FAIRFAX COUNTY
VIRGINIA
HUNTLEY
SITE LOCATION

HUNTLEY

A Mason Family Country House

By
Tony P. Wrenn

Published by the Fairfax County Division of Planning
under the direction of the County Board of Supervisors
in cooperation with the County History Commission

Fairfax, Virginia

November 1971

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 76-183058

Typography by ARVA Printers, Inc.
Printing by ARVA Printers, Inc.

Additional copies available for $1.50 from
Administrative Services, Massey Building

PREFACE

I first visited Huntley in May, 1969 in the company of Edith Sprouse, Joyce Wilkinson, and Tony Wrenn. Neither I nor anyone else on the staff of the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission had ever seen or heard of the house, and my Fairfax guides were anxious that their "discovery" be brought to our attention. Having assumed that anything of interest in that section of Fairfax County had long been swept away for housing developments, I was in no way prepared when suddenly we rounded a corner and looked up to see a curious geometric structure sitting placidly among its outbuildings against a wooded hillside, aloof from its plebian neighbors. A quick scanning of composition and details dissipated any skepticism I may have had: here, on the outskirts of the capital city was a genuine Federal villa!

After being graciously escorted throughout the house by the owners, we all agreed that Huntley was, without question, one of Virginia's undiscovered architectural treasures. Since next to nothing was known either of its history or the development of its design, we concluded that the house deserved the most detailed study. All assumed that a house of such intriguing individuality had to have a story behind it.

Through the far-sighted patronage of the Fairfax County Government and the meticulous research of Tony Wrenn, this story has now been pieced together. The text which follows provides a history and descriptive analysis worthy of this distinguished Virginia landmark.

Calder Loth
Architectural Historian
Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was undertaken at the request of the Fairfax County History Commission in 1969, when Mrs. William E. Wilkinson was chairman, and in cooperation with the Fairfax County Division of Planning.

Colonel and Mrs. Ransom Amlong, owners of Huntley and their son Bill answered the author's numerous questions and gave him free rein to wander through the house and site. Edith Moore Sprouse provided frequent research leads and both E. Blaine Cliver, restoration architect, and Calder Loth, architectural historian with the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission, provided architectural analysis. William Edmund Barrett provided most of the architectural photography. A major source of material concerning Thomson F. Mason was a collection of his papers, lent to the Alexandria Library by William Francis Smith for our use. Other leads were provided by Mrs. Earl Alcorn, Mrs. Sherrard Elliot, Miss Patricia Carey of the Fairfax County Public Library and Miss Margaret Calhoun of the Alexandria Library. Mrs. Hugh Cox provided valuable material on T. F. Mason in Alexandria.

Acknowledgment is also due to those who read and made suggestions concerning the final draft of this report, among them Dr. John Porter Bloom, Patricia Williams, John Gott, Mrs. Ross Netherton, Julia Weston, and several others already named above.

T.P.W.
September, 1971

Figure 1. Huntley, viewed from the southwest, including root cellar and necessary. November 1969. Photo by Wm. Edmund Barrett.

INTRODUCTION

It is difficult to understand how a house whose history is closely connected to the well-known Mason family has existed, practically without notice or mention, for one hundred and fifty years. This fact is all the more puzzling when the structure is as architecturally important as "Huntley."

Several possible explanations come to mind:

* Though near a major highway, the house is isolated on its hillside site.

* Because the structure has been somewhat altered, close inspection is necessary before its architectural merits can be fully recognized.

* The house was a country or secondary home for a member of the Mason family who, though important in his own right, was overshadowed by his more illustrious father, Thomson Mason of "Hollin Hall", and by his grandfather, George Mason IV of "Gunston Hall."

* No one has written in detail about the house before and there is little secondary material available concerning it.

Kate Mason Rowland's Life of George Mason, published in 1892,[1] gives one of the few references to Huntley found by the author in secondary sources. In an appendix titled "Land described in George Mason's will, and now owned by his descendent's," she notes:

It was incorrectly stated in one of the earlier volumes that "Lexington" was the only one of the Mason places in Virginia now in the family. The writer had overlooked "Okeley" in Fairfax County, about six miles from Alexandria. The farms of "Okeley" and "Huntley" were both parts of the estate bequeathed by George Mason to his son Thomson Mason of "Hollin Hall." A double ditch⁵⁰ is still to be seen on the southern border of these two places, extending several miles from East to West, with a broad space about thirty feet wide separating the two ditches. These mark the line between the lands of George Mason and George Washington, as they were in the lives of those gentlemen. In General Washington's will he refers "to the back line or outer boundary of the tract between Thomson Mason and myself ... now double ditching with a post-and-rail fence thereon," etc. And he mentions in another place "the new double ditch" in connection with the boundary line between "Mt. Vernon" and the Mason property. In adding to his estate he had purchased land at one time from George Mason. And among the Washington papers preserved in the Lewis and Washington families, and recently sold to autograph collectors, are three letters of George Mason, on the subject of the bounds between the Washington and Mason plantations, one written in 1768, the others in 1769. Washington adds a memorandum to the former, saying that "the lines to which this letter has reference were settled by and between Colonel Mason and myself the 19th of April, 1769, as will appear ... by a survey thereof made on that day in his presence, and with his approbation." "Huntley" owned by Judge Thomson F. Mason of "Colross," son of Thomson Mason of "Hollin Hall," passed out of the family some years ago ...

Another mention is in Edith Moore Sprouse's Potomac Sampler, published in 1961.[2] She identifies Huntley as "a part of the estate of George Mason of Gunston Hall ... on a tract of land which bordered Washington's on the north and stretched from the Potomac to Kings Highway."

The following study of the Huntley complex combines the work of architects, architectural historians and historians in reading and interpreting the structures. At some future date, efforts of archaeologists will probably be rewarded with further information about the complex at various stages of development.

Introduction Notes

CHAPTER I

THE MASON FAMILY

The first George Mason came to Virginia during the middle of the seventeenth century.[3] Two other Georges followed before 1725, when the fourth George Mason, "The Pen of the Revolution," was born. Movement of the Mason family had been gradually northward, from Norfolk, then to Stafford and Prince William Counties in Virginia, across the Potomac River to Charles County, Maryland, and then back to Fairfax County in Virginia where, in 1758, George Mason IV built Gunston Hall.

The builder of Gunston Hall was later the author of the Fairfax Resolves, of the first Constitution of Virginia and of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. His Declaration of Rights, which was adopted by the Virginia House of Burgesses in Williamsburg on June 12, 1776, was the major source for the Federal Bill of Rights, adopted in 1791. Though a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Mason refused to sign the Constitution because it did not provide for the abolition of slavery, nor did it, in his views, sufficiently safeguard the rights of the individual.[4]

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other early American leaders were friends of George Mason and Mason's family surely met many of them at Gunston Hall. Jefferson, who called George Mason "the wisest man of his generation," was his last recorded visitor at Gunston Hall, on September 30, 1792.[5] On October 7, one week later, Mason died.

Nine of his children married. On December 17, 1788, George wrote to his son John that "Your brother Thomson and his family have just moved from Gunston to his own seat at Hollin Hall."

A tutor of General Thomson Mason's family, Elijah Fletcher, wrote in a letter from Alexandria, August 4, 1810:

[General Mason is] ... a man of note and respectability, his family very agreeable, social, affable and easy. I use as much freedom in the family as I did at my fathers house. I doubt not of their kindness to me in health or sickness. My employment is respectable and I consider my standing upon a par and equality with most of the people. Our living is rich and what in Vermont would be called extravagant. The family rise very late in the morning and consequently do not have breakfast till eight or nine. Our dinner at three and tea at eight in the evening.[6]

General Thomson Mason served as an officer of militia in the American Revolution, held numerous state and local offices and was active in organizing banks and transportation companies before his death in 1820.

It was his son, Thomson Francis Mason, born in 1785 at Gunston Hall, who built "Huntley."

Thomson Francis Mason

Thomson Francis Mason was heir to a family tradition of important friendships, public service and good taste, and he carried on this tradition. Educated at Princeton, Class of 1807,[7] he chose to return to the Fairfax County area to practice law and enter public service.

His life story is difficult to trace. No biography exists, nor is he mentioned in most works concerning Alexandria, even though he later attained significant recognition there.

On November 24, 1817, the Alexandria Gazette announced the marriage, on Wednesday evening, November 19th of:

Thomson F. Mason, Esq., of this place, to Miss Elizabeth C. Price of Leesburg, Loudoun County, Virginia....

The young Mrs. Mason was familiarly known as Eliza Clapham Price, not as Elizabeth C., but Thomson F. called her Betsey.

The use of the phrase "of this place" is of interest here, and open to several interpretations. It could mean that he was living in Alexandria at the time or only that he had an office there. He could have been living in Alexandria and building a home in Fairfax County at the same time.

Mason was probably already a practicing lawyer at the time of his marriage and was by 1824 a man of consequence in Alexandria.

The fight to get out of the District began in 1824, while it was not settled by Congress until 1846. The citizens of Alexandria, becoming tired of being in the District of Columbia, made an attempt to have Alexandria receded to Virginia. A meeting was held March 9, 1824, for the purpose of preparing a memorial to Congress on the subject. S. Thompson Mason was Chairman of the meeting....[8]

The memorial sent to Congress was couched in legal enough terms to have been drafted by Mason, who later became a judge. His political activities gave him enough local standing to insure his election as Mayor of Alexandria in 1827 and again in 1836.[9]

A glimpse of Mason as a family man can be seen in a reply to a letter from his wife in which she complained of an exchange of words with Huntley's overseer (in 1828), Slighter Smith. Mason, who must have been in court at Leesburg, wrote:

I have been indeed a little surprised at hearing the conduct of Mr. Smith. Altho' I knew about the general unkind and bad temper which he possessed, I had no idea that he would have ventured to exhibit it in your presence—or have him guilty of the insolence of threatening violence in your presence and to one under your protection.... I still cannot believe that he would seriously attempt it....

In that same letter Mason noted:

... the great pleasure and pride I have ever felt in seeing you placed above the flame, and having you so looked up to by others.[10]

As a good plantation manager, he also included a note to Smith informing him of his surprise and displeasure at the outbreak and suggesting:

I feel it is proper to inform you that I shall feel it my duty to inquire strictly into this subject—And with regard to the threatened violence I beg leave ... to put you on your guard and to inform you that any new attempt will be followed by the most serious consequences.

Mason lived in several houses in Alexandria (see Appendix A), but it was the time he spent at Colross which seems to have received the most notice. Mrs. Marian Gouverneur wrote in her book, As I Remember:

Another Virginia family of social prominence, whose members mingled much in Washington Society, while I was still visiting the Winfield Scotts, was that of the Masons of "Colross," the name of their old homestead near Alexandria in Virginia. Mrs. Thomson F. Mason was usually called Mrs. "Colross" Mason to distinguish her from another family by the same name, that of James M. Mason, United States Senator from Virginia. The family thought nothing of the drive to Washington and no entertainment was quite complete without the "Mason girls," who were especially bright and attractive young women. Open house was kept at this delightful country seat, and many were the pleasant parties given there....[11]

Indeed the Mason occupancy of Colross made such an impression, that for years afterward the house was known as "The Mason Mansion." During the Civil War, on October 12, 1864, the Alexandria Gazette, in reporting the military occupation of the town, carried the following item on Colross:

... The fine old Mason mansion, in the suburbs of the town, was hired by an army officer.... The Mason mansion ... is a fair type of the residence of a wealthy Virginian. A wide hall in the centre opens into various rooms, while the front entrance is approached through a pleasant courtyard. At the rear of the house is a spacious area, paved with marble in diamond shaped blocks, looking out upon a large garden, well shaded with fruit trees and surrounded by a heavy brick wall. At one corner of this garden is the family tomb, in which are the remains of old Judge Mason, the former owner of the estate, who died just before the war broke out. He was a near relative of the present Confederate Commissioner to England, and his widow now resides at Point of Rocks....

Colross remained in the Mason family until the 1880's, Mrs. Betty Carter Smoot, Alexandria historian, who lived at Colross, wrote in 1934, of the house and family:

Jonathan Swift and his wife, and the Masons, who for many years resided at Colross, are said to have lived in great style and elegance. As regarded the Masons, there were still some evidences of this when we went there. Although pretty well denuded of its furnishings, there were one or two fine old mahogany pieces which had not been removed, and some handsome mirrors, with gilded frames, of a size appropriate to the surroundings. In the garret was stored quantities of china, remains of dinner sets, some in white and gold and others in blue willow pattern. There were some beautiful old cut glass decanters, wine glasses, and goblets. I remember also some vases and other bric-a-brac. Much of this was mutilated, but it furnished a fair sample of the style of living maintained in palmy days of the past. These belongings of the Masons were all packed, under the supervision of a daughter of the family, Miss Caroline Mason, and disposed of by her.[12]

When Thomson F. Mason died on December 21, 1838, his obituary in the Alexandria Gazette ran two full columns.[13] It was noted that Mason, who was a Judge of the Criminal Court of the District of Columbia at the time of his death, had:

... graduated at Princeton with the highest honors of that institution ... studied law and practiced with much success and celebrity, until he was elevated by the Executive of the United States to that Station on the Bench, which he filled with such ability at the time of his decease ... his services were eminently valuable not only in the character of Chief Magistrate of their City (Alexandria), the duties of which he discharged for many years, but in all their public undertakings....

That same issue of the Gazette carried resolutions of the Common Council of Alexandria decreeing that they would:

... attend his funeral, and will wear crape on the left arm for one month.... That, as a further mark of respect, and to evince the sense of his community of their loss, the great bell in the public building be tolled on Sunday next, from 1 o'clock P.M., till half past 4 P.M....

Members of the Bar and Officers of the Courts of Alexandria County voted to:

... attend his funeral ... and wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days ... that a committee of three be appointed respectively to tender them [family] our condolence ... that the proceeding of the meeting be published in the Alexandria Gazette....

The Bar and Officers of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia voted to:

... attend his funeral, and, during the residue of the term, wear the usual badges of mourning ... that the Chairman [Francis Scott Key] with Richard Coxe and Alexander Hunter, Esqrs., be a Committee to tender to the family of the deceased the sympathy of this meeting at the death of one endeared to us by long acquaintance, which has made known the character of the deceased as one deserving of our warmest personal regard and highest respect, and which rendered this event a great public loss, as well as a private affliction....

T. F. Mason had been appointed to the newly organized Criminal Court of the District of Columbia less than six months before his death. He was the first judge appointed to that court, and its only judge during its formative period. As a Justice of Peace he had received his first appointment in February 1828, and was reappointed in 1833, and 1838.[14]

The story of Mason's life presented here is only a partial one but it is included to show something of the type of man who built Huntley.[15]

Chapter 1 Notes

Figure 2. Huntley house and barn complex, viewed from the south. 1947. Photo by Bill Amlong, copy by Wm. Edmund Barrett.

CHAPTER II

HUNTLEY AND ITS OWNERS

Location and Site

Huntley, 6918 Harrison Lane, near Woodlawn Plantation, Fairfax County, Virginia, is currently owned by Colonel and Mrs. Ransom G. Amlong. It is located off the Jefferson Davis Highway (U.S. Route 1), in the Groveton community, on Harrison Lane, between Lockheed Boulevard and Kings Highway (Route 633).

The house is on a plateau, overlooking Hybla Valley, at 150 feet above sea level. To the south, or in front of the house, the ground level drops in three terraces to 130 feet above sea level. To the north or rear there is a sharp rise to 200 feet.

A church and several houses are located directly in front of Huntley, but the vista from the house toward the Potomac River, especially in summer, is relatively undisturbed. The general area is one of intense commercial and residential development. Hybla Valley, through which Barnyard Creek flows from Huntley, constitutes the major part of the view from the house, and much of this land is owned by the U.S. Government.

The Huntley complex consists of:

1. The mansion house.
2. Necessary with flanking storage rooms.
3. Root cellar.
4. Ice house.
5. Spring house.
6. Tenant house.

All the buildings are brick. The house itself is a significant Federal period structure, built during the ownership of Thomson F. Mason, c. 1820, and believed to have been influenced by George Hadfield, architect of Washington's first City Hall and first superintendent of the Capitol's construction.

Origin of the Name

The first known use of "Huntley" as a place name for the Harrison Lane house appears in an 1859 deed of the property by Betsey C. Mason, widow of T.F. Mason, to her sons John Francis and A. Pendleton Mason. The property is described as:

... all that certain tract of land in the County of Fairfax and state of Virginia called "Huntley" and containing about one thousand acres....[16]

It is probable that the plantation was named Huntley before Thomson F. Mason died in 1838, although his will of that year mentions no real estate, or personal property specifically.

If he followed the Mason tradition, the house may have been named after an ancestral home in England, and probably after the home of a maternal ancestor. In writing of Gunston Hall, Helen Hill Miller says:

They called their home "Gunston Hall." The name had come down through several generations of Mason's maternal ancestry: his grandmother was Mary Fowke of Gunston Hall in Charles County, Maryland, and her grandfather was the Gerald Fowke of Gunston Hall in Staffordshire who emigrated to Virginia at the same time as the first George Mason. The habit of naming new homes in America after the old ones in England was general among the planters of the Virginia Tidewater. Mason conformed to this tradition for a second time when he made a gift of a nearby plantation to his son Thomson and called it "Hollin Hall," after the home of his mother's people near Ripon....[17]

If Thomson F. Mason had followed the same procedure he could have used the name "Huntley," which might at any point have had an "e" added. His father was General Thomson Mason of Hollin Hall, who was married to Sarah McCarty Chichester.[18] Sarah was the daughter of Richard McCarty Chichester, whose first wife had been Ann Gordon.[19] The ancestral Gordon home in Scotland was called "Huntley."

In these lands of Strathbogie Sir Adam (Adam the V) fixed his residence, and was the first of the Gordons who removed from the south of Scotland to the North. He obtained from the parliament holden at Perth anno 1311, that his new estate should be called Huntley, as it is still called in writings and public instruments, altho' amongst the vulgar it retains the old name of Strathbogie.[20]

OWNERS AND OCCUPANTS

Mason Ownership

The will of General Thomson Mason of Hollin Hall was written on April 15, 1797, and probated, after his death, on November 21, 1820.[21] That will does not specifically mention real estate, but does:

... give and devise unto my Son Thomason Mason my gold watch and I confirm unto him his right and title to a mulatto boy named Bill, given him by his Grandfather Mr. Richard Chichester and I also give and devise unto him my interest in the Potomack Company....

One reason no real estate is specifically mentioned may be cleared up by a later deed (1823)[22] in which other heirs of General Mason deed to:

Thomson F. Mason of the Town of Alexandria in the District of Columbia, ... a certain tract of land situate in the County of Fairfax and State of Virginia known and called by the name of Hunting Creek Farm....

This deed reaffirms settlements made by General Mason during his lifetime on January 1, 1817, and includes the land on which Huntley is located.

Thomson F. could have begun Huntley at any time after January 1, 1817. On the 29th of January 1818, he paid Alexander Baggett $37.79-1/2 for, among other things:

40  Ft. Double Architrave
18  Ft. Jamb lining
1  Carpet strip
2  pr hinges put on
1  mortice lock put on
2  Flush Bolts
135  Ft 4/4 clear boards
 locks, hinges, bolts, nails, and Springs....[23]

Also included is one item labeled "folding doors" (double doors). No double doors have been located at Huntley, although Mason is not known to have been building elsewhere at this period. During the latter part of 1819 he was still building and paid $28.00 for:

Sept 20—20 bushels plaster
Sept 22—20 bushels plaster
Oct 10—10 bushels plaster....[24]

There was probably a structure at Huntley by 1823, for in February of that year Mason sent "to his farm by surry ten bushels shoots and six bran...."[25]

By 1826 the house must have been substantially finished, for in that year Mason's Grandmother Chichester wanted:

to spend a few days at Mr. T.F. Mason's farm, but was deterred from doing so by the apprehension that, as Mr. Mason resided in Town, and there was no other white person on the farm but the overseer ... she would not be secure.[26]

By implication there was a dwelling at Huntley ready for her occupancy.

Another letter written to Mason on August 18, 1827, now incomplete and in poor condition, suggests finishing some construction work and notes that the writer, whose name is missing:

... had understood you had only rented the place by the month, tho the man has a little crop on the land growing and if the season proves good at the end of the year may be worth ... [the rest is missing][27]

Almost a year later the Alexandria Gazette, on Thursday morning August 5, 1828, had an advertisement offering:

$25 Reward/ran away from the farm of Thompson F. Mason/Fairfax County on the night of 2d instant negro/BOB. He is about 6 feet high, stout made, very black/and about 45 years of age; has a stammering in his/speech; his right leg sore. Had on when he eloped,/brown linen shirt and trowsers and took with him/blue coat, white linsey trowsers, and black fur hat-/I will give $10 for taking him so I get him again if in the County. If taken out of the County/or District of Columbia, $25./Slighter Smith, Agent for Thompson F. Mason/Fairfax County, State of Virginia/August 5.

Mr. Smith had been replaced as Overseer at Huntley by 1832 for in that year Price Skinner wrote:

... being moved to your house last friday—we are in a bad fix—I want you if you please to ride out to see what you will have don—if I was you I wood have the floor layed down with the plank not used—the whole of the cappenders work may be made in less than one day—and I ast John Parsons what the cappenders work wood be worth—he said about fourty dollars—and forty cents I believe wood be anough there is but three suns [?] worth—to lay the floor and weather bord the shed Sir you will please to ride out....[28]

Mason had already acquired Colross, in Alexandria (see Appendix A.), by 1833, for in March of that year an estimate was submitted by Thos. Beale for:

Labour and Materials, for repairs on the large Building North of the Town of Alexandria....

The estimate included plastering, painting, brickwork, erection of porches and porticos, and fencing of the property.[29] It is Colross with which Thomson F. Mason's name is normally linked. He died December 21, 1838, and was buried there.

Figure 3. Detail from Map of Eastern Virginia and Vicinity of Washington, Arlington, January 1, 1862, Bureau of Topographic Engineers, Record Group 77, National Archives. Copy by Stuart C. Schwartz.

His will was probated on February 4, 1839,[30] with Mrs. Mason as executrix, though it was not recorded until February 18, 1839.[31] Seven days before his death Mason had written in his will:

... I devise all my estate real and personal in possession remainder or reversion or in expectancy to my beloved wife B.C.M. for her maintenance and support of our children during her life and widowhood.... For any aid or assistance which my wife may require in the management of my estate, I recommend her to my brother Richard C. Mason, and my most excellent friends Benjamin King and Bernard Hooe....

Though Thomson F. Mason had built Huntley, it never served as his permanent residence. It was occupied by a succession of renters, overseers and farmers. Mason's "excellent friend Benjamin King," a doctor, was to have a more personal connection with Huntley, however.

King Ownership

In November of 1859, Betsey C. Mason, having been authorized:

... by deed or will, to dispose of all or any part of his estate to their children or any of them, at such times and in such proportions as she may think just and prudent, and whereas, the said Betsey C. Mason deems if just and prudent to dispose of a portion of said estate to her said sons [John Francis and A. Pendleton] ... all that certain tract of land in the County of Fairfax and state of Virginia called "Huntley" and containing about one thousand acres....[32]

At the same time Mrs. Mason transferred to her two sons:

... eighty five negroes, slaves for life, which said negroes are particularly mentioned and set forth in the scheduled annexes to this deed ... Daniel Humphreys and his wife Rachel and their son Daniel, now living at Huntley ... and Priscilla, their daughter and her child named Thomas, the last two being at Huntley ... Sandy living at Huntley....[33]

Of the 85 more than six may have lived at Huntley, but only these six are specified.

Exactly one month later, the two Mason boys, being:

... justly indebted to the said Benjamin King the just sum of thirteen thousand dollars, lawful money of the United States, to be paid to the said Benjamin King on the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and sixty two....

transferred as security for a debt to John A. Smith:

... that certain tract or parcel of land ... known and commonly called Huntley ... containing one thousand acres, more or less ... together with all and singular its appurtenances ... for the following purposes and none other, that is to say to permit the said John Francis Mason and Arthur Pendleton Mason, their heirs or assigns to retain possession of the said tract or land, without account of rents or profits, until a sale become necessary under this deed and if the said John Francis and Arthur Pendleton Mason, shall fail to pay the sum of thirteen thousand dollars, as the same shall become due according to the conditions of the said bond ... the said John A. Smith shall upon the request of the said parties entitled to said payment proceed to sell at public auction, to the highest bidder for cash, the said tract or parcel of land or as much thereof as may be necessary ... after having given at least 30 days notice of the time and place of sale in some newspaper printed in the town of Alexandria....[34]

Figure 4. Survey, Huntley, prior to May 15, 1868. Fairfax County Deed Book 1-4, p. 240. Copy by Stuart C. Schwartz.

There the ownership remained until the Civil War. A map of that era (1862) shows "Huntley Pl—Mrs. Mason's". The overview is labelled "Wide fertile Valley with but little Timber."[35] This map also labels Kings Highway the "Gravel Road," a term used in many of the Huntley deeds.

Why the Masons became indebted to Benjamin King is not known, but on June 12, 1862, the property was transferred from Smith to King. According to the deed they did:

... advertise the said property in the Alexandria News, a paper published in the City of Alexandria, for upwards of thirty days for sale at public auction and wheras pursuant to said advertisement the said John A. Smith did on Thursday, the 12th day of June, 1862, at 12 o'clock a.m. in front of the Mayor's office in the City of Alexandria, offer at public sale to the highest bidder ... several bids having been made therefor, the said property was struck off to Benjamin King at and for the sum of thirteen thousand dollars ... that certain tract of land known as "Huntley" ... together with all and singular the appurtenances thereto....[36]

As nearly as can be determined no Alexandria News was being published at the time, and the property was not advertised in the Gazette. The transaction was noted in its "Local News";

... the property known as "Huntley" in Fairfax County, containing about 1,000 acres, was sold today at public auction by John A. Smith, esq., Trustee. It was subject to a lien of about $10,000, and was purchased by Dr. Benjamin King, subject to said lien, for $13,000 cash.[37]

Evidently King either already had moved to Huntley, or did at that time. He next appeared in the Gazette when he was leaving the property in 1868.

For sale on Tuesday the 19th instant at 10 o'clock a.m. at "Huntley" the residence of Doctor B. King, all his HOUSEHOLD and KITCHEN FURNITURE consisting of sideboard, chairs, tables, bedsteads, bureaus and glasses, wash stands, toilet sets, and c. Also stock and farming utensils, horses, cows, plows, harrows, corn cob and crushers, horse power and threshers, cauldron, kettles, and c. with all articles usually found on a farm. Terms at sale, my 11—1 w.[38]

Harrison-Pierson Ownership

Dr. King sold Huntley to Albert W. Harrison and Nathan W. Pierson of New Jersey. The instrument of sale provided:

... the tract hereby conveyed containing eight hundred and ninety and one half acres, more or less, known as and commonly called "Huntley"....[39]

The deed more specifically noted that the courses in this deed had been so changed as:

... to make them conform to the ancient surveys of the land, and being the same land which was surveyed by George and others to Thomson F. Mason, by deed dated October 1st, eighteen hundred and twenty three ...

Accompanying the deed was a survey which was accomplished for Dr. King by Thomas W. Carter, "formerly surveyor, Prince William County." The survey was received by the County Clerk on May 15, 1868. The "Gravel Road" was shown as running north of the "Mansion House," and the "South Branch Little Hunting Creek" east of the house. The Huntley part of the purchase was shown as a plot of land with 682 acres, 0 rods and 30 poles, containing the "Mansion House."

The "Journal of Records of Huntley Farm," covering the period between 1868-89, is currently in the possession of Mrs. Earl Alcorn of Alexandria. It details the purchase, subsequent division between Pierson and Harrison, payment of liens, etc., on Huntley. The Journal indicates that the farm was actually purchased on March 1, 1868. Dr. King was probably given time to settle his affairs, as the transfer was not recorded until November of that year. At any rate, the Journal entry for March 1, 1868, reads:

956 acres at $32.50 per acre31,070.00
Paid down each $5,00010,000.00
————
21,070.00

The Harrisons obviously entered into community affairs, for by May 1870:

The regular monthly meeting of the Woodlawn Farmers' Club was held on Saturday last pursuant to adjournment at Huntley, the residence of A.W. Harrison. The President being absent, Courtland Lukens was appointed Chairman pro tem. Twenty four members were present. Theron Thompson was admitted as a member. The report of the committee on vegetables and a supplement for March last was called for, again read, and discussed at some length. The committee on cereals presented their report on the condition of things about the farm and premises of Huntley, which was a good one and rather commendatory of Mr. Harrison as a practical farmer, and elicited several pertinent questions and answers. Some discussion ensued as to the best method of ridding farms of garlic. E. E. Mason produced several "pips" taken dexterously with the thumb nail from under the tongue of young chickens. The "pip" is a little boney substance similar to a fish scale, a negative of the tongue, and prevents the chick from eating unless it is removed. A conversational style of discussion ensured on the subject of poultry. An invitation to supper, as usual, was unanimously accepted without debate. The club then adjourned to meet one month hence at Edward Daniels' [Gunston Hall].[40]

In the 1870 census Harrison was recorded as being 36 years old, having four daughters, real estate worth $28,000 and personal property worth $8,000.[41]

Harrison became a well known citizen. The Alexandria Gazette reported on March 3, 1870, that "Mr. Harrison's horses ran away," causing great excitement in the city.

Harrison Ownership

Pierson and Harrison divided the Huntley tract on March 11, 1871,[42] and by the time the Hopkins Atlas was published in 1879, the house was listed clearly as "A.W. Harrison, 'Huntley'."[43]

In 1875 "A.F.B.", evidently a correspondent for the Syracuse (N.Y.) Journal, visited Huntley, and on July 25th filed a dispatch to the Journal. The story indicated much about life at Huntley during the era, including the marks left by the Civil War and the life of the Northerners who had moved to the South:

To come to Huntley you take the steamer from Washington to Alexandria. The cars run hourly or nearly so, but the river ride is more pleasant. If you have been to Alexandria at any time since the century opened, you will recognize the place. Many things change in three score years and fifteen, but Alexandria is not one of them. It is the same yesterday and today. Your hospitable friends at Huntley will meet you on the wharf, and you shall have a charming ride through the Fairfax fair fields for four miles, until you reach the Old Dominion plantation of Judge Mason. It joins on the south Mt. Vernon, which is plainly visible from the ancient family residence of the Masons, now the home of an enterprising eastern gentleman, who has a fondness for agriculture on a grand scale. The house stands boldly on a hill spur, looking over broad acres of corn, rye, wheat, oats, and fertile meadows—a sight to see. Beyond, in plain vision, rolls the Potomac. Vessels of many kinds—by sail and by steam—are going to and from the city of Washington.... We took a walk today over the great farm. I dare not say how many were the acres of corn standing eleven and twelve feet high, with tasseled ears. Our host had us through the meadows, going like Boaz of old among his men. He speaks well of the ex-slaves, and of their service. Among them I met a Washington and an Andrew Jackson....

As we walked on into shady woods we came upon an old encampment of our Union Forces in the war. If fruit and berries were as abundant then as now, the boys in blue had a good time in their season. Nor could the weather have been peculiarly trying. At night we get the west winds from off the Alleghanies, and at times the delicious coolness of the sea-side is rivaled. I counted as many as thirty open graves here from which the forms of those who had been buried had been taken away. Trees are growing in the places of the tents, and time is fast sweeping away the marks of war.

The Southern people are not considered by these northern farmers especially unfriendly. There is little social intercourse, however, because the women got so thoroughly mad, that they will never get over it in this world.... Nevertheless, there is such a sprinkling of Yankees in these parts that life here has its social attractions.

The farmers' clubs meet statedly to picnic, to discuss, and to prove that the lines have fallen to them in pleasant places. And a better home for a farmer can scarcely be imagined. The winter is short; the spring early; the summer not oppressive, and the autumn continuous, rich and glorious. The people catch the inspiration and are "given to hospitality." One could do much worse than to live at Huntley. As for us, we are coming again.