Saturday 12th. Thermometer at 19 in the morning—24 at Noon and 24 at Night. Wind at So. Et. and weather variable. About Noon, & before, there were great appearances of Snow—some falling. Afterwards it brightned and the afternoon became clear, mild & pleasant.
Upon which, Colo. Humphreys & myself set off for the meeting of the Directors of the Potomack Co., to be held at the Falls of Shanandoah—but meeting a letter from Colo. Fitzgerald enclosing one from Governer Johnson requesting that the meeting might be postponed till Tuesday we turned back & I returned home by the way of Dogue run.
Getting Ice as usual, which makes the 6th. day (except some interruption from the Weather on Tuesday) that as many people & Carts have been engaged in this work as could be advantageously employed altho’ Six feet of Space was yet left.
The purpose of this meeting was to inspect the progress made in clearing the upper falls of the Potomac. GW expected to be gone from home for ten or more days of “cold houses and Bad Beds” (GW to John Fitzgerald, 9 Jan. 1788, GW to Lafayette, 10 Jan. 1788, and GW to John Francis Mercer, 11 Jan. 1788, DLC:GW).