From Farm House to the White House - 912 Freedom Library

Farm House to the White House, by William M. Thayer 126
"A small Bible, neatly bound in Turkey, and "John Parke Custis" wrote in gilt letters on the inside of the
cover.
"A neat small prayer-book bound as above, with "John Parke Custis," as above."
The necessity of erecting a new house of worship was discussed in the vestry of Truro, and a vote in favor of
the project was secured. On the location, the vestrymen were divided.
"The old site is the proper one," said Mr. George Mason, whose residence was near the house of worship.
"Not at all central," replied another.
"Yet not so far aside as to discommode any one," responded Mason.
"I beg leave to dissent from Mr. Mason," added a third. "The location is inconvenient for my family."
"The sacred associations of the spot alone ought to keep the church there," urged Mr. Mason. "For generations
our house of worship has stood there, and the place is hallowed by the sepulchres of our fathers around it."
The subject was discussed, pro and con, when Washington's opinion was asked. Without reserve he remarked:
"I cannot agree with my friend Mason that the location does not sensibly inconvenience some members of the
parish. I think it does, and that a more central locality can be found. Neither can I see the force of his
argument derived from the contiguity of the grave-yard. Churches are erected for the living, and not for the
dead. The ashes of the dead can be sacredly protected by a suitable enclosure."
The vestry adjourned without deciding upon the location, and before the next meeting, Washington carefully
surveyed the parish, and made a neat plan of the same, showing that the old location was far from the centre.
Mr. Mason urged with more earnestness than before the claims of the old site. But when Washington took his
plan of survey from his pocket, and gave ocular demonstration that the old location was at one side of the
parish, the new location was adopted at once.
Rev. Lee Massey was rector of the church at that time, and he said of Washington:
"I never knew so constant an attendant on church as Washington. And his behavior in the house of God was
ever so deeply reverential that it produced the happiest effects on my congregation, and greatly assisted me in
my pulpit labors. No company ever kept him from church. I have often been at Mount Vernon on the Sabbath
morning when his breakfast-table was filled with guests; but to him they furnished no pretext for neglecting
his God and losing the satisfaction of setting a good example. For, instead of staying at home out of false
complaisance to them, he used constantly to invite them to accompany him."
Mrs. Washington's daughter died in 1770, after a lingering and painful disease. It was a terrible blow to her;
and how severe a blow it was to her husband may be learned from the following incident:
Coming into the room when his wife's face was buried in her hands, convulsed with grief, he burst into tears,
kneeled beside the bed, and poured out his soul in a most fervent prayer that God would yet spare the dear girl
for the sake of her mother, and for Christ's sake. She had already breathed her last a moment before he entered
the room; but, in his great sympathy for his wife, and his own passionate grief, the fact was unrecognized, and
he sought relief in prayer.
The son was between sixteen and seventeen years of age when the daughter died, and was beginning to be a
very wayward boy. He was sent to an Episcopal school at Annapolis, Maryland, where he attended to