Cooperative Living June 2018 - 35

Potomac River. The park-like setting offers
a visitor's center, nature trail, memorial
house and beach.
President James Monroe was born in 1758
on a farm near Monroe Bay. His birthplace
is located off Rte. 205 at Colonial Beach.
Stratford Hall Plantation, the ancestral
home of the Lee family, was the boyhood
home of Richard Henry and Francis
Lightfoot Lee, brothers who signed the
Declaration of Independence. General Henry
" Light-Horse Harry " Lee was a Revolutionary
War hero and General Washington's most
trusted officer. His son, Confederate General
Robert E. Lee, was born at Stratford Hall in
1807. The working plantation, grist mill,
slave quarters and rental cottages make this
a great educational stop.
Menokin is the home of Francis Lightfoot
Lee in nearby Richmond County. It has been
preserved with innovative conservation efforts.
Two other founding fathers with family
roots in Westmoreland include our fourth
president, James Madison, and John Marshall,
the longest-serving chief justice of the
nation's highest court. His 34-year term as
chief justice shaped our legal system.
" The Leedstown Resolutions had failed to
reach its rightful place in history books
probably because the author, Richard Henry
Today, the original handwritten Resolutions rests in the Virginia Historical Society
archives in Richmond. It begins:
" Roused by Danger and alarmed at Attempts foreign and domestic to
reduce the People of this Country to a State of abject and detestable slavery
by destroying that free and happy constitution of Government under which
they have hitherto lived. We, who subscribe this paper, have Associated, and
do bind ourselves to each other, to God, and our country, by the Firmest Ties
that Religion and virtue can frame, more sacredly and punctually to stand
by, and with our Lives and fortunes to support, maintain and defend each
other, to the Observation and Execution of these following Articles: "
Lee, became a man of such importance after
its inception that this document paled by
comparison to the many other distinguished
services rendered by him to our county in
later years, " says Perry.
In 1955, 13 founding members of the
Leedstown Resolutions Chapter DAR, led by
Florienette Knight, set out to educate the
public on the existence and importance of
the Resolutions. They succeeded in passage
of a bill that encouraged inclusion in
Virginia history books, a highway marker,
and recognition by the historical society.
For the past 11 years, the Northern Neck
of Virginia Historical Society has honored
the 115 Leedstown Resolutions colonists
with a commemoration ceremony around
the Feb. 27 anniversary. This year, Ingleside
hosted a reenactment portrayed by residents,
some descendants of the signers.
The significance of the 115's resolve
has been nearly forgotten by bigger,
louder events that overshadowed them.
But by no means were those acts any
more courageous than what started
in Leedstown. 
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Cooperative Living June 2018

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