Transcription
The Sunday Star, Washington, D.C., December 8, 1905 - Part
Reproduced at Government Expense
Dumfries,
a Place of
Ancient Memories
Dumfries, Virginia, is one of
those places of solemn interest
and ancient memories, which,
though close to Washington,
few Washingtonians visit. Dumfries,
now a ruin, was a considerable city in
its day, and its day was so long ago that
Dumfries was old before the city of Washington
was laid out. A stanger walking
through a cornfield comes upon a mound of
brick and mortar, and his guide; some venerable
man of the neighborhood, says; "The
Dumfries Theater stood here;" coming upon
another mound in a meadow the guide says;
"This was the Bank of Dumfries," or "the
market house stood here, or "along this
street where the cattle are pastured there
once stood a row of business houses occupied
as a bakery, butcher shop, a tailoring
shop, a hat store, tavern, hotel," etc. It is
all a great lesson in the changes that time
may bring.
Dumfries is on Quantico Creek about five
miles above where the creek empties into
the Potomac. For two miles above its
mouth Quantico Creek is a stream of
marked beauty. Contrary to what its name
implies the creek is a wide body of water.
In places it appears to be half a mile wide,
and it is narrower than two or three hundred
yards in only a few places till about
three miles above the Potomac where wide
marshes are encountered. Over these
marshes the creek simply oozes. These
marshes extend perhaps two miles back
from the wide water of the creek and beyond
the marshes the Quantico creek is
just a little "run" or branch like hundreds
of others draining the country. The
wharves of Dumfries have been covered in
earth from the hills.
Quantico creek or the broad part of it
which is sometimes called the Quantico
river, passes between high hills closely
timbered with hardwoods. It is a thickly
overgrown country through which the creek
passes, and although several sawmills are
running, yet the big timber seems to have
been pretty cleanly cut out. On the south
side of the creek the woods, after crossing
a hilly country , stretch away into the great
Chappawamsic swamp. In many places
along the course of he creek the hills drop
bluffly to the water and fine views may be
obtained.
To reach Dumfries one may leave the railroad
at Quantico village and follow the wagon
road through the woods on the south
side of the creek. Or one may leave the
railroad at Barrow's Siding on the north
side of the creek and follow the line of a
narrow gauge railway which runs to a
pyrities mine about two miles above Dumfries.
Or if one should choose a slower
way of reaching Dumfries he may follow
the old north and south stage road (now
called the Telegraph road), from Alexandra,
through Lorton, Occoquan and thus on to
Dumfries, for the ancient town stands
where the old stage road crosses Quantico
creek.
Dumfries was settled by Scotch merchants,
but the date is a question. It was in the
seventeenth century and not many years
after the settlement of Jamestown. Among
the men who early appreciated the opportunity
for trade with the Indians and increasing
European population in the Potomac
country were many Scotchmen. It is
recorded that these Scotch traders were
the first whites to settle on the site of
Washington city. Davy Burns, proprietor
of much of the western part of the site of
the federal city at the time of the location
of the city and whose daughter [Marta?] and
her husband, Gen. Van Ness, were prominent
in the early Washington, was a descendant
from some of these Scotch settlers.
A number of these adventurous
traders settled on Quantico creek, and in
memory of their European home called the
place Dumfries.
The town grew with the country till it
came to be classed with Williamsburg as
one of the important cities of the new
world. In that time Fredericksburg had not
been born, the town of the Necostins was
where Georgetown stands and the Alexanders
and Hugh West, who laid out Alexandria,
had not been born.
The seventeenth and early eighteenth
century history of Dumfries is largely lost
and what there is is scattered through so
many old records that to collate them
would be a work of months. In the latter
part of the eighteenth century chronicles
may be found with frequent reference to
Dumfries. There is in the Library of Congress
an account of a big race meet of the
Dumfries Jockey Club in 1774, where the
stake of one race was 200 guineas. This
is not particularly significant of the antiquity
of Dumfries, for in the pre-revolutionary
era there were great race meets
at Upper Mariboro, Prince George county,
Md.; Annapolis, Fredericksburg and
other Maryland and Virginia cities.
In the American Gazetteer for 1798 is the
item that the exports from Dumfries for the
year ending September 30, 1794, amounted
to $85,635.
Bishop Meade in his "Old Churches and
Families of Virginia" relates that in 1755 a
glebe was purchased for the Rev. James
Scott, and that there were two churches
in his parish, one at Dumfries and one near
Quantico. The church at Dumfries had
been built in 1752 at a cost of one hundred
thousand weight of tobacco and replaced
an older church which had so fallen
into decay that it was sold for fifteen hundred
weight of tobacco. When the dilapidated
church had been built Bishop Meade
did not know. Nor did he know how many
Episcopal churches had been built at Dumfries
before that which cost 100,000 weight
of tobacco.
Bishop Meade writing in 1857 of the ruins
of the Dumfries church said:
"I have often seen them in my travels
through that region. Dumfries, itself once
the mart of that part of Virginia, the scene
of gayety and fashion, the abode of wealthy
merchants from Scotland who named it
after the city of that name in the mother
country, is now in ruins almost as complete
as those of the old church.
"Quantico creek, though which the trade
of Europe came, is now filled up. Desolation
reigns around. The old court house
was fitted up some thirty-five or forty
years ago as an Episcopal Church, but that
has long since been abandoned for want
of worshipers."
The Rev. James Scott was succeeded by
his son, John Scott. This parson challenged
a man to a duel and his second, a man
named Bullett, trying to make peace between
the challenger and the challenged,
became involved with the latter and killed
him. John Scott fled to Scotland and he
was succeeded at Dumfries by the Rev.
Spence Grayson, who was followed about
1802 by the Rev. Thomas Harrison.
Bishop Meade gives the names of such
vestrymen as he has been able to learn
through the records of the church. These
follow: Peyton, Reaser, Bulter, Desker,
Linton, Renno, Blackman, Furgurson,
Ewell, Seale, Grayson, Baxter, Whetlige,
Fouchee, Rust, Rausson, Crump, Frogg,
Harrison, Wright, Bullett, Wickliffe, Bell,
Copedye, Thornton, Elsey, Betty, Eustace,
Blackwell, Waggener, Nishell, Kennon,
Tibbs, Triplett, Carr, Lee, Bayliss, Buchannan,
Hoe, Alexander, Fitzhugh, Kinchloe,
Washington, Guatkin, McMillan, Adie and
Tompkins. Among the lay readers were
Thomas Machen, John Peyton and Jeremiah
Moore.
Decay was eating into Dumfries when the
nineteenth century opened. The creek was
filling up in front of Dumfries' wharves,
and the size of ocean ships was increasing.
Towns more favorably situated were taking
Dumfries' place. The upper Potomac
ports were Alexandria, Georgetown, Bladensburg
Piscataway. Half a century
ago a fire swept through the broken-down
city and destroyed eighteen dwellings and
many of the former business buildings. The
ruins are now scarcely discernible, grass
and corn growing over them.
The oldest citizen of Dumfries is Mr. Waters.
The Star man met him in a cornfield.
Mr. Waters, though seventy-five years
old, was pulling corn as vigorously as a
young man. He said: "I was born here
seventy-five years ago, and have lived here
all my life and can remember as far back
as when I was four years old. Even then
Dumfries was a ruined town. Then the
great fire came and cleaned up what was
left of the town. The fire started in a
house that stood where that apple tree yonder
is growing. I don't know the year the
fire burned us out, though it burned our
house, too, but it was about fifty years
ago. There were big houses in these fields
in those days. You see the straight and
narrow lanes that lean between, then
through these parcels of ground? Well
they were streets long, long ago. When
ships used to come and go in this creek
and the stage coaches with passengers and
the mail used to go through here, this [was?]
a bustling sort of place."
L. E. Merchant, native of Dumfries and
son of one of the prominent citizens of the
old town, has several relics of the Dumfries
of other days. He has the day book [and?]
ledger of Richard Dunlop, a leading eighteenth
century merchant. Under date [of?]
January 31, 1784, there is this interesting
entry: "Cash to Gen. Washington 72 pounds shillings."
It would appear that Washington
probably traveling between Fredericskburg
and Mount Vernon, became temporarily embarrassed
and borrowed a small sum from
his friend Dunlop. Mr. Merchant has the
great key of the old Dumfries jail, a [neat?]
pewter spoon marked 1786 and a pouch [of?]
English coin found in the fields where the
town stood.
A new Episcopal Church stands on the
ruin of the church Bishop Meade writes [of.?]
About it are hundreds of graves. Most of
them are unmarked, many of them are
marked simply by a rude piece of undressed
rock without inscription. One or tow [of?]
the eighteenth century graves are [not?]
taken care of and quite a number of early
nineteenth century graves are carefully
kept. The oldest marked stone The Star
man saw was this:
"Here lies William Dunlop, merchant, son
of Alexander Dunlop, Greek professor [of?]
the University of Glasgow, who lived Dec.
the 21, 1739, aged 82 years."
Thus the man whose bones be there was
born in 1637. That is reaching well back
into the olden time!
Some of the tombs near Dunlop's grave
are marked as follows: Margaret Alexander,
died 8th of June, 1806; William F. [R.?]
Dunnington, died 1800; Charlotte [Brundige?]
died 1807; Joseph Huber, 1817; Mrs. L Colquhoun,
1815; Mrs. Sarah Williams, [1822?],
James W. Colquhoun, 1815, and David
Boyle, 1818.Transcriber
Adam KitchenLanguage
English