1901. Stratemeyer founded the Stratemeyer Literary Syndicate, which is considered to be the most important single influence in American juvenile literature. Hiring a stable of writers, he supplied characters, plot outlines and pseudonyms for what quickly became the largest juvenile fiction publishing enterprise in the country. He alone wrote an estimated 160 book under his many pseudonyms, perhaps 60 under his own name, and outlined stories for about 800 more, supplying several generations of boys and girls with endless opportunities for harmless fun and adventure. With Washington in the West is a complete story in itself, but forms the first of several volumes to be known by the general title of Colonial Series. The main character of the book is David Morris, the son of a hardy pioneer who first settles near Will's Creek (now the town of Cumberland, Virginia), and later on establishes a trading post on one of the numerous tributaries of the Ohio River. As a boy David becomes acquainted with George Washington, then but a young man of seventeen. Washington is at work, surveying tracts of land in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, and David is glad enough to go with him as an assistant. Together they ford the rivers and creeks, and climb the mountains, and they do not separate until the ill health of Lawrence Washington compels his brother to return home. Later in the story David falls in with the Virginia Rangers and as a soldier boy becomes involved in campaigns against the French.