Black Lives Next Door in Fairfax

On October 14^th, 1889, Eliza A Ford was the Grantee of Land from James Smith et al as stated in the Grantee Index for Fairfax County. James Smith purchased numerous plots of land within the Mount Vernon district of Fairfax County at auctions after the Civil War. He sold this property to numerous black individuals within the county throughout the late 1800s.

The original deed for this five-acre property provided information concerning the land Ford was granted. The original deed detailed the grantor James Smith and his wife granting Eliza A. Ford five acres of land located within the Mount Vernon District of Fairfax County. Within this deed, it must be noted that the property was in her name in 1887, but she did not start paying taxes on the property until 1889. Eliza A. Ford was never a grantor of her five acres of property. Throughout the next century, this five-acre piece of property remained in Eliza A. Ford’s name. The property was passed down through the generations of Eliza's family for nearly a century until it was sold in 1980.

As stated in the 1925 Land Tax Records, the five-acre property was listed under “Eliza A. Ford Estate.” With there being no will or death record on file within the Fairfax County Historical Archives, this allowed for the approximate year of death to be determined for Eliza. The Fairfax County Land Tax Records for the next 60 years included the five-acre property owned by Eliza A. Ford Estate.  

        In the 1951 Land Tax Records for Fairfax County, an address, and therefore location was determined for this five-acre property. The property is located within Gum Springs. Within this same Land Tax Records, the name Martha Barnes is written under the address section in the book. This name was later found to be one of Eliza A. Ford’s eight children. Similarly, in 1961, the name MB Shubrick was writing under the address section in the book. Shubrick was later found to be a descendent of Eliza A. Ford, three generations removed. The determination that Shubrick and Barnes were descendents of Eliza A. Ford was determined through the family tree found in the chancery case files at the Fairfax County Circuit Court Historic Records Center. 

In 1964, Eliza A. Ford’s property was displayed on a Fairfax County Plat Map of the Gum Springs area. Within this map, it can be seen that the property does not include any buildings. This information is further confirmed using the 1964 Land Tax Records for Fairfax County. Because of this information, it is able to be concluded that this was not the primary property for Eliza A. Ford and her ancestors. In other words, this is not where these individuals lived.

In the 1980 Land Tax Records for Fairfax County, the Eliza A. Ford Estate is not mentioned. Using the Land Plat Map, the five-acre plot of land was able to be traced to the Hensley Estate. With this information, it can be stated with relative certainty that the estate of Eliza A. Ford sold the five-acre property in Gum Springs at some time around 1980.