Alice M. Coates read:

"In the advance of Federal Troops to Bull Run, some of the Federal
officers stopped overnight with Mr. Ford at Fairfax.

His daughter, Antonia, a heroic young lady of 22 intensely loyal to
the South, listened at the keyhole and heard the plans proposed.
Next morning she asked for a pass to visit a sick aunt, a few miles
South, which was granted.

She immediately reported these plans to the Southern troops."

Antonia aroused no suspicion on this venture in August of 1862, but
only after March 8, 1863, was she questioned and by March 17th,
Major Willard of the Union Army arrived to take Antonia to the Old
Capitol Prison.

Although Major Willard was quite a few years older than Antonia, he
had been to the Ford home quite frequently as a visitor and had
found Miss Ford most charming. She, in turn, had been attracted to
him.

How wretched this Union officer must have felt when he was given
the responsibility of personally arresting her and her father and
taking them to prison.

He fulfilled his duty, however, and then dedicated himself to
securing her release and before many months had passed Antonia and
her father were free again. Evidently they harboured no hard
feelings towards Col. Willard, for they, at a later date, smuggled
him through Confederate lines when they were taking him back to
Washington by wagon after one of his frequent visits to their home.

In March of 1864 Col. Willard and Antonia were married. Seven years
later Antonia died (some think due to malnutrition suffered from her
stay in prison) and left one son, Joseph.

This son lived with his grandmother at Fairfax until his marriage
when he built the beautiful large home on the original Willard
estate, which now includes Layton Hall Subdivision, University Drive
extended, the Belle Willard School, the Joseph Willard Health
Center. (His father before him owned the Willard Hotel in
Washington).

Joseph and his wife lived a life of luxury, traveling abroad and
entertaining in their large spacious home. The fireplace in their
dining room is framed with beautiful blue and white tiles which they
bought in Holland on their wedding trip abroad.

Many of the schools, churches, and private homes in this area are
landscaped with American and English boxwood which the Willards grew
as a hobby. When the land was bought for development, hundreds of
boxwood bushes became dispersed throughout the town and its
environs.

Joseph Wil