The first President of the United States, George Washington was a celebrated soldier, a farmer, a father and not to say, a slave owner as well! Of course, we can credit him with a set of opinions or convictions which eventually led to the formation of the United States.
With that said, let us Learn 84 Interesting George Washington facts to impress the history buff hidden inside you.
But before we start, we will like to state that this article or rather the facts sheet by no means is complete and exhaustive. We will create a laundry list of facts that will be published in our upcoming e-book.
85 Interesting George Washington Facts: 1 – 5 | Early Life
1. George Washington was born to Augustine Washington and Mary Ball Washington.
2. George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in Popes Creek in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
3. George is the eldest of six children between Augustine Washington and Mary Ball Washington.
4. In 1735, George’s family moved to Little Hunting Creek. Three years later, they moved to Ferry Farm.
5. When their father died, George inherited Ferry Farm and ten slaves while Lawrence, his half-brother, inherited Little Hunting Creek and renamed the estate to Mount Vernon.
85 Interesting George Washington Facts: 6 – 10 | George Washington’s Siblings
6. George Washington had five siblings, Elizabeth (Betty), Samuel, John Augustine, Charles, and Mildred.
7. Mildred, the youngest sibling, did not survive past a year.
8. George Washington had four half-siblings from his father’s first wife (Jane Butler).
9. George Washington’s half-siblings were Butler, Lawrence, Augustine and Jane.
10. Similar to Mildred, Butler did not last one year.
85 Interesting George Washington Facts: 11 – 15 | George Washington’s Parents
11. Augustine Washington was a justice of the peace for county court.
12. His first wife was Jane Butler and had four children with her.
13. Jane died in 1730.
14. Mary Ball Washington was Augustine’s second wife.
15. When her husband died, Mary Ball Washington never remarried, which was uncommon for widowed women at that time.
85 Interesting George Washington Facts: 16 – 24 | Young Adult Life
16. George often visited the plantation owned by Lawrence’s father-in-law, William Fairfax.
17. After spending one month in William Fairfax’s property surveying, George pursued his education in surveying to gain a license.
18. After one year, George received his surveyor’s license from the College of Wiliam & Mary.
19. William Fairfax appointed him as the surveyor for Culpeper County in Virginia.
20. After a year in his job, he resigned so that he could purchase a parcel of land.
21. In 1751, George made a trip abroad to accompany his brother Lawrence to Barbados in hopes that the climate would cure Lawrence’s tuberculosis.
22. George contracted smallpox during that trip, which immunized him from the disease, but left his face slightly scarred.
23. When Lawrence died in 1752, George leased Mount Vernon to his brother’s widowed wife.
24. When Lawrence’s widow died in1761, he inherited the land he leased.
85 Interesting George Washington Facts: 25 – 54 | Education, Early Military Career, French and Indian War, and Marriage and Children
George Washington Facts | Education
25. Unlike his older brothers, George Washington did not get a formal education in a grammar school in England. However, he learned trigonometry, mathematics, and surveying from both his tutor and self-study.
26. George was talented in map-making and draftsmanship.
27. His education proved him to be a capable adult, but he lacked humor and wit in his writing.
George Washington Facts | Early Military Career
28. George, inspired by Lawrence’s role as adjutant general of the Virginia militia, seeked a commission.
29. In December of 1752, Virginia Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddle appointed George as a major and a commander of one out of the four militia districts.
30. At that time, the British and French were competing for the control of Ohio Valley.
31. Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddle appointed George as a special envoy to the French with demands to vacate the territory as the area was already claimed by the British in October 1753.
32. After that assignment, Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie appointed George to make civil discussions with the Iroquois Confederacy as well as gather any intelligence about the French forces.
33. George met with Tanacharison (the half-king) and other Iroquois chiefs. After that, when he and his convoy reached the Ohio River, a French patrol intercepted them. The French troops escorted them to Fort Le Boeuf.
34. George took this opportunity to deliver the demand to vacate the area to a French commander named Saint-Pierre. However, Saint-Pierre refused to leave. Commander Saint-Pierre gave Washington his official answer in a sealed envelope and provided supplies to aid their trip back to Virginia.
35. Due to George’s bravery, he received a measure of distinction when his report was published in news in London and Virginia.
George Washington Facts | French and Indian War
36. Due to his excellent track record, Dinwiddie promoted Washington to lieutenant colonel and second-in-command of the three-hundred-strong Virginia Regiment in February 1754
37. George was tasked to confront French forces at the Forks, Ohio. The French already prepared for any incoming assault, but George took the offensive in pursuit of the French contingent.
38. George made an advance and was able to ambush the French’s inflated army. After hearing of George’s accomplishment, Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie congratulated him for his victory over the French.
39. However, due to a miscommunication and the death of French Commander Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, the incident was the catalyst for the French and Indian War, which later became part of the epic Seven Years War.
40. In the following months, George had been promoted from command of the regiment and to colonel upon the death of the regiment commander.
41. On July 3, a small French army attacked, and the battle ended with George Washington’s surrender. Colonel James Innes took control and offered George a captaincy. George refused and resigned from his commission.
42. George voluntarily served as an aide-de-camp to General Edward Braddock (leading a British Expedition), who led an expedition to remove the French from Fort Duquesne and the Ohio Country.
43. George was temporarily sent home during his service under General Edward Braddock due to a case of dysentery. When General Edward Braddock died in the crossfire, George took it upon himself to put the unit together and hold on.
44. After Geroge was refused a commission with the British Army, he retired and returned to Mount Vernon. The lack of support, indecisive command form his superiors, and undertrained recruits were the last straw.
George Washington Facts | Marriage and Children
45. On January 6, 1759, a month after he retired, George married Martha Dandridge Custis.
46. Martha Dandridge Custis was a widow of a wealthy plantation owner named Daniel Parke Custis.
47. Martha was intelligent and had a great deal of experience in managing a planter’s estate.
48. Before George was married to Martha, Martha had four children with her late husband. The children were Daniel, Frances, John “Jacky,” and Martha “Patsy.” Daniel and Frances died early in their childhood. Jacky and Patsy survived until their young adulthood.
49. The couple was happily married, even with the children from the prior marriage.
50. George never managed to father a child with Martha. Some say that it was the smallpox that George contracted in 1751 led to his infertility. But, it was also possible that Martha became sterile because of the injury she sustained during the birth of Pasty (the final child from her last marriage.
51. The couple moved to Mount Vernon near Alexandria where George became a farmer of tobacco and wheat, and later as a political figure.
52. In 1773, Patsy died at sixteen when she had an epileptic seizure.
53. In the wake of her stepdaughter’s death, George wrote to Burwell Bassett, “It is easier to conceive, than to describe, the distress of this family.”
54. George spent the next three months with his grieving wife to mourn for Patsy.
85 Interesting George Washington Facts: 55 – 63 | Life Pre-Presidency
55. Since George married Martha, George had control over one-third of the Custis estate. George divided the remaining two-thirds of the estate to Martha’s children.
56. The estate included some eighty-four slaves.
57. George’s current status elevated his social standing.
58. Since George was a respected military man and a large landowner, he opened a local office where the local townsfolk elected him into the Virginia provincial legislature to represent Frederick County in the House of Burgesses for seven years beginning in 1758.
59. With the help of several local supporters, George won the election with roughly 40 percent of the vote, defeating three other candidates.
60. Although George was quiet at the beginning of his career, he slowly became a notable critic of Britain’s taxation and mercantilist policies in the 1760s.
61. George Washington was, by occupation, a planter. His profligate spending combined with low tobacco prices left him £1,800 in debt by 1764, prompting him to diversify.
62. Because of erosion and other soil problems in 1765, he changed Mount Vernon’s primary money-earning crop from tobacco to wheat and expanded operations to include corn flour milling, fishing, and other pursuits.
63. Washington soon was regarded among the elite, both political and social, in Virginia. From 1768 to 1775, George invited at least two thousand guests to his Mount Vernon estate, mostly those whom he considered “people of rank.” He became more active politically in 1769, presenting legislation in the Virginia Assembly to establish an embargo on goods from Great Britain.
85 Interesting George Washington Facts: 64 – 79 | Notable Accomplishments
George Washington Facts: Accomplishments
64. In September 1774, he was the first elected delegate to the First Continental Congress.
65. George Washington organized the first U. S. Cabinet and Executive Branch.
66. June 1775, George became commander in chief of the Continental Army.
67. From Christmas 1776 to January 2, 1777, he led the Trenton-Princeton Campaign that made him one of the greatest generals in the world history.
68. From December 19, 1777 to March 1778, George Washington led the troops to Valley Forge.
69. He earned victory in Siege of Yorktown was on October 19, 1781.
70. George becomes the first President of the United States in 1789 and goes on to win a second consecutive term to serve as President till 1797.
71. The establishment of the United States Navy was on March 27, 1794.
George Washington Facts: Accomplishments
72. In November 1794, President George Washington signed the Jay Treaty and showed his support for the treaty.
73. In August 1795, he signed the Treaty of Greenville (Indian Wars).
74. On October 27, 1795, he signed the Pinckney’s Treaty (also known as the Treaty of San Lorenzo).
75. In 1847, one of the first two faces to grace the American postage stamp was George Washington.
76. 1869, his face was printed on the dollar bill. The modernized version was in 1963.
77. On November 11, 1889, he became the only president to have a state named after him.
78. In 1976, George Washington was appointed to the grade of general of the armies of the United States.
79. George Washington was not only the first president of the United States, but he also served two terms from 1789 to 1797.
85 Interesting George Washington Facts: 80 – 85 | Some Interesting Facts about George Washington
80. In the 1700s, it was not common for men to be taller than six feet. George Washington was over six feet tall.
81. The tale of George Washington chopping down his father’s cherry tree was simply a tall tale, and it most likely did not happen.
82. George Washington may not have had wooden teeth, but he did have a set of dentures made out of ivory.
83. He was the only president to be unanimously elected into office, which meant that all of the state representatives voted for him.
84. Washington had a distiller as one of his hobbies. He made his version of whiskey that is strikingly similar to moonshine. George had the equipment necessary to create the finest of whiskeys. He did so legally and paid the appropriate taxes.
85. George Washington’s favorite breakfast meal was hoecakes, a simple mixture of pancakes made with cornmeal flour and served with honey and butter.
Sources:
1. Wikipedia
2. Wikipedia
3. Wikipedia
4. History on the Net
5. History.com
6. ThoughtCo
7. GuyCounseling
8. Mount Vernon