Fairview Farm (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription on the roadside historical marker located here:

FAIRVIEW - CAUGHT IN HISTORY'S CROSSFIRE:
In the early 19th century these 10 acres were part of Burgundy Plantation. In the 1850s, John A. Fairfax established a 150 acre plantation named Fairview on the property. He improved the existing dwelling originally constructed between 1800 and 1830. The property changed hands several times until 1847 when Bushrod Frobel purchased the land. Within a year Frobel sold the property and in 1854 it was sold to Fairfax. In 1921, the Sisters of the Holy Cross, from St. Mary's Academy in Alexandria purchased the property. Since 1936, it has been a site of a private residence. During the Civil War, Union officers occupied the house and troops camped on the grounds which were adjacent to Fort Lyons. Fort Lyons was one of the Union forts erected in defense of Washington City.

MOSBY'S SECOND VISIT:
According to neighbor Anne Frobel's diary, John S. Mosby and his partisan rangers visited the Fairfax house twice. Sometimes in the summer of 1864, Mrs. Margaret Fairfax told Anne Frobel that Mosby had visited her house. The second time Mrs. Frobel's young girl, Milly, found the horse tracks and reported it to the nearby fort. Union cavalry searched the surrounding area all day, but didn't find the Gray Ghost.

MRS. FAIRFAX IS ALMOST KILLED:
Excerpt from Anne Frobel's diary on Monday January 26, 1863: "We were at Mrs. Fairfax's this evening and learned how narrowly she escaped being killed on Thursday last, she had just finished dressing and had left her room, when a ball came tearing through the walls and into her room, shivering the looking glass frame and splintering her bed stand and then dropped near the fireplace where two or three of her little children were standing. She says if she had been in bed she would have been killed. Mrs. Fairfax went out and searched all about, and through the bushes but could see no one."


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

Fairview or the Fairfax house was designated for destruction by a developer who purchased the land. The developer was planning to build around thirty new expensive homes on its approximate ten acres of land. Fortunately for Fairfax County and Burgundy Village the developer changed his mind, refurbished and renovated the Fairfax House and eventually built fewer houses in and around the dwelling in order to save that very important Civil War structure.

John A. Fairfax purchased this farm in 1850 and had twenty-seven slaves before the Civil War. Mr. Fairfax claimed, "General Heintzelman's headquarters was between my house and Alexandria, right in sight." Mr. Fairfax also stated the Zouaves were on his farm, and then Colonel Orlando B. Wilcox, and his Second Michigan Infantry Regiment came and stayed all winter until March 1862.


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WHISKEY AND HOGS AT THE OLD FAIRFAX FARM:
John A. Fairfax signed an affidavit in the Southern Claims records that in 1861 he and his wife and children were living on the farm, which he had purchased in 1850. He stated that he had permitted sick Union officers the use of his house until August 1865. The Union Army occupied some portion of his home for over four years.

The Southern Claims files further showed that in 1906, at age eighty-one, Mr. Fairfax then living in the District of Columbia said, "General Heintzelman's headquarters was between my house and Alexandria, right in sight." Fairfax had three to five hundred head of hogs at the Cameron Distillery, and about four hundred head on his farm. Union troops confiscated two hundred and eighty gallons of whiskey, and corn, oats, and grass. Lieutenant Colonel Farnum had ordered him to distill the two mashes left in the mash tubs, put it in barrels, and had it taken away for safekeeping. However, Union soldiers found the whiskey hidden in his barn and took that too.

The Zouaves were on Mr. Fairfax's farm, and then Colonel Orlando Bolivar Wilcox, Second Michigan Regiment, also camped in around the farm in 1861. Colonel Wilcox would go on to obtain the rank of Brigadier General in the Union Army. Unfortunately, Colonel Wilcox would be captured at First Manassas and would not be exchanged by the Confederacy until August 19, 1862.

Mr, Fairfax was the only one in the neighborhood who kept hogs. He also leased forty acres from the Fowle family and thirty acres from Anne and Elizabeth Frobel (Anne Frobel would keep a diary that would later be published that documented the Civil War history of her house and the surrounding families living in the Alexandria and Franconia areas).

George Auld, age fifty-eight also testified and said that in 1861 he lived at Cloud's Mill with his father. He had lived there since 1843. He further stated that the claimant's farm was "a general camping and drilling ground during nearly the whole war and everything was kept as bare as concrete streets in Washington. In fact, most of the camp streets were paved."

On March 7, 1908, Mr. Fairfax testified about the distillery adjoined his grounds. It was on Cameron Run just below the Little River Turnpike. It stood between Wheat's Mill and Robert's Mill. Mr. Fairfax had purchased the distillery from Archibald McFarland and the Fairfax House was three-quarters of a mile from the distillery.

On September 24, 1906, Redwood Vandergrift, age seventy testified "When Ellsworth's Zouaves came down, we were running the distillery and separating the whiskey from the grain and there was a portion of mash that was not distilled, and they stopped us and would not allow us to distill, and that was dumped out into the slop tubs and fed to the hogs and that made them drunk."

James W. Nalls testified on July 25, 1906 stating in defense of the Fairfax claim that he had known Mr. Fairfax for fifty years. In 1861 he said that he worked on the claimant's farm and stated that when the liquor was destroyed at the distillery the whiskey ran through the hog pens, and fifteen hogs died within a few minutes.

Anne Frobel writing in her diary about the deprivations inflicted upon her neighbors by the occupying Yankees said, "One party went to Mr. Fairfax and rummaged the house through and through under the pretense of looking for firearms, they went into the pantry and ran their hands all through the meal and flour barrels, forced their way into poor old Mrs. Davey's room who was sick in bed, they turned her whole room and bed upside down, even searching under the mattress she was lying on."

Anne further wrote she seldom went out of the house to go down the roads or entered the woods because the country was so filled with those horrible vagabond Union soldiers prowling and skulking about. However, one evening she made a bold venture to go as far as Mr. Fairfax's. She found them all well and they were delighted to see her. Anne told about how the Fairfax's told her of the vile enormities or terrible acts committed on the people by the beastly Yankees. Anne wrote that Mr. Fairfax said the Sedgwick brigade that was camped near their house were a "most notorious gang of horse thieves."

On Thursday, January 22, 1863, Mrs. Fairfax narrowly escaped being killed. She had just finished dressing and had left her bedroom, when a ball came tearing through the walls where she had been. The bullet splintered her bed stead and then fell near the fire-place where two or three of her little children were standing. Mrs. Fairfax truly believed had she still been in bed she would have been instantly killed. Mr. Fairfax went out and searched everywhere including the bushes but could not see or find anyone.

Luckily the entire Fairfax family survived the war and that beautiful house still stands at 3398 Tennessee Drive today.


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MOSBY'S TWO EXCURSIONS TO THE FAIRFAX HOUSE:
One morning Anne and Lizzie Frobel received a caller who said to them, "Mother says you and Miss Anne must come down there this evening. She has something she wants to tell you, and you must be sure to come for she knows you will be delighted to hear it." So of course Anne and Lizzie, after having dinner, made their way over to the home of John and Margaret Fairfax.

As soon as Mrs. Fairfax had a chance she whispered into their ears, "What do you think of my having a visit from Colonel Mosby last night, and he had a whole company of mounted men with him." The rest of Mosby's men did not all come up to the house with him because he was afraid of "arousing the echoes," but how Mosby and his rangers made their way inside the Union picket lines, without being seen or heard was a marvel to Mrs. Fairfax.

Mosby's Rangers were miles and miles inside the Yankee lines. Mosby asked a great many questions about people and things, roads and so on, and said he was coming again that night to take Brigadier General John P. Slough, the military governor of Alexandria. Mosby went on to tell Mrs. Fairfax he has a man in Alexandria telling him where Slough lives, when he leaves his office, and where he sleeps and everything else he can find out about him.

Mosby gave Mrs. Fairfax the watch word and she gave it to the Froebels. Mosby said he did not suppose Mrs. Fairfax would have any use for it, but if anything unforseen should occur and they should hear that word they would know who was about and to keep quiet. But sleep did not visit the Fairfax's eyes that night, or their slumberous eye lids. The Fairfax's sat up all night and listened, and listened. But no watch word came to break the stillness, nor did Mosby come by. They never did learn why Mosby failed to come.

Mosby was certainly the idol of this vicinity. The Alexandrians loved hearing about Mosby and his many daring and dashing exploits. This was the only time either the Fairfax's or Froebel's had ever heard of The Gray Ghost being anywhere near to that section of Fairfax County. Yet the fear of Mosby's Rangers in the area kept the Union soldiers somewhat in check, and saved all the nearby neighbors from many a deed of violence.

Mrs. Fairfax had a Negro girl named Jane who was very pro Union. So the night the Fairfax's expected Colonel Mosby the second time Mrs. Fairfax was very uneasy about Jane's finding out about his visit. Lizzie suggested a few drops of Laudanum, but Mrs. Fairfax said she had never used it in any way, and was afraid of it. Lizzie said, "O there is not the slightest danger, I'll take responsibility, and fix it for you." So Lizzie made a tumbler of nice sweet toddy and put fifteen or twenty drops of Laudanum in it, and placed it on the side board, "Now," she said, "when you are all about to retire for the night you can say to Jane, there is a tumbler of toddy on the side board, I don't want it and you may have it. Jane is fond of toddy, and that will quiet the lady of the night."

The next morning Jane slept until long after sunrise. She said, "O Miss Margaret I never slept so soundly in all my life, and what can be the reason." So a nice sweet toddy was directly responsible for Mosby successfully making a second visit to the Fairfax house without being seen or caught. However, Milly, another young Negro girl working for the Frobels found horse tracks the next morning and recognized them as Confederate. She immediately went to the Union fort and reported to the Union Colonel that a large body of rebel horsemen had been there within the Union lines. She had been able to track them up and down the roads and all through the woods.

Her report made quite a sensation, and all the Union soldiers were put on alert. Everyone who could be spared was sent out to find these rebel marauders. Anne and Lizzie Frobel saw many bodies of cavalrymen and infantrymen several times during the day searching the ground looking for any clues of the whereabouts of the gray horseman. Their search lasted all day long but without any results. Late in the evening they all returned to the fort, tired, hungry, and foot-sore to make their final reports.

The Colonel sent for Milly and told her if she ever came there again with any more of her lying tales he would have her taken up and put in the Sweat Box. The Colonel vowed he would keep her there all day and all night too. There is no other evidence that Mosby ever visited the Fairfax's again during the war.


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Here follows an excerpt from the "Jaybird's Jottings" blog written by Jay Roberts:

Last year we wrote an update on Fairview (the John A. Fairfax House), one of the few historic homes in these parts that survived the sweep of suburban growth in the 20th century. Built around 1820 and situated on a bluff overlooking Alexandria, it’s located in Burgandy Village, a neighborhood about a half-mile west of the Huntington Metro.

We’re pleased to provide another update. Through the cooperation of Fairfax County and the Franconia Museum, a historical marker was erected this month for Fairview.

(Note: The address was 3301 Burgundy Avenue, but is now 3398 Tennessee Drive).

A couple of years ago, Don Hakenson, born and raised in Franconia, and the author of several books on the history of Fairfax County, got together with the Franconia Historic Museum and successfully negotiated a deal with NVHomes that saved the house from certain destruction.

Hakenson covers the story of the house in his book, “This Forgotten Land, A Tour of Civil War Sites and other Historical Landmarks South of Alexandria, Virginia.”

And now, thanks to his efforts, further light is shed on the story.

One of the treats of the marker is a rarely seen photograph of Camp Knox. As detailed by Hakenson in his book, the Union Army set it up in the winter of 1861 at modern day Methodist Church on Franconia Road. The troops were with the 38th and 40th New York Volunteer Infantry. Brigadier General John Sedgwick headquarted here. Williams Simms owned the property, known as Lawson’s Hill, a tribute to William Lawson, a former owner.

Fantastic job, but there is one thing worth pointing out.

The map shown shows Vaucluse as being located west of Fort Worth, but it was northward, where INOVA Hospital is located. Dave Cavanaugh will be publishing his research findings, which provide details and new findings on Vaucluse.


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Here follows an excerpt from the blog of Kitty Guy, the parish historian for the Basilica of Saint Mary in Alexandria:

The Holy Cross Sisters teaching at Saint Mary School did not have a leisurely life in the 1950s. Their usual day began before dawn, walking in the cold dark morning from their convent at 623 South Fairfax Street up to the church for very early Mass. And a lot of them were not young! Several of the teachers from this decade, including Sister Constantia, Sister Joanne and Sister Osmana, were well into their 70s or older. On holidays or holy days when there were no classes to teach, they enjoyed a special privilege—sleeping in until 6:30 a.m.!

The sisters had a chapel in their convent so they could pray before the Blessed Sacrament at any time. But they did not have Mass there on a regular basis. It was a memorable day when a priest, frequently a visitor to the parish and not on the regular Saint Mary Mass rotation, would come to the convent for daily Mass. One frequent visitor was Fr. Michael Igoe, a life-long Old-Towner. When he retired as pastor of nearby Saint Louis Church, Fr. Igoe lived in his family home on Duke Street. He could walk to either the church or convent to celebrate his daily Mass. One of the sisters in the Holy Cross motherhouse recalled a quaint old Christmas custom they observed when Fr. Igoe was with them—three consecutive “low Masses” on Christmas morning!

After attending early Mass at Saint Mary on school days, the sisters walked the six blocks back to their convent for breakfast. Then they walked to the school, three more blocks, to begin a day of teaching. Even Sundays were not days of rest. Until other nearby parishes (including Saint Louis, Saint Rita and Blessed Sacrament) built their own parochial schools, the Holy Cross Sisters taught Sunday school each week for the children of those growing Northern Virginia parishes.

The tireless Holy Cross Sisters also had to deal with laundering, starching and “fluting” (pleating) the “paper plate haloes” they wore as part of their habit. One or two sisters were the officially designated “fluters” each year, an additional duty besides teaching. Like all teachers, they also had lesson plans, paper grading, etc., to keep them busy after school. In those days, there were few breaks for art, music or gym during the school day. And they usually had 60 children in their class. Occasionally the priests of the parish would visit the classes, always a respite enjoyed by the sisters and children.

Many thanks to Holy Cross Sister Alice Condon, formerly Sister Louise Therese, who taught at Saint Mary School in the 1950s, for sharing these memories. A native of Alexandria, she is a very active senior citizen now living at the Holy Cross Sisters’ Motherhouse at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana.