public life as the leader of a movement to form a public company for improving the navigation of the upper Potomac and linking it with the waters of the Ohio. He first became deeply involved in schemes for opening up the Potomac in the early 1770s (see particularly the source note and its references in Thomas Johnson to GW, 18 June 1770 )....
22968From George Washington to Sidney Lee, 20 October 1784 (Washington Papers)
The letter you did me the honor to write to me on the 23d of May last, came to my hands in the moment of my departure for our Western territory. Knowing that I should be in the walks of Mr White, and intending if I did not see him, to write to him on the subject of your letter, I thought it best to decline giving you any trouble until one of those events should have happened. Fortunately I saw...
22969From George Washington to George Plater, 25 October 1784 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 20th did not reach me until yesterday afternoon. I am now set down to acknowledge it, and shall be happy if from any information I can give, you should derive satisfaction, or the public benefit. To describe the usefulness of water transportation, would be a mere waste of time, every man who has considered the difference of expence between it, & land transportation, and the...
22970From George Washington to George Rindfleisch, 25 October 1784 (Washington Papers)
Herewith is a copy of the Plat you desired. Permit me to remind you that this tract, & my other Lands in the neighbourhood of it, have been offered to be leased, and may soon, in part, be engaged. The sooner therefore you determine whether to take it or not, the better chance there will be of having it wholly for your own use, or the benefit of your friends, which, no doubt would be more...