KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Miami County in Kansas and Cass County in Missouri. He also covers agricultural topics. Share your story idea with Ryan.
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This President's Day, a rural metro community is celebrating it's connection to the nation's first president, George Washington.
"Tony was very much admired and respected," Carolyn Clark, a family history researcher from Garden City, Missouri, said. "Minnie intended to be a teacher."
According to local historians and archives, Thornton "Tony" Augustine Washington, and his sister, Marian "Minnie" Wallace Washington, made their way to rural Missouri during America's westward expansion.
Tony and Minnie Washington were the great-great-niece and nephew of George Washington and they are often confused as the children of George Washington.
"Where people would come from the east was farmland," she said. "There was an abundance of it and people would come and settle," Cass County Historian Jennifer Reed said. "If you brought industry, people would follow."
They are not direct descendants, Clark told KSHB 41. It gets somewhat confusing tracing back George Washington's family tree.
Tony, Minnie, and the oldest child, Kate were the children of Daniel and Lucy Washington. Daniel is the great, great-grandson of George Washington's brother, Samuel.
George Washington did not have children of his own.
"Tony and Minnie's family moved out here when they were fairly young," Reed said.
Tony, Minnie, and Kate found themselves setting up shop in Index, Missouri, a small town about 10 miles east of Garden City in southeastern Cass County.
Kate suddenly passed away and is buried in the Index Cemetery.
"When the railroad stopped running through there, it kind of dried up," Reed said. "So Tony and Minnie moved to Garden City."
Tony and Minnie did not have children of their own and Tony is remembered as the beloved postmaster, woodworker, and even a pharmacist.
Clark says Minnie attended a few classes at the college in Warrensburg and had aspirations to teach. When their two parents became ill, she quit taking college courses and often found herself in financial struggles.
"There were some talks within Washington, D.C. and Congress of giving the descendants of George Washington some reparations for land that George Washington had given to help pay off the debts of early America," Reed said. "Unfortunately, those didn't go anywhere. Tony and Minnie, as they got older, didn't really have much. So the people of Garden City took it upon themselves to give a little plot of land and a little house for them to live in."
That plot still has a house on it today. Not the original home, but a new one that's on Spruce Street in Garden City.
"It wasn't much," Reed said. "They [the Garden City Community] recognized who these folks were in relation to the founding of our country and they wanted to honor them since the federal government opted not to."
The well-loved Washington's still have a presence around Garden City.
A monument in front of the current post office, a headstone in the local cemetery, and a group of people wanting to share their selfless legacy.
“It's a point of pride, not that," Clark said. "they were here, they were part of the community and allowed the community an opportunity to be the very best they could be for their fellow humans.”
As the story goes, George Washington was offered a seat on the throne in 1782 and declined. Had Washington accepted, the siblings who lived in Garden City, Missouri, would have been royalty.
"To think, we had someone right here who could have been royalty." Clark said. "I'm sure they knew it, but yet they did not reflect that in any way. They had no pretensions, no feelings of grandeur regarding their family history."
Clark said the lesson Tony and Minnie taught the people of Garden City was how to unite around kindness and not expecting anything in return.
"It can speak to people that need to hear it, Clark said. "It isn't always someone else that can fix the situation. Everyone has to work together to fix the situation. George Washington was not alone in that. Minnie and Tony were not alone. Garden City showed them that.”
The address of the Garden City Cemetery where Minnie and Tony's headstone can be seen is 37012 State Hwy N, Garden City, Mo. 64747.
For more information on the Cass County Historical Society, click here.