About Fairfax County
Detailed History of Fairfax County
Revolutionary War | Civil War | Late 19th Century | 20th Century | Fairfax County Today
In many ways the recorded history of Fairfax County, Virginia is a reflection of the history of the United States. Although the county was not formally created until 1742, the history of English settlement on the land that is now Fairfax County spans the early 1600s to the present. Such familiar Fairfax County names and places as George Washington, George Mason, Mount Vernon, Bull Run—even Washington Dulles International Airport—have played or are still playing important roles in the lives of Americans everywhere.
One of the first men to record life in what is now Fairfax County was English explorer Captain John Smith. In 1608 he journeyed up the Potomac River as far as present day Arlington County.
In 1649, King Charles II of England granted all of the land between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers to a group of seven Englishmen. Eventually, in 1719, this land came into the possession of Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax, after whom Fairfax County was named. By 1732 there were attempts to form the land into a county, but it was not until 1741 that the Virginia Assembly, meeting in Williamsburg, created Fairfax County. The assembly action took effect the next year.
From around 1750 to the end of the 18th century, changes abounded in Fairfax County's lifestyle and character. Roads were built and mills and other forms of industry increased. Forests were cleared for farmland. Slaveholding increased, with 41 percent of the county's population in 1800 maintaining slaves, compared to only 28 percent in 1748.
When the Fairfax County Court House was moved from a location near present-day Tysons Corner to Alexandria in 1752, the county was still largely a wilderness. It had few roads and virtually no industry. The only wealth and commerce came from cultivation of tobacco with slave labor. Tobacco remained an important crop during the 18th century; indeed, tobacco notes were the main form of monetary exchange for paying debts. Tobacco cultivation eventually ruined the Fairfax and Virginia soil and helped to hasten an economic decline.
More than just economic, commercial and demographic changes occurred in the late 1700s, however. Historic relationships were also altered, when Virginia ceased being part of the British Empire and became part of the American nation.
The land area of the county was dramatically reduced by 60 percent in 1757, as Loudoun County was formed out of western Fairfax. In 1798, land in northeastern Fairfax County (parts of present-day Arlington County and Alexandria City) was ceded to the new federal government as part of the national capital, the District of Columbia.
During the last half of the 18th century, two of the county's most prominent residents, George Washington and George Mason, became chief forces behind the formation of the new American nation. Both were wealthy businessmen and tobacco planters who believed strongly in commercial enterprise and the formation of capital.
Washington, who was arguably the single most important participant in the Revolutionary War, went on to become commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. He was able to keep his rag-tag force of soldiers going through the harsh, seven-year campaign. Later, in 1789, he assumed the office of the President of the United States.
While Washington was the chief physical force behind the American Revolution, Mason was a chief intellectual force, along with fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson. Mason's ideas on the rights of man surfaced in such important documents as the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Virginia Constitution of 1776, both of which were authored by him. His Virginia Declaration of Rights served as the model for the American Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen, which was issued after the French Revolution.
As the 19th century dawned, Fairfax County seemed to be on the verge of continuing economic prosperity and national recognition, especially with the new capital located next door. Instead, however, the years from 1800 to 1850 were harsh ones: the county's soil had been depleted from over-planting of tobacco, and the most prosperous economic area of the county, Alexandria City, was ceded to the federal government. Moreover, Mason and Washington, the county's most prominent citizens, died during the 1790s, leaving a leadership void.
The population decline during this period reflected the harsh economic conditions in the area. At the turn of the century there were 13,317 people in the county; by 1830, this number had dropped to slightly more than 9,200. The county was not again inhabited by more than 10,000 residents until 1850, and it was not until 1870 that it even approached the population level of 1800.
In the early 1840s, however, the county's economic fortunes improved as people from the northeastern part of the country began to move into the area. They brought with them improved farming techniques, which allowed them to use land thought useless by long-time county residents.
The Virginia Secession Convention in Richmond took place early in 1861. In Fairfax County, two men vied for the position of delegate to the convention: William H. Dulaney, an anti-secessionist, and Alfred Moss, an arch-secessionist. In the spirit of the times, the two men debated their respective positions before a large crowd at the Fairfax County Courthouse in January 21, 1861 (this building is still located at its original site on Chain Bridge Road in Fairfax). Dulaney was elected delegate over Moss for the Convention seat on February 4, 1861 by a vote of 836 to 628. When President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to occupy the seven states then in secession, sentiment in Virginia shifted solidly in favor of secession. Virginia's ratification of the US Constitution had included a provision for secession (as had that of NY and RI). At the Virginia Secession Convention Dulaney voted for secession. This move was later approved by statewide referendum on May 23, which Fairfax County approved by 932 votes to 289.
During the Civil War the county was truly a wasteland. Confederate troops were located in the western area, while Union troops were positioned in the northern and eastern areas, near Alexandria. Troops from both sides crisscrossed the county, often wreaking havoc and destruction on private property. Raiders from both sides, the most notable of whom was Confederate John Singleton Mosby, used the county as a staging ground for many forays.
Two major battles, First and Second Manassas, took place just south and adjacent to the county, near Bull Run. The first battle, in July 1861, was fought by inexperienced troops on both sides. It ended with a Confederate rout of the Union army, which was forced to flee to the safety of Washington, D.C. This gave notice to the federal government that the war was going to last much longer than anyone had expected. Experienced soldiers fought the second battle, in late August 1862. In this battle, Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeated Union forces led by generals McClellan and Pope, and opened the North to later attacks by Confederate troops. In both battles thousands on both sides were killed or wounded.
Several minor battles were fought in Fairfax County. On June 1, 1861, there was a Union cavalry raid on the Fairfax County Court House in which several casualties occurred. John Quincy Marr died during this skirmish, becoming the first Confederate officer to be killed in the war. Later that month a bloody battle broke out between Yankee and Rebel troops at the Town of Vienna. Skirmishes were also fought near Dranesville and Centreville.
During the war all commercial activities in the county were greatly disrupted. Both sides seized railroads and businesses. Farm crops were raided, destroyed and burned. Business establishments were also raided or shut down, depending upon the proprietors' sympathies and the troops involved. Even the Alexandria Gazette, a daily newspaper serving part of the county, was forced to cease publication. The paper resumed publication after the war.
The signs of war were everywhere in Fairfax County during the early 1860s. Destitute whites and blacks, some former slaves, wandered about hopelessly. Discarded military hardware was a common sight on any county road. Military patrols from both sides roamed freely. Hospitals were jammed with the wounded, and mortuaries were filled with the dead. Railroad and telegraph services were disrupted and, at times, halted.
Once the war came to an end in April 1865, the economic rebuilding of the county began quickly, but the traditional lifestyle of pre-Civil War Fairfax County never returned. In its place was a society where black citizens won the right to vote and own property. Many owned small farms. The large plantations that existed before the war lay in ruin. Northerners who moved to the county in the 1840s and 1850s had fled.
In 1870, Virginia was readmitted to the Union. By that time the economy of the county had substantially recovered from the war. Schools and churches were functioning again, as were the railroads and canals. Telegraph lines had been rebuilt and old businesses began anew. The Town of Clifton had been founded in 1869.
Despite such growth, Fairfax County in 1870 was still mainly a rural, farm-oriented society. Although its population would almost double by 1930, the county would remain largely removed from the rest of the world until that time.
The county's history from 1930 to the present can be summarized with one word: growth. During this time period, the county literally exploded, as first people, and later businesses, began calling Fairfax County home.
Demographic numbers tell the story. It took 140 years (1790-1930) for the county's population to double, from 12,300 to 25,000 residents. From 1930-1950, only 20 years, the population had nearly quadrupled from 25,000 to almost 99,000 people. The county's population has increased almost 10 times more than that of 1950, to about 1 million.
The start of this fundamental shift in the county's population began in the early 1930s, when Franklin D. Roosevelt swept into the Presidency of the United States. With Roosevelt's election came increases in federal programs and bureaus. Concurrently with those increases came the additional employees to administer the new programs and to staff the new bureaus. Since the automobile provided increased mobility and Fairfax County offered a less hectic lifestyle than the city, it became inevitable that the new federal bureaucrats would be anxious to call the county home. In the 1930s, the county's population leapt forward by 16,000 from 25,000 at the start of the decade to almost 41,000 residents by 1940.
The pace of growth picked up in the 1940s during World War II, as the federal government expanded employment to meet the war emergency. When the war was over, the federal government expanded again to meet the job needs of veterans.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, federal government expansion increased more rapidly than ever before, as more programs were created. By 1970, Fairfax County's population stood at over 454,000. This growth was directly attributable to federal employment expansion and the service industries needed to assist such expansion. Indeed, the business of the county was the business of government.
Although federal employment growth still continued in the 1970s and 1980s, providing some population and economic growth, much of the county's growth during this period can be attributed to private economic interests.
Due to private industry's increasing need to understand and monitor federal actions aimed at the marketplace, many corporations and industry groups began to feel a need for a presence in the Washington, D.C., area during the 1970s. Encouraged by Fairfax County's growth, many firms and organizations located offices here.
All of this meant continuing economic and demographic growth for the county. Today, Fairfax County is home to approximately 284 trade associations, 260 foreign-owned companies, many corporate and regional headquarters facilities, a booming information technology sector and a growing professional services community. Seven Fortune 500 firms call Fairfax County home: Federal Home Mortgage Loan Corp. (Freddie Mac), General Dynamics, Capital One Financial, Nextel Communications, Sallie Mae, NVR and Gannett Company. The county has 29,000 businesses, a growing number of which are in the information technology field.
Such phenomenal growth during the past 70 years has caused broad changes in Fairfax County. The county has changed from a rural, agriculturally oriented society to an urban, business-oriented one.
While this growth has altered the county's lifestyle, it has also provided county residents with one of the highest standards of living in the world. Fairfax County residents now enjoy one of the highest median family income in the nation. They also enjoy one of the best public school systems in the country, beautiful parks, an international airport, numerous recreational facilities and fine cultural opportunities.
