Old Presbyterian Meeting House
The Old Presbyterian Meeting House is a Christian church in Alexandria, Virginia. It is part of the National Capital Presbytery and the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic of the Presbyterian Church; the campus was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. The church lies within the bounds of the Alexandria Historic District; the heritage of the Meeting House dates from the early eighteenth century. Scottish Presbyterians were among the early European settlers of Northern Virginia and were involved in establishing Alexandria as a port in 1749; the Society of Presbyterians worshiped publicly in the city from the 1760s, the congregation's first installed minister arrived in 1772. The Meeting House was erected in 1775. Destroyed by fire in 1835, it was subsequently rebuilt, maintaining a Reformed Protestant plain-style appearance. Except for a bell tower added in 1843 and granite entrance stairs installed in 1853, it remains little altered to the present day. Alexandrians have gathered at the Meeting House for public worship many times over the years.
Among other such services that George Washington attended here was one conducted by the Rev. Dr. James Muir for the National Day of Solemn Humiliation and Prayer in 1798. Alexandria's memorial services for George Washington in 1799 were held in this sanctuary; the church bell tolled in mourning during the four days between his burial. The Meeting House remained open for worship throughout the Civil War, but the congregation dwindled afterward. In 1899 the building was closed for worship, all of the church property was entrusted to Second Presbyterian Church, which accepted responsibility for maintaining it. For the next half-century, it served as a place of worship. In 1949, a new congregation, taking the name of "the Old Presbyterian Meeting House," was established here. Music has been part of the Meeting House heritage from the earliest days, the church has served as a venue for public concerts for more than two centuries, its first pipe organ, built by Jacob Hilbus and installed in 1817, was—according to church historian Julius Melton—the first pipe organ installed in a Presbyterian church in the United States.
The Hilbus organ was destroyed in the 1835 fire. The pipe organ in the apse, by Henry Erben, dates from 1849; the pipe organ in the rear gallery was installed in 1997 by the Lively-Fulcher Organ Company. Adjoining the Meeting House is a Burial Ground and several buildings: Flounder House, a building with a shed roof and built in 1787, was a parsonage; the Burial Ground is the final resting place of many patriots of the Revolutionary War, including one unidentified soldier, honored by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution. Among the more than 300 persons buried in this graveyard are John Carlyle and first overseer of Alexandria; the Meeting House maintains and operates the Presbyterian Cemetery on Hamilton Lane, about a mile west of the church and adjacent to Alexandria National Cemetery and other historic cemeteries. Opened in 1809, the cemetery is the final resting place of 17 patriots of the American Revolution, men killed in the War of 1812, 62 Confederate veterans and a number of Union soldiers from the Civil War.
Over the years, the Presbyterian Cemetery has provided burial space for merchants, ship captains, the Reverend Elias Harrison—the fourth pastor of the Meeting House, who died during the Civil War—a half dozen of Alexandria's mayors, numerous representatives of the city's governing council, a number of prominent businessmen and philanthropists, at least one member of the U. S. House of Representatives. A congregation of the Presbyterian Church, the Old Presbyterian Meeting House today is led by the Reverend Dr. Robert R. Laha, Jr. Senior Pastor and Head of Staff; the church has a vibrant congregation of more than 1,000 members, much engaged in the contemporary world. It is an inclusive, justice-seeking congregation welcoming members and visitors for worship, service and fellowship; the church supports a variety of programs and ministries for people of all ages, from pre-school age through teenagers and working adults to older adults in retirement homes. Music plays broader aspects of life at the Meeting House.
Worship services feature both the Lively-Fulcher pipe organ and the choir, which includes both professional and volunteer members. Special services may feature the Erben organ, brass ensembles, the children's choirs, or other vocal or instrumental groups. "Concerts With A Cause," held periodically throughout the year, feature talented local artists, a free-will offering collected at intermission benefits a designated local charity. During the Advent season, a half-hour program of "Noonday Noels," held on Wednesdays at noon, provides a brief musical offering and scripture reading. Through the Presbyterian Church, the Meeting House maintains a active local, regional and worldwide mission and outreach program. Among other needs, it provides support each year for the Alexandria Tutoring Consortium, the Fund for Alexandria's Child, the Arlandria Health Center, the Family to Family program, which assists families in meeting their monthly bills, the Rebuilding Together Alexandria program, designed to help impoverished residents of the city make necessa
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582, is the sixth oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's ancient universities. The university has five main campuses in the city of Edinburgh, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university; the university played an important role in leading Edinburgh to its reputation as a chief intellectual centre during the Age of Enlightenment, helped give the city the nickname of the Athens of the North. The University of Edinburgh is ranked 18th in the world by the 2019 QS World University Rankings, it is ranked as the 6th best university in Europe by the U. S. News' Best Global Universities Ranking, 7th best in Europe by the Times Higher Education Ranking; the Research Excellence Framework, a research ranking used by the UK government to determine future research funding, ranked Edinburgh 4th in the UK for research power, 11th overall. It is ranked the 78th most employable university in the world by the 2017 Global Employability University Ranking.
It is a member of both the Russell Group, the League of European Research Universities, a consortium of 21 research universities in Europe. It has the third largest endowment of any university in the United Kingdom, after the universities of Cambridge and Oxford; the annual income of the institution for 2017–18 was £949.0 million of which £279.7 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £931.3 million. Alumni of the university include some of the major figures of modern history, including 3 signatories of the American declaration of independence and 9 heads of state; as of March 2019, Edinburgh's alumni, faculty members and researches include 19 Nobel laureates, 3 Turing Award laureates, 1 Fields Medalist, 1 Abel Prize winner, 2 Pulitzer Prize winners, 2 currently-sitting UK Supreme Court Justices, several Olympic gold medallists. It continues to have links to the British Royal Family, having had the Duke of Edinburgh as its Chancellor from 1953 to 2010 and Princess Anne since 2011.
Edinburgh receives 60,000 applications every year, making it the second most popular university in the UK by volume of applications. It has 4th highest average UCAS entry tariff in Scotland, 5th overall in the UK. Founded by the Edinburgh Town Council, the university began life as a college of law using part of a legacy left by a graduate of the University of St Andrews, Bishop Robert Reid of St Magnus Cathedral, Orkney. Through efforts by the Town Council and Ministers of the City the institution broadened in scope and became formally established as a college by a Royal Charter, granted by King James VI of Scotland on 14 April 1582 after the petitioning of the Council; this was unprecedented in newly Presbyterian Scotland, as older universities in Scotland had been established through Papal bulls. Established as the "Tounis College", it opened its doors to students in October 1583. Instruction began under the charge of another St Andrews graduate Robert Rollock, it was the fourth Scottish university in a period when the richer and much more populous England had only two.
It was renamed King James's College in 1617. By the 18th century, the university was a leading centre of the Scottish Enlightenment. In 1762, Reverend Hugh Blair was appointed by King George III as the first Regius Professor of Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres; this formalised literature as a subject at the university and the foundation of the English Literature department, making Edinburgh the oldest centre of literary education in Britain. Before the building of Old College to plans by Robert Adam implemented after the Napoleonic Wars by the architect William Henry Playfair, the University of Edinburgh existed in a hotchpotch of buildings from its establishment until the early 19th century; the university's first custom-built building was the Old College, now Edinburgh Law School, situated on South Bridge. Its first forte in teaching was anatomy and the developing science of surgery, from which it expanded into many other subjects. From the basement of a nearby house ran the anatomy tunnel corridor.
It went under what was North College Street, under the university buildings until it reached the university's anatomy lecture theatre, delivering bodies for dissection. It was from this tunnel. Towards the end of the 19th century, Old College was becoming overcrowded and Sir Robert Rowand Anderson was commissioned to design new Medical School premises in 1875; the design incorporated a Graduation Hall, but this was seen as too ambitious. A separate building was constructed for the purpose, the McEwan Hall designed by Anderson, after funds were donated by the brewer and politician Sir William McEwan in 1894, it was presented to the University in 1897. New College was opened in 1846 as a Free Church of Scotland college of the United Free Church of Scotland. Since the 1930s it has been the home of the School of Divinity. Prior to the 1929 reunion of the Church of Scotland, candidates for the ministry in the United Free Church studied at New College, whilst candidates for the old Church of Scotland studied in the Divinity Faculty of the University of Edinburgh.
During the 1930s the two institutions came together. By the end of the 1950s, there were around 7,000 students matriculating annually. An Edinburgh Students' Representative Council was founded in 1884 by student Robert Fitzroy Bell. In 1889, the SRC voted to be housed in Teviot Row House; the Edinburgh University Sports Union, founded in 1866. The Edinburgh
Vaucluse (plantation)
Vaucluse was a villa in Fairfax County, three miles from Alexandria and 10 miles from Washington, D. C. on a hill near the Virginia Theological Seminary, owned first by Dr. James Craik, by the Fairfax family, the first being Thomas Fairfax, 9th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. Dr. Craik, surgeon in the Virginia Regiment, the Continental Army, was persuaded, by Washington after the Revolutionary War, to move his practice to Alexandria, Virginia. Dr. Craik settled at Vaucluse, where he died on February 6, 1814. Thomas Fairfax was the son of Bryan Fairfax, he oversaw his land holdings of forty thousand acres, established his family at Vaucluse, where he died, on April 21, 1846. His grandsons were born at Vaucluse: Charles S. Fairfax, was born on March 8, 1829, John C. Fairfax was born on September 30, 1830. Thomas Fairfax left a life interest in Vaucluse to his widow, who lived there until her death in 1858, with her two widowed daughters, Mrs. Hyde, Mrs. Cary. Thomas Fairfax was a descendant of Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, who emigrated to America, settled at Belvoir and Greenway Court, where he managed his Northern Neck Proprietary, a land grant of more than a million acres in the northern neck of Virginia, which he inherited from his mother, Catherine Colepeper.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Thomas Fairfax's granddaughter, Miss Constance Cary was living at Vaucluse with her mother, Monimia Fairfax. Momimia had married Archibald Cary, they had three children: Falkland Cary, who died aged 16, Constance Cary, Clarence Cary; the family moved to Richmond, Virginia during the war, where Miss Cary wrote under the pen name Refugitta. The mansion was destroyed during the American Civil War to make place for Fort Worth, in the defenses of the city of Washington. In December 1861, Captain J. Howard Kitching marched with four regiments to occupy the fort; the Fairfax family silver was buried there. Journal of Colonel George Washington Lord Fairfax of Cameron African-American Traditions in Song, Sermon and Dance, 1600s-1920 Constance Cary Harrison Famous Woman Authors
Braddock Expedition
The Braddock expedition called Braddock's campaign or, more Braddock's Defeat, was a failed British military expedition which attempted to capture the French Fort Duquesne in the summer of 1755 during the French and Indian War. It was defeated at the Battle of the Monongahela on July 9, the survivors retreated; the expedition takes its name from General Edward Braddock, who led the British forces and died in the effort. Braddock's defeat was a major setback for the British in the early stages of the war with France and has been described as one of the most disastrous defeats for the British in the 18th century. Braddock's expedition was part of a massive British offensive against the French in North America that summer; as commander-in-chief of the British Army in America, General Braddock led the main thrust against the Ohio Country with a column some 2,100 strong. His command consisted of two regular line regiments, the 44th and 48th with about 1,350 men, along with about 500 regular soldiers and militiamen from several British American colonies, artillery and other support troops.
With these men, Braddock expected to seize Fort Duquesne and push on to capture a series of French forts reaching Fort Niagara. George Washington, promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel of the Virginia militia on June 4, 1754 by Governor Robert Dinwiddie, was just 23, knew the territory and served as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General Braddock. Braddock's Chief of Scouts was Lieutenant John Fraser of the Virginia Regiment. Fraser owned land at Turtle Creek, had been at Fort Necessity, had served as Second-in-Command at Fort Prince George, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers. Braddock failed in his attempts to recruit Native American allies from those tribes not yet allied with the French. A number of Indians in the area, notably Delaware leader Shingas, remained neutral. Caught between two powerful European empires at war, the local Indians could not afford to be on the side of the loser, they would decide based on Braddock's failure. Setting out from Fort Cumberland in Maryland on May 29, 1755, the expedition faced an enormous logistical challenge: moving a large body of men with equipment and heavy cannons, across the densely wooded Allegheny Mountains and into western Pennsylvania, a journey of about 110 miles.
Braddock had received important assistance from Benjamin Franklin, who helped procure wagons and supplies for the expedition. Among the wagoners were two young men who would become legends of American history: Daniel Boone and Daniel Morgan. Other members of the expedition included Charles Scott. Among the British were Thomas Gage; the expedition progressed because Braddock considered making a road to Fort Duquesne a priority in order to supply the position he expected to capture and hold at the Forks of the Ohio, because of a shortage of healthy draft animals. In some cases, the column was only able to progress at a rate of two miles a day, creating Braddock's Road—an important legacy of the march—as they went. To speed up movement, Braddock split his men into a "flying column" of about 1,300 men which he commanded, lagging far behind, a supply column of 800 men with most of the baggage, commanded by Colonel Thomas Dunbar, they passed the ruins of Fort Necessity along the way, where the French and Canadians had defeated Washington the previous summer.
Small French and Indian war bands skirmished with Braddock's men during the march. Meanwhile, at Fort Duquesne, the French garrison consisted of only about 250 regulars and Canadian militia, with about 640 Indian allies camped outside the fort; the Indians were from a variety of tribes long associated with the French, including Ottawas and Potawatomis. Claude-Pierre Pécaudy de Contrecœur, the Canadian commander, received reports from Indian scouting parties that the British were on their way to besiege the fort, he realised he could not withstand Braddock's cannon, decided to launch a preemptive strike, an ambush of Braddock's army as he crossed the Monongahela River. The Indian allies were reluctant to attack such a large British force, but the French field commander Daniel Liénard de Beaujeu, who dressed himself in full war regalia complete with war paint, convinced them to follow his lead. By July 8, 1755, the Braddock force was on the land owned by the Chief Scout, Lieutenant John Fraser.
That evening, the Indians sent a delegation to the British to request a conference. Braddock sent Fraser; the Indians asked the British to halt their advance so that they could attempt to negotiate a peaceful withdrawal by the French from Fort Duquesne. Both Washington and Fraser recommended this to Braddock but he demurred. On July 9, 1755, Braddock's men crossed the Monongahela without opposition, about 10 miles south of Fort Duquesne; the advance guard of 300 grenadiers and colonials with two cannon under Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Gage began to move ahead. George Washington tried to warn him of the flaws in his plan—for example, the French and the Indians fought differently than the open-field style used by the British—but his efforts were ignored, Braddock insisted on fighting as "gentlemen". Unexpectedly, Gage's advance guard came upon the French and Indians, who were hurrying to the river, behind schedule and too late to set an ambush. In the skirmish that followed between Gage's soldiers and the French, the French commander, was killed by the first volley of
Craik-Patton House
Craik-Patton House is a historic home located at Charleston, West Virginia. It was built by his wife, Juliet Shrewsbury, in 1834 in the Greek Revival style, it was located on Virginia Street in Charleston, but moved to its present site in 1973 to save it from the threat of demolition. It features four massive columns that support the extended center roof with pilasters placed above the front facade, it was faithfully restored and preserved for the public by the Colonial Dames of America in the state of West Virginia and open for tours year round. Though named "Elmgrove" the house is now called the Craik-Patton House in honor of Rev. James Craik who built the house, the grandson and namesake of George Washington's physician, Dr. James Craik; the Patton aspect of the name comes from Col. George S. Patton, grandfather of WWII George Patton, who lived in the house with his family from 1858 until his passing; the Craik Patton House features attractions of interest relating to several other prominent families of the Charleston region.
Most notably among these are the Ruffner Log House, located on the museum property. Within the house itself can be found artifacts not only of the two families it takes its name from, however objects relating to the Kanwha Valley's role in local history, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. Media related to Craik-Patton House at Wikimedia Commons http://www.craik-patton.org Historic American Buildings Survey No. WV-214, "Craik-Patton House, Daniel Boone Park, U. S. Route 60, Kanawha County, WV", 2 photos, 1 color transparency, 2 data pages, 2 photo caption pages, supplemental material
United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France, each side supported by military units from the parent country and by American Indian allies. At the start of the war, the French colonies had a population of 60,000 settlers, compared with 2 million in the British colonies; the outnumbered French depended on the Indians. The European nations declared a wider war upon one another overseas in 1756, two years into the French and Indian war, some view the French and Indian War as being the American theater of the worldwide Seven Years' War of 1756–63; the name French and Indian War is used in the United States, referring to the two enemies of the British colonists, while European historians use the term Seven Years' War, as do English-speaking Canadians. French Canadians call it the Fourth Intercolonial War; the British colonists were supported at various times by the Iroquois and Cherokee tribes, the French colonists were supported by Wabanaki Confederacy member tribes Abenaki and Mi'kmaq, the Algonquin, Ojibwa, Ottawa and Wyandot tribes.
Fighting took place along the frontiers between New France and the British colonies, from the Province of Virginia in the south to Newfoundland in the north. It began with a dispute over control of the confluence of the Allegheny River and Monongahela River called the Forks of the Ohio, the site of the French Fort Duquesne in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the dispute erupted into violence in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754, during which Virginia militiamen under the command of 22-year-old George Washington ambushed a French patrol. In 1755, six colonial governors met with General Edward Braddock, the newly arrived British Army commander, planned a four-way attack on the French. None succeeded, the main effort by Braddock proved a disaster. British operations failed in the frontier areas of the Province of Pennsylvania and the Province of New York during 1755–57 due to a combination of poor management, internal divisions, effective Canadian scouts, French regular forces, Indian warrior allies.
In 1755, the British captured Fort Beauséjour on the border separating Nova Scotia from Acadia, they ordered the expulsion of the Acadians soon afterwards. Orders for the deportation were given by Commander-in-Chief William Shirley without direction from Great Britain; the Acadians were expelled, both those captured in arms and those who had sworn the loyalty oath to the King. Indians were driven off the land to make way for settlers from New England; the British colonial government fell in the region of Nova Scotia after several disastrous campaigns in 1757, including a failed expedition against Louisbourg and the Siege of Fort William Henry. William Pitt came to power and increased British military resources in the colonies at a time when France was unwilling to risk large convoys to aid the limited forces that they had in New France, preferring to concentrate their forces against Prussia and its allies who were now engaged in the Seven Years' War in Europe. Between 1758 and 1760, the British military launched a campaign to capture French Canada.
They succeeded in capturing territory in surrounding colonies and the city of Quebec. The British lost the Battle of Sainte-Foy west of Quebec, but the French ceded Canada in accordance with the Treaty of Paris. France ceded its territory east of the Mississippi to Great Britain, as well as French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to its ally Spain in compensation for Spain's loss to Britain of Spanish Florida. France's colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, confirming Great Britain's position as the dominant colonial power in America. In British America, wars were named after the sitting British monarch, such as King William's War or Queen Anne's War. There had been a King George's War in the 1740s during the reign of King George II, so British colonists named this conflict after their opponents, it became known as the French and Indian War; this continues as the standard name for the war in the United States, although Indians fought on both sides of the conflict.
It led into the Seven Years' War overseas, a much larger conflict between France and Great Britain that did not involve the American colonies. Less used names for the war include the Fourth Intercolonial War and the Great War for the Empire. In Europe, the French and Indian War is conflated into the Seven Years' War and not given a separate name. "Seven Years" refers to events in Europe, from the official declaration of war in 1756—two years after the French and Indian War had started—to the signing of the peace treaty in 1763. The French and Indian War in America, by contrast, was concluded in six years from the Battle of Jumonville Glen in 1754 to the capture of Montreal in 1760. Canadians conflate both the American conflicts into the Seven Years' War. French Canadi
