Indian Spring Farm (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact spot where the Cranford family farmhouse, called "Oak Grove," once stood. No visible remains exist.


<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>
<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>

Here follows an excerpt from the 1970 Fairfax County Master Inventory of Historic Sites which contained entries from the Historic American Buildings Survey Inventory:

Indian Spring Farm is the name given to a large two-story white frame house which stands on land once owned by George Mason of Pohick. The house was probably built around 1810, according to the history of the Cranford-Plaskett family written by Susan Annie Plaskett in 1936. She reports that John S. Cranford (her great-uncle) bought about 200 acres of the Mason estate and built a house in a grave of oaks which was known for years as Oak Grove. By 1936, when she wrote, it was known as Indian Spring Farm. John Cranford died there about 1836, and was the first to be buried in the family cemetery.

After the disestablishment of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, Methodism gained supporters and Pohick Church was used by both Episcopalians and Methodists. About 1857, the Methodists built their own structure and named it Lewis Chapel in honor of Rev. John Lewis. Two Cranford brothers, James and John, nephews of John S. Cranford, helped build the structure which is on the site of the first Pohick Church. When a larger structure was built in 1900, it was named Cranford Memorial Church after James H. Cranford.


<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>
<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>

Here follows an excerpt from the Fairfax Genealogical Society website:

The Cranford Family Cemetery was once a part of the estate “Indian Spring Farm” on Gunston Road (Route 242), east of Richmond Highway (Route 1). The cemetery stands on a small, wooded hill which is now on the grounds of the Lower Potomac Pollution Control Plant. The site is to the east of (behind) the house at 9621 Richmond Highway and adjacent to the ball park on Route 1. The cemetery cannot be seen from the ball park due to a high grass-covered berm which was constructed outside the park’s chain link fence as part of a 600-foot buffer between the cemetery and the pollution control plant.

The old John Cranford house called “Oak Grove” was still standing near the cemetery in 1990, but has since been demolished. In 1957, the surveyor, a Cranford family member, stated that the house was about 125 years old. “[I]t is abandoned, and in poor condition, yet it has possibilities. . . . The view is magnificent, and there are some old oak trees shading the yard, as well as some old lilacs, and other shrubs. The deed, obtained by John S. Beach, to the cemetery, is recorded at Fairfax C.H. It gives the right of way to the cemetery, though this privilege, though recorded, seems to have been ignored. The old road seems to have been done away with, and bull-dozers are working all around the cemetery. . . .”

The cemetery may be accessed with permission from the offices at the pollution control plant at 9399 Richmond Highway. A crude roadway can be discerned between the berm and the park’s chain link fence, but in 1998, this road did not appear to be serviceable. To access the cemetery, proceed from the gates in the park fence along the berm toward the hill to the southwest.

A 60-foot-square chain link fence encloses the small cemetery. An ancient beech tree and a large oak stand inside the fence with seven gravestones, a few footstones and a large black obelisk. According to Jack Cranford who accompanied the 1998 surveyor, there are about 55 burials in the cemetery, some of which lie outside the fence. Information about possible unmarked burials is on file in the Virginia Room of the Fairfax City Regional Library. The cemetery was surveyed 1923, 1957, 1974, 1994, and 1998.

No Updates from Volume 6 of the Gravestone Books