Existing comment:
The Fairfax Family has been a part of Leesylvania history since 1825, when Captain Henry Fairfax purchased the nearly two thousand-acre property from Alfred Lee, the grandson of Henry Lee II. The home that Henry brought his family to was built in 1803, about 500 yards east of the original Lee home. Henry, along with his third wife Elizabeth, lived and raised seven children here from 1825 until their deaths in 1847. They are buried in an enclosed cemetery located along Lee's Woods Trail. The property, with an assessed value of $16,253 in 1849, including twenty-four slaves, was willed to his two children, Martha and John Walter. John inherited the portion of the plantation property that is now Leesylvania State Park. in the early 1850s, he married Mary Jade Rodgers and moved to Oak Hill in Loudoun County. He and his wife lived at Oak Hill until after the Civil War. During the Civil War, John Walter Fairfax joined the Confederate army and became an important member of General James Longstreet's staff. In 1877, shorted after his wife's passing, he returned to Leesylvania and rebuilt his father's residence. Fairfax lived here until his death in 1908, his home burning shortly thereafter. |