Year-Long Celebration of ‘Our George Washington’ Closing In

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After months of planning, fundraising and exuberant social media outreach, the time to celebrate the 200th birthday of Centralia’s founding father is nearly here. 

What has been planned as a year-long celebration of George Washington will officially begin on Aug. 12 with a culminating event scheduled for Aug. 11, 2018.

Brian Mittge, chairman of the George Washington Bicentennial Committee, has been working hard to get the word out about the celebration in hopes that the once in a lifetime opportunity will not go by underappreciated. 

“I feel like it’s all that I’ve been talking about for the last six months. But I’ve heard that once you are sick of talking about something that people may actually have started to listen,” said Mittge, who is also a columnist for The Chronicle.

Mittge is an unabashed fan of George Washington, who he has taken to referring to as “Our George Washington.” The committee’s official website is even OurGeorgeWashington.com. The moniker is as much a practical way to distinguish Centralia’s founder from the first president of the United States, and the state of Washington itself, as it is a way to invoke a sense of ownership in the shared history of all Centralians.

George Washington was born Aug. 15, 1817, to a white mother and black father in Virginia. When he was a boy, his mother gave him up to a white family, the Cochrans, in order to raise him as their own and save him from a fate of enslavement. In 1852, Washington became the fourth American to settle in the area of the Oregon Territory that would eventually become Lewis County. After settling in the area, Washington married Mary Jane Cain, a woman of African-American and Jewish descent, and together in 1875 they founded Centerville, which was later renamed Centralia.

The original plot of Centerville laid within the 640 acres of Washington’s holdings, and Mary Jane personally named the original streets. During the economic depression known as the Panic of 1893, Washington worked to sustain his neighbors and fellow townsfolk by bringing wagon loads of food and supplies from more established depots.

Of course there were impediments to Washington’s community building efforts along the way, and more often than not they were based solely upon his race. As a testament to his persuasive character, Washington’s friends and neighbors twice lobbied successfully to have him exempted from racist and discriminatory laws in Missouri as well as the Oregon Territory. 

One story from Washington’s Centerville days notes that a neighbor along one property line erected a barricade fence in order to draw a distinct separation between his property and that of his African-American neighbor. As the story goes, once the neighbor became more familiar with Washington, he set about cutting a hole in the fence so that the two could more easily interact. 

That sort of tale of perseverance and the bridging of unnatural divides is exactly what inspires Mittge about George Washington’s life story.

“I think we need a whole lot more of that. There’s a lot of anger and alienation in this world,” said Mittge. “Once you learn about George, you are just inspired by him.”

Mittge has also found inspiration in the significant community participation in the months leading up to the kickoff of the bicentennial celebration.

“It’s a neat group because it has all different types of folks. Young and old all over the political spectrum. We’ve got some go-getters in there who are really jumping in,” said Mittge of the George Washington Bicentennial Committee, which currently boasts about 75 members. “It’s neat to see people who have that same sort of spirit that George had.”

Teva Youngblood is one of those members and performs the role of secretary for the George Washington Bicentennial Committee. Like Mittge, Youngblood has found the story of George Washington to be inspiring and infectious to her soul.

“I am a history buff and wherever I land I like to learn the local lore,” noted Youngblood, who also serves on the Centralia Historic Preservation Commission. “We need to champion George Washington in order to preserve history.”



Youngblood said it was Washington’s rare combination of skills, selflessness and personality that made him such a fascinating figure. 

“It’s very awe-inspiring and even resonates with us today,” said Youngblood. “A lot of people don’t realize that he built this place. They know what they’ve learned from school and then they forget as they go along. We’re scraping the memory web.”

In addition to her work on the bicentennial committee Youngblood is also making an effort to have Washington Lawn Cemetery, where George and Mary Jane Washington are buried, listed on the National Historic Register. “We need to let people know that our founder is still here in the middle of everything,” explained Youngblood.

The bicentennial celebration, which is intended to help spread that communal message, will begin on Saturday, Aug. 12, at 8 a.m. with a 5K walk/run around the parameters of Washington’s original homestead. The 5K is being sponsored by the Life Christian Church, and all funds generated by the event will be donated to the creation of a commemorative statue. From 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. that same day, a free party will be held in George Washington Park next to the Centralia Timberland Library in honor of Washington’s 200th birthday. 

At the same time, a pioneer open house will be held at Fort Borst Park. At 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 13, an interdenominational church service complete with era-appropriate hymns will be held in George Washington Park, and on Aug. 15, Washington’s actual birthday, a rededication ceremony will be held at 4 p.m. at Centralia College Washington Hall in order to officially designate the building as a memorial to Centralia’s boundary-breaking founder.

In August 2018, the George Washington Committee plans to unveil a large bronze statue of George Washington, Mary Jane Washington and their dog, Rockwood, in Washington Park in front of the Timberland Library. The committee has commissioned Adna artist Jim Stafford to create the statue, and the group has been busy beating the bushes to raise the roughly $100,000 it will cost to complete the project. More than $10,000 has already been raised, and Mittge expressed optimism that a windfall donation could arrive any day to fund the remainder of the statue.

Mittge says he sees the statue project as a way to enhance community spirit in Centralia for the long haul. 

“I hope that by investing in a statue to put George front and center it will help to develop the community support that we need to keep other institutions thriving,” said Mittge, who listed Washington Lawn Cemetery, Riverside Park and community senior centers as venues currently in need of local support. 

“This will be a way to really mark our history and bring us together to build up and enhance that generous spirit that George Washington founded the town with,” added Mittge, who hopes to raise enough funds to create a permanent scholarship fund for Centralia High School students who exhibit the same community-first principles as the city’s founder.

Jan Nontell, owner of the Rectangle Gallery and a member of the Centralia Downtown Association, is another member of the bicentennial committee. Like Mittge and Youngblood, Nontell has come to find the story of Centralia’s George Washington to be an inspiring tale.

“I would like people to take with them how George treated people. How he honored the individual. His thoughtfulness and desire to do the right thing,” said Nontell, who is hoping for a large turnout at the bicentennial birthday bash in August. “There’s a lot of excitement around it that I think will make people see that this is a good way to live and spend your life. Helping and caring.”

Nontell says that she frequently gets visitors to Centralia who stop by her shop to learn more about the city’s unique founding father. 

“The go-to fact is that this is the largest city in the U.S. founded by an African American,” said Nontell, who noted a national advertising campaign started by the bicentennial committee in order to draw more attention to the year long celebration of George Washington. “The thing that thrills me is The Oregonian looking at this and saying, ‘Hey, maybe we should pay attention to what they’re doing in their little town up there.’”

The George Washington Bicentennial Committee can be found on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter in addition to their official website at OurGeorgeWashington.com. 

The next meeting of the bicentennial committee is slated for Monday at the Centralia Timberland Library at 5:15 p.m.