USA > Virginia > Fairfax County > Fairfax County > Colchester Colonial Port on the Potomac > Part 10
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In such fragmentary glimpses of everyday life in the past, the modern reader does not discover the entire story. The cause of the quarrel, which seemed to center around a lost pocketbook and a lady in Pohick churchyard, was never clearly stated and no one can tell whether Belt suffered unjustly. This miniscule drama does, however, offer a glimpse of human foibles which ordinarily receives no mention in formal history.
A New and Elegant Road
George Mason was concerned with the prospect of a new road which would re- place the King's Highway. This discouraging possibility would mean bypassing his Colchester ferry. He regarded the proposal with disfavor, saying that "The Scheme of a new Road from Dumfries to Alexandria was originally, I belive, a Contrivance of Colo. Harry Lee's, to induce some Quakers, to whom he sold the Mills, to offer him a high price for some of his adjacent Lands. " 15
Although this road was not built during Mason's lifetime, it did materialize through the efforts of one of the Quakers at Occoquan Mills. On August 19, 1805, communication appeared in the Alexandria Daily Advertiser:
This day the mail stage from this place to Dumfries will commence running on the new road by Occoquan instead of the old route by Colchester. This new road leads off from the old road a little north of Pohic Church, crosses over Pohic Creek on a new and substantial bridge, passes through a well cultivated country to Occoquan, one of the most romantic, interesting places that can be conceived ...
Certain residents nearer the mouth of the Occoquan took this announcement as a straw in the wind. Within a fortnight one Alexander Gordon, "formerly tavern keeper at Woodbridge .... opened a house of entertainment at Occoquan Mills ... on Mr. Ellicott's new road ... a view of the different works at Occoquan will always be amusing to the stranger who has an hour to spare."16
Others vehemently opposed the route. A gentleman who signed himself "One of the Community" wrote a highly indignant letter, published on September 4th, maintaining that the mill road was three or four miles longer and certainly no better. "At each point where it has been taken from the post road, special pains have been bestowed to lead off
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the unsuspicious stranger - a spacious avenue smooth as a bowling green invites him to enter and lest this should not be enough, a handsome signpost has been planted encroaching on the post road to keep it out of view." Once out of sight of the post road, the quality of the new route was not maintained.
The writer argued that the distance from Boston to Charleston was 1, 162 miles and that if only half of the mill owners along the route followed Ellicott's example by routing travelers past their door, the resultant detours would add another 230 miles to the journey. The proprietor of the mills, he noted, also held the mail contract. His new road was not legally a post route, which the road through Colchester was designated, and the county court had refused to support it "because it benefited only Ellicott."
The new route was narrower, scarcely 18' wide, and descended so precipitously to Occoquan that vehicles were unable to pass. One such confrontation, when the stage- coach going downhill met a wagon coming up, created an impasse resolved only by unloading the wagon, removing the wheels and totally dismantling the body. In con- clusion the writer further defended the Colchester crossing. "The only place on the post road which needs a bridge is at Colchester, and here travelers pass on an excellently strong and safe bridge 650' long."
"One of the community" did not, of course, have the last word. The first author extolled the virtues of the new route, calling it "the best road I ever saw," defending its width and safety, and claiming it cut 45 minutes from the stage time between Alexandria and Dumfries.
The only proper thing to measure roads by is the time it takes the traveller to pass them. If the new road is not so good as the old one and is farther, few will be found to travel it: if, on the contrary, the new road is found better, and can be travelled sooner and with more ease, (as is the case) the traveller will surely enter it, more especially when he reflects on the genteel reception he will meet with at Mr. Gordon's tavern at Occoquan; if, by the by, he has not first to obtain leave from the proprietor of the Colchester bridge and tavern. 17
Although one can assume that the writer was not entirely disinterested, his opening argument has a curiously prophetic ring. How many drivers today choose, for example, the direct but traffic-clogged Route 1 between Alexandria and Dumfries rather than the swifter Interstate 95?
The change in the post route, claimed by the Occoquan faction as being left to the carrier's discretion rather than set by law, necessitated a side trip to deliver mail to the post office. Twice daily a boy on horseback traveled three miles from the nearest point on the post road for this purpose. Colchester's defender pointed out the inefficiency and danger of this practice. The warning proved justified when Mr. Ellicott (with what must have been considerable chagrin) placed this announcement in the paper:
MAIL LOST!
On Saturday, 16th November last, was lost from the Mail Stage, somewhere between Occoquan and Alexandria,
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The Colchester Way-Mail
As this Mail could not have got out of the Stage without assistance, and that from design, I will give ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD, to any person who will inform me who committed the act of throwing the Mail out of the Stage on that day. 18
With that final riposte the "new and elegant road" controversy vanished from the pages of the Alexandria newspaper.
Ellicott did win out. His bridge was damaged by the same storm which destroyed the Colchester bridge. It was repaired the following spring19 and the crossing at the Occoquan Mills continued to carry through traffic for many years. In 1811, the Occoquan Turnpike Company was chartered, with the enabling legislation leaving the choice of route open between the towns of Occoquan or Colchester as its southern terminus. An amendment in 1812 eliminated Colchester from consideration.20
Not until 1916, when a new railroad bridge was built and the old one converted to vehicular traffic, did the Colchester route come back into use. In 1927, the present U.S. 1 was established, crossing the Occoquan on the former railroad bridge, and thus the mainstream of north-south traffic once again returned to the once-prominent route. The most recent highway, Interstate 95, bypasses both Occoquan and Colchester.
The Transition Into Farmland
Indicative of the changing status of the town is the fact that in 1814, when John Melish first issued his Travellers Directory showing the direct routes between major cities of the United States, the stage road from Washington to New Orleans was shown as passing Occoquan Creek rather than Colchester. The town is included, however, in his list of 12 towns in Virginia which were worthy of mention. Among these were Petersburg, Hampton, Portsmouth and Newcastle.21 By 1835, when Joseph Martin brought out his Gazetteer, Colchester was omitted entirely.
Some factors leading to the decline of the town have been examined - the flood which destroyed the bridge, the diversion of the main road and the subsequent closing of the post office .. One writer has indicated that the 1807 flood also shifted the channel of the Occoquan, thus impeding loading of ships. He also mentions an epidemic of pleurisy22 as contributing to the population decline.
Sedimentation of the Occoquan certainly was one cause of Colchester's diminishing importance, as was the cessation of the flour trade down the overland route from the Shenandoah Valley and along Ox Road. As canal building gained impetus in the early nineteenth century it offered an easier means of transporting such goods to markets like Alexandria or Georgetown; the rising port of Baltimore also captured much of the trade from the hinterland. In 1815, the first regular steamboat service began on the Potomac, 23 offering direct water transport from Alexandria to the Fredericksburg area. This eliminated the necessity of using muddy roads and fording several streams along the stage route. In bad weather the road resembled a "Siberian Bog," with the mud above the horses' knees. Often the mail cart, pulled by four horses, could travel no faster than two miles in an hour . 24
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376 acres, less the 102 acre reserve (same tract sold in 1849 to
John Ratcliffe Survey
Fairfax County Deed Book L-2, p. 155.
1810
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Patent
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OX ROAD
RESERVE
BAYLY'S
102 ACRES
OCCOQUAN
A = corner of Bourne's
A
GILES RUN
MARSH
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STAGE ROAD.
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BAYLY'S SALE OF LOWER HALF OF BOURNE'S PATENT
Potter & Allison)
Beside these changed conditions of trade and transportation, there is in addition a persistent tradition of a disastrous fire which burned most of the houses in Colchester. It is said that this occurred in 1815, although there is no mention in the Alexandria paper of such a catastrophe.25 One resident, born in Colchester in 1898, stated that his grandmother had told his mother about the fire.26 Details of the story vary but the accounts are consistent in attributing the blaze to one Lizzie (or Kizzie) Reardon. One version states that she turned over a lantern, just as the O' Leary's cow did in Chicago. Another tells of her difficulty in getting anyone to gather firewood led her to declare grimly that this was one night when she would have a glorious blaze.
The land tax records show that in 1817, when a valuation was first added for buildings, there were seven pieces of property in Colchester with structures upon them. The number dropped to five in 1829 and to two by 1835. This may be contrasted with 1797, when Morse's Gazetteer stated that Colchester contained about 40 houses.
Because these tax records, which began in 1782, never referred to town lots by plat numbers, changes in the ownership of specific lots can often be traced only by venturing an educated guess. This difficulty is compounded by the fact that after 1800 those deeds which were recorded rarely mentioned a lot by number; many deeds were oral transactions. Some were in record books which have disappeared. It is nearly impossible to draw an uninterrupted chain of title for any lot in the community.27
Beginning with the year 1782, when 39 town lots were owned by 14 individuals, it is evident that two or three residents had multiple holdings. The ratio of taxable lots to numbers of owners was maintained up through the 1840's. By 1855, seven men controlled 31 lots; shortly after the Civil War three individuals owned all but four of the 30 lots still on the tax list. Colchester continued to be listed in the land tax books as a town until 1891, although its only appearance as such in the Federal Census records was for the year 1820.
In that census there were six families in the town. Only three of these appear in the tax books as owners of lots. It would seem that the census listing took in a wider neighborhood than the town proper. One lot owner, William Potter, had three lots (none with deeds recorded). He was engaged in some form of manufacturing and also in commerce. Elizabeth Bedenger probably lived on #24 and 40, purchased by her husband in 1803.28 The third was Tholemiah Berry, whose town land consisted of five parcels. Of these, one was at the crossroads and adjacent to the town. Two town lots were un- improved and two had buildings assessed at a total value of $360.29
Berry had in 1813 purchased the 3652 acres formerly owned by the Bayly family, which comprised the lower half of the original seventeenth century patent. The upper half remained in the hands of the Wagener family until after the Civil War. Before his death around 1825 Berry agreed to sell his acreage to James Potter and John Allison; the tract was divided in half but no deed was recorded until after Allison's death in 1849.30 Potter's half was the southwest quarter of the early patent. It abutted a 102 acre strip along the east line of the town. He subsequently acquired this strip and rights to four other town lots. 31 By 1861, he had nine lots and 213 acres of land nearby. 32
The total population in 1820 consisted of 21 males, 15 females and 14 slaves. Not all these people lived within the town limits.
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In 1831, a new resident, Lewis Weston, bought lot #15, originally owned by Alexander Henderson and sold to Hector Ross in 1761. Weston paid taxes in 1832 on buildings valued at $250. The property is owned by his descendants and the dwelling, much altered, seems to stand on earlier stone foundations. Weston purchased six additional lots before 1855. He owned 15 acres near the crossroads on the present Furnace Road, and 100 acres on Massey Creek where the Harbor View subdivision is located. 33
Lewis Weston played a part in a dramatic event which occurred on December 19, 1849.34 One morning he crossed to Woodbridge, seeking to borrow a canoe from Gerard Mason, and discovered his neighbor's blood-spattered body on the bed in the old Mason ferry house. "I see him lying there and the blood all around him," testified Weston at the inquest. George Mason's grandson was fully clothed except for his shoes. There was no sign of a scuffle, nor any blood on the blankets, but one ear hung loose and blood and brain matter running out of his head had soaked the thick feather bed and dripped onto the floor. "It was his habit to lie down with his overcoat on, " Weston said, "the deceased takes lolls through the day at different times."
T. M. Gossom, who had spent the night with Mason, stated that the victim had risen before dawn to climb the hill to the slave quarters. "He said 'get up and put on your young legs and go' - I put on my clothes. There was whiskey in a decanter and deceased said I must drink with him - he went in the cellar and drew more whiskey ... '." Agnes, one of his slaves, had attacked Mason with an axe. Explanations varied from self-defense to attempted rape. Another witness testified that Agnes, after the first blow, "thought she would give another lick and put him out of his misery" and claimed that Mason had tried to shoot her.
The murder caused great excitement in the area. Some landowners saw it as a conspiracy; others pled for clemency. The Governor recieved petitions for clemency and other petitions asking for a death penalty. After a two month suspension, Agnes was executed the following July and the State of Virginia paid $450 to the executors of the deceased's estate to reimburse the valuation placed upon his slave. 35After the aroused feelings among abolitionists and proslavery forces had simmered down, the neighborhood once again lapsed into uneasy peace until the outbreak of the Civil War.
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Chapter VI Notes
1 Dumfries Virginia Gazette & Agricultural Depository, April 11, 1793.
2
Shepherd, Statutes, 1, 429 (Ellicott's charter), 430 (Mason's).
3
Ibid., 11, 119.
4
Columbian Mirror & Alexandria Gazette, April 14, 1798.
5 Ibid., May 17, 1798.
6 Davis, Travels, p. 267. 7 Harrison, Landmarks, p. 496.
8 Prince William County Will Book 1-1, p. 123. Thomas Mason's inventory includes material from the bridge. A description of the stone ruins of Mason's house appeared in "With the Rambler," Evening Star (Washington), July 4, 1920.
9 Alexandria Daily Advertiser, August 15, 1807.
10 Alexandria Advertiser & Commercial Intelligencer, October 21, 1802. Ann Thompson was renting the house and stated that it was "formerly a tavern, now occupied by Dr. Blake."
11
Alexandria Daily Advertiser, April 14, 1804.
12
Alexandria Advertiser & Commercial Intelligencer, September 1, 1801.
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13 Ibid., September 15, 1801.
14 Ibid., September 22, 1801.
15 Mason, Papers, 111, 1245.
16 Alexandria Daily Advertiser, August 30, 1805.
17 Ibid., September 14, 1805.
18 Ibid., December 11, 1805.
19 Ibid., August 15, 1807; May 20, 1808. On May 12, 1809, Ellicott advertised the stage line and mail contract for sale.
20 Harrison, Landmarks, p. 592. Andrew Bartle, bridgebuilder, announced in the Alexandria Gazette & Daily Advertiser on November 21, 1818, that he planned to petition the legislature to build a toll drawbridge at Occoquan.
21 John Melish, The Travellers Directory Through the United States containing a Description of all the Principal Roads through the United States with Copious Remarks on the Rivers, and other Subjects ... , (new edit .; Philadelphia: Published by the author, 1822), p. 44. The first edition appeared in 1814.
22 Snowden, Some Landmarks, pp. 81, 82.
23
Alexandria Gazette, Commercial & Political, June 1, 1815. The first steamboat on the Potomac reached Alexandria on May 30, taking 29 hours to travel from Norfolk. On the 29th the paper reported that the ship Washington, Captain O'Neale, "destined for the Potomac," had traveled from New York in 50 hours.
24
Phenix Gazette (Alexandria), February 14, 1832.
25
Snowden, Some Landmarks, p. 82.
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26
Interview with Mr. Arthur Beach of Colchester, son of John Stonewall Beach. September 1971.
27 Statement of Courtland Davis, title examiner, in suit of Williams v. Seidell. See Ch. Il, notes #43.
28
Fairfax County Deed Book E-2, p. 58.
29 Fairfax County Deed Book U-2, p. 219. Berry's lot adjacent to town was described by previous owner John Mills in the Virginia Gazette (Dixon) on July 10, 1779, as "lying on the corner of two streets, in a good situation for business" and having a "neat, well finished storehouse and stable." Mills died in 1784 and his executors sold the lot to the firm of Hooe & Harrison. Next occupied by Lund Washington, Jr., it was sold by James Hooe to Berry in 1823.
Berry in 1819 was taxed for four lots, formerly belonging to Thomas Parsons and Cornelius Welles, Both of these men had tavern licenses from 1815 to 1818. According to the 1817 tax list Parsons was then living in Washington. A deed from Parsons to Berry is indexed in missing Fairfax County Deed Book Q-2, p. 146; this may be for lot #22, purchased by Parsons in 1808 (J-2, p. 75).
No deeds are indexed for Welles, who paid taxes 1813-1818 on a lot with buildings valued at $230.
30 Fairfax County Deed Book L-2, p. 155 and M-2, p. 282. Two tracts, totaling 17 acres were not included in the purchase. The Court Order Book in November 1825 noted that Mary Berry was made executor of her father's estate. In this capacity she sold the acreage to Potter and the Allisons, in Deed Book R-3, p. 147. John Allison died on January 15, 1849 (see Allison v. Reardon, Suspended file #1, Chancery Cases); the deed was dated August 25, 1849.
31 Fairfax County Deed Book W-2, p. 293; U-3, p. 191.
32 Ibid., U-3, p. 192; R-3, p. 146. 33 Ibid., F-4, p. 259 divides seven lots and two houses between the five Weston children. M-4, p. 173,242; O-4, p. 259; Q-4, p. 264 are the deeds from the other heirs to John Weston.
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34 Alexandria Gazette, December 23, 1849.
35 Depositions at the trial of Commonwealth v. Agnes and supporting material is filed in the Virginia State Library under the Executive Papers of Governor Floyd, also in Auditors Item #153, Slaves Executed and Transported 1845-1857.
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Hicks -
Chapter VII THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY
A Battle on the Occoquan Last Night
Although the Colchester area was largely bypassed during the events taking place along the Occoquan River in the early part of the Civil War, it was the scene of an occasional skirmish. When the Potomac was blockaded by Confederate forces in the winter of 1861-1862 a legion of Colonel Wade Hampton's Brigade had a battery at Colchester. On December 12, 1861, the U.S.S. Harriet Lane shelled a foraging party two miles above Occoquan Bay. The ship Stepping Stones went into the Occoquan to reconnoitre and "was fired at with musketry and some field pieces, which was returned from a howitzer. The vessel was hit by two or three musket balls only; got three miles up the creek ... in 4} feet of water."
On the 20th Lieutenant Wyman, of the Potomac Flotilla, reported:
I have been informed ... that a gunning sloop has been in the habit of passing around into the Occoquan, and selling whiskey ...
I am informed that the enemy's force does not extend on this side of the Occoquan River, but that they have built a fort a short distance below the Occoquan Mills.
A line of rifle pits is shown on the 1862 map.
One incident in January 1862 received wide, if contradictory, newspaper coverage. The Washington Evening Star reported on the 29th that there had been a battle between 50 men of the 37th New York and a group of Texas Rangers at Mrs. Lee's house (the Wagener homestead) at the head of Belmont Bay. According to the Star, it was "the most desperate and bloody engagement that has so far marked the history of the war." Fighting continued until all but one of the Rangers were dead; the northern loss was one killed and four wounded. "Both parties, too, stood up with equally unflinching courage; but one of the whole rebel detachment failing to sacrifice his life in the affair."
According to the Alexandria Local News, the engagement had taken place at Mr. Potter's house. He was first reported killed, then a prisoner. The paper quoted an account from the New York Herald saying that Colonel Burke of the 37th had left his picket post near the village of Accotink and gone to Colchester. "The village," stated the Herald, "consists of about half a dozen dwellings. The two houses in question were on each side of the Colchester Road one hundred and fifty yards from the Occoquan." Colonel Burke said that Mrs. Lee's house was under fire for 90 minutes. Another article steadfastly maintained that Potter's house was the scene of the fighting and that the confederates were having a dance at the time. 3
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Uld Tobacco Harose) hear Hd Zilaze.
Figure 21. Gilbert Thompson sketch of an old tobacco house near the James River, 1863. Library of Congress.
2
Figure 22. Gilbert Thompson sketch of bivouac at Colchester Ferry, 1863. Library of Congress.
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The Richmond Examiner's, account4 called it "a very spirited and gallant little affair" in which "eight Texas soldiers succeeded in putting to flight a body of fifty or sixty yankees."
A subsequent report from the Philadelphia Inquirer took the position that the Texas Rangers were not on the scene at all, but that a party of longboat men were having "a drinking frolic and stag-dance." The Alexandria paper concluded philosophically, "Certainly there have been strange stories, pro and con."
Scouting parties regularly swept through the area but most of the activity that winter took place at the crossroads at Pohick Church and at the town of Occoquan. In March Colonel Hampton reported that Union troops had attacked his pickets at Colchester and that he and the legion repelled them. 5
On June 15, 1863, Gilbert Thompson's unit was ordered to construct a pontoon bridge across the Occoquan:
About 10 clk A. M. C&D moved down to Colchester Ferry, about two miles, and built a bridge of 27 boats, assisted by the 50th New York who have left us and we are sole possessors. It is quite a pleasant situation, though not so wild as above. Some wagons, three siege ... and a large number of horses ... Our train has crossed above ... no news, no noise. It was with no considerable management that the horses were got across without straining the bridge, the most feasible way was to take two oars and cross them and walk quietly and firmly in front; but the amusing part of it was this; one head was led off by one solid, old battery horse, who though gaunt in limb, showed his drills. Two men took one oar between them to lead off when the old veteran put his breast against the oar and resolutely pushed him steadily before, they holding back with all their power. It made a great laugh. 6
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