Belvale Cemetery

The exact location of the cemetery is unrecorded and the site has not been field checked, although family oral history tells us that the cedar grove located here is where the burials occurred. When reviewing old maps of the property, you can easily see this untouched grove of trees is completely surrounded by plowed fields for farming. A farmer would use fertile land if they could, so it is another clue that all of those past owners knew the cemetery was here and left it alone.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Fairfax Genealogical Society website:

BELVALE SLAVE CEMETERY
7101 Telegraph Road (Route 611)
South Alexandria, Virginia USA

Original Information from Volume 5 of the Gravestone Books

“Belvale,” once the home of George Johnston, stands at 7101 Telegraph Road (Route 611). Johnston purchased 167 acres of land in 1763, and built a home there which remained in the Johnston family until 1925, according to a 1970 Historic American Buildings Survey Inventory of the site. Johnston, according to the survey, was a member of the Virginia Assembly from 1758 to 1766, and counted George Washington and Patrick Henry among his friends and colleagues.

The survey states that “there is a cemetery which may have been a slave burial ground” on the property. In 1970, the house stood on 49 acres of Johnston’s 167-acre purchase. Since that time the land around Belvale has been developed with single family homes. The location of the cemetery is not known.

No Updates from Volume 6 of the Gravestone Books


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Here follows an excerpt from the Franconia Museum archives:

The grounds of Belvale are reputed to harbor a ghost of a young man killed in a duel who was buried under a cedar tree, reputedly with Washington's assistance in digging the grave and planting the cedar tree. The Historic American Buildings Survey documentation of the house, which is a private residence, states that a cemetery which may have been a slave burial ground is on the property, though it is no longer extant.

In addition to a connection with colonial history, the house saw many activities that were common in those times, including a possible duel, bodies buried in the yard, and spirits lurking. According to one story about the house, there was a duel where one of the guests was killed and buried under a cedar tree. “On the second night of each month the ghost appeared in the grove south of the house. Under a tall cedar tree lies his body, that of a young man killed in a duel,” the story said.

According to a Fairfax County Historic Landmark Survey document, dated January 1971, the graves did exist on the property. “On the property is a cemetery which may have been a slave burial ground,” the survey document stated.