The Maffitt grave is located in the Lewinsville Presbyterian Church cemetery, McLean. Photo by the author, 1975.


IV
SALONA AND THE SMOOTS

William Smute, originally of Dutch ancestry, came to Virginia from Scotland in 1633 and received a grant for 400 acres of land in 1642. He removed to Maryland in 1646 and thereafter, the Smoot (Smout) family activities as reported in local records showed periodic involvement with public affairs of county, colony and nation.[95]

In a recent history of St. Mary's County, Maryland, William Barton Smoot was listed as captain of the Lower Battalion of the county's militia during the American Revolution[96] and a William Smoot was recorded as a recruit for service in the War of 1812 by James Jarboe of Great Mills.[97] Mentions were made throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of Smoot activities having to do with railroads, roads and schools.[98] The Smoot family also appears in the public records of Charles County, Maryland. Some family members migrated to Kentucky, others to Washington, D.C.[99]

Although Jacob Gilliam Smoot of Georgetown, D.C., purchased 208 acres of property—Salona—in 1853, he also held property on High Street (now Wisconsin Avenue) in Georgetown from which he probably obtained income. His family spent winters in Georgetown. Smoot had attended Charlotte Hall Academy in Maryland and his son William was a graduate, in law, from Georgetown. [100] The Salona property was of a size and assessed valuation consistently greater than over half of the properties assessed in Fairfax County at the time. Smoot's personal property including several slaves, was also well above average in quantity and evaluation. [101]

The caption under this photograph reads: "The Battle Hymn of the Republic—'A Hundred Circling Camps.' The Fifth Vermont in 1861, with their Colonel L. A. Grant." From The Photographic History of the Civil War In Ten Volumes, pp. 154-155. The rock formation in the lower right hand corner can still be seen on Kurtz Road near Salona.