Groups hold annual George Washington birthday dinner

Published 12:01 am Monday, February 24, 2020

The Robert Loughridge Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, in conjunction with the Dalton Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, celebrated George Washington’s 288th birthday recently at the Dalton Golf & Country Club.

This dinner, an annual event held by descendants of patriots who fought the British and served the Colonial forces under Gen. Washington, honors the man who not only led the country to independence but who also set the standards for later U.S. presidents.

The speaker for the evening was Elizabeth Hoole McArthur. Her topic “Remaking George: Our Changing Views of our Founding Father” focused on the different views Americans have held about Washington as he moved from a Virginia planter to general of the Continental Army and back to a Virginia planter before becoming the first American president. Once he finished his two terms as president, he went back to his Virginia home where he resumed his life as a planter and where he died two years later in 1799.

Through the two centuries since he served his nation, different biographers often invented tales about his life and adventures that became legend/truth.

Washington has been a hero, a man with clay feet, a feature in newspapers for Washington’s Day advertisements and everything in-between.

The real Washington — a self-educated man who led his country first to victory in the war of independence and then to stabilizing the fledging nation — has probably been lost in the myths and derogatory tales that biographers have invented.

Both DAR and SAR chapters welcome new members who can trace their ancestry back to persons who fought in the war or aided the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Interested ladies should contact Registrar Sue Crawford (706-264-1987) for the DAR. Interested men should call Registrar Steve Hall (706-694-3337) for the SAR.