Nearby Bel Air Plantation, built circa 1740, is the burial site of Parson Mason Locke Weems, the first biographer of George Washington. French and American troops moved through this community on their way to Yorktown in 1781. Northern dairymen developed large farms here in the early 19th century. The Confederate 3d Brigade was located in this area in 1861–62. The Minnieville Post Office stood on this corner from 1884 to 1924.