USA > Maryland > Montgomery County > Sandy Spring > Annals of Sandy Spring history of a rural community in Maryland, Volume II > Part 4
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Another entertainment at the Grange Hall, in which our young ladies participated in the becoming
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costumes of the "Chocolate Girl" yielded a respect-, able sum for a charitable object.
Some delightful tea parties broke the monotony. The Hon. Alonzo Bell, of Washington, gave us a most interesting and instructive discourse entitled, "The Mission of Life." And with this variety of good things, the sameness of the winter months was greatly mitigated.
Second month, 23d, died our esteemed friend, Anna Miller, in her eighty-third year. Although liv- ing in Alexandria, she was so often with us, and so closely connected with Sandy Spring by ties of affec- tion and relationship, a memorial of her is not out of place here. Her active and useful life has been as a beautiful example and sermon to all who knew her. The mother of a large family, her calm and equable temperament that was as a rock of safety to resist the storms and vicissitudes of existence. It was her hap- py fortune to grow old gracefully, and time seemed scarcely to have touched her youthful tenderness, while on her face was reflected the beauty of a noble nature and pure heart. As a queen, was she among women, the love and care of numerous children, grand- children and greatgrandchildren was her kingdom. their devotion her throne.
I have but few notes for March, which came in like a lion and stayed like a polar bear, and if I had kept a record of the weather it could hardly have been thawed out in time for the annual meeting.
On Third month. 18th, the household at Cloverly was stricken with its first sorrow in the death of Ag- ness Hallowell Bentley, just five months old. Like
T
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an unfolded bud, in her innocent purity, she was laid away on the afternoon of the nineteenth.
"It is not growing like a tree, In bulk, doth make men better be; Nor standing long an oak,
Three hundred year.
To fall a log at last, dry, bald and sere. A lily of a day, is fairer, far, than they,
Although it fade and die that night;
It is the plant and flower of light,
In small proportions we just beauty see, And in short measure life may perfect be."
On the evening of third month, 24th, Dr. Francis Thomas entertained a large and appreciative audi- ence at the Lyceum with a graphic account of a recent trip to the New Orleans Exposition and through the Southern States.
Fourth month, 29th. Miss Phoebe Cozzans of St. Louis, delivered at the meeting-house an address on Temperance, which was enjoyed by many.
Fourth month. 31st. Mr. and Mrs. Marlowe lost their only child, a bright and promising boy of two years. Much sympathy was felt for them in this afflic- tion.
A few more items of general interest may be men- tioned.
The crops. of course, come first as of vital import- ance to farmers.
With the exception of fruit, they were abundant and excellent, but with wheat selling at from eighty to ninety cents per bushel, and potatoes from fifty to sixty cents, it has been a most unprofitable year to tillers of the soil.
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As a silver lining to this cloud all the necessaries of life have been exceeding low. If the merchant has paid us the merest pittance for our produce, we in turn have bought his goods cheaper than ever before. Perhaps we have had as much spending money as in past years, when a load of hay sold for one hundred dollars, and muslin was ninety cents a yard.
The secretary of the Enterprise Club writes me "they are all as poor as beggars," although one of their number raised on twenty-eight and a-half acres thirteen hundred and sixteen bushels of wheat, an average of forty-six bushels, ten pounds to the acre. The largest yield ever reported in the county.
From those farmers who make the dairy an import- ant branch, I have compiled a report; this does not include by any means the whole neighborhood, but is confined, with two exceptions, to members of the Enterprise and Montgomery Clubs.
Pounds of butter produced in the past year, 28,889, gallons of cream, 20,293.
· The erection at some central point of a "creamery," has been widely discused. At no distant day it will be an established fact. The milk from all the adjacent farms will be gathered in on the cooperative system, and with the aid of Swedish separators, and modern appliances, the vield of cream will be greatly increased, and individual labor diminished.
The bank has now on deposit over 200,000 dollars, and the Fire Insurance Company has increased its risks $630,701.00, in the past year, and now insures over $16,000,000 dollars worth of property.
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ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
A number of new houses have been built at Sandy Spring, along our main avenues, and at Ashton, and these rival metropolises will soon be shaking hands, and electing the same Mayor and Common Council.
Benjamin D. Palmer and Granville Farquhar have put up windmills for the introduction of water through their houses. Edward P. Thomas has built a stable, John C. Bentley a stable, and William Lea a palatial pig palace. The new house at Plainfield, began last year, has been finished and occupied. Thomas L. Moore has built a commodious house on a portion of Norwood farm, it is finely situated and has received the name of "Rutledge." From the fact that the young gentleman has recently made application for a ten days leave of absence from the insurance office to find a tenant for his new habitation, it is sur- mised that before many moons we will have another Benedict among us.
In the second month, a new postoffice was estab- lished midway between Spencerville and Sandy Spring, which was named Ednor, and Dr. Francis Thomas appointed postmaster. It will doubtless prove a great convenience to the forty-three families living within one mile of it.
The question of the erection of a telephone line be- tween Ashton and Rockville was agitated, but no de- cided steps taken to insure its completion.
The telegraph operator, Mr. Sullivan, kindly fur- nishes me with a full report of business done through- out the year. There were more messages sent and received in June than during any other month. Num-
. .
£
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ber of messages sent in the year, five hundred and twelve. Received five hundred and thirty-three.
The dedication of the Washington Monument, Feb- ruary 2Ist, was attended by a number of our citizens, and glimpses of this noble structure, from various points in our neighborhood, seem to connect us more closely than ever with the National Capital.
The young women of the neighborhood, not find- ing all they craved in the dozen or more societies already existing here, have established yet, another, which meets in the afternoon and adjourneth before "ye early candle light." As it has no semblance of de- pendence on the male sex, it is properly called "The Independent."
In spite of "hard times," most of our people have enjoyed their annual trips, and some of them, like the popular magazines, start out monthly for a change of scene and air.
In the early summer, a coaching party, comprising both sexes, and including the best baby its mother ever saw, rode several hundred miles through the beautiful valleys and mountains of Virginia, and judging by an agreeable account of it, given at Olney Grange, by one of the lady tourists, this rational mode of travel should be more generally adopted by farm- ers and their families.
Two or three persons from our neighborhood have crossed the ocean, a number visited New Orleans and Florida, and many taken shorter and less expensive trips.
We have welcomed the coming and sped the part- ing of some six or seven hundred guests during the
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past year, and had them with us at all seasons-a gocd many came on bicycles.
As the worthies in "yon old graveyard, lying low" plodded to meeting behind their safe, slow horses in bygone days-how little could they foresee their grandsons speeding over the country at the rate of ten or fifteen miles an hour on a lonesome vehicle, composed of a very large wheel, running after a very small wheel, and propelled by their own muscle! By what effort of the imagination can we see in the next century the flying machines anchored outside the meeting-house, and when the silent hour has passed, the little boys and girls who face me now, but will face the meeting then, will mount their winged car- riages, catch the favoring breeze, and soar away home, regardless of anything but the winds that blow, and the principles of aerial navigation. Perhaps in their upward flight, your future "Historian" will have to chronicle the loss of the very last "broad brim" ever known in Sandy Spring! !
My record would hardly be complete without some mention of the presidential campaign, which engrossed the time and attention of our people in the summer and fall of 1884. With five candidates in the field, and one of them a lady on a tricycle, there was ample scope for difference of opinion, discussion, abuse and vituperation. At the time of the election returns, and uncertainty attending the count, our telegraph office was besieged by eager voters, day and night, half of whom felt sure the country would go to destruction. and they could not survive the election of Cleveland ; the other half were filled with equally dismal forebod-
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ings should Blaine prove victorious. When the remot- est county was heard from, and the matter decided, the sky did not fall. To the astonishment of every one affairs went on much as usual, and all parties helped swell the immense crowd, thronging Washington on the fourth of March, to bid adieu to the outgoing and witness the incoming dynasty.
It is pleasant to note the fact that James P. Stab- ler has resumed his permanent abode among us and Madge Miller, after several years of study, has re- turned to Sandy Spring, our first graduate from Vas- sar College.
This year I have counted the bachelors, and there seems to be but twenty of them all told. In spite of the general use of barbed wire fences, most difficult to climb, several of them have escaped from our midst and married elsewhere. Meanwhile the solid phalanx of seventy-seven spinsters remains unbrok- e11. If they choose to wed, what possible resistance could a feeble minority of twenty make in the face of a determined and overwhelming majority. Let us hope this band of "unappropriated blessings" will go down illustrious in the Annals of Sandy Spring as having been all needed to help the married people along.
George Washington said "Agriculture is the most healthful, most useful and most noble employment of man," and he might have added the most unceas- ing. From the "first furrow of spring, to the last stack the snows of winter overtake in the field, the farmer pursues his varying round. The sowing of the seed, the constant cultivation, the gathering of
---
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the harvest, the storing and disposal of the crop," one duty treading closely upon the heels of the next, with cold, heat, and insect blight to be guarded against. Daily toil and eternal vigilance make the successful farmer.
If he seems to have comparatively small returns in cash for all this labor, he has at least great compensa- tion in a free and untrammeled life, and the satis- faction of accomplishing ends by legitimate means.
"Only after hardest striving Cometh sweet and perfect rest, Life is found to be worth living To the one who does his best."
But even after doing his best in this period of uni- versal business depression, the farmer has had his full share of embarrassment arising from the continued high price of labor and the low price of produce. It has become to many a serious question whether the land can be made to sustain the family in the present style of living, without returning to the strict economies and privations of former days.
Taken as a whole, the year has been uneventful. But each rolling season leaves its impress on . every human life and its surroundings.
To some of us, who have stood in anguish over our beloved dead, it seems that the past year has taken more from us than all the years to come can give.
In thinking what we might have done had we only known, we repeat with unavailing regret the words of the poet :
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"We'll read that book, we'll sing that song, But when, oh, when the days are long- When thoughts are free, and voices clear, Some happy time within the year; The days troop by with noiseless tread, The song unsung, the book unread.
"We'll see that friend, and make him feel The weight of friendship true as steel; Some flower of sympathy bestow- But time sweeps on with steady flow, Until, with quick reproachful tear, We lay our fiowers upon his bier.
"And still we walk the desert sands, And still with trifles fill our hands; While ever just beyond our reach, A fairer purpose shows to each The deeds we have not done, but willed, Remain to haunt us, unfulfilled."
CHAPTER III.
From Fourth Month, 1885. to Fourth Month, 1886.
Mr. and Mrs. Warwick P. Miller and four children go to Europe-Louis E. MeComas lectured-Locust year- Sunderland P. Gardener visited Sandy Spring-Disap- pearance of Philip Haviland-Local option petition signed by 3,550 names, presented to the Legislature by Delegate Philip D. Laird-A National College to educate farmers -- Obituaries of Mrs. B. D. Waters and Anma L. Moore.
When I complained a few weeks ago that items worthy of record had not been very numerous during
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the past year, it was suggested to me by a thoughtful friend, that most historians in seasons of great dearth, drew on their imaginations and made "history to or- der." This might avail your unfortunate chronicler if she were writing entirely for posterity, but what loop- hole of escape is there for the wildest flight of fancy, when everything must be set down and read out in the very face of her ancestors.
There is one subject that is common to all men and women kind, it is interesting alike to country born, and city bred, it is of vital importance to the inhabitants of all climes, from the pole to the equator, and like grim death it has "all seasons for its own." Unlike other topics, this of which I speak is never out of fashion, it is as old as time, as new as this morning's sunrise.
When Adam first met his beauteous Eve, he doubt- less began the first conversation with a pertinent re- mark on the weather, and I will commence my narra- tive by following this illustrious example.
On the 8th of Fourth month, 1883, the day after the annual meeting, there was quite a severe thunder- storm and on the 10th, by the way of violent contrast. a snow-storm.
April maintained her usual fickle and inconstant be- havior and, like a veritable coquette, held winter by one hand, as though reluctant to part from icy bonds and with the other, tried to grasp the hot sunshine of summer.
Those notable housewives who hurried reluctant lords and masters into early plowing of gardens, and abated not their activity until vegetables had been
.
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planted, were not a little dismayed to find a thick covering of snow rewarding their premature zeal.
Everything was decidedly backward, and there was much complaint among our farmers at the tardy grass growth, as they had been feeding stock since October.
We are very apt to forget, from year to year, and to feel that the present season is the worst ever known.
An extract from a diary kept in 1843, says "the mercury in the Third month of that year, was gen- erally below the freezing point in the morning and snow fell to the depth of fourteen inches."
The first peach tree flowered at Bloomfield, the 24th of Fourth month. Oats were not sown until the first of Fifth month, and finished plowing corn the 15th.
On Fourth month, 12th, the many friends of Mrs. Z. D. Waters were shocked to hear of her brief ill- ness and sudden death, and on the 14th, a large con- course followed her remains to the family burial- ground so near the home her presence and care had made beautiful and happy. She was most estimable in all her relations of life, and her bereaved husband and sons had the sincere sympathy of the community.
Fourth month, 22nd. Thomas L. Moore was mar- ried in Richmond, Virginia. to Miss Dorothy Allison, of that place. A large family party went from here to witness the ceremony, and on the 28th, a brilliant reception was given at Norwood to the bride and groom. Nearly the entire neighborhood, as well as many strangers from a distance, thronged that hos- pitable homestead to offer congratulations and good
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wishes to the young couple, just entering on new and untried paths.
Fourth month, 30th. The Hon. Louis E. McCom- as lectured at the Lyceum on the Dartmouth Col- lege Case, the verdict rendered then, by the best legal talent in the country, having given precedent to all other monopolies since. He was especially severe on the selfish and grasping policy of the Baltimore and Ohio R. R. Co., and advised all farmers throughout Maryland to fight this and all other aggressive and oppressive monopolies.
April merged into May and all nature was astir with the rising sap and sudden burst of vegetation.
"Robins on the tree tops, Blossoms in the grass, Green things growing Everywhere you pass; Sudden little breezes, Showers of silver dew, Black bough and bent twig Budding out anew;" Fine tree and willow tree, Fringed elm and larch, Don't you think that May time's Pleasanter than March?"
Towards the last of Fifth month, the farmer in his upturned furrow, and the lady digging in her flower . beds, unearthed a wonderful army of sappers and min- ers, the advance guard of the seventeen year locusts. By thousands and ten thousands, they crept to the sur- face, swarmed up the trees, cast off their shrouds, and appeared in brand-new spring suits. For six weeks
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the air was vibrant with their shrill singing. While Madam Locust was busy piercing the tender twigs and limbs, and depositing her eggs, Monsieur Locust occupied all his time in musical concerts! It is an old witticism-
"Happy the cicadas' lives,
Since they all have voiceless wives,
and perhaps the extreme rarity of such conjugal bliss ought to excuse such noisy demonstration over it. Day after day the papers teemed with lo- custs.
Science, ignorance, conjecture were exhausted on the buzzing insect. Our modern savants, emulating the ancient Greeks, ate locusts fried or stewed for breakfast. Meanwhile they came, they sang, they went, leaving the forests blighted and hideous with dead and fallen boughs, and remaining as much a mystery as when the Biblical Prophet declared in holy writ, "They come like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth stubble, and the land is, as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them, a deso- late wilderness." Even at the phenomenally slow rate with which unmarried girls grow old in Sandy Spring, I feel that some of us will have passed the first flush of youth when these original inhabitants of the soil return to convince us that seventeen years have again rolled over our young heads.
The spring meeting of the Montgomery County Agricultural Society, held at Rockville, the Ist of Sixth month, was well attended by our farmers, who made many purchases of machinery and implements.
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Our quarterly meeting on the 9th was, as usual, large and interesting to home folks, as well as visiting friends.
Sixth month, 17th. Samuel P., son of Edward P. and Mary Bentley Thomas, was born.
Despite the inevitable croakings and the fear of a poor yield, the wheat harvest was abundant, the weather extremely pleasant, and about the 25th of the month the hum of the mower and binder almost drowned the shrill cry of the ubiquitous locust.
In this month Charles Farquhar graduated as Doctor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylva- nia, the same college that had bestowed its diploma on his father, many years before.
Seventh month, 6th. Ethel, daughter of Allan and Lottie Farquhar, was born.
Seventh month, 17th. Thomas J. Lea, of Bright- on, was married to Anna G. Wilson, of Rockville.
All the loveliness of summer fruit, flower and heat, was now upon us, but there was no rest for the farm- er until grass and wheat were secured, and with the feeding of hungry men, canning and preserving and innumerable other duties, indoor activity rivaled that of the fields.
Perhaps if our greatgrandmothers could have paid us a spiritual visit on one of those hot July days, and had seen the convenient little kerosene stove on the dining-room table, and noticed the comparative ease with which jellies and preserves were cooked, unac- companied by any great degree of heat to the attend- ant, they might have felt they had lived and died too early in the present century.
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Coal and kerosene are more extensively used every year among us for heating and cooking purposes, and when unsightly wood piles have entirely van- ished, a coming generation may regard the old story, "Woodman spare that tree," a very superfluous pe- tition.
"Apples in the orchard, Mellowing one by one, Strawberries upturning Soft cheeks to the sun; Roses faint with sweetness,
Lilies fair of face, Drowsy scents and murmurs
Haunting every place;
Lengths of golden sunshine,
Moonlight bright as day,
Don't you think that summer's Pleasanter than May?"
All through the Eighth month our neighborhood was full of visitors, social enjoyment was at its height. Croquet and lawn-tennis in the mornings, picnics and baseball in the afternoons, riding parties in the evenings, dinners, teas and surprises all the time, probably convinced our city friends that to "plow and sow, and reap and mow," was not the sum total of farm life.
On the 22nd of this month, a very agreeable enter- tainment was given at the Lyceum. Music, tableaux, and twenty love-sick maidens in a scene from the opera of "Patience," surrounded a weary and dis -- gusted Bunthorne. Several visitors ably assisted our native talent on this occasion.
The Ninth month came in with fine, cool weather,
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and the crowds who thronged the fair grounds at Rockville, on the 2d, 3rd and 4th, were enabled to en- joy the really good exhibit in comfort. The varied products of house, garden and farm were most com- plete, and very noticeable were the fine herds of Jer- sey, Holstein and Devon cattle. Sandy Spring bore off premiums from every department.
It was in this month that our esteemed friends, Warwick P. and Mary M. Miller, started on a long contemplated trip to Europe, and the privileged few, who had the benefit of their delightful letters from for- eign lands, enjoyed their wanderings with them.
Many of our neighbors who had not gone to the mountain or seashore earlier in the season, indulged in short trips on excursions to Luray and Pen-Mar.
On the first of Tenth- month, Richard T. Bentley withdrew from the old mercantile firm at Sandy Spring, which his father had helped establish in 1817.
The annual exhibit of the Horticultural Society was omitted in the Tenth month, but all the various "clubs" and "associations" were in full tide, and so frequent were the weekly or monthly meetings at the various houses, it would seem sometimes as if social visiting was lost sight of, and society merged into so- cieties.
The forests glowed with brilliant colors, crisp morn- ings and bright days invited to long walks and rides. but the farmer and his army of helpers had little time for recreation or observation of the beauties of Octo- ber foliage. From early morn till dewy eve, his one idea was, potatoes, more potatoes, and still potatoes, -his one wish that he had a "patent hinge in his
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back," as he bent again and again to his tiresome task. Thousands and thousands of bushels over- flowed cellars, barns and bins, and still the plowshare . perseveringly brought to light more tubers. Quantity, however, exceeded quality, and many bushels were hardly worth the gathering-frequent showers re- tarded the task, and other farm work pressed-
"John in the corn field Pulling golden ears, Cousin George, with hound and horn,
Suddenly appears; Music ringing in the air,
Over woods and rocks,
Young Quakers, old Quakers, -
Followers of Fox.
High-Low-and Beulah,
Chase him to his den:
Friendly hunters hold the 'brush,'
As mightier than Penn.
Chestnuts in the ashes.
Bursting thro' the rind- Red leaf, gold leaf.
Whistling down the wind;
Housewife doing peaches All the afternoon- Don't you think that Autumn's Pleasanter than June?"
A large delegation of various ages attended Balti- more Yearly Meeting, the last of Tenth month, and a week or two afterwards, Sunderland P. Gardener, minister from New York State, who had addressed most acceptably that large gathering, preached in mid-week meeting here. His sermon was listened to with great interest by persons of all denomina- tions present.
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