Sketch by John H. Rust, Jr. Illustrations by Paul R. Hoffmaster FIRST EDITION SECOND PRINTING Copyright 1960, by Jeanne Johnson Rust All rights reserved Printed by Moore & Moore, Inc., Washington, D. C. Designed by William M. Guillet Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 61-11281...

and his favorite town—his birthplace ....

When man reaches out into space to explore a new planet, his adventure will be comparable in many ways to that of the colonists who braved the space of water in the early seventeenth century to establish their proprietary rights on a strange continent called "America". These colonists found themselves confronted with the need to feed, house and clothe themselves with unknown and untried materials reaped from a wilderness which hid their enemy, the red man, and housed the dread mosquito which car

At Jamestown the colonists found that they could not succeed without expanding the Indian's agriculture. They found the savages of the Tidewater section growing corn, muskmelon, pumpkin, watermelon, squash, maypops, gourds and peas in their fertile well-organized gardens. Grapevines were cultivated at the edge of clearings and there were rich harvests of chestnuts, hickory nuts and acorns. Strawberries and other small fruits grew in abundance and mulberry trees stood near every village. Tobacco

When the wealthy land-owners of the southern part of the colonized area started buying up land in lower Fairfax County for speculation, they did not buy out the title of the Doeg Indians, who occupied this area at that time. (The white man established no relations with the Doeg except to hold him off whenever possible). A series of murders were committed on the frontier by Doegs and in retaliation the colonists mistakenly killed Indians who were not Doegs. By 1675, through a series of hot-headed

George Mason II had moved to Pohick in 1690 but his home was considered such an outpost that runaway slaves were returned there by Indians. In 1746 the fourth George Mason moved to his property on Dogue Neck and built Gunston Hall in 1758. By 1734 Captain Augustine Washington moved his family to his plantation on Little Hunting Creek. His home was destroyed by fire and he moved back to the north bank of the Rappahannock in 1739. In the spring of 1741 William Fairfax built Belvoir. After his daug

At this time the northern and central parts of the County were sparsely settled due to the large tracts of land held by a few. King Carter, of course, had assigned most of the land to himself during his second tenure as proprietary agent. However, there were large tracts owned by William Fitzhugh, William Moore, Cadwallader Jones and Lewis Saunders, Jr., which consumed most of the land in and near the Town of Fairfax. Since men could only "seat" themselves on this land, most of the indentures we

Historically, the most important house in the town of Fairfax is the Ratcliffe-Logan-Allison House at 10386 Main Street. This little brick house was built in 1805 when the town was founded and the original half meets the specifications of the 1805 Virginia State Legislature. It is sixteen feet square, has a brick chimney, and is "fit for habitation." The Ratcliffe-Logan-Allison House is considered to be in "pristine" form and unchanged from its original condition except for an 1830 addition whic

While the rich progressed from rough shacks to Georgian homes, there was no such advance for the poor. There was not even any improvement in agricultural implements and the poor were finding it more and more difficult to compete with the large landholders and their scores of slaves. They resented the tight band held over them by the mother country, who, they felt, neither understood their problems nor how to cope with them, as well as they did (e.g., the impractical way the English tried to figh

In 1618 Gov. Yeardley established the prototype of the county court by an order stating that "county courts be held in convenient places, to sit monthly, and to hear civil and criminal cases." It determined rates of local taxation, registered legal documents, licensed inns and exercised control over their prices, directed the building and repair of roads, and rendered judgments in both civil and criminal cases. While Fairfax County was still a part of the colony, the first sessions of Court were

As the court house drew men to this area and the population increased, a school for girls was established on the property west of Truro Episcopal Church. Known as Coomb's Cottage, it was a finishing school for young girls and boasted a roster of approximately one hundred young ladies from both the north and the south. The school was built and established by Dr. and Mrs. Baker, who were English. In addition to the main house (a white frame building west of the church), there were a number of othe

Among the representatives in Richmond in February of 1861 when Virginia was debating secession from the Union was a young man (35 yrs. old) by the name of John Quincy Marr. He was a graduate and former professor of Virginia Military Institute. A tall, strong man with black hair and dark eyes, he was an affable, witty and popular lawyer. While the convention at Richmond still hesitated, Marr returned home to Warrenton to raise a company of infantry, known as the "Warrenton Rifles", who were being

Little is known of Laura Ratcliffe's activities but she was often called "Mosby's pet" and was the heroine subject of many poems dedicated to her by Mosby and J. E. B. Stuart. She was devotedly attached to the Confederate cause and sought every opportunity to become possessed of the secrets and movements of the Union Forces. She is reported to have been a maiden lady of great intelligence and high accomplishments and was very well spoken of by people who knew her. She resided near Fairfax during

During the time that the Union Army occupied Fairfax a group of Blenkers Dutch held the court house in the spring or autumn of 1862. They had been recruited in Pennsylvania from the most ignorant and reckless German characters and could not understand a word of English. Due to the Blenkers Dutch, many important papers at the court house were stolen or destroyed. These men broke open the safe and used wills, deeds, or anything that came into their hands to keep their fires going. It was only by l

As the reconstruction period came after the war, Fairfax found herself in a very destitute position. Most of her churches had been burned, her fields destroyed by constant skirmishes, her homes used as headquarters or hospitals by Union soldiers. The Willcoxon Tavern, Duncan's Chapel and doubtless other places had been used as stables for Union horses. Deflation closed in; the people again found themselves having to "pick up the pieces". Zion Church had been used as a storehouse for munitions fo

Bull Run Remembers by Joseph Mills Hanson Deed Books and Will Books in Clerk's Office of the Circuit Court of Fairfax County, Virginia Fairfax County, Virginia—1907 Fairfax County, Virginia, Yesterday ... Today ... Tomorrow—1952. Flags of America by W. H. Waldron Gentlemen's Magazine Historic Fairfax County by Columbus D. Choate Historic, Progressive Fairfax County in Old Virginia—1928 Historical Society of Fairfax County, Va., Inc. Yearbook—1951 Historical Society of Fairfax County, Va., Inc. Y