ading religious denominations are represented. The church
edifices are most creditable for a town of its size, and two are fine
examples of church architecture.

[Illustration: Mr. E. T. Fenwick.]

The history of Falls Church begins with the building of the old
Episcopal Church from which the place takes its name, but the town
itself is of modern growth. By a strange series of coincidences the old
church, as well as the town at a later period, has been in touch in
various ways with the National Government since Colonial days.
Washington was a vestryman and at times attended service here. It served
as a recruiting office for patriots of the Revolution. Dolly Madison
took the road for Leesburg leading past this church when fleeing from
the White House during the panic of the British invasion. Capt. Henry
Fairfax went forth with his company of Fairfax volunteers from the Falls
Church to the Mexican war and his body, borne home from far Saltillo,
found a resting place within its churchyard. Skirmishes between Union
and Confederate troops occurred all around its walls, and during the war
of '61 it served the purposes of a hospital for Union soldiers. To make
the chain of incidents complete, a farm near by was chosen at the
outbreak of the Spanish-American war as a training camp for United
States volunteer soldiers.

[Illustration: Presbyterian Church]

Few events of moment in government affairs can occur without directly
affecting some resident of Falls Church, since this little town has its
quota among the officers of the army and navy, in the rank and file of
the army, and on the forecastle of the man-of-war, to say nothing of a
full representation on the rolls of the several executive departments.
When the battle ship Maine was blown up in Havana harbor two jackies
from Falls Church were on board, fortunately escaping with their lives.
After Aguinaldo's capture by General Funston, it was a Falls Church man
who commanded the gunboat which conveyed the captive around the Island
of Luzon to Manila. The brave General Lawton, killed on the firing line
in the Philippine war, had so recently been a citizen of the town that
his death was deplored as a personal loss by his former neighbors.

[Illustration: Mr. W. M. Ellison]

About the middle of the last century there was a large influx of
settlers to Fairfax County from Northern New York and the New England
States, attracted by the milder climate and the cheaper lands then