The following biographies of the teachers, school trustees, and community members found in the historic records of Dranesville District were researched and written by volunteers from District V, Virginia Daughters of the American Revolution.

Teachers

Jane Louise Aud

Born in February 1890 to Thomas Edgar Aud and Jane Allen, J. Louise Aud, as she appears in FCPS historic records, taught in the Dranesville District at two schools, namely Powell (Number 2) from 1907 to 1910, and Wiehle (Number 8) from 1910 to 1912. Census records indicate that when Ms. Aud was not in the classroom she worked as a clerk at the U.S. Bureau of Labor. She married Kolbe Curtice in 1917. The couple lived in Fort Worth, Texas, for many years, but later returned to Virginia, where Jane Louise Aud Curtice passed in January 1987.

Grace M. Beard

Grace M. Beard was born in May 1886 in Virginia to Joseph C. Beard and Mary B. Seibert. She taught at the Dranesville School (Number 7) during the 1910-11 school year. The Dranesville School is one of the few remaining early schoolhouses still standing in Fairfax County. Historic records indicated Grace Beard also taught at Rock Ridge, a farm and camp for boys located in Washington, D.C. Grace passed away in September 1960, and was buried at Chestnut Grove Cemetery in Herndon.

Ida M. Beavers

Ida Miranda Webster Beavers, also found in FCPS records as Mrs. W. H. Beavers, was born in February 1869 in Loudoun County, Virginia, to John G. Webster and Sarah E. Smith. She taught at five schools in Dranesville District during the period of 1896 to 1917, namely Dranesville (Number 7), Floris (Number 9), Money’s Corner (Number 12), River Bend (Number 5), and Wiehle (Number 8). Ida’s first husband, William H. Beavers, a blacksmith from Loudoun County, whom she had married in 1893, died in 1918. After his death, Ida briefly worked for the Department of the Treasury in Washington, D.C., before moving to South Kortright, New York, where she married her second husband, James Rose, in 1920. Ida passed away in February 1926, and is buried in South Kortright Cemetery.

Clara E. Beckwith

Born in May 1885 in Virginia to Albert Beckwith and Sarah Harris, Clara Elizabeth Beckwith taught at the Floris “Colored” School (Number B) during the period of 1903 to 1907. In December 1912, she married Horace N. Toomer in Clifton, Virginia. The couple resided for many years in Pennsylvania, after which they moved to Connecticut, where Clara was found on the 1940 U.S. Federal Census working as a maid in a private home. Clara returned to the Washington, D.C. area in later life and was residing in that city when she passed away in September 1972. Clara is buried at Clifton Union Cemetery.

Angella A. Botts

Born in 1873 to Charles Botts and Margaret Hedgman, Angella A. Botts taught in Fairfax County’s Centreville and Dranesville districts. FCPS records indicate she taught in the Dranesville District at the Floris “Colored” School (Number B) in 1896-97, and at the Chantilly “Colored” School (Number C) in 1897-98. A pay voucher booklet from the 1903-04 school year indicates that she was teaching in the Centreville District at School Number B during that year. Centreville District School Board minutes show that she taught at School Number C (Hughesville) in 1906-07, and School Number D (Name Unknown) in 1907-08. Her younger brother, Fontaine S. Botts, also taught in the Dranesville District, at the Forestville “Colored” School (Number A) in 1900-01. Angella A. Botts married Reverend James E. Robinson. Her death certificate states she taught for 28 years. Angella died in January 1952, and is buried at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Nenah M. Clarke

Born in November 1877 in Fairfax County to Thomas I. Clarke and Martha V. Hunnt, Nenah Mabel Clarke taught in the Dranesville District at the Navy/Ox Road, Vale, and Wiehle schools during the period of 1897 to 1903. Nenah attended the Normal School at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the summer of 1899. She married Addison J. Clarke, Jr. in Washington, D.C., in December 1903, after which she left the teaching profession. In addition to being a mother and housewife, Nenah served as first the organist and then the superintendent of the Sunday School at Vale Methodist Church. She died in December 1971 at Fairfax, Virginia, and is buried at Vale United Methodist Church Cemetery in Oakton.

Florence Cockerill

Florence Reno Cockerill was born on July 20, 1899, to Benjamin Franklin Cockerill and his wife, Laura B. Hummer of Dranesville. Her surname changes spellings over the years in historic records (Cockerill, Cockerille, etc.), but "Cockerill" is the spelling that appears on the headstone and delayed birth certificate of her brother, Welby H. Cockerill. Florence completed four years of high school and taught at the River Bend School in the Dranesville District in 1917-18. She married Russell V. Hicks on April 27, 1918 in Herndon, and continued teaching as of the 1920 census where her occupation was identified as public school teacher. Florence and Russell lived on Georgetown Pike in Dranesville until they divorced in July 1944. Florence never remarried. She died at the age of 97 and is buried at Arnon Chapel Cemetery in Great Falls. Her headstone reads, "Here lies the world's greatest mom. Florence C. Hicks, July 20, 1899, November 5, 1996. In Loving Memory."

Sadie C. Detwiler

Sarah Catherine Detwiler, or “Sadie” as she was known, was born on May 10, 1871, in Fairfax County to Daniel L. Detwiler and Harriet E. Shambaugh. Originally from Pennsylvania, the Detwiler family had moved to Fairfax County following the American Civil War. Sadie’s father was one of the founding trustees of the Frying Pan School Association, which operated a one-room schoolhouse for white children in the village of Frying Pan (Floris). It was likely at this school that Sadie received her education.

By the late 1880s, the association had begun renting its schoolhouse to the Dranesville District School Board. When Sadie Detwiler began her teaching career in 1890, the Dranesville District school trustees assigned her to the little one-room school she had known her whole life (then known as Frying Pan Number 6). Over the next 39 years, Sadie Detwiler amassed an extensive career in public education in Fairfax County. In 1893, she began teaching at the Jefferson School in the far northern part of Dranesville District on Beach Mill Road. By 1896, she was teaching school in the village of Dranesville. In 1899, the successors of the Frying Pan School Association sold their schoolhouse to the Dranesville District School Board, after which construction began on a new, two-room graded school. Sadie Detwiler became one of the first teachers at this school, from 1901 to 1903, after which she taught briefly at Colvin Run (1903-04, 1905-06) and was principal of the Herndon School for one year (1904-05).

In 1906, Sadie returned to Floris, where she served as teacher and principal until her retirement in 1929. The Floris School underwent several changes during this time period, with the construction of a four-room schoolhouse in 1911, and the opening of the Floris Vocational High School in 1920. While serving as principal of the high school, Sadie continued her education at the University of Virginia, where, in 1925, she and three other FCPS teachers co-authored the “Fairfax County Geography Supplement” for use by classroom teachers.

Sadie Detwiler’s personal life outside of the classroom was equally as ambitious. She was an officer of the Order of the Eastern Star, a member of the Fortnightly Club, and, from 1933 to 1940, was a member of the town of Herndon School Board. Additionally, Sadie Detwiler served as an election clerk, a member of the Herndon Business and Civic League, a Methodist Church official, and was on a Red Cross chapter committee. Sadie Detwiler died in 1944 and was buried at Chestnut Grove Cemetery in Herndon.

F. Alvernal Sinkfield

Frances Alvernal Sinkfield, who went by the nicknames Fannie and Alvia, was born around 1872 in Virginia to Thomas Sinkfield and his wife Mary of Vienna. In 1888 and 1889, she appears in the Howard University catalog as a “Normal School” student, meaning she was studying to become a teacher. Frances Sinkfield first appears in FCPS records in the fall of 1889, when she was assigned to teach at the Chantilly “Colored” School (then known as Number B) in Dranesville District. Frances taught school at Chantilly for two years and then, in 1891, began teaching in the town of Vienna, which had recently incorporated and formed its own school district apart from Providence District. Articles in the Fairfax Herald newspaper confirm that Frances Sinkfield taught at Vienna during the 1891-92 and 1893-94 school years. In September 1900, Frances married Robert “Edward” Brent in Passaic, New Jersey. The couple had two children, Howard and Vivian, and settled in Washington, D.C., where Frances worked as a laundress and later as a maid in a department store. After the death of her first husband, Frances married a second time, in 1919, to John W. Ransell. Frances Sinkfield passed away in February 1953 in Washington, D.C., and was buried in Vienna, Virginia.

Mary E. Hughes Stewart

Mary Elsie Hughes was born in June 1875 to Jackson Hughes and Maria Beckwith who were former slaves. Her brother, Philip Edward Hughes, also taught school in Fairfax County, in the Centreville District and the town of Fairfax. On December 31, 1901, Mary married John Henry Stewart, Jr. of Fairfax County, and subsequently her name changed in FCPS historic records from M. E. Hughes to M. E. Stewart. Mary taught at the Chantilly “Colored” School (Number C) in 1899-1900, and at the Floris “Colored” School (Number B) during the period of 1900 to 1903.

School Trustees

Arthur F. Burgess

Arthur Franklin Burgess was born in Leesburg, Virginia, in June 1874 to Charles F. Burgess and his wife Mary E. Henderson. According to the 1940 U.S. Federal Census, Arthur received an eighth-grade education. He married Clara C. Walker of Loudoun County, in January 1899, and the couple settled in the Dranesville District of Fairfax County. Arthur was a farmer and served as a trustee on the Dranesville District School Board from 1913 to 1916, holding the position of clerk. By 1920, Arthur Burgess had relocated to Washington, D.C., where he worked as a letter carrier for the U.S. government. Arthur Burgess passed away in July 1951, and was buried in Rock Creek Cemetery.

Community Members

Allen Bradley

Allen Bradley was born in February 1870 to Benjamin Bradley and his wife Elizabeth Taylor. The Bradley family immigrated to America from England in March 1872, when they arrived at the Port of New York on a ship named “City of Antwerp.” Allen Bradley would go on to receive a seventh-grade education, become a naturalized citizen, and establish a dairy farm in Fairfax County’s Dranesville District. During the era of one-room schoolhouses in Fairfax County, the buildings were often kept warm during the winter months by wood-burning stoves. The school trustees of the various districts entered into contracts annually with persons who agreed to supply firewood at a set price for the school year. In 1906, the school boards of Dranesville District and the town of Herndon contracted with Allen Bradley to provide firewood to the Floris School and the Herndon School. Allen Bradley married late in life, in 1922, to Mate H. Lewis of Illinois. He died in January 1954, and was buried at National Memorial Park in West Falls Church.

Cornelius T. Johnson

Cornelius Taylor “Neil” Johnson was born on August 14, 1871, at Aldie, Loudoun County, Virginia, to George S. Johnson and his wife Annie Taylor. Neil spent his childhood in Great Falls in Fairfax County. As a young man, he went to Washington, D.C., where he worked at the St. James Hotel, first as a clerk and later as the hotel’s manager. In the fall of 1902, Neil Johnson married Sarah Murphy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On January 6, 1912, the Forestville “Colored” Schoolhouse was sold at auction to George Johnson for $455.00. When the title to the property was transferred one year later, it was Cornelius T. Johnson’s name that appeared on the deed (Fairfax County Deed Book P-7:141). After purchasing the former schoolhouse, Johnson converted it into a dwelling for use as a summer home. Neil Johnson died in June 1943 in Washington, D.C., and was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery. In March 1945, his widow, Sarah, sold the former schoolhouse property. It was owned at various times by the Wenzel, Davis, and Rollison families until 2003, when the building was demolished.