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

Teachers

Mittie Adams

Mittie Adams was born in Fairfax County, Virginia, on December 3, 1869, to Ira Adams and Eudoxia Stone. According to FCPS records, her teaching years were 1888-1890. In the Lee District, she was an assistant teacher at Oak Grove School Number 3 (white) in 1888-89, and was promoted to lead teacher in 1889-90. In 1890, she married Frank Adams, a grocer from Alexandria. The couple had four children. Mittie Adams must have placed well on the certification exams given to teachers, because the 1900 U.S. Federal Census indicates that she had only completed one year of high school. Mittie Adams passed away on December 6, 1961, in Alexandria, Virginia.

Gertrude Athey

Gertrude Helena Athey taught at School Number 4 in the Lee District in 1894. She was born on November 18, 1867, to Samuel Athey, a preacher, and Emma Payne Athey. By 1900, Gertrude had moved to Marshall, Fauquier County, Virginia, where she continued working as a teacher. She married James H. Laycock in 1909. Gertrude passed away in March 1933, and was buried in the Athey family cemetery in Orlean, Fauquier County, Virginia.

Mayme Blake

Mayme P. Blake was born in December, 1886, in Virginia, to Robert Preston Blake and Adeline Ford Swetnam. She grew up in Chatham, Pittsylvania County, Virginia, and went to college for four years, after which she taught in the Lee District at the Burke School (School Number 11) from approximately 1914 to 1918. The 1920 U.S. Federal Census showed that she had left the teaching profession by that time and was working as a war risk clerk at the Department of the Treasury in Washington, D.C. Mayme married Millard Phillips Burgess on October 2, 1920, at Falls Church, Virginia, and the couple had two children. Over the next three decades, Mayme worked for the federal government. Around 1952, Mayme moved to Louisiana, where she passed away in February 1958, and was buried at Forest Park Cemetery in Shreveport.

Rush Buckley

Rush Buckley was born in Clifton, Virginia, on July 8, 1886, to Wilton Buckley, a farmer, and Cora Linn Carper, a schoolteacher. He was an older brother of Rosie Buckley, a Centreville District schoolteacher, and taught in the Lee District at Oak Grove (School Number 3) from 1904 to 1906, after which he left the teaching profession to work for the federal government. In 1910, Rush married Ella May Wilt in West Falls Church. He died on June 19, 1972, and was buried at National Memorial Park in Falls Church, Virginia.

Irene Davis

Irene Davis was born on November 3, 1873, to Robert A. Davis and his wife Julia A. Trail. The Davis family resided in the Centreville District of Fairfax County, where Robert Davis was employed as a carpenter. Irene was the second daughter and fifth child of seven born to Robert and Julia, and was afforded a seventh grade public school education. Irene Davis taught in the Lee and Centreville districts from 1893 to 1918, at the Fairfax Station and Popes Head schools, and at the private school in Burke Station. Late in life, in 1926, Irene married George Hall of New York. Irene died in December 1959, in Vienna, and is buried at the Fairfax City Cemetery.

Julia M. Ford

Julia Mae Ford was born in Clifton, Virginia, on May 12, 1889, to William F. Ford and Annie M. Payne Ford. She taught in the Centreville and Lee districts during the period of 1906 to 1914, at the Elgin, Ox Road, Pender, and Silverbrook schools. Julia married Arthur Lovelace on October 28, 1915, in Clifton, and the couple took up residence in the Dumfries area of Prince William County, Virginia. According to information from the 1940 U.S. Federal Census, Julia had completed her second year of high school, and it is this level of education that allowed her to teach. Two of her younger sisters were also teachers in Fairfax County: Violet Lucille Ford in Centreville, and Nina Simpson Ford in Herndon. Julia died in 1954.

Grace E. Frenzel

Grace Estelle Frenzel taught in the Centreville District at Neverlet School Number 3 in 1912, and in the Lee District at School Number 1 in 1914 and 1915. She was born September 30, 1895, in Fairfax County, to Edward Wilson Frenzel and Lillian Ann Beach Frenzel. She married Egbert Thompson Watt in 1917. Grace died in February 1982, at Falls Church, and is buried at Fairfax City Cemetery. Her sisters Charlotte and Ellen were also teachers with Fairfax County Public Schools.

Helen H. Haight

Helen Hill Haight was born on October 6, 1887, in Chantilly, Virginia, to Henry Clement Haight of Chantilly, and his wife Emma Jane Young of New York. Helen Haight’s father was a farmer and huckster, and her mother taught at the first Oakton High School and was once principal of Vienna Elementary School. The Haight family lived on Swetnam Road in the Centreville District of Fairfax County, and were very active in the public school system. In fact, Helen Haight’s grandmother, Phoebe Haight, rented out her home for use as a school in 1887. Helen, and her sisters Elizabeth and Mary, took after their mother and became teachers in Fairfax County. Helen Haight taught at Silverbrook (1905-06), Oak Grove (1908-09), and at Fairfax Station (also known as Swetnam and School Number 9) in 1906 and 1911. She also applied to teach at the Herndon School in July 1910. According to census records, Helen Haight had completed four years of college and taught in public schools in Fairfax County, and in Princeton, New Jersey. She passed away in August 1977, in Orlando, Florida, and is buried at Fairfax City Cemetery with her parents.

George A. Malcolm

George A. Malcolm, son of Alexander Malcolm and Mary E. Anderson, was born in 1880. He taught at the Popes Head School in Centreville District (1900-02), and in Lee District at the Oak Grove School (1903-04) and the Lorton Valley School, a two-room schoolhouse, in 1904-05, during which he was the school’s lead teacher and principal. Additionally, George Malcolm was the deputy treasurer of the Mount Vernon District and, in May, 1904, was sworn-in as a Fairfax County deputy sheriff. While he was teaching at Lorton Valley, George Malcolm became a victim of what the Alexandria Gazette called a "Dual Tragedy at Lorton.” In the spring of 1905, Joseph Leanto, an immigrant from Italy, was working at a labor camp on the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad near the Lorton Valley School. Leanto began harassing female students on their way to and from school and George Malcolm warned him to stay away from the girls. When Leanto refused, George Malcolm swore out a warrant for his arrest. On April 6, 1905, George Malcolm was shot five times by Leanto while trying to arrest him at the labor camp. He died the next day in Washington, D.C. That same day, a posse of citizens returned to the camp to locate Leanto and a scuffle broke out resulting in the reported suicide of Leanto. The situation drew the attention of Baron Mayor des Planches, the Italian ambassador to the United States. Sadly, George Malcolm holds the distinction of being the first Fairfax County law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty. A memorial dedicated to him stands in the courtyard of the Fairfax County Courthouse. George Malcolm is buried at Pohick Church Cemetery.

Josephine Violett

Josephine Violett was born in November 1869, in Fairfax County, to Thompson Whaley Violett and his wife Georgianna Stone. Josephine taught in the Lee District from 1888 to 1897, at Belle Aire, Lorton Valley, Ox Road and Pohick schools. Her niece, Nellie Clifton Violett, was also a teacher in Fairfax County, and taught in the Centreville District. Nellie married in 1902, to Jonathan Franklin Fenty, a railroad engineer, whose job moved the couple from Fairfax to Richmond. Josephine and Jonathan never had children. She died in October,1928, and was buried in Pohick Episcopal Church Cemetery in Lorton.

School Trustees

Frederick M. Brooks

Dr. Frederick Manning Brooks was a school trustee in the Lee District. He was born in December 1858, in the Popes Head community of Fairfax County, Virginia, to Henry T. Brooks and Helen J. Hoag. A physician, F.M. Brooks, as he was known, began practicing medicine in Fairfax County in 1883. He was active in the Republican Party, ran for Congress, was president of the National Bank of Fairfax, and was chairman of the consolidated Fairfax County School Board. He also founded the Fairfax County Medical Society. Dr. Brooks died on June 21, 1941, at age 82, in Burke, Virginia, at the home of one of his patients to whom he had been attending.

Nathan C. Davis

Nathan Coffer Davis was born on April 30, 1874, in Prince William County, Virginia, to Francis C. Davis and his wife Sarah F. "Sallie" Davis. N.C. Davis, as he was known in FCPS records, was a merchant and operated a general store and farm in the Lee District along Ox Road. He served on the Lee District School Board as a trustee and clerk from 1889 until his resignation in April 1918, when he became a member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Nathan Davis married Blanche Augusta Dulaney, a Lee District teacher, on July 25, 1894, in Washington, D.C. He died in 1921, and is buried at Pohick Episcopal Church Cemetery in Lorton.

John S. Wiley

John Sidney Wiley was born on September 25, 1879, in Lorton, Fairfax County, Virginia, to John W. Wiley and his wife Frances Leopard. He married Ethel Fielding Haney in Washington, D.C., in 1902. John, sometimes found in records by his middle name Sidney, held a number of jobs over the years to include telephone operator, pullman conductor, and IRS deputy clerk. He served as a trustee on the Lee District School Board from 1912 to 1915, and was named chair of the board at its meeting in June 1912. John S. Wiley died in 1938, and was buried at Pohick Episcopal Church Cemetery in Lorton.