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“Excursions” served as diversions for busy people and opportunities to escape some of the summer heat by taking a boat ride. These trips were quite popular from the 1850s through the early twentieth century. Some of the ships that offered excursions were already outfitted as passenger steamers. Others were freight carriers that were normally laden…

William Waller (1740-1817) was the son of Edward Waller (1702-1753) and Ann Tandy (1721-1748) of Concord on Aquia Creek. During the American Revolution, he served as a Corporal in the 11th and 15th Continental Lines as well as in Capt. George Rice’s Company #9 in the Virginia Battalion. In his civilian life, he served as…

As a young man, SCHS past-president Rick MacGregor heard his grandfather talk about the Army Corps of Engineers having dumped toxic chemicals into Aquia Creek for the purpose of killing an invasive species of water plant that was choking the waterway. Mr. MacGregor said that the treatment killed every plant in the creek and that…

The first of this family to settle in Stafford County was John Moncure (1710-1764). Family history holds that he was born in the parish of Kinneff, County Mearns, Scotland. He arrived in Virginia in 1733, taught school, studied divinity, and, after ordination, moved to Stafford in 1738. There he resided with Alexander Scott (1686-1738) at…

These eight ladies in their matching uniforms constituted the WPA Ladies Sewing Group. The photograph may date from the 1940s. The names of five of them are known. On the front row, left to right, are Temple (Chewning) Powers (1879-1970), Dora B. Cooper (1871-1955), Nellie (Raines) Spicer (1896-1992), Daisy (Shackelford) Armstrong (1884- 1970). On the…

From the 1760s until about 1810, a Quaker settlement spanned the area through which Poplar and Ramoth Church Roads pass. This was known as the Poplar Settlement and it included a meeting house and cemetery. Many of those of that faith who resided there were employed at James Hunter’s Iron Works and its subsidiary, Rappahannock…

From the Evening Star (Washington, DC), May 20, 1917. “Dalecarlia Transferred There From Anacostia Channel. For the time being the United States army engineer service dredge Dalecarlia has stopped work on the Anacostia river improvement near Benning and has gone to Aquia creek, a Potomac tributary, to deepen the water in that stream. The dredge…

In an effort to help Virginia’s low-income farmers who were struggling as a result of the Great Depression, the Farm Security Administration established Home Industries Markets in various areas of the state. One of these was located in Stafford County on U. S. Route 1 near Potomac Run and was operational by June of 1940.…

Walter Lee Watson was the son of John Russell Watson (1842-1901) and Sarah Grigsby of Stafford. He operated a store near the Brooke railroad underpass and did a wholesale-retail business there. A railroad side track ran next to his building, which provided easy unloading of feed, fertilizer, and other commodities. Mr. Watson butchered his own…

Many early place names in this region are corruptions of Indian names or words. These include Potomac River, Chappawamsic Creek, Aquia Creek, Accokeek Creek, Rappahannock River, Occoquan River, Quantico Creek, and many others. English explorers and settlers struggled to find spellings for sounds in the Indian language that didn’t match the English alphabet. “A New…

By the late nineteenth century, granite quarrying in Virginia was a growing business. There were large deposits of the stone on both sides of the Rappahannock River above Falmouth and in the general vicinity of the Interstate 95 bridge across the river. As one drives south across the Rappahannock, a significant quarry pit survives near…

Have you ever wondered where, exactly, Garrisonville is located? Or perhaps you’ve been curious about who or what the area was named for. We assure readers that despite the sign forewarning of yet another new shopping center on Route 610, there was never a military garrison at Garrisonville. While the name Garrisonville presently refers to…