McDowell home and family monument, Fairfield, Virginia snapshot photos, 1930/1957

Containers:

Box 9, Folder 21

Biographical / historical:

Alexander Orchard House, the Red House in Rockbridge County, Virginia, typically refers to the historic homestead associated with the former Alexander Orchards, located at Route 11, 4825 North Lee Highway, Fairfield, Virginia. For decades, Alexander Orchards was a popular local commercial apple orchard along Route 11 North where vistors bought fresh apples like Staymans and Winesaps.

The property centers around a highly historic site locally known as the Red House, which was built in 1796. The original log home was built by early pioneer John McDowell in the 1730s, who stripped the bark from the logs and stained them with ochre. Ochre is a natural clay earth pigment colored by iron oxide, varying in hue from pale yellow to deep orange, brown, and red.

The commercial apple orchard became inactive roughly around 2006. The apple trees were eventually removed, and the property transitioned into a private residence and beef cattle farm operated under Veranda Farm Properties. It sits adjacent to the historic McDowell burying gound.

The McDowell Cemetery, located just south of Fairfield, Virginia in Rockbridge County, Virginia, contains the grave and notable tombstones of Captain John McDowell. As the oldest burial place in the historic Borden Tract, it sits in a quiet field enclosed by a brick wall along U.S. Route 11, North Lee Highway. Captain John McDowell's gravesite is beside the family monument, and unique because it features two distinct markers standing side-by-side, which are an original 1743 primitive, hand-hewn, and crudely cut stone. Reflecting the early Ulster-Scots dialect of the region's settlers, it bears the phonetic inscription: "HEER LYES THE BODY OF JOHN MACK DOWELL DECEMBER 18 1743". A Memorial Monument was dedicated by McDowell descendants on August 10, 2019, a newer blue-gray granite headstone standing right next to the original. Captain John McDowell was a prominent surveyor and early leader who helped map the local wilderness. He was killed alongside seven of his militiamen on December 18, 1742, at Balcony Falls during a violent skirmish with an Iroquois raiding party. This clash marked the first major conflict between colonial settlers and Native Americans in the Shenandoah Valley, triggering a localized frontier war that was ultimately settled by the Treaty of Lancaster in 1744. He and his fallen men were buried together in this cemetery.

This photo is an 1855 McDowell Family large central monument, erected by 19th-century descendants to commemorate the virtues of "Old Ephraim" McDowell (John's father) and the generations of the family buried within the grounds. Dr. Ephraim McDowell (1771–1830) was an American physician and pioneer surgeon widely recognized as the "father of abdominal surgery" and operative gynecology. He gained historic prominence by successfully performing the world's first elective abdominal operation—specifically an ovariotomy—in Danville, Kentucky in 1809. James McDowell (October 13, 1795 – August 24, 1851) was an American politician who served as the 29th Governor of Virginia from 1843 to 1846 and later as a U.S. Congressman from 1846 until his death in 1851. A member of the Democratic Party, McDowell was known as an intellectual, an accomplished orator, and a moderate reformer during the complex antebellum period. James was born at the "Cherry Grove" plantation in Rockbridge County, Virginia and attended Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) and Yale College before graduating from Princeton University (then the College of New Jersey) in 1817.

Other descriptive data:

The closeup photo of the monument showing the inscription was given by Mr. Chacey, September 20, 1957.

Names:

Alexander family

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