USA > Maryland > Montgomery County > Sandy Spring > Annals of Sandy Spring history of a rural community in Maryland, Volume III > Part 3
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electrify us, the Legislature was also Republican, but alas! not therefore also wise.
About this time E. P. Thomas built a two-story bay window to his house, and a convenient new cream- ery, his business having outgrown its old quarters ; and he also established at Roslyn, under the care of Dr. Augustus Stabler, a collecting depot for milk, which is sent thence to Belmont once a day for ship- ment to Washington.
An incidental result of the Belmont dairy business was an addition to John C. Bentley's barn, his grow- ing herd being tributary to that growing establish- ment.
Thanksgiving brought quite a number of visitors to Sandy Spring, and the following evening an illustrat- ed lecture on "Florence the Beautiful" was given to a large audience at the Lyceum by Percy M. Reese.
November 24, Walter H. and Caroline L. Brooke, assisted by many friends, celebrated their silver anni- versary.
During the fall, Frank Tatum moved with his family to the neighborhood of Lynchburg, Va., to take charge of a farm. Walter Scott and his wife went to Sabillasville, Md .; and earlier in the year Chas. G. Willson and family went to Baltimore County.
November 3, Mrs. Annie L. Diggs of Colorado gave an able and interesting address on "Some Phases of the Woman Question" at Ashton Friends' Meeting- house.
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After doing so well by the World's Fair in '93, Sandy Spring did not seem inclined to patronize the Atlanta Exposition to any great extent, but in De- cember a party of nine started for the "Sunny South" in time to enjoy the first severe cold of the season ; but in spite of unfavorable weather, they brought home a favorable report of the Exposition, and especially of Maryland Day.
At the State Convention of the W. S. A., on De- cember 3, two Sandy Springers received high honors. Mary Bentley Thomas was made president, and Mary E. Moore treasurer.
By the death of Robert R. Moore, which occurred December 16, we lost one of our oldest and most val- · ued Friends, whose life should be to us a useful exam- ple of energy, of industry, of brave resistance to ad- verse circumstances.
Born at Easton, Md., in 1812, his early manhood was spent in Baltimore, but in 1839 failing health forced him to remove, with his wife and little chil- dren, to the country; since which time his home has been at Plainfield, and his interests in Sandy Spring.
Though really an invalid for the remainder of his long life, he was always busy and cheerful. and inter- ested in matters of public importance. He was among the founders of our Savings Institution, and of the Mutual Fire Insurance Co. of Montgomery County, being secretary and treasurer of the latter till a year before his death; and in November last he went to Olney and voted.
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Gardening was his pastime, and he was especially successful in grape culture.
Generous and benevolent, he was greatly beloved by his family, and highly respected throughout the com- munity ; being ready to help any person or cause that needed assistance.
One phase of his life, seldom paralleled, was of un- dimmed brightness; it falls to the lot of few in this world to enjoy over sixty-two years of happy married life, and the memory of "Cousin Robert and Hadas- sah" must ever be a sacred one to us who have seen their mutual love and dependence triumphant after three-score years. Even death has not seemed to part them far.
Though long wished for, his summons was sudden at the last; in the words of one who had known him long: "After two days of suffering and weakness, without a murmur, he quietly and peacefully passed to his eternal home. Having lived in sweetness and love with all who knew him, he died without an enemy, having upon his countenance a peaceful ex- pression as if he were resting and happy. A large company of friends and neighbors assembled at his funeral, on which occasion appreciative and appro- priate testimonies were borne to his useful and exem- plary life."
The Christmas holidays, of course, brought the school boys and girls home, but fewer guests than usual found their way to our firesides, and the season
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passed, on the whole, much more quietly than com- mon.
The new year was ushered in by one of those events · that impress upon us the uncertainty of life. On January 2 came the shocking tidings of the death of Martha Tyson Marshall at Altoona, Pa. Young and apparently strong, with everythig to make life bright, attractive and worth living, she was called away after only a brief illness. As she grew up among us, we can sympathize with her husband, her sisters and her two little boys left motherless, in the loss of so cheery and genial a presence.
At Pemberton, N. J., Jan. 8, George A. Willson was married to Sara Forsyth, and they are now estab- lished at Drumeldra.
The same day saw the birth of a new organization in this already well-organized place. The Avalon Reading Club began its weekly meetings on Wednes- day afternoons at the home and under the fostering care of Mary E. Gilpin, and about this time another similar club was formed on the Manor.
. The Annual Meeting of the Mutual Fire Insurance Co. of Montgomery County, held January 6, was well attended, and the report of the secretary and treas- urer showed the Company to be in better condition than it was this time last year. Edward P. Thomas was made president.
January 23, Mary S. Willson and Luther M. Mun- caster were married at Drumeldra, and went at once to their new home near Redland.
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The attendance of about twenty Sandy Springers at the N. A. Woman Suffrage Association Convention, held in Washington from the 23-29 of January, proved that we do move with the procession along that line, though perhaps not so fast as on some others. Our neighbor, Caroline H. Miller, made the most applauded speech of the Convention, and one equally good before the Senate Committee.
January 29, at St. Bartholomew's Church, Balti- more, Albert G. Palmer was married to Julia Eleanor Menard, and he brought his bride to his home at Meadow Brook, which had been altered and enlarged to receive her.
On January 30, Olney Grange entertained the County Grange, which was a well-attended and ani- mated meeting. A uniform set of text-books for the public schools of the State, and whether they should be furnished free, were elaborately discussed, as were a number of other measures now before the people, and more work than the Legislature accomplished dur- ing the whole session was cut out for it in a few hours.
The Grange Hall was also used for a number of dances through the winter, given by the Olney Dance Club and others ; and some of the young ladies took advantage of their last chance for eight years and gave a Leap Year dance.
But skating was the foremost sport of the winter, the prolonged cold in January furnishing good ice for about two weeks; from which ice houses were filled by those whose ponds had water in them.
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Socially and meteorologically, February was active. The Montgomery Club and the Home Interest each met twice during the shortest month in the year; all the other clubs and organizations held their regular monthly meetings, and there were extras enough to make one persons's engagements foot up thirty-one in the twenty-nine days, exclusive af church-going and calls.
But when the groundhog saw his shadow on Febru- ary 2, we knew that weather was in store for us, nor were we disappointed by what came; two weeks of fog and rain did all that was possible in the time to make up for the short rainfall of the last three years. But when the thermometer registered 60° on the 15 we thought there must be some mistake about the groundhog's prophecy,
"Half the winter's to come and mair ;"
however, our faith in the proverb was suddenly strengthened by finding that the mercury had dropped to 0° on the 16. After that spell of cold, which lasted till the 21, there was no excuse for the person whose ice house did not get filled. By the 24, how- ever, another warm wave struck us, and for the day spring seemed to have come.
February 11, numerous relatives and friends met at Belmont to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the marriage of George B. and Edith B. Farquhar, who received numerous wooden additions to their domestic comforts, from a cribbage board to a hickory switch.
On February 24, Henry E. Davis of Washington
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gave at the Lyceum a most interesting and sugges- tive lecture on "The Express Elevator," to a very appreciative audience.
February 18, an attractive entertainment given by the young people of the neighborhood at Ashton Friends' Meeting-house, netted a nice sum for the local W. C. T. U.
The twenty-fourth annual Farmers' Convention, held at the Lyceum, February 25, though not so large as sometimes, made up in life and genuine interest what it lacked numerically. That the sub- jects discussed were of vital importance is plain to be seen from the report of its proceedings : good roads, electric and otherwise; the best methods of potato culture; the raising of fruit; and the advantages of farmers' institutes, being among the topics considered.
Early in February, Granville Farquhar purchased a fine herd of Jersey cows, which he has established on what is known as the Cacino property, near Mt. Pleasant, whence he daily supplies the Oakmont Dairy milk route, included in his purchase. His son William assists him in the business, and the rest of the family have also moved from Mt. Olney to the Cacino.
February 28, a meeting under the auspices of the W. S. A. was held at the Lyceum, at which Sarah T. Miller read selections from a sketch of Susan. B. Anthony ; Mary Bentley Thomas gave an able paper, and Caroline H. Miller made an address in her own inimitable style; and the flower of Sandy Spring's
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chivalry lent the music of its (or their?) voices in a number of beautiful songs.
March came in roaring as lions seldom do, and having blown itself and everybody else out of breath in the first week, the weather proceeded to do every- thing else it could think of.
The first snow that covered the ground fell on the 11, and drifted to the depth of three or four feet in places, and March 13 was the coldest day of the winter, -7º being the minimum temperature noted. When more snow fell on the 15, it made good sleigh- ing for a day and a half-enough to tantalize the lovers of the sport. But the mercury rising to 60° on the 19, the torrents of rain that then fell took the snow clear off.
The first of March, P. H. Connell again took charge of the Laurel stage line, and moved his family to Sandy Spring.
March 4, the Savings Institution of Sandy Spring held its annual meeting, and the official report showed that the first year's business in the Bank's new house was one of the largest year's work the Institution has ever had. Despite hard times, the gain in depos- its for the year was $20,982.00. making the deposits $369,872.00 in all ; gross earnings, $17,252.00. Four per cent. interest was declared to depositors for the past year, and $3,011.00 were carried to the surplus account, making the present surplus $36,382.00.
On March 18 occurred two events that indicated the approach of Spring: 1st, Lucknough was opened for
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the return of the family, and preparations were made to build a new bay window to the house; 2nd, the wild geese passed over on their way North.
"The loss of Robert M. Stabler, by death, on the 19 March, was keenly felt by all who knew him. He was a loving husband and father, a kind and thought- ful neighbor, and a model farmer and business man.
"His generous nature, sterling worth and the inter- est he manifested in the doings of others made him a favorite with old and young. He was ever ready to help the sick and needy in a quiet way, and his warmest friends were children.
"As a farmer and business man, he was unusually successful owing to his persistent industry, his good judgment, his love of order and his scrupulous atten- tion to little economies, which yet never degenerated into meanness.
"He had a natural mechanical ability, and would doubtless have distinguished himself in that line had he cultivated his talent. 1'
"During all his busy life he frequently found op- portunities to gratify his fondness for hunting, fish- ing and travel, and it was his fortunate companions in these outings who learned to know and love the high attributes of his developed manhood. The world would be better if such examples as his were fol- lowed." (F. T.)
The latter part of March, Rev. William Harris and wife, who have been in charge of the Ashton M. E. Circuit for the past three years, followed poor
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Jo's example, and "moved on," to the regret of many besides the members of his congregation. He was succeeded by Mr. West.
So many old residents have left Sandy Spring in the last few years, that it is gratifying to have some of them come back again, and we note with pleasure that our former neighbors, Ernest L. Iddings and family, have once more established themselves at their home, Atholwood, he having changed his place of business from Philadelphia to Baltimore.
A year ago a casual observer would surely have said that there was no time nor need for any new societies in this neighborhood, but, besides the two reading clubs already recorded during the past twelve months, there are two more new organizations yet to be named.
The Pentagon, so called from its five members- all women-is an annual, holding but one meeting for good fellowship yearly; while the other, the Sandy Springs Cycle Club, meets a long-felt want, as it is to promote social intercourse among its mem- bers! Incidentally, it is also to try to secure good . roads, and for mutual protection against thieves and Turnpike Companies! It organized April 2 with twenty-four members. George F. Nesbitt, Jr., was made president. By way of being quite original, they chose orange and black for their colors.
Though mild and calm at the end, March had gone out under a cloud, but April came in cold and windy. There was a sharp snow flurry on the 2,
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and spring seemed the remotest possibility up to the 12, which was really balmy. But it has been our only spring day, as on the 13 summer was upon us in full force.
The mercury, starting at 84° that noon, soared ambitiously for nine days, mounting as high as 96° and scorning to sink below 75°. Seeds sprouted in less time after they were planted than they ever did before; everything grew amazingly. Theatrical transformations are seldom so speedy or so effective as was Nature's. But being premature, summer ended soon, and April 22 was a fine crisp autumn day, with a high northwest wind.
April 18, Louisa Cook died, aged eighty-two years. This worthy colored woman was the wife of Warner Cook, and they had been married for sixty-six years. Nine children, fifty-seven grandchildren and twenty- three great-grandchildren survive her.
April 24, Edward Turner, son of John H. and Sallie Turner Janney, was born at Brooke Meadow.
On the evening of April 24 a few people enjoyed a delightful lecture on "James Russell Lowell." by Rev. J. S. Kieffer, and all present felt it mortifying that such a subject, so treated by such a man, failed to draw an audience.
And now, owing to the Lyceum Company having turned lunatic, our year has stretched itself to almost thirteen months.
Looking back to the last annual meeting, there do not seem to have been many striking changes in
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Sandy Spring, but during the latter part of March and early April there were a number of deaths that it seems fitting to note here: Mr. Gustavus Jones of Olney, Mr. Julius Marlow and Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Burr of Colesville, Mr. Ridge of Ashton, Mrs. Wood- ward and Mr. Mills Dean of Washington, and Mr. Josiah W. Jones of Olney. All of these had many acquaintances in our neighborhood, and some of them were bound to it by warm friendships. Mr. Marlow, one of the original directors of the Washington, Colesville and Ashton Turnpike, and Mr. Josiah W. Jones, who retained his interest in life at the age of eighty-six, were universally respected as men of good judgment and integrity in business ; and Mr. Gustavus Jones, whose death preceded his elder brother's by two weeks, was a useful citizen and a warm-hearted man.
Among the many Washingtonians who have come to Sandy Spring in summer. few have given the place and its people a more affectionate admiration than have Mr. Mills Dean and his family ; and his cordial hospitality and hearty friendship are gratefully re- membered by those of us to whom they were extended.
While the happiness of the past year is proven by its lack of startling historical events, still there have been several new industries started among us. Be- sides the photographer already mentioned, Ashton boasts a harness-maker and a piano-tuner, and Sandy Spring has, in Mrs. Conell. a dressmaker; Harold B. Stabler, in addition to his work as electrician and constructor of telephone lines, has a bicycle agency
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and repair shop, and our colored capitalists have opened a co-operative store on the Norwood pike.
So much for us at home; but we never wholly lose interest in any who have once belonged here, and so we feel pride in the successful invention by a one- time Sandy Springer, Wm. Hartshorne, of a way to clean wool for weaving with naphtha.
Another of her sons, of whom Sandy Spring is justly proud, Edward Farquhar, has been made a member of the faculty of Columbian College, Wash- ington, and he occupies the position of Instructor in History in that institution. If proof is needed that he has thereby won fame, notice that the newspapers always print his name wrong !
Still another of our emigrants, Wm. F. Thomas, has been chosen an alternate to the Republican Na- tional Convention in St. Louis, in June; and Fred. P. Moore has been made vice-president of the New York, Susquehanna and Western R. R.
Lending so generously of our best to the world at large, it is but fair that we should sometimes borrow, and this winter we have had among us Eliza Russell of Frederick County, and Gawina Murphy of Vir- ginia, as teachers at Ingleside and Burnside, respect- ively.
Nor would the year's record be complete without mention of the very large apple crop and the way the fruit has kept; many people who never before succeeded in keeping apples through the winter have them still in good condition.
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Another thing somewhat out of the common order is that there have been several real estate transfers in the heart of Sandy Spring. From property be- longing to the estate of the late Edith D. Bentley the wheelwright shop in Sandy Spring village, with house and lot, was sold to Allan Farquhar; the ad- joining blacksmith shop and the house and lot back of the toll house, to Helen B. Lea, and other lots were sold to Edward P. Thomas and Eliza N. Moore. The farm of the late Joseph Wetherald was bought by General Gibbon, since deceased, who expected to make a home there for his grandchildren; and Edward R. Stabler purchased a house at Brighton from George Tatum.
But the bright particular jewel in Sandy Spring's crown is the Enterprise telephone system, and the following interesting statistics concerning it- were kindly prepared by the secretary of the Company :
"Since the last Annual Meeting the Company have extended their lines to Laurel, Unity and Gaithers- burg, from which last place connection can be made with nearly all the villages in the western part of this County and part of Frederick County.
"Whole length of poles owned by Co., fifty and one- half miles; whole length of miles owned by Co., 176 miles ; number of poles, about 1,600; amount of wire, about fifteen tons; number of 'phones connected with exchange, ninety-two or forty more than were in use May 9, 295-and several more in prospect. New lines to Lay Hill and Clarkesville are under consideration."
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The dream of the neighborhood, however, a rail- road, is still a thing of the future, though 1895 has been as fruitful as other years in railroad "scares." If all the schemers who have promised us roads at once are as determined to provide us with rapid transit as they profess to be, the neighborhood will have no need to subscribe funds for it; we had better form ourselves into a corporation and sell the franchise to the projector who will pay us the most handsomely for the privilege of going through our favored pre- cincts !
Still, though, despite the enthusiasm of Mr. Col- grove and others, we are minus a railroad, we have within our borders something that should find place in the museum of transportation curios being collected by the Pangborn expedition around the world. The mail cart that plies between Forest Glen and Sandy Spring is certainly unique; our adopted citizen who . claims to have invented it might make money if he should take out a patent, and the Sandy Spring woman who had it photographed should receive our thanks.
And now, faulty and imperfect as it is, my record is done:
* * ,
"Again the shadow moveth o'er The dial plate of time!
* *
The wailing of the newly-born
Has mingled with the funeral knell :
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And o'er the dying's ear has gone The merry marriage-bell.
* x *
O, in the dying year hath been
The sum of all since time began- The birth, the death, the joy, the pain, Of Nature and of Man."
CHAPTER II.
1896-1897.
Close-wrapped in the embrace of gracious hills, dim- pling under blue skies and sunshine, or darkening as the clouds unroll their curtains above it, lies a small, land-locked bay. No great commerce floats on its sur- face, no mighty rivers bring into it their flotsam and jetsam; minor craft plow its bosom for business or pleasure, and little rills trickle down from inland with their flavor of different scenes.
Only the ceaseless and mysterious play of the tides keeps the waters of the bay from stagnation; no or- dinary disturbance of the sea is felt within its shel- tered limits, though a hurricane or a tidal wave might stir it to its depths. But sometimes its placid waters are churned to foam by local tempests, or it lies dark under low-brooding clouds that creep down from the hills, or in from the ocean.
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In this I see a parable of our life in this peaceful community, our busy content but lightly stirred by storms that sweep the great world; kept one with it mainly by that mighty tide of human sympathy, that "touch of Nature" that "makes the whole world kin.'
Many years our annals show no trace of outside in- fluence, but during the past twelve months Sandy Spring has been deeply moved by events beyond her borders, as well as by her own troubles and sorrows. The pen of a Jeremiah would be needed fitly to relate the world's story of war, plague, famine, massacre and sudden death; and so much of catastrophe and be- reavement has found its way into our record that the historian has felt her task painful.
Owing to the moon's influence our year of record is short, the Annual Meeting in '96 falling almost at the end of April. On that occasion the election placed the direction of the Lyceum in new hands-Edward N. Bentley was made president. In addition to the usual routine business, several valuable suggestions- for the establishment of a local Historical Society and of a Mt. Vernon Society-were made, to no special purpose, however.
May 7, Douglas, son of Clarence L. and Rose M. Gilpin, was born at Della Brooke.
Capricious May was for once genially mild and dry, but the month was not without its meteorological diversions, here and elsewhere. On the 18 we had a fierce thunder storm and cyclone; its course was from northwest to southeast, extending from Laytons-
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ville to the Manor, laying low many trees and damag- ing a number of buildings. At Dr. Brooke's several outhouses were wrecked by a falling tree, which raised his dayton ten feet in the air on its roots. Hay houses belonging to C. E. Bond, to Robert H. Miller and to William Lea were blown down; and Marion Fraley, who lived above Olney, was struck by a wind-tossed timber, and died from the effects. The May cyclone was calculated to make a lasting impression in ordi- nary years, but subsequent events so far exceeded it that it subsided into a mere minor incident.
The awful storm in St. Louis about a week later quite threw our small effort into the shade; and two ghastly murders almost at our gates-one near the Zoological Park, the other at Gaithersburg-soon su- perseded it as topics of conversation.
'Tis pleasant to turn from these things to the fam- ily reunion which took place at Alloway during the month, when nine children and children-in-law, and two grandchildren of Warwick P. Miller were gath- ered under the home roof for some time.
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