USA > Maryland > Montgomery County > Sandy Spring > Annals of Sandy Spring history of a rural community in Maryland, Volume III > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29
While the stream of "summer people" was at its flood, the Lyceum Company gave a musical for its own benefit, August 26, using all the talent-native and imported-within reach, to good effect.
On the following afternoon some of our enterpris- ing young women, Emma T., Mary M. and Lillie B. Stabler, Helen G. Miller and Mary Magruder held in the Lyceum a sale of their handiwork, which was well patronized; and on the evening of the 28 the Sharp Street Choir gave a concert, which was well worth hearing.
-
226
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
On the 1 of September, a crowd of relatives and a few others gathered at Amersley to congratulate Tarlton B. and Rebecca T. Stabler on the tenth an- niversary of their marriage; a cart load, at least, of useful tinware attesting their good wishes.
On September 4, fifty-three Sandy Springers-the largest number of them that ever went anywhere in one company-attended the Friends' General Con- ference, at Asbury Park, New Jersey. There we spent a week of varied pleasure, with the endless good things of the official program; many other good things not provided by the Conference Committee of Arrangements ; opportunities for social intercourse with the most delightful people; and, always the changeful beauty of the sea. The only difficulty was to choose among them all, and the one possible cause of after-dissatisfaction was the limited nature of human capacity-the impossibility of doing all the pleasant things at one time !
Conference week was over all too soon, but about half of our delegation had a chance to review its de- lights at a reunion at Clifton, on the evening of the 27.
September 11, Thomas Moore, son of Margaret C. and Milton Bancroft, was born at Norwood.
September 15, Edward P. and Mary Bentley Thomas gave a large and pleasant reception at Bel- mont, for their son E. Clifton Thomas, and his bride. Elsie Manakee, of Washington.
September 19, Rev. Anna H. Shaw, of Philadel-
227
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
phia, gave, at the Lyceum, a most interesting and instructive lecture on "Colonization and Civiliza- tion," based on observations made during a recent visit to Cuba and Porto Rico. Her audience con- sisted of a fair number of women, and seven men!
A sight rare enough to cause remark was the work begun in the summer on the turnpike between Olney and Ashton; there had been no "gardening" done on it for years before, but the methods used now have made the benefits questionable !
Sherwood school opened about the usual time; Alice V. Farquhar, principal; Sarah B. Farquhar, Sallie P. Brooke and Mary Moore Thomas, assistants. They had the largest enrollment of pupils the school has ever known, and a very prosperous year, without serious interruption by weather or illness.
The gymnasium, under Sarah B. Farquhar's man- agement, has been a source of much pleasure and profit to the school children, and to some adult classes besides. **
Eliza M. II. Chilchester, more or less in connec- tion with Sherwood, has had a larger number of music pupils than ever before, and Margaret C. Ban- croft has given French lessons to various persons- young and less young.
This year Harry Wetherald secured a position in the De Laval Steam Turbine Engine Works, in Tren- ton, N. J .. and T. Hynson Canby took a situation with a firm manufacturing dynamos, etc .. in Column- bus, Ohio.
228
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
September 27, Francis Townsend, son of May Woodward and Mahlon Kirk, Jr., was born at Wood- burn.
"September 30, Rear-Admiral James E. Jouett, U. S. N., passed away at the Anchorage, at the age of seventy-six years, and was buried with military honors on the 3 October, at beautiful Arlington.
"He had been long identified with this neighbor- hood, it having been his home most of the time since 1885, and even after failing health demanded a milder climate, he would return from his Florida residence each summer to pass a few months with old friends here.
"In character, Admiral Jouett was unique; there never was another like him.
"He was a born sailor-his splendid physique, his great courage, his almost superhuman energy, his ex- cellent judgment, his keen sense of duty and of just- ice, and withal his warm, generous heart, were traits which went to make him our ideal Admiral.
"Open handed to a fault, he was always giving to others, often to the point of leaving his own needs unprovided for.
"Age did not blunt his capacity for entertaining anybody whom he might be with, and his lifetime of travel and adventure gave him a fund of anecdotes to fit all occasions.
"His passion for fox-hunting was second only to his love for his profession, and he maintained various packs of hounds, in this State and in Florida.
229
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
"The Nation acknowledged his many acts of brav- ery by retiring him on full pay-the second instance of the kind on record-but from his stirring life, we have now only time to dwell on a few deeds that seem specially characteristic.
"Graduated from the Naval Academy, in 1847, after serving as midshipman in the Mexican War, the outbreak of the Civil War found him a Lieuten- ant on the frigate Santee, where he immediately made himself conspicuous by his daring capture of the Con- federate ram, Royal Yacht, off Galveston.
"The Navy Department, to express appreciation for so 'daring and successful an exploit,' raised him to the command of the gun-boat Metacomet.
"In the battle of Mobile Bay he gained the highest praise from Admiral Farragut, for his 'intrepid bravery.' This was illustrated by an incident at the close of the engagement. In hot pursuit of the Con- federate boat Selma, Admiral Jouett called the leads- man from the chains because the reports showed bare- ly a foot of water under his vessel's keel, for, he said, such reports 'demoralized him,' and he 'would fol- low the Confederate ship to its capture, if it took him to the bottom.'
"In 1885, Admiral Jouett received unstinted ap- proval from the Nation at large, as well as from the Department, for his prompt and tactful services at the time of the revolution in the Isthmus of Panama, where his interposition saved great loss of life and property.
230
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
"His vivid personality stands out in memory so strongly that it seems almost impossible to realize that his life is closed. If he had faults, shall we not draw the mantle of charity over them in our memory, and breathe a requiem for his departed spirit ?" (J. C. B. & A. O. P.)
Heavy rains came early in October, but the County Fair, October 6-10, found enough clear days for its purpose. It had been postponed because the enlargement of the race track and other improve- ments on the premises were not finished, and then the time finally set for it conflicted with the date of the G. A. R. encampment in Washington. Still the Fair was well attended, and once more Caleb and Tarlton B. Stabler carried off the palm with their stock. A number of our house-keepers exhibited also, which of course, is equivalent to saying that they took premiums.
There was, however, so much of gambling and of other things of a demoralizing tendency on the grounds, that the Grand Jury, at the November term of Court, found an indictment against the Board of Managers; unfortunately the case did not come to trial, but it is to be hoped that the Directors will be more careful after such a rebuke.
October 8, Edward P. Thomas went, by appoint- ment of Governor Smith, as Maryland's delegate to a national convention of farmers in Macon, Ga., and then to Florida on an excursion given the Convention by the Georgia farmers.
1
231
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
October 14, Mary Moore, daughter of Mariana S. and Robert H. Miller, was born at The Highlands.
October 11-13, the Orthodox Friends held a pleas- ant Quarterly Meeting, though, on account of bad weather and a conference then in session in Indiana, the attendance of Friends from a distance was small.
On the 17, a company of some sixty people-sis- ters, cousins and aunts, together with uncles and brothers-surprised Granville and Martha T. Farqu- har in celebration of their twenty-fifth wedding- anniversary; they left the Mt. Olney silver-basket the heavier for various forks, spoons and dishes.
October 23, William H. Gilpin and Evangeline Stabler were married by Friends' ceremony, at Sandy Spring meeting-house, at 4 p. m. The bride at the last wedding before this in the meeting-house, was Fanny B. Stabler, sister of the present bride, and their mother was the last one before them. It would seem as if the opponents of "trusts" should do some- thing to break up this family monopoly! Mr. and Mrs. Gilpin after a short wedding-trip, began house- keeping at their new home, long known as Gladwyn, but which they have rechristened Kentmere, for the old place of the Gilpin family in England.
Thanks to the courageous intervention of President Roosevelt, the great coal strike ended on October 23. and the miners again went to work. For five months the "anthracite situation" had been the staple topic of conversation, newspaper paragraphs and magazine articles, and a source of deep private anxiety pub- licly expressed, to "all sorts and conditions of men."
1
. 232
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
Now the strike was over, and every one breathed a sigh of relief, not so much because of
"Hope rekindling at the end descried,
So much as gladness that some end might be."
Then began the scrambling effort of the consumers to secure fuel, and "rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief" fared about alike in making a sort of hand to month provision for their needs, unless one happened to have a "pull" somewhere. Just where the respon- sibility for all the trouble lies, just what remedy should be applied, no one seems quite prepared to say, but all of us want something done about it, and want it now!
One of the effects of the coal famine was to in- crease very greatly the use of wood for fuel, and con- sequently there was a reckless hacking and hewing in our forests; another was the increased price of coal oil, which was largely used for cooking and heat- ing, though there were many new fuels invented to take the place of coal.
October 16-23, Sarah T. Miller and Cornelia N. Stabler, went as delegates to National W. C. T. U. Convention at Portland, Me.
Baltimore Yearly Meeting was attended by a smaller number of our people than usual, this year, though the revision of the Discipline made it a ses- sion of peculiar interest and importance.
Early in October autumn began to deck the woods with gold and scarlet, laving on with gentle hand. touch after touch, till the whole world was a splendid
. 233
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
blaze of color. Then seeming loath to disturb so much beauty, she by slow degrees replaced the bright- er tints with russet and crimson, till only a few re- maining leaves rustled sere and brown on the branches. It was the 14 of November before the pageant was ended.
The fall was remarkably mild, and whether it was the law of averages, working to even things up, or a Special Providence tempering the wind to our empty coal bins, the result was most pleasing. ·
Corn and tomatoes made a phenomenally long sea- son, being in general use up to the first of November or later; in the Mt. Airy garden the first tomatoes were gathered June 26, the last November 28. Cos- mos and chrysanthemums, even the late varieties, had time to bloom themselves out and go to seed; second- crop apples matured and were eaten at Rockland and Mt. Airy ; and a large second crop of raspberries was gathered in a garden near Norbeek.
Day after day the mercury stood at 70° or higher. and on November 28 a bouquet of thirteen kinds of flowers was gathered in The Cedars garden. On the 29 it turned suddenly cold, and we had the first ice of the season.
But though nature wore a smiling face, November was a month of sore trial and bereavement to Sandy Spring.
"On the 2. Washington Bowie Chichester died at Oatland, his residence in Olney district ..
"He was born in Leesburg, Va., and resided there
234.
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
until early manhood, when he came to live with his aunt, Margaret Bowie, at Oatland.
"The farm, after her death, became his own, and although he studied law with his uncle, Judge Rich- ard I. Bowie, his inclination was towards agriculture, rather than the practice of a profession. He became a successful farmer, greatly improving his home by new buildings, and his land by careful personal atten- tion.
"He married Miss Lydia Brown, and theirs was a home where hospitality was extended to visitors from near and far. Many who gathered around his social board will recall his handsome face, and courteous, genial manner with pleasure.
"He had litte desire for public office, seeking, rather, domestic and social pleasures.
"In all his business relations strict integrity marked his actions.
"His wife's death preceded his by years, and when after long months of invalidism he died, at the age of seventy-five, and his friends assembled at his fu- neral, to pay the last tribute of respect to his mem- ory, many of the large company represented the first friendships he had formed on coming to Montgom- ery." (M. B. M.)
On the 6 November Walter H. Brooke died.
"The son of Roger and Sarah Brooke, he was born at Willow Grove, October 24, 1841, and all his life was spent within a dozen miles of his birthplace. Farming and plumbing were his chief occupations ;
.18799
235
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
and his house, presided over by his wife Caroline Leggett Brooke, and brightened by the presence of four sons and one daughter, was always a home in the best and fullest sense of the word, because of the spirit of love and kindness that prevailed in it, and that was felt by all the many friends whose privilege it was to visit there.
"His illness was so short that his death, unex- pected, except by those nearest to him, came as a great shock to most of his friends.
"How so much of energy, life, brightness and geniality could be here with us, a part of us, and then be gone forever, is beyond our power to comprehend ; such a loss can but strengthen our belief in another and a better world. Our reason, as well as our faith, tells us that such qualities of heart and mind as he possessed, cannot be lost.
"I think I never knew a man who seemed to feel so kindly to all his fellow men, and his exceeding hospitality will be remembered by all who ever visited his home.
"I believe no one ever met him in the road and ex- changed 'good morning' with him, who did not feel the better for even this brief salutation. There was about him a peculiar geniality-an atmosphere of hearty good fellowship, which dispelled the clouds of cynicism and melancholy broading, and brightened the pathway of all he met.
"Since his death the words of Leigh Hunt's great poem, 'Abou Ben Adhem' have been often in my mind :
1
236
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
"'What writest thou ?' The vision raised its head, And with a book, made all of sweet accord,
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one ?" said Abou, "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still, and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one who loves his fellow-men."
The angel wrote and vanished. The next night It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.' " (C. F. K.)
Died, on the 13 November, George F. Nesbitt, Jr., son of George F. and Louisa P. Nesbitt.
"The dread shadow of what was to come had been over us for two years, but the end we still find it im- possible to realize.
"He was known to many of us from his infancy, and at this time his whole brief life of thirty-four years seems to come before us; the child, the bright joyous school-boy, and later the winsome, courteous gentleman which he became; the young husband and father, and then the competent man of affairs, whose locks were just touched with the gray that comes with young experience. In each and all of these phases he was true and lovable, and finally filled full 'the meas- ure of a man.'
"Seven years ago he was suggested as secretary of the Savings Institution of Sandy Spring, and
237
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
though still young, and his capacity in this direction unknown, he was elected, and the wisdom of the choice has since been abundantly proved. There was not a detail of the business of which he was not master, and it is only giving his memory its due to say that he infused into the Institution the spirit of his gen- ius, and so conducted its affairs as to more than do his share towards the achievement of its present suc- cess.
"It is natural to refer to the qualities of his mind, but we need not forget those of his heart; his respect and courtesy for all, his kindness and ready sym- pathy for each one he came in contact with, told of a goodness of heart, and a love of his fellows which made him universally beloved." (C. F. K.)
November 23, John Thomas' barn at Clifton caught fire, probably sometime about four' o'clock in the morning, and when discovered about five o'clock the flames had made it impossible to save any of its con- tents. Seven horses, four calves, hay and implements. and the gasoline pumping engine were lost, and only one calf and one horse badly singed, which escaped by some unknown agency, survived.
But for the direction of the wind away from them, the other buildings would all have gone, and their owner, who was ill at the time in hospital in Wash- ington, would have found himself homeless on his return.
The neigborhood went to the rescue as soon as the alarm could be given, and did all that could be done at the time and later; and steps towards rebuilding
238
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
were soon taken. The wooded hills by the Patuxent on Clifton farm will furnish all the lumber for the new structure, and they showed many busy scenes during March and April. One visitor saw fourteen men, eighteen horses, two traction engines and a shingle machine at work in this miniature lumber camp.
December 12, a wonderful sleet storm began, con- tinuing for four days ; the almost incessant rain freez- ing into an inch-thick coat on twigs and branches, til! the trees were bowed to the ground with the weight. The whole face of the earth was enameled with it. and when the sun came out for a few hours on Sun- day it showed a dazzling world of cut-glass and sil- ver, against a sky of summer blue.
The trees suffered little, but the telephone system did not come off so well, for when the weight of ice did not break the wires, it uprooted the poles from the soft ground, and the service was crippled for several days.
December 6, Anna Gilpin, daughter of E. W. and Sarah M. E. Haviland, was born at Haviland's Mills. . In December J. Hillis Robison bought out the plumbing business of the late Walter H. Brooke.
Through the winter there was a perfect epidemic of sales-J. Janney Shoemaker, Henry H. Miller, George E. Cooke, Charles F. Brooke, William M. Canby and James B. Hallowell all selling stock and farm implements, for one reason or another.
On the afternoon of December 17, Misses Kath-
239
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
erine R. Pettit, and May Stone of Kentucky gave to a large company of ladies at Mt. Airy, a most inter- esting and instructive account of their Social Settle- ment work among the Kentucky mountaineers. From their story, the need for their labors is deep, but the zeal of these attractive young women will do much towards supplying the wants of those hungry minds and souls.
The Christmas holidays passed quietly, as the neigh- borhood was in no mood for gaiety, but there were family gathering's at Norwood, Alloway and Brooke Place, and the Thomas family to the number of forty, met at Clifton on the 25 December.
About the end of the year Caroline L. and Cath- erine L. Brooke closed their house and went, for sev- eral months, to California ..
On the 12 January, the mercury registered 7º, so the temperature and the very slippery roads, and per- haps, also, the chance to cut ice, may have affected the attendance at the Farmers' Institute that day and the next. Something certainly made it disgracefully small, but the few present at the sessions at Olney Hall, found great pleasure and profit in the program Director Amoss furnished.
As heretofore, he was very happy in his choice of speakers; all were able and suggestive, but Messrs. Todd, of Ohio, and Convers, of New York, were men whose influence for good must be felt, not only along business lines, but also upon the moral and spiritual natures of their hearers.
240
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
Miss Jacobs, who had been with us before, showed again that cooking may be made a fine art by the right kind of a cook, and her "pudding" stood the test of "eating" too!
January 14, Mary Katherine, daughter of James T. Henderson, of Sherwood Mill, was married to Louis Walter Dorsey, in Philadelphia, Pa.
January 24, Ellen Farquhar and Rebecca T. Miller sailed from New York for a short stay in Bermuda ; and in February and March several parties went to Florida and New Orleans.
On the 28, the mercury rose to 64°, and there were several hard showers-half an inch in ten min- utes, in the morning; the result was the final depart- ure of the snow, and a great settling of the roads, which were dusty in a few days.
February 28, the black birds came, with their wel- come promise of spring, six days earlier than their earliest coming heretofore noted.
The Farmers' Convention at the Lyceum on the 24 was unusually favored, for the day was mild and bright, and the mud not very bad. Consequently everybody came; the attendance was estimated as high as 200, the largest of these conventions ever held here.
The proceedings were of unusual interest, too, and for the first time the presence of ladies was invited. Roger B. Farquhar discussed "The Place of the Gar- den in the Farm Economy ;" Dr. Francis Thomas, the relative profits of strawberry and potato raising ; John H. Janney questioned whether farmers derive all the
241
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
benefit they should from money spent on agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and on the Agri- . cultural Department. Francis Snowden offered sug- gestions as to how to make closer grow; and Robert H. Miller, on means of preventing land from wash- ing; Mr. Schonfarber, of the Maryland Bureau of Statistics, spoke on "Imported Labor."
March this year brought us something new in the way of weather! We have thought in times past that it had exhausted the possibilities along that line, but in 1903, it was actually mild and pleasant almost without interruption. To be sure, it rained, but it was warm rain that made the wheat fields look like green velvet, persuaded leaf-buds to open, and set the lawn-mowers to clattering; but it did not promote the planting of gardens, and it raised the streams to floods. One or two mornings there was a skim of ice on standing pools, and there was a suggestion of typical March in the wind on the 1 and 31, but from start to finish it was a spring month, not a disagree- able compendium of all the seasons, though on the 21 the first thunder storm came.
April has done her best to make up for all deficien- cies in March by winds, rains, and a sharp freeze on the night of the +, which, the croakers say has ruined the fruit crop; and up to the 12 April, there have been but six clear Sundays since October. But never- theless the world is greener than it has been at this date for several years, the young leaves and blossoms making a misty veil of beauty over forest and orch- ard, so long bare.
242
ANNALS OF SANDY SPRING.
March 16, Mary Bentley Thomas faced the chance of danger from high water, and went to New Or- leans to represent Maryland in the N. A. W. S. A. Convention.
Sherwood School, on March 13 gave a very admir- able entertainment at the Lyceum. Several musical numbers were followed by a series of beautiful tab- leaux illustrating "The Songs of Seven;" and the play, "A Case of Suspension," was bright, well acted, and particularly suited to the occasion.
On April 3, the body of Charles M. Stabler, son of Cornelia, and the late Francis Stabler, was laid to rest in the grave yard at the meeting-house, in the presence of many sorrowing friends.
Though he was not a native of Sandy Spring, he spent much time here, and he was so closely con- nected with us by ties of blood and of friendship that we must always feel that he belonged to us in part- to us it seems a great part.
All through his boyhood and young manhood he was often here, but we came to know and love him best during the two years, from 1891-1893, that he was principal of Sherwood School.
From that time he definitely abandoned the prac- tice of law, and devoted his life to teaching -- in the school-room and in our religious and philanthropic meetings. It is difficult to separate the two lines of work in his case, for his preaching and his school work were animated by so exactly the same beautiful spirit that the superstitious reverence for the min-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.