One branch of my family, on my father’s side, did a fair amount of genealogical research in order to try to determine whether any of our ancestors in that lineage had fought in the Revolutionary war. They confirmed that at least one ancestor, a man named William Sexson, had in fact served under George Washington in the war. William had been born in Virginia, and was therefore doubly proud of his connection with General Washington, so he took every opportunity to tell his children stories about him, including the story about the cherry tree, which even then, and even though it was fictitious, was well known.
Some time after the end of the war, William moved his family, including his son Frederick Free Sexson (my direct ancestor, who appears in the family history as Free Sexson) from Grayson County, Virginia to Whitley County, Kentucky. Although the area was at that time sparsely settled, there were other families around, and young Free got to know, and become friends with, other boys of about his age.
As sometimes happens even now, boys of a certain age got together on Halloween and performed pranks that seemed like a better idea at the time than they did the following morning. This was the case on the morning of one November first, when William, obviously very angry, approached young Free and said to him, in a stern voice “Son, I’m going to ask you a question, and I want you to give me an honest answer: did you and your friends push our outhouse off the cliff last night?”
Young Free realized that he could be in serious trouble, but he remembered the story of George Washington and the cherry tree, which his father had told him many times, so he answered “Father, I cannot tell a lie. Yes, my friends and I did push the outhouse off the cliff last night as a foolish Halloween prank.” Whereupon William gave his son the worst beating of his young life.
Afterwards, young Free, with tears in his eyes, said to his father “Pa, why did you do that? I told the truth. George Washington’s father didn’t beat him after he told the truth about cutting down the cherry tree.”
William answered “Son, that is true. George Washington’s father did not beat George Washington when he told the truth about chopping down the cherry tree. But George Washington’s father was not IN the cherry tree when George Washington chopped it down.”
