Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1897-08-24
AN HISTORIC PICNIC.


Saturday, August 7th, was gala day
on the historic banks of the Occoquan
| The occasion was the first annual joint
meeting of the Prince William county
Educational Association and the His
torical Society of the counties of Prince
William, Fairfax and Alexandria. The
| weather was all that could have been
desired. AT an early hour the steamer
Alton, Capt. Leaden commanding, ami
waiting at the public landing of the
town of Occoquan, blew loud and long
blast which Was the signal for the many
parties who had come into town from
all the surrounding neighboi hoods to
20 aboard the boat for an excursion to
the site of the vanished town of Col
chester, few miles below, on the
shore of old Fairfax There an hour
was most agreeably passed by the party,
ooking and straying over the lands,
many acres in extent, where in the early
Colonial days stood the fourishing and
busy borough, chartered by the General
Assembly of Virginia in 1852. laid out
in 1853 and made point OF entry and
shipping port for the immense quauti-
lies of tobacco which were brought into
it's great warehouses by the rolling
roads from the surrounding plantations,
some of III IN fifty miles distant. From
out of this point, when the Occoquan
was deep and capacious stream, went
fleets of square rugged vessels to the
cities of London, Amsterdam and Lis
bon, carrying out cargoes of the Vir-
ginia staple, grain, lumber, iron, furs
and other valuable products. Smaller
vessels carried away to the smaller
towns of the tide water region merchan-
disc from the warehouses, and trains of
wagons kept up an overland traffic
with the frontier settlements as far as,
aud even beyond the mountains.
Looking at this day over the grass
grown wastes of the old towns site, il
seems like the fantasies Of dream
when the historian recounts the mar
velous changes which have been
wrought over and all about it in the
hundred and fifty years which have
gone by since it's first foundations
we're laid by the Masops, the McCartys
aud Wageners. Its history is o retro
spect deeply tiuged with sadness,
melancholy aid romauce.
After centuries of primitive life of
the aborigines the surveyor comes to
ct mis- compass by the rivers margin
where the shore slopes down gently
and smoothly to the waters edge. He
fixes the courses of the streets and lays
off the butts and bounds of lots for
town, and Colchester had its begin
nings-and beautiful site indeed was
chosen, for it overlooked miles of tee
Occoquan, and showed also glimpses of
of the grand old Potomac in the di! /.
tance beyond. They named it for a
market burrough in the county of Es
sex in old England, fiftv miles from
London, on the river Coin, because
some of its projectors are immigrants
from that locality, notably DR.. Peter
Wagner, the owner of the land on
which the new town is to be built.
The years pass on and we see habi
tations rise and multiply, and genera
tions of men 60 to and fro in it's sti eets.
We see warehouses and piers and
docks and ships, and great incre ase OF
trade and traffic. But again we look
as still other years have passed aud
the scene has changed. The habita
ions are deserted. The stir of life has
left the streets. Trade and traffic have
waned-the warehouses are not filled
as once in the palmy days. They are
empty and falling, and ships come no
| more to the piers and docks. OF all
those who lived, moved and had their
being in those habitations and thor
ouphfares Il few only remain. To
many of them new homes opened in
places remote. Some of them fell be
| fore the devouring pestilence that vast
eth at MONDAY. And now look
ing once more we see devouring flames
leaping from roof to roof and com.
pletiug the destruction of i'll the starred
town.
TODAY only two of the old habita.
tions remain. They stand forlorn and
ghost like in the solitude, sad, but sug-
eestiye monuments of the long faded
wears. One of them is pc uresque
structure, still quite we'll preserved,
standing close to the "Old Kings
Highway" from Williamsburg. up over
the Occoquan, and on through the es
tate of Mount Vernon to Alexandria,
and beyond to Keys Gap in the Blue
Ridge mountains. In the palmy days
of the town when the tide of travel
surged by its doors it was known as
the Arms of Fairfax" 1t was a hos
telry of great repute anear and afar,
and under its roof were entertained
Washington, Lafayette and many 9th,
er distinguished men of the time, both
soldiers and civilians. 1t was the inn
where the numbering red and yellow
coach always stopped with its way
farers. Says traveller in an old let
ter ~ dined at the Arms of Fairfax
a commodious tavern not far from the
Ferry, built partly of stone and partly
of frame. The dinner was of smoking
yenison and fish, taken from wooe
and water that morning, and supple
meuted with pitcher of excellent cl
der. The rate was one shilling and 81
pence which did not demur at for 81
good q repast." 1t was the p'ac'
where the politicians of the surround
ing neighborhood came TO INK VI
their states" for the coming election