Moses Ball (1717-1792), the ancestor of generations of prominent Arlingtonians, received a 91-acre grant on this land from Lord Fairfax in 1748. The property remained in the Ball Family until 1818. It is thought that Ball built his home on a rise north of the existing spring about 200 yards east of this marker. George Washington, who owned an adjacent tract of land south of Four Mile Run, surveyed his tract on April 22, 1785, in company with Moses Ball.