USA > Maryland > Montgomery County > Sandy Spring > Annals of Sandy Spring history of a rural community in Maryland, Volume III > Part 4
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May 23, Eliza N. Moore and M. Beatrix Tyson sailed for London, where the latter stayed till No- vember, the former traveling in Great Britain and on the Continent for four months.
The second Phrenaskeia banquet, held at Rock Spring, May 29, was, if possible, a greater success than its predecessor. Clever speeches, bright conver- sation, flowers, lights, and pretty girls were there ; and Black-Bird Pie furnished the highest feather
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in the cap of the toastmistress, Elizabeth P. M. Thom, as well a great fun for the whole party.
As if to strike an average with the warm, dry weather in May, June was cool, with much rain and east wind, but we had fine days for Quarterly Meet- ing, from the 6-8, and many friends and others from a distance came. John J. Cornell, however, was the only minister in attendance.
But while our congregation went its peaceful way a "day's meeting" at Sharp Street resulted in the bru- tal murder of Clarence Thornton, for which five men are now serving terms in the penitentiary.
Charles Hallowell and family from Denver took Oakleigh, and John Needles and family of Balti- more, occupied Marden for the summer.
Owing to a mischievous insect which has recently appeared here, the strawberry crop was very short. Surely what with the potato-bug, the asparagus-beetle, the tomato-blight, the currant-worm, the strawberry- moth, the San Jose scale, the mealy-bug, the green aphis, and the scaly-bug, the horticulturist of today can sympathize with Pharaoh and the plague- stricken Egyptians.
But while we are acquiring so many undesirable additions to our entomology of late years, many ani- mals have become almost extinct, so that it seems an event worthy of note that a groundhog was found by George Tucker on Riverside farm; and in spite of its unamiable disposition he kept it for several weeks and then let it go.
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Near the end of June, Isabel and Janet Miller went to England for two months.
July opened with an interesting celebration of the tin wedding of Fred. D. and Mary P. T. Jackson, and the eighty-fourth birthday of Lydia G. Thomas, on the 2; and the 20, was an even fuller anniver- sary. On that day relatives and a few friends gath- ered at Plainfield, in honor of the eightieth birthday of Hadassah J. Moore, the birthday of her son Wil- liam, and the tin wedding of her grandchildren, R. Rowland and Margaret G T. Moore.
Harvest weather was cool and showery, the crops, on the whole, being fully up to the average, and corn unusually abundant. Ingleside farm produced thirty- five bushels of wheat to the acre, believed to be the best yield in the county.
One incident of the harvest, however, was shock- ing; a colored man, Basil Ray, was instantly killed by the fall of the fork while unloading hay in John Janney's barn. A fund for his wife and children was raised by a lawn party at Riverton later in the month.
A number of our people attended a Temperance Camp Meeting held by the County W. C. T. U. at Washington Grove from the 15-22 July.
July 25, Allan Farquhar, son of Alban and Sarah E. Brooke, was born at Willow Grove.
The news of the sudden death of Jane Scofield at San Antonio, Texas, came as a shock to us here, for though she hat spent but little time in Sandy Spring
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since her childhood, the ties that connected her with her birthplace were never broken, and her body now rests in Woodside Cemetery. That she had won the highest appreciation in her new home and in her profession-teaching-is shown by these words from the San Antonio Methodist: "Her life was cut off in the midst of the greatest usefulness, in all the strength and power of a wonderful mind. * * *
It was at all times an inspiring example to those fortunate enough to come under her influence. She was strong in natural capacity and talent, broad in culture, quick to perceive; with great power to im- part knowledge; with a love of duty given to great natures only, and an unfailing energy, the greatest possible success attended her work. * * *
The most beautiful and pathetic thing about her life and work was that she knew perfectly of the ever-present danger of sudden death, yet while the grim reaper with his scythe followed her footsteps constantly, he cast no shadow over her countenance, nor caused her to hesitate one moment in the discharge of duty."
July 27, Anna McFarland, daughter of Frank and Fanny B. Snowden, was born.
July 30, at the home of the bride's parents in Rockville, Dr. George E. Cooke and Constance Abert were married, and they have settled on the farm which he had bought of Robert M. Mackall a few months previously.
Many severe thunder storms occurred during the latter part of the month, and a high wind on the 29, which, however, did little damage.
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About this time, Harold B. Stabler entered the employ of the Pennsylvania R. R. Co. at Altoona, Pa.
Nature's accounts always balance, so to compensate for the cool days and frequent showers in June and July, August blazed upon us with almost unprece- dented heat. A few small thunder storms were all August brought us of rain; and during one of these the house at Charley Forest was slightly damaged by lightning. Night and day for nearly three weeks the continent panted and gasped, while the mercury soared triumphantly among the high nineties. Men and horses died by the score and the hundred in New York, Chicago and other cities; and Sandy Spring perspired and groaned with the general chorus.
But the usual round of summer doings went on slowly, and some new things happened. The baseball season was marked by a series of games between our own veteran players and a juvenile nine, who, with characteristic Young-American impudence and dis- regard for gray hairs, ran up the flag of victory on a high score. When it came to a contest between local and visiting teams, the fortunes of war were varied.
Several of our neighbors and friends rented a cot- tage at Holly Beach, N. J., for the season, and the Sunnyside, Tanglewood and Lucknough families oc- cupied it for two weeks each. All were pleased with the picnic style of living they there enjoyed, as well as with the place itself.
While the heat was at its highest Mrs. M. L. Wells of Tennessee, a national organizer of the W.
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C. T. U., beld & series of meetings in Sandy Spring and neighboring places, wherein she disseminated woman suffrage and temperance sentiment to such good purpose that she organized eight new Unions in the County.
Just in time for the Swarthmore Conference, Au- gust 19-28, the weather moderated, and the twenty- five or thirty persons from Sandy Spring who attend- ed it brought home glowing accounts of the occasion.
September and the Rockville Fair began together ; the Fair was well attended, and, as usual, Sandy Spring brought home a goodly share of premiums, but the better element all over the County was shocked and disgusted at the gambling devices and demoralizing shows on the grounds, which were more numerous and offensive than ever before.
September 12, A. G. and Susanna L. Thomas cele- brated their silver wedding informally, and two days later Dr. Roger and Louisa T. Brooke received the congratulations of their friends on having safely ac- complished a quarter of a century of matrimonial happiness.
September 14, Sarah, daughter of W. B., Jr., and Eliza M. H. Chichester, was born at Springland.
Sherwood School-Mary S. Hallowell, Principal ; Nora L. Stabler, assistant -- reopened on September 14 with the smallest attendance it has ever had. But a number of our young people went from home to pursue their education at George School, Swarthmore and elsewhere.
Tged
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September 17, the Franchise Department of the W. C. T. U. had a benefit lawn party at Mt. Airy, which netted a fair sum for the work and afforded a pleasant afternoon and evening to a large crowd of people. A program of music and tableaux and some more substantial entertainment were served.
The same day the colored people had a successful and creditable Horticultural Exhibition at Sharp Street.
September 19-20, the Orthodox Friends held their Quarterly Meeting at Ashton Meeting-house, with good attendance of both laity and ministers, among the latter being Mary E. Hughes, John Thomas and others.
The drought, which began in August, continued almost unbroken through September, and when the ' 29 dawned with a deluge of rain we all felt that we had got what we wanted. We rejoiced in the downpour, even when the wind rose to half a gale at noon. At nightfall and through the evening we re- marked that it was wild weather and growing worse. By 11 p. m. we had ceased to speak, while we listened to the voice of such a storm as no man now living remembers. There is one on record, in 1799, which seems to offer a parallel case.
For an hour and a half the world was full of a mighty, ever-growing roar, in which no separate crash of falling trees or breaking timbers could be distin- guished. Houses shook; the whole earth seemed to tremble before the awful blast.
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From the southeast, over the course swept by the two wind storms of '93, the tornado rushed, leaving ruin behind it. Towards midnight it grew less vio- lent, and by 1.30 there was a dead calm-the sky was clear, the air soft. But for ineffaceable traces on all sides, the unspeakable awfulness of those two hours would have seemed only a nightmare.
When morning came "the abomination of desola- tion" was on every side. Every hour brought some fresh revelation of destruction, and the apparent hopelessness of ever setting the face of Nature to rights again was enough to paralyze efforts in that direction.
Barns at Riverside, Brooke Grove and Lyndon were blown down ; and large straw sheds at Cloverley, Mt. Airy, Alloway and Sunnyside were wrecked; sta- bles, cornhouses and other outbuildings were unroofed or otherwise damaged at Brooke Grove, Auburn, Sun- set, Brooke Meadow, Riverton, Burnside, Belmont, Cherry Grove and Clifton. At Oak Grove and Wood -. lawn a number of vehicles were broken by the fall of the carriage houses. Windmills at Mt. Olney, Rock- land, The Cedars, Norwood, Burnside, The Highlands and Alloway were broken or blown down. Dwelling houses suffered less than any other class of buildings, but they did not escape entirely. Fair Hill and Cherry Grove each lost the roof of one wing; a shed kitchen at Myrtlebank was crushed by a falling tree; the fall of the tank from the windmill at Mt. Olney did considerable damage to the house walls ; the pub- lie school houses at Sandy Spring and Brighton were
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crushed in by falling trees; another fell at Bloom- field, thrusting a branch through the roof into a room occupied by some of the family ; and at Brooke Grove they made use of a traction engine to pull off a tree that fell against the house roof.
The chimneys blown down, wholly or in part, no one even tried to count, and many barns lost their cupolas. The conservatories at Mt. Airy, Avalon and Tanglewood were much damaged, and the de- mand for window glass at the stores was woefully in excess of the supply for many days.
But when all is said and done the trees suffered the saddest and most irreparable injury. Thousands of cords of valuable timber-estimated at twenty per cent. of the whole amount in this region-were ruined ; lawns were shorn of their most valued shade trees, and orchards were decimated, while many a noble oak and pine, cedar and maple that had been a delight to our eyes for generations, was laid low.
Every tract of woodland illustrated the woeful and yet seemingly fantastic power of the wind- giant trees uprooted, snapped short, or twisted into fine splinters and bent like straws.
In all directions the roads were blocked, and the telephone system was a "hideous, tangled wreck." Every wire was torn from its connection at the Cen- tral office by the weight of falling trees, of which there were twenty-three on the wires between Sandy Spring and Olney.
Evergreens suffered particularly everywhere. Some
T
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. of the most conspicuous of the single trees lost were one of the three great oaks opposite Ingleside gate, a group of magnificent pecans at Harewood, and a noble silver pine at Brooke Meadow, said to have been the largest in the County, possibly in the State.
And yet when one considers all that was, and all that might have been, what we escaped is even yet more remarkable than what we endured. For in- stance, note the great oak tree that fell between John Oldfield's house and shop, only twenty-one feet apart, without damage to either, and innumerable similar ex- amples might be quoted.
Nor was the element of the ridiculous quite lacking in the situation, as we felt when we beheld Alfred Bell's pigpen, porker and all, elevated twelve or fif- teen feet in the air on the roots of a prostrate tree; or when a little greenhouse at Avalon was deposited upside down, with the flowers still in it, on the meat- house roof hard by.
That no one met violent death or received bodily injury seems little short of miraculous ; but the death of Henry C. Sherman in the midst of the tempest was doubtless hastened by it. The following just and appreciative words were contributed by one who knew him well :-
"Died at his home at Olney on the 29 September, during the worst of the awful hurricane of that night Henry Clay Sherman, Dr. of Music, aged fifty-four years.
"He was born at Brookeville, Md. His parents were married at the old homestead at Olney, and
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almost all of his relatives belong to this neighborhood. His career as a musician was remarkable, and his name, though well known, would have been more so but for his intense dislike of any kind of notoriety, and his indifference to the approval of the outside world.
"He was organist in a large church in Washing- ton when only thirteen years old, and at seventeen he took the post of organist at St. Aloysius, which he held, in all, for thirty years.
"He founded the Washington Choral Society, and trained it for the great competition in 1871 between the New York, Washington and Cincinnati Socie- ties, when the Washington Society so easily won the first prize, singing without notes or words, to the amazement of the other contestants. He continued leader of the Choral Society till ill health forced him to resign.
"He was a most fastidious and refined gentleman, and devoted to his family, but his great reticence and love of quiet prevented his being well known except by a favored few.
"His love for dumb animals was unusual, and his death was caused by braving the violent wind to save his horses from being hurt. From the struggle with the terrible storm his weak heart could not re- cover.
"It was said in Washington, when he died, 'The whole city is in mourning;' and all who attended the intensely solemn service in his memory must have
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felt with what affection he inspired all who knew him well." (A. B. K.)
October brought with it, by way of a change, wed- dings ; three in two weeks is an unusual allowance for Sandy Spring, and one or two more epidemics of the sort would carry off all our remaining bachelors.
The first of the series occurred October 7, at Tan- glewood, when George F. Nesbitt, Jr., and Anna L. Thomas were married by Friends' ceremony, in the presence of a large company of friends and relatives, and after their wedding journey they came to their new home, Sweetbrier, built for the young couple by the bride's father.
A week later, October 15, at Glenwood, Emilie T. Brooke was married to Robert O. Coulter, by Epis- copal service, and went to live in Baltimore.
The third of these interesting events occurred at Edgewood, October 21, at which time Charles E. Bond and Florence M. Stabler were married by Friends' ceremony. They went to live in their cosy little home, Altonwood, after a trip to Virginia.
At Ashton, October 10, Mrs. Tucker died. Her life had been a martyrdom for eight years, she hav- ing been the helpless victim of inflammatory rheuma- tism. The tender and faithful care of her daughter was the chief solace of her invalid life, through which she bore herself so cheerfully and uncomplainingly as to win the respect and regard of all who knew her.
October was dry and cold, and as a result of the storm we had little of the usual brilliance of au-
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tumnnal tints. What leaves were left on the trees were shriveled and crisped by the wind so that the south side of the woods looked like November, the only intimation of October brightness showing in the lee of the forests.
November 1, Annie, daughter of Robert H. and Mariana S. Miller, was born at Alloway.
The storm of political excitement that prevailed all over the country seemed to us to be central over Sandy Spring for many weeks; such passionate fer- vor on the one side, and such dogged determination on the other, the present writer never before wit- nessed. The frenzy of the voters must have resem- bled the excitement of ante-bellum days, and each party's confident prediction of victory made Novem- ber 5 a day of terrible suspense. But when darkness fell it was on a Waterloo; Mckinley and sound money had carried the day beyond a peradventure.
As if to atone for October's rigors, November, after some rain in the first week, turned warm enough to make fires and winter clothing unbear- able.
Mushrooms were unusually plentiful ; indeed, they seemed to have had all seasons for their own this year, as we gathered them every month from May to December !
From some cause, whether the low water or the unseasonable heat, there was much illness about us, especially diphtheria and typhoid fever. In the fam- ily of Rodney Boswell five children were ill at once
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with typhoid, and the mother's four months' ordeal of anxious nursing culminated in the death of her son, Alvin, on Christmas day. All through the win- ter and late into the spring grip was almost epidemic, and pneumonia frequent.
November 9, Percy M. Reese gave his lecture "From Lucern to Milan" before a fair audience at the Lyceum.
November 21, Dora Alice, daughter of William A. and Fanny Peirce Iddings, was born at Fairfield.
T. W. Waters, while out gunning on November 6, received a severe wound in his left arm by the ac- cidental discharge of his companion's gun. Weeks of suffering followed, but he made a better recovery than the doctors at first thought possible.
Thanksgiving, if it had not been delivered properly dated, might easily have been mistaken for the fourth of July, it was so warm and bright; and the people whose butchering day it has been-predestined since the beginning, weather or no- lost a great deal of pork by the heat. During butchering season the largest hog ever raised here was killed at Sunnyside. It weighed 595 lbs.
From pigs to cattle is an easy transition, and one that brings up another of the painful incidents that have blotted the historian's note book this year. Asa M. Stabler had four cattle stolen from his lower place by some colored men of the neighborhood. He was fortnuate enough to recover much of the value
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of his property, though he failed to secure sufficient punishment for all the offenders.
November 30, John Jones, son of Frank and India Downey, was born at Charley Forest.
After the warmest November on record, winter was introduced in due form on the 29 by three or four inches of snow, and December 1 the mercury reg- istered 10°.
December 2, Washington Hallowell, eldest child of Washington B., Jr., and Eliza M. H. Chichester, died, after a short illness, of diphtheria. But four years had passed over the head of this promising boy ;- promise now without hope of fulfilment did we not believe
"He is not dead the child of our affection, * * * * * * *
By guardian angels led,
Safe from temptation, safe from sin's pollution, He lives, whom we call dead."
In these early days of the winter the dread mes- senger, Death, made us repeated visits, and on De- cember S, Jane T. Porter was called from works to rewards.
Her life was so quiet and gentle that only when she left us did we appreciate how far-reaching and powerful her influence had been.
The daughter of William and Martha Patrick Thomas, she was born at Cherry Grove in 1818, and all the seventy-nine years of her life were spent within a mile of her birthplace ; she never even journeyed far
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from home. But her clear mind, her well-balanced character, her sound judgment and gentle charity com- bined to form a strong personality, which, however, shyly hid behind a veil of modesty.
In 1843 she married Chas. G. Porter; and though childless, their almost fifty-four years of married life were singularly happy.
She was in feeble health for a year or more before her death, and the weary weeks of suffering during her last illness were borne with an uncomplaining pa- tience at once touching and inspiring; and many friends gathered to pay the last tribute of respect when she was laid to rest in the graveyard by the meeting house.
December 10, Wm. H. Laird, for almost twenty years, rector of St. Bartholomew's parish, this Coun- ty, died suddenly, after a brief illness. The follow- ing extract is from the memorial prepared by the vestry of St. John's church, Olney :
"Few, if any, of his brethren of the clergy could say when .considering the work of our pastor, 'In la- bor more frequent.' His multiplied church services, scattered over so large an area. his widely extended parochial visitations, required exhausting labor, and oftentimes he was compelled to walk to his services and to visit his parishioners. * * * He did not restrict his visitations to the unchristian narrowness of Church boundaries, but the sick, the sorrowing, the suffering of all classes, conditions and creeds, to- gether with the creedless, found in him an ever ready
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ministering friend, counsellor and comforter. Discouragement, hardship and deprivations, and the management of narrow means for the maintenance of a large family never slackened his devotion to any- thing that pertained to his ministerial work. * * * Mr. Laird was learned in his profession, and an able writer; he had been offered a liberal compensation if he would contribute to one of the most prominent Church papers, but he declined, thinking it would take too much of his time from what he considered the more immediate and important duties of his calling."
During December the Oldfields were superseded at Myrtlebank by George Jackson's family, he and F. D. Jackson having rented the wheelwright shop in the village. George A. Willson and wife moved from Drumeldra to Valley View farm, where he car- ries on a large dairy.
A mild spell followed the cold snap of December 1, but Christmas was properly cold and white, though there was no sleighing. The students at home for the holidays enjoyed some skating, but there was little of the festivity appropriate to the season.
People whose ponds were full cut ice during Christmas week, but water in ponds, in wells and in' springs was perilously low, or quite lacking.
December 23, the remains of Hannah Moore, wid- ow of Robert S. Moore, of Washington, late of Sandy Spring, were buried'at the meeting house.
During December we had an experience which.
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has not been vouchsafed Sandy Spring before: a band of Mormon missionaries visited us and sowed such seed as they found lodgment for in the shape of tracts and leaflets, but we have not heard that any took root here.
The first two weeks of January, 1897, brought us a heavy rain and several showers, very welcome after the long drought, and on the 20 another heavy rain was followed on the 21 by intense cold, which lasted the month out. The snow that fell to the depth of several inches on the 27 drifted a good deal, and on the 30 the mercury dipped to zero.
January 5, the Lyceum Company gave an enter- tainment, presenting to a fairly good house one of the best programs ever offered to a Sandy Spring au- dience.
It was in January that George L. and Annie D. Stabler sold their place to Eugene Nichols, and re- moved to Washington, where George has a life in- surance agency. Lea Stabler went to Cleveland, O .. to enter business, and Samuel A. Janney to Texas.
January 26, at the home of his sister, Mrs. T. W. Waters, Bowie Magruder, son of the late Dr. Wm. B. Magruder, died. In the words of one who knew him, "He was an excellent farmer, and his advice and his opinion were highly valued by his neighbors. In the duties of a public office he was earnest and faithful." In him the community has lost an honest man.
January 18, Dr. Satterlee, new Bishop of Wash-
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ington, made his first visit to St. Bartholomew's par- ish, and confirmed a class at St. John's church.
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