Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-10-17

twenty-five miles below WASH
ington. The direction is south
west-that is, it is twenty
one miles due south from the White
House and thirteen miles due west
J from the south end of that line as
the Rambler measures it on the map.
1t is one of those peninsulas, or
''necks.' bounded by creeks, and it
juts into the Potomac river. forming
one of the points" that have become
landmarks to rivermen and to all
other men who live in the fair land
through which the great Potomac
rolls. These points have not only
become landmarks, but usually their
names have become associated with
some historic fact, or facts. giving
to them a charm. a distinction and a
strange power to stir the imagination
of man or woman who has taken
to heart the long, rich story of the
country we call home.
The upper boundary of this neck"
is Neabsco creek and the lower is
Powells creek. These streams are
formed by springs about ten miles
east and north of the Potomac. and
they zigzag their way to the river
and are in few places more than a
mile apart. The country through
which they pass is rough. hilly, for
ested over a considerable extent and,
where the timber has been cut away.
grown over with that thick and tan
gled mass of shrubbery or scrub
berry which soon takes possession of
land that has been cut over. A net
or web of crooked. hilly dirt roads
has been woven over that country.
for it is one of the old-settled regions
made it their home as early as 1910,
and it was a we'll peopled neighbor-
hood when the seventeenth century
began 1t is the eastern part of
Prince William county, which was
created in 1871 out of the county
of King George, which was created
in 1920. Those facts hint at-really
they tell-the story of the rapid
progress of white settlement north
ward and upward along the valley
of the Potomac.
The automobile road or the "tele-
graph road" from Washington to
Fredericksburg crosses the neck
trif1e more than two miles west of
the Potomac and about three miles
north of the ancient hamlet of Dunn
fries. The steam railroad from Wash
ington to Fredericksburg crosses the
neck less than mile west of the
river, spanning Neabsco creek and
Powelrs creek on tall, grim bridges.
The tip of this neck which juts far
thest into the Potomac is called Free
stone point. 1t is at the upper side
of the neck, where Neabsco creek,
merged with OccoQuan bay, joins the
Potomac. On the lower side of the
neck, where Powells creek pours
into the Potomac. Is another point,
has, the Rambler has not learned it.
Generally all that part of the neck
from the railroad to the river is
spoken of as Freestone point. Per-
haps it has an old tract, or grant
name or plantation name which has
! "Freestone." in general. means any
Istone which can be cut freely in every
direction, and which has no distinct
cleavage. Specifically it means
fine grained sandstone with those
characteristics. The clin which
juts into it is of this formation.
Sandstone is exposed in the old rail-
road cut and in the new one through
we.akh the road crosses the neck, and
there are outcroppings and other
exposures of "freestone." Freestone
occurs in large quantities in this part
of northern tidewater Virginia, and it
was from this neighborhood that
sandstone was quarried for use in the
construction of the Capitol and White
House. From report made to Presl-
dent Jefferson December %, 1905, by
liz. Henry Latrobe, surveyor of public
buildings, the Rambler makes this
extract:
In applying the appropriations Of the last
session Of Congress. Of $4,000 to the prose-