I'll give an outline of the 40,000 acre tract on which the Second Colony Germans first lived. The tract became known as the Spotsylvania tract, so I may refer to it by that name. First, I will give a rough geographical picture of this part of Virginia using a modern map such as a state automobile map. Using modern features to help in the placement, proceed out state highway 3 to the west of Fredericksburg. The city itself is on the Rappahannock River, and just above the city are the falls which were the absolute limits to navigation. A few miles above the falls, the river splits into two branches, the Rappahannock proper, and the Rapidan, the northern and southern branches of the river, respectively. The land between the two rivers is the Great Fork, and is referred to in patents as such. The rivers are considered as running east and west, though there are stretches which do not follow these directions. South of the Rapidan is not in the Great Fork. North of the Rapidan and South of the Rappahannock is the Great Fork. At the time in question, only the land "north" of the Rappahannock was a part of the Northern Neck.
Germanna was on the Rapidan River. The Spotsylvania tract starts just above Germanna and runs westward, on the south of the Rapidan River, until the mouth of the Robinson River is reached. All of the land in the Spotsylvania tract on this south side was Beverley's contribution to the partnership. More exactly, the boundary of the Spotsylvania tract starts at the mouth of Russell Run and proceeds to cross Mine Run, Mountain Run, and on to the Robinson River, which is just past today's village of Rapidan. This part of the tract contains about 13,000 acres.
The course then went up the Robinson River, to Meander Run (a.k.a. Crooked Run), and up it until it went across land to branches of Mountain Run, on the west side of today's town of Culpeper. The course swung back to the east on the north side of Culpeper, and thence south again, and across branches of Bleu Cowslip Run, as it turned to the east. Then, to the west side of Brook's Run, to the east side of the GERMAN Run (emphasis added), to the upper fork of Bray's Branch, to the Rapidan. Since this German Run is a few miles west of Germanna, it seems unlikely that it was named for the Germans at Germanna, as they were not living that far west. Studying German Run in more detail, it is seen that it does not flow into the Rapidan, but into Field's Run. Field's Run is not the original name. Earlier it was named Fleshman's Run, and residents in the area still call it Fleshman's Run.
The area centered around Fleshman's Run and German Run certainly commands attention, for we did have a bunch of Germans there, of which one family had the name of Fleshman. It was of interest that this area, between German Run and Fleshman's Run, was within five miles of Germanna, and so fell into the old St. George's Parish, where Germans (or Spotswood) were exempt from paying taxes to the state church (at least initially).
The detailed area we are talking about is on the north side of the Rapidan River in the Great Fork. Today it would fall into Culpeper County. We will continue with further evidence in following notes.
(07 Oct 00)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.