When Green Spring Farm came into being in the middle years of the
eighteenth century, it represented the second generation of Virginia's
agriculture. By 1750, the great plantations of the proprietor and his
grantees, laid out on land cleared from the virgin forest and planted
with as much tobacco as the owner's supplies of manpower and London
credit would allow, were disappearing. In the evolution of farming,
another generation of farms and farmers was taking over the Tidewater.
Smaller in size than the great tobacco plantations, these farms
utilized a larger proportion of their acreage for crops and cultivated
a greater diversity of crops than before. For these second-generation
farms, wheat and corn for export to England and the West Indies became
the principal income crops.
The men who assembled and worked these new farms were themselves part
of a new generation of Virginians. Many belonged to families which
in 1750 could look back on more than a century of residence in
America, and they were more attuned to the problems and potentials
of the New World than those of the Old. They were the generation
that successfully brought forth a new nation in their own times and
added new dimensions to both its spirit and substances. John Moss
was one of this new generation of Virginians.
Precisely when and how John Moss assembled the acreage that comprised
Green Spring Farm is not certain. Fairfax County land records show a
purchase of land by John Moss in September 1777, but, although this is
the first connection of his name with the land of Green Spring Farm in
these records, there is reason to believe that he may have occupied
and farmed the land prior to that date. For him to have done so would
have been consistent with the practice of his times and also would be
in accord with the tradition of his present-day descendants which
holds that John Moss built the mansion house at Green Spring Farm in
or about 1760.[1]
John Moss lived in this house until his death in 1809. Here he raised
four sons--John, Samuel, William, and Thomas--the last two of whom
successively inherited and worked the farm from 1809 until 1839. On
the death of Thomas Moss in 1839, the farm was sold and the proceeds
of the sale were divided among his heirs.
[Illustration: Figure 1. John Warner Survey Map, 1740. Northern Neck
Grants, Book E, 1736-1742, pp. 216-17.]
In the case of John Moss, more is known of his activities in the
community than of his life as a farmer. In particular, he was a leader
of the early Methodist church in Virginia. The well-known itinerant
Methodist preacher, John Littlejohn, records several visits to the
home of John Moss in Fairfax County, beginning in May 1777. Many
Methodist meetings were held at Green Spring Farm in the 1770's and
1780's. One, held on April 29, 1778, led to the following interesting
note:
At B^r Jn^o Mosses, met with M^r afterward Lord Fairfax we found
our trials as to preach^g were very similar, he is very serious
but his religion is a mystry to me. Lord help us both.[2]
And, in 1787, Francis Asbury noted in his journal:
Preached at Brother Mosses on 2 Chronicles XV, 12-13 on the
peoples entering into a covenant with God.[3]
It seems evident that during these years, John Moss's home served as a
meeting place for a Methodist congregation which lacked a church
building and was served by the occasional visits of itinerant
preachers. That the congregation grew and prospered also seems evident
from the fact that in June 1789 John Moss served as a trustee of a
Methodist Episcopal church to be built in Alexandria "just north of
the Presbyterian Meeting House" (Duke and Fairfax Streets) for the use
of Reverend Thomas Cooke and Reverend Francis Asbury.[4]
In the county community, John Moss also was one of the group of
gentlemen freeholders in whom the responsibility of power was reposed.
He enjoyed the friendship and trust of Bryan Fairfax to the extent
that he witnessed and served as coexecutor of the latter's will,[5]
and he was a party to several land sales and leases which involved
Fairfax.[6] By these transactions, he acquired extensive lands in
Loudoun County as well as land on Dogue Creek in Fairfax County.[7]
In colonial times, he served the Crown as Commissioner of the King's
Revenue in Fairfax County and also as a justice of the County
Court.[8] In the War for Independence, he served as a captain and
afterward took an active part in organizing the new government--in
particular, serving on a commission to supervise the Presidential
election of 1788. Under the new State Government, he continued to
serve as the Commissioner of Revenue for the county and a justice of
the County Court. In 1796, in a law suit in Prince William County,
John Moss, then 72, was able to state that he was the oldest justice
of the court in commission at that time.[9]
Service as a justice presumably involved John Moss in a wide range of
decisions affecting the life of the county. The business of the County
Court in this period was both judicial and administrative. Minor
crimes were disposed of monthly, while major crimes and civil cases
were handled in quarterly sessions.[10] At these sessions, the
justices also acted on appointments, licenses for mills and
ordinaries, road construction and repair, and the levying of taxes.
Most of the justices were not trained in the law, and law books were
scarce; therefore, the quality of justice and the transaction of
public business were frequently leavened by reliance on common sense
and experience.[11]
If gentlemen freeholders held the power of government in colonial and
post-Revolutionary Virginia, they also paid much of the cost of
government. In 1786, John Moss and James Wren, Gentlemen, were
appointed Commissioners of the Land Tax, the large counties in
Virginia being allowed to have two such officials.[12] They were
responsible for maintaining the tax book, personally calling on every
person subject to taxation, and making four lists of taxable property
in the county. (One was for the Clerk of the County Court, one for the
sheriff, one for the Solicitor General, and one for the commissioner.)
Annually, they submitted a list of changes in land ownership, by sale
or inheritance.[13]
For his service as a justice and as Commissioner of the Land Tax, John
Moss's compensation came in the form of fees; he received no salary
but under certain circumstances he was reimbursed for out-of-pocket
expenses connected with his duties.[14]
As one of the results of the American Revolution, the Anglican church
was disestablished, and many of the welfare functions formerly
performed by the parish vestry were assumed by the Overseers of the
Poor. John Moss served as an overseer, and the powers and duties he
had in this unusual office were set forth in detail in the revision of
the state laws in 1792.[15] Overseers could prevent the poor from
moving from one county to another and could get a warrant from any
magistrate ordering the removal of a pauper back to his former county,
with a court hearing to determine residence in case of a dispute. On
the other hand, each county was obliged, through its overseers, to
look after its own poor; and if the overseers refused to provide
needed relief, there could be an appeal to the County Court.[16]
Further, they could bind out dependent children placed under their
care as apprentices, appoint collectors-for-the-poor rates, have a
paid clerk, and be paid for attending meetings. They had power to
control vagrants, force fathers of bastards to contribute to their
support, and operate the county poorhouse. In 1806, they were given
the power to take over funds and endowments left in the charge of the
vestries, accounting to the court annually.[17]
John Moss served as justice of the County Court until his death, and
so saw the time come when the county courthouse was moved from
Alexandria to its present site. His view of the history of his county,
state, and nation saw more than mere physical change, however, and he
was sensitive to the changing spirit of the time and place in which he
lived. As to the depth of this feeling, there is no evidence in the
form of public document or speech; but eloquent testimony comes from a
simple, personal act he performed in 1795. As recorded in a deed of
manumission issued to his slaves, he wrote:
I, John Moss ... being fully satisfied that it is contrary to our
bill of rights as well as to our principles and sentiments as a
free people and also contrary to common justice to hold and keep
in a state of slavery any part of our fellow men ... [release and
set free at various specified times from the date of this deed]
Sarah, Nan, Harry, Maria, Hannah, Nero, Abram, Fox, Nat, David,
John, Sam, Milla and Sal....[18]
The tradition of public service which John Moss commenced was carried
on by his son, William Moss, who was appointed Clerk of the County
Court in 1801. The duties of the clerk at this time differed somewhat
from those of the clerk in colonial times. As enumerated in the
general revision of the law in 1792,[19] the clerk must be a resident
of the county and keep his office in the courthouse, unless ordered to
do otherwise. He received his compensation in small fees charged for
performing small acts, but in a growing county this produced a
substantial income. His chief functions involved issuing licenses,
warrants, writs, and orders connected with litigation. He also took
inventories, recorded legal instruments, and kept vital statistics.
Frequently, the clerk was the only officer of the court who was in any
way learned in the law, and thus his advice on the law was regularly
sought by the court. As the information he gave frequently was
seasoned with experience, he became sought after for advice on many
issues and problems which reached beyond the technical terms of the
law, and his importance in the county's government was substantial.
William Moss served as Clerk of the County Court for 32 years, until
1833. In 1831, he was appointed Clerk of the Circuit Court, when that
body was created by the General Assembly, and he served in that
position until 1835, the year of his death. At this time, William
Moss's brother, Thomas, who had served as a Delegate from Fairfax
County to the Virginia General Assembly in 1828, was appointed to fill
the vacancy left by William's death. When Thomas Moss died in 1839,
his son, Alfred, was appointed Clerk but served in that office only
one month. Later, however, Alfred Moss moved from Alexandria to
Providence [Fairfax] where in 1852 he was again appointed Clerk of the
Circuit Court. He served in this capacity until 1861, at which time
Civil War activities in the area disrupted the normal conduct of
county business.[20] It was at this time that Alfred Moss removed
George Washington's holographic will from Fairfax Courthouse to take
it to Richmond for safekeeping for the duration of the war. Because
there was considerable risk in getting it to Richmond, Alfred's wife,
Martha Gunnell Moss, hid it for a time in her daughter's home,
"Evergreen," in Fauquier County. Alfred Moss was captured and sent to
Capitol Prison, and when he was released by exchange, he took the will
to a safe place. Shortly after the war, the Fairfax County Court sent
a private citizen, O. W. Hunt, to Richmond where he found the
Washington will, some other papers, and the County Seal, which he
returned to the Fairfax Courthouse where they may be seen during
regular hours of business.[21]
AGRICULTURE IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA. The lands which were assembled by
John Moss to comprise his farm were quite different from the virgin
forest land that was being opened up for cultivation in the western
part of Fairfax and in Loudoun County at about the same time. Like
most of the open land below the fall line, the tract which Moss
assembled had first played a part in the tobacco civilization that had
dominated the life of Northern Virginia from 1650 to 1750.[22] During
the eighteenth century, tobacco planters of the Virginia Tidewater
had turned inland, clearing the forested area of the Piedmont to bring
virgin land into production of their crop. Their actions were the
result of many contributing causes--the tendency of tobacco to wear
out the soil, the need for timberland to supply the rising demand for
barrels and hogsheads, the introduction of new implements of
husbandry, the plentiful supply of enslaved or indentured labor, and,
of course, the presence of cheap land in the western part of the
county.[23]
Expansion required capital, however, and many of the Tidewater tobacco
planters whose holdings had been created through proprietary grants
obtained the necessary funds by selling off portions of their
Tidewater holdings. By the middle of the eighteenth century, few of
the large land grants remained intact and what remained to the
original owners was interspersed with smaller farms and old fields
gradually being taken over by scrub pine.[24] At the same time, the
increase of warehouses and riverside facilities, the growth of roads
overland between the principal river landings and the gaps in the Blue
Ridge Mountains, and a steadily rising number of tradesmen and
artisans setting out for themselves upon completion of their indenture
periods all combined to offer a prospect of success, if not affluence,
to one who was willing to work the land diligently and prudently.
Many of the small farmers of the Tidewater remained as committed
to tobacco as the great planters had been. Others turned to
diversification of crops. Corn (maize) was grown in conjunction with
tobacco from the beginning of settlement in Northern Virginia and
diversification simply called for increasing its role. In the
eighteenth century, wheat was introduced as a substitute for tobacco
to restore the land and gradually became adopted in place of tobacco
as a farm staple. As commercial relations with England became more
difficult after 1750, and were completely disrupted during the War
for Independence, tobacco planters in great numbers shifted to
production of foodstuffs to meet domestic demands. The description of
Washington's experience at Mount Vernon, only a few miles distant
from Green Spring Farm, may be taken as typical of that of his
neighbors:
On the thin topsoil that overlay the clay slopes at Mount Vernon,
George Washington grew wheat that sold in Alexandria, made ship's
biscuit that was famous the world over--and rye that supplied his
less celebrated distillery. The increasing number of cattle
accounted for the introduction of mangel-wurzels, turnips, and
other root crops in the rotation. The soil-building virtues of
peas were discovered. Beef cattle grew in increasing numbers, and
began to appear prominently in inventories and wills. Orchards and
vineyards were planted more widely. With these developments,
simultaneously with the decline of the tobacco trade, a lively
business sprang up in shipping corn, wheat, and livestock to the
West Indies....[25]
In his efforts to develop methods of husbandry which would restore the
fertility of the land, Washington reflected a concern which was
widespread among Virginians of his time and the first half of the
nineteenth century. Organized efforts to promote better husbandry
through exchange of practical experience and dissemination of the
results of experimentation and invention began in the 1770's.[26]
Between 1790 and 1830, hundreds of publications on agriculture were
produced[27] and more than 100 inventions of agricultural devices were
patented to Virginians, among them Cyrus McCormick's reaper, the most
influential mechanical factor in the development of American
agriculture in the nineteenth century.[28] National leaders such as
Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Marshall actively worked in
societies which encouraged experimentation and study for improvement
of agriculture through what was called "scientific farming."
With the effort to establish scientific farming came experiments in
crop rotation, with use of clovers and grasses interspersed between
other crops, increased use of manure and artificial fertilizers,
better plows and methods of soil preparation, and more attention to
control of erosion. Interest in improving farm animals during this
period led to introduction of merino sheep and new breeds of mules.
Despite this active element in Virginia's agricultural system, and
notwithstanding the substantial amount of intelligent and successful
experimentation and publicity of results which this element inspired,
many farmers in Virginia persisted in traditional ways. "Book
farming," as the new methods were called, was decried in favor of the
familiar ways of cultivating which were passed from father to son.
This skepticism was strengthened, also, when experiments failed--as
they did in many cases--and when Virginia agriculture suffered from
economic depression along with the rest of the nation--as it did in
the years following the War of 1812.[29]
While Virginia agriculture had an equivocal or only moderately
successful record of growth from 1750 to 1830, the proponents of
scientific farming could and did argue that its value was measured in
political as well as economic terms. Men like Thomas Jefferson, James
Madison, John Taylor, James Garnett, and others sincerely believed
that the survival of their way of life and that which they sought for
Virginia depended on restoring the farmer to preeminence. One
historian has described their philosophy thus:
The sincerity of their belief in the corruption of urban and the
virtue of rural living is unquestionable. They practiced as they
preached. And as they looked about them, at the long line of
Virginia leaders of the early republic and at their own modest
pleasant way of life, which some of them believed extended all the
way down to their slaves, they felt they had incontestable
evidence of the rightness of their convictions. As their soil
became depleted, the hold of their state on preeminence in
everything was weakening. Restore the soil and Virginia would be
restored to her rightful preeminence. Simple, primitive, noble,
limited yet grand, thus went the conception.[30]
THE MOSS FAMILY AS FARMERS. Whether John Moss and his descendants who
inherited and worked Green Spring Farm were "scientific farmers"
according to the standards of the time is not certain. Presumably they
were aware of the organizations which espoused this cause since they
were active in the public life of their state and community. They may
well have read the writings of some of the scientific farming leaders
of the time, such as John Taylor, who wrote under the pseudonym,
"Arator," and whose articles on agriculture were published in a
Georgetown newspaper commencing in 1810.[31]
An inventory of the personal property of William Moss, made in
connection with an auction to settle up his estate in 1835, offers
indirect evidence of the farming methods of the Moss family. (A copy
of this inventory is contained in appendix D.)
The lack of tobacco and tobacco processing equipment suggests that the
Mosses had abandoned this crop for production of cereal grains--wheat,
oats, rye, and corn--and possession of a mechanical wheat fan (for
blowing chaff away from the grain during threshing) indicates use of
some of the most advanced labor-saving equipment of the day.[32] The
number of horses, plows, and other farm machinery seems large for the
size of the farm and suggests that its cultivation must have prospered
over a period of time. Particularly significant is the number of
livestock in the inventory and the types of animals--horses, cattle,
hogs, sheep, and bees. These, plus other entries, indicate that the
farm must have regularly produced beef, bacon, lard, wool, soap,
honey, and beeswax, all in quantities sufficient to provide market
income. Mention of quantities of hay, oats, and corn in the inventory
suggest that in addition to cultivating cereal grains the Mosses had a
major interest in raising meat animals and in dairying.
Strong evidence of dairying comes from the presence of a spring house
at the farm and mention of tubs, churns, jars, crocks, strainers, and
the like. They point to active dairying, with the sale of milk,
cheese, and butter in the nearby neighborhood, in Alexandria, and
possibly even points beyond.[33]
The listing of hogsheads and barrels of vinegar in the sale inventory
suggests still another facet of Green Spring Farm's diversification.
Both apple and peach orchards existed at the time and apparently
produced well.[34]
The will of John Moss and the inventories of William Moss and Thomas
Moss give the impression of a farming family which was successful in
more than ordinary measure as compared with most other Northern
Virginia farmers. Their farm was described in the notice advertising
the court sale in 1839 as follows:
Brick dwelling house, 8 rooms, brick kitchen, meat house,
servant's house, new barn and stables and other convenient
outbuildings. Apple orchard, peach orchard, also, stone spring
house.[35]
More revealing, perhaps, is the affidavit of Alfred Moss and Thomas
Love (son and son-in-law, respectively, of Thomas Moss) offered in
connection with the court proceedings to sell the farm as part of the
settlement of Thomas Moss's estate. They said:
This tract of land is naturally a thin soil, but from a careful
course of husbandry for a number of years is now in a good state
of cultivation, the fields well enclosed by good and substantial
fencing, the land not in cultivation well taken with grass (clover
and timothy), and that in cultivation just sown down in winter
grain, and the buildings in a good state of repair, the barn and
stables having been erected in the last two or three years.[36]
Although the history of Green Spring Farm during its ownership by the
Moss family does not contain evidence of agricultural experimentation
and leadership in scientific farming, it seems clear, on the other
hand, that John Moss and his descendants advanced with the progress of
their times and, indeed, may have been among the most progressive
husbandmen of their day. They had broken away from the pattern of
farming that typified the colonial tobacco era, and they exemplified a
new and successful type of agriculture based on careful management of
the land and production for a diversified market. They were certainly
aware of the new developments and new philosophy which were growing
out of the search for the principles of scientific farming, and they
accepted and used some of those that applied to their situation.[37]
GREEN SPRING FARM AND THE TURNPIKE ROAD. The successful operation of
Green Spring Farm, like the success of numerous other farms in
Northern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, was closely linked to the
transportation system of these areas. Tidewater Virginia in the
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries relied mainly on coastal
waterways and rivers as avenues of commerce and travel. When roads
appeared on maps of Virginia in this period, they followed trails laid
down by Indians who, in turn, had taken over the game trails along the
ridges of the land. Therefore, by 1750 there was only a basic network
of roadways running east-west to the passes in the Blue Ridge and
north-south to the colonial capital of Williamsburg along the
Tidewater and to the Carolinas through the Piedmont. The eighteenth
century development of roads in Northern Virginia emphasized east-west
travel for the obvious reason that residents of this area saw their
future prosperity more closely linked to the rich resources and
fertile lands of the Shenandoah Valley (and through it, perhaps, to
the Ohio River) than through connection with the political capitals of
the state or the great plantations of the James and York Rivers.[38]
[Illustration: Figure 2. Survey Map, John Halley, 1840. Fairfax County
Deed Book H-3, p. 227.]
[Illustration: Figure 3. R. R. Farr Survey, Fairfax County Deed Book C-8,
p. 448.]
As Colchester and Dumfries yielded leadership in commerce to
Alexandria and as Loudoun and Fauquier Counties developed centers of
commerce and seats of government at Leesburg and Warrenton, the desire
for better overland connections with Alexandria gained strength.
Public roadbuilding in this period was treated with indifference by
both public officials and the public at large. Theoretically carried
out by levying a certain amount of labor or materials from the
freeholders of the community, the system never produced good roads in
Northern Virginia; and, in the early nineteenth century, overland
travel generally had permitted them to deteriorate to the point where
both foreign and domestic travelers commented unfavorably on them in
their travel memoirs.[39] Moreover, in the 1800's, the new state
governments were in no position to provide financial support for local
public works and could offer nothing more than their moral support
through legislative approval of private roadbuilding by private
turnpike companies which raised their capital through the sale of
stock and obtained their income by charging tolls for use of the
road.
The earliest private turnpike company charter issued by the Virginia
Legislature was in 1795 for the "Fairfax and Loudoun Road" from
Alexandria to the ford of Little River. This company was never
organized, but, in 1802, a somewhat more liberal charter was given to
the Little River Turnpike Company. This company's road was completed
in 1806 and immediately led to enactment in 1808 of further
legislation authorizing extensions to Fauquier Courthouse.[40]
The Little River Turnpike was located so that Fairfax Courthouse stood
approximately half way between Alexandria and the western terminus at
Aldie. The courthouse thus served as a logical landmark dividing the
upper and lower segments of the road. The turnpike traversed Green
Spring Farm at a point about midway in its lower section. Throughout
the history of the road, the Moss family appears to have been deeply
involved. In 1809, William Moss was appointed and served as one of
three commissioners to advertise and receive subscriptions for stock
in the company constructing the road from the Little River Turnpike to
Fauquier Courthouse.[41]
Thomas Moss served as a director of the Little River Turnpike Company
and also acted as superintendent of the lower district of the road.
Financial statements of the company, which were given in the annual
reports of the State Board of Public Works, regularly carried accounts
for both the salary paid to Thomas Moss and the funds spent by him for
repair of the lower section of the road.[42]
THE MIDCENTURY YEARS. 1840-1880. The Moss family's ownership of Green
Spring Farm ended in 1843 with the sale of the farm and division of
the proceeds among the eight heirs of Thomas Moss.[43] Under the
supervision of the County Court, the farm was sold to one Thomas
Sheriff, lately of Barbados. On his death, it descended to his son,
James Sheriff, who kept it until 1855 when he transferred it as part
of a settlement for a debt. Its next owner was James Benton, who held
it in trust for one Hannah O'Brien of Baltimore. In the first half of
this period the times were generally good. Virginia agriculture grew
to new levels of prosperity, aided by the introduction of new
labor-saving machinery through inventions and the opening up of new
markets for farm produce through improvements in transportation. In
such circumstances, James Sheriff's loss of Green Spring Farm for
debts in 1855 seems likely to have been due to exceptional misfortunes
or else exceptional neglect and waste on the part of the owner.
Although records of the County Court during this period suggest that
Thomas Sheriff and his son, James, were before the Bar of Justice on
numerous occasions, these references do not suffice to explain all
that occurred.
During the second half of this period, when title to the farm was in
James Benton for the use of Hannah O'Brien, the fortunes of its owners
were dictated mainly by the fortunes of war. During the four years of
hostilities, Green Spring Farm stood in the disputed ground outside
the perimeter of permanent defenses of the capital where patrols from
both sides ranged regularly by day and night. While the records of the
war do not report any major engagements at the farm, they indicate
that military activity in the neighborhood frequently placed its
safety in jeopardy and obviously prevented any regular farming
operations.
The ultimate loss of the farm in 1878--again to be sold for
debt--appears to have been the result of imprudence in business
dealings (according to local tradition, Hannah's husband, Matthew
O'Brien, was a gambler), and inability to bring the farm back from the
low state to which it was reduced during the war years.
Hannah O'Brien's interest in the farm enjoyed the special protection
of a deed which specified that the land should be free from debts,
liabilities, and control of her husband, Matthew O'Brien, and that she
had power to dispose of the property by deed in her own right.[44]
Subsequently, however, through ignorance or bad advice, she signed as
guarantor of a note issued by her husband; and, when default on the
note occurred, she lost the farm through court proceedings which
ordered it sold for the debt.[45] Thus, in 1878 the farm was bought by
Fountain Beattie.