Chapter I: Gentlemen Freeholders: the Moss Family (1770-1835)

[1] Mrs. Don Ritchie, Arlington, Virginia, Moss family genealogist;
Vernon Lynch, Annandale, Virginia, a lifelong resident of
Fairfax County, now in his eighties; interviews.

Walter Macomber, interview on July 16, 1968, at Green Spring
Farm. In the opinion of Mr. Macomber of Washington, D.C., who
planned and supervised the 1942 renovation of the mansion
house, the original part of the house was built between 1750
and 1775.

[2] _The Journal of John Littlejohn_, MS., Louisville, Kentucky,
April 29, 1778.

[3] Elmer T. Clark, J. Manning Potts, and Jacob S. Payton (eds.),
_The Journal and Letters of Francis Asbury_ (Nashville:
Abington Press, 1958), I, p. 531.

[4] Fairfax County Deed Book R-1, p. 413, contains a deed in 1789
from William and Mary Bushby to John Moss, William Adams,
William Waters, Samuel Adams, James Morrison, William Rhodes,
and William Hickman, and their survivors, in trust, conveying
a lot in the town of Alexandria, northward from the
Presbyterian meeting house, westward parallel with Duke
Street, southward parallel with Fairfax Street, and eastward
parallel with Duke Street to Chapple Alley "to build and
forever keep in good repair a house for the worship of God for
the use of the Reverend Thomas Cooke and the Reverend Francis
Asbury for the time being of the Methodist Episcopal
Church...."

[5] Fairfax County Will Book I, p. 150.

[6] Fairfax County Deed Book AA-2, p. 29, a lease for three lives to
John Moss, dated May 29, 1798.

[7] Fairfax County Deed Book R-1, p. 397.

[8] Mrs. Don C. Ritchie, letter dated October 17, 1969.

[9] _Ibid._

[10] William W. Hening (ed.), [Virginia] _Statutes at Large_, 1823,
reprint edition (Charlottesville: University Press of
Virginia, 1969), VII, p. 32.

[11] Albert Porter, _County Government in Virginia_ (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1947), p. 186.

[12] Fairfax County Court Minute Book, March 23, 1786, p. 191.
Subsequently John Moss was reappointed Commissioner of the
Land Tax in 1787, 1792, and 1793.

[13] Hening, _Statutes_, XII, p. 243.

[14] Fairfax County Court Order Book, 1787 (February 20 and October
15, 1787): "John Moss, Gent., Commissioner for Fairfax
district produced on oath an account against the Commonwealth
for his service in that capacity amounting to Twenty-five
pounds thirteen shillings and six pence, which being examined
by the court is allowed and ordered to be certified."

[15] Shepherd, _Code_, I, p. 114.

[16] Porter, _County Government_, p. 211.

[17] Shepherd, _Code_, III, p. 262.

[18] Fairfax County Deed Book Y-1, p. 69.

[19] Shepherd, _Code_, I, p. 11.

[20] F. Johnston, _Memorials of Old Virginia Clerks_ (Lynchburg: J.
P. Bell, 1880), p. 172.

_Alexandria Gazette_, October 4, 1839. The obituary notice for
Thomas Moss states that he died on October 2 after a long
illness, having been a Justice of the Peace for many years,
and also having served as a member of the State Legislature
and as county court clerk.

The Archives of the Virginia House of Delegates show that
Thomas Moss was a Delegate from Fairfax County for the
1828-1829 biennium. (Honorable George Rich, January 2, 1970;
personal communication.)

[21] K. M. Willis, "Old Fairfax Homes Give Up A Secret," _American
Motorist_, May 1932, p. 16; Johnston, _Clerks_, p. 174.

[22] M. Herndon, _Tobacco in Colonial Virginia_ (Williamsburg:
Virginia 350th Celebration Corp., 1957), pp. 7-8, indicates
that tobacco was introduced into Northern Virginia by the
settlers who moved into the Rappahannock and Potomac areas
around 1650. By the end of the seventeenth century, Herndon
states, tobacco farming dominated the lowlands all along the
Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers below the fall line.

F. Harrison, _Landmarks of Old Prince William_ (Berryville:
Chesapeake Book Co., 1964), pp. 148-150. Also to be noted is
the fact that settlement above the fall line was not permitted
prior to 1722 because of treaty provisions with the Iroquois.
By the Treaty of Albany in 1722, the Iroquois withdrew west of
the Blue Ridge.

[23] Herndon, _Tobacco_, pp. 14-16, cites introduction of plant
bedding practices, use of animal-drawn plows instead of hand
hoes, and improved methods of curing tobacco as responsible
for increasing the yield of the tobacco farm.

[24] _Ibid._, p. 10.

[25] Frederick Gutheim. _The Potomac_ (New York: Grosset & Dunlap,
1968), p. 98.

[26] R. B. Davis, _Intellectual Life in Jefferson's Virginia_ (Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1964), p. 167, notes
that in 1773 the Society for the Advancement of Useful
Knowledge was formed in Williamsburg, followed by the
Philadelphia Agricultural Society in 1780, and the Richmond
Society for Promoting Agriculture in 1810, all dedicated to
working for the improvement of farming.

[27] A list of these writings on agriculture was compiled by E. G.
Swern in 1913 and published by the Virginia State Library.

[28] Davis, _Intellectual Life_, pp. 159-160, 167. Among the
inventions of the McCormick family were threshing machines,
hydraulic machines, a hemp-brake, blacksmith's bellows, and
self-stoppers for grist mills. Other patents issued to
Virginians dealt with plows, grain screens, rice hullers, hemp
and flax breakers, corn shellers, beehives, clover seed
cleaners and gatherers, tobacco presses, and corn grinders.

[29] _Ibid._, p. 156. See also "Status of Virginia Agriculture in
1870" in _Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1870_
(Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1871), pp.
267-268.

[30] Davis, _Intellectual Life_, p. 151.

[31] _Ibid._, pp. 154-156.

[32] Dr. John Schlebecker, Curator, Division of Agriculture and
Mining, Museum of History and Technology, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D.C., interview. Dr. Schlebecker was
of the opinion that the price which this blower brought
suggested it might be animal-powered by a treadmill or
overhead sweep. Wheat fans were relatively new types of
equipment in 1835, but not uncommon among successful farmers.

[33] _Ibid._ Schlebecker discussed the possibility of dairying as
follows: "It's very likely he was in the business. Now whether
it was butter or cheese--butter would pay better, and he is
pretty close to Alexandria and Washington, and, for that
matter, by sea to Baltimore. Butter would have been the more
attractive of the commodities; cheese would keep better, could
be shipped farther and find a greater variety of markets, but
wouldn't pay quite as well. But I don't see evidence he was in
the cheese business, and I'd be happier if I saw more churns
on the list, or if the churn were better described. One churn
would be enough if it were big enough. And it could very well
be run by a sheep or a dog. You see, he's certainty got enough
cows to be in the dairy business, willy nilly." (Transcription
of tape-recorded interview with John Schlebecker, February 26,
1969, p. 6.)

[34] _Ibid._ See also inventory in appendix B.

[35] _Alexandria Gazette_, November 6, 1839, notice of sale.

[36] Alfred Moss and Thomas Love, affidavit of October 29, 1839, in
proceedings to sell the farm owned by Thomas Moss, deceased.

[37] The wills and property inventories of members of the Moss family
reveal much information that helps reconstruct the activity on
their farm. Considering the equipment used, the products grown
and processed, and the number of slaves reported, it is
possible that between the 1820's and 1850's the farm was also
engaged in breeding slaves for export to the rice and indigo
plantations of South Carolina and the cotton plantations of
Alabama and Mississippi. A certain amount of this traffic was
also carried on locally.

U.S. Census population records compiled from 1810 through 1850
show that slaveholding continued at a high level relative to
other changing circumstances in agriculture and in the Moss
family. See census records for Fairfax County in National
Archives, Microfilm Division, Microcopy Roll 68 (1810), 137
(1820), 201 (1830), 558 (1840), 942 (1850).

[38] These roads were the Dumfries and Falmouth Roads via Ashby's
Gap, the Colchester Road via Williams' Gap, and the Alexandria
Road via Vestal's Gap. Their origins and early history are
given in Harrison, _Landmarks_, pp. 466-484.

[39] Davis, _Intellectual Life_, p. 152, and A. Hulbert, _The Paths
of Inland Commerce_ (New Haven: Yale University, 1921), pp.
44-55. The situation appeared to improve little during the
nineteenth century, for in 1894 the Virginia Good Roads
Convention called the American rural roads "far below the
average" and "certainly are among the worst in the civilized
world and always have been largely as a result of permitting
local circumstances to determine the location with little or
no regard for any general system, and haste and waste and
ignorance in building." Virginia Good Roads Convention,
_Programme_ (Richmond: Stone Printing Co., 1894), p. 24.

[40] The act incorporating the Fairfax and Loudoun Turnpike Road
Company authorized construction and operation of an
"artificial road from Alexandria to the Little River." Laws,
1795, c. 31 (December 26, 1795). Shepherd's _Statutes_
(Richmond: Shepherd, 1836), I, p. 378. The successor company,
known as the Little River Turnpike Company, was incorporated
by legislation enacted in 1802 and 1803. Laws, 1801, c. 83
(January 28, 1802) and Laws, 1802, c. 52 (January 19, 1803),
Shepherd's _Statutes_, II, p. 383, 452. The extension into
Fauquier County was authorized by the incorporation of the
Fauquier and Alexandria Turnpike Company, designed to build
"an artificial turnpike road from Fauquier Court House to
Buckland farm, or Buckland town, and thence to the Little
River Turnpike road, at the most suitable point for affording
a convenient way from Fauquier Court House to Alexandria."
Laws, 1807, c. 27 (January 27, 1808), Shepherd's _Statutes_,
III, p. 379.

[41] _Alexandria Gazette_, May 23, 1809. The extension was built by
the Fauquier and Alexandria Turnpike Road Company, and was
constructed from the Little River Turnpike at Fairfax
Courthouse, through Centreville and Buckland, to Fauquier
County Courthouse (Warrenton).

[42] Annual Report of the President and Directors of the Board of
Public Works to the General Assembly of Virginia, Richmond,
1818, p. 34; 1819, p. 33; 1820, p. 76.

[43] Fairfax County Deed Book H-3, p. 226, May 28, 1843.

[44] Fairfax County Deed Book W-3, pp. 424-425, September 10, 1855.

[45] Hannah C. O'Brien v. John W. Green, et. al., Fairfax County,
Virginia County Court, Suspended File No. 10, 1878.