Trumble Family Cemetery
There is a family cemetery located on a small tract of land behind Holy Spirit School and Althea Drive. If you walk up Althea Drive and pass English drive to your left, you will soon see Charter Lane on your right. There aren’t any houses on Charter Lane, it is very short and it dead ends. If you walk up the hill from Charter Lane towards Margaret Lane and take a few steps to your left you will find a grave yard that contains a single graveyard marker with ten names listed.
This small graveyard is commonly referred to as the “Trumble Family Cemetery”.
At one point in Virginia history most of the land in Fairfax County was owned by the Fitzhugh family who had purchased the Ravensworth Tract. The land was divided into parcels as it was passed down by inheritance through the Fitzhugh family. It was common for the land owners to rent the land to farmers who would work the land to make a living.
Vance L. Trumble (b: 1837, d: 1898) is one such entrepreneur that left the state of New York to look for land to farm in Virginia. He found land that belonged to the Fitzhugh family and began living and working the land. The land on which he settled is now partly occupied by the Holy Spirit church and surrounding neighborhoods.
In 1871 Ann Battaile nee Fitzhugh’s estate was passed down to her children through parcels, except for 11 acres that were sold to Vance L. Trumble. By the time of Vance L Trumble’s death, he had accrued 27 Acres, 1 Rood (1 Rood = 1/4 an acre), and approximately 30 Poles (1 Pole = square with sides equal to 16.5 ft in length). After his death, his land was sold to settle his estate. The estate sale was advertised in the local newspapers including the Fairfax Herald. As stated in the listing, terms of the sale required that ¼ of an acre is to be reserved for use as a family burying ground with access from the burying ground to the road. That “road” is now called “Braddock Road”. You can still walk from Braddock Road through the parking lot of the Holy Spirit Church, past the Holy Spirit School, and down the trail behind the school to the Trumble Family Cemetery.
Vance L. Trumble had a very colorful past and I will not go into a lot of detail in this short article, but he was a farmer, confederate soldier, prisoner of the civil war, and a Justice of the Peace for Fairfax County. Vance L. Trumble had a fairly large family (9 children that I was able to find with 7 living to adulthood). It was obvious by looking at the names of his children that he was very close to the Fitzhugh family. Two of his sons had the names Henry “Fitzhugh” Trumble and Lawrence “Battaile” Trumble.
The only family members buried in the family burial grounds behind the Holy Spirit School are Vance L. Trumble (1837-1898), his wife Ann Elizabeth Trumble nee Beach (1841 – 1918), his son Samuel H. Trumble who was hit and killed by a train (1861-1904), Samuel’s wife Mary Ellen Trumble nee Beach (1856-1938), Samuel and Mary Ellen’s daughter Clara Tracy Steele nee Trumble (1891-1956), Vance and Ann’s daughter Ann Elsie Daniels nee Trumble (1882-1907), Vance and Ann’s grandson Franklin Trumble (1900 – 1904), Vance and Ann’s son Frederick Trumble (1861-1861), Vance and Ann’s daughter Mary Trumble (1862-1862), and finally Nora Virginia Botts (1897-1910).
So, who is Nora Virginia Botts and why is she buried in the Trumble Cemetery?
I don’t have the answer, but I find history fascinating, and through my research I do have some clues. Her father was Peter Botts. Peter Botts was born in Germany and was married to Mary Curfield of Ireland. Mary and Peter had two daughters and a son. The daughters were named Bridgett and Janie and the son was named Michael. Mary Curfield died at a young age and Peter remarried shortly after her death. His new wife was Nora Virginia Mitchell who was the daughter of Martha “Patty” Fairfax and John Edward Mitchell. Peter and Nora had one child together and she was named Nora Virginia Botts.
Nora Virginia Bott’s mother died shortly after her birth and Nora ended up living with her aunt and uncle as evidenced by a 1900 Census record. Her aunt and uncle were Patrick and Florence Archer. Florence was Nora’s Aunt from her mother’s side of the family. So, I’m not sure why Peter Botts was not taking care of his children, but the children from his first wife were being taken care of by William H. Botts and his child from his second marriage was being taken care of by his deceased wife’s sister.
William H. Botts while supporting Nora’s half-sister’s Bridget and Janie Botts, tragically died at the age of 36 in 1899. The Fairfax Herald from 1899 stated:
“He also had the care of his cousins, Misses Bridget and Janie Botts, nearly since the death of their beloved mother, which occurred when they were quite young.”
I have found witness testimony from a “Chancery” (court of equity) that stated that William’s death occurred as a result of the “Great Blizzard of 1899”. The “Great Blizzard of 1899” was recently ranked as the worst snowstorm in Northern Virginia history and dumped 20-30 inches of snow in this area with snow drifts as high as 8 feet. Temperatures were below zero with wind chills that were absolutely miserable. William Botts was out in the snow storm trying to take care of the livestock when his legs were essentially frozen. He managed to make it back to his house but became ill and died within a few weeks.
William H. Botts’ pall bearers included several members of the Trumble and Beach family including John Trumble, Walter Beach, and Charles Beach. My conjecture is that Nora Virginia Botts was well known to the Trumble family and since her mother died and her father was out of the picture she was in need of a good family that had the means to support her, so the Trumble family took her into their home. Nora Virginia Botts died from an illness in 1910 at the age of 13 while living with the Trumble family. She was buried in the Trumble Family Cemetery.
