REID family cemetery Potomac News - 13 October 1976 ***************************************************************** ****************************************************************** File contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Carolyn Lynn ****************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. Unauthorized use for commercial ventures expressly prohibited. All information submitted to this project remains - to the extent the law allows - the property of the submitter who, by submitting it, agrees that it may be freely copied but NEVER sold or used in a commercial venture without the knowledge & permission of its rightful owner. The USGenWeb Project makes no claims or estimates of the validity of the information submitted and reminds you that each new piece of information must be researched and proved or disproved by weight of evidence. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ****************************************************************** ****************************************************************** FAMILY CEMETERY SAFE FROM HOUSE BUILDERS by Linda Rago Like an island out of place in time, the old REID family cemetery on Dale Boulevard rises green and unexpected above the raw mud of new construction. "Where anchored safe, my mean soul shall find eternal rest," reads the epitaph on MARGARET A. REID's gravestone. Spiders resting in the weathered carved letters and a tangle of Virginia creeper are quiet sentinels. Under Virginia law, descendants never relinquish the sanctity and access to a family burial ground, so while the new Dale City houses push close against the REID cemetery, the builder cannot disturb it. In an age of fast everything and in a new community of instant houses, the silent little cemetery seems like a memory of our own roots and scattered families. LYDIA REID's tilted headstone (born 1803, died 1892) bears an inscription that catches us up in thoughts of our own mothers or grandmothers. "A precious one among us has gone, a voice loved is stilled, a place vacant in our house that never can be filled." The tiny lichen-covered gravestone is a memorial to REDMAN REID who lived only one day, June 6, 1867. WILLIAM REID was born in 1795 and died in 1880. His grave lies nearest the stark white fence Hylton built around the cemetery, and beside him lies ADISON P. REID, born 1845 and buried when he was 19 years old. "When blooming youth is snatched away by death's restless hand, our hearts the mournful tribute pay, which pity must demand," is inscribed on his tombstone. Was he William's son or grandson? No one seems to know. But ISAAC PEARSON, 85, still lives on Hoadly Road and can remember some of William's grandchildren. he can remember the old house nearby too, and the stream and the huge spanish oak tree which once stood beside the cemetery. "A big limb fell off that tree one time when I was logging back there, and it knocked down a couple of headstones," he remembered. Pearson said his friend RUBIN REID has a grave among the 15 in the cemetery but it is one of the five unmarked by headstones. Rubin grew up in the old REID house near the cemetery, according to Pearson, and his grandson, ROBERT REID, lives on Hoadly Road today. "I remember IRA REID and JIMMY REID, too, but they're all gone form here," said Pearson. That old house was falling in when I was young -- nobody has lived in it for a long time." Now even the stream has been rerouted by the bulldozers. "You should have been around here in those early days," chuckled Pearson recalling friends from 60 years ago. "It took babies a full 12 months to walk and there wasn't an indoor toilet from Lake Jackson to Occoquan." Pearson was born in a log house only a few miles from Dale City. he described "the kitchen was outside -- 30 or 40 feet from the house. In a snow you'd have to shovel a path before getting breakfast. Half froze to death, but it was good cooked food. That fire would burn your eyes out, and your back would freeze." "There was just a few people around here when I was a kid, and you knew them all," reminisced Pearson, sitting by his window with Dale City and the old cemetery just out of sight through the trees.