Cradle to Grave: The Only American Both Born and Buried at Arlington National Cemetery

Two days after his death, James Parks was laid to rest on Aug. 23, 1929, in what is now Section 15, Grave 2 at Arlington National Cemetery overlooking Washington, D.C. Like most of those buried at the United States’ most well-known military cemetery, Parks’ name is not recognizable to most Americans, yet he holds a unique distinction: He is believed to be the only person among the roughly 400,000 buried on Arlington’s hallowed grounds who was also born on the property.

Born into slavery in 1843, Parks was owned by Army Col. George Washington Parke Custis. An author and playwright, Custis was also the son of one of Martha Washington’s children from her first marriage, and she and her second husband, President George Washington, later adopted Custis after the latter's father died. Custis so admired the nation’s first president that he had Arlington House built in the early 1800s partly as a memorial to Washington, who died in 1799.

Parks was a slave at the Arlington House plantation through his late teens. By that time, the property was owned by Custis’ daughter, Mary, and her husband, Gen. Robert E. Lee. Custis died in 1857, but as one of his final acts, he gave his slaves what they most wanted.

“[He] provided in his will that all of the Arlington slaves be given $50 and their freedom five years from the date of his death,” Maj. Gen. Jerry R. Curry, U.S. Army deputy commanding general, wrote in a 1985 article for the NAACP’s official publication, The Crisis. “When the five years had passed, the Civil War had started. General Robert E. Lee rode south to join the Confederate Army. Before his departure, General Lee honored the will of his father-in-law, Major Custis: He freed the slaves. But, because of the war, he was unable to pay them the $50 that his father-in-law had promised.”

Shortly before President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, Parks found himself a free man but decided to remain on Arlington’s grounds. Parks lived in Freedman’s Village, a community for former slaves, and worked for the Army, helping to build Fort McPherson in Nebraska and Fort Whipple (later Fort Myer and now Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall) in Virginia.

Because the Lees did not pay taxes in person -- then a legal requirement -- before vacating Arlington, the federal government bought the property in January 1864 “for Government use, for war, military, charitable, and educational purposes.” The timing of the purchase could not have been more fortuitous: Nearly three years into the Civil War, the increasing number of dead soldiers exposed the alarming lack of proper burial space around the nation’s capital, and Arlington provided a solution.

“Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs, quartermaster general of the U.S. Army, authorized military burials on the Arlington property -- the presence of graves, he believed, would deter the Lees from ever returning,” according to the cemetery’s website. “On May 13, 1864, Private William Christman became the first soldier to be buried at Arlington, and on June 15, 1864, the Army formally designated 200 acres of the property as a military cemetery.”

Parks dug some of the first graves at Arlington National Cemetery, and he also helped maintain the grounds. Not one to sit around, Parks worked into his early 80s. In 1925, the year he retired, Congress voted to restore Arlington House to how it looked when the Civil War started, and Parks -- still blessed with a good memory – provided recollections that were invaluable to the restoration project, especially when it came to the exterior.

“He gave specific locations for the wells, springs, slave quarters, slave cemetery, dance pavilion, old roads, icehouse, blacksmith shop and kitchens,” according to the National Park Service. “Parks said that all of his grandparents and parents were buried in the slave cemetery.”

The father of 22 children, five of whom served in World War I, Parks died at the age of 86 and was buried with full military honors despite being a civilian. He left behind a legacy so rich that the American Legion sponsored a marker at his gravesite, which read:

“An interesting, respectful, kindly old Negro born a slave at Arlington House estate about 1843. … ‘Uncle Jim’ lived and worked at Arlington practically the whole of his long and useful life. In appreciation of his faithful service, the secretary of war granted special permission to bury his mortal remains in this national cemetery.

“Requiescat in Pace.”

-- Stephen Ruiz can be reached at stephen.ruiz@military.com.

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