Visit
Patawomeck Park
in Stafford County, VA and you will see soccer and baseball fields and a playground, but look a little closer and you might see the tip of a chimney hidden among the trees and bushes on a hill near a pond.
Bushwhacking through the briar and kudzu or following a road trace brings you to a black iron fence that surrounds an old homesite of which only the chimney, the ruins of a second fireplace, and a crumbling rock foundation surrounding a deep impression in the ground remain. Nearby is a small family cemetery. Scattered amid the overgrowth are artifacts such as an old wrought iron range and pottery shards.
The chimney indicates the house was 2 stories high with a basement. Openings on the chimney indicate hearths on both the first and second floor. A fireplace with crumbling bricks at the other end of the depression in the ground which undoubtedly was the basement shows there was another chimney -- perhaps for cooking, a kitchen or cook house.
Further investigation reveals some possibilities about the origin of this chimney and the homesite. The Moncure family of Stafford donated the land to the Stafford Parks and Recreation Department for Patawomeck Park which was officially opened in October 2008.¹ According to a schematic plan
of the proposed park, the location of the chimney is marked as Historic Area. The Moncure family's descendants were some of the first settlers and landowners in the Widewater area², where the park now exists.
A small nearby cemetery has 3 tombstones for James Waller and wife, Anne Adie, Nathaniel Waller Ford and wife, Margaret Waller, and son Nathaniel Ford. The Adies, Wallers, and Fords were also early Widewater landowners and records show that George Moncure married Elizabeth Ford, daughter of Nathaniel and Margaret.²
There were several grand homes built in the 1700s. Perhaps this chimney was once part of the Bloomington which was built by the Adie family. It is described in They Called Stafford Home: The Development Of Stafford County, Virginia as being a 2-story frame house and basement with 3 bedrooms and 2 attic rooms. A small wing was later added to serve as the kitchen. The Bloomington was rebuilt in 1854 after the original house burned. According to this same account, James Waller bought the house in 1856 (perhaps the son of the James who is buried in the cemetery since he died 30 years earlier) and it also served as a home to the Fords and Moncures. In the 1970s, the house was struck by lightening and burned.³ If this house is not the Bloomington, it is representative of many of the farmhouses that were in this area.
Patawomeck Park is open daily where this chimney is located. A wrought iron fence surrounds the property, but access was gained through a gate. There is no trail or path to the gate and bushwhacking is required. Common sense and caution is advised due to extreme overgrowth and the basement, now just a deep hole. For those less adventurous, you might catch a glimpse of the top of the chimney through the trees from the parking lot at the furthest end of the park.
¹staffordcountyva.us
²Some Prominent Virginia Families, Volume 2 by Louise Pecquet du Bellet, Edward Jaquelin, Martha Cary Jaquelin
³They Called Stafford Home: The Development Of Stafford County, Virginia by Jerrilynn Eby; pg. 62