The Guinea Road Cemetery Reinterment (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

The Guinea Road Cemetery Reinterment
Virginia aristocrat William Fitzhugh was granted 21,996 acres in 1694: The Ravensworth tract, which was divided into northern and southern halves in 1701 and subsequently subdivided among Fitzhugh heirs throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The cemetery located at Guinea Road and Little River Turnpike (Route 236) was part of the northern half of the original tract. The community of Ilda grew around this cemetery in the late 19th century. Families of local tenant farmers, African American slaves and Freedmen are believed to have been buried at the Guinea Road Cemetery. The remains were reinterred at this site by the Virginia Department of Transportation in 2006.

Erected 2006 by The Fairfax County History Commission.


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This Was Once Ilda
A couple of blocks of commercial businesses in an otherwise residential neighborhood is all that remains of Ilda, although the name is gone. It is on Little River Turnpike from Guinea Road east to Woodburn Road.


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Here follows a newspaper article from the Washington Post:

A Tribute to Forgotten Souls
By Alec MacGillis
Sunday, October 1, 2006

Two years after they were on the verge of being paved over for a road-widening project in Fairfax County, the remains of the people of Ilda received an official guarantee yesterday: No one will overlook them again.

In a long-awaited ceremony, three dozen descendants of the families buried in a small and all-but-forgotten African American graveyard in Annandale gathered to commemorate the site at a nearby cemetery where the remains were reinterred last month.

For the descendants and highway workers, genealogists and public officials who assisted them, it was the culmination of a $300,000 state-funded undertaking that began 2 1/2 years ago as the Virginia Department of Transportation was preparing to add a right-turn lane at Little River Turnpike and Guinea Road.

"It's an overwhelming feeling. These people could have been underground [for a] thousand years," said Dennis Howard, a descendant of one of the reinterred families. "Only God could have brought such diverse elements of the community together to make this happen without fighting."

Local lore and some old maps suggested that the area of the widening might have been the site of a tiny graveyard for slaves on the Fitzhugh plantation and for the small community that sprang up there after the Civil War. Called Ilda, the settlement was centered on a blacksmith shop started by two men, Horace Gibson and Moses Parker, at what is now the intersection of Little River Turnpike and Prosperity Avenue -- home to a Pizza Hut.

But other maps and documents showed no such graveyard, and there was no visible trace of anything in the spot, a patch of scrub and trees between Guinea Road and the lawn of a McMansion.

Persistence paid off, as a transportation official, a librarian and archaeologists teamed up to track down descendants and finally determine that there was in fact a graveyard. The proof: the unearthing in 2004 of a headstone, the only one found in a cemetery where most graves were presumably marked only by small rocks.

This spring, transportation workers and archaeologists carefully removed the remains of about three dozen people, half of them children. They were taken to Radford University to be studied for clues about what life was like in Ilda. And in August, the remains were brought to their new home, Pleasant Valley Memorial Park, where they now lie beneath a historical marker, a bed of mums and the recovered headstone.

Yesterday's event was as much family reunion as commemoration. It so happens that Howard, a District social worker living in Springfield, is an avid genealogist who has researched the Gibson family going back to Ilda and has helped keep far-flung descendants in touch with each other. He recently published a lengthy history of the family written by a cousin, another ardent genealogist who died a decade ago.

As a result of the two cousins' labors, the Gibson clan retains a strong family identity. Relatives drove from as far as Norfolk and northern New Jersey for the event.

"I've always thought it's important to have a knowledge of your history, to know where you've come from and what you're about, to be able to go forward," said Renee Morton, who drove from New Jersey with her two teenage children.

At a Merrifield church, family members prayed, sang and took in sermons and readings that included one particularly relevant psalm: "The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner." With all the pomp of a proper funeral, Fairfax police then led a procession the few miles to Pleasant Valley.

There, the family was joined by the others who had lent a hand along the way. Residents of the house overlooking the old graveyard came to pay their respects, as did a Virginia transportation official. Archaeologist Charles Rinehart came from Michigan to present to the family the findings of the studies on the remains: Researchers determined the sex of all but one of the 18 adults and could tell that "everyone definitely led a hard life of labor, consistent with slaves and former slaves."

More remains are expected to be found when Guinea Road is dug up for the widening next year.

Amid the general good feeling, some family members expressed regret that the graves had to be disturbed at all. But Fairfax Supervisor Sharon S. Bulova (D-Braddock), who presented a proclamation for the event, said the roadwork could not be avoided.

"You don't have a free right-turn lane there," she said. "It'll help unkink traffic."


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Here follows an excerpt from the Braddock Heritage website:

Archeological Investigation Report: Guinea Road Cemetery
The Louis Berger Group, Inc., on behalf of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), conducted an archeological investigation of the Guinea Road Cemetery in preparation for road construction at that site.

Located at the intersection of Little River Turnpike (Rt. 236) and Guinea Road, the 19th century cemetery's visible traces had been erased by previous development over the years. However, the cemetery had long been known as an ancestral burial place to descendants of former slaves Horace Gibson and Moses Parker.

Descendant Dennis Howard assisted with the investigation, including providing historical family information. On September 30, 2006, Archaeologist Charles Rinehart of the Louis Berger Group delivered a presentation on their investigations at a Gibson-Parker family reunion.

Subsequent to the information reported here, further archeological investigations were completed from December 2007 to January 2008, when pavement surfaces were removed during road construction. In March 2009, VDOT issued a final report prepared by the Louis Berger Group - "Data Recovery At Guinea Road Cemetery (Site 44FX1664) Route 236 (Little River Turnpike)" - which is available in the Fairfax City Regional Library, Virginia Room.

Guinea Road Cemetery Presentation:
Archaeological Site 44FX1664 was first identified in 1988 by a team from the Fairfax Library, based on the presence of a footstone plotted on an early 1980s tax map. The field inspection by the Fairfax Library team resulted in the identification of two fieldstone markers and three grave-sized depressions within a 30x60-foot area.

In June 1990 Mondan General Contractors sponsored archival research and an archaeological survey of the property at the southwestern corner of Guinea Road and the Little River Turnpike, i.e., the purported location of the Gibson/Parker Cemetery. A pedestrian archaeological survey, subsurface testing, and extensive archival research were conducted.

The 1990 archival research failed to locate any documents that mentioned a cemetery (McCarron 1990:2), but apparently the reference to an “old graveyard” in an 1851 deed was overlooked. McCarron (1990:3) found that the earliest mention of a cemetery or footstone on a map dates to the 1980 Fairfax County tax map. McCarron walked the entire parcel at 8-foot (2.4-meter) intervals. McCarron identified a fieldstone, a capped well, and a depression possibly associated with a structure shown at the intersection of Little River Turnpike and Guinea Road on an 1879 map. In consultation with Fairfax County archaeologist Mike Johnson, an area 8 feet (2.4 meters) in diameter was shovel skimmed to a depth of 0.6 feet (0.2 meters) around the fieldstone to determine if it was a property boundary or a burial marker. McCarron (1990:4) concluded that the fieldstone was a “planted stone,” i.e., property boundary marker, and recommended that no additional archaeological investigations were necessary within the project area.

In the 1990s Malcolm Richardson and Doug Owsley, Ph.D., conducted a pedestrian survey of the property. At the suggestion of Mr. Richardson, Pete Petrone and William Hanna completed a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey of the property. The GPR survey was hindered by the ground cover at the property and was “inconclusive” (Barile 2004:7).

Testing:
More recent historical research and archaeological investigations were conducted at Site 44FX1664 by Berger in 2004 (Eddins et al. 2005). The fieldwork conducted by Berger was conducted in two phases. Initial investigations were carried out at the project location on September 8 and 9, 2004. During that initial phase a backhoe was utilized to strip the topsoil from an area (Stripping Area A) within the project ROW at the northern end of the lot. No burials were identified during the first phase of investigations.

The second phase focused on portions of the lot in the ROW to the east and south of the initial testing area. The second phase was initiated on October 18 and continued until October 27, 2004.

The topsoil was stripped from four additional contiguous areas (B, C, D, and E) located to the east and
south of Stripping Area A. The project area, i.e., the total area that was mechanically stripped, extended
110 feet (31.5 meters) north/south along the western edge of Guinea Road from the intersection of Little
River Turnpike and Guinea Road. The project area extended variably from 8 feet to 32 feet (2.44 to 9.76
meters) to the west from the western edge of the sidewalk on the western side of Guinea Road within the
area of a proposed permanent utility easement ROW. Testing was not carried out in the residential lot to
the west of the proposed permanent utility easement ROW.

A total of 30 features were identified during the second phase of the investigations. Of these, 29 appeared
to be grave shafts, while one (Feature 5) was a posthole. The identified grave shafts are all located within
an area measuring 54 feet (16.5 feet) north-south by at least 32 feet (9.75 meters) from the western edge
of the sidewalk. The eastern, western, and northern boundaries of the cemetery were not identified. A
few of the identified grave shafts (Features 9, 10, 19, and 20) appeared to extend to the east under the
existing sidewalk along the western edge of Guinea Road.

During the stripping in Area B an inscribed headstone for S.A. Williams and dated 1851, was encountered at the base of a large tree in the vicinity of Features 2, 3, and 8. A number of other smaller, rectanguloid stones, without any inscriptions, were observed during the stripping. These may have been used as head- or footstones for some of the graves. A window excavated into Features 12 and 26 encountered coffin wood and a coffin nail, demonstrating that intact burials exist at the site.

Based on historical research during the testing, it appeared that the site may not be restricted to interments of the Gibson and Parker families and that the cemetery may pre-date the establishment of Ilda. The cemetery may include the remains of tenants or enslaved Africans and may have been established during the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. The cemetery also may have been for interments by free Blacks prior to or after the Civil War. Consequently, the graves identified at the site have the potential to yield important information relative to burial practices and material culture of African Americans from the eighteenth-to-late nineteenth century in northern Virginia. As a consequence, the site was renamed the Guinea Road Cemetery by Berger, as this more generic name covers the full potential range of cultural and temporal contexts that may be represented by interments in the cemetery.

Based on the number of grave shafts identified during the testing investigations, and the presence of coffin materials in one of the shafts, there appeared to be the potential for a sufficient enough number of skeletal remains to conduct detailed, comparative osteological analyses, which could answer important research questions relative to the physical anthropology of the burial population. For these reasons, Berger recommended Site 44FX1664 as eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion D, as it may be likely to yield information important in history (Eddins et al. 2005:28). The Virginia Department of Historic Resources (VDHR) concurred with this recommendation in March 2005 (Holma 2005).

Data Recovery:
The excavation and removal of the human burials was conducted as follows. Once the VDOT secured approval of the data recovery plan, secured a permit for the Archaeological Removal of Human Remains from the VDHR, and received a court order authorizing the cemetery removal, Berger excavated and removed 43 features, including 32 burials, located within the proposed highway ROW and easements immediately west of Guinea Road. Berger also conducted additional archaeological investigations on a residential lot to determine the western limits of the cemetery, once permission of the landowner was secured.

Berger will conduct a second stage of fieldwork that will involve the removal of any graves located to the east under the sidewalk and pavement on Guinea Road or to the north under the surface of the existing service road on the south side of Little River Turnpike. The second stage will be scheduled closer to initiation of construction of the Project in order to eliminate the need to rebuild Guinea Road and the service road temporarily after the cemetery excavation.

All human remains were treated in a respectful and dignified manner. No burials were left exposed after work hours or over a weekend. All excavated remains were transported to a secure location. Access to the human remains were restricted to Berger supervisory personnel, VDOT staff, VDHR staff, family members, and the physical anthropologists conducting the skeletal analysis.

Berger’s data recovery excavations occurred from March 20 – April 19, 2005. Initial data recovery investigation was carried out on the 29 previously identified features. A backhoe with a smooth bucket was used to remove surface sediments to the depth at which black plastic had been placed to cover these interments during previous investigations. Once the plastic was removed, Berger archaeologists shovel-skimmed and troweled the stripped surface to clearly expose the grave shafts.

Berger also used a backhoe with a smooth bucket to identify grave shafts that might have been located on the residential lot to the west and to the east under the sidewalk along existing Guinea Road. In regard to the sidewalk, only grave shafts that were partially exposed west of it were excavated during the first stage of fieldwork. All mechanical excavation was monitored closely by Berger archaeologists to ensure that the proper depths were reached and that burials were undisturbed. Following the machine-assisted stripping, Berger archaeologists shovel-skimmed and troweled the remnant sediments to clearly expose any grave shafts.

Burial excavations ensured that there is documentation of containment devices, burial shaft and entombment configurations, the burial placement process, skeletal positioning and orientation, any evidence of ceremonialism or religious practices, and all funerary items.

All grave shafts were excavated by hand, but, in general, screening grave shaft fill was not necessary. As the burial/coffin was approached, however, all grave shaft fill was screened as a single stratigraphic unit. Whenever possible, skeletal remains, coffin furniture, and personal items were left in situ (or original position) for recordation. Excavation of each burial proceeded from the skull to the lower lumbar area, and from the mid-femoral area to the feet. Burials were drawn and photographed. All burials and features were documented on forms developed by Berger. For each burial, a form with the outline of the human skeleton was used and each bone which remained was shaded in on the form to the degree of its completeness.

Soil and flotation samples were obtained in the abdominal area to collect dietary information. For burials which did not appear to contain any human remains, a representative sample of soil was collected from the heart area to be reburied in place of human remains.

Wood samples were taken from all coffins. Sixteen burials had coffin wood which could be collected. Seventy-five percent of the coffin wood samples (N=12) are pine. Other wood species identified include mulberry (8 percent, N=1) and white oak (8 percent, N=1). All three wood species were available locally for coffin construction.

During their removal, skeletal elements were wrapped in foil, labeled, and placed in well-padded boxes: only one burial was placed per box. Once the human remains were removed and the samples were collected, soil remaining within the grave feature was excavated and screened to ensure all artifacts were recovered. Once all the artifacts were retrieved, one shovel test each was dug near the eastern end and the western end of the grave feature outline. This procedure was done to ensure no additional burials had been stacked below the grave feature.

Age of the Cemetery:
Several types of artifacts are useful in dating when the individuals could have been buried. Archaeological and historic research at other contemporaneous cemeteries has provided information on when specific artifacts were manufactured. As an example, recovery of a button which was first manufactured in 1850 is an indication that burial could not have been done before 1850.

Data recovery excavations resulted in the recovery of 2,850 artifacts from the Guinea Road Cemetery. Most of the material (72 percent) consists of machine cut coffin nail fragments. Other types of artifacts which are also funerary items include coffin tacks, coffin screws, coffin butt hinges, coffin ornamental tacks, coffin escutcheons, coffin lining, and coffin handles. There are also “unidentified coffin-related” articles which consist of ferrous metal (iron) objects associated with coffin hardware but cannot be identified as portion or fragment of a specific part. Non-funerary artifacts include buttons, hook/eyes, snaps, woven cloth, yarn, and a quartz rock.

Funerary items account for nearly the entire artifact assemblage (96.5 percent, N=2,750). Machine cut coffin nails and coffin tacks represented slightly more than 83 percent of all funerary artifacts and were found in every burial. The type of machine cut nails recovered were first manufactured in 1830 and were in general use throughout the 1890s, so they are not very helpful in dating the burials. The period of active interment, however, can be determined by the presence of several other types of coffin hardware. The coffin hardware evidence suggests the cemetery dates from the 1840s to 1870s.

Coffin screws and tacks first appear in hardware catalogs in 1853 and were used until at least 1877 (Bell 1990:64). However, the technology for manufacturing these screws came into production in the late 1840s (Cheek et al. 2002:124). Coffin screws and tacks from the Guinea Road Cemetery are composed of both ferrous metal (iron) and white metal. The only adult grave which did not contain either a coffin screw or tack was Burial 8, a 50+ year-old female, which is located in the vicinity of where the marked headstone for S.A. Williams (who died in 1851) was found during testing of the cemetery (Eddins et al. 2005:20). Seven child and infant burials also lack coffin screws and tacks.

In general, coffin tacks outnumbered coffin screws throughout the cemetery. Ten burials contained only coffin tacks and four burials had only coffin screws. White metal coffin hinges are illustrated in hardware catalogs from 1861-1904 (Bell 1990:64). These decorative coffin hinges are commonly found along with coffin screws/tacks at other cemetery sites (Bell 1990; Bromberg et al. 2000; Cheek et al. 2002:126). Decorative coffin hinges at the Guinea Road Cemetery consist of white metal butt hinges found in nine burials (3, 6, 10, 11A, 11B, 12, 17, 22, and 31). With the exception of Burials 6 and 31, which are in the middle and at its extreme southern end, all these burials are located in the cemetery’s eastern half. This suggests that many graves in the eastern half date to the 1860s or later and that graves in the western half are earlier. The style of some coffin butt hinges recovered from the Guinea Road Cemetery is the same as ones found at the Uxbridge Almshouse Burial Ground in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, where poor people from several ethnic backgrounds were buried together (Bell 1990:63-64).

Several whole coffin butt hinges from Burials 6 and 11B, however, are plain. Coffin escutcheons and thumbscrews began to be manufactured in the 1870s (Hacker-Norton and Trinkley 1984:46). Escutcheons were found in graves at another Virginia cemetery dating to the 1880s and as late as the early 1900s (Cheek et al. 2002). Only Burials 12 and 17 at the Guinea Road Cemetery have escutcheons. Both burials are in the eastern half of the cemetery and illustrate interments were still done during the 1870s.

Various types of handles have been used on coffins. By 1865, swing bail handles with either one or two lugs were being produced (Hacker-Norton and Trinkley 1894:45-46). There has been at least one example of a much earlier Virginia burial documented with a bail handle from the coffin of a man who died in 1856 (Little et al. 1992:410). At the Guinea Road Cemetery, Burial 17 was the only grave where coffin handles were recovered. Four ferrous metal single lug swing bail handles with an eagle motif were retrieved.

Non-funerary artifacts represent a very small portion of the artifact assemblage (3.5 percent, N=100) and were present in only 12 burials. Similar types and quantities of such artifacts and their extremely low proportion compared to coffin hardware items are comparable to what was recovered at all African American cemetery relocation projects used for comparison with the Guinea Road Cemetery (e.g. the Alexandria Quaker Burying Ground [Bromberg and Shepard 2006], the Tate Family Cemetery [Cheek et al. 2002], the Weir Cemetery [Little et al. 1992], and Site 44HE950 [McDonald and Meacham 2001]). Most these non-funerary items consist of clothes fasteners: buttons, snaps, or eyes. The datable buttons indicate the burials could be no earlier than the 1840s or 1850s, and provide comparable evidence to the datable coffin hardware items in determining when the cemetery was actively in use. There are similarities in the types of buttons found with both males and females, but there are some differences within certain burials.

Five female burials and one child burial contain some type of clothes fastener. There are a variety of button styles present in the female graves. (Image) Burial 8 has four domed blouse buttons. Other types of buttons recovered from female burials are pressed glass buttons, small China buttons, brass buttons, and bone buttons. Pressed glass buttons were first manufactured in 1840 and small China buttons in 1850. Several of these buttons could be identified as blouse buttons and some as probably dress buttons.

Clothes fasteners are found in four male burials. (Image) There are 12 buttons from Burial 12, including six plain small China undergarment buttons (post-1850), four domed (probably coat) buttons, and two bone buttons. Non-typical buttons for a male burial come from Burial 40. Among the buttons are four gilt one-piece construction buttons and three bone button fragments. The gilt buttons were manufactured from 1800 to 1850 and are trouser buttons, as they were found in the waist area. Three of these buttons are impressed on the back with “PATENT GOLD COLOUR”. This was the only burial to have gold-plated buttons.

Osteology:
The 32 burials revealed poor to excellent preservation, though only about one-third of them contain 50-100 percent complete skeletons (N=11). Thirty percent of the burials are 25 percent complete (N=10). All of the burials which appear based on size to be children/infants are less than 25 percent complete, and most of these (N=8) did not have any bones or teeth at all. With the exception of Burial 8, all burials with 50 percent or higher preservation are found in the cemetery’s northern section; these burials were those with grave shafts more shallow in depth below the present ground surface.

Drs. Cliff and Donna Boyd of Radford University located in Radford, Virginia conducted the osteology (or skeletal) analysis. For purposes of their research, with some exceptions, preservation of bone was on average fair to poor. The 33 burials consist of 15 children, 11 adult females, six adult males, and one adult whose sex cannot be determined due to the poor bone preservation. Seven of the adults are older, likely over 45 years old based on dental wear and loss as well as degenerative effects on bone.

Height estimates could be determined on three females and three males. The females are nearly identical with mean estimates of 5’ 1” to 5’2”. The males have a mean estimates range from 5’4” to 5’9”.

Ancestry could be determined on only six adults, four males and two females. All of the individuals have traits suggestive of African Americans. There is no clear evidence for any other ethnic group in the burial population. Most burials could not have ancestry determined due to the lack of necessary features on the skull, especially facial features.

Dental disease was evident on 14 individuals. Childhood stress was present on the teeth of eight individuals. Indications of a life consisting of heavy physical labor include the presence of osteoarthritis on seven out of 18 adults and Musculoskeletal Stress Marks (hyperrobusticity of muscle attachments, pulled ligaments) on six out of 18 adults. The frequency of such observations would surely be much higher if bone preservation had been better in the cemetery.

Archaeological Summary:
The Guinea Road Cemetery is much like other African American cemeteries and cemeteries containing people from the poorer classes which date from the 1840s to 1870s. The graves were consistent with orthodox Christian burial practices. All the coffins were hexagonal in shape and, with one exception, the graves had fieldstone markers. Similar types of coffin hardware were recovered. Non-funerary artifacts were very few and consisted almost exclusively of clothing items, especially buttons.

The osteology analysis provided definitive proof that the individuals buried in this cemetery are African Americans. This study also indicates that the Guinea Road Cemetery individuals are very similar to other African American cemeteries of the mid-1800s. The Boyds have noted remarkable similarities between the Guinea Road Cemetery and the one at Site 44HE950 in Henrico County. The high proportion of subadult burials, dental problems forming the most common pathology, amount of osteoarthritis, and Musculoskeletal Stress Markers at both locations are traits of people who have poor diet, poor dental care, and high occupational stress. The combined information suggests the individuals interred in the Guinea Road Cemetery were enslaved Africans or free Blacks who may have once been enslaved. The Boyds have also studied skeletons of free Blacks in Virginia from the 1800s and early 1900s and have seen many of the same health problems with them as with slaves.

Colonial History:
The project area is located on lands once part of the Ravensworth land grant originally owned by the Fitzhugh family. In 1685 Col. William H. Fitzhugh purchased over 24,000 acres of land in Northern Virginia from John Matthews, an original Jamestown grantee. Ravensworth was the largest single parcel of land granted in Northern Virginia and was transformed by the Fitzhugh’s into one of the largest tobacco plantations in the area.

William Fitzhugh’s Ravensworth plantation was managed by overseers and worked by hundreds of slaves. William Fitzhugh never lived on the plantation but resided at a home he built called “Eagles Nest” in King George County. Following his death, Ravensworth was divided in half and left to his sons William II and Henry II.

The northern portion of Ravensworth, which includes the project area, went to Henry II. It was under Henry II’s ownership that the first written records of tenant leases at Ravensworth exist in Fairfax County deed books, which are complete for the period 1742 to 1750. From 1750 until his death in 1753 Henry II leased hundreds of acres at Ravensworth.

The project area is at the meeting of two of the county’s early transportation routes, the Little River Turnpike and Guinea Road.

The Little River Turnpike was built through the northern half of Ravensworth tract in 1806. A significant transportation route, the Little River Turnpike was the third toll road constructed in the nation and connected Alexandria to Fairfax Courthouse and beyond.

The exact age or name origin of Guinea Road is unknown. The road was in existence and known as Guinea Road in the mid-19th century. Historically, the term “Guinea,” was the name given by Europeans to describe the coast of West Africa during the time of the slave trade and was then used to describe the geographic regions where blacks congregated. Evidence of this can be found from New England to the deep South. According to the family tradition of the Gibson-Parker families, the Ravensworth plantation had many slave shanties located along the road that would later be called Guinea Road.

Site Specific History:
During its earlier research efforts, Berger identified the first written reference to a cemetery at the location of the Guinea Road cemetery. In 1851, William Gooding transferred the parcel to Peter Gooding for $1,800. The land had been conveyed to William Gooding six months earlier from Henry M. Fitzhugh III, son of Nicholas Fitzhugh. According to the deed, the parcel is located on “the south side of Little River Turnpike area below the old graveyard and immediately opposite the lower corner of said Peter Gooding’s land.”

In 1859 Peter Gooding’s estate was divided, and Peter Gooding, Jr. was granted lot #3, approximately 168 acres north of Little River Turnpike and 155 acres south of the turnpike. [Image 2] The residence of William Gooding is depicted on an 1862 map of Northeastern Virginia. [Image 3] Based on the plat map, it appears that William Gooding was the only resident near the intersection of Little River Turnpike and Guinea Road in 1862. In 1865, Gooding sold 80 acres, which included the cemetery, to Monty Gary.

Court records indicate that the parcel was conveyed to Mary Minor from Monty Gary in 1874. In 1898 trustees for Mary Minor deeded the parcel to Augustus Jacobs, and in 1906 trustees for Augustus Jacobs transferred the land to Jennie L. Smith. Following the death of Jennie L. Smith the tract went to her heir, Beatrice Virginia Smith. Other owners of the tract include Walter Smith (1946-1950), Gareth and June Neville (1950-1953), and John C. Webb (1953-1970).

Not a lot of historical information has been uncovered concerning who may be buried in the cemetery. We know that the cemetery was in use prior to the arrival of the Gibson-Parker family based on deed research, and the Fitzhughs were a large slave-holding family. The lone inscribed marker is for an S.A. Williams, who appeared to be 11 years old at the time of death. A number of Williams resided in the area during the 19th century, but a S.A. Williams born around 1840 has not been found in census, birth or death records. The family tradition of the Gibson-Parker family states that members of the family are buried in the cemetery. Based on this combined historical information, the cemetery was most likely used for enslaved African and free Black burials.

The Community:
In 1860, the African American population in Fairfax County was 3,788, of which 672 were listed as freedmen. The population in 1870 increased to 4,284, and this growth was largely due to Fairfax County’s proximity to Washington D.C. Several African American settlements formed in the county following the Civil War, including settlements in Lewinsville, Fairfax Courthouse, Vienna, Falls Church, and Merrifield.

The Gibson and Parker families moved into the area sometime during the 1860s from Culpeper County. Formerly slaves of Jonathon Gibson, the families were able to purchase their freedom. Horace Gibson and Moses Parker had both been trained as blacksmiths while slaves and where able to earn money by working on the side. According to family tradition, the families first settled in a “shanty town” located along Guinea Road. In 1868 Horace Gibson purchased his first tract of land on the north side of Little River Turnpike above its intersection with Guinea Road and according to the deed he had already started building a house on the parcel. Moses Parker and Robert Williams purchased six acres adjacent to the land of Horace Gibson in 1869 from Peter Gooding.

Together Horace and Moses operated a blacksmith shop on the north side of Little River Turnpike at Guinea Road. The U.S. Census from 1870 lists the members of the Gibson and Parker families, indicating ages, occupations, value of land and so forth. A small community developed at the intersection of Little River Turnpike and Guinea Road and to the east along the turnpike and was eventually known as Ilda. The community included the blacksmith shop, a store, and eventually a church and school. Based on historical research, Ilda was a racially mixed community with blacks and whites living side by side. Neighbors of the Gibson and Parker families included: James Caton, Arthur Davis, John Malone, F.H. Seawell, and R. Trimble.

Historically, the church, school, and fraternal and mutual aid organizations were the stalwarts in the development of free black communities. The establishment of a church was the first priority for members of the community and was the center of community life. Other organizations would typically grow out from the church.

A church in the community of Ilda was not established until 1908. The Ilda church was a Methodist Episcopal South Church and was attended by whites. One of the oldest churches for whites in the area was Wakefield Chapel, a Methodist church, which was built between 1897 and 1899 and was mostly likely where the area whites attended church until the construction of the Ilda Church.

Black residents, including Horace Gibson and his family and Moses Parker and his family, in this section of Fairfax attended church at the Second Baptist Church in Falls Church, established in 1871, and the First Colored Baptist Church of Merrifield, completed in 1895. Finding a formal place to bury their dead was also a priority for the area African Americans. In 1868, Horace Gibson, Moses Parker, and others petitioned the Fairfax County government for the formal creation of a black cemetery, and as a result the Jermantown Cemetery was established. A second black cemetery, Union Cemetery, was established at the same time.

The Ilda School, established for white area residents, operated from 1897 to 1915 and was located on the north side of the Little River Turnpike on land formally owned by William Gooding, Sr. The ½-acre parcel was deeded to the Falls Church School District from James and Annie Caton and was re-deeded to them in 1915 when the school was no longer in use and the buildings had been destroyed by fire.

Reportedly, the first school for African Americans in Fairfax was originally located on land donated by Major Hine in 1867. After the school moved to the intersection of Lawyers Road and Malcom Road, it eventually became known as Public School for the Colored No. A in the Falls Church School District. Another early school for African Americans was the Fairfax Colored School built between 1874 and 1878 and located in Fairfax Courthouse. Other schools for blacks were established in Vienna, Mount Pleasant, Seminary Hill, Merrifield, and Bailey’s Crossroads.

Several fraternal and mutual aid organizations formed in Fairfax County and Northern Virginia in the late 19th century and early 20th century. They include a chapter of the NAACP, the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, Prince Hall Masonic Order, House of Ruth and the Sons and Daughters of Liberty. Members of the Gibson-Parker families were active in such organizations.