USA > Maryland > Montgomery County > Sandy Spring > Annals of Sandy Spring history of a rural community in Maryland, Volume II > Part 3
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We have a far-reaching reputation to sustain, and we can only do it by individual care and merit.
We are all justly proud, perhaps too proud, of our neighborhood, but without that pride and the efforts of our people to be what they seem to be to the out- side world, we could not have attained some excel- lence, which is the foundation of that reputation.
Those who are satisfied with the present history will be expected to furnish items for the historian in future, and those who are dissatisfied will be equally interested to make it attractive.
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CHAPTER II.
From Fourth Month, 1884, to Fourth Month, 1885.
Earthquake felt generally through Sandy Spring-Golden Weddings of Robert R. and Hadassah J. Moore, and William Henry and Margaret B. Farquhar -- Lectures by the Hon. Alonza Bell, Francis Thomas and Miss Phoebe Cozzens-Ednor postoffice established-Obitu- aries of Henry Brooke, Dr. Artemus Riggs, Benjamin D. Palmer, Jr., Anne T. Kirk, Anna Miller, Agnes H. Bentley and Samuel A. Janney-Reminiscences of Wil- liam John Thomas and Mahlon Chandlee.
One of our most eminent authors has well said that "all things are engaged in writing their history. The plant, the pebble, goes attended by its shadow ; the rolling rock leaves its scratches on the mountain ; the river, its channel in the soil; the animal, its bones in the stratum ; the fern and leaf their modest epitapli in the coal ; the falling drop makes its sculpture in the sand or stone ; not a footstep in the snow or along the ground but prints in characters, more or less lasting, a map of its march."
Every act of the man inscribes itself in the memories of his fellows and in his own manners and face. The air is filled with sounds, the sky with tokens, the ground is all signatures and every object covered over with hints which speak to the intelligence. We have made a long stride in outward comforts and con- veniences since our greatgrandmothers spun and wove, cut and fashioned their own raiment in the days
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gone by when six yards of "fip-penny-bit" calico was an ample dress pattern, and the protecting sun-bon- net was in vogue. Then our greatgrandfathers scratched the earth with a wooden plow, and raised from five to ten bushels of wheat to the acre-then they read their weekly paper by the light of a tallow dip, and their hours of retiring and rising were almost regulated by the sun.
In looking over an old memoranda dated 1823, I find that many friends paid "a fip-penny-bit" per quar- ter for meeting-dues, some "a levy," and a very few the munificent sum of fifty cents per quarter. Religion was remarkably cheap in those days, and probably of quite as good quality as the more costly kind of our generation. Among the same old bills and receipts, wheat is quoted at ninety cents, and corn fifty cents per bushel, and a laborer was paid seventy-five cents for digging a grave.
On the foundation of this primitive living our pros- perity is built, our history of today is linked insepar- ably with all yesterday's, and valuable and interesting to us must be the recollections and experiences of the older members of our community, bringing, as it were, the savor of their past to flavor our present.
Our respected friend, the late William John Thomas, wrote at the request of his children, not very long be- fore he died, some reminiscences of his early days, and in presenting to you extracts from them, few will recognize the Sandy Spring of his boyhood as we find it now. He says :
"I will not undertake to give the precise dates to many of the details here related, but as they appeared
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to my comprehension at the time. First, as being most central, and as an event for which I have a date, is the building of the meeting-house at Sandy Spring. I recollect riding up there before Uncle Johnnie Thomas on an old white mare called "Bonny ;" and my efforts to climb over the sleepers before the floors were laid, and while the carpenters were putting on the roof ; and later Uncle Johnnie sat at the head of the Meeting on one side, with Samuel Thomas and Roger Brooke on the upper bench, and Basil Brooke, Isaac Briggs, Thomas Moore, Bernard Gilpin, Caleb Bent- ley, William Thomas, Gerard Brooke, Richard Thomas and others on the benches facing the Meeting. De- borah Stabler, Margaret Judge and Hannah Wilson, ministers, with the two Mary Brookes and Hannah Briggs, occupied the upper benches on the other side of the House. Carriages were rather scarce in that time, but Roger Brooke had one, but he always rode horseback himself. Basil Brooke had one. with door opening behind; Thomas Moore had one; Isaac Briggs had one, with a long body; William Thomas had one, with three seats, holding from six to eight passengers ; Caleb Bentley and Bernard Gil- pin, with their families, mostly walked to Meeting, as did many others from Brookeville. The Meeting was larger on first days from 1813 to 1820 than it is now, in my judgment.
The old meeting-house, a frame building, was moved from where the present horse-sheds now stand, and was used for that purpose for many years. The sills are still doing duty under the present carriage- sheds. From 1813 to 1816 we had a large immigration
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to our vicinity, though many persons about that time kept on to the, then, far West, Ohio. A family by the name of Sappold lived then at Harewood. Amos Hor- ner, a very large man, lived on the Manor. David Newlin in Brookeville; John and William Thornton, at Centreville, just beyond Francis Miller's gate, where a tenant house now stands. One of these Brothers Thornton occupied for a short time the house where Richard T. Bentley lives now.
Headleys and other families lived over towards "Bradford's Rest." Allen West lived on Benjamin Palmer's place. About 1824, Wiliam Henry Stabler's home was built, and part of the house at Walnut Hill was built by Thomas Lea, all the brick being burned near the site of Oakwood Church, where more recent- ly, the brick was made for the house at Sherwood.
Arthur Foulke, a little man who wore small clothes, and had but one eye, lived where Robert H. Miller now owns.
At what date the Birdsalls came to Sandy Spring I do not know, but William lived at Centreville, near Stanmore. He then built the stone part of the house at Plainfield, where he resided until he went West, in "thirty-six." Andrew lived back of Samuel Thomas's house, now gone, William and Andrew built a mill there, to which Andrew's hired boy said he had to carry water in his cap after he got home from school to make the mill run. The mill did not survive its own- ers. John Birdsall lived where Rockland now is. Whether the log house he occupied was covered by the present imposing edifice, or removed, I do not know.
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Whitson Camby and family lived at Olney, a fam- ily by the name of Dennis at Willow Grove. Joseph Brown lived at Clifton. Thomas Moore resided there E. J. Hall now does, and was succeeded by Thomas L. Reese who kept a store there or at Brooke- ville. Later on Thomas McCormick had a store there. Basil Brooke lived where William Scofield does now. Bernard Gilpin at Mt. Airy, where he carried on the hatting business for many years. Evan Harry, an eccentric old man, followed the same trade. Hats were then made by hand, the workmen standing round a large boiler inclosed by platforms or tables so as to run the hot water back to the boiler, when the men dipped the wool and fur into the water and rubbed it on the table with their hands causing it to "felt."
It is strange to look back now to those days when there were no railroads, matches, daguerreotypes or telegraphs, and before machine felting was devised which soon interfered with the hand-made article. Almost every family had its hominy mortar, and spin- ning wheels, both large and small, for wool and flax.
My recollection of the commencement of Fair Hill School is rather indefinite, though we often had the parents of scholars at our house, and also some of the pupils.
I particularly recollect a boy named Proctor, and Mary Stretch, who is now the respected wife of Win- der W. Owens. Benjamin Hallowell spent his first night in Sandy Spring, under father's hospitable roof. Though I think he was so disgusted at having to walk from the turnpike, (Laurel was then not thought of), that he did not remember much about that even-
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ing. James P. Stabler and Caleb Bentley built the store and blacksmith shop at Sandy Spring, in 1818, and opened store the following year. Brookeville was quite a thriving village when I first knew it; it had been incorporated by Richard Thomas, who was evidently a "woman's rights man," as he named it in honor of his wife, who was a Brooke. There were two mills there, one owned by Richard Thomas for grinding grain, and one by David Newlin for grinding flaxseed for oil, two tanneries, two blacksmith's shops and several stores. Doctors Howard and Palmer at- tended the afflicted in the vicinity. I remember a little incident, which occurred when I first went to school in the old log house at Sandy Spring, and which has remained impressed on my mind since 1822.
Edward Stabler was preparing to build a barn, he had an Irishman, who drove his teams, by the name of William Clark, who was the father of James Clark, the now celebrated manager and ex-president of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. William Clark was hauling logs to Roger Brooke's mill, and become fast in the mud, just in front of where the Lyceum now stands, when Stephen Wilson ("Little Steve" we called him), got on the end of the wagon tongue and directed the men to back his team, which he did with the assistance of some of the larger boys, and thus was extricated from the difficulty; although light in body "little Steve" was weighty in advice.
The building of large barns by David Frame and Mahlon Chandlee, came to my knowledge as some- thing new; they still remain as monuments to these men.
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About 1823 and 1824, we had a more successful im- migration to our vicinity. Amos Farquhar's family took charge of Fair Hill, Thomas Lea's family came to Walnut Hill and Joshua Peirce's family to Black Meadow ; they are still represented among us by hon- orable descendants. Our friend, the late Benjamin Hallowell, made his appearance among us just about this time. I recollect his marriage, as also those of Edward, William Henry, and Caleb Stabler, which all occurred near together, and were consummated in public at the meeting-house."
You will notice with surprise, in the foregoing, how few families are living on the same farms now that they occupied in the early part of this century ; people, and some names have vanished from among us, as though they had never been. The venerable Mahlon Chandlee, now in his ninety-fifth year, has furnished me with a few items of interest relating to "ye olden time."
"When I first came to this farm," said he, "a young man of twenty-two, I thought there never was such a discouraging prospect ; the fields were covered with sedge, and blackberry vines, and the land washed in . deep gullies. I first built a mill and sawed out most of the lumber used in the construction of the meeting- house.
"For many years I worked incessantly with no thought of taking a trip, or any recreation except an occasional day off for fishing, a very cheap amuse- ment, and I am right fond of it yet.
"We went to bed early then, and got up with the sun, and had iew things to take care of, compared
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to this day. When a young man married then, he did not have to hire one or two women to wait on his wife, she did the indoor work, as he did the outdoor ;" and he added with a merry twinkle in his eye, "Cupid was more lively in those days, and marriages frequent. Dress, food and customs were all different."
"In the fall we slaughtered a beef, and this, with our pork, sufficed for the winter months. We had no fresh meats, or fish, or oysters then, but we raised a great quantity of cabbage and winter vegetables, and these, with our large store of apples, kept through the cold season. I do not think apples keep as they used to; the climate has greatly changed. We had deep snows that hid the fences from view, when I was a boy. I well remember," said the old gentleman, "going somewhere to dine, when a young man, and my indig- nation at having placed before me a dish of stewed to- matoes, or 'love apples,' as they were then called. I thought it outrageous to offer such food, but, now. I eat them all the year 'round, and find them good and wholesome." He complained of staying in the house through the long cold winter, and said he was anxious to be out, digging and planting his strawberry bed. for he still retains his industrious habits, and is al- most constantly employed, thus securing a contented and happy old age.
Leaving now these Annals of the past, and coming much nearer the present, my first record for the year is a snow-storm, which occurred 4th mo. oth. 1884.
Fortunately Dame Nature had been her own un- erring almanac, her buds and fruits were safely tucked under their winter bedclothes, and thus escaped a pre-
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mature death. The season was exceedingly backward, cold and cloudy, and "probabilities" was evidently working up samples of weather for the whole year ; April was more than half over before we realized the sap was rising, leaves unfolding, the garden must be planted, and spring work under way.
4th month, 30th, Samuel A. Janney, who had gone abroad for his health, died at Manchester, England, in his fifty-first year. His remains were brought home and buried 5th month, 22d, at Woodside Ceme- tery. The manner of his death, far from home and friends was extremely sad.
Fifth month, Ist, William Lea, had in successful op- eration the first potato-planter in this vicinity. This ingenious machine, performed with more speed, and greater certainity, the work of many hands.
On Fifth month, 15th. At a meeting of the Insur- ance Company, the following resolutions were read by Wmn. H. Farquhar, and seconded by Charles Abert, in some feeling remarks. "The Board of Direc- tors were very much interested in the morning session in being informed by Henry C. Hallowell, that we were all in effect celebrating the golden wedding of our Secretary, Robert R. Moore, and his wife, Hadas- sah J. The one being the most faithful of officers, well-known over the State of Maryland, the other, re- minding us at every meeting of her kindness in pro- viding us with the reviving influences of an acceptable mid-day entertainment. It is the unanimous feeling of the Board, that we should embrace this interesting occasion, to express our high respect for the parties most intimately concerned, and our hearty congratu-
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lations to them for having been spared in mutual hap- piness to a period so rarely attained, with our sincere wishes that the blessing may be continued so long as both may share."
Sixth month, 4th. A very successful spring meet- ing was held at Rockville of the Agricultural Society. Three out of four prizes for flowers were accorded our people. A great deal of farm machinery was pur- chased, and the day greatly enjoyed by a large gather- ing.
On Sixth month, 8th and 9th, with pleasant weather, and the luxuriance of summer bloom, came our Quarterly Meeting, not a very large attendance, but much interest manifested in the business affairs of the society by some of our young people.
Sixth month, 13th. Madam Nyman lectured at Stanmore on the higher education and business ca- pacity of women, an excellent discourse, delivered in a very charming manner, and meriting a larger audience.
On that same afternoon, relatives and interested friends gathered at Rockland to enjoy the closing ex- ercises of the school. and to wish God-speed to the bright young girls of the graduating class, who with diplomas in hand, fancied their school days over, when in truth they were but on the threshold of the har- der school of life. While many children from the far northern and southern states are being educated in our midst, some of our own young people have re- turned the compliment. and have enjoyed in the past year the advantages of a decided change of scene,
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climate and modes of education in northern and south- ern schools.
Sixth month, 13th. Henry Brooke, eldest child, and only son of Charles H. and Annie F. Brooke, died in his eighteenth year. Always delicate, his afflictions had been mitigated by the loving care and tenderness of his family ; an ardent lover of music, and an ex- cellent student, had he lived, his mind would have been his kingdom.
Sixth month, 19th. Dr. Riggs died after a linger- ing and painful illness; for many years he had been the faithful friend and physician of families in our neighborhood, although properly belonging to Brookeville.
Sixth month, 20th1. There was a successful barn- raising at Allan Brooke's. Perhaps in no way is the progress in this vicinity more marked than in the improvement and erection of outbuildings and barns. A good farmer in providing comfortable quarters for his stock, a secure place for implements and machin- ery, is protecting himself from constant loss and ex- pense.
Sixth month, 28th. William John, son of John and Kate D. Thomas, was born.
Seventh month, 13th. Henry Hallowell, son of Roger and Carrie M. Farquhar, was born.
Our numerous visitors at this time, taking their daily walks abroad, found themselves in the midst of a busy harvest scene. The mower and ingenious self- binder were familiar objects in many a field, and laid low the waving grain. The yield was abundant, and
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labor of securing the crops very great, but the weather was extremely pleasant.
Eighth month, 2nd. Benjamin D. Palmer, junior, infant son of Benjamin D. and Mollie M. Palmer, died very suddenly and as some one has beautifully said. only the parent's heart can know how "black a shad- ow a little grave can cast."
Eighth month, 10th. An earthquake, which ex- tended from Maine to Virginia, was severely felt in many houses at the time it occurred, and more per- sons felt it perceptibly the next day, after reading of it in the papers.
On the afternoon and evening of Eighth month, 13th, nearly the whole neighborhood, and many rela- tives from a distance, met at "The Cedars" to cele- brate the fiftieth wedding anniversary of our esteemed friends, William Henry and Margaret B. Farquhar.
The occasion was truly a golden one, in every par- ticular, after the toil and sorrows that are ever min- gled with the joys of life. This husband and wife have entered together the safe harbor of a peaceful old age, their children, happy and prosperous around them, friends, young and old, gather about them, and freight their remaining years with best wishes. Truly, might be said of them :
"Their wedded love is founded on esteem,
Which the fair merits of the mind engage;
For these are charms which never can decay,
But time, which gives new whiteness to the swan. Improves their lustre."
Eighth month, 27th. Annie Tyson, widow of Wil- liam Kirk, died after a brief illness at Jordan Alum
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Springs, Virginia. Spending much of her life among her many relations here, it seems proper to insert in this history a tribute to her fine mind, many accom- piishments and unusual charity of word and deed ; she thought and said the best of every one, and this is an epitaph that few merit or receive.
Ninth month, 3d, 4th and 5th. Many of our people enjoyed the County Fair at Rockville. The weather was hot, but clear; the exhibit the finest for years. especially of "live stock;" the attendance very large and the receipts most gratifying. Sandy Spring bore off many premiums for a great variety of products.
The summer had been so unusually pleasant, it seemed as if we should escape entirely any intense heat, but in the ninth month we had a torrid spel! that made up for all the cooling breezes we had en- joyed previously.
On the eleventh of ninth month, with the mercury climbing up into the nineties, the Horticultural So- ciety held its annual exhibition at the Lyceum. A promised cold wave did not appear, but the exhibit did, much more complete than usual, and the oc- casion was most enjoyable.
Henry C. Hallowell, the President of the Society, in his opening address, paid a beautiful and fitting tribute to his co-workers in past years, Alban Gilpen and Wil- liam John Thomas.
Mr. Philip D. Laird, of Rockville, spoke of the im- portance of farmers making their homes so attractive, their children would stay in them, and have no incen- tive to flock to the big cities. Mr. Charles Abert, favored us with an original poem.
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Ninth month, 18th. Dr. Augustus Stabler and Helen Snowden were married by Friends' ceremony at Ingleside. The happy couple joined our thriving Sandy Spring Colony at Lawrence, Mass., where they have established a pleasant home.
Tenth month, 14th. At White Hall, the residence of Samuel Hopkins, Joseph T. Moore, Jr., and Estelle Tyson were married according to the order of the Society of Friends.
This bride and groom, freighted with youth, hope and good wishes, came immediately to their comfor- table home at "Pen-y-Bryn," which loving hands had arranged for them.
In this month, the Plainfield families, separated since the fire, were reunited in their new house which had risen like the Phoenix, from the ashes of the old.
Long may they all live to enjoy this cheerful and commodious home, and, as the silver wedding of W. WV. and Mary E. Moore was celebrated beneath the old roof in 1883, let us hope their golden wedding may occur in the present structure in 1918.
Tenth month, 23d. Agnes Hallowell, daughter of John C. and Cornelia H. Bentley, was born.
Eleventh month, 29th. Harry, son of Samuel B. and Florence Wetherald, was born.
Twelfth month, Ioth. Catherine, daughter of Wil- liam and Annie W. Riggs, was born and died in a few hours.
Twelfth month, 17th. Clarice, daughter of J. Jan- ney and Helen R. Shoemaker, was born.
Twelfth month, 19th. The mercury fell below zero,
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and the beginning of an unusually cold and inclement winter was upon us.
Christmas day was bright and-clear, sleighing ex- cellent, and the merry jingle of bells resounded through the crisp air, as old and young hastened to the family meeting. Many a noble turkey, that bird so often sacrificed on the family altar, met its fate that day, and left its bones bleaching on the festive board.
New Year's day was scarcely observed, and but few formal calls made-perhaps everybody was engaged in drafting good resolutions for the future, or turning over the proverbial "new leaf."
First month, 20th. The Lyceum was filled with the farmers of Montgomery and adjoining counties, who had assembled, as had been their custom for sixteen years, to compare experiments and results in Agri- cultural practice.
Henry C. Hallowell was made chairman, and Allan Farquhar and Henry H. Miller secretaries of the con- vention.
The protection of sheep, the persistence of the hog thistle, ensilage, the question of introducing foreign labor and the use of various phosphates, were dis- cussed with great interest and profit.
The reports of the several clubs were most grati- fying. The "Boy," or youngest one of all, holding its own in honorable competition with its father and grandfather. The ladies furnished a bountiful lunch, of which several hundred partook.
First month, 22nd. Walter Scott and Lula Christ were married in Baltimore. by Episcopal ceremony. A large and pleasant reception was held that evening
العالى
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at the home of the newly-married couple in Sandy Spring.
First month, 23d. William Hill's house was en- tirely destroyed by fire.
The First and Second months may be fitly called the dead of winter.
The lifeless ttees sharply outlined against a grey sky, the frequent storm, the piercing cold, the death- like sleep of the brown and frozen earth waiting for the resurrection and the life of spring. But who among us does not feel that at this season comes the intellectual enjoyment often denied us, when fields are green, and a thousand distracting influences tempt us to outdoor scenes. In the long winter evenings we can draw the curtains, and with bright lights, glowing fires and our favorite books, taste all the pleasures of indoor country life. We were not, however, confined entirely to that cheapest and most lasting of all en- joyments, reading, for our energetic young people had a charming entertainment at the Lyceum, creditable 1 in every respect to the internal resources of our neighborhood. Warned, by the play of the "Deco- rative Sisters," it is hardly possible the Esthetic craze will break out in our midst. Our fields will not now be given over to the exclusive cultivation of the sun- flower, our churns and rolling pins will be guiltless of pictures of the cattail and the lily, neither will our barn doors and fences be decorated with the emblems of Oscar Wilde, or the Alderneys' horns tied up with sad-colored ribbons.
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