Jaybird's Jottings

Part Four: Reconstruction and Railroads

After the Civil War was over, civil rights measures and the election of black Congressmen gave African Americans and progressive Republicans hope for better days.   Sadly, white conservative Democrats wasted no time in passing laws that took away those rights at state levels.  

As if rising up like fortresses against the prejudice and discrimination around them, African Americans in Alexandria built churches that stand today as landmarks of the Civil Rights movements and still a strong part of the fabric of the community.  

We don't know of any particular stories in Newington during this time frame, but authors such as Scott E. Casper give us glimpses into the stories of African Americans at Mount Vernon.    In his book, "Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon," Casper tells the uplifting story of Sarah and Nathan Johnson.   Nathan and his fellow black neighbors walked the four miles to vote at Accotink.  They voted for "Radical Republicans" who would represent their interests in the State Constitution Convention.   This was the same voting place where Jonathan Roberts had courageously stared down a gun-toting election official to pave the way for a 76 to 19 vote against succession in May 1861.   The county vote tally was 942 to 289 for the breakaways.

Casper digs even deeper in, "Out of Mount Vernon's Shadow: Black Landowners in George Washington's Neighborhood, 1870–1930."   He looks at the way families held things together with the diary farms they owned and worked in this part of Fairfax County, and kept ownership in the family.  The Quanders are synonymous with Spring Bank (Quander Road), but Casper identifies others such as Henry Randall, William Robinson, and Griffin Johnson.  

At Gum Springs, Ron Chase and the museum he so proudly runs there will tell you the pride the community takes in its past and present.  

In 1870 in Fairfax County, a Board of Supervisors was formed.   Richard Nevitt, who lived in the old glebe house until it burned down in 1875, was appointed to “divide the county into townships with a view to the proper subdivision of these townships into school districts.”  Of those townships/districts — Centreville, Lee, Mt Vernon, Falls Church, Providence, and Dranesville  —  Lee, Mount Vernon, Dranesville and Providence are still around, along with Hunter Mill, Sully, Springfield, Braddock and Mason.    

Nevitt served as a Trustee of the Mount Vernon District for three years.  Nellie Nevitt taught at the Quakers Snowden school for many years and at the Potters School.  At her blog, "Backyard Mount Vernon," Tammy Mannarino provides terrific insight into the Snowden family.

Nevitt was Newington’s biggest newsmaker during this time.   A small piece in The Washington Post in 1890 quoted him recalling the visit of Edward Albert, Prince of Wales to Mount Vernon in October 1860.   The Prince, Nevitt said, was accompanied by President Buchanan, his niece and Cabinet, Lord Lyon, the English minister, the Duke of Newcastle and Mayor Barrett of Alexandria.    The Mount Vernon website tells us this marked the first time a member of the British royal family visited America and Mount Vernon.   

In 1872, the Fairfax County News reported that a handful of depot buildings had been constructed on the line of the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad, as well as “a commodious water tank capable of holding 10,000 gallons of water.   The property was owned by Nevitt.  The station there was given the name “Long Branch.”   

Nevitt made the news again in 1887 when the U.S. Navy appointed him a watchman.  Ten years later he passed away at his home in Newington.  

G.M. Hopkins’ “Atlas of fifteen miles around Washington” shows us some of Newington’s other inhabitants around that time (1878).  They include R.L. Nevitt, Sam Nevitt, Mrs. Lamoye, George Wiley, Fred Graves, Charles Landstreet, T. Landstreet, and S. Milstead.

 

The Railroads Finally Connect

In Virginia, the first form of transportation was the waterways.  Then came the dusty paths and turnpikes.   In 1840s, the iron horses of the railroads ushered in a new era.    A passenger could ride the rails from Wilmington, North Carolina to Richmond, then Fredericksburg and Aquia Creek, just north of Fredericksburg.   From there they had to board a steamer to Washington.  

In 1872, the missing link between Alexandria and Quantico was finally built.  The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad and the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway were as one.    

For almost 150 years now, the railroad cars have chugged past Newington.    As pointed out by the historical marker there, the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad opened the Long Branch Station in 1872.   The name came from the Long Branch, which parallels the railroad track before feeding into Accotink Creek.    

The station was later named Accotink and then Newington around 1954.    In his book, "The Iron Road of Franconia," Nathaniel Lee tells us the name change "better reflected the neighborhood that grew up around the station."  Some residents might recall hearing  stories of those who worked for the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac RR in its glory days.   In 1971 the railroad station was closed.  

Today, one does not have to wait too long to see a CSX or VRE trains whiz by Newington.    A ramp runs up to the site of the station, but is off limits.    Between Alexandria and Quantico, the VRE makes stops at Franconia/Springfield, Lorton, Woodbridge and Rippon.  The Lorton station is about two miles from both the Lorton and Franconia/Springfield stops and includes the popular car hold service to Sanford, Florida.

 

The Post Office, the School, and Potter's Hill

Postal service in the United States has long been taken for granted, but not so in the twentieth century.   A big day arrived in July of 1888 when Newington acquired a Post Office.   The Alexandria Gazette of July 1888 announced the news.  Henry A. Pearson (1855-1940) was the postmaster.  He was married to Mary S. Pearson (1857-1916).  Sadly, their only child, SGT. Henry Benjamin Pearson, Jr., (1918-1944) was killed in action in Normandy during the landing on Invasion Day.   He rests in peace at the Pohick Espiscopal Church Cemetery.  

It's interesting to observe that one of the first references to Telegraph Road in The Washington Post came in March 1888.    

"The citizens of Fairfax County who cross the Cameron Run Ford at the "Telegraph" road to reach this city are petitioning the County Court of the county for a bridge at that point.  The ford is a very dangerous one and numerous accidents have occurred there." 

A 1912 map of Rural Free Delivery in Fairfax County (Library of Congress) shows Newington having a Post Office.   Also seen on this map is Potter Hill School, located at the southwest corner of modern day Telegraph and Buelah Street.  

A new historical marker near the Wegman’s tells us some of the history of Potter's Hill.    The late county historian Edith Moore Sprouse had a hand in the research.   Current evidence shows there were three schools here through the years.  The original school probably dates back to 1870, when public education become mandatory under state law.  The second was a typical one-room school house used until 1916.   The teacher was Lelia Milstead.  The third school burned down in 1932.   The map on the marker, which looks like it is the Hopkins map from 1878,  shows a S. Milstead living on the east side of the intersection of Telegraph Road and Newington Road.

The marker also talks about the Potter family who used the hilltop land as a farm, sand and gravel business and a landfill.   In the late 1990s, the landfill became the Hilltop Golf Course.  The unique layout resembled a British links style course.    In recent years, the lower part of the land has become residential.

After the turn of the century, residents of Newington would began to see big changes in the land around them.    The horse and buggies would stick around for a while, but they would begin to see the coming of the cars on Telegraph Road and elsewhere.   Below them on that neck of land where the Fairfax family had lived would come an army base.    An aeroplane would fly over Shuter's Hill.    The world was getting smaller.  We pick up some of those stories in the next part.

 

 

Newington: Part Three: The Farmers Leave, the Quakers and the Telegraph Arrive, then Comes the Civil War

In Part Two, we looked at the Truro Parish and Truro Parish glebe lands and house.  We now turn the page on the century, and look at what took place in and around Newington in the antebellum period.

 

In mid-December 1799, the church bells chimed in Alexandria like they never had before.   George Washington, the town's beloved adopted son, and the most famous person in the young nation, had slipped away at Mount Vernon.  His passing and period of mourning seemed to signal the end of an era in Alexandria and Fairfax County.   The parish system had been put to rest.   The planters and the patriots Washington knew would be laid to rest in cemeteries such as the small one at the Old Friends Presbyterian Meeting House, the ones on the outskirts east of Hoof's Run, and the one at Pohick Church.   In the words of Smith and Miller, this was the end of the "Golden Epoch."   

It may be hard to believe now, but the population of Fairfax County decreased from 13,000 in 1800 to 9,200 in 1830.   Janice Artemel covers this quite well in "Fairfax County:  A History."   One factor was the depletion of soils from the tobacco days.   Some land owners sold their tracts to tenants farmers and left for greener pastures in states such as Kentucky and Ohio.    Artemel writes that by the early 1840s, much of the land was no longer cultivated.   Some turned to raising cows, sheep and pigs.  

A sign of the end of those earlier times came with the appearance of ads in the Alexandria Gazette in 1825.   Newington and Mount Air were for sale.  The ad was placed by D.P. Chichester, attorney for Sarah Chichester.   Her husband Richard had passed away in 1796.  She would join him in 1826.   

In 1828, the Nevitt family purchased the glebe house in Newington.  In his book, Don Hakenson tells us William Nevitt (1773-1866) was living in the old glebe house in 1860.    County maps confirm he owned the land, which was bordered roughly by modern day Telegraph Road to the east, Newington Road to the north, Long Branch to the west and Blanche Road to the south.

Morse's Magnetic Telegraph

If there is one road in Fairfax County that has seen a thing or two through all the years it is Telegraph Road.   Ever since the Native Americans carved it out from the wilderness, this way between the trees has been used by many to get to and from Alexandria and points northward.   The origin of its name is obvious, but we had to dig deeper than we thought to learn more about it.

In 1847, readers of the Alexandria Gazette began to see coverage of Samuel Morse and his “magnetic telegraph.”   In The South Atlantic Quarterly, Volume 16, "The Telegraph in the South," 1845-1850, the authors tells us:

"By the middle of 1848, the South had erected entirely by its own energies a “lightning way” reaching entirely to its principal cities.  Nowhere, even in the North, had three been such progress."

The General Assembly of Virginia authorized the railroad companies to erect the wooden poles and the wires.   In March, the line was completed from Washington to Alexandria, with service soon to come to Fredericksburg and beyond.   

In April came the news the connection between Alexandria and Baltimore, via Washington, had been completed.  In May, a Mr. J. Lugenbeel was appointed as the superintendent for telegraph operation in Alexandria.   Operations were to be held at the “Market Square, formerly occupied as the Clerk’s Office.

That summer, Alexandria, Washington and Baltimore exchanged messages.  The one from Alexandria began: 

Alexandria presents her respects to Washington and Baltimore, and is happy to bring them within a conversational distance by the aid of Professor Morse and his associates... 

But then came this:

... and at the same time to inform them that under the genial influences of her good old mother Commonwealth to whom she has so lately returned, after so long an absence the roses are returning to her cheeks and she is fast recovering the healthful elasticity of her early youth.

In the November 8, 1848 edition, editor Edgar Snowden told his readers the results of the Presidential election posted in his paper had come by "Magnetic Telegraph." 

It’s hard to know how popular the telegraph service was in Alexandria, but for those used to penning letters, we can imagine the frustration they felt on having to triage their words.   In effect, the first form of a tweet.     

A map from 1853 shows the charges for sending a telegraph from Pittsburgh.   In Alexandria, it was 56 cents for the first ten words, then five cents for each additional word.   Baltimore charged 40/4.   DC was 50/4.

Surprisingly, there are no historical markers along Telegraph Road.  There is one at its intersection with Route One.  

One of the first telegraph lines in the world, a part of the Washington–New Orleans Telegraph Company, was built from Washington to Petersburg in 1847. From this the road took its name.

Through the years, many folks have seen this marker.    Erected in the early 1930s, it is one of the oldest in the area.  According to Fairfax County, the marker program is the oldest such in the nation, starting in 1927.

Given a chance to put up a new marker, historians would probably not use the same wording.   In 1844, a telegraph line was completed between Washington and Baltimore and is regarded as the first in the United States.  

It should be pointed out that the newspapers used to refer to the "Old Telegraph Road," that ran from Alexandria to Richmond.    

It should also be pointed out that Fort Belvoir erected a new marker at Telegraph Road and the ramp from the Fairfax County Parkway.   The title, Telegraph Road, is a bit odd, given it is not mentioned in the marker.

 

Jonathan Roberts and The Quakers

The arrival of the telegraph line along what became Telegraph Road was not the only news maker in this part of Fairfax County in the 1840s.    Although they were not always welcomed, Quakers arrived in these parts in the middle of the 1840s.   Using paid labor, they injected new life in to the nearby village of Accotink and the Woodlawn area, both close to Newington.     

An historical marker tells us about these Quakers and the Woodlawn Quaker Meetinghouse they completed in 1853.   The meetinghouse, along with their farms, and schools created a successful community.  

It’s also hard to believe now, but Accotink was once a village and place of some note before the Quakers arrived.   Frederick Tilp (“This is Potomac River”) gives us a look at its humble beginnings in the middle of the 18^th-century.

Accotink held a unique situation.    From Williamsburg all the way up to Alexandria, a creek flowing into the Potomac had meant one thing in the colonial days - a place where planters rolled their tobacco barrels for shipment to Europe.  Tilp points out Accotink is the only (Potomac) river town established prior to the Civil War that was not dependent on tobacco. 

After the Revolutionary War, Accotink became the site of a grist mill, a fish boat wharf and a post office.  Phillip Otterback knew a good fishing spot when he saw one and set up a commercial operation at Accotink, some ten miles below Alexandria.    He employed 176 men.

The Quakers arrived in the 1840s.   Tilp notes three factors that brought them southward from Pennsylvania and New Jersey to Accotink -  demand for hardwood timber for ships, more land for their wheat farms, and their religious beliefs.    

Accotink boasted a gristmill, blacksmith shop, school, general store and post office, along with a few homes.   In 1856, James C. Hill ran a series of ads in The Alexandria Gazette.  He touted the village of Accotink as a thriving place, where Accotink creek is “at all times navigable for wood boats carrying 30 to 40 cords per load to Washington and Alexandria.”

Image:  Atlas of fifteen miles around Washington, including the county of Montgomery, Maryland.  Hopkins, Griffith Morgan, Jr., 1879.   Note:  North is oriented to the northeast.

An engineering report documented the mill’s annual output - one million sawed lumber per year, 30,000 cords of wood, 12,000 bushels of corn and wheat.   Troth’s fleet consisted of a stern-wheel steamer and four light-draught schooners. 

In his wonderful book, “Jonathon Roberts, The Civil War’s Quaker Scout and Sheriff,” Greg Wilson tells the story of Roberts, the Quakers and their Accotink story.   William Page Johnson III wrote a condensed version (“The Quaker Scout, Jonathan Roberts (1818-1901),” for the Newsletter of Historic Fairfax City, Inc., Fall 2013.  

In 1948, 40 Quaker families from New Jersey came to the area south of Alexandria.   Two of their leaders were Chalkley Gillingham and Paul Hillman Troth.  They purchased the Woodlawn Estate, a manor home completed in 1805, a wedding gift from George Washington to Martha's granddaughter Nelly,  and George's nephew Lawrence Washington.   Woodlawn is a crown jewel of the National Trust for Preservation.   

Flush with timber and cheap in prices, the land around Accotink was ripe for the picking.   The Quakers chose the spot where the main road (Route 1) runs past Accotink Creek.    Accotink stood about halfway between Alexandria and Colchester.  Before being pushed off by colonial forces, Native Americans had established a settlement there.   

True to their religious beliefs, this group of Quakers did not use slave labor.   Their jobs included millers, merchants, blacksmiths, boatmen, wheelwrights, carpenters, and farmers.

In 1848, Roberts acquired the Cedar Grove farm from William Mason McCarty, brother of Daniel McCarty III.  Before he became Sheriff, Roberts was a successful farmer.  He also helped found the Accotink Creek Navigation Company.   

Wilson also tells us about Richard L. Nevitt.  He served as Justice of the Peace in this part of the county.    Nevitt (son of William Nevitt) and his wife Rebecca, lived in the former Truro Parish Glebe house.   The county map shows him owning land to the north of this father, and Samuel E. Nevitt to the east of Telegraph Road.   Nevitt family members and descendants of the McCarty and Chichester families also owned nearby land.  A typical spread was 125 acres or so.

 

African Americans

There isn't a lot of information on African Americans in Fairfax County in the antebellum period.  But we do know it was a hellish time for those enslaved.  

In their book, “The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry,” Ned Sublette and Constance Sublette document the Domestic Slave Trade.   In 1808, the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves outlawed the practice.    But as the authors point out, planters in the Deep South needed more and more enslaved humans.    This situation created a bonanza for Upper South slave traders, who sold hundreds of thousands of enslaved humans to the sugar and cotton planters.    

It's hard to know if any enslaved humans in or around Newington met this cruel fate, but we do know it happened to Charles Ball of Calvert County Maryland.  When his owner died, his mother, father and siblings were auctioned off.  Each one went to a different owner.   In his book, he wrote:

“My poor mother, when she saw leaving her for the last time, ran after me, took me down from the horse, clasped me in her arms, and wept loudly and bitterly over me.”   

The vast majority of Newington’s white residents were likely conservative during the decades before the Civil War.  It’s possible some supported the Whig Party and Unionists in the 1850s.  Ever protective of its business community and seaport activities, Alexandria certainly supported the Whigs until push came to shove in 1861.

 

Civil War

In May 1861, the war winds blew in northern Virginia when the Union Army stepped onto Virginia soil and took control of Alexandria.   Some of the first blood fell at the southeast corner of King and Pitt Street when hotel operator James W. Jackson shot and killed Colonel Elmer Ellsworth.  Seconds later, one of Ellsworth’s Zuouves shot and killed Jackson.   Before it was taken down several years ago, a marker said the following.

The Marshall House stood upon this site, and within the building on the early morning of May 24, 1861 James W. Jackson was killed by Federal soldiers while defending his property and personal rights, as stated in the verdict of the coroners jury.  He was the first martyr to the cause of southern independence.  The justice of history does not permit his name to be forgotten.  Not in the excitement of battle, but coolly, and for a great principle, he laid down his life, an example to all, in defence of his home and the sacred soil of his native state, Virginia.  Erected by the Sons and Daughters of Confederate Soldiers.

Forgotten is an incident that took place in the village of Occoquan, just five miles south of Newington.  As reported by the New York Times, a group of Republicans that included John Underwood and African Americans, had hoisted the American flag up a pole in Occoquan, as well as the party ensign bearing the names of Lincoln and Hamlin.   

Underwood, educated in New York, was the kind of “carpetbagger” Southerners despised.   Pro-abolition, he had joined the Liberty Party in the 1840s.  Like the Quakers, Underwood farmed with free labor.   His pubic actions in Occoquan were brave, as he had received death threats.  

One can image residents of Occoquan placing wagers as to how long the flagpole with the party ensign of Lincoln and Hamlin would last.

Not long.   

With an axe and much passion, Jackson struck the first blow to tear down the flagpole.  

The area in and around Newington became a no-man’s land of sorts during the war.   The Union Army built a ring of forts around the city of Washington and Alexandria, which had retroceded to Virginia in 1847.   Fort Lyon and its four sister earthworks, located about a half dozen miles north of Newington, protected Alexandria from a spot whose site is just to the west of the Huntington Metro station.   

A map Robert Knox Sneden (1832-1918) drew in 1861 (“Mount Vernon and Vicinity” (March 1861) shows the main roads, churches, forts and Union lines between the Pohick Church and Mount Vernon.   Modern day Telegraph Road is labeled a turnpike while Route One was a "gravel road."  The Union held all the strategic points including the high ground at Fort Lyon (modern day Huntington Metro Station),  Camp "Vernondale" (Telegraph Road), Calvary on the high ground occupied today by the Fed Ex facility at the end of Cinder Bed Road, and others near Pohick Church and Accotink.  

The rebels were too busy elsewhere to bother with Washington and Alexandria, but Union supporters and soldiers in Fairfax County were haunted by the specter of John “The Gray Ghost” Mosby.    Don Hakenson is the foremost authority on Mosby.   At Rose Hill, just a few miles north of Newington, Mosby and eight of his men captured Colonel French Dulany, aide to “Restored Governor Francis Pierpont, who was living on Prince Street in Alexandria.   A couple of skirmishes took place along Telegraph Road (Hakenson).  

Hakenson also tells us Frances Chichester sold Mount Air to Aristides C. Landstreet and his wife Mary in 1860.   The war not only split the country in half, it divided the Landstreet’s family.   His son Edward wore a rebel uniform while his other son William wore a blue Union one.   During the war, Union soldiers occupied Mount Air.  

Anne Froebel, a Confederate supporter, had stories to tell from her perch overlooking Telegraph Road at Wilton Hill, about four miles north of Newington.   She kept a Civil War diary, an account that delves into her worries as a home owner.   Her concerns came with the knowledge that two nearby mansion homes had been burned down.  

One was West Grove, a brick manor house whose site is the Belle Haven Country Club.   Owned by the West family, it was built in 1710s.   It seems likely that Union soldiers torched this one.    The other was Vaucluse, the beloved home of descendants of Bryan, Eighth Lord Fairfax, who grew up at Belvoir.  Dave Cavanaugh tells us Union soldiers burned Vaucluse out of strategic necessity.   Its site is close to INOVA Alexandria on Seminary Hill.   

Soldiers also kept dairies during the war.    One (Charles B. Haydon, Lt. Col, "For Country, Cause and Leader") provides a description of the rounds they made on patrol.

The pickets now run from the river to Accotink, thence diagonally along to Accotink Road to the Telegraph Road near Potter's.   

Anyone living in Newington during the war might have seen the flow of contraband pouring into the city of Alexandria in 1862 and 1863.  These African American escapees had found an infant form of freedom by stepping into Union-held camps and forts.  Poor living conditions and disease, however, took away many of their lives.   Many of them were buried at what is now the Contraband and Freedmens Cemetery in Alexandria.  Historian Char Bah researched the genealogy of their descendants and published her findings in her new book, "Alexandria's Freedmen's Cemetery: A Legacy of Freedom."

Like everyone else, residents of Newington were certainly glad to see the bloodshed end in 1865.   But there were uncertain years ahead.

In December 1866, the Alexandria Gazette reported on the passing of William Nevitt, who had owned the glebe house since 1828.   He was 93 years old and a member of the M.E. Church in Alexandria.   According to the marker, the Nevitt family lived in Newington until it burned down in 1875.   

In 1874, the war had been over for a decade.   A fued in Newington, however, had apparently raged on.   The Gazette of May, 1874, brought titillating news of a fight that seemed to take a page from that classic feud between the Hatfields and McCoys.  

John Deavers and W. Landstreet got into a scuffle.  Deavers was the mail carrier from Long Branch to Accotink.   According to his account published in the Gazette, he (73 years old) was attacked by W. Landstreet, who “cussed and abused him.”  Both had sticks and wielded them during the assault.   “Deavers knocked him down and whiped (sic) him until Richard Nevitt pulled him off.”        

Fires were always a problem in the days of wooden houses and no fire stations.  Sadly, the old Truro Parish Glebe House burned down in 1875.   

Hakenson writes:  "The Newington House was perhaps the oldest house still standing in Fairfax County."   

According to the Alexandria Gazette, the fire took place when the family of Richard  L. Nevitt was having breakfast.  The house was destroyed but most of the furniture was saved.    

Richard L. Nevitt was active in politics.   In a 1859 meeting of the Whig and American part of Fairfax County, he was appointed Secretary.   As a clear sign he did not want to see a civil war, Nevitt chaired a meeting of the Union Party in April 1861.  Like many others in Alexandria and Fairfax County, he supported the Conservatives after the war.  Nevitt was nominated to the House of Delegates.

After the Civil War was over, civil rights measures and the election of black Congressmen gave African Americans and progressive Republicans hope for better days.   Sadly, white conservative Democrats wasted no time in passing laws that took away those rights at state levels.   The end of Reconstruction meant hard times for African Americans.   The railroads would also play a major part for residents of Newington and nearby.  We pick up there in the next part.

 

 

Newington: Part Two: Charles Green, The Truro Parish Glebe and the Glebe House

Part Two:   Charles Green, The Truro Parish Glebe and the Glebe House

In Part One, we looked at the small world of George Washington and his fellow planters such as George Mason, as well as the Fairfax family in Belvoir.   

In Part Two, we delve into Charles Green, the Truro Parish and its glebe lands and glebe house.  It was this land that would become known as Newington, the name given to the glebe house.    This is a fascinating part of colonial Virginia history, essential to understanding the story of Newington and Fairfax County in the colonial times.

 

The story of the Truro Parish is a story that took place even before the founding of Fairfax County in 1742 and Alexandria in 1749.    To understand the role of a glebe lands and glebe house, one must first understand the role of a parish.   

Perhaps the best definition of a parish in colonial Virginia comes from the Encyclopedia of Virginia.

A parish in colonial Virginia was a unit of both civil and religious authority that covered a set geographical territory. Each Church of England parish in the colony was served by a single minister and governed by a vestry usually composed of local elites.   

Dick Hamley, the historian at the Pohick Church, tells us: 

Truro Parish and Fairfax County existed together and worked together.  Both were part of the government except that Truro Parish reported to the Bishop of London.  The Vestry contracted for care of indigent, poor and elderly.  They arranged for schooling and apprenticeship for orphans.  They were responsible for marking and updating land boundaries for all residents.   The Vestry was responsible for some road building.  The Vestry assigned and collected the annual levy, assessments fines and tithes as they felt necessary.   

The vestry was also responsible for the creation and maintaining of glebe lands and glebe house.   Prince William historian Jim Bish describes the glebe lands this way.

The glebe lands usually were lands that were set aside for the church to earn income.  Sometimes these were established when a Parish was established and sometimes landowners willed some of their property to the church at their death which added to the church glebes.  The church then usually received annual rents from these lands or they could be sold to help finance a larger financial obligation.  

The word "glebe" in northern Virginia conjures up the thought of Glebe Road.   From Alexandria, if you take Glebe Road northwest-ward for about a half dozen miles, you will come to the Glebe House in Arlington.   A historical marker tells us the house was built in 1820 and 1850, replacing one that was built in 1775 and burned down in 1808.  This house and glebe lands provided for the rector of Fairfax Parish, which included both Christ Church, Alexandria and Falls Church.

The first and the second glebe house in Fairfax County was the Truro Parish Glebe House whose site is in Newington.   We learn about both from Willard J. Webb and Anne C. Webb in their book "The Glebe Houses of Colonial Virginia."  

In 1734, fifteen years before the founding of Alexandria, the Truro Parish acquired 300 acres on the road from Colchester to Alexandria.    In 1737 they erected a house on the glebe lands.   The authors describe it as a "one-story, weatherboard house 24 feet square with four rooms."    

Cameron Parish was created in 1748, by cutting off about half of the Truro Parish lands.   To pay for its glebe lands, the Truro Parish sold its glebe lands and house and split the proceeds with the new Cameron Parish.    The Truro Parish then bought 176 acres near the old glebe.   A new house was completed there in 1760.  It's not known what happened to the old one.  Perhaps it was taken down, its wood re-used.    

The Truro Parish hired William Buckland to finish the house, which was made of brick and was 72 feet long.  According to the Gunston Hall website, Buckland had worked on the interior design of Gunston Hall.  He would later have a hand in two masterpieces in Annapolis — the Chase-Lloyd House (1771) and the Hammond House (1774).   Charles Wilson Peale’s portrait of Buckland shows a distinguished man with a confidant look.

The Encyclopedia of Interior Design tells us about builders of homes in the colonial age.   Most were master builders and house joiners.  Few were architects in the way we know them today.   Buckland, born in Oxford, was a notable exception.  

The author concludes his bio of Buckland by saying, “Today, there is little dispute that Buckland was one of colonial America’s greatest architects.”   

The first permanent rector (minister) for the Truro Parish was Charles Green (1710-1765).   “The History of the Truro Parish” provides us with a brief bio of Green.  In addition to his duties as a minister, he was also as a doctor.   According to Founders Online, Green was called to Mount Vernon from time to time and gave care to Martha.   

Crazy as it may seem today, Green owned 12 slaves.  They worked the tobacco fields on land that is now Newington.  

Colonial society depended on a strong sense of social order.   A major scandal, however, shook the seemingly placid Virginia world in the 1740s.

Peter R. Henriques brings the story out of the dust bin with his article titled “Major Lawrence Washington versus The Reverend Charles Green” (Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 1992, JSTOR).  Washington, half-brother of George Washington, accused Green of “frequent attempts to debauch Anne Fairfax in the months before her marriage to Washington.”  She was fourteen years old at that time.

Anne's full name (Anne Fairfax Washington Lee) had, arguably, the three most famous family names in the history of Northern Virginia.  She was the daughter of Colonel William Fairfax.  After Lawrence died in 1752, the widow Anne inherited Mount Vernon.   She then married George Lee.  In his book, Paul Nagel tells us Anne and George decided to remain at Mount Pleasant on the Northern Neck.  An agreement was made with George Washington.  He paid 15,000 pounds of tobacco annually to George Lee for Mount Vernon.   This lease agreement lasted from 1752 to 1751 when both George and Anne died.

Henriques writes:

"To conduct a full-scale ecclesiastical trial in Virginia was to venture into unexplored territory.”

The trial was held at William & Mary College in Williamsburg.   In the end, Governor William Gooch negotiated a settlement.  Green had to pay court costs and promised to “behave with good manners toward the Fairfax and Washington families.”  The case against him was dismissed and he was able to remain as the parish minister.    

In 1767, Daniel McCarty purchased the Truro Parish glebe lands and house.   His daughter Sarah and her husband Richard Chichester lived in the house and named it Newington.  

The exact location of the first and second is not known.   A map George Washington drew in 1765 shows the "Old Glebe" house between the Back Road and Long Branch, and closer to the back road.   A circa 1770 hand drawn map (Belvoir Neck survey, Mount Vernon Ladies Association), shows "Glebe House" between the Back Road and Long Run, closer to Long Branch.    Using bends in the road and the location of Mount Air, the houses appear to be somewhere near modern day Newington Road. 

Built in the 1760s, the second parish house burned down in 1875 and is now long forgotten.   There are apparently no remaining sketches of the Newington Glebe House, nor any photos of the dwelling before it burned down in 1875.    The best we can do is see what has been said about it and others.

In 1767, the Truro Parish, signed by George Washington, placed an ad in the Virginia Gazette.  

To be sold to the highest bidder, in consequence of an act of General Assembly, and pursuant to order of Vestry, on Friday the 22d of May next, on the premises, the late Glebe Lands of Truro parish, in Fairfax county, containing by estimation 400 acres, but the exact quantity will be ascertained against the day of sale. 

Thereon is a brick dwelling house, with four rooms on a floor, passages above and below, and cellars; also a kitchen, meat house, corn house, coach house, and barn, together with sundry other houses, and a yard and garden paled in. 

The situation is high, dry, and healthy, with good water, some meadow, and a valuable peach orchard. 

In 1898, a writer “W.H.S” wrote a sentimental piece about landmark homes near Alexandria and lamented the loss of ones like Vaucluse and Newington.   He describes the houses as having “great outside chimney, dormer windows, and clambering vines.”

Webb and Webb provide a sketch of the floor plan of the glebe house at Newington, one prepared by Mrs. George Kernan, circa 1920.   One sees a simple plan with a small porch, and markings for walnut trees and roses.  

Kernan was the mother of Shirley Kernan Enochs, the last owner of Mount Air.   We will provide more on Kernan and Enoch in Part Five.  Kernan purchased Mount Air and its 117 acres in 1914 after returning from a stint in France.  She and her daughter Elizabeth Enochs lived there.

As the historical marker indicates, the Truro Parish sold the glebe home and lands to Richard and Sarah McCarty Chichester in 1767.   They gave it the name Newington.   It’s not known what they named it after, but landowners often chose a place name from back in the Mother Country.   In London, Newington lies about a mile due east of Big Ben, and near the Thames River.

Richard Chichester (1736-1796) married Sarah McCarty in 1766.   One of their children was Richard McCarty Chichester, whose godfather was George Washington.    

In his diary of February 1768 ("Where & How -- my time is Spent"), Washington penned --

"Fox hunting with Colonel Fairfax, Captain McCarty, Mr. Chichester, Posey, Ellzey & Manley who dined here with Mrs. Fairfax & Miss Nicholas.  Catchd two foxes.

Sarah McCarty (d. 1826) was a daughter of Daniel McCarty (1758-1801) and Sarah Eilbeck Mason (daughter of George Mason IV).   Daniel McCarty (Mount Air) was a cousin of Richard Chichester.   

In his diary for January 1769, George Washington wrote:

Fox huntg. again upon long Branch with Mr. Fairfax Mr. Clarke Mr. Mac[ar]ty & Mr. Chichester. All went home from the field. Found Doctr. Rumney here.

We don't know exactly where their outing took place, but it's not a far-fetched guess that Washington rode on his horse from Mount Vernon to the Newington home of the Chichester's.   Perhaps they then proceeded along what is now Newington Road to the Long Branch waters.

The Fairfax Genealogy Society tells us about the Chichester family cemetery.   It is located behind a home on Newington Road near the intersection of Accotink and Newington Roads.  

Gunston Hall has a document dated Feb 20, 1797, an inventory of Richard Chichester’s holdings.   The inventory was performed at “the dwelling plantation” in Newington.

It included 43 enslaved persons, stock including cattle and sheep, household furniture and items, glass and tinware.  Of the total value of 4010 pounds, 3,013 were the slaves.

When George Washington slipped away at his upstairs bedroom at Mount Vernon in 1799, Alexandria and Fairfax County mourned like never before.   His passing seemed to signal the end of an era.  The patriots were growing old, the parish system was gone, and the tobacco fields were worn out.   We pick up the next phase for Newington in Part Three.

 

 

Newington and the Historic Landscape of Lower Southeast Fairfax County

For some folks living or working in the DMV, Newington must seem like just another census designated place, a vague somewhere between Lorton and Springfield south of the Beltway, a slowdown spot on I-95 heard on the morning traffic reports.

Residents in the Newington neighborhood certainly have a sense of community.    And although the train station and country store are long gone, the past hangs on with the sights and sounds of passenger and freight trains that run by.   Opinions surely vary on the one-lane underpass on Newington Road, as either a long-time annoyance or perhaps for some a rare relic of the past to admire and appreciate.

Quite honestly, Newington never piqued my curiosity until recently.   On our way to drop her car off at a car dealership in Springfield, the better half and I drove through the bedroom community.   Moving along Newington Road, we spotted a county historical marker at the front of Levelle W. Dupell Park.   Whoever worked on the marker can be pleased to know it inspired us to look deeper into Newington’s past.

Using this info as well as our usual sources of newspapers, articles, books, aerial views, and maps, we put together this look at the history of Newington and parts nearby.  

We'll roll this out in seven parts.  From our IOU department, we tip our cap to Don Hakenson and his ground-breaking book, “This Forgotten Land,” as well as his other sources on the web.  A real gem of a discovery is Nathaniel Lee’s 2016 book, “The Iron Road of Franconia.”   Both their books can be purchased at the Franconia Museum, a jewel spot itself.

We also thank Dick Hamley of the Pohick Church for his insights into the history of the Truro Parish.   Getting a grip on that part of the story was the most challenging.  Any mistakes are certainly mine.

Part One:  The Small World South of Alexandria

We start where we often do with Fairfax County by looking at Beth Mitchell’s interpretive map (1760).   The future site of Newington can be seen by finding (center left) the Truro Parish Glebe.   

Founded in 1742, the county was mostly plantation or farm land, and included modern day Alexandria and Arlington.  A historical marker at the corner of Chain Bridge Road and Old Courthouse Road marks the approximate site of the first Court House of Fairfax County.   Typically, the best location for a county seat is in the geographic middle.  But in this case, the bustling seaport of Alexandria was the the center of the universe in the county.  The County Courthouse moved there in 1752.     

While the colonial world in Fairfax County did owe much to Alexandria, there were other places of activity and community.   About a half-dozen miles to the southeast of Alexandria stood a small little world of its own.   The future site of Newington stood within this satellite.   Therefore, we can use Newington as a window into some of these forgotten or lesser told stories.      

If a person wanted to catch up on the local news and gossip in the early days of Fairfax County, their best chance would be at one of its three churches.   In Alexandria, a chapel of ease (location unknown) served as the predecessor to Christ Church.   Serving those in the northern part of the county stood The Falls Church.    South and east of Alexandria near the Occoquan River and the future site of Colchester stood Pohick Church (built 1730).

As told by its website, Pohick Church, the first permanent church in the colony north of the Occoquan River, is "rightly called the Mother Church of Northern Virginia."   Its first location was about a mile south of where Pohick Church stands today. (completed in 1774).    

During these times, the economic lifeblood of the county was tobacco.   Before the 1730s, the tall ships from England had landed at the various plantation wharves dotting the shoreline of the Potomac River.    Tired of this inefficiency, the Crown influenced the colonial government to enact a Tobacco Inspection Act of 1730.   A game changer, it required the selection of tobacco ports, inspectors, and warehouses.

To make the case for just how important this part of Fairfax County was in the early days, one can take a look at the following.

At least on paper, there were four tobacco inspection warehouses in the county in 1760.   The busiest, by far, was at Alexandria.  Of the other three at Pohick Creek, Occoquan River and Little Falls of Potomac River, two were located in this lower part of the county.    The site of the one at Pohick Creek now lies within the Accotink Bay Wildlife Refuge, on land owned by Ft. Belvoir.   The one at the Occoquan River stood at modern day town of Occoquan. 

There were about a half dozen ferries in the county and one of them was located at Colchester.   Long before the first bridge was built over the Occoquan River, this was the only place to cross over it and arguably the most important gateway to the county.  

As told by a state historical marker, Colchester, founded in 1753, was the second town established in Fairfax County.   It served as that gateway to this part of the county.   Mitchell includes an insert for Colchester in her map, showing its triangle shape with a number of lots.  

Like Dumfries to the south, silting helped seal Colchester's fate as a "What Might Have Been Seaport." During its short span of glory days, however, it, too, was a place for people watching.    In his footnoted research article, Raymond Nye ("Economy of Goods") found indications of the success of the Fairfax Arms tavern.   Built circa 1753, this structure is a prized historic asset.  Archaeologists are currently investing the town's site.  

Travelers coming up from the Northern Neck and points south of Fairfax County used the Potomac Path to get the ferry at Colchester.   Colchester Road also holds a hidden history.   It took place near the modern day Noman M. Cole Jr. Pollution Control Plant.   You won't find any markers there and not much has been written about it.  

Had this small place continued on, it might have been called Boggessville.   Mitchell's map shows a racing ground in this vicinity, as well as a tavern owned by Robert Boggess.   Hakenson's book features a photo of the structure, known as LaGrange.  Boggess built the structure in the 1740s.   After it was torn down after the Civil War, a replacement structure stood there until it burned in 1972.     

An article by the Fairfax Genealogical Society tells us the Marders Family Cemetery is located there (9501 Old Colchester Road), holding at least ten remains.   One is Rebecca Kirby Marders, wife of James S. Marders.    Her mother was Susanna Elizabeth Boggess who came from a line of the Robert Boggess family.

Robert Boggess, like George Washington and George Mason, was a vestryman of Truro Parish.   Boggess also ran the racing track.  

The mail pick up point for the stage was located at LaGrange.   On Saturday, May 6th, 1758, George Mason wrote a letter to George Washington from the  "Race Ground at Boggess's."   We might say this letter from Mason to his friend was the colonial version of an email.

The subject of the letter was French Mason, a relative of Mason who owned land below Boggess.   As the footnote at Founders Online points out, George Mason was making the case for the candidacy of French Mason for an officer’s commission in the 1st Virginia Regiment.

Travelers using the Potomac Path had two choices from LaGrange. We might consider this fork similar to today's "Local" and "Thru" routes on the Beltway south of Alexandria.  

Although it ran a mile or two to the west of the Potomac River and not next to it, the local route was called the "River Road" (modern day Route One).  It served the planters in the area.  Washington used this road countless times to get to Alexandria and points northward.

The thru road, so to speak, was the "back road."   This is the modern day Telegraph Road that passes by Newington.  Anyone living in the future site of Newington would have had a bird's eye view of travelers using this road.   The mail-carrying stage used this route.   Artemel tells us the mail left Alexandria before dawn and arrived at Fredericksburg by night.  The fifty miles took about sixteen hours.  

The river road rejoined the back road at modern day Telegraph and N. King's Highway.   There was no bridge over Great Hunting Creek until 1810, built more or less where Route One crosses today.     

The other three main roads in this part of the county were rolling roads that led to the tobacco warehouse station near what became the village of Accotink (modern day land owned by Fort Belvoir).   It's hard to know if modern day roads follow along these three main roads, but map comparisons indicate some sameness with Pohick Road, Rolling Road and Backlick Road.

Several ordinaries (taverns) were located near the future site of Newington.  They offered weary travelers food, drink, rest and catching up on the news and road conditions.  

The ordinary at Colchester was without a doubt the finest.  In his "Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States," John Davis wrote:

"a tavern, where every luxury that money can purchase it to be obtained at first summons.  The apartments are numerous and spacious."

Of a stroll from Occoquan to Colchester, he wrote:

No walk could be more delightful...   

Another tavern stood near modern day Telegraph Road and Van Dorn Street.   Perhaps the appeal with that one was resting up before the hilly ascent and last three miles to Alexandria.   Perhaps its offerings were more affordable than the one in Colchester and more comfortable for swigging beer in terms of class and social distinction.

Mitchell's map also shows us four mills in this part of the county.  There were quite a few in the county.   To get an idea of what they were like, one can visit George Washington's.  Do note it is a replica of the one that burned down.

The other mills were owned by Boggess, Benjamin Grayson and James Steptoe.   Founders Online tells us about the two Benjamin Graysons.  The father passed away in 1757 and was a friend of George Washington.   His son Benjamin (d. 1768) "ran a mercantile business in Colchester."  They also tell us he was granted a license to operate a tavern in Alexandria in 1764.    

Founders also tells us a bit about James Steptoe (d. 1757), who owned land west of Accotink Creek.   Through his land ran one of the rolling roads used by the Fitzhugh's.  Today's Rolling Road seems to use the same route.

Anne, the daughter of Colonel James Steptoe, married Washington's brother Samuel Washington (probably 1766).   They lived in Harewood, then in Frederick County, now in Charleston, West Virginia, and had four children.

Among the planters living in this area were Washington, whose Mount Vernon plantation  was on its way to becoming the largest in this part of the county.   But in 1760, Washington's 2,298 acres was small when compared to Henry and William Fitzhugh (combined 24,000), Robert Carter's heirs (9,200) and George Mason (8,200).   Washington, however, through his marriage with Martha, owned 88 enslaved humans, by far the most in the county at that time.

George Mason, like Washington, served as a vestryman for the Truro Parish Church.  His ownings included land to the east of the future site of Newington and modern day Huntley Meadows.     One of his grandsons, Thomson Francis Mason, built Huntley.

Without a doubt, the biggest wig in the county was Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax.   He left the Mother County in 1738 to claim his land grant of 5M acres across what is now northern Virginia and the Northern Neck.  A lifelong bachelor and avid woodsman, Thomas was the patriarch of the famed Fairfax family that lived at Belvoir.  The Georgian brick beauty was located about three miles south of the future site of Newington and virtually next door to Mount Vernon.   The county is named after Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax.

Note:   There are no known sketches of Belvoir.   This one is from a marker and is interpretive.

Like much of the county at this time, the land that would become Newington and this lower southeast part was used mostly for tobacco plantations, both large and small.   It also held those two main roads mentioned before.   Anyone standing on what is today the intersection of Telegraph Road and Accotink Road in Newington, would have seen the occasional traveler on horseback, or perhaps spotted a coach or the post (mail) rider.   

Travelers, few that they were, came from as far away as the capital in Williamsburg.   Despite stops at the ordinaries, they were likely weary by the time they got to Alexandria.   Perhaps those going southward were more cheerful, having rested and eaten a decent meal in the growing seaport.   Travel was seasonal to avoid bad weather.

In the middle of the eighteenth century, the population of the county was a rough number determined by tithables to the church, a tax everyone had to pay, and something that shows us just how closely linked God and government were in those days.  In 1749, the year Alexandria was founded, something like 6,000 people lived in the county.   Sadly, about a third were enslaved humans.  

Before the Revolutionary War came, the top of society in the county were members of the Fairfax family.    Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax, was the patriarch, but he never married.    His cousin, Colonel William Fairfax, built Belvoir.  It was his family that filled the home.   A marker at its site shows his family line and those who married into their world.   Imagine walking into Belvoir and seeing those listed below.

• Daughter Sarah married John Carlyle, the famed merchant in Alexandria whose Georgian manor dwarfed all the other homes build on one-half acre spots in the seaport.     
• Daughter Anne married Lawrence Washington, George's half brother.  The widow Anne married George Lee. 
• Daughter Hannah married Warner Washington.
• Son George William married Sarah Cary.  The letters she and Washington exchanged reflect strong feelings but George William and Washington remained close friends.
• Son Bryan became Eighth Lord Fairfax and built Mount Eagle, whose site is neat the Huntington Metro.  His son Thomas, Ninth Lord Fairfax, built Vaucluse (destroyed during the Civil War) outside Alexandria.    Thomas married the granddaughter of John Carlyle.

The stories this stately brick mansion that overlooked the Potomac River could tell.  Washington launched his career with the help of the Fairfax family.  When Alexandria was founded in 1749, there were eleven trustees, including Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax, Colonel William Fairfax, George William Fairfax, John Carlyle and Lawrence Washington.

Thomas, Ninth Lord Fairfax had three wives.  His third was Margaret Carlyle, granddaughter of John Carlyle.   In his book, "Fairfax of Virginia," Hugh Fairfax points out all the later generations of the Fairfax family descend from John and Sarah Carlyle.

The mother country still held sway in its Virginia colony, but the tide was beginning to turn in the 1760s.   Washington, Mason, and Carlyle were beginning to gain a patriotic sense of identity and an annoyance with the lawmakers in London.   

Counterbalancing the patriots’ ire were their economic tethers to the merchants in London and Liverpool, who crafted the household goods, clothing and cargo that arrived on the tall ships in Alexandria.   In turn, the mother country purchased Virginia's "noxious weed." 

In January 1759, George Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis.   The couple settled down into their planter life, a time that would prover to be between the wars.    Although not classically educated like some of the other Virginia squires, Washington had made a name for himself as a surveyor for Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax at Belvoir.   Martha had been the wealthiest widow on the Northern Neck.   Their marriage mirrored some others of its time, bringing together a man of some distinction and a lady of inherited wealth.   Ever so sadly, much of the wealth was in the form of enslaved humans.

Mitchell’s map shows us that the future site of Newington was surrounded by land owned by a handful of planters.   One of them was William Fitzhugh.  If you live in Springfield or neighborhoods northward up to I-66, your home is probably on land once owned by either William Fitzhugh or his brother Henry.

Fitzhugh built Ravensworth, an impressive home located more or less in the middle of his vast plantation.   A historical marker located near Braddock Road and the Beltway, tells some its story, including its burning down in the 1920s.  

The story does not end with these major players.   In fact, one cannot fully understand these early years without understanding the story of Charles Green and the Truro Parish Glebe lands and Glebe House.  

We pick up their stories in the next part.