Arlington County, Virginia: History
=== Native American settlement ===
Arlington County was inhabited by prehistoric Native American cultures from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians 10,000 years before European colonization. Archeological evidence, including pottery fragments, tools, and arrowheads, suggests sporadic habitation during the Archaic Period, with more permanent communities during the Formative stage and Early Woodland period. Some objects unearthed during archeological digs have been found to be from as far as southern Ontario, indicating the existence of a trade route that ran through the area.
When John Smith made contact in 1608, Arlington was populated by the Nacotchtank, who were possibly part of the Powhatan Confederacy. He identified a town named Nameroughquena near the present-day 14th Street bridges. The Nacotchtank farmed, hunted, and fished along the nearby Anacostia River, where they had more towns.
Later in the 17th century, the Nacotchtank became involved in the regional beaver trade instigated by Henry Fleete, which, while enabling the Nacotchtank to build wealth, undermined traditional social structures and ultimately weakened them. Further pressures, including population loss due to the spread of infectious diseases from Europeans, warfare with encroaching British colonizers, and conflict with Native American tribes in northern regions, forced the Nacotchtank to abandon their homeland. By 1679, they had fully left the area and were absorbed into the Piscataway.
Colonists began migrating from Jamestown and towards the Potomac River between 1646 and 1676, during which land speculation in the region increased substantially. Early grants were issued in the mid-17th century by the Governor on behalf of the Crown to prominent figures of Virginia society; many never inhabited their landholdings during this period. The first "seated" grant in the area was the Howson Patent, which John Alexander purchased from Captain Robert Howson on November 13, 1669, and populated with tenants by 1677. With the establishment of the Northern Neck Proprietary after the restoration of Charles II in 1660, future land grants in the region were made by inheritors of Northern Neck, namely the Lords Fairfax.
After colonists depopulated the area in the aftermath of Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, migration to Northern Neck began to grow by the end of the 17th century. The increase in population justified the formation of Prince William County from parts of Stafford County in 1730, and in 1742 Fairfax County, of which present-day Arlington County was part. Early settlement patterns were defined by large plantations along waterways, where planters built wharfs that provided access to colonial trade networks. This included Abingdon Plantation, which was established by John Alexander's grandson Gerard by 1746 and was the Arlington area's first mansion house. Log cabins, such as the home built by John Ball in the mid-18th century, were common among Arlington's yeoman farming community.
Indentured servants and enslaved labor worked the land, the latter of which are first documented being in the Arlington area in 1693 and were owned by the wealthiest planters, such as the Masons and Washingtons. Tobacco was the dominant crop grown in Arlington until local soil was exhausted by the late 18th century, motivating tobacco planters to move further inland; remaining farmers turned to growing alternatives such as corn. …