Transcription
Revolution bred into Dumfries
Historic Dumfries, a pre-revolutionary haven for patriots, will celebrate its bicentennial adoption of the Prince William resolves Thursday. Dumfries' bicentennial celebration, one of the earliest in Northern Virginia, will take place at the courthouse site. Town and county officials and local historians will illuminate the town's past and wage future plans for investigation and restoration of historic town sites. See Dumfries story page 2.
Grand memories, dramatic times in Dumfries' life
By Anne Hazard
Abandoned, the Dumfries Courthouse site lingers on today as little more than a vacant lot near the town's main street. It is a small reminder that Dumfries was once America's largest port and the county's first incorporated town.
Pedestrians strolling by would not guess that two centuries ago the courthouse site was a dramatic center of patriotism on the eve of the American Revolution; that important political decisions were made within the walls of the colonial brick building that once occupied the property.
On June 6, 1774, outraged Dumfries citizens assembled there. Seething with discontent over British colonial polices and the dissolution of Virginia's House of Burgesses, they adopted the Prince William Resolves. (George Mason.......)
gather in the same place to celebrate what became great impetus to the war of Independence.
CURIOSITY AND concern, rather than discontent, better describe the mood of Dumfries citizens who will be present. Some have persistently probed the town's rich and well-kept secrets, many of them irretrievable- just dust in the aftermath of a courthouse fire that destroyed many records.
One of the few historic landmarks remaining in Dumfries, the Weems-Botts House, was recently purchased by the town and will be restored to a museum. Two years ago Pete Costello purchased the Stage Coach Inn and plans to restore it.
Artist Lee Lansing, Historic Dumfries' president and author of a recently published book, "Historic Dumfries Va. 1749," believes that Gunston Hall architect William Buckland may have designed some Dumfries' buildings. Lansing has researched Dumfries history for more than 30 years.
Although two decades ago it was billed as "a quiet Prince William hamlet whose bungalows dot Route 1," Dumfries now boats industry, development and a growing population.
meant tobacco, tobacco meant wealth," and trans- Atlantic vessels sailed up Quantico Creek as far as the Stage Coach Inn. Tabacco farmers all over the county knew of the town's export monopoly and descended to Dumfries with wagon loads of their crop.
Hogsheads of tobacco loaded on to the ships by negro slaves were wroth about 1,000 each. As the tobacco habit spread through Europe (taking snuff became an indication of elegance) the thriving town ascended to prosperity.
In addition to a bank, an academy, a race course, numerous shops and inns, the county's first colonial church, and a poor house for the underprivileged, Dumfries had its own newspaper (Dumfries Gazette): A racy night life include a jockey club, a theater and a fashionable ball room in the "Long Ordinary."
During the day, prominent statesmen like George Mason, George Washington and Henry Lee were often seen sauntering from shop to restaurant to courthouse.
DUMFRIES HISTORY actually began as early as 1690 when Richard Gibson erected a grist mill on Quantico Creek. A customs............
In 1740 John Graham, a Scotsman from the burg of Dumfries, came to Virginia and began obtaining land grants along Quantico Creek. Other Scots merchants moved in and in 1749 prompted the General Assembly to establish Dumfries as the county.
In 1759 the county was transferred from Occoquan
Families of wealth and distinction established homes in the town that had to be enlarged from its original 60 acres in 1759 and again in 1761. Laws were enforced banning construction of wooden chimneys and the keeping of swine within city limits.
Among town incorporators were men of prominence like Richard Lee; a signer of the Declaration Independence, justice of the U>S> Court of Appeals; and Col. William Grayson, first senator from Virginia to the State Congress.
Dumfries' rapid decline that began before 1780 was as dramatic as its short-lived era of glory. Ironically, tobacco spend the town's decay.
Scots tobacco merchants at home abandoned the town in favor of West Indies sugar American Revolution Dumfries, unlike Alexandria made no commercial a justment from tabacco farm clogged Quantico Creek with silt, paralyzing trade. The [ ] was apparently no effecti- dredging method available among other things, it recorded that "Warehouse
-See Bustling, pageLanguage
EnglishTranslator
Rachel Hughes