USA > Maryland > Montgomery County > Sandy Spring > Annals of Sandy Spring history of a rural community in Maryland, Volume II > Part 8
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This industrious and estimable Friend was the main- stay of orphan and widowed nieces, and it can, with truth, be recorded of her life, "She hath done what she could," before she folded her tired hands for the long sleep.
She was buried at Woodside cemetery, on the af- ternoon of the 31st.
In the last week of March many of our people went to Washington to attend the "international council" of women. This was a brilliant assemblage of femi- nine wit, wisdom and grit.
Representatives from India, from different countries of Europe, and from all over our own broad land, met in conclave to discuss all philanthropic subjects, and to note the progress made in the past fifty years.
Women ministers, doctors, editors, lawyers, presi- dents of colleges and the woman master of Vineland Grange, and women workers representing hundreds
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of crafts now opened to female industry, had their say with startling emphasis and freedom.
" The history of the world can furnish no similar event where thousands of wives, mothers and sisters met in behalf of temperance, education, morality and equal rights of citizenship for all women, as well as all mankind.
Fourth month, 5th. Mrs. Zerelda Wallace, dele- gate from Indiana to the international council at Washington, gave us a very fine address at the Ly- ceum on "Woman Suffrage," as effecting the tem- perance cause.
This wonderful old lady of seventy-one years spoke with all the logical fluency of a lawyer, and all the vim of youth, and made addresses on four consecu- tive days at Ashton, Sandy Spring, Olney, and High- land, and on Ist day spoke in meeting in the morn- ing, and at the Friends' circle, in the afternoon. She is the stepmother of Gen. Lew Wallace, author of "Ben Hur," and the original of the beautiful mother character, depicted in that famous novel.
The most important improvement in our midst in the past year is the completion of a neat library building opposite Sandy Spring postoffice. Mary Fowler has been appointed librarian. Many new books have been added, the old volumes gathered to- gether again, and a renewal of usefulness and inter- est is at hand.
The library was established nearly fifty years ago by W. H. Farquhar, Richard T. Bentley, Caleb Stab- ler and others, and the books were kept in a room ad- joining Sandy Spring store. A few years ago they
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were moved to Sherwood school, and are now in a suitable, pleasant place, accessible to all.
The present generation, with its daily papers, fre- quent magazines, book clubs almost a surfeit of lit- erature, can form little idea of the pleasure and bene- fit the few hundred books, comprising the library, were to the generations gone or approaching middle age. It was certainly very solid, mental food offered to old and young alike, and I distinctly remember two very small girls, some thirty-five years ago, who were told, that if they would carefully peruse the several weighty volumns of Agnes Strickland's "Queens of England" they might, as a reward, read one novel. the "Lamplighter," then just published; no other work of fiction since has ever had just the same flav- or as this first taste of forbidden fruit.
Henry Ward Beecher said, "How still and peaceful is a library. It seems quiet as the grave, tranquil as heaven, a cool collection of the thoughts of the men of all times, and yet approach and, open the pages and you find them full of dissertations and disputes ; alive, with abuse and detractions, a huge many volumed satire upon man, written by himself. What a broad thing is a library ; all shades of opinions, reflected on its catholic bosom as the sunbeams and shadows of a summer's day upon the ample mirrors of a lake. Books are not made for furniture, but there is noth- ing else so beautifully furnishes a house ; the plainest row of books is more significant of refinement than the most elaborately carved chair or sideboard."
Books are the windows through which the soul looks out. Children learn to read by being in their
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presence, and a little library, growing larger every year, is an honorable part of a man's history. It is not a luxury, but one of the necessaries of life."
What an excellent thing it would be if some parti- cular date in the year could be set apart, like a feast or a saint's day, for returning all borrowed books to their owners !
There is a law in Japan, that on a certain day, if just obligations remain unpaid, the creditor can re- move the front door of the debtor and retain it until the debt is liquidated. If this custom prevailed here in regard to borrowed books how many of us would have the use of our own front doors at this very mo- ment ?
Your historian's suggestion that some one should build a store to the new glass doors, that seemed al- most a youthful impertinence on the face of the time-honored structure at Sandy Spring, has been acted on, and a convenient and commodious building has arisen by, and on the old foundation.
An addition and change of front has altered Gid- eon Gilpin's house into a picturesque cottage.
Outbuildings and shops have been erected at Philip Stabler's and J. T. Moore's junior.
Two rooms have been added to the house occu- pied by Samuel Wetherald, at Ashton, and Admiral Jouett has still another attraction at the "Anchorage," in the shape of a conservatory. Let us hope in the very distant future he will be the healthiest and finest cen- tury plant to be found in it.
Mary, Annie and Alice. Stabler, have purchased
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Maple Grove near Brighton, and rechristened it Glad- wyn.
R. Rowland Moore bought land adjoining Amer- sley, from Frederick Stabler.
As though last year's exodus of mankind was not sufficiently depressing to the numerous girls left be- hind them, I have to chronicle still other departures this year :
Richard I. Lea has gone to Doylestown, Pa., to take charge of a fancy farm, and Joseph Gilpin has gone to Atlanta, Georgia, to live.
George B. Miller, after many months at home and in health resorts, seeking a cure for a distressing mala- dy, returned to his situation in St. Louis, and with commendable spirit and determination, although still on crutches, resumed his business activity. ·
In Buckles' comprehensive work, the "History of Civilization in England," occurs this sentence: "It is not merely the crimes of men which are marked by a uniformity of sequence, even the number of mar- riages annually contracted is determined not by the temper and wishes of individuals, but by large gen- eral facts. It is now known that marriages bear a fixed and definite relation to the price of corn, and in England the experience of a century has proved that instead of having any connection with personal feel- ings they are regulated by the average earnings of the great mass of the people, so that this immense social and religious institution is not only swayed, but is completely controlled, by the price of food and the rate of wages."
Now if this be true of corn in England, may it not
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also be true of potatoes in Sandy Spring, and perhaps . the unusual number of marriages recorded in the past year is all due to the 70,000 bushels of potatoes raised in this vicinity in 1887.
""No more of your nonsense About oysters and fishes, And puddings and dumplings And delicate dishes- But give me the thing That is more to my wishes- I mean a good Irish potato.
"The Dutchman contented,
Will sit at his ease,
To feast upon sauerkraut, Smearcase and cheese- But who in his senses
Would meddle with these When he could get a good Irish potato?
"The Yankees may praise Their sweet pumpkin pie,
Their pork and molasses Together they fry;
But all such strong food
I gladly pass by, To dine upon Irish potato.
"The Buckskins with pride May vauntingly boast Of their fried and their boiled- Their baked and their roast- But, oh, how insipid The dainties they toast,
When compared to an Irish potato!
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"When you see a damsel With cheeks like a rose, And eagerly courted
By Sandy Spring beaus-
Without hesitation you straightway suppose, She was raised upon Irish potato."
Apart from the large yield of tubers all other crops were poor, and, as the lamentations of Job, was the perpetual cry of "hard times" among the farmers, I must not omit, however, the immense quantity of rag- weed gathered by our enterprising friend, Charles Stabler. He not only cut all on his own place, but early and late his mower might be seen operating on his neighbors' farms, until every ill ragweed growing apace was laid low.
He informs me that he found this new and original product excellent for bedding, and that sheep eat it readily.
We now have five railroads running through and around us,-on paper.
No. I .- From Washington to' Frederick.
. No. 2 .- Narrow gauge from Sandy Spring to Washington.
No. 3 .- Extension of Catonsville short line to Rockville by Ellicott City.
No. 4 .- Extension of the Harrisburg and Gettys- burg, from Gettysburg to Washington.
No. 5 .- Narrow gauge from Laurel to Olney, un- der charge of Montgomery club.
Though the ground has not yet been broken, or the stock issued, or the president elected, where there is so much smoke, there must be some fire, and perhaps
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in the near future, our only difficulty will be to know which line to patronize.
Those who are not presidents of the various roads, can be directors. Free passes will abound, the iron horse will draw our produce to market, our farms will soon be converted into town lots by this net- work of rails and we will become a suburb of Wash- ington.
After many false alarms, and years of weary waiting, we will have an embarrassment of riches, and perhaps find ourselves in the trying position of that pious col- ored brother, who prayed fervently in a season of drought for rain to make his cabbage grow; pres- ently a flood descended and washed them all away, when he again fell on his knees and said, "O Lord, I did not ask thee for a flood, but only a gentle drizzle, drizzle."
I have heard that time never passes as swiftly as when one has a promissory note to pay, and I can testify that this record of the year has much the same effect.
The days, weeks and months, between the annual meetings, glide by with lightning rapidity, and find me again confronting you wth a sinking heart and a promissory note in my hand.'
Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "There is nothing on earth that keeps its youth, so far as I know, but a tree and truth," and history may be compared to a grow- ing tree with its roots firmly embedded in the past : its sturdy trunk to the great events of life, birth, mar- riage, death, its limbs turning and twisting, crowding one upon the other, sometimes growing out of all
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symmetry to catch the light; these are the circum- stances that surround and mould us, the tiny twigs and canopy of leaves ; these are the occupations, the comforts, the pleasures, the harmonious whole of life and its record. The flower and the fruit are our deeds, without which all else is of little value.
Great men and great deeds are but few in the world's history, and the annals of a country neighbor- hood must deal largely with little things.
Like the "tree and truth," while my chronicle is always growing older, it is ever renewing its youth in those small events which make up, year after year, the sum of existence.
We must bear in mind that while "trifles make per- fection, perfection is no trifle, and unless the little things are well done, the broken thread, the dropped stitch here, and there, will mar and finally destroy all the beauty and utility of the web and woof of life.
"Great deeds are trumpeted, Loud bells are rung.
And men turn to see The high peaks echo to the pean's song,
O'er some great victory;
And yet, great deeds are few- The mightiest men
Find opportunities but now and then.
"Shall man sit idle Through long days of peace, Waiting for walls to scale? Or lie in port until Some golden fleece Lures him to face the gale?
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There's work enough-why idly, then delay? His works count most
Who labors every day.
"The bravest lives are those to duty wed,
Whose deeds, both great and small
Are close-knit strands
Of one unbroken thread,
Where Love enables all. The world may sound no trumpet,
Ring no bells,
In books of life the shining record tells."
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CHAPTER VI.
From Fourth Month, 1888, to Fourth Month, 1889.
Barn and outbuildings burned at Belmont-George Ken- nan, Moncure D. Conway and the Rev. J. S. Kieffer lectured-Many transfers of property-Obituaries of Henry Pierce, Sallie Lea, Mary L. Roberts, Mrs. Wash- ington B. Chichester, Mary Lea Stabler, Elma Paxon, John H. Strain, Sarah B. Farquhar, William S. Bond, . Margaret B. Farquhar, Rebecca Russell and Deborah Brooke.
All men and all women have their antipathies. James Ist could not look upon a glittering sword, Roger Bacon fainted at the sight of an apple ; and blank paper, about March and April, fills your "his- torian" with antipathy and melancholy apprehension.
There is an all-pervading sense that the "Annual Meeting" is approaching. I feel it in the March winds, I know it by every expanding bud and grow- ing grass blade.
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As the full moon of April rolls nearer, and nearer, I become more and more depressed with the knowl- edge that my two or three pages of notes must ex- pand into the year's history, that many sheets of blank paper must be filled with a suitable narrative to offer to my audience of friends and critics.
Fourth month, 26th, 1888, Henry Pierce, a very old resident of Sandy Spring, died in his ninetieth year. He had been an "old line whig," in later years an ar- dent republican, and, despite age and infirmity, voted when opportunity offered.
Fifth month, 4th. Our Friend, Sallie Lea, passed away in her seventieth year. For a quarter of a cen- tury she had been a helpless invalid from a painful malady contracted while nursing the Union soldiers in the hospitals, during the war of the Rebellion, but from her sick-chair she wielded an influence not often . accorded to the well and active. She kept house al- ways, and welcomed her numerous visitors with un- failing cordiality and interest in the outside world, which they brought to her.
Her patience and cheerfulness, under severe phy- sical affliction, was a sermon and example to all.
Her keen sense of humor, her terse and original modes of expression, her hatred of all affectation or sham, her extensive knowledge of books and more especially of human nature, made her an agreeable companion.
She delighted to impart to the young her taste for French, Italian. and other foreign languages, and she . was a teacher all her invalid life, which seemed full of physical and mental activity and a persistent indus-
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try that defied the inroads of disease.
She contemplated and talked of her release from suffering as the most desirable change that could oc- cur, and death came to her as a beneficent friend.
She was laid to rest in the lovely, shaded grove in Woodside cemetery on Ist day afternoon. A very large concourse assembling to attest the universal affection and esteem in which she was held.
Sixth month, 7th. Donald, son of Charles F. and Annie Brooke Kirk, was born.
We only had three or four clear days in May, and my note-book records a weary season of pouring rains and a vain effort to get our gardens fairly started. While we could not follow the old rule, "to sow dry and to set wet," everything seemed to sprout and grow with astonishing rapidity, and the yearly miracle of . returning vegetation was all the more wonderful from · its suddenness.
The last of Fifth month, William W. Moore was sent as delegate to the prohibition convention at Indianapolis, and later in the season was nominated by his party as a candidate for the United States House of Representatives from this district.
Sixth month, 5th. Elizabeth F., daughter of Ed- ward and Annie Gilpin, was married by Episcopal ceremony, at her home, Walnut Hill, to Nathaniel B. Hogg, jr., of Western Pennsylvania. The house was so beautifully and profusely decorated it was called the rose wedding. The young couple left immediate- ly for Brownsville, Pennsylvania, their future home.
Our quarterly meeting. Sixth month, 9th, was smaller than usual, but greatly enjoyed.
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Sixth month, 18th. Mary L. Roberts died in her seventy-seventh year. The devoted friend and com- panion of her latter years prepared, by request, the following tribute to her memory :
Longfellow has said,
"Lives of great men all remind us, We may make our lives sublime, And departing, leave behind us, Footprints on the sands of time."
But the life of this good woman, whose early sub- mission to the divine will when under affliction, her self-denial for the welfare of others, her noble chari- ties and deeds of benevolence, all attesting her great worth, was truly sublime, and she has left "footprints on the sands of time" worthy to be followed by any wishing to attain true excellence of character.
Her indomitable courage and strength of purpose were evinced when her father had sustained a severe loss by fire. She, though lame, and only in her eigh- teenth year, came to the rescue and prevailed on her parents, John and Eliza Needles, to allow her to open a "notion store" in their parlor.
There she, with the aid of a younger sister, estab- lished the business that has gone on increasing for more than fifty years, and is still known in Baltimore as the firm of John Needles & Son.
It was in this little store she first met B. Rush Rob- erts, who afterwards became her husband, the sharer of all her joys and sorrows, her helper in every good work.
They were married in 1836, a union resulting in un-
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alloyed happiness, they living together in the utmost harmony for over forty years.
She often related to her young friends contemplat- ing marriage the following incident. She had ex- pressed a desire to have certain things she deemed necessary in housekeeping. When her husband's busi- ness had prospered sufficiently to admit of greater outlay, he told her to make out a list of such articles as she wanted, and he would get them, as he was now able to gratify her wishes. She said, "I have been thinking over the matter and find there is such a dif- ference between wants and needs, I have decided we do not need anything, and our wants could never be supplied."
Another instance of her sound judgment and com- mendable economy : Denying themselves luxuries, while young, enabled them to be generous in after years, and often when aiding some good cause she would say, "this is the ice-cream we did not eat, or the rides we did not take."
Having no children, they contributed largely to as- sist in educating the children of others, defraying each year the expenses of one or more girls or boys at some good school.
This generosity was continued after her husband's death, as long as she survived him.
Her benevolence knew no station, sect or color, as the destitute around her could testify to her daily charities to them.
They moved to Sandy Spring from Baltimore in 1851, where they, together, dispensed the hospitalities of the Sherwood home to their numerous friends,
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thus radiating happiness from their own hearts to give happiness to others.
For years after the death of her husband in 1880, she seemed crushed by this great bereavement, but at length, by her reliance on the "everlasting arms," she became resigned to the separation, being satis- fied of a reunion in the life beyond the grave.
During the long and painful illness, which preceded her death, she was seldom heard to complain, and when her sister remarked to her, "I think thee is bet- ter today, and hope thee will soon be well," she said, "either way, it will be all right," thus showing her perfect faith in the "Divine love."
When she became reconciled to live, it seemed then as if she was fitted to die, and enter into the spiritual fruition of her hopes.
I will close this tribute with a few extracts from the various written and published testimonials to her worth.
From the Daily Local News, of West Chester, Pa., I copy the folowing :
"The charm of her manners and loveliness of dis- position, endeared her to a wide circle of loving and admiring friends. At an earlier period of her life she was regarded as a writer of no mean ability, having prepared several published memorials of deceased Friends, as well as other articles of considerable merit."
From the "minutes" of "The Woman's Associa- tion," of which she was the originator, "she might al- most be called the mother of this society ; by her death a link in the chain which bound us together has been
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broken. Her place is vacant in the meeting, in the as- sociation, and in the family circle, and we who have felt the influence of her pleasant smile, and kindly words, realize that we have lost a friend and counsellor whose example we might follow."
From a tribute by Alpheus B. Sharp, in "Friends' Intelligencer," the following :
"From the time I entered their house, a boy and perfect stranger, I felt at home and happy, nor can I recall a single incident that gave me the slightest pain. In the years that have followed, scarcely a day passes that I do not recur with pleasure to my life there, re- calling many pleasant things prompted by her kindly thought for her family. It is useless for me to refer to her great value in the Society of Friends, of which she was a devoted member. I was one of her boys, and I cannot pass her death by without some ex- pression of my regard. Friends, relatives and the public have lost in her one not easily replaced."
E. H.
In this month, Charles M. Iddings received his diploma as Doctor of Medicine, and joined his father in practice at Sandy Spring.
Sixth month, 19th. The Chicago convention met and this district sent Benjamin'H. Miller as delegate.
The heat of the political contest was only exceeded by the heat of the weather, swiftly followed by fires and blankets, as the contestants and atmosphere cooled off .- but from this time until November, the people talked, the papers teemed, the very air was electrified with one subject, the merits of high and low tariff, of "free trade" or "protection" Life-long republicans
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announced their intention of voting for the demo- cratic candidate, old Jackson democrats hastened in- to the republican camp. Some remained on the fence hoping that safety and salvation lay in not voting at all or getting down on either side. A few said they wished Mrs. Cleveland was married to General Harri- son.
When the election returns flashed over the wires, an astonished republican party found themselves victor- ious, a still more amazed democratic constituency were obliged to acknowledge defeat.
So doubtful had seemed the issue, and so numerous were the bets upon it, that even in our quiet com- munity, some persons paid the penalty of indiscreet wagers. Soon after the decisive day in November, on a certain evening, various triumphant republicans were wheeled in wheelbarrows from Ashton to Sandy Spring and back again, while Squire Fairall drew in a wood cart his staunch republican neighbor, Gideon Gilpin, and James B. Hallowell tried the efficacy of the cold water treatment on Louis Stabler.
Some soaking rains incommoded the farmers the latter part of June and their minds were filled with the firm conviction that the wheat would rust, or sprout in the "shock," and when very little damage was dis- covered they forgot all their unhappy predictions.
Seventh month, Ist. Washington B. Chichester suffered severe bereavement in the death of his wife, and his family felt keenly the loss of a most devoted mother.
For many years this estimable lady had been promi- nent, socially and in the Grange. Dying while still in
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the prime of life, and full tide of usefulness, her loss extended far beyond her domestic circle.
In this month came our hottest days and nights, and those who could, sought cool retreats in the mountains or where "salt breezes blew." Some went down to the sea in ships, but words are inadequate to describe their sufferings, or the eagerness with which they trod the land again.
Some years ago, a writer, whose name was probably "anonymous," published a thoughtful article, fully il- lustrated, on that old and vexatious question of "How To Keep The Boys On The Farm." Your historian does not now recall much of this able paper, except the pictures, of which there were several.
One of these represented the boy, whom it was thought desirable to keep on the farm, confined in a burglar-proof room, with heavy bars on the win- dows and so forth. The author argued that there was nothing better to keep a boy away from the tempta- tions and snares of city life than this.
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