Mattie Bloodworth’s  History of Pender County, North Carolina, published in 1947, contains this picture, on page 204, likely made about the time of the DAR dedication of the small monument commemorating George Washington's Southern Tour.    

It’s the Washington Oak, and the picture is important for a couple of reasons.  

Look carefully at the road running by the tree in the top picture. It’s a lightly-travelled single lane road.  

The picture in the Bloodworth book had to be made in the 1920s and the tree looks to be quite old at that time. Even a hundred and fifty years earlier, it was still likely a good sized tree, and more than capable of providing shade and a resting spot for travelers.  

Ms. Bloodworth explains, “This is the Live Oak Tree under which it is said George Washington and his staff of officers ate their lunch and rested their horses during Revolutionary times.”  

Just south on Highway 17 from the intersection with Highway 210 in Hampstead, there's another tree, popularly called the 'Washington Oak' but this oak tree isn't the one Ms. Bloodworth made reference to. 

The 'real' Washington Oak is back further in the woods, and is closer to the old Wilmington and New Bern Railroad right of way that is still visible in places around Hampstead..  

The Stamp Defiance Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, Wilmington chapter, placed a marker there in 1925 to commemorate the event.  

In 
Patriotic Commemoration 
of the Visit 
of
George Washington
on his
tour of the Southern States
1791

Why would George Washington pass through Hampstead?  

Well, it wasn’t Hampstead then, it was just a spot along Old Topsail Creek and near the route that in colonial times had been known as the ‘King’s Highway’, that is, King George of England, the same King George that the Declaration of Independence is addressed to.  

The King's Highway ran from Boston to Charleston, SC, and it was a ‘post’ road, the route along which mail and dispatches were delivered to the outposts scattered throughout the colonies. Typically, the ‘stages’ were located about a day’s travel apart, and had an inn or tavern, a place to stay, rest and dine, and fresh horses.  

Benjamin Franklin was the Postmaster of the colonial postal system until just before the American Revolution, and continued in the office for a short time after the Revolution.

George Washington made his Southern Tour to drum up support for the new Constitution, which even in his second year as President of the new United States, had not been ratified by Congress. Many of the original thirteen states, particularly in the South, were skeptical of a strong central government, and wanted individual state’s rights to have precedence.  

The Federalist Papers, a series of editorials written by the Constitution’s authors, and published in the New York and Philadelphia papers, explained the rationale of the new Constitution, and had gained support for the new federal government in the North.  

George Washington kept a diary, or day book, of his activities and observations along the way, and it is in the Library of Congress, part of the George Washington Papers, 1741-1799: The Diaries of George Washington.  

The President began his journey in Philadelphia, Monday, March 21, 1791

“Left Philadelphia about 11 O'clock to make a tour through the Southern States. Reached Chester about 3 oclock--dined & lodged at Mr. Wythes--Roads exceedingly deep, heavy & cut in places by the Carriages which used them.  

“In this tour I was accompanied by Majr. Jackson. My equipage & attendance consisted of a Chariet & four horses drove in hand light baggage Waggon & two horses--four Saddle horses besides a led one for myself--and five Servants.”  

The post roads were located along the highest and driest possible paths through the woods and pocosins, often followed what had been animal trails, and ran along the tops of sand dunes, skirting the wetlands when possible. In the low areas it must have been nearly impassable during wet times, and wagon wheels cut deep ruts in places. Freight wagons hauled by teams of horses or oxen often had wheels much wider than carriage wheels to take the extra load. Wet areas were filled in with shells, tree trunks (corduroy road) or planks (plank road). Maintenance of the stages belonged to the individual post office operator. 

The “Chariet” President Washington wrote about was a travel coach drawn by four horses, but unlike the stagecoaches with a driver seated up high on the front of the coach, this one used a “postillion”, a rider on the front left horse of the team. The “led” horse he referred to was “Prescott”, his white ceremonial horse.  

Usually, if the weather was fine, the President rode a horse, but if the weather was wet, rode inside the coach. Whenever he got close to a destination, he would don his ceremonial uniform, mount Prescott, and ride into the town with suitable fanfare, then after departing town dismount Prescott and change back into travel clothing for the next leg.

These entries detail the days he passed near Hampstead:  

 “Saturday, 23d.  (April)

“Breakfasted at one Everets 12 miles bated* at a Mr. Foy's 12 miles farther and lodged at one Sage's 20 miles beyd. it—all indifferent Houses.”  

* bated – he ‘abated’ his hunger, that is, had lunch. Robert Sage of Onslow County , whom a traveler in 1786 called “a fine jolly Englishman,” had his tavern at Holly Shelter Bay about a mile south of present-day Holly ridge.

“Sunday, 24th.  

“Breakfasted at an indifferent House about 13 miles from Sage's—and three miles further met a party of Light Horse from Wilmington and after these a Commee. & other Gentlemen of the Town who came out to escort me into it, and at which I arrived under a federal salute at very good lodgings prepared for me, about two o'clock—at these I dined with the Commee. whose company I asked.  

“The whole Road from Newbern to Wilmington (except in a few places of small extent) passes through the most barren country I ever beheld, especially in the parts nearest the latter; which is no other than a bed of white sand.

"In places, however, before we came to these, if the ideas of poverty could be separated from the Land, the appearances of it are
agreeable, resembling a lawn well covered with evergreens, and a good verdure below from a broom or course grass which having sprung since the burning of the Woods had a neat and handsome look especially as there were parts entirely open, and others with ponds of water, which contributed not a little to the beauty of the scene.”

There’s an interesting set of connections associated with Washington’s Southern Tour in 1791.

President Washington’s Secretary was a Major Jackson who had requested route information from, among others, John Baptista Ashe, who had been a delegate to the first Continental Congress in 1878. 

Mr. Ashe provided the information and it was a list of all the post ‘stages’ between New Bern and Wilmington, and he gave the distances in miles apart, and described the accommodations as ‘indifferent’ , ‘tolerable’, and ‘one of the best’.  

His son Samuel became the first Governor to take office in the state, and he was also the first owner of Sloop Point, the land that lies along the water at the end of Sloop Point Road , and was the location of the ‘shipyard’, a landing for sloops of trade that provided commerce through New Topsail Inlet and Virginia Creek .  

Ms. Bloodwoth continues, “This property was first owned by Samuel Ashe, who sold it to George Merrick, after which Louis Whitfield came in possession and willed it to his youngest daughter Rachel (Mrs. William Wright) early in the nineteenth century.

“It is said that during the ownership of George Merrick, who owned and built a home a few miles east of Lane's Ferry, in 1761, he also built a road direct from this property to his summer home, Sloop Point Plantation, and some parts of this old road are still in use.”  

Indeed it is, and today it is Highway 210. Cross over Merrick ’s Creek and the NE Cape Fear River Bridge, and Lane’s Ferry Store is on the far side of the river, at the ferry landing on the Burgaw side of the river.  

Many crossroad communities develop when paths to trading areas cross, and the road from Wilmington to New Bern intersected with the road from Sloop Point to Rocky Point and to serve the passing travelers, stores and businesses located at the intersection.

Rocky Point is unique in our area because it sits atop a marl base subsoil, greatly enriching the soil for agriculture, and it was home to a large number of rich plantations and political leaders during colonial days.  

A little piece of history here and another little piece of history there, and pretty soon you have an interconnected sense of time and place, and with that, a sense of belonging.