their claims for almost a song. The feeling that such grants were
comparatively worthless was increased by the fact that to become
effective they must be located and surveyed, while doubt existed as to
whether they would be respected owing to conflicting claims,
jurisdictions and proclamations.

[Illustration: The Porter's Lodge]

[Illustration: Driveway from the Lodge Gate]

Washington, however, had seen the land and knew it was good and he
had prophetic faith in the future of the West. He employed his old
comrade Captain William Crawford to locate and survey likely tracts not
only in what is now West Virginia and western Pennsylvania, but beyond
the Ohio River. Settlement in the latter region had been forbidden by
the King's proclamation of 1763, but Washington thought that this was
merely a temporary measure designed to quiet the Indians and was anxious
to have picked out in advance "some of the most valuable land in the
King's part." In other words he desired Crawford to act the part of a
"Sooner," in the language of more than a century later.

In this period a number of companies were scrambling for western lands,
and Washington, at one time or another, had an interest in what was
known as the Walpole Grant, the Mississippi Company, the Military
Company of Adventurers and the Dismal Swamp Company. This last company,
however, was interested in redeeming lands about Dismal Swamp in eastern
Virginia and it was the only one that succeeded. In 1799 he estimated
the value of his share in that company at twenty thousand dollars.

Washington took the lead in securing the rights of his old soldiers in