Devers-Tyler Family Cemetery

Here follows an excerpt from the Fairfax Genealogical Society website:

DEVERS/TYLER FAMILY CEMETERY
About 200 yards west of Beulah Street (Route 613) between Walker Lane and Lewin Drive
South Alexandria, Virginia USA

Original Information from Volume 5 of the Gravestone Books

The Devers/Tyler Family Cemetery is located about 200 yards west of Beulah Street (Route 613) between Walker Lane to the north and Lewin Drive to the south in the Franconia area. The cemetery stands on a hillside behind the residence at 6248 Lewin Drive, adjacent to the power lines right-of-way. A dirt road on the edge of the right-of-way leads from Beulah Street to the cemetery.

This small cemetery was surveyed in 1973, 1989, 1997 and 1998. It is separated from the adjacent yards by a chain link fence and the remnant of an old wire fence encloses the plot on the other sides. Although the 1973 surveyor found the cemetery “unkempt,” the later surveyors described the site as “fairly well maintained.”

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:

The cemetery is accessible from behind the brick wall on the left hand side of the Metro Park Drive sign. The cemetery is clean and well maintained.

Private Alfred Deavers, Company I, Seventh Virginia Cavalry is buried in this cemetery. He was born in 1831. During the war he was captured and paroled on February 28, 1865. Hospitalized with chronic diarrhea, he died from its effects July 18, 1865 at Ravensworth, Fairfax County, Virginia.

Mr. Devers Assists a Virginian Voting Against Secession:
Mr. William D. Smith, a farmer and gardener, went to Accotink to vote, and found the "Rebel Cavalry" there. "When I presented myself to the poll," he later recounted, "I was told by a Rebel that if I voted against the ordinance I would lose my property and perhaps get greased before I got home." While leaving Accotink, Mr. Smith made acquaintance with Mr. Devers, an illiterate owner of a thirty-acre farm near Accotink, and two of his sons. Mr. Smith told them of his grievance. Upon hearing Mr. Smith's story, both of the sons pulled their coats off and told Mr. Smith that he should vote for whatever he wanted, and that they also intended to vote against the ordinance of secession. Then Mr. Devers and his sons went to the polling house and beckoned Mr. Smith to follow. When they came out the old man said, "I have voted against the damned sons of bitches." Mr. Devers had heard the rebels at Accotink at the election call him a damned villain and stated, "they appeared to hate him very much then and don't like him now."

THOMAS DEVERS.
About 1855, Mr. Thomas Devers bought a farm with almost thirty-two acres of land approximately three miles from Springfield Station near Hayfield. His farm was located at this general location. He had 4 sons, but none of them served in the Rebel Army. After the Civil War, Mr. Devers stated that there was a camp of Union soldiers at Mount Hebron, half a mile from his place and that there was a picket post at an outbuilding at his grandfather's house.