National Geographic : 1932 Jan
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE Photograph by Gerard Hubbard THE PUBLIC ARTESIAN WELL AT PORT TOBACCO, MARYLAND In going to and from Williamsburg and to his dower plantations on the York, Washington often crossed the Potomac twice and went by Port Tobacco and other Maryland roads to escape the quagmires of old Chopawamsic Swamp, on the Potomac Path, which is now United States Highway No. I. Were the "southernmost fort" and Fort Mayo one and the same? Could Captain Wade have succeeded Captain Harris in command at that fort? The answer is "yes" to each question. CAPT. SAMUEL HARRIS BECOMES BAPTIST PREACHER The early history of the Baptist church in Southside Virginia discloses that Cap tain Harris, while attending a revival, be came a convert. The military records of the colonial militia show that he resigned his commission, and as soon as he had dis carded the uniform of a soldier he took the cloth of a clergyman. Captain Wade suc ceeded him in command at Fort Mayo. But after the matching of these bits of colonial history had established the fact that Fort Mayo and Washington's "south ernmost fort" were identical, its location was still undetermined. A prolonged search of the records in Richmond and at Halifax Court House next revealed that there was a fort on the home place of John Frederick Miller. Mil- ler's petition of 1759 to the Virginia House of Burgesses for reimbursement for dam ages sustained recites that by the order of the commanding officer of the militia a fort had been erected on his land on Mayo River. The fortifications inclosed his dwelling house and other houses and were garri soned by a company of militia, who, to ren der the stronghold more secure from the approaches and attacks of the enemy, cut down a large orchard, burned one house and i,600 fence rails, etc. The House of Burgesses granted the petition. WASHINGTON STAYS WITH A MERCHANT PRINCE A survey plat in the Halifax Court house shows that this tract of Miller's included the headsprings of two small branches of the north fork of Mayo River, near the present village of Spencer, twelve miles from Fort Trial, five miles from the Carolina line, and on the Mayo River, which accords with Washington's descrip tion of the situation of his "southernmost" fort.