You normally don’t see too many large, bronze crucifixes along the roadside.
But one sits on U.S. 1 in Stafford County. It marks the first time in Virginia that all religions were tolerated and allowed to live in the same region of the commonwealth.
The cross marks a time when in 1647 Giles Grant and his wife, a Piscataway Indian, were looking for land. After the Natives in Maryland refused Brent, an Englishman, land that belonged to his late father-in-law, he and his wife crossed the Potomac River into Virginia to make their own settlement, said Stafford County Historical Society spokeswoman Jane Conner.
When they arrived, the two acquired land in what today is Stafford County and then petitioned the King of England to allow all religions to settle in the Aquia Creek area, said Conner. The king agreed, and the Church of England was formed there, she said.
Brent was Roman Catholic, so today the crucifix stands as a symbol of their efforts to bring multiple religions together, Conner added.
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