Not all holidays are created equal…
Most citizens in American place varying degrees of value on each holiday that we celebrate. For me, Independence Day (the 4th of July) holds a very special place in my heart. Here is why…
Roughly 25 years ago I began to do family heritage research. Back then it was limited to doing searches the old fashioned way, mostly. The internet was still in its infancy and not nearly as many records were being digitized and placed online. It was during a visit to my in-laws home in Spotsylvania, Va., that I would find something that made this day very important to me.
During our stay, we traveled to Washington D.C. with my wife and in-laws. I had never been to Washington D.C. before, and we were scheduled to take a tour of the White House. My Father-in-Law was a fantastic man and he unwittingly pulled up into the White House driveway entrance, (you could do that back then), and we, of course, were confronted by a few uniformed officers. Being an LEO myself at the time, after a short talk and typical exchange of LEO talk, we were allowed to park in the driveway of the White House for our tour. During the tour, I was humbled by the history and beauty of the “House of the People” as I heard it referred to. That was the beginning of a day that would forever change my outlook on this country’s history for the better.
After our eye-opening tour of the White House, I had told my family I wanted to visit the National Archives for a few hours and try to do some research on family history. So off we went. While my family toured the archives and saw some of our nation’s most important documents, I was prowling through aisles of microfiche storage rooms and trying to locate any family history documents I could find. That is when I stumbled on some things that would forever make me even prouder to be an American and increase the love I have for this great country.
I had been trying to locate anything I could on my founding father in this country, John Waggoner Sr. who came to this country from a portion of Europe that shared both French and German values. The people from that area spoke German and followed German traditions, but being close to the French border, they were at times claimed by France.
That is when I found the documents that would forever change my family history. I found documents that showed that John Waggoner Sr. joined the “Continental” Army and served as a “Life Guard” to General George Washington. I was in awe, my founding father in this county, back on Oct 3rd, 1776 joined the Army and was a bodyguard for arguably one of the most important founders and framers of our country, General George Washington. After his service and the war’s end, John settled in Ohio and raised a very large family. He filed for his “pension” from the Army and received the enormous sum of $100 a year!
I have since discovered more detailed records of his service, as well as military records of my other grandfathers, and my family’s history in the building of this great country. There is something about knowing your ancestor served as a body guard for General George Washington that makes you appreciate the fact that had he not come to this country and fought for our freedoms and kept General Washington safe, my family may not be enjoying the freedoms we have today.
So this Independence Day, I will be looking at my flag in the front yard of my house, and thinking about how my Gx6 Grandfather fought in the “War for Independence”. How he served this country through that war and served General George Washington as his “Life Guard”, and how General Washington would go on to become our first President of the United States of America. God Bless the United States of America, and may God bless all of those that have gone before us to make this country a better place for their descendants.
