Methodist Burial Ground

The cemetery now sits under the driving range for the Pohick Bay Golf Course.

Here follows an excerpt from the Fairfax Genealogical Society website:

METHODIST BURIAL GROUND
10301 Gunston Road (Route 242)
Mason Neck, Virginia USA

Original Information from Volume 5 of the Gravestone Books

The barn on the estate called “Lebanon” was the site of early meetings of the Methodists, according to a 1971 Historic American Buildings Survey Inventory. The barn is gone, but the main house still stands at 10301 Gunston Road (Route 242).

The property was acquired by Thomas Bates between 1807 and 1827, according to the buildings survey. The first Bates family member to live there was Thomas’ son Edward, who was active in the Methodist movement and opened his barn for services. Historian Edith Sprouse notes that Edward Bates was “known to his young relatives as Uncle Billy.”

Richard Marshall Scott of Bush Hill noted in his journal on 28 June 1846 that he had “[a]ttended the Ladies at the Meadows to service at Lebanon this afternoon and caught in a very heavy shower of rain,” as reported by Mrs. Sprouse. (For more information about the Scott family, see Volume IV.)

According to the buildings survey and to Mrs. Sprouse, the Methodists used the land beyond the barn at Lebanon as a cemetery until Lewis Chapel (q.v.) was built in 1857.

The main house, which dates from about 1815, is now on the grounds of the Pohick Bay Regional Park Golf Course which is a part of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority. The old house is now used as a golf pro shop.

No Updates from Volume 6 of the Gravestone Books