On December 31, 1866, the trustees of the Ladies Memorial Association paid Richard T. Brown and his wife, Marion, $225.00 for 2 1/3 acres. It was purchased

"… as a burial place or cemetery for the re-interment of the bodies of such persons as the 'Ladies Memorial Association' of said County of Fairfax shall direct to be interred therein. Provided that in all cases such bodies shall be those of Confederate States' Soldiers, who fell in battle or died from wounds incident to and while they were in the service of the Confederate States, and who are now buried within the limits of said county, or who were citizens thereof at the time of death and are buried elsewhere…"

In addition to laying off burial lots, the Ladies Memorial Association canvassed the county and eventually some 200 unknown confederate soldiers were disinterred and reburied in a common grave atop the hill in the cemetery. The Ladies Memorial Association did not last long as a viable organization, and in March of 1875 ownership of the cemetery was conveyed to the trustees of the newly chartered Fairfax Cemetery Association.

In 1888, the Confederate Monument Association was formed to erect a suitable monument to both the unknown Confederate dead buried in the cemetery and the Confederate soldiers from Fairfax who lay on battlefields far from home. In October 1890 the monument, designed and built by J. F. Manning Co. of Washington, D. C., was officially dedicated.

The Fairfax Cemetery Association acquired additional property in 1914 and 1932. Control of the cemetery was passed to the newly incorporated City of Fairfax in 1962.

(prepared by Brian A. Conley, Fairfax County Public Library, December 20, 2000)