From George Washington to Thomas Cresap, 8 May 1786
To Thomas Cresap
Mt Vernon 8th May 1786.
Sir,
Your letter of the 8th of last month came to my hands just as I was leaving home for Richmond, which is the reason you have not received an earlier acknowledgment of it.1
I am not a member of, nor am I in any manner interested in the affairs of the Ohio Company—nor indeed do I know at this time, of whom it consists, further than of those claiming under, & mentioned by you—of Colo. Mason & of the heir of my brother Augustine, who lives at the distance of an hundred miles from me; & is one whom I scarcely ever saw.2
I feel myself much obliged by your polite attention in offering me a Lott at the mouth of the South branch; it will, I dare say, be a convenient spot, whereon to establish a Town. I am Sir, &c.
G. Washington
LB, DLC:GW.
Thomas Cresap (1694–c.1790), the prominent frontiersman who had lived in western Maryland since about 1730, was one of the organizing members of the Ohio Company in 1749.
1. Letter not found.
2. William Augustine Washington inherited Pope’s Creek plantation (Wakefield) in Westmoreland County at the death in 1742 of his father, Augustine Washington. He lived at this time at Haywood across the creek from the site of Wakefield, which burned in 1780.