Company
and also acted as superintendent of the lower district of the road.
Financial statements of the company, which were given in the annual
reports of the State Board of Public Works, regularly carried accounts
for both the salary paid to Thomas Moss and the funds spent by him for
repair of the lower section of the road.[42]

THE MIDCENTURY YEARS. 1840-1880. The Moss family's ownership of Green
Spring Farm ended in 1843 with the sale of the farm and division of
the proceeds among the eight heirs of Thomas Moss.[43] Under the
supervision of the County Court, the farm was sold to one Thomas
Sheriff, lately of Barbados. On his death, it descended to his son,
James Sheriff, who kept it until 1855 when he transferred it as part
of a settlement for a debt. Its next owner was James Benton, who held
it in trust for one Hannah O'Brien of Baltimore. In the first half of
this period the times were generally good. Virginia agriculture grew
to new levels of prosperity, aided by the introduction of new
labor-saving machinery through inventions and the opening up of new
markets for farm produce through improvements in transportation. In
such circumstances, James Sheriff's loss of Green Spring Farm for
debts in 1855 seems likely to have been due to exceptional misfortunes
or else exceptional neglect and waste on the part of the owner.
Although records of the County Court during this period suggest that
Thomas Sheriff and his son, James, were before the Bar of Justice on
numerous occasions, these references do not suffice to explain all
that occurred.

During the second half of this period, when title to the farm was in
James Benton for the use of Hannah O'Brien, the fortunes of its owners
were dictated mainly by the fortunes of war. During the four years of
hostilities, Green Spring Farm stood in the disputed ground outside
the perimeter of permanent defenses of the capital where patrols from
both sides ranged regularly by day and night. While the records of the
war do not report any major engagements at the farm, they indicate
that military activity in the neighborhood frequently placed its
safety in jeopardy and obviously prevented any regular farming
operations.

The ultimate loss of the farm in 1878--again to be sold for
debt--appears to have been the result of imprudence in business
dealings (according to local tradition, Hannah's husband, Matthew
O'Brien, was a gambler), and inability to bring the farm back from the
lo