Since its settlement in the 1700s, the City of Fairfax has been at the heart of Northern Virginia's government and business activities. Home to more than 20,000 residents and 23,000 business and government employees, Fairfax is an independent jurisdiction with a distinct history and character and is well known throughout the region for its many recreational activities. The area that now comprises the City of Fairfax was first settled in the early 1700s by farmers pushing out from the Tidewater region of Virginia. In 1742, Fairfax County was established and the county court moved from Alexandria, which had temporarily become part of the District of Columbia, to the corner of Little River Turnpike and Ox Road, then as now a major crossroads. The little town surrounding the court was then known as Earp's Corner and in 1805 as the Town of Providence, though for years it was commonly called Fairfax Court House and was officially renamed Fairfax in 1874. Fairfax was the scene of several noteworthy events during the Civil War: Captain John Quincy Marr, the first officer casualty of the Confederacy, was killed at Fairfax Courthouse on June 1, 1861; by late 1862, Union forces under Brigadier General Edwin H. Stoughton occupied the town; and in March 1863, in a raid led by Confederate Colonel John S. Mosby, Stoughton was captured while he slept in a house that belongs to Truro Episcopal Church. Throughout the early 20th century, the Town of Fairfax remained a community of farms with a small business and judicial community surrounding the courthouse, but in the 1950s and 1960s Fairfax grew rapidly, and in 1961 the town was incorporated as the City of Fairfax. During the 1980s, thriving local businesses, development in neighboring Fairfax County, and the expansion of George Mason University meant that the city was serving a population of about 100,000. Fairfax has continued developing a trail system that includes routes to all major city activities, Metrorail, and the Historic District, which was named to the National Register of Historic Places in October 1987.