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Cranford United Methodist Church Cemetery

GPS Coordinates: 38.6885046, -77.2083599
Closest Address: 9912 Old Colchester Road, Lorton, VA 22079

Cranford United Methodist Church Cemetery

Here follows an excerpt from the church's website:

Cranford UMC – Cemetery History
The cemetery was established in 1730 when Pohick Episcopal Church (Church of England at the time) occupied this property site. The Pohick Church was on the site until 1774. Most buried at the time would have been British citizens but others could have included: citizens from other European countries, slaves and possibly Native Americans. When Pohick Church relocated to its present day site, the gravestones were also removed and relocated but the buried remains were not.

In 1781 the Colonial army under General George Washington and a French army under the command of General Jean Baptiste Rochambeau travelled from the New York/New Jersey area to Yorktown, VA. Their route included what is now Old Colchester Road; those armies marched within yards of the Pohick cemetery. Although unlikely and unrecorded, it is possible that if any French soldiers ill and died near this site they may have been buried in this cemetery.

One of the oldest surviving grave stones in the cemetery is located near where the Pohick Church had been; it is that of Thompson Clarke, who died March 8, 1842, aged 51 years. His grave attests to at least one use of the cemetery during a time when no church building occupied the site.

In 1857, the first Methodist Church in this community was built. James and John Cranford did much of the work on the new church. The spot selected for it was the former location of the old Pohick Church. When the new church was dedicated, it received the name of Lewis Chapel, in honor of the Rev. John Lewis, who inspired the Methodist movement.

During the War Between the States, 1861 to 1865, a few small fights between Confederate and Union soldiers took place here. Both Confederate and Union soldiers were buried in Cranford’s cemetery. Unfortunately, none of the markers of the Confederate or Union soldiers remain today.

The Cranford Church cemetery has grave-sites dating to the period of 1898 the time of the Spanish American War, it is not established whether any veterans from that war were buried here. What is known is that veterans from the First and Second World Wars, and the Korean War are buried here. Veterans of the Viet Nam war and other recent conflicts either are or plan to be buried in Cranford’s cemetery.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Fairfax Genealogical Society website:

CRANFORD UNITED METHODIST CHURCH CEMETERY
9912 Old Colchester Road (Route 611)
Lorton, Virginia USA

Original Information from Volume 5 of the Gravestone Books

Cranford United Methodist Church is located at 9912 Old Colchester Road (Route 611), about 200 yards from the intersection of Old Colchester with Gunston Road (Route 242). The church yard sits on the site of one of the earliest religious establishments in the county. This is the location of the first Pohick Church (q.v.). A granite marker in the cemetery is inscribed:

Site of the first Pohick Church 1730-1774

We know that there was a graveyard associated with this early church. By 1767, the frame structure of Pohick which had been built about 1715, needed repair and the Vestry decided to build a new church for the congregation. At that time, George Mason asked the Pohick Vestry to rebuild at the same place, stating that many family members were buried at the site of the old church. George Washington disagreed and is said to have selected the new site which lies along Richmond Highway (Route 1) to the north. The congregation moved to its new church in 1774.

Another inscribed marker sits at the southwest end of the cemetery and reads:

The Circuit Rider, with his Lord, his Bible, and his horse, brought Methodism to this area in 1830. Lewis Chapel The first Methodist Church, Stood on this site from 1857-1953.

Lewis Chapel, according to a 1969 Historic American Buildings Survey Inventory, was built in 1857 and “named after the Reverend John Lewis who conducted services in a log house nearby on Old Colchester Road between 1856 and 1858.”

Cranford Memorial Church was built in 1900, according to the inventory, and named for James Henry Cranford, a church lay preacher. Lewis Chapel was moved in 1953 and attached to Cranford Memorial Church to form the structure we see today. A large brick planter sits near Gunston Road at the far end of the cemetery. The base is inscribed: In memory of Carlton W. Pegelow, 1908-1978. A sign standing on top reads:

Cranford United Methodist Church
Sunday School 9:45 a.m.
Worship 11 a.m.

A parking lot, entered from Old Colchester Road, separates the church from the cemetery. A wide gravel path runs through the cemetery from the parking lot. A large sign near the parking lot reads:

Cemetery
Cranford United Methodist Church
Est. 1730
703-339-5382

The attractive, well maintained cemetery is shaded by many old trees. It was surveyed in 1921, 1923, 1988, 1997 and 1998. The 1998 surveyors noted some unmarked graves and some fieldstone grave markers. The survey begins with the graves in the far southwest corner of the cemetery along Colchester Road, near the brick planter and sign.

No Updates from Volume 6 of the Gravestone Books


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Here follows an excerpt from Donald Hakenson's "This Forgotten Land" tour guide:

Five Confederate Veterans are buried at Cranford Church.

SERGEANT JOHN H. HAMMILL
Company H, Fifteenth Virginia Cavalry and Mosby's Rangers

PRIVATE THOMAS H. LEE
Enlisted in Company G, Eighth Virginia Infantry on a date and place unknown. Enlisted in Company K, Nineteenth Georgia Infantry December 6, 1862 at Occoquan, Virginia. Involved in the Battle of Chantilly, Fairfax County. Captured December 13, 1862 at Fredericksburg, age eighteen, five foot, seven inches tall, light hair, blue eyes, light complexion, paroled or exchanged December 14, 1862. Captured October 16, 1864 at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia. Sent to Capitol Prison. Joined Mosby's Rangers after being released from Old Capitol Prison. Involved in the October 4, 1864 scout near Gainesville on the Manassas Gap Railroad.

PRIVATE RICHARD H. SHEPHERD
Company A, Fourth Virginia Cavalry. Detached as scout for General Wickham in April 1864.

PRIVATE WILLIAM M. VIOLETT
Company D, Fourth Virginia Cavalry. Captured July 3, 1863 in Greencastle, Pennsylvania. Served time in Fort Delaware and Point Lookout Prisons. Exchanged February 18, 1865. Captured April 1, 1865 at Fairfax Court House. Released on oath on June 30, 1865 from Elmira Prison, New York.

PRIVATE JAMES H. WILEY
Company H, Fifteenth Virginia Cavalry and Mosby's Rangers. See story below:

On May 5, 1933, Jennie Wiley, the widow of Captain James H. Wiley, currently living in Accotink, Virginia filed for a Confederate pension. She stated on the application form that Captain Wiley had died at Alexandria Hospital, from a tumor on April 3, 1933, and had served honorably as a Confederate soldier in Mosby's Rangers, or the Forty-third Battalion Virginia Cavalry.

This seemed like an open and shut case, but it wasn't! On July 13, 1933, John H. Johnson, Comptroller of the State of Virginia then contacted the Adjutant General's Office located in the War Department, in Washington City to verify Captain Wiley's service record. On July 19, 1933, the War Department reported back that James H. Wiley's name had not been found on any company muster rolls on file in their office concerning Mosby's Regiment. Due to the lack of documentation the State of Virginia could not make a final determination on Mrs. Wiley's pension application.

Finally of May 13, 1935, the Virginia State Comptroller contacted Mr. Charles H. Callahan, in Alexandria, requesting information on Captain Wiley's Confederate service. They contacted Mr. Callahan because it was reported that he was quite intimate with Captain Wiley before his death and that he personally could verify the old gentleman's Confederate status. The Comptroller was hoping Mr. Callahan could provide them with some tangible evidence to prove Captain Wiley's enlistment in the Confederate Army.

On May 17, 1935, Mr. Callahan responded to the Comptroller that he had known the deceased for perhaps fifty years before his death, and was in fact one of Captain Wiley's most intimate of friends. Mr. Callahan iterated that he had heard the old gentleman tell stories of his military experiences over and over again, always interesting and always the same. He added, "I haven't any doubt that his narratives were absolutely true. Not-withstanding this and the warm friendship between us stretching over a half century I had never heard him say to what regiment or company he belonged or if I ever did have entirely forgotten but from the narratives I would assume that he was generally on detached service. He was one of the five men who escaped Point Lookout when a prisoner of war and somewhere amongst my papers I have the names of the other four. One of the men was named Lake and another Johnsie, the latter of Fairfax Court House and the former of Washington City in the last years. He has also told me of his experience at the Battle of the Wilderness and various other expeditions in the service of the Confederacy. His escape from the Old Capitol in which he was incarcerated after leaving Point Lookout was perhaps the most daring related by him, but notwithstanding all this I have no idea to what Regiment or company he belonged, in fact never inquired though I frequently heard him speak of his commanding officer. Just one of those things I failed to learn. Indeed I may say that I forgot to learn."

Based on no other evidence that the statement provided by Mr. Callahan, the Department of Finance Comptroller's Office, Commonwealth of Virginia, actually approved Mrs. Wiley's pension request for $120 on May 28, 1935, more than two years after she originally filed her application.

After reading this decision concerning Mrs. Wiley's pension record the author decided to investigate Captain Wiley's Confederate service record myself.

After extensive research I was able to verify that Private James H. Wiley's name was indeed listed on the roster of Company H, Fifteenth Virginia Cavalry, or also known as the Chincapin Rangers. The Chincapin Rangers were made up of men who lived and worked in Fairfax and Prince William Counties before the war and primarily conducted partisan guerilla combat cavalry operations in Northern Virginia. However, the Chincapin Rangers would later be incorporated as Company H into Mosby's Rangers in April of 1865. The regimental history for the Fifteenth Virginia Cavalry confirmed that Private Wiley was captured in Fairfax County on September 16, 1863. I also found another interesting document that stated that John Haislip, from Lorton, reported after the war that he advised James Wiley to come into the Union lines in January 1865. No other military information could be found.

Based on these findings I was able to conclusively verify that James H, Wiley was a Confederate cavalryman. He had definitely served in the Confederate Army and that Mrs. Wiley deserved her pension. Unfortunately, I was unable to confirm that her husband had escaped from a Union prisoner of war camp with four other men.

I was convinced that there had to be some documentation verifying this adventure and I soon found this wonderful article in the Confederate Veteran magazine, written by the late Luther B, Lake, of Company B, Eighth Virginia Infantry, titled, "Escape from Point Lookout Prison." Lake stated, "On the third night of September, 1863, five determined spirits made up their minds that they would endeavor to make their escape. The five spirits were Johnsie Tongue, Sloane, Wiley, T.W. Lake and L.B. Lake." Lake further stated, "Tongue and Slone were scouts for General J.E.B. Stuart; Wiley was an independent scout and operated in Fairfax County; T.W. Lake was a member of Colonel John S. Mosby's Forty-third Battalion Virginia Cavalry; and L.B. Lake was a member of General Pickett's Division."

After roll call, the five men crept as near the dead line as possible, and as the sentinels on their beat met and separated, the five men made a dash for freedom and headed for the beach. They waded in the water for over five hours before finally reaching land outside of the view of the prison pickets on the other side of the bay. After walking several days, and being fed and housed by various Southern sympathizers, in Maryland, they made their way to the Potomac River and crossed it by boat at night. When they landed safe and sound on the Virginia side, Luther Lake knelt down and kissed its soil. They had landed about twenty-four miles from Washington City. In a short time they made their way to the Orange and Alexandria railroad tracks. It was probably at this point where Wiley's knowledge of the area came into play. The five escapees were able to make their way at night back to their lines while walking in and around various Union camps. Luther Lake's reminiscence was not the final piece in the verification of James H. Wiley's Confederate service.

According to Captain James H. Wiley's obituary, in the Washington Post, he was ninety years old when he died. Captain Wiley had lived all his life near Engleside, in Fairfax County. Also, James Wiley was known as "Captain" because he was in command of a sailing vessel in his younger days. So being known as Captain Wiley had nothing to do with his service in the Confederacy. After the war, Captain Wiley, a Democrat, engaged in river traffic for several years, later becoming a farmer, and lived a productive life in Fairfax County until his death.

Captain James H. Wiley was buried at the Cranford Church Cemetery, in Lorton where he currently rests beside his wife Jennie.

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Award-winning local historian and tour guide in Franconia and the greater Alexandria area of Virginia.

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ADDRESS

Nathaniel Lee

c/o Franconia Museum

6121 Franconia Road

Alexandria, VA 22310

franconiahistory@gmail.com

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