Presidents Day is Monday. For most Americans, the federal holiday has become associated with Presidents Day sales during which retailers mark down kitchen appliances and clothing as a way to clear out their stock of winter merchandise.

For parents, it’s a day to scramble for alternative child care because schools — along with banks, post offices and government agencies — are closed giving bureaucrats, postal carriers and bank tellers a three-day weekend.

But the third Monday of February is set aside to remember the nation’s presidents, especially the first one. The holiday started out being called Washington’s Birthday after President George Washington, whose birth date was Feb. 22, 1732.

According to the History Channel, Presidents Day began in 1800. Following the death of George Washington in 1799, his Feb. 22 birthday became a perennial day of remembrance.

At the time, Washington was revered as the most important figure in American history, and events such as the 1832 centennial of his birth and the start of construction of the Washington Monument in 1848 were cause for national celebration.

It was an unofficial holiday until 1879 when President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a law making it a federal holiday, at first only in the District of Columbia. But in 1885, it was expanded to the whole country.

Sen. Robert McClory of Illinois can be credited or blamed for changing Washington’s Birthday to Presidents Day. He championed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act that moved several federal holidays to Monday.

It created more three-day weekends for workers but combined Washington’s Birthday observance with that of President Abraham Lincoln’s, whose birthday was Feb. 12, a date observed as a state holiday by Illinois, the birthplace of the Great Railsplitter.

While some said the new Presidents Day would give equal recognition to two of the nation’s most famous statesmen, others said shifting holidays from their original dates would cheapen their meaning.

And it’s hard to argue Presidents Day is observed less by contemplating the efforts of Washington to ensure the success of the fledgling nation and Lincoln’s fight to preserve the Union and more as a reason to sleep late Monday before heading out to buy a blender on sale.

Which is a shame because the Father of Our Country has ties to Butler County, said retired county Judge Martin O’Brien, a member of the Washington’s Trail 1753 organization.

The group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose aim is to teach and commemorate Washington’s 1753 trip from Williamsburg, Va., to the French Fort LeBoeuf in what is now Waterford, Pa.

“The group formed in 2002 and that was to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Washington’s trip through Butler County and Western Pennsylvania,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien said Washington, then age 23 and recently appointed a major in the Virginia militia, undertook the trip during the winter to deliver a letter from the Virginia governor demanding the French withdraw from what the British saw as their land.

“It was all wilderness at the time,” said O’Brien of the area Washington would traverse.

“Washington landed at Logstown on the Allegheny River and then went north and east coming across Butler County through what would become Zelienople, Harmony and Evans City,” said O’Brien. Traveling with Christopher Gist, a colonial explorer and military scout, and four Native Americans, Washington’s party “probably went through what is now Moraine State Park, Slippery Rock and Franklin,” O’Brien said.

After delivering his letter to the French, Washington and his party turned homeward.

Washington escaped death twice on the return trip from Fort LeBoeuf to Virginia.

O’Brien said that near a place called “Murthering Town (Murdering Town),” believed to be on the Connoquenessing Creek between Harmony and Evans City, one of the party’s Native American guides who was walking ahead of Washington and Gist turned and fired on them.

“Fortunately, he missed both of them,” said O’Brien, who added that Gist wanted to kill the guide, but Washington instead sent the guide back to his home.

O’Brien said Gist and Washington also narrowly escaped death when they tried to cross the Allegheny River and fell off their raft and nearly drown. They spent the night on an island and finished crossing the river on the frozen ice the next day.

O’Brien said Washington made seven trips to Western Pennsylvania, but it isn’t believed he traveled through Butler County again.

Of the trip through Butler County, O’Brien said, “I think it really was the forerunner of his military experiences and the diplomatic talents required of the president.”

In commemoration of Washington’s journey, the Jennings Environmental Education Center, 2951 Prospect Road, Brady Township, will host its 20th Annual George Washington Cherry Pike Hike on Feb. 25 with timed hikes beginning at 9 a.m. and running throughout the day. Participants can choose from a 7-mile hike on the North Country Trail, two nature walks in the state park, and six history hikes featuring a reenactment of the musket shot the almost killed Washington. Participants can also interact with history authors Jason Cherry and Brady Crytzer, visit with French and Indian War reenactors to learn about their clothing and equipment, and enjoy a piece of cherry pie.

Reservations are required by Feb. 23, and a $3 cash donation at the door is requested. To register for a hike, go to events.dcnr.pa.gov or call the center at 724-994-6011 between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Abraham Lincoln’s connection to Butler County is more tenuous, but there is a faint one.

Jerry Schwab, of Butler, a retired steel service company worker, said a distant relation of his, Charles Henry Veil, his great-great uncle on his mother’s side, gained the notice of Lincoln during the Civil War. Veil was born near Johnstown in 1842.

“He was a military volunteer during the Civil War,” said Schwab. “He became an orderly to Major Gen. John F. Reynolds who was shot off his horse during the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

“He (Veil) pulled his body off the battlefield,” said Schwab. “He discovered shortly after that Reynolds was dead.”

“The Confederates were 50 yards away and charging toward them,” he said. “They were yelling ‘Leave the body! Leave the body!’”

Reynolds’ sisters were very appreciative of what Veil did for their brother and brought him to the attention of Lincoln. The general’s youngest sister, Eleanor, obtained an audience with Lincoln and persuaded him to appoint Veil to the officer ranks of the regular military.

“He got promoted to a second lieutenant in the First Cavalry,” Schwab said. “Gen. Reynolds’ family was very interested in what happened to Veil.”

Veil served the remainder of the war under Gen. Phil Sheridan and eventually was promoted to major for “gallant and meritorious service during the war.”

After the war, Schwab said Veil stayed in the military helping to tame the Arizona Territory and fighting Native Americans while meeting Cochise.

Veil hand wrote his memoirs in the 1890s. Someone later transcribed his handwritten notes, since lost, into typewritten pages, said Schwab, which passed down through his mother’s family. Schwab said editor Herman J. Viola got access to Veil’s notes to form the basis for his book, “The Memoirs of Charles Henry Veil.”

Schwab said he can’t recall a lot of talk about his ancestor when growing up in Camp Hill, Pa.

“If they did, I don’t remember,” he said. “I wish I could go back 30 years and talk to my mother and grandmother. I’d get them to sit down and write everything they could remember.”

His wife, Joanne Schwab, said they didn’t know a book had been written about Veil. “His cousin sent him a letter about the Charles Veil book.”

The Schwabs have custody of two sets of Veil’s typewritten notes, as well as other documents about Veil’s life. “I’m not sure what to do with them,” Jerry Schwab said, adding he might look into donating them to a historical society.