A reader recently reached out to share the story of her family’s one-degree-of-separation with General George Washington, on roughly the 250th anniversary of their meeting.

Paulette Clemens’ husband Darwin E. Clemens, former owner of Clem's Electric (known locally as Clem), had an ancestor, about 7 generations back, named Johann Nicholas Clemmens. He was born in Germany in 1749, and immigrated to America with his wife, Elizabeth Getts, in 1776. They were both indentured into servitude to pay off their passage, a not-uncommon arrangement in that time.

Nicholas Clemens, who went by his middle name and spelled his name Clemmens, was offered his liberty if he would serve six months for his master as a soldier, which he did, serving in the Continental Army under General Washington.

After gaining his own freedom, Clemmens served another six months to buy the freedom of his wife. He then stayed with the Continental Army until the end of the war.

Clemmens served as a favorite aide and the cook for the General for several years, with early biographies recounting a time when Washington comforted him by saying, “Cheer up, friend Nicholas. Be of good cheer. God will be with us. We will see better times soon."

At the end of the war, Washington gifted Clemmons a walking cane as a token of appreciation.

Paulette Clemens saw the story of Nicholas Clemmens written up in a Warren, Ohio newspaper several years ago and reached out to distant cousins in that town who invited their Bristol relatives to come visit and see the cane (above, at its home in Ohio). The wood from which it was made had curled around a tree and the cane features a pewter head with the initials G.W.