A Place Called Loriella

A Place Called Loriella. . In 1796, the property that Loriella now comprises was cut from a tract of 724 acres that had once belonged to Fontaine Maury, father of oceanographer, Matthew Fontaine Maury. A succession of owners followed: the most Will Gordon and prominent being Burwell Leavell, mill owner and farmer, from which Leavell's Road derives its name. In 1830, Burwell sold the land to son, Edmund, who in 1858 sold the property Cosmo Gordon. Cosmo named the property "Loriella" after his first two children George Lorimar and Ella Gordon., In 1901, Cosmo bequeathed his property to son, William Knox Gordon. In 1903, William gave the property to his sister, Annie Gordon. Annie, a spinster, who had moved to Texas to live with her brother, died in 1953 leaving the property to her nephew, William Knox Gordon, Jr. The nephew donated 206.90 acres of his inheritance to Spotsylvania County in 1979 for use as a park., William Knox Gordon, Jr. graduated from high school in Fredericksburg and attained a civil engineering degree before the age of twenty-one. After moving to Texas to survey a railroad route, William accepted a mining engineer position with the Texas and Pacific Coal Company. His expertise in geology afforded him a successful career in the coal mining and oil production industry. After his death it was noted by his associates in the petroleum fraternity that he was the supreme example of the "wildcatter who drilled them where they ain't".