Chapter III: Notes

Salona for Sale

[87] Fairfax County, Virginia, Deed Books V-2, page 85; Z-2, page 403.

[88] Letter from Ann B. Maffitt, dated July 22, 1828, to Col. George W. Hunter. Copy in _Salona_ working papers, Virginia Room, Fairfax County public library. Manuscripts Division, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia. Col. Hunter later served as administrator of the estate of Francis Lightfoot Lee of Sully.

[89] Fairfax County, Virginia, Will Books Q-1, page 271; V-2, page 85; Z-2, page 403. See appendix for inventories.

[90] Handwritten family tree, source unknown, in possession of Henry Mackall; Sarah Somervell Mackall, _Early Days of Washington_ (Washington, D.C.: by the author, 1899).

[91] Fairfax County, Virginia, Deed Book C-3, page 314.

[92] Ibid., G-3, page 378.

[93] Fairfax County, Virginia, Deed Book J-3, page 262.

[94] Fairfax County, Virginia, Deed Book T-3, page 186.

IV

SALONA AND THE SMOOTS

William Smute, originally of Dutch ancestry, came to Virginia from Scotland in 1633 and received a grant for 400 acres of land in 1642. He removed to Maryland in 1646 and thereafter, the Smoot (Smout) family activities as reported in local records showed periodic involvement with public affairs of county, colony and nation.[95]

In a recent history of St. Mary's County, Maryland, William Barton Smoot was listed as captain of the Lower Battalion of the county's militia during the American Revolution[96] and a William Smoot was recorded as a recruit for service in the War of 1812 by James Jarboe of Great Mills.[97] Mentions were made throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of Smoot activities having to do with railroads, roads and schools.[98] The Smoot family also appears in the public records of Charles County, Maryland. Some family members migrated to Kentucky, others to Washington, D.C.[99]

Although Jacob Gilliam Smoot of Georgetown, D.C., purchased 208 acres of property--Salona--in 1853, he also held property on High Street (now Wisconsin Avenue) in Georgetown from which he probably obtained income. His family spent winters in Georgetown. Smoot had attended Charlotte Hall Academy in Maryland and his son William was a graduate, in law, from Georgetown.[100] The Salona property was of a size and assessed valuation consistently greater than over half of the properties assessed in Fairfax County at the time. Smoot's personal property including several slaves, was also well above average in quantity and evaluation.[101]

Sometime following Smoot's purchase of Salona, he bought two prize hunting dogs for a total of $5,000. The dogs later died from rabies. Smoot was interested in establishing a good herd of cattle so he purchased expensive registered Aberdeen Angus cattle prior to the Civil War. During the war, the cattle were appropriated and eaten by Union troops.[102] There were 50 cattle listed in the tax assessment in 1857, but the herd had dropped to 12 by 1860. In that year, Smoot was also assessed for 20 sheep and hogs. Gold, plate, silver, jewelry, kitchen and house furnishings were evaluated at $500, far above the average that year in Fairfax County.[103] The Smoots were a relatively well-to-do family.

From October, 1861, to April, 1862, according to a strong Smoot family tradition, Salona was used as the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac. Camp Griffin, in fact, was an installation partly on Salona and partly on adjoining farms and was part of the outer defenses of Washington. General George McClellan's dispatches, however, never used either Salona or Smoot's Hill as a source, although he did use datelines of Fairfax Court House and Camp Griffin. Military historians generally agree that McClellan was living in Washington, D.C., at the time, and, therefore, as commanding general, his residence would have been considered the headquarters.[104]

It is certain that troops were camped there and that there was skirmishing in the immediate vicinity of Salona. The following incident was recorded by E. M. Woodward, adjutant in the Second Pennsylvania Reserves:

Early on the morning of the 9th (October
1861) General Smith advanced his division
from the neighborhood of Chain Bridge to
Langley where deploying his skirmishers, he
pushed forward a brigade on the Dranesville
Pike, and took possession of Prospect Hill.
With his main body he diverged from the pike
at Langley to the left, advancing toward
Lewinsville, which village he entered and
occupied without opposition, leaving the
main portion of his troops at Smoot's Hill
and pushing on a detachment to occupy
Miner's Hill....

During the first ten days, the "long roll"
was beaten and the men got under arms five
times. On the night of the 11th the pickets
in the neighborhood of Lewinsville were
driven in and the next day the enemy
consisting of at least three regiments of
infantry, some cavalry and a battery of six
guns were discovered near Miner's Hill,
concealed in the woods, which led to the
supposition that an attack was meditated the
next morning. At noon the drums beat and the
men got into fighting order. General
McClellan and staff including the Comte de
Paris and the Duc de Chartres rode over and
remained during the night at Smoot's House,
and at midnight the drums beat again and
every preparation was made for an attack.

It was a clear and beautiful night, the moon
shone forth in its mild beauty, the stars
twinkled with resplendant glory and not a
cloud glided through the sky. The drums beat
the long roll, the trumpets of cavalry and
artillery sounded their shrill blasts and the
bands of the infantry pealed forth their most
soul-stirring strains. The camp-fires burned
brightly, the glittering bayonets and sabres
flashed in the light and every heart beat
high with hope.... But alas, after remaining
in position until daybreak, chilled with
falling dews, the boys were doomed to
disappointment. Beauregard had only been in a
reconnaissance in force, to ascertain our
position since the recent extension of our
front.[105]

When the federal troops moved out of the encampment in March, 1862, Captain W. A. Hawley and Lt. Col. W. B. Hazmand of the 102^d New York Volunteer Battalion signed the following memorandum giving all army materials left behind to Jacob Smoot:[106]

The Smoots spent most of the war in Georgetown, returning at the end in time to save some furniture and the main part of the house from being burned. Both wings of the house, the garden and many fine trees had been destroyed in their absence. They had filed petitions during the war asking the federal government for compensation for their losses. When federal troops had occupied Salona, Smoot had taken eight slaves to Georgetown where his brother John was in the drygoods business. During the investigation of his reparations claim it was discovered that J. G. Smoot had signed the Ordinance of Secession in the Lewinsville Precinct in Fairfax County on May 23, 1861. This act disqualified him from receiving compensation.[107]

Following the war, the Smoots set about the arduous task of restoring their farm to its former prosperity. By 1868, the aggregate value of personal property at Salona was $1,085, and in that year, only one in 15 taxpayers in the county had a personal property tax evaluation of over $1,000. A rosewood piano made its appearance, followed the next year by the addition of a "pleasure carriage" and a watch.[108] In 1870, books and pictures owned by Smoot were valued at $25.00--the vast majority of taxpayers had none assessed at all. By 1881, there were four conveyances, 10 horses, 10 cattle, 15 sheep, books valued at $50.00, two watches and two clocks. One of the clocks was probably the chiming grandfather's clock made in Newburyport, Massachusetts, which was built about 1817 and is still in the family.[109] A sewing machine was also listed. It is interesting to note that by 1881, at least half of the households in Fairfax County had such a machine.[110]

Salona was a working farm with a large barn, smokehouse, ice pond, and cabinetshop. Hogs, sheep, cattle and fowl were raised as well as wheat and corn. The old stone house, thought by the family to have been the oldest structure on the place, was surrounded by a peach orchard. The Smoots grew scuppernong grapes, plums and apricots. Italian grape vines adorned the arbor between the house and the brick privy. Descendants say that the farm had a consistently high yield per acre of corn and wheat, and that this information was faithfully recorded in account books which were destroyed when the attic was cleaned out or taken by vandals and lost.[111] But records in gazetteers listed J. G. and William Smoot as principal farmers in the Langley area for a period of more than 20 years.[112]

_All photographs by Gene Lebherz._

Like William Maffitt, Jacob Smoot died intestate, in 1875. He was survived by his widow Harriet and their four children, William S., Helen M., Harriet E., and Catherine C. After his widow died, each of the children received one-fourth of the estate. Even before Jacob's death, William Smoot, Sr., had taken over management of the farm while his unmarried sisters kept house. Each of the sisters took one of William's sons to raise. Jennie, William's wife, according to the Smoot descendants, acted as hostess, greeting visitors and entertaining them. Their son John moved to Georgetown; William Jr., went to Waterford to be the miller there; Gilliam stayed with his parents and gradually took over the farm operations. Life at Salona went on as usual, with no question of selling the farm or dividing its acreage.

William S. Smoot, Sr., died in 1900 leaving his share of Salona by will to his widow, Jennie K. Smoot. When she in turn died intestate, their three children, John D. K., Calder Gilliam, and William S., Jr., shared her portion of the estate. Jacob's three daughters never married, so their portions descended to their three nephews, William's sons, John, Calder Gilliam (known by the family as Gilliam), and William, Jr.

Both John and William died intestate. John's share of Salona was divided among his widow, Julia B., and their children, Jane Smoot Wilson, John D. K. Smoot, Jr., and Henry B. Smoot. William's share went to his widow, Elizabeth, and their two sons, William S., III, and John J.[113]

In 1914, The Rambler, a Washington Star columnist, visited Salona, talked with the Smoots, and wrote a charming word picture of the exterior of the house:

You draw up in front of the garden which
surrounds the house. A white-washed fence
four boards high, incloses the garden.
Inside are old cedars thick through the
trunk and solemn in foliage. There are
clumps of rose bushes and borders of
jonquils. Stumps of trees that have been
wrecked by wind or lightning support
bark-bound flower boxes. A driveway curves
to the left and a gravel path leads straight
to the front porch before which the box
trees are growing. The porch is capacious
with a balcony on top. Under the porch and
in the middle of the house is an arched
doorway. On the left of the garden around
the house is an apple orchard and on the
right is a flourishing grape arbor. This is
Salona. It is a fine, quiet and dignified
old place.[114]

Some years later, in 1932, for the first time in history (as far as it is known) Salona was open to view by the general public. It was one of the occasions in local observance of the George Washington Bicentennial Birthday Anniversary. Mrs. John Kurtz Smoot was the official hostess and she and her house tour guides were dressed in floor-length period costumes.[115]

World War II brought the end of the estate as a family farm. Gilliam was growing older and was suffering from arthritis; help was almost impossible to find. Unable to carry on with farming, Gilliam rented the land to the Carper family as pasture and moved from the mansion into a smaller house nearby. A family of Negro caretakers moved into Salona for a time. After the Carper lease expired without renewal, the caretakers left. William S. Smoot, III, occasionally lived on the property, sometimes in a portion of the main house, and sometimes in the old stone house, which he dreamed of remodeling. The main house was rented to an antique dealer who, according to a Smoot descendant, had the house "filled with junk from top to bottom."

Since they could no longer maintain Salona as a working farm and none of them wanted to occupy the main house on a permanent basis, the Smoots decided to partition the property. In 1948, Calder G. Smoot, only surviving son of William S. and Jennie K. Smoot, Sr., received as his share some 65 acres and the house. He did not, however, occupy Salona.[116] In the late 1940s and early 1950s, small parcels of the Salona property were sold to the McLean Baptist Church, the Salona Shopping Center and Trinity Methodist Church.[117]

In the early 1950s, Salona was rented to the McLean Summer Theatre as a dormitory for the actors. Reportedly, they left the house "a shambles." The next tenants were a Danish captain and his family who occupied the east wing.

In 1952, Calder Gilliam Smoot died "unmarried and intestate" and his 65 acres and the house became the joint property of his four nephews: John D. K. Smoot, Jr., Henry B. Smoot, William S. Smoot, III, and John J. Smoot, and of his niece, Jane Wilson Smoot. Most of this property, in three separate land transactions, became the property of Clive and Susan DuVal.[118]