USA > Virginia > Fairfax County > Fairfax County > Industrial and historical sketch of Fairfax County, Virginia > Part 3
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3.5
Great Falls of the Potomac.
FAIRF A X COU 4 N T £ Y.
Old Dranes- ville: Bridge.
Chesapeake Bay. In 1648 the isolated settlements which had been made at Chicoen, on the shores of the lower Potomac. were organized into another county, with the name of Northumberland. The boundaries of this county were defined as embracing all that territory lying between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers and extending from the Chesapeake Bay to the head- waters of said rivers, high up in the Alleghany Mountains. This was known as the "Northern Neck." and by inheritance became the sole possession of Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax, through a royal grant of Charles II to his grandfather, Thomas, Lord Culpeper. With the rapid accession of immi- grants from the mother country, the tide of colonization advanced steadily up the rivers and their tributaries, and in 1653 was organized the county of Westmoreland. From Westmoreland, in 1673, was formed the county of Stafford. From Stafford. in 1730, was organized the county of Prince William, and from Prince William, in 1742, was formed the county of Fairfax. This county, when first founded, was one of the frontier counties of the State. It then extended from the Potomac and Occoquan Rivers to the Blue Ridge Mountains, and included within its boundaries the present counties of Londoun and Alexandria. From the signing of the treaty of Fontainebleau in 1762, the settlers in Fairfax enjoyed comparative safety from Indian depredations. Settlements spread, and the settlers experienced a period of great prosperity. Captain John Smith's predictions were more than verified. The country proved to be a highly favored and inviting one, and in due course of time progressive and intelligent settlers began to locate here. The broad Potomac and its tributaries were well stocked with fish and
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F A I R F A X COUNT Y.
Capt. Franklin Sherman's Residence. Built by Lord Fairfax.
water-fowl, and wild game of every description abounded on land. Not only was the soil then, as now, rich and productive. but it was soon found to con- tain mineral deposits : and one of the first iron furnaces in America was established at Colchester, in this county, where, during the Revolutionary War, John Ballentine manufactured cannon and other munitions of war for the American army.
The Hon. William Fairfax. a cousin to the Lord Proprietor, who had es- tablished a home ( Belvoir ) on a large tract of land just below Mount Ver- non, and George Brent and William Fitzhugh, the first land agents on the North American continent, were empowered to sell and issue patents for all unsettled lands in the "Northern Neck." Muy of these patents, written on parchment and signed by his Lordship, well preserved, are still in the pos- session of the descendants of the original patentees; and in some instances parts of the lands originally granted, are still held by the descendants of the original grantees.
Early Settlers.
The early settlers in what is now Fairfax County were the Fairfaxes, Washingtons, Masons. Brents. Broadwaters. Fitzhughs, McCartys, Hooes,
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Alexanders, Wests, Dudleys, Grahams, Coffers, Tripletts, Turleys, Paynes, Ellzeys, Carlyles, and others; and nearly all these names are to-day repre- sented in the county by the descendants of these original settlers. These were the men who, two and a half centuries ago, marked the bounds of the home- steads, laid the hearth-stones, established the neighborhoods, and assisted in erecting the altars of a great Commonwealth. They felled the forests, whose leaves the autumn winds had been scattering for centuries, and prepared the virgin soil for corn and tobacco. The timber being of little value, the trees were "girdled," and when dead, were felled, cut into logs, rolled together in great heaps and burned. The "burnings" not only made red the skies of the autumn evenings, but afforded for the resident and neighboring negroes occa- . sions for great jollification. With Old Jamaica and other kindred grogs. night was made hideous with African jollity.
Tobacco.
From the first, tobacco was the staple product of the soil. It was deemed by the early planter the sine qua non of his existence. Its production, supply, demand and price, were the all-absorbing topics on every occasion. It was interwoven with every thread of early Fairfax life. Acts of the Legislature of the province were passed regulating its culture, and one prerogative of the vestry of the Established Church was to appoint "Processioners" to. make and return an enumeration of all the tobacco plants in the parish. The salaries of the ministers and civil officers were paid in the "weed." Notes represent- ing tobacco in the warehouses were the currency of the county. The salary of a minister was 16.000 pounds of tobacco per annum, which varied in valuie from $200 to $400. The salaries of the members of the House of Burgesses, and all court charges and fines, were paid in tobacco. The sheriff was paid for whipping a person, twenty pounds; for putting an offender in the stocks, ten pounds ; for pillorying a person, twenty pounds; for ducking a scolding woman, twenty pounds, and for hanging a felon, two hundred and fifty pounds. The clerk of the court received for recording a deed, one hundred and fifty pounds ; for probating a will, fifty pounds, and for issuing a marriage license, twenty pounds. The members of the House of Burgesses each re- ceived one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco per day for his services, and the travelling expenses of each member for Fairfax County to and from Williamsburg were 1,440 pounds. A fine of fifty pounds of tobacco was levied against him who absented himself from divine service for the space of . two months. Thus tobacco, for many years, was the main hope and wealth of the people. So important was this commodity that the General Assembly ordered the erection of commodious warehouses at Occoquan "Ferry," and on the Potomac River at the mouth of Great Hunting Creek. Here all the to- bacco coming in by the various "Rolling" roads had to be stored for inspec- tion. These two points were made ports of entry, and soon became busy marts of traffic, sending out for many years, by ships of foreign ports, cargoes
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Distant View of the Town of Fairfax
FAIRFAX COU N T Y.
Public School. Fairfax.
of tobacco and other valuable products. From this small beginning in 1748 sprang the city of Alexandria, then within the bounds of Fairfax. The land dedicated for it was vested in the Right Honorable Thomas. Lord Fairfax, the Hon. William Fairfax. George William Fairfax. Richard Osborne, Law- rence Washington, Wm. Ramsey, John Carlyle, John Pagan, Gerrard Alex- ander. Hugh West. and Philip Alexander. The Occoquan "Ferry" ware- house was in the town of Colchester, which was incorporated in 1753. The charters of both towns contained very much the same provisions, and were secured by the influence of Major Lawrence Washington (a brother of General Washington), who then represented Fairfax County in the House of Burgesses.
The Ducking Stool.
In the foregoing sketch it is stated that twenty pounds of tobacco was the sheriff's fee for ducking a scolding woman. The ducking stool. as an in- strument of punishment, like the common law, came down to us from our English ancestors. We read of this mode of punishment in the English chronicles of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Scolding women in that time were deemed offenders against the public peace. Blackstone, in his "Commentaries on the Laws of England," treats of the common scold in his chapter on "Public Wrongs." In his classification of nuisances, he says : "Lastly, a common scold. communis riratrix, is a public nuisance to her neigh- borhood. She may be indicted, and if convicted, placed in a certain engine
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FAI R F A X COUN
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Public School, Accotink.
of correction, called the trebuckett castigatory, or cucking stool, which in the Saxon language is said to signify the scold stool, though now it is frequently corrupted into ducking stool, because the residue of the judgment is that when she is placed thereon she shall be plunged in water for her punish- ment." Mission, in his "Travels in England," in the seventeenth century, writes: "The way of punishing scolding women is pleasant enough. They fasten an arm-chair to the ends of two beams, twelve or fifteen feet long, and parallel to each other, so that these two pieces of wood, with their two ends, embrace the chair, which hangs between them upon a sort of axle, by which means it plays freely, and always remains in the natural horizontal position in which the chair should be, that a person may sit conveniently in it, whether you raise it or let it down. They set up a post on the bank of a pond or river, and over this post they lay, almost in equilibrium, the two pieces of wood. at one end of which the chair hangs over the water." The poets of this time made their thrusts at the ducking stool. Butler, in his "Hudibras," says :
"March proudly to the river side. And o'er the waves in triumph ride."
In 1780 West wrote a complete poem on the stool, the whole philosophy of which lies in the following couplet :
"No brawling wives, no furious wenches, No fire so hot but water quenches."
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FAIRFA £ X COU N
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Interior of Public School Building, Accotink
Quaint Laws.
Some of the laws enacted in the early days of the Colony were strangely out of harmony with present conditions. In 1662 it was declared that "Every person who refuses to have his child baptized by a lawful minister shall be emerced 2,000 pounds of tobacco, half to the parish, half to the informer."
Again : "Church Wardens shall present, at the County Court, twice every year, in April and December, such misdemeanors of swearing, drunkennes>, fornication, etc., as by their own knowledge or common fame have been com- mitted during their being Church Wardens."
Hog stealing in the olden times was punished with great severity. The law on this subject provided that "To steal or unlawfully to kill any hog that is not his, on sufficient proof, the offender shall pay to the owner 1,000 pounds of tobacco, and as much to the informer; and in case of inability, shall serve two years, one to the owner and one to the informer." In 1679 this law was enlarged as follows: "The first offence of hog stealing shall be punished according to the former law; upon a second conviction, the offender shall stand two hours in the pillory, and lose his ears; and for the third offence, he shall be tried by the laws of England, as in case of felony."
The law in relation to the ducking stool, whipping post, stocks and pillory was as follows: "The court in every county shall cause to be set up near the courthouse, a pillory, a pair of stocks, a whipping post, and a ducking stool, in such place as they shall think convenient; which not being set up
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F. A I R FAX
COUNT
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Public School. Falls Church.
within six months after the date of this act. the said court shall be fined 5,000 pounds of tobacco." Again it was provided that ", All ministers officiating in any public cure, and six of their family, shall be exempt from public taxes."
In 1662 it was enacted that "Every master of a ship or vessel that shall bring in any Quaker to reside here, after July next. shall be fined 5,000 pounds of tobacco. to be levied by distress and sale of his goods, and enjoined to carry him, her, or them. out of the country again."
In 1755. the year of the Braddock war. this Act was passed by the General Assembly: "That the sum of ten pounds shall be paid by the Treasurer of the Colony to any person or persons for every Indian enemy above the age of twelve years by him or them taken prisoner, killed or destroyed within the limits of the Colony at any time within the space of two years after the end of this Assembly."
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F A I
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Public School.
Oakton.
Courts and Quaint Court Records.
The monthly County Court system of Fairfax County obtained for two hundred and seventy-five years-from 1628 until it was abolished by the late Constitutional Convention in 1903.
While a colony, and after it became a county, the first sessions of the court were probably held in the town of Colchester. The first minutes of the court were lost, or have not been preserved. The first entry on the minute-book of the court was made at a session held in the town of Col- chester in the year 1742. This was an order of the court removing the county records from Colchester to the new courthouse, which had been built on the old Braddock road, less than two miles north of the present town of Vienna. On account of the active hostilities of the Indians, the county seat, within a few years, was removed to Alexandria, then a part of Fairfax County. where the County Court was held until the third Monday in April, 1800, when its first session was held in the present courthouse. Among the gentle- men who served the county as justices were: William and George Fairfax. George Washington, Lewis Elzy, Chas. Broadwater, Jolin West, Daniel McCarty, John Turley, and others. The clerks of the Court from the found- ing of the county to the removal of the courthouse from Alexandria to its present site, in their order of service, were: ' Catesby Cooke, John Graham, Peter Wagoner, and George Deneale. All county officials were then re- quired to take this oath: "We do declare that there is no transubstantiation
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F A I RFAX COUNT Y.
Public School, Vienna.
in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper or in the Elements of Bread and Wine at or after consecration thereof by any means whatsoever. I declare that I will act conformably to the doctrines and discipline of the Church of Eng- land."
There is much in the records of the court of Fairfax County to interest the antiquarian. The quaint orders of court. and the lengthy and peculiar wills of the old-time people, reflect in no small degree, the customs and prac- tices of our people two centuries ago.
The last will and testament of General Washington was admitted to record in the County Court of Fairfax County. January 20, 1800. This docu- ment contains over one thousand words, and is recorded in Liber H, No. I, folio I. The original paper is in the handwriting of Washington, and, as elsewhere stated, is sacredly preserved in a glass-covered case stored in a fire-proof vault, where hundreds of people annually come to view it.
Not only the last wills of Washington, Mason, and other distinguished Fairfax citizens, who were conspicuous in the civil, military and political life of the county and State a century ago, but the quaint orders and other records of the old-time court, as seen in old minute books, attract the atten- tion and arouse the interest of every one in any way imbued with the anti- quarian spirit. These orders, or minutes, while bearing no connected rela- tion to each other, are interesting from the fact that they often refer to people more or less noted in the history of the county, -and afford some idea of the men and events of those early days. Many of these orders the writer
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FAIRFAX COUN T Y.
Residence of Mr. J. S. Pearson.
would be pleased to give, but the limitation of time and space under which he writes will not permit, therefore let a few extracts, taken at random from these old minute books, suffice.
Under date of May 21, 1760, the followings report of the grand jury was recorded :
"We present George William Fairfax, George Washington, John Carlyle, Daniel French, Robert Bogges, Catesby Cocke, Townsend Dade, Subill West, Gerrard Alexander, Jemima Minor, William Ramsey, Benjamine Grayson, George Mason, John Plummer, Daniel McCarty, and Abraham Barnes for not entering their wheel carriages agreeably to law as appears to us by the list delivered to the Clerk of the County."
These were the most prominent people of the county. If any one reading these lines should conclude from the foregoing transcript that the "Immortal George" and his prominent neighbors were "tax-dodgers," if he is now, or should be in the future, guilty of the same sin, let him console himself with the thought that "History is only repeating itself."
In the olden time the Court fixed the rates to be charged for public en- tertainment (including drinks of every kind and stableage for horses) by the inn-keepers. These rates, as fixed by the Court, had to be posted at least six feet high on the door of every inn in the county. The following is taken from the schedule of rates ordered by the Court, March 20, 1755:
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FAIRFAX COUNT Y.
"For a hot diet with small beer or cider IS. od. For a cold diet. os. 6d.
For a quart of Madeira 2S. 6d. For a gill of rum made into punch with loaf sugar os.
6d. For ditto with brown sugar os. od.
For a gallon of corn or oats.
os.
4d.
Stableage and fodder for a horse 24 hours or one night, os. 6d. For a night's lodging with clean sheets, 6d., otherwise nothing."
During the years 1755-6. many gentlemen produced in court their military commissions. and took the oath required by law. Many indictments were found against prominent citizens for not keeping certain roads in order, and for not attending church regularly.
Jeremiah Moore, after making various bequests in his will, adds: "All the remainder of my estate I give unto my beloved wife, Lydia Moore, But she shall not be required to take out letters of administration, give any security or have any appraisement, whatever the law may say to the con- trary notwithstanding, for I have more confidence in her justice, integrity and uprightness than in all the Courts that ever set, either in this Commonwealth or elsewhere."
One lady willed numerous locks of her hair to be made into mourning rings to be worn by her relatives, and also adds: "I will and bequeath my
Old Colvin Run Mill, Built 1794.
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Battlefield of "Chantilly."
F A I
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"Vauxcluese" Residence of Prof. E. F. Andrews
stand to-, but the top at present does not on its bottom," evidently meaning that "the top at the present does not stand on the bottom."
Wm. H. Foote, at one time a prominent man here, and believed to be the ancestor of Senator Foote. of Mississippi, when old, married a young and beautiful girl, and these clauses are found in his will: "I will and bequeath the balance of my estate to my wife for and during her widowhood and her natural life, with the horses, &c. If, however, she cease to be my widow or marry again, she must account for all these things and take her dower at law. It is not my purpose to give any Cur a sop." In this same will the kindly feeling existing between master and servant is plainly shown by the following extracts: "My slaves I recommend to the kindness and care of my wife and Executor. . . . I give to the grown ones twenty dollars per annum being males, and ten to females. . . . I can not emancipate them in this State, and I know not where to send them, they must therefore look to my dear wife as their protector, . . . she and my Executor will do them justice and friendship. Bob Foy is one of nature's nobility. In 46 years of .
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trust I have never found him in falsehood or prevarication; for truth, faith and honesty he could have no superior. He must receive $25 per annum . from my wife and end his days where he now is. . . . All my. servants are good, trusty and true, and I bid them a long farewell with a sorrowful heart." Many more interesting transcripts from these old records could be taken, but space will not permit.
Washington's Wealth.
General Washington, at the time he prepared his last will and testament, July 9, 1799, was not only the most extensive farmer, but one of the richest men in the United States. To his will he attached a schedule, setting out in detail, with full explanatory notes, the location, kind and value of all the property owned by him, except the slaves, and the real estate held by him on his Fairfax plantation. Without any attempt to present an exact copy, ex- cept as to quantity and price, this schedule is as follows :
3,666 acres in Loudoun and Faquier Counties, valued at. $38,556
2,236 acres in Berkley County, valued at. 44,720
571 acres in Frederick County, valued at. II.420
240 acres in Hampshire County, valued at 3.600
400 acres in Gloucester County, valued at. 3.600
373 acres in Nansemond County, valued at 2.984
9.744 acres on the Ohio River, valued at. 97,440
23.341 acres on the Great Kanahwa, valued at. 200,000
1,119 acres in Charles and Montgomery Counties, Md .. 9.828
234 acres in the Great Meadows, Pennsylvania, valued at 1,40.4
1.000 acres in New York, valued at. 6,000
3.051 acres in the Northwest Territory, valued at. 15.251
5,000 acres in Kentucky, valued at. 10,000
Making a total of 50,975 acres of land, valued at. $4444.803
Io lots in the cities of Alexandria and Washington 23.132
2 lots in Winchester. 400
I lot at Warm Springs 800
Aggregate value of real estate outside of Fairfax $469,135
Stocks and bonds, valued at ..
25.212
Personal property, excepting slaves, on Fairfax farms 15,653
Great Dismal Swamp interest, valued at
20,000
Grand total. $530,000
In addition to the above, the General owned 5,500 acres of land in Fairfax County. This land was divided into four farms, as follows: Clifton Neck or River Farm, of 2.000 acres; Mansion House Farm, of 1,200 acres; Union
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Farm, of 1,000 acres, and Dogue Run Farm, of 1,300 acres. To cultivate these, he kept constantly employed some 250 to 300 negroes. In 1787 we find this memorandum of his farm operation: 580 acres in grass, 400 acres in oats, 700 acres in wheat, 700 acres in corn, with several hundred acres in barley, buckwheat, potatoes, peas, beans, and turnips. Washington's live stock consisted at this time of 140 horses, 120 cows, 226 work oxen, heifers and steers, 500 sheep, and almost numberless hogs running at large in the woodlands and marshes. In this year he slaughtered 150 hogs for the use of his family and negroes.
As late as 1854 there were only three white families living on the 5,500 acres formerly owned by Washington; now there are some forty families, who cultivate and own farms which were originally a part of the Washington property, ranging in size from 25 to 300 acres, with values from fifty to five hundred dollars per acre.
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Distinguished Fairfax Citizens
George Washington.
Among the early settlers of Fairfax County were men who, by their energy, good sense, and strength of character, not only left a lasting impress for good on the communities in which they established their primitive homes, but men who bore a conspicuous and important part in the making of the State and Nation.
George Washington, the true patriot, the brave soldier, the wise states- man and model citizen, settled in Fairfax County in his early manhood. Mount Vernon, his home, situated in this county, on the beautiful Potomac, was inherited from his brother, Lawrence Washington, who died July 22, 1752. He was engaged for several years in the French and Indian wars; but while the harassing cares of his Indian campaigns had taken his attention from his beautiful estate, yet these cares had not wholly monopolized his thoughts. If the veil of romantic tradition, hanging over this time, could be lifted, a pleasing story of love and courtship would be revealed. The charin- ing widow Custis had won the heart of him who was destined to become the world's greatest hero. On the 17th day of January, 1759, at St. Peter's Church, near the bride's home in New Kent County, Virginia, amid a joyous throng of relatives and friends, Martha Custis, formerly Martha Dandrigde, the charming belle of the vice-regal court of Williamsburg, became the bride of George Washington. At this home (the "White House") the honey- moon was spent, and it was not until the budding of the trees on the Fairfax plantation announced the approach of spring, that they took up their resi- dence in the Mount Vernon home, of which Washington, in a letter to a friend, stated: "No estate in America is more pleasantly situated." This home was no strange place to him. When his brother Lawrence came up from the lower Potomac to Mount Vernon, George came with him, and here he remained until Lord Fairfax needed his services in establishing. with compass and chain, the metes and bounds of his extensive possessions in the Shenandoah Valley. With angling rod and gun he had roamed, time and again, over the vast domain of his brother, until there was hardly a spot that had not known his presence. Soon after the return of Washington with his bride to Mount Vernon, he wrote to a friend: "I am now, I believe, fixed in this seat, with an agreeable partner for life, and I hope to find more hap- piness in retirement than I ever experienced in the wide, bustling world."
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Washington's Sixteen-Sided Barn.
With this sentiment dominant in his mind, Washington set to work, making many improvements and additions to the former residence of his brother. He built commodious barns and outhouses ; added by purchase many acres to his already large estate, and engaged in agriculture in the most careful, sys- tematic and extensive manner. As a farmer Washington was not satisfied to follow the methods prevailing among his neighbors and friends; but at an early period in his farming operations, he put into use new and better meth- ods of farm practice. He carly adopted a valuable and methodical system of crop rotation. He planted orchards of the best fruit then known; em- ployed the newest and best farm implements, the best seed, and most im- proved stock then obtainable.
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