, 1874-09-27
THE FAIRFAX Sl0EE.
An Old Standard Of Real
Estate.
Washington as SHrFcT0Y-.-FoTl
Pendlcton.


| ViSIl IL d AdslAJltkAlNs
| From O,r Orn Correspondent.
| Fonr rEspLE1os, Va, September, 1874.
Did Won ever hear OF the Fairfax Stone I:
l The Fairfax Stone was planted, some say, 3.
/ the hand OF George Washington. Oct. II, 1'f5
at the source Of the Eo1th Branch OF the Poto
! mac River As he did not start surveying untt
174S. it is one Of the most striking proofs OF hl
greatness
| .wAsTl1S0roS
was young surveyor" exclaimed the Colonel K
me, travelling over these wild mountains will
! rodmen, cLain-bcarcra, and a1-nen, defining tht
boundaries Of Lord Fairfa1's grant. He select
cd this slab Of sandstone, aud had roughly
| chiselcd into it tho letters F-A- This Wax
sunk into the ground 30 that only it's rough tn
angular top was visible. There it remains, visit
cd now and then by historical pilgrim The
carcs neither for lauroltanglc. OF rattlesnae, ol
| comprehend. It is about 2 feet aboye ground,
| inches thick, feet wide, s1ab, aud, after al
these nincty-nine years, lesiblc, visible, un'
| moved"
| It was ouo Of tho littlo pleasant privileges OF
this life to have stood before it On the brink OF
! the second century OF its foundation, and drink
[ OF the two springs, Oh either hand q few score
! yards ayv, =, which rso boldly from the rock on
, the mountain- side, ard, flowing toward each
| other in little rayincs sometimes nearly dry,
minsle and desc end, through hundreds Of miles
of rapids, rifles, and cascades, TO the great bay
where tho frs. settlements Of the English we're
planted.
The Fairfax Stone is abou: 8, 700 feet above
tue sea, It is within short distance OF
springs. just over the dividing ground OF the
Allegheny backbone. where tho D1ackwater rills
up, and, BY w4d leaps down successive terraces.
joina tho Cheat River md the Ohio
Here, standing at tho ril:s Of our larger con-
tincntal history, hidden away beyond al poss-
blity Of interruption from the forty millions Of
people around me, cen realize again the great
George and his band of assiatants. Let me
strike ansattitude!
His compass aad tripod are at the Patent Of
Gce in Washington. lie is Epeckled-faccd lad
in buckslin smalls, riding-boots, q hunting
shirt, and skin-cap.-1ong-lcgged and IN carly
riscr He works By night as often as by day, when
the stars chow over the mountaln-ine for ind:ca-
tors. A rough woods-band goes before, clearing
I Path with the hatchet and srubbing-adze, and
behind scramble the mcasur1nS-men and assist
ants. Little tired Of new yenison, brook-flsh,
and wiId pigeons. while yet behind comes young
George, with noto-booa and = pair OF sights,
80 doubloon my constant gain every day. and
sometimes six pistolcs." i few horses with
pack-saddlcs carry tho kit They pitch in the
glades where elades arc to be found, so as to
let the animals browse, aud at night, In hunters
camp, hear tho wclres howl for Lorse-mcat, and
the hounds in tho party yelp ut the rusl, OF 4
dazzled panther or tho heavy tros OF an alright
ed Bruin.
THE BENEFIT or DoCnr-
I have come to so many historical frauds in
my time that look at this srone with At:le OF
the peryerbity Of doubling Thomas. II planted
in 174G. who did it,
Itw in 174s that Lord Fairfax las: arrived
from England, stopping ut Dclvoir, the seat Of
his relative William; AID almost at once be sent
OF his kiEsman, young George Fairfax.
and tho hnsmaus chu1u, George Washington,
aged 1G. to make q serics OF conclusive surveys
by which tic Boss, then IS years old, should be-
gin to siyo titles, receive quit-rents end warn
Of intrudcrs. WasAiugton's brother, Laurence,
tho prototype Of George married George Fair
fa1's sister The same year, 174s, Lord Fairfax
opened laod-oficc in the lower part Of his vast
t5act. and for thirty-four years lived the life Of
real-esta:a ageut-
FA1EFAx-I11s STONE.
lie got al this land III The following easy way:
The year Cromwell CIT Oft the head Of Charles
l., his impccunious aad fugitive son began to
give away what ho despaired Of ever owning
again, very lberaly. So he save to seyen mobiles
all the land between the Potomac aud Kappa
hammock and THIS title, after term OF years,
vested IN one LORD Culpepper. whose only chlld
had become tho wifo OF q Lord Fairfax.
Our Fairfax mado visit, ''earfy in tho CEN
.ury," to h,s tract. As carly as 1876 he began to
make grants. The next year, surveys were made
10 divide his land from Virginia In 17a5, re-
port was made, determining the head-epriDss Of
tho two rivers; and stone OF some kind must |
have been set up ut that time on this spot. II
Washington did it, and cut in these letters,
F-A, rith his little natchet, at tue age Of II,
no wonder ho could not tell lie. The State
OF Virginia passed Ell act, in 1921. whsch |
said in terms, "a stone planted by Lord FairJaz
on tho headTAtcrs, OF the Potomac"
The Intelligent people hereabout SOY Washing
ton himself put down this stone. II he did, ho |
substituted It for previous one. But the stone,
from its rough cliselins, aud from the impor-
tance it held to the earliest location OF the graut
being terminal, must have been hero when |
Washington arrived. two yours afterNard.
VIC may therefore staud hesitatlns whether to
honor Fairfax or Washington at this wild spot.
Which put his royal rSis on this boundary-stone,
and Utist|ed :. Comm through the rye"? But.
no matter. they have both been here; both we're
Yo1kshiremen, like George Calvert, who got tho
next grant aboVe. And it is as easy to restore
Fairfax IS Washington.
FA1nFAI EEsToNED.
Tie was dark, sTarthy, half social man, bed
iu wild part Of England, aud little softe1lcd by
ILL Oxford education. Over feet high, of
frame equal to that OF any savage. or pio-
ntcr, : hunter, no lover of women, no
OF refinement, ho ate COARSE food,
kept bachelors hall. had a spagmodc and grim
generosity, With little reference to its justice,
and he lived in sort Of familiar feudality
through our Indian wars and our Revolutionary
s'ar, until, in 1852. ho learned that the George
Washington to whom lie had given surveying
job had captured tho Earl OF Cornwallis and his
army. Then lie felt that things had gone too
far, md he stretched out like al old mastln be-
fore the fire and LETT no last words. Ho WAS
buried under the communicable 1T the Town
nE Winchester, which he had founded lie de-
sised his estate to Denny Fairfaz. alien and ab-
sentee, whom TiEginia cnaeavored to dsqua!ify;
but tho treaty Of 1874 operated with the Supreme
Court Of tho United States, and the dcriseo Nas
confirmed IN al tue titles Of grantees.
Whoever put the Fairfax Stone at head OF tho
Ncrth instead Of the South Branch of the
and defined tho former to be, in the
words of tho grant, the first fountain OF tho
potomack,'' gained by the assumption 4G2, $50
.creB Of land; for the South Branch has tho true
aead. as the true Mississippi rises, TO. in lIia-
1esota. but in Montana. 10 provo this fact. the
proprietor Of Maryland employed Col. Thomas
Cresap, another lorkshire,nau md famous
to explore all this country, ut the age
II 10; and he reported that the South Branch
vas both tho largest and Aad the most westerly
springs Crcsap lived to be LOG ycais old, md