George Washington
Father of our Country
Birth & Death Information
Childhood Family
Growing up Deism, it is known that from age seven to fifteen George was home schooled and studied with the local church sexton and later a schoolmaster in practical math, geography, Latin and the English classics. George had mastered growing tobacco, and surveyed land.
George Washington’s father died when he was 11. Lawrence had inherited the family's Little Hunting Creek Plantation and married Anne Fairfax, George was schooled in the finer aspects of colonial culture.
In 1748, when he was 16, George traveled with a surveying party plotting land in Virginia’s western territory. The following year, aided by Lord Fairfax, Washington getting an appointment as official surveyor of Culpeper County. The experience made him resourceful and toughened his body and mind.
In July, 1752, George Washington's brother, Lawrence, died of tuberculosis. Lawrence’s only child, Sarah, died two months later and Washington became the head of one of Virginia, Mount Vernon; he was 20 years old. Throughout his life, he would farm, one of the most honorable professions and he was most proud of Mount Vernon. He would gradually increase his land there to about 8,000 acres.