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We must even in these days of wonderful achievements, view with admiration the grand fight made by tne first settlers of Virginia when they undertook, against Inconceivable odds. the reclamation of this fair land from the useless waste of savagery. That they progressed at all is remarloable; that their progress was In fact rapid passes our understanding and calls forth our heartiest praise.
When Capt. John Smith and his companions, the first white men to explore the valley of the Potomac, reached the falls of the river in 1608, it is estimated that there were in this section 2,500 Indians, of whom 800 were warriors, and yet in about sixty years from that first expl6ration we find another band of bold spirits settling in this veritable wilderness and ready to contest its possession with an enemy who outnumbered them twenty to one. And, too, these pale-faced strangers yielded not a foot of ground to their foe, but drove them from these chosen lands until, in 1730, the country from the river to the Blue Monutains was comparatively free from the danger of hostile attack.
Let your imagination carry you back some 241 years to these one hundred and twenty men in this strange country, without a city, without a home; yea, indeed, without even other civilized beings within many, many miles; without the poorest comforts of the land whence they came, and without hope of acquiring such comforts except through deprivations that must last for years, for we must remember that this was quite six yesrs before the creation of Stafford County (1675), fiftyone years before King George County (1720), and sixty-one years before Prince William County was formed from Stafford and King George. Such were the pioneers of this great republic, tho men who laid its fouudation and fought its hardest lights: and to them all honor is due.
The one hundred and twenty men who came to the head-waters of the Potomac in the year 1669 were brought in by Capt, Robert Howsen to possess the 6,600 acres of land granted him by Governor Berkeley. The grant included the south shore of the Potomac River and extended from Indian Cove Creek (Hunting Creek) to what is now known as Analostan island. Captain Howsen uiust surely have visited this section before making terms with Governor Berkeley for the grant, so well chosen was the spot; and as certainly he did not go to the groat expense of bringing all these men to Virginia from England unless he expected to benefit by the transaction by utilizing the property selected. That they took possession of the territory there can be no doubt, as such settlement - was a condition of the grant, This grant was subsequently unsuccessfully contested in the courts by those claiming title under a patent from Lord Fairfax. These then were the first settlers in the country which afterwards became Fairfax County, and hero, too, was an outpost of English civilization in the new world: an advance guard one hundred and ninety miles from Jamestown, the base; a gate through which should come an army. the eomjng of which should never cease. Could we follow. step by step. the livw of Howsen's men and their descendants we could tell an interesting tale of the development into a county of a wilderness claimed through Lord Fairfax sixty years after the reelarnation had been accomplished. But the hand of time is doing its appointed work. and the foot prints of the first comers are now almost completely obliterated.
In a strange country, surrounded by dense forests inhabited by wild animals and wilder men, and knowing themselves to be at a very great disadvantage, the strangers would certainly remain together in a place which weeld afford the greatest possible advantage to the besieged; and for such place we must look if we would locate the first village of Fairfax County. As the only route of transportation from Jamestown to the territory granted Captain Howsen was at that time, the Potomac River, we can well imagine that as the vessel bringing the settlers approached the new poession (a princely one for tbose days and one in Captain Howsen's lowly station) a lookout was kept for a good harbor in which to make a landing, or it is possible that a landing place had been selected on a previous occasion, At any rate a better harbor than the broad, smooth waters of Hunting Creek bay could not have better found. It was at the very heginiling of the granted territory as the vessel came up the beautiful Potomac, and presented a good site for purposes of defense; an unobstructed view for miles up and down the river, giving time to prepare for an attack; well supplied with water from a large creek which emptied into the bay; an abundant supply of fish from the river itself; while on the land side it was surrounded by the forest in which ran riot wild game of the best eating and where were found ample materials for the construction of shelters and for their inclosure by a stockade; it was in fact defendable on all sides trom any unslrilled attack. Here Indeed was a good haven for these men from far off England after the unaccustomed confinement, possibly for months, on the slow going sailing vessel; a balm after the troubles of the tempest-tossed deep. Belhaven it was named, and at this place was the first settlement at the head of tidewater of the Potomac and in the section which afterwards became Fairfax County. As time passed others seeking adventure and fortune came to tlis frontier settlement In the country which had heen un highly recommended by Captain SmIth, whose remarkable adventures were known to the world; until, In 1748, when Belhaven had outgrown the narrow limits of its stockade and the Indians had retired to the mountains in the west, Alexandria became its suburb, -and the ebild had become the father of the man.
Captain Howsen and his men were. it seems, without question, the first permanent settlers and Belhaven the first town of the county of Fairfax. If additional evidence were wanted the ground itself would speak. Tobacco was the gold of those days; the medium of commercial exchange; and every available foot of earth was made to produce its wealth. So extensive was the cultivation of the staple that tobacco warehouses were built, by direction of the Virginia authorities, at Belhaven in 1730, and so assidusously was this one crop planted and reproduced that even to this day the 6,600 acres granted to Captain Howsen bear an imprint of-ruthless spoilation, by which they are distinguished from other acres of Fairiax County. This impoverishment of the soil surely was not the result of raising tobacco on the same spot for a few years only but the practice must have been carried On for years prior to 1730, when the production had become so great that it was found necessary to build warehouses to hold the supply until a sufficient number of vessels should anive for its transportation abroad.
Eventually the land in the immediate vicinity of the city became less productive and as this became apparent lands farther and still farther inland were taken up, and the movement to the high elevations westward can be traced. It was not, however, until the country had been entirely freed from hostile Indians by the treaty of Fontainebleau In 1762, ninety-three years after Captain Howsen landed at Belhaven, and fourteen years after Alexandria was laid off, that travel by land away from the city became isessible, and then only by well known trails through the surrounding forest or when accompanied by one of the trustworthy guides of the time, of whom John Gist was the most noted. Indian trails and by-paths finally became public roads, and have remained so, with but slight changes to this day. One of these became "King's Highway" from Alexandria to Williamsburg, whence the seat of the government of Virginia had been removed in 1770, one year after the first settlement in Fairfax County. For many years thin remained the only highway from the north to the south and over it were carried the mails from Philadelphia, even to New Orleans. To the east of this road is still found the village of Accotink, which, in colonial times, was a town of large business interests, and on Epsewassen Creek Captain Augustus Washington, in 1754, built a mill, the product of which was sent to foreign ports. Colchester, too, where King's Highway crosses Oceoquan River, was an important colonial town, for here were located not only large warehouses for the storage of tobacco before shipment abroad. the cultivation of the "weed" having by this time extended to the very foot hills of the mountains, but here were the iron foundries conducted by John Balientine, who furnished cannon and shell for our armies during the Revolutionary war.
The inns, ordinaries and places of private entertainment were the forerunners of towns; and of these there were: "The Cross Keys" and "The Fairfax Arms" at Colchester; "Thornton's" at Newgate; "The Star" on the Pike, and toward the monntalnj, "West's," "Williams," "Ashby's," and finally, and most noted of all, "Nevill's," where, it is said, Louis Philippe, of kingly fame, and his brothers, Montpensier and fleaujolais, found rest for their weary feet after footing it through our primitive world. Around tbese public places the villagers built their simple homes, so that by 1750 there were many very prosperous towns, some of which are still found on the map, while all record of Rose, McCarthy, Sinclair and Araberry seems lost.
Beginning near the close of the 17th century large bodies of Germans from the Palatinate of Germany came to America and settled around Philadelphia. This Palatine immigration to the new, world continued for fully forty years, three thousand landing at one time in the year 1710; and they finally peopled several large counties in Pennsylvania. Later there was a dispersion which carried many north into New York, to join colonies which had been established there; others into Maryland, to Virginia and to North Carolina. The Palatines who came to Virginia, it is believed, were of those who had settled in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and their route through Maryland can almost positively be marked as having been through the present county of Frederick, the only county in Maryland having a German name, which extends from the Pennsylvania to the Virginia boundary lines and forms the opposite bank of- the Potomac River from the present county of Loudoun in Virginia.
Though the large body of the Gersnans centinued- their journey southward into North Carolina a grest number were influenced to abide in Virginia, in what afterward became Fairfax County and later Loidoun, by the evident richness of the soil and by the favorable terms offered by Lord Fairfax-"a ninety-nine year lease on the land at the rate of two shlilings sterling per 100 acres"-in reality a gift of the use of the land for a long term as an inducement to settle and reclaim these vast domains. About the year 1730 the migration reached its high-water mark; entire families coming and many families associating together for the nurpose of defence against the Indians, from whom there was still danger in the sections away from the navigable waters, or in the "back country," as It was then called. Of the number who came to Virginia from Pennsylvania and Maryland many were farmers who had derived their knowledge through generations of farmers, who had tilled the richest agricultural section of all Europe; and though they bad not "riches," as we understand the term, poverty being in fact their greatest asset, they were imbued with the highest principles of morality, an instinctive detestation of tyranny, from which they had suffered almost martrydom in the old country, and a determination of purpose which made it difficult to give up an undertaking once entered upon. Of these people the great historian. Macaulay, said: "Honest, laborious men, who had once been thriving burghers or Manheim and Heidelburg, or who had cultivated the vine on the bank of the Neckar and the Rhine. Their Ingenuity and their diligence could not fail to enrich the land which should afford them an asylym." There were also in the numher skilled artisans, taught in the school of necessity, who came, not as seekers of gold merely, like the great majority of tbe firstcomers to the country, but seekers of peace and rest from the constant wars and the unceasing, unpaid toil of their old world.
This settlement of the back country was going on before Fairfax County was formed and when that event occurred, in 1742, them adopted sons had become firmly seated in their new homes at the base of the mountains, and were then included in the new formed county. The section had also received large additions from the low-lands; Englishmen who had come into Virginia by way of Jamestown, "cavaliers" they were called, true supporters of Charlee I and of all the institutions of the English system. The association of these two elements, differing In almost every respect, added strength to each and gave greater stability to the county named for that most faithful of all Tories--Lord Fairfax.
In 1758, upon the petition of certain "back inhabitants," this part of Fairfax was divided, forming Loudoun County, the dividing line being Difficult Run, where it enters the Potomac River, to its head and from there in a straight course to the Mouth of Rocky Run. Afterward, in 1798, the dividing line was changed to where it is at present and the intervening territory returned to old Fairfax. Within the new county of Loudoun there were several thriving towns at the time of its formation, the principal one being "Georgetown," named of course for King George, and this (the name being changed to Leesburg) became the county seat.
The following are extracts from the diary of a -Mr. Davis, who traveled in Fairfax County in 1798-99:
"I prosecuted my walk on to Newgate. where, on the piaizza of Mr. Thornton's tavern, I found a party of gentlemen-from the neighboring plantations carousing over a bowl of toddy, and smoking cigars. No people could exceed these men in politeness. On my ascending the steps to the piazza, every countenance seemed to say, 'This man has a double claim to our attention. for he is a stranger in the place. In a moment there was room made for me to sit down; a new bowl was called for, and every one who addressed me did It with a smile of conciliation. But no man asked me where I had come from, Or whither I was going. A gentleman in every country is the same: and, if good breeding consists in sentiment, It was found in the circle I had got into.
"The higher Virginians seem to venerate themselves as men; and I am persusded there was not one In the company who would have felt embarrassed at being admitted to the wesence and conversation of the greatest monarch on earth. There is a compound of virtue and vice in every human character; no-man was ever yet faultless; but whatever may he advanced against Virginians, their good qualities will outweigh their defects; and when the effervescence of youth has abated, when reason asserts her empire, there is no man on earth who discovers more exalted sentiment, more contempt of baseness more love of justice, more sensibility of feeling than a Virginian.
"No walk could he more delightful than that from Occoquan to Colchester, when the meon wag above the mountains. You traverse the bank of a placid stream, over which impend rocks, In some places bare but more frequently covered with an odoriferous plant that regales the traveler with its fragrance. So serpentine is the course of the river, that the mountains which rise from it. banks may be said to form an amphitheatre, and nature seems to have designed the spot as a haunt only of fairies, for here grow flowers of purple dye, ind here the snake throws her enameled skin. But in what region, however apparently inaccessible, has not adventurous man penetrated? The awful repose of the night is disturbed by the clack of two huge mills which drown the echoei of the mocking bird, who nightly tells his sorrows to the listening moon."
Ambitious projects for the development of the natural resources of Fairfax County have never been lacking, btit such developtment has heen retarded by three wars, from the effect of each of--which the county has required years to recover. The Revolutionary War called George Washington to the cetumand of the colonial from a project. the completion of which would have made- him a man of large business affairs, which, It is believed, would have been more to his taste, and which would have made Fairfax County the center of industry in which no other State could have developed a serious rivalry. The project was the control of magnificent water power of the Great Falls of the Potomac and the construction of a ship canal around both falls, by which means shipping from the far west to -the Atlantic should he uninterrupted; and the massive walls of masonry there today show the magnitude of the contemplated plan; which was conceived by Washington and approved by Thomas Jefferson. and for which Washington made personal surveys during 1770, 1772 and 1774. After the close of the war steps were taken to carry out the plan and in 1784 a company, known as The Potomac Company, was formed for that purpose; but beth the public and private purses were so thoroughly drained by the straggle for independence that sufficient funds could not be obtained, and the project had to be abandoned. The town of Matildaville, at the Great Falls, was a part of the general plan and was laid out by Washington, and doubtless began to grow when the work of canal digging and lock construction was commenced. At this place large mills were built, the walls of which are stfll partly standing, not as a mark of reproach for failure of the attempt, but a monument to the commendable public enterprise of the times.
When Fairfax was formed, in 1742, Colchester, it is believed, was the first county seat. Though the early court records are lost there is on file an order removing the county records from Colchester, and we know that the county scat was at Tyson from 1742 to 1754, at Alexandria from 1754 to 1800; and that in the latter year, when that part of Fairfax County which is now Alexandria County became a part of the District of Columbia, it was removed to Fairfax, where it has been for the past one hundred and ten years; and where our general chronicle must rest, that we may take up each town of the county specifically, to narrate its rise and, if necessary, its decline.
