So often people quote someone who hasn't a clue as to what he is talking about. Many children and adults believe that George Washington chopped down his father's cherry tree. This is expressed as if his father had only one cherry tree. One needs more than one cherry tree to cross pollinate. A lonely cherry tree would die friendless.
The story comes from Parson Weems' stories he wrote to teach morals to children. He wrote that "the wealthy master of a hatchet went about chopping everything that he encountered. Once he approached a young English cherry tree and barked (the tree) so terribly that he ruined it." He did not CHOP it in this fantasy story. In fact this is a fabricated story of Parson Weems who never had a church to be the parson of although he did claim to be the priest of a church that never existed.
Parson Weems lived after the time of Washington and never met him. Washington, when young, was not wealthy at all. His family was far from wealthy. Weem's story implies that his family was wealthy.
But, we know, facts can take away the pleasure of storytelling.
Washington had all his tenants in Winchester,VA, plant a certain number of apple trees according to the acreage they were living on. Washington would rather be a farmer (gentleman farmer) than be involved in politics he said.
The story comes from Parson Weems' stories he wrote to teach morals to children. He wrote that "the wealthy master of a hatchet went about chopping everything that he encountered. Once he approached a young English cherry tree and barked (the tree) so terribly that he ruined it." He did not CHOP it in this fantasy story. In fact this is a fabricated story of Parson Weems who never had a church to be the parson of although he did claim to be the priest of a church that never existed.
Parson Weems lived after the time of Washington and never met him. Washington, when young, was not wealthy at all. His family was far from wealthy. Weem's story implies that his family was wealthy.
But, we know, facts can take away the pleasure of storytelling.
Washington had all his tenants in Winchester,VA, plant a certain number of apple trees according to the acreage they were living on. Washington would rather be a farmer (gentleman farmer) than be involved in politics he said.
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