In June, 1815, I sailed on my vessel, the “Lady of the Lake”, a fine topsail schooner of ninety tons, accompanied by two gentlemen, Messrs. Lewis and Grimes, bound to Popes Creek in the County of Westmoreland, carrying with us a slab of freestone, having the following inscription: “Here The 11th of February, 1732, (Old Style) George Washington Was Born.” We anchored some distance from the land, and taking to our boats, we soon reached the mouth of Pope’s or Bridge’s Creek, and proceeding upwards we fell in with McKenzie Beverly, Esq., and several gentlemen composing a fishing party, and also with the overseer of the property that formed the object of our visit. We were kindly received by these individuals, and escorted to the spot, where a few scattered bricks alone marked the birthplace of the chief. Desirous of making the ceremonial of depositing the stone as imposing as circumstances would permit, we enveloped it in the “star spangled banner” of our country, and it was borne to its resting place in the arms of the descendants of four revolutionary patriots and soldiers. We gathered together the bricks of an ancient chimney that once formed the hearth around which Washington in his infancy had played, and constructed a rude kind of pedestal, on which we reverently placed the FIRST STONE commending it to the respect and protection of the American people in general, and the citizens of Westmoreland County in particular. Bidding adieu to those who had received us so kindly, we re-embarked, and hoisted our colors, and being provided with a piece of cannon and suitable ammunition, we fired a salute, awakening the echoes that had slept for ages around the hallowed spot. Custis’ visit to Washington’s birthplace is important for two reasons. First, the freestone slab which he placed at the birthsite was one of the earliest monuments erected in the United States as a memorial to George Washington. Secondly, Custis describes the site as it appeared in 1815 as a “spot where a few scattered bricks alone marked the birthplace of the chief.” In 1832, the 100th anniversary of Washington’s birth, the Alexandria _Gazette_ noted how the nation had forgotten the ancient Popes Creek farm: “It is surprising that it [Wakefield] should be so little known and visited. Not one in a thousand of the passengers in Steamboats had any knowledge that this ‘solum natale,’ of him whom the whole world honors, is remote but a mile over the waters surface; and hid from his view only by a fringe of wild shrubbery. Will not Wakefield like Mt. Vernon, in after time, be the resort of Patriotic Pilgrims?”