XII. RECONSTRUCTION
As the reconstruction period came after the war, Fairfax found herself in a very destitute position. Most of her churches had been burned, her fields destroyed by constant skirmishes, her homes used as headquarters or hospitals by Union soldiers. The Willcoxon Tavern, Duncan's Chapel and doubtless other places had been used as stables for Union horses. Deflation closed in; the people again found themselves having to "pick up the pieces".
Zion Church had been used as a storehouse for munitions for a while and had then been torn down by Union soldiers to provide material for their winter quarters. In February, 1867, Rev. W. A. Alrich was sent to undertake reorganizing the Church. He found eighteen communicants for whom he held services in the court house. He reported "a deep interest manifested in religious matters, and a willingness to make every sacrifice for the sake of the Master and his cause. The people, in their impoverished condition, are making an earnest effort to rebuild their Churches."
Bishop Whittle visited on December 13th, 1869, and there were fourteen persons attending services at the Court House. He reported the new church as being under roof but completion delayed for lack of funds. He wrote, "I think there is no congregation in the Diocese more deserving of help than this, where the people have shown such a determination to help themselves."
By 1872 the second Zion Church had been completed. By December of 1876 the church had been furnished and freed from debt. Its frame building had been erected on the foundation of the original church at a cost of about $2,000.00. In 1882 the present Rectory property was purchased.
Among the families who formed the congregation after the war were the Bakers, Balls, Chichesters, Fairfaxes, Fitzhughs, Fergusons, Gunnells, Hunters, Mosses, Ratcliffes, Ryers, Stuarts, Terretts, Towners, Burkes, Coopers, Loves, Rumseys, Moores, Fords, Bowmans, Keiths, Thorntons, Bleights, Moncures, Ballards, and McWhorters.
The Methodist Church in the meantime found its strength in the southern church's Fairfax Circuit and began to replace the first Duncan's Chapel which had been used by both Confederate and Union forces and was believed to have been finally burned and destroyed by Union troops. In 1882 the local board purchased the lot adjoining Duncan Chapel and built a nine room parsonage. Both of these buildings are used today for official county business.
In 1882 the widely scattered rural membership was hampered by severe winters, bad roads, severe epidemics (diphtheria) and in 1888 Rev. O. C. Beak wrote of the general business depression in this area which caused the church to suffer "from removals". (The Methodist Church did not reach its "Golden Age" until the 1900's.)