For their annual meeting, members of the Fairfax Station Railroad Museum heard the tale of Aunt Betty, a "free colored woman" who fought to save her home and 88 acres during the Civil War.
Aunt Betty, better known as Alexandria resident Donise Stevens, met President Abraham Lincoln one day as she held her six-month-old baby on what used to be her front lawn, surrounded by items taken out of her house before it was destroyed. Lincoln told her her sacrifice would be rewarded, Stevens tells as Aunt Betty.
"I really believe if he had lived longer, he would have made good on his word," she said.
Aunt Betty owned 88 acres and a house along with her husband in what is now Northwest Washington DC, near Georgia Avenue.