USA > Maryland > Montgomery County > Sandy Spring > Annals of Sandy Spring history of a rural community in Maryland, Volume 1 > Part 5
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"Though 'tis an awful thing to die,"
('Twas even to her),
"yet, the dread path once trod,
Heaven lifts its everlasting portals high, And bids the pure in heart behold their God."
Only four days later, Timothy Kirk died at the advanced age of 87. Ilis active years had been spent in another part of the country, but his connection with a valued brother and a beloved sister, both passed away from among us a few years ago, served also to draw him near.
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A month later, on the 21st of November, having also reached a very advanced age, Martha Thomas, mother of Edward, William John, and Samuel P. Thomas, closed a quiet and gentle life by a peaceful death. It was remarked by one who looked upon her calm brow, "stamped with everlasting peace," that the transition to another life, often so abrupt, was in her case easy and natural, as if " the gates opened of themselves."
When the new year came, death returned to find his victims among the young. In the early morning of the 18th of March, Edward S. Hallowell yielded up a life most dear and precious. His worth was known and appreciated outside the home circle, in which it was felt with such peculiar regard. He was a good boy: he performed well and faithfully his part while he lived; his short career was speedily accom- plished, we shall see him here no more. Cold indeed must become the hearts of our young people, and wholly devoted their minds to gathering the sordid gear or to the perishing pleasures of earth, if they fail to keep green the memories of Isabella Stabler and Edward Hallowell. Another victim still. We are even now just returned from following to their last resting-place the remains of Annie Moore. The little darling of a young widowed mother was soon called to climb to the abode of the other parent, Archibald Moore, whose early removal was chron- icled in a preceding page. In gazing on the little face of the dead a few hours ago, we could not but remark that it was the most beautiful one in the whole assembly. How justly may we ask, if death is so beautiful, if the spirit in parting leaves such a celestial impress on the clay, why should we regard the mortal stroke with so much horror ?
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Turning now from tender sentiment to sober fact, it may be well to remark that in the past three years we have recorded the deaths of 23 persons. " Our neighbor- hood" is a rather uncertain tract of country, the lines are not determined with such precision as to justify reliable mortuary statistics. But your historian having some ex- perience in that department of business, and being deeply interested in the results which can fairly be drawn from such facts as we can depend upon, will venture to add to this Chapter the following conclusions :
The annual death rate for the three periods must amount to 1 in 45, or thereabout. Now this mortality is far above the rate found to prevail in our whole country. Here is a serious fact which we are called upon to face. Can it be that life in Sandy Spring is really less secure than in the rest of the United States? You do not believe that-neither do I
We must fall upon more precise statistics if these historical sketches are continued.
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CHAPTER IV.
ENDING 4TH MONTH 1ST, 1867.
Invitation to assist the historian -Farm improvements - Potatoes beginning to be largely grown - Croaking for drought - Wheat almost ceased to be a staple crop, yet the drought was relieved by inundating floods - Life of the clubs, with a spice of rivalry - The Horticultural supported by the ladies' hands excels - The mercantile interest -Sorghum -"Sandy Spring Branch Turnpike " incorporated with the main stem - Tollgate at Ash- ton - First appearance of railroad engineers -- Lyceum porch - Professor of elocution appreciated -The Literary Society less lively -New Debating Society - Newspapers suggested without success-The schools really prosperous - Marriages less so (as to numbers) - Interesting facts relating to some of the deceased --- Warning against " the busy tongue."
You are again invited to stop for a few moments the rolling wheel of time, and consider attentively what its last revolution has brought and taken from us.
How many of you, allow me to ask, can at once recall a .number of occurrences of the past year which might properly constitute material for neighborhood history ? My annual task would be much lightened, as well as rendered more valuable and interesting, if several persons among you would keep a record of such events as each one might consider of the most general interest, suffering me to draw thence the materials thus gathered together.
In the absence of such help, I proceed to transfer from my own brief notes a few leading incidents, accompanying them with such remarks and reflections as they naturally suggest.
As this neighborhood constitutes a community engaged
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mainly in agricultural pursuits (although depreciating remarks have occasionally been made to the contrary), we will first take up the farming operations of the year. 'These commenced last spring in a lively manner. The spirit of improvement was exhibited in the clearing up of grounds and fencing them in, a larger amount being done than usual.
A full spring crop was put in, especially of potatoes ; at least 200 bushels being planted by the members of the two Clubs alone. 'As the season advanced, a drought of unusual severity for the spring of the year set in, and a corresponding amount of the inevitable croaking was an accompaniment. "The grass crop was gone, that. was a certainty." Potatoes depend entirely on having sufficient moisture-"our 200 bushels of seed would almost have fed us," and so on. And how did it turn out? Why, just as it generally Joes. Some crops were unusually good, especially was this the case with corn and potatoes, while others were only moderate. The hay crop was consider- ably shortened, also the wheat except with a few favored individuals; but wheat has almost ceased to be a staple crop. That drought was succeeded by abundant rains- bountiful rains-almost inundating floods. Probably tons of the most fertile particles of our soil are carried off to feed the fishes. Yet judging from the unusually fine appearance so far of the wheat this spring, there must be a good deal left in the fields still.
As the question is even now being agitated, owing to the quantity of moisture in the ground, resulting from the abundance of fertilizing snows, whether it will be possible to get through with the necessary farm work, it is well for us to be reminded that it has often been just so before, only " more so." And that "while the earth
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endureth, seed time and harvest, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease."
The farming interests of the neighborhood may thus be regarded as having been fully sustained. The Club, and its off-shoot, the Junior Club, which promises to surpass its parent in respect of activity and energy (as indeed it should : we are not jealous of our sons, the more they excel us the prouder we shall be), these institutions and the interest by which they are sustained serve as a gauge whereby to measure the condition of agriculture among us ; because they measure the spirit, the life, out of which all real improvement must grow.
In this connection it is a pleasure to acknowledge the Horticultural Society as a very important adjunct to the two Clubs, chiefly because the ladies can join hands and add their direct influence to the great work of making mother earth do her best for us in every way. A second highly successful exhibition of vegetables, fruits and flowers held last fall, ought to be regarded as placing "the Horticultural" among the leading associations of the neighborhood. Is there room for another ? Not if it would be compelled to arrogate the title of "Junior"!
Next to the agricultural interest, what comes second in Sandy Spring? Is it the mercantile? This is an interest of considerable magnitude both for buyers and sellers. The business done in this is also one of the gauges to estimate the material prosperity of a community; but being placed rather out of sight, certainly out of the reach of your historian, he is unable to report whether the voar's transactions show advance or recession. The manu- facturing interest represented in the sorghum mill was apparently prosperous, looking to the amount of sweets produced last fall; but here too I am unable to say whether the bulls or the bears have it.
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ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
The social, literary, and other higher interests remain to be looked into. But, first it is necessary to complete the history of one of the important enterprises of the neighbor- hood, which has been referred to in each previous chapter of our history, and which, it is hoped, may hereafter be dismissed from its pages. The Sandy Spring Branch Turn- pike was consolidated with the main stem, and our com- munity thus relieved from its charge. This transfer was attended with a circumstance which at first produced some excitement. One fine morning last summer the peaceful travellers along the road were startled by the apparition of a toll-gate at Ashton. It was no shadowy ghost, but a substantial reality, one of the sort which people rarely like to face, that is at first, and until they become accustomed to it. The original managers of our branch road had not achieved a great deal of popularity ; they were frequently blamed for being too slow and inefficient: now the com- plaining parties, viewing this unexpected obstruction, were waked up to find king Stork worse than king Log. How- ever, our people are always willing to pay for any real improvement; and if the road continues to receive the attention which the manager of the main stem has so far given it, there is no doubt we shall soon come to look even upon a toll-gate as one of the ornaments of the neigh- borhood.
The presence of some railroad engineers in the early part of the winter, and their promise to continue the survey in this vicinity, produced for a time a pleasing ex- citement. The immediate prospect of getting a railroad seems to be moderately fair. It has been pronounced on high authority "only a question of time" (5) I should like very much to know whether Chapter V, VI, or a still later one of this history, will chronicle the first ar-
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rival of the steam-horse over our classic ways; now, alas! one deep gulf of mud.
During the past year, our Lyceum Hall has been im- proved and ornamented by the addition of a fine com- modious porch ; which is nearly or quite paid for. This great external improvement would be glory enough for one year, even if there were a slight falling off in the arrangements for affording entertainment and instruction within the hall. The season and the roads have been very unfavorable ; but it is believed there is no just ground for complaint in relation to the uses made of this important building. An extraordinary course of readings for the benefit of the library had decided success last summer. It was followed by a more artistic display from a dis- tinguished Professor of elocution, meeting with an admir- ing and generous support ; which showed the appreciative character of the people, as well as their readiness "to go off" into the heroic vein.
The literary society continued its regular meetings. Some indications of a lack of interest gave rise to a fear that the society might be dying out, but at a subsequent meeting the interest flamed up again. It may be con- sidered in a less flourishing condition than at some former periods of its history ; but there is no reason for despair- ing of its life. Perhaps there needs an infusion of fresh blood, perhaps it wants cooking over in some particulars ; the meat, the stuff is here. A lively impression of the void which would be left by the extinction of these pleasant reunions ought to be sufficient to renovate and preserve them in vigorous health and unfading lustre.
A new Debating Society must be numbered among the improving institutions of the season. It is thought to awaken an interest for argumentative. discussion.
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A projected undertaking which was not carried into execution, promised at one time to add a very important institution to the number of those which have stirred up our neighborhood. This was nothing less than the scheme of establishing a newspaper. Many favoring opinions and good wishes were expressed for the success of the enter- prise ; but after due deliberation it was prudently aban- doned.
The schools have been for the most part flourishing. In last year's historical sketch, the hope was held out that " the swelling tide of public instruction " might rise suffi- ciently high to reach the shores of " the Athens of Mont- gomery County," as some persons have dared to call it. The success of the Sandy Spring School the present year seems to justify that prediction ; its numbers, no longer to be contained within former limits, flowed out into a wing attached to the building.
The colored school continues to deserve all that was said of it last year. That people with their prosperous school, their fine new church and certain other prospec- tive privileges, are surely trying for "the third story of Noah's Ark," to use an expression of one of their preachers. The voice of this community is, I am sure, "let 'em up" as high as they have capacity to climb, by the aid of education, religion and eternal justice.
After the extraordinary performances of our young people, the last year, in the matrimonial line, as duly recorded in Chapter III, it is not surprising that one solemnization only of this most interesting event in the life of man should be all that we have to note in this place. Our record of marriages so far stands thus : Chapter I, one marriage; II, three marriages; III, six marriages ; IV, one marriage.
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ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
Historians find it hard to keep wholly to the past with- out venturing even a glance to the future:
" Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate, All but the page prescribed, the present date."
Happy, happy for us that it is so! We know that the revolving wheel of time drops from its circumference each year one person after another, till all that once lived be gone. Who is to go, and who to stay a little longer ? But of that we know nothing.
While every inducement that can operate on a sound mind and heart should make us value the friends who are left us a little longer, there is also a powerful motive to cherish the memory of those that have departed. To feel that the neighborhood dead are ours! Ours, by the remembrance of every kind act done by them; ours, by thought of every kindness which we might have shown toward them, yet did not; ours, by the hope to meet again.
In the record of deaths the present year we find two little children in one family, Caroline F. and Henry Il. Moore, the former on the 13th of April, the latter the 11th of February. In the family of Elward Peirce. another little child, April 27th. The next record is of Mary Brooke, wife of Basil Brooke, on the 2d day of the 11th month, aged 91 years 4 months and 21 days. So far as my acquaintance with the annals of the neighborhood extends, this is the most advanced age to which any of its residents have attained. It would be to me a labor of love to collect some incidents of this long, blameless lite. She was not a native of Sandy Spring, but had spent her full threescore years and ten, from the time of her mar- riage to the day of her death. Born five days before the
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battle of Bunker Hill, she was twelve years old when the constitution of our country was framed, and she lived through all its vicissitudes, through wars foreign and domestic, to see the assured grandeur of the nation emerge from its last crowning trial. An incident con- nected with her journey as a bride from Baltimore to her life's home at " Charley Forrest," is noticeable as show- ing the nature of our republican institutions. The driver of the hack which brought up the wedding party was grandfather of the man (now a prosperous banker of Baltimore) who recently married the niece of a former President of the United States, a lady who had presided as mistress at the White House during his administration, and, as an honored guest, graced the royal banquets of Queen Victoria. If the bride of 1865 leads as blameless a life, and acquires as many sincere friends and as few enemies as the bride of 1795, it cannot fail to be well with her at the last.
November 20th died Julia Miles. The limits of our neighborhood may well be slightly extended to include 'one who was so frequently a welcome and valued inmate of our homes. Her intelligence and refinement dignified the useful life she led, and won for her warm friends, who sympathized sincerely with her severe sufferings and lamented her early death. February 9th, William Sta- bler, in the 35th year of his age. Of the persons assembled in this hall at its last annual meeting, whose place seemed less likely to be vacant now than his? Always interested in the conceras of our Lyceum, having contributed his full share of efforts to prosper it from the beginning. it is here in an especial degree we note his loss. In all enter- prises likely to promote the general welfare he was ready to do his part, while his industry, honesty, and solid
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sense distinguished him as one to be relied upon. The loss of such a man in the prime of life, apart from the deep sense of bereavement experienced in the circle im- mediately around him, is a greater blow to the fabric of a neighborhood's true prosperity than many inundating foods and destructive fires.
Before withdrawing our minds from the contemplation of the places left vacant by departed friends, and while our feelings are softened by the impressions aroused through their memories, it seems a good opportunity for examining whether we have individually anything to do that might tend to make our neighborhood the better for our having lived in it, or at least that might preserve it from being any the worse on that account. The appointed work of some is with the hands; of some, with the pen ; of others, with the tongue; of all, more or less, with the example of their lives. Perhaps the influence most affect- . ing the harmony of the neighborhood (the most important of all) is that which is exerted by the tongue. May he who, in future, like the mysterious author of the " Address to a Skeleton in the British Museum," shall undertake to apostrophize ours, may he, unblamed, adopt these im- pressive lines :
" Here, in this silent cavern, hung The ready, swift and tuneful tongue : If falsehood's honey it disdained, And, where it could not praise, was chained ; If bold in virtue's cause it spoke, Yet gentle concord never broke, That tuneful tongue shall plead for thee When death unveils Eternity."
The historian of the decline and fall of nations ever finds himself obliged to trace those melancholy results to
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the formation of parties within the State bitterly hostile to each other. Within the smaller sphere of a neighbor- hood, there is no question that the tendency to form cliques and porties is one of the symptoms of decline most to be guarded against. Have ye none of it !
In this historic year eight additions, have been made to our neighborhood by the coming amongst us of the "Norwood" family.
Another annual record will complete the 5th year of these annals. It may then be found interesting to con- centrate the statistics of births, deaths, and marriages of Sandy Spring, in a more regular form. Thus far emigra- tion and immigration seem to count for nothing.
CHAPTER V.
. FROM 4TH MONTH, 1867, TO FOURTH MONTH, 1808.
A changed neighborhood - A fair month following a discouraging one - Profits from the potato -- New Road System - The Rail- road not progressive -Subdivision of a large farm -Teachers' Association -The New School System - Associations healthful, especially the Ladies' - Literary affairs less promising, perhaps " a little overdone "-Activity of mind kept up-The Post Office mails in 6 months, 10,141 letters - A Savings Institution organized - First Day Readings - Relief to the Southern Sec- tion - 4 Marriages, 1 Death - Five years' Statistics.
At its meeting in last month, the Farmers Club of Sandy Spring celebrated its 24th anniversary. Looking back over the long period that had elapsed since its origin, the early members were naturally led to recall the agri- cultural condition of the neighborhood at that time. The attempt to picture it was not a very easy one ; so great is
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the change which has been effected. If we conceive two photographs takeu in the growing season, from a point in space above,-the one representing the condition twenty- four years ago, the other as it is at present, there might be some difficulty in recognizing their identity : the new buildings, and the altered appearance of vegetation, would create the impression of a different country.
Facts of this nature form an important part of the history of a rural community ; yet by no means the most important part. They are the result, the outgrowth of causes originating in the character of the people and the circumstances of the times. Manners and customs, feel- ings, opinions and institutions, change as much as outward facts ; and the former have much the greater influence on the happiness of the people, and the present and future condition of the neighborhood in which their lot is cast.
It is natural then to ask, how a life-picture of our com- munity taken some years ago would show by the side of one taken now. In the case of external, material improve- ments, the changes were so gradual as scarcely to be per- ceptible from year to year, yet leading to a condition more and more widely different.
Of a nature still more imperceptible, and much less easy to delineate, but assuredly not less actual, are the changes which slowly creep on in the character and institutions of a community ; and these, according as they are con- formable or non-conformable to the line of progress marked out by the higher powers, will elevate to still greater perfection, or bring down to certain ultimate failure and ruin. In view of this effect, which it requir .. a considerable period of time to render broadly visible, i: would not be difficult for your historian, if permitted to draw material from the whole period of his acquaintance
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with the events and people of the neighborhood, to show you many an occurrence of thrilling interest. But that is not the purpose of this history, which is confined in each chapter to the incidents of twelve calendar months. It must consider one year at a time. Let us see now what we can make of the last.
It is stated in the preceding chapter, written just a year ago, that the roads were then "one deep gulf of mud," and the question was being agitated, " owing to the quantity of moisture in the ground, whether it is possible to get through in season with the necessary farm work ?" Now it is well to commence this record with a reminder of the character of the season which immediately followed. The whole month of April, then just begun, proved to be lovely. Perhaps a more favorable month for farm-work never was. The thermometer did not descend once so low as the freez- ing point, while fair weather filled the entire month, or nearly so. In making this reference to the weather I am rather encroaching on the province of your meteorologist, who will doubtless favor us with a full report; yet it seemed well, in a moral point of view, to recall a lesson for the benefit of the discontented brethren, which we shall all doubtless remember until the next time the wet or the dry weather shall continue to bother us a little longer than we would desire.
The season continued to be good for the chief farming crops. Rain was perhaps rather in excess, but its in- jurious influence was less marked than was anticipated. Probably no single production reached the amount per acre occasionally secured in former years. The high prices, however, ought to make up for any deficiencies, so that the profits of the farmer for the past year leave him little to complain of and much to be thankful for. Es-
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pecially is this the case with the potato-raisers, some of whom realized what would in old times have been con- sidered a small fortune. One of the members of the Junior Club reports an aggregate yield from their club alone of 10,000 bushels of this most valuable of roots, which is becoming one among the two or three most valuable staples of our neighborhood farms.
There has been no lack of energy apparent in the improvements going on in farm-implements, buildings or modes of tillage. The important subject of roads has received the attention it deserves, and the efforts made to procure a better system from the legislature have met with more than usual success. They need to be well followed, as no system will work of itself. Less success- ful, so far, have been the attempts to get up a railroad. Some new hopes are awakened, but as they are not founded on the absolute certainty which history requires, the subject must be ruled out of this chapter. Before leaving the account of material improvements, at least of considerable changes in such affairs, it is necessary to refer to the sale of a large tract of land near the centre of the neighborhood, and the parcelling of it out into small lots. This circumstance goes to secure the almost cer- tainty that a considerable part of our lands is destined to be cut up into small holdings, owned by the specially operative class. There has been much dispute among political economists who have deigned to discuss the sub- ject, whether this system is conducive to the welfare of an agricultural community. In the course of time we shall doubtless have the opportunity to illustrate the proposition in one way or the other.
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