Moses Ball Grant
In a May 1786 diary entry, George Washington wrote, “When I returned home, I found Moses Ball, his son John Ball, and William Carlin here. The first having his effects under execution wanted to borrow money to redeem them. Lent him ten pounds for this purpose.”
Moses Ball (1717-1792), the ancestor of generations of prominent Arlingtonians, received a 91-acre grant on this land from Lord Fairfax in 1748. The property remained in the Ball Family until 1818. It is thought that Ball built his home on a rise north of the existing spring about 200 yards east of this marker. George Washington, who owned an adjacent tract of land south of Four Mile Run, surveyed his tract on April 22, 1785, in company with Moses Ball.
Moses Ball was born in Stafford County. In 1746, he moved north into what is the new Fairfax County (and will eventually become Arlington) to settle land just south of his brother, John. Moses built a house on property that is now the Virginia Hospital Center Urgent Care facility on Carlin Springs Road in Glencarlyn.
Moses and his wife, Ann, had six sons—who carried on the family name—and two daughters. Moses’s progeny gave Ballston its name (Ballston, Ball’s Crossing), but the house of his brother John (at 5620 Third St, S.) is the only property of that era that remains standing. It serves as a legacy of this colonial family.
Moses also received a land grant from Lord Fairfax and he built his house about a half mile from where his older brother built his home. Moses' property remained in the Ball family until 1818. Moses helped George Washington survey his adjoining property in 1785 on Four Mile Run in the Carlin Springs area.
In a May 1786 diary entry, George Washington wrote, “When I returned home, I found Moses Ball, his son John Ball, and William Carlin here. The first having his effects under execution wanted to borrow money to redeem them. Lent him ten pounds for this purpose.”
Moses owned the adjoining property, which is why it is likely the commander of the Continental Army tied his horse and sipped from Ball’s spring, his injured enslaved Billy Lee at his side. (Those area springs would be marketed as a resort from 1872-84.)
Washington shared with Moses Ball the need to use a well-known oak tree as a reference point in his survey. That tree was felled by a storm in 1898, and a stump survives on exhibit in the Glencarlyn Branch Library.
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