A Portrait of Old George Town

by Grace Dunlop Peter

The earliest knowledge we have of this region, which has become The Capital City of the great United States of America, concerns the Indians who were living here when the white explorers came.

The first of these we know of was the redoubtable Captain John Smith, who, in 1608, came up the Potomac River and made a map of his travels. He tells us in his Historie of Virginie of "the mildness of the aire, the fertilitie of the soil, and the situation of the rivers to the nature and use of man as no place more convenient for pleasure, profit and man's sustenance." He was referring to the confluence of the Potomac with its Eastern Branch and the then good-sized Rock Creek.

In 1634 another Englishman, Henry Fleete, sailed up the river as far as the Little Falls, trading furs with the Indians. Thus he wrote of the site of George Town:

"Monday, the 25th of June, we set sail for the Town of Tohoga, where we came to anchor two leagues short of the falls: this place is without question the most pleasant in all this country and most convenient for habitation; the air temperate in summer and not violent in winter. The river aboundeth in all manner of fish, and for deer, buffalos, bears and turkeys, the woods do swarm with them and the soil is exceedingly fertile."

Henry Fleete remained with the Indians about twelve years, whether of his own free will or as a captive is not quite certain, but evidently this writing of his was to good purpose, for, in the next decade, small parties of Scots and Irish began settling on the Potomac at the mouth of Rock Creek.

The Indians whom these white men found here belonged to the Algonquin Nation, which included many tribes. Thomas Jefferson says there were probably forty of these tribes between the Atlantic Ocean and the Potomac River. The tribe living within the limits of the present District of Columbia was the Nacotchankes or Anacostians, as the British called them, hence, the name given to the Eastern branch of the Potomac, where the largest village was situated, near what is now called Benning. West of Rock Creek was the village of Tohoga, on the site of what became George Town.

The Indian families lived on cultivated farms of a few acres, each strung out along the river. From it came a large part of their food, and, of course, it was their best mode of communication by canoe.

The most interesting activity of these Indians was the manufacture of all manner of tools from the stones which they found in the surrounding hills. These cobblestones had been washed down by the river ages before. In later years they paved the streets of Georgetown, but these Indians used them to form arrow-darts, knives, spear points, scrapers, and drills of all sizes. Traces of these quarries were found as late as 1900; the largest of them seems to have been on Piney Branch, where it is crossed by 16th Street. It is now obliterated.

There was, also, in this region, soapstone, and from it and from clay, the Indians made pots and vessels for household use.

Scientists think that other tribes came from far away to barter their goods for these implements, and so, over three hundred years ago, this place was a sort of metropolis for the Indians.