at Brookline, Conn., May 29, 1790, in his seventy-third year.
ANTHONY WAYNE[4]
By O. C. BOSBYSHELL
(1745-1796)
[Footnote 4: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
[Illustration: Anthony Wayne. [TN]]
Across the pages of history recording mighty conflicts that rock
nations and governments to their foundations, flash certain grand
characters whose career adds a charm to the dreary and often prosaic
narrative. Some bright particular star, whose lustre flings romance
over dry facts, firing the hearts of all patriots with enthusiasm and
national fervor. Honoring the great commanders of the wars of the ages
for their noble deeds, here and there sparkles out the brilliant
genius of a warrior with less responsibility, but whose name inspires
the ardor of men, the love of women, and the fervor of the poet and
novelist. Such a character, such a man, was "Mad" Anthony Wayne, an
able, fearless soldier of the American Revolution, so thoroughly
patriotic such an earnest, honest believer in the righteous cause for
which he fought, that he was mad indeed with all found arrayed against
the interests of the Colonists, or with those who, having donned the
Continental uniform, were indisposed to fight.
Anthony Wayne was born in Waynesborough, Easttown Township, Chester
County, Penn., on January 1, 1745. He sprang from good English stock.
His grandfather resided in Yorkshire, England, but during the reign of
Charles II. purchased an estate in the County Wicklow, Ireland, and
settled on it. Being a thorough Protestant he espoused the cause of
King William III., and in the service of that monarch fought in the
Battle of the Boyne, as a captain of dragoons. In 1722 he came to
America with his four sons, and procured some one thousand six hundred
acres of land in Chester County, Penn., upon which he settled in 1724.
His youngest son, Isaac, the father of Anthony Wayne, received as his
share of his father's estate five hundred acres of land near Paoli.
Born and brought up amid the charming surroundings of this most
beautiful country, it is easily understood why Anthony Wayne became so
thoroughly imbued with tastes for the beautiful. His neatness in
dress, and earnest advocacy of a brilliant uniform for the officers
and men of the Revolutionary Army, had its foundation in the very
atmosphere he lived in, this magnificent Chester Valley. "Dandy" Wayne
indeed, but only so far as neatness in dress and delicacy of taste
wer
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