Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-09-26


= first Is inscribed j. H. Wiley;
the second, "R. A. Jeilison." and the
third. III. Shepherd" and Charles
Howard" Where these letter boxes
stand the road branches. The left
fork leads to Gunston Hall and Hal
lowing point, on the Potomac, and
the right fork leads to several farms
that once formed colonial tracts
called Bradley and Belmont" This
parting of the highway was known
in the long ago as the Parsons fork
You will hear that place-name today
only from the lips Of venerable
to the left led to the vast estate of
Col George Mason and that to the
right led to Bradley" which was the
home of Rev, Lee Massey, an Episco,
pal divine, whose name is often found
in the colonial and revolutionary rec
ords of Virginia and is frequently
found in close association with the
name of George Washington He
seems to have been popularity known
PEARSON Massey" and hence the fork
of the old road leading to Bradley
came to be known as the Parsons
fork"
Several reflections are stimulated
by this fact. One is that Rev. Lee
Massey was man of strong per,
sonality, else the road fork would
not have been named for him. The
left fork led to the estates of Col.
George Mason and his descendants
and collateral kindred, then the rich
est and otherwise most prominent
people in Gunston Neck.
X X X X
In fact, "Gunston Neck is a name
that the Rambler has adopted for con-
venience, because GunSton or Gunston
Hall, the home of George Mason, near
the Potomac end of the neck" has
become an American shrine and is the
chief historic feature Of the PENN
sula- 1t is not "Gunston Neck" to
the major part of the people who
dwell down that way; to them it is
''Mason's Neck" 1t was called Ma
sons Neck before George Mason the
fourth, son Of George Mason of Wood
bridge. built Gunston Hall. Mason. the
great American, died in 1892 and the
people of the neighborhood stressed
home. After his,sdeath Masons were
numerous and as they were for long
time the principal landholders, it was
natural that people in that part of the
country should preserve the name
s.Mason's Neck" or 'Masons' Neck"
.Gunston HALL, the home of George
Mason, author of the Virginia bill of
rights, and one of the fathers of the
American Constitution has become
SO familiar to persons interested in
historic places that the Rambler felt
as ''Gunston Neck" That the people
who lived there a century and half.
or century ago. should have named
the road-fork, 1.-The ParsoAs Fork"
proves*that the Rev. Mr.. Massey filled
large space in the mind and i'll the
imagination of those Rfople. They DO
rot seem to have called the left fork
"Col. Mason's Fork" and they did not
call the right fork "Massey's Fork:
they called it 1.-The Parsons Fork.
Many other parsons and pastors ana
ministers had lived and died in that
part of the country. but to all the
people roundabout 1.-The" parson meant
the Rev. Mr.. Massey. This fact also
proves the antiquity of the Methodist
church in that part of Potomac Viz
ginia.
The naming ofe:Parson's Fork" was
clearly the worE of Methodists, The
Pohick Church about three miles from
his home. Bradley, and If a member
of that church had seen fit to give
a name to the point where the road
branches he might have called 1t the
Rector's fork" or "the Rectory
fork" He ould probably never have
thought of calling it 'the Parsons
fork"
In the beginning of this narrative
it was not the meaning of the Ram
bier to devote the story to the Rev.
Lee Massey. He was saving his notes
on that eminent and pious man for
use further along in the Occoquan
series, but as he has strayed into
the subject it may be well to see it
through. One July afternoon the
Rambler was waiting for a train at,
Occoquan station, the historic name
of which was Woodbridge. he was
talking to his friends. Ruben Hamill
and Walter Allen, who have charge
of that section of Virginia, and the