Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 8, 1990 TAG: 9004080163
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TYSONS CORNER LENGTH: Medium
The largely undeveloped land is zoned for residential use in an area where $500,000 homes were recently built. It is tucked a spitting distance away from the county's busiest crossroads.
Aside from ownership of the land, the bitterly divided family must decide whether to save a family cemetery on the site. It is one of the oldest black-family plots in the county.
Frances Williams paid $65 for about 18 acres of land in the Wolftrap Road section of the Vienna area in 1889, her great-grandaughter Ilean Baskerville said.
When Williams died more than 70 years ago, she asked that the land be divided among her children and grandchildren. Some descendants said her son Frank Williams swindled family members out of their fair share.
Behind the legal issues to be decided by Fairfax County Circuit Court is a soap opera of animosity, distrust and alleged deceit.
"I'm upset and bewildered, confused and disappointed with some members of my family," Baskerville said.
In court documents, a cousin named Donald E. Coles of Philadelphia accuses Frank Williams of illegally seizing and selling the land after the death of Williams' mother. Frank Williams died in 1940.
Other family members question the motives of Frank's son, LeRoy Williams, who in 1984 tried to have his relatives sign away their rights to the property.
"I think there has been a questioning of motives, perhaps, on LeRoy's part," said Fairfax attorney John Holloran, who represents about 15 family members in the matter.
But LeRoy Williams' attorney, Charles Sloan, said the land would have been auctioned off for back taxes if LeRoy had not stepped in.
"All he really wanted to do was preserve the cemetery," Sloan said.
Whatever happened between Frank Williams and his siblings, two parcels of land totaling 4.6 acres somehow slipped through the cracks and were never claimed by anyone.
"Everybody assumed everybody else owned it," Sloan said. "How could a piece of property this size, this close to Tysons Corner, be forgotten?"
No one has had clear title to the land since Frances Williams' death, although family members continued to be buried in the cemetery.
"I remember asking once, but someone said we all owned it, and we all put money towards a fund," Baskerville said. "But no one ever asked me for money."
Most relatives are eager to resolve the issue and get whatever money might be coming to them.
"We're trying to make sure things work out fair and square," Holloran said. "The only concern is that LeRoy doesn't end up with more than his fair share."
Attorneys for both sides will argue their claims before a court-appointed hearing officer April 18.
It is unclear whether the land, which is zoned for residential use, will eventually become another housing development.
Sloan said the county rejected a proposal to turn the land, which is heavily wooded and inhabited by wildlife, into a park.
And if a buyer is found, family members worry whether the cemetery can be saved.
"They don't object to partitioning the land, but they want to make sure the cemetery is protected," Holloran said.
by CNB