Part 2

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]

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.

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.