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Resident’s book exposes truths about George Washington

Posted 3/30/23

Sun City West resident and Virginia historian James Bish has published a new book titled “I Can’t Tell A Lie: Parson Weems and The Truth About George Washington’s Cherry Tree, …

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NEIGHBORS

Resident’s book exposes truths about George Washington

Posted

Sun City West resident and Virginia historian James Bish has published a new book titled “I Can’t Tell A Lie: Parson Weems and The Truth About George Washington’s Cherry Tree, Prayer at Valley Forge, and Other Anecdotes.”

George Washington first moved with his family at the age of three to Little Hunting Creek (Mount Vernon) and at about age six he owned a hatchet. George Washington’s lifetime family associations, primarily his Ball family relations, are studied in depth for the first time in this work, revealing much about Washington’s non-public life. Those Washington and Ball family associations, along with Weems’ family associations, expose the sources for Weems’ many anecdotes regarding Washington. Learn the truth about the Cherry Tree, The Prayer at Valley Forge and other Parson Weems’ anecdotes in this work about Parson Mason Weems and George Washington.

This book contains first-time-written information about George Washington and his family including detailed information about George Washington’s close ties to his mother’s (Mary Ball Washington) Ball family cousins and their influence upon George Washington. Also examined is the emerging colonial iron industry which George Washington was surrounded by as a young boy as his parents, Augustine and Mary Washington, were engaged in the iron industry as were Washington’s close cousins, Nathaniel and Constantia (Pearson) Chapman and Charles and Sarah (Ball) Ewell. The work also examines close George Washington friend and relation, Dr. James Craik as well as examining the influential Maryland and Pennsylvania family members of Reverend Mason Locke Weems.

The book is for sale now on Amazon: amazon.com/Cant-Tell-Lie-Washingtons-Anecdotes/dp/B0BW28MKR4.

James “Jim” Bish grew to adulthood on a cattle and horse ranch in Nebraska where at an early age he was fascinated with stories from his grandmother about his ancestors who homesteaded the area in the 1870s. His genealogy and history pursuits identified ancestors who earlier lived in nine of the thirteen colonies with at least fifteen who served in the Revolutionary War. Those historical quests led to a career in education and history. After graduate school Bish traveled east to Virginia. There he spent almost forty years researching and teaching local, regional, and Virginia state history, where he encountered and examined many of the colonial Virginia families which became the foundation for this work.

In 1989, Bish helped to organize the Prince William County, Virginia Historical Society, known as Historic Prince William, where he served as the organizations first president. He continues to serve on the Board of Directors of Historic Prince William. He worked at the National Museum of the Marine Corps for two years and later served Prince William County as member of the Prince William County Historical Commission. He currently operates History Happened Here Tours and also volunteers with the National Museum of Americans in Wartime Experiences’ Voices of Freedom Project and the Museum of Culpeper County, Virginia where he also serves upon their Board of Directors.