During Tuesday night’s Centralia City Council meeting, Centralia Downtown Association Executive Director MacKenzie McGee gave a presentation asking the council to officially designate every second Saturday in August as Founders Day to honor Centralia’s founding father, George Washington.
“As we all know, our George Washington was a man of vision and a true pioneer, and the Centralia Downtown Association would like to commemorate and share his amazing story,” McGee said.
This year, the second Saturday in August is Aug. 12, and McGee added plans are already in the works for a celebration. The Founders Day celebration will be held from 3 to 8 p.m. at George Washington Park — located at 110 S. Silver St. — and will feature free music and family-friendly activities.
“Planning is well under way and we look forward to working together to celebrate our founder with our entire community. I’ll leave you with my favorite quote from George,” said McGee. “‘I want to right by my fellow man, and if I do, I will never lose anything by it.’”
George Washington was born on Aug. 15, 1817 and was the son of an enslaved man and a woman thought to be English in Virginia. His father was sold to a plantation further south, some believe as punishment, and his mother gave him to Washington’s adoptive parents, James and Anna Cochran.
A self-educated and successful businessman, Washington faced discriminatory laws and racist settlers throughout his life and eventually settled in the Oregon Territory in 1852. He filed the original plat which established the town of Centerville, later changed to Centralia, in 1875.
Washington was also a deeply religious man known to sing gospel hymns while he worked. He famously refused to sell land to anyone who planned to open a saloon or brothel saying, “would rather burn the place down then have it used for a purpose like that.”
During an economic panic in 1893, he traveled to Portland and purchased rice, flour, sugar, side bacon and wholesale lard by the ton to distribute to those in need in his own community.
To read more about Washington, visit https://www.chronline.com/stories/looking-back-at-the-life-of-centralias-founding-father-george-washington-as-his-205th-birthday,298269.
For more information on the Centralia Downtown Association, visit https://downtowncentralia.org/.
