USA > Maryland > Montgomery County > Sandy Spring > Annals of Sandy Spring history of a rural community in Maryland, Volume III > Part 7
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The mild weather of the first days of April con- tinned till the 5, when the mercury fell to 22º and we had quite a snow storm. Rain and cold followed till Easter Sunday, the 10, which smiled on the spring bonnet in the morning, only to lure it to de- struction in a furious shower in the afternoon. By
s der and
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the 17, however, the mercury had recovered from its depression and stood at 80°.
There was rauch rain all through the month, which made it difficult for farmers to get their potatoes planted. When digging time came, most of them wished that the difficulty had been insurmountable, as the season was so unfavorable as to make the crop almost an utter failure.
The spring change came gradually this year, and there was a remarkable bloom of cherry and pear trees. But on April 28, the temperature was 33º and we saw the unusual spectacle of apple trees in full blossom, and all the world in its early green covered with snow.
April 20, Margaret E. Sherman and Josiah W. Jones were married in Washington, and came to live at his farm, The Briers.
The declaration of war against Spain, April 21, was a shock to every one, in spite of all the signs that had seemed to point that way: for we had let our wish for peace be father to the thought that war might be averted.
The only person from Sandy Spring who saw ac- tive service in the war was J. C. Maynard, a clerk in Sandy Spring store, who enlisted in the navy, and served as yeoman on the Celtic.
Samuel B. Witherald, Edwin Scott, and Dr. George E. Cook, members of the D. C. N. G. narrowly es- caped being mustered into the service. George H. Brooke served as corporal in Battery A., Pa. N. G., being stationed at Newport News all summer. Just
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before hostilities were suspended his regiment was sent to Porto Rico, arriving to find that though the war was over there were still some typhoid germs left for the only native Sandy Springer in the army. He brought them home in his system, and his only battle was with them in a Philadelphia hospital.
During April a house-wagon load of would-be "globe trotters" passed through the neighborhood en route for Washington City. They were a family of six from Washington State; their wagon had been their home for four years, and they had driven. all the way across the continent; their object being to return to the Pacific coast via Europe and Asia.
May 1, Robert H. Miller, for seven years the suc- cessful director of the Agricultural Experiment Sta- tion, resigned his position and was succeeded by H. J. Patterson.
The second Mothers' Congress held in Washington during the first week in May, was attended by a num- ber of women from Sandy Spring, and Anna M. Farquhar, at the invitation of Mrs. Birney, president of the Congress, acted as one of her "lieutenants" dur- ing its sessions.
The early part of the month was very cold; there was frost on the 9, and several hail storms later, which, together with various insect pests, made the strawberry crop very short, and the late frosts re- duced the apple crop to the mimimum.
!On the, 20 May, Sherwood School had a May party, greatly enjoyed by the large company who gathered to witness the crowning of the Queen, the
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dance around the May Pole, and the usual pretty ceremonies of such an occasion. In honor of the event the mercury rose to 90° for a few hours.
May 25, occurred the only wedding which has taken place in Sandy Spring during the year. Mary S. Hallowell and Newton Stabler were married at Rockland, at 6.30 p. m. Many people witnessed the ceremony, performed according to the order of the Society of Friends. But no notice of this wedding could be complete that made no mention of the wealth of roses that were as tastefully as lavishly used to decorate the parlors, and the school room, where the marriage took place.
The fourth Phrenaskia banquet, held at Mt. Airy, May 27, and which proved to be a sort of postscript to the wedding of two days before, was a no less brilliant occasion than its predecessors. Ellen H. Thomas, toast mistress, presided with spirit, grace and dignity, and her selection of topics and of speakers was most happy. The interest of the literary program was not sufficient to mar the appetities of many to whom the delectable courses of the material feast were served. but the rice pudding, with literary sauce, seemed to be particularly appreciated by some.
An almost unprecedentedly rainy spring was fol- lowed by quite as remarkably dry a summer; from May 24, to July 4, there was not rain enough to lay the dust, though there was much cloudy weather and east wind.
In the early summer the Ingleside herd broke the
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Sandy Spring record for butter production-ten cows making 100 pounds of butter in a week.
Quarterly Meeting was unusually large and interest- . ing, many friends from Philadelphia, Baltimore, Virginia, and Harford and Baltimore Counties being present. Among them were-John J. Cornell, Alice C. Robinson, A. Haviland Hull, Pauline W. Holme and David W. Branson, who spoke very acceptably.
During Quarterly Meeting week Jos. T. Moore, Jr., raised a large hay barn on Oxmead farm, using for the first time in this vicinity a steam engine to lift the heavy timbers to position.
From the first of June the weather began to dry out and warm up; from June 25 to July 4, it seemed as if we might have to build additions to the ther- mometer tubes. The mercury lodged up above 100° and even mounted to 104° on July 3, while one week later it was down to 55°! July 4 bought one of the hardest showers ever known here; one person reported two and one-half inches of rainfall in half an hour. The thunder and lightning that accompanied the rain were severest about Olney, where trees were struck, and people shocked.
July 25, Robert M., son of Albert and Lena Stab- ler, died at Edgewood. During the two short years of his life this beautiful and attractive child had won himself a place in many hearts that his death left painfully empty, and which even loving sympathy can never fill.
July 27, Caleb Stabler and Wilhelmina G. Laird . were married in Albermarle County, Virginia, and
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came to live at Oak Hill-Frederic and Pattie R. Stabler, to make room for their son and his bride, having moved to Drayton, so long the home of Caleb and Ann M. Stabler.
A unique entertainment was given at Brooke Place during July by Louisa T. Brooke, in honor of her grandson Roger Brooke Coulter, the guests-six boys and one girl-being all under 18 month of age, and duly attended by mothers and grandmothers.
August opened wet, and continued so for about two weeks. But not even a heavy down pour of rain, wet bedding, muddy roads or high water could damp the ardor of the camping party that took partial posses- sion of Folly Quarter from the 10-19. The boys and girls of the party showed Spartan courage in resist- ing the savage attacks of pigs and fleas which they found established on their arrival, and the nerve of the relays of chaperons who attended them is no less to be commended.
During a heavy thunder storm in August a hay stack belonging to John Barnsley at Olney, was struck by lightning and burned; and at Mt. Zion two horses belonging to colored men attending a meeting there, were killed by lightning, while hitched to a barbed-wire fence.
August 12, there was a cloud burst about Brooke Grove, which raised the stream there so high that Charles F. Brooke, who was caught away from home, was obliged to swim to get back again.
August 25, a well-attended tournament was held in a field at Fair Hill, for the benefit of the Catholic
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church to be built at Olney ; but to those to whom the performance was novel, it was but too apparent that the glamour of chivalry cannot bear the glare of the closing days of the nineteenth century. Fin-de-siecle trousers and shirt sleeves are not heroic garments, and spearing little rings on pointed poles seems small business to occupy men on horseback. Even a game of baseball failed to enliven the occasion, and we went home in a pouring rain, the sadder for another lost illusion.
In August, a party of Millers, Stablers and Brookes camped up on Capon River, where they had a pleas- ant outing and some success as fishermen.
This year, though Rockland was closed to its sum- mer patrons, Marden, Cloverley and The Anchorage were full of boarders, and there was, as usual, quite an influx of summer guests all over Sandy Spring They went the usual round of summer gaiety which centered largely around the new house at Belmont. and the merry party there collected.
The Myrtlebank cottage, at Ashton, was occupied for a few weeks by Mrs. Holtzman, of Washington, and later by Dr. McPherson and family of the same city, while Dr. Hill and family of Baltimore occu- pied Oakleigh during the absence of Sarah Ellicott and daughter.
The County Fair, August 31 to September 3, was largely atiended, in spite of heat and dust, and such of our friends and neighbors as exhibited were rewarded by a fair share of premiums.
September 8, a lawn party at Mt. Airy, for the
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benefit of the W. C. T. U. and of the State Woman . Suffrage Association, was well patronized. Sand- wiches, coffee, ices, cake and confectionery were dis- cussed with animation during the early part of the evening, and a varied program-musical and dram- atic-finished the performance.
September 9, the whole neighborhood was shocked and grieved by the deplorable death of Mary Holland.
At the Ashton Quarterly Meeting of Friends, held September 10-12, the most important matters con- sidered were memorials of the late Dr. James Cary Thomas, and of Joseph P. Elliott. Dr. Richard Thomas of Baltimore, who had just returned from several years' absence abroad, was among the min- isters present, and he delivered a lecture on his travels at the Orthodox meeting house during Quart- erly Meeting week.
"On September 12, Thomas Lea died at Eldon, aged seventy-seven years, and was laid to rest at Woodside Cemetery.
"It is difficult, in writing, to do justice to a man who was so essentially a private citizen.
"The crowds that gatherered at social meetings had small attraction for him, though he helped organize the first Farmers' Club of the neighborhood, and re- mained a member of it during the years he was a farmer. He was also long a director in the Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and a member of the Horticultural Society and the Grange, in both of which he took great interest and enjoyment.
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"No one knew him intimately but those who knew him in his home and work shop, where he was always busy, but never too busy to help with his advice any who needed the benefit of his experience.
"Under his quiet, dignified manner was a keen sense of humor, and he had a fund of anecdotes that were the special joy of his grand children, to whom he was devoted.
"His early married life was spent at Leawood Mills. The flood of 1868, so destructive to property in Mary- land, swept away his outbuildings and his mill, the main dependence for the support of his family; but instead of desponding over loss of business and prop- erty, he rose to the occasion with unabated courage and energy. With the financial help of a few kind friends, he at once began the construction of a new and better mill.
"When over sirty-five years of age he built with his own hands the house where his last years were spent. When his home was finished, his mechanical skill, inherited from a long line of ancestors, was all the capital he possessed; this he applied in his shop early and late, in wheelwright and machine work.
"When a boy, under the tuition of Benjamin Hal- lowell, he acquired a fondness for mathematics and surveying, and between the ages of seventy-two and seventy-six he surveyed, besides four other parcels of land, the Mahlon Chandlee property of 429 acres, and divided it into forty-two lots, the final calculation being made the last week of his life.
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"He was a great reader; his favorite subjects were astronomy and history.
"The first money he ever earned as a small boy he spent for a book.
"With all his unflagging energy he was far from a strong man, and his health was much impaired for some years.
"The faith that sustained him in the reverses of earlier years did not forsake him in the closing weeks of his life. Retaining consciousness until almost his last breath, he met death fearlessly, sure of a home in one of the many mansions prepared for those who trust." (H. P. C.)
September 12, the Sherwood School opened its, fifteenth year's work with Elizabeth P. M. Thom, Principal, Alice V. Farquhar and Augusta N. Thomas, assistants. Forty-one pupils were present the first day, and the number increased to fifty-eight, the most ever enrolled at any time since the school was founded.
Though the attendance at Sherwood was so much larger than ever before, there were still eleven Sandy Springers who went elsewhere in the pursuit of knowledge.
Mid-September was dry, but after the 22 rain was frequent all the fall.
The chief event in October was the entertinment given at the Lyceum by the pupils of Sherwood school for the benefit of the Lafayette Memorial Fund. The songs, recitations, papers and drills were
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carefully prepared ; the whole performance reflected great credit on both actors and managers, and, in spite of most inclement weather the attendance was good.
The October meeeting of the Anti-Saloon League, held at the Lyceum, was a gratifying success; the attendance being large, and great interest manifested in the proceedings. Excellent speeches were made by Caroline H. Miller, A. N. Canfield, of Washington, Rev. L. L. Lloyd, of Gaithersburg, Rev. H. P. West, of Ashton, and H. O. Emmons, State Superintendent of the League.
In the course of this month the Junior Bicycle Club was organized, with Helen Wetherald, Captain, and it pervaded the neighborhood, individually and collectively, as long as the roads would permit.
About this time Louis and Virginia Steer moved from Philadelphia to make their home with her brother, Amos Holland.
November 1, Dr. Charles Farquhar rented his farm to J. W. Jones, and moved to the old Farquhar homestead, Olney, which he purchased from the heirs of H. C. Sherman. And on November 19, James P. · Stabler sold his farm implements, having rented Sharon to Clarence L. Gilpin.
The recital of Scotch songs given at Norwood by Miss Willetta Parker was a memorable occasion for all who were fortunate enough to be present, as she had given her beautiful and familiar numbers care- ful study in this country and on their native heath, and she rendered them with artistic finish.
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November was rainy, but warm almost to the end ; the first touch of winter temperature coming on the 23, and on the 24, Thanksgiving day, there was quite a fall of snow. More followed on the 27, which drifted heavily, and lay on the ground for weeks.
At Sherwood school, in November, was formed a new organization known as the Good Manners Club; its name clearly indicating its purpose.
November 14, Elizabeth Stabler, daughter of Ernest L. and Minnie Iddings was born at Atholwood.
Though social entertainments are not usually noted in these pages, the husking bee at The Highlands, November 28, being unique, seems worthy of men- tion. No other of its kind has even been, nor does there seem any likelihood of there being another.
December 1, the home of J. Janney Shoemaker and family burned to the ground early in the morn- ing. The weather being mild and clear, the family, hastily routed out of bed, reached Cherry Grove safely in such clothing as they could find. None of the other buildings caught fire, and the household goods saved were, generally, in good condition.
Thanks to the telephone the alarm was given more widely and promptly than it could otherwise have been so early in the morning. Before the blaze had died down George and Anna Nesbitt had placed their. house at the service of the Shoemaker family, the Nesbitts going to keep house at Tanglewood during the absence of its owners who were on the eve of start- ing to California.
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December 12, Samuel P. Thomas entered into rest. . "The whole of his useful and blameless life of nearly eighty-three years was spent in the home where he was born in 1816, the youngest of a large family.
"He was characterized from youth by a gentleness of speech and manner which endeared him to old and young, while his unswerving integrity in word and deed commanded the respect of all.
"He and Elizabeth G. Porter were married in 1845, and they lived together, devoted husband and devoted wife, for more than half a century, celebrating their golden wedding in 1895.
"His hearth stone was never blessed with sons and daughters, but the fatherly instinct was strong within his heart, and he loved and was beloved in return by the little people everywhere he went.
"His hospitality was apparently without limit; one guest asserted that she believed "the front door at Cherry Grove opened of itself." Helpless babyhood and helpless age found shelter, warmth and comfort under his roof for years together, and no tramp was so forlorn as to be denied food and lodging.
"His charitable actions were so modestly performed that they were rarely known to others, unless the re- cipient of his bounty divulged the fact ; but there are men and women busy in the world today who are more or less indebted to him for their education or their means of self-support.
: ""Industry, frugality and temperance in all things were the sure source of his liberality, and haste not, waste not, rest not, seemed to be his watchword.
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"Birds, trees, plants, insects and minerals were an unfailing source of interest and amusement to him to the last month of his life, and few in this commu- ity have acquired more practical knowledge of their immediate surroudings-animate and inanimate.
"During his brief final illness his sufferings were borne heroically, and there was no indication of either fear or regret at the coming of the pale mes- senger. As he went about among his friends, so he .
passed beyond-quietly and peacefully.
""'Such men as he was, never die !
Like stars that glisten in the sky,
O'er storms and clouds they still shine on,
Their radiant light is never gone.'" (M. B. T.)
December 14, with the mercury at 9º, Alban G. Susanna L. and Helen L. Thomas started for South- ern California to spend two months among flowers. in summer weather.
From this time on the winter was one of the most trying ever known here; frequent and extreme changes of temperature, rain, snow and unspeakable roads would have been an effectual damper on social life if grip had not marked about two out of every three of our population for its own, and rheumatism and other ills attacked the remaining fraction. Dr. Green's health forced him to go South, and Dr. Brooke, left in full possession of the field, had more than he could do, so that Doctors Stabler and Far- quhar were forced to practise, whether they would or not.
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Owing to much illness, the Christmas holidays were not gay, though there were two days of sleighing dur- ing the week. The weather was generally fine, and many people filled their icehouses before the old year was out, though on December 30, the mercury stood at 64°.
January 1, 1899, was ushered in with a snow storm and intense cold, and on the morning of the 2 the thermometer showed 10°.
"We are again called upon to record the removal by death of one of the oldest inhabitants of the neigh- borhood-Lydia G. Thomas -- the last surviving mem- ber of a large family of Gilpins.
"She was born July 2, 1812, in Wilmington, Del. Had she lived till July 2 of this year, she would have been eigthy-seven years old. Until she was grown, she lived with her aunt Anna Matilda Peirce, in Wilmington, from whom she received a training in neatness, economy and promptness, which were her prominent characteristics during her long life.
"Industry and energy combined to make her re- markably active up to within three weeks of her death, an event which occurred January 5, 1899, at Ashton, in the home of her daughter, Mary P. T. Jackson.
"She was married at Triadelphia, Md., April 25, 1833, to Edward Thomas, with whom she spent the following forty-six years upon Ashland Farm. She raised eight children, of whom five survive her. She was a devoted wife and mother.
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"Though not having received a finished education. yet she had a bright intellect, was a great reader, and kept well posted in magazine and newspaper litera- ture; and to the very last she took great interest in current events.
"She remembered well having seen Lafayette ride through the streets of Wilmington in a barouche, which afterwards became her own property. It was used for some time on the roads of Sandy Spring as a family carriage, but did its last service as a play- house for children on the old homestead at Ashland.
"Ever patient and uncomplaining, she passed across the border, to meet, we believe, in the great unknown land, many of her cotemporaries who had gone be- fore." (E. P. T.)
At the Lyceum, January 20, Edward van Alstyne, of New York, under the auspices of the State Bureau of Farmers' Institutes, delivered an interesting illu- strated lecture on Historic Scenes on the Hudson.
Next day, at Olney Grange Hall, he and George T. Powell, also of New York, were the principal speak- ers at a Farmers' Institute, assisted by C. O. Town- send of the Experiment Station, and others. The Institute was well attended, interesting and profit- able; the special subjects of discussion being the feed- ing of dairy stock and fruit culture.
The ladies of the W. C. T. U. improved the occa- sion by providing luncheon for such as cared to buy, and cleared a good sum for their work.
There must have been something peculiar about the uncertain sunshine of February 2, for subsequent
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results all indicate that the Ground Hog must then have seen his shadow double. His spell beginning to work February 5, for eleven days we had such in- tensity and variety of weather as struck the oldest inhabitant speechless.
When by the night of Tuesday the 7, the snow lay a foot deep on the level, the afore-mentioned Ancient said it was like old times, and the sleigh bells jingled merrily through the falling flakes. It was cold, but not too cold, and we recognized it as in the regular order of nature.
Wednesday the 8, was much colder, and a high wind, blowing the snow in clouds, and piling it up in all the most inconvenient places, reminded us of the blizzards of '88 and '95.
By the morning of the 9, the mercury had fallen below zero several degrees, and though calm, the cold was intense all day, the temperature rising little above zero even at noon.
At sunset it had reached the zero point again, and did not get above it for about forty-two hours, or un- til. noon of the 11; the lowest temperature noted being -21°.
The strain of such unusually severe weather was beginning to tell on everyone, and judging the future by the past we hoped for relief soon; but the worst was still to come.
About four o'clock on Saturday the 11. it began to snow again, in a persistent, business-like way, and the flakes came down in blinding sheets until night
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on Monday the 13. What the depth of snow might have been on the level by that time is purely a matter of conjecture ; it is generally estimated to have been about three feet.
Wednesday had been unpleasant, Thursday was bad, Friday was worse, Saturday more worse, Sunday the worst, but Monday, the Monday of the blizzard, was the most worst! (The resources of the English adjective are inadquate to the situation.)
The leaden clouds seemed to hold themselves just high enough above the earth to give the bitter, cruel wind free sweep and play with the falling snow, which it whirled in almost solid sheets through the air and piled in mountain drifts anywhere and every- where. All day it shrieked and roared as if all the demons of the under-world had been let loose, and when poor humanity could gather spirit to hope, it hoped with painful fervor, that the wind might go down with the sun.
But our time of trial was still not over, and the terrible night began ; one dared not say "If"-even in the most secret recesses of one's own mind that night, the possibilities of freezing, of fire, of twenty forms of horror, were too nearly probabilities to be calmly contemplated.
But morning came, and with it sunhine, cheering in itself, though it showed the air still full of flying snow, and such drifts on every hand as we never dreamed of. Gradually the wind abated, and by noon we could begin to look about and plan how best to dig our way out once more.
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