Black Lives Next Door in Fairfax

The census provides rich information about the Alexander family. In 1870 Alexander and his wife Martha and thirteen-year-old son James were recorded in the Mount Vernon section of the census. The recorder in the census listed both Sandy and James as mixed race. His profession was recorded as a farmer, and he was listed as holding real estate property valued at $1,160 and personal property of $225. The 1870 census recorder listed that neither he or his wife could read. The Alexanders are included in the 1880 census. James, now eighteen years old was recorded as married but still living with his mother and father. There was no mention of his wife's name. In the 1900 census Alexander is widowed and still living with his son James as well as his “ward” Roy Carter who was eleven years old. Following up on the question of what happened to his wife we can see that Martha’s death was recorded in the Fairfax County Virginia Death Registers in 1897. The cause of death was the kidney ailment known as “Brights Disease.”[1]  James Alexander was listed as able to read and write but his parents were listed as not being able to do either. It is uncear if James benefited from the Gum Springs school set up for freedmen after the Civil War but it seems reasonable to assume that would have been the case.

Alexander remarried in 1901 to another widowed person named Hattie Marshall. The year before in the 1900 census Marshall and her eleven year old son and ten year old daughter where she took on the Carter family as boarders in her Mount Vernon District home.[2] By the 1910 Census Sandy Alexander was recorded as being divorced and living alone at age eighty. The census recorded that he lived in a house that he owned. In 1913 there is a death certificate filed for Sandy Alexander for a widowed eighty five year old man. He was buried in Gum Springs. It is likely that this record refers to Alexander although it may be impossible to know for certain.

It is difficult to know much about Alexander’s family life from the extant records. It is clear that his first wife and he lived together for many years and that their son remained with them. James was forty five and still lived with his father and both were identified as farmers. Both he and James are recorded as having owned the property. It is unclear if James died before the 1910 census or left the household. Neither Sandy or James show up in the Fairfax County Will Index. Alexander example indicates that African American land owners had a stable base to build income throughout their lifetime if they had a significant stake. Sandy’s son was educated and was able to read and write perhaps attending the Gum Springs School that was established as early as 1868.

George D. Oberle III