Rabbit Holes and Brick Walls

Wageners, Graysons, and Collaterals in 19th Century Virginia

Genealogies vs. Family Histories

Strictly speaking, a genealogy consists only of direct ancestors – parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and on through time past, i.e., one’s “pedigree”; A family history includes collateral relatives – aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, etc. Generally speaking, genealogies focus on vital records and proceed from present to past. Family histories go beyond birth, marriage, and death dates toward life experiences and historical context, and usually advance from past to present. The two terms are often used interchangeably, and for the most part the distinctions aren’t all that important. In every case, however, family research proceeds from present to past, from the known to the unknown.

A Grayson Family History

Our mother Mary Ann Grayson Guevara died in 2015, leaving a legacy of eight children, fifteen grandchildren, and a ream of loosely organized genealogy and family history papers. Ann’s research fell to me, and I am currently working on fleshing out the stories of her Grayson ancestors. Ann was an only child. Her parents Leon and Mary Grayson resided one block away from us, and both lived well into their 80s. We knew and loved them intimately.

Gems and Junk

Our grandparents allowed my sister to interview them some years ago, and they kept hundreds of family photos, dozens of letters, and numerous documents. As we studied our grandparents’ lives, we learned about the lives of their parents and siblings. The many known wheres and whens led to deeper specifics: the places their ancestors lived, their occupations, and the times and events they lived in and through. Online genealogy resources have made research easier in general, though more challenging in many respects. As at yard sales and antique shops, for every authentic gem you unearth, mounds of semi-credible but poorly sourced junk must be sorted through. U.S. Census forms are a great starting point, though even these must be scanned with a critical eye. Many genealogies, regional and family histories, and condensed historical biographies have already been published, and citations within these can point you to other potential sources. Historic newspapers and other periodicals, city directories, and maps can be sources of – or clues to – buried family treasure, as can resources at local historical societies and public library history rooms.

Wageners, Robinsons, and Graysons

Peter Wagener II (1717-1774) and Catherine Beverly Robinson (1715-1776), our 6th great-grandparents, were married barely a year after Peter emigrated from England. The Robinsons were among the First Families of Virginia. Catherine’s father served on the Governor’s Council and as acting governor, while her brother was the long-time Loyalist Speaker of the House of Burgesses.

Peter was an attorney, county clerk, merchant, vestryman, militia officer, and town founder. Peter is called “Dr. Wagener” in three or more historical documents, though so far we have found no evidence to support that title, a minor genealogical brick wall. Peter and Catherine were neighbors and colleagues of George Washington, George Mason, and George Fairfax. They built a home and estate they named “Stisted” on the banks of the Occoquan River, about twenty miles south of and seven years following the 1749 founding of Alexandria, Virginia.

Peter and Catherine’s oldest child Mary Elizabeth (1741-1810) married Spence Monroe Grayson (1734-1798) around 1759. The Graysons, our fifth great-grandparents, had fifteen children. Researching the collateral stories of the twelve that continued the Grayson line – beyond just their 10th-born, our direct ancestor John Robinson Grayson (1779-1822) – would keep a team of family historians busy for years of nights and weekends. And yet…

Stisted

I have lately found myself drawn into the stories of our collateral relatives, the Wageners of Stisted. Following one lead will usually raise questions that cause me to branch off from the first trail into another. Before I know it, I am deep into multiple rabbit holes trying to answer questions far removed my original quest. Nevertheless, within each succeeding burrow I often find a small or even an occasionally a highly significant gem that can add flesh to the overall narrative. Our direct ancestor Mary Elizabeth Grayson’s younger brother Peter Wagener III (1744-1798) inherited Stisted, and replaced his father as County Court Clerk and Parish vestryman. Having been knee-deep in research about Colchester, the port town Peter II and Catherine founded in 1756 on 25 of the 350+ acres of land they had recently purchased, I read descriptions of the house they built a few hundred yards up the Occoquan (rabbit hole). One history describes the dwelling as “a rambling dormer-windowed colonial house.”¹

Railroad, Prison, Highway, and Landfill Incursions

That same history cited an early 20th century oral history² (rabbit hole), which confirmed that the house was still standing around 1860, and implying that the laying of a railroad and bridge through the land in 1872 contributed to the demolition of the house. Though the precise location of the foundation is unclear (brick wall), period maps (rabbit hole) illustrate the approximate home site and boundaries of the family acreage.

The huge Lorton Prison complex, founded in 1910, took over a large section of (former?) Wagener land, followed by U.S. Route 1 and a second river crossing. The Wagener Family Cemetery survived until 2001, and was surveyed at least five times between 1955 and 1998. The cemetery was located “Near Colchester, NW of Richmond Hwy (Rte 1) and 100 yards north of bridge over the Occoquan River…. A 1994 survey found a 50′ x 50′ plot enclosed by a chain link fence containing the gravestones of MARY E. LEE (1807-1870) and ELIZABETH FRAZIER (1797-1834). In July of 2001 … [t]he remains were reinterred at Pohick Episcopal Church.”³

One undated county cemetery survey noted “the site is well maintained and lies adjacent to a golf driving range.”⁴ No such driving range exists today, and map searches thus far have proved unfruitful (brick wall). Shirley Highway – the third and widest artery routed through the erstwhile Wagener property – was completed in 1952, then widened in the 1960s to become part of Interstate 95 (rabbit hole). Finally, in 1972, a landfill was placed on 500 acres of prison land abutting I-95 (rabbit hole), literally burying former family grounds. The prison shut down in 2001, and the landfill closed in 2021.

Collateral Connections

In the above-mentioned oral history, Mary Catherine Birch (1846-1919) describes growing up in and around Stisted. The narrative is relatively short but somewhat rambling. In it she mentions:

• “Uncle Neddy” (1796-1865) and “Aunt Martha” (Wagener) Bates (1809-?), who lived at a family farm they called Lebanon on Pohick Creek, north of Stisted. Census and other records confirm this. Mary Birch described these relatives, the farm, and its environs in detail.
• “Aunt Mary Lee used to fix us rice and syrup after our long tramp along the River and Bay.” This is Mary Elizabeth Wagener (1807-1870), widow of Daniel Chichester Lee (1800-1849), the “Mary E. Lee” of the cemetery tombstone noted above.
• “My Grandfather Captain John Simpson, and his wife are sleeping there,” presumably in the Wagener cemetery.
• That Mary’s unnamed grandmother (apparently living in the 1850s) was “born in Norfolk, Virginia, soon after her Mother reached this Country from England.” The respected county historian who retyped the oral history decades later noted that John Simpson (ca. 1783-1824) first married Ann McCarty Wagener (1781-1820, daughter of Peter Wagener III), and that Mary’s unnamed grandmother was probably John Simpson’s second wife Sarah Young Morgan (dates unknown, parents unknown, and probably not a blood relation to Mary Birch nor to us).

The 1860 Fairfax County Overlay Maps

In 1988 Fairfax County, Virginia historians Beth Mitchell and Edith Moore Sprouse researched 1860 landowners, and drew the boundaries of their properties atop a 1981 County Real Property map.⁵ Their results show two separate family land holdings:

That of Sarah Y. Simpson, Est. in map 113-3 (suggesting that Mary Birch’s implied grandmother had died by 1860). Note the three arteries transecting her land: I-95/Shirley Hwy, U.S. Rte 1, and the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad. The landfill is located on the north corner of her former property and that of Underwood/Troth. The Stisted cemetery was located 100 yards north of Rte. 1. The home site must have been nearby with a view of the river. Colchester lines both sides of Old Colchester Rd. on Simpson land. The darkly shaded areas might suggest a golf course, but the feeder roads through them make that a doubtful prospect. Similarly shaded areas appear on other maps, as below.

That of Mary E. Lee in map 113-1. Note that the main compounds of the Lorton Prison (“D.C. Penal Institute/Maximum Security Area”) are on this section of Wagener land. The Lee acreage extends to the Occoquan River (off-map at bottom left).

Unsolved Collateral Mysteries

• Who were the parents of Aunt Mary Wagener Lee and Aunt Martha Wagener Bates? I have found no trustworthy birth records for either. The two would fit well in time as the youngest daughters of Peter Wagener IV (1780-1811, brother of Ann McCarty Wagener Simpson), but his detailed will names two sons and only one daughter whom he calls “Polly.”
• Who is Elizabeth Frazier (1797-1834), initially buried in the Wagener cemetery and now reinterred at Pohick Church?
• Who are John Underwood and Samuel Troth? Are they collateral relatives as well?

¹ Sprouse, Edith Moore, Colchester: Colonial Port on the Potomac (1975, Fairfax County Historical Commission)

² “Childhood Recollections as told by Mary Catherine (Shreve) Birch” [1846-1919], typescript, Lebanon file, Virginiana Collection, Fairfax County Central Library

³ Fairfax County Cemetery Survey, Wagener Family Cemetery (FX213), Fairfax County Central Library

⁴ “Fairfax County, Virginia Gravestones” (Vol. V, 1998, Fairfax Genealogical Society) https://fxgs.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=912730&module_id=559862 accessed January 2024

⁵ “Fairfax County in 1860: Property Owners.” Historical Records Room, Fairfax Circuit Court, Fairfax County Courthouse. https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/history-commission/1860-fairfax-county-maps accessed January 2024