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Saint Mary's Catholic Church Cemetery

GPS Coordinates: 38.8031939, -77.3262852
Closest Address: 5612 Ox Road, Fairfax Station, VA 22039

Saint Mary's Catholic Church Cemetery

Here follows an excerpt from the Fairfax Genealogical Society website:

SAINT MARY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH CEMETERY
Grounds of St. Mary's Catholic Church, 5612 Ox Road
Fairfax Station, Virginia USA

Original Information from Volume 2 of the Gravestone Books

This beautiful church cemetery is located on the grounds of St. Mary's Catholic Church, 5612 Ox Road (Route 123), Fairfax Station. The entrance to the church grounds is on Fairfax Station Road, just northeast of the road's intersection with Vogue Road.

Land for a Catholic church and cemetery was donated to the Diocese of Richmond in 1838 by two Fairfax families, the Hamills and the Cunninghams, according to St. Mary's, Fairfax Station, Virginia by Jeanne Rodrigues and William Hammond, published in 1975. Burials in the consecrated Catholic cemetery began immediately, but it was not until 1858 that construction of a church was begun at the site. The Orange and Alexandria Railroad had advertised for workers and many Irish immigrants came to the area to help build the railroad, and the church was built to attend to their needs. Today, St. Mary's Church is the oldest Catholic Church in Fairfax County.

St. Mary's Church was the site of medical care for those wounded at the Battle of Second Manassas in August 1862. Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, came to Fairfax Station to help the wounded on a train loaded with food and supplies for the Union troops.

The injured were to be transported back to Washington, D. C. on the returning train, but the train could carry only 1,000 men at a time and there were over 8,000 wounded. The men were laid out on the hill around the church, nursed by Miss Barton and treated by doctors who used the church building -- the only dry spot in a rainstorm -- as their clinic. During a long three days and nights, many soldiers died and were buried in the church graveyard. St. Mary's, Fairfax Station states that most of the slain soldiers were removed to Arlington National Cemetery after the war, “and only one Confederate grave, located on the upper edge of the church's courtyard, remains as testimony to the battle that raged nearby.” The Virginia State Historical Commission and the American Red Cross have erected a historical marker commemorating Clara Barton's efforts at St. Mary's.

The old church building and the cemetery grounds are beautifully maintained. There are a few fieldstones among the beautifully carved gravestones. The church is still used for special occasions. The cemetery was surveyed in 1924, 1955, circa 1974, 1990, 1994, and visited again in January 1995. There is an area for inurnment of cremains on the cemetery grounds which was not included in the surveys. The readings begin near the parking area with the first row of gravestones running parallel to Fairfax Station Road.

Updates/Corrections/Additions from Volume 6 of the Gravestone Books

The area for the inurnment of cremains was not included in the survey of Saint Mary’s Catholic Church Cemetery published in Volume II. The ground-level niches lie in a circle east of the church building. Some are double niches for two people. The plaques were read in August 1999, and the information was rechecked the following month.

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ADDRESS

Nathaniel Lee

c/o Franconia Museum

6121 Franconia Road

Alexandria, VA 22310

franconiahistory@gmail.com

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