The German-American Historical Sites
Germans settled in Northern Virginia as early as 1719. It was here that twelve German families, consisting of 42 persons, established the first European settlement in present Fauquier County. This German settlement predates the important Colonial towns of Alexandria, VA (1749) and Georgetown, MD (1751).
Settlers from in and around the town of Siegen (east of Bonn) initially established 12 farms on a rectangular tract roughly 2 1/3 miles by 1 1/16 miles near today's Midland, VA. Each family received an oblong lot bisected by Licking Run (which eventually flows into Occoquan Bay). All the farms on their series of oblong lots were connected by a road that led to the church and school.
The German Town settlers had originally arrived in Williamsburg, VA, in April, 1714. Before founding German Town, they had worked for Governor Spotswood at Germanna on the Rapidan River. The German Town home of one of the families, the Webers or Weavers, survived until 1924. Descendants of this family were still living in the house as late as 1899. Today, however, the only evidence of the house is a depression in the ground formed by the cellar. There is also a well and nearby evidence of a barn, stables, an ice house, etc. The Weber/Weaver cemetery can also be still seen nearby.
German Town was once a thriving settlement, but all that remains of this lost German colony are shallow depressions where once stood homes and barns. Here and there are found shards of clay ware, porcelain or glass bottles and an occasional 18th-century ax or other farm implement. The graves of a number of these pioneer settlers may also be seen. A portion of the historic German Town tract was flooded when Licking Run was dammed in order to form Germantown Lake. This lake and Crockett Park constitute a recreation area within the boundaries of the original settlement area. At the entrance to Crockett Park from Meetze Road, which forms the northeastern boundary of the German Town tract, stands a Virginia highway marker. It commemorates German Town and its original settlers, who bore such names as Brombach, Fischbach, Heide, Hoffmann , Holtzklau, Kemper, Kuntz, Märtzen, Richter, Spielmann and Weber. The presence of these early Germans in Northern Virginia is also memorialized by Germantown Road which runs along the southwestern boundary of the original settlement, by German Path (VA Highway 610) which leads to the settlement area, by Holtzclaw Road and by Rectortown near The Plains, named after the Richter family.
Unfortunately no archeological investigation of German Town, VA, has ever been undertaken, and the remaining evidence of Fauquier County's pioneer settlement is allowed to disintegrate and disappear.
Gary C. Grassl, President, German-American Heritage Society of Greater Washington, D. C. December, 1999
Based on research by Mary Wuest