Washington Post today, stated that Sherrie Chapman, the resident historian of Green Spring Gardens Park located in Fairfax County, off Braddock Road and Rt. 236 believes the rumors that have been about that a cemetery on the grounds of Green Spring Gardens Park are true. There is a Manor house that dates back nearly 200 years. Chapman said, "Finding the cemetery allows us to tell a very important story about the Moss family." "He was an influential man who just disappeared from the pages of history." John Moss, a confidant of Lord Fairfax, was prominent in the county both before and after the Revolutionary War, serving as a royal tax collector in colonial times and as the revenue commissioner afterward. He was also a county justice and was instrumental in the rise of the Methodist faith in the area, hosting services in his home and helping found Alexandria's first Methodist church. "He was pretty well connected," Chapman said. To go with his other land in Fairfax and Loudoun counties, Moss purchased 540 acre Green Spring Farm in 1777 and lived in its brick house until his death in 1809, passing the property on to two of his four sons. The land was sold in 1839 after the death of the two sons--with a deed restriction setting aside a quarter-acre for a family cemetery. More than a century later, the gravestones were long gone and the cemetery mostly forgotten. The former farm had become Green Spring Garden, a 27 acre park donated to the county in 1970 and filled with gardens and hedges that had been added over the years. When Chapman came on board she heard the hushed rumors about a graveyard. I'm not the type who keeps secrets well, she said. "I don't think historians generally do." Chapman combed through property records and other documents stretching back more than 200 years, finding a reference to the cemetery and interviewing the surviving spouse of a former caretaker who remembered when markers still stood atop some of the graves. Chapman identified two likely locations for the cemetery, both within 100 yards of the Manor House near Turkeycock Run. She and other researchers are nearly certain that John Moss is buried there, along with his wife, most or all of their children and perhaps other descendants. The site may include up to 20 graves, Chapman said, and would be notable because of its proximity to the main house at a time when use of distant community cemeteries was becoming more common. The trick now is narrowing down the locations. The caretaker's wife and old photographs point to the site, while slight depressions in the earth have been found at another. Because they are next to each other, both guesses could be correct. Crews have spent much of this summer clearing away several feet of English and poison ivy in preparation for the archaeological surveys. Richard Sacchi, manager of cultural resource protection for the Fairfax County Authority, said there are hundreds of such cemeteries throughout the county dating from the same period, but probably no more than a dozen on protected parkland. He and his staff plan to probe the ground behind the Manor House this fall to learn more. "From a cultural standpoint, we have a responsibility to maintain these sites," Sacchi said. "With all the development, many of these have probably been destroyed. But this one is going to be preserved." Chapman also is exploring the use of ground-pentrating radar, which can detect decayed caskets and other buried items. Sacchi cautioned that using radar--at a cost of up to $9,000--often results in false readings. Regardless, there are plenty of other mysteries to be solved at Green Spring Gardens. Researchers have begun searching for slave quarters on the property as well--Moss held both slaves and indentured servants--and are pursuing reports of slave cemetery on the site. Chapman said officials have no plans to tamper with any graves they find. We have no interest in digging those people up,. We are not looking to disturb those graves. We just want to locate them. In the end, the cemetery should help shed new light o the life and times of John Moss, an often overlooked figure in the annals of Northern Virginia who hobnobbed with colonial and revolutionary leaders. This is about 20 minutes away from my house. I am looking forward to seeing the Manor. It is really exciting to have something so close being discovered. June