Mount Vernon (City and countyseat of Knox co)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a city and countyseat of Knox co., O., on the Kokosing river, and on the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore and Ohio railroads; 25 miles N. W. of Newark. It is the center of a large agricultural region from which it draws a considerable trade. Here are a banks, electric 888 court house, National lights, an electric street railroad, and several daily newspapers. It has a locomotive works, furnace foundry, Corliss engine works, woolen, flax, twine, flour and saw mills, and manufactories of leather, linseed oil, furniture, etc. Pop. (1910) 9,087; (1920) 9,237. VERNON, the estate of President Washington, in Fairfax co., resident Washington, Va., on the right bank of the Potomac river; 15 miles S. of Washington. The dwelling is a wooden mansion, 96 feet long, erected on a bluff 200 feet above the river, and commanding an excellent view. The estate, originally named Hunting Creek and comprising 800 acres, was inherited by Washington in 1752 from his brother Lawrence, who had changed the name in honor of his former commander, Admiral Vernon of the British navy. The central part of the house was built by Lawrence, and the wings were added by George. The house and 200 acres of land around it were bought by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association in 1859 for $200,000, raised in great part through the exertions of Edward Everett, and have been restored as nearly as possible to their condition in George Washington's lifetime. In ascending from the river to the house the visitor passes the plain, brick tomb of Washington, containing, behind an iron grating, two sarcophagi with the remains of the general and his wife, Martha. The home contains an abundance of interesting relics of which, perhaps, the key of the French Bastille is the most notable. The room in which Washington died is at the S. end of the first floor, and Mrs. Washington died in the one immediately above it. The tiles in the piazza were brought from the Isle of Wight. The の MOUNT VERNON coach house contains Washington's carriage and in the garden are trees planted by his hands.