USA > Maryland > Montgomery County > Sandy Spring > Annals of Sandy Spring history of a rural community in Maryland, Volume III > Part 8
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Such a. complete and prolonged blockade was un- : precedented. But one vehicle passed Ashton on that memorable Monday ; from the afternoon of Saturday the 11, till the evening of Wednesday the 15, no mail came to or left the neighborhood, and the first that came on Wednesday was brought on horseback from Laurel, by Mortimer and Herbert Stabler. For four days there was no toll taken at the Sandy Spring gate, and for three days the Belmont wagons did not try to go to town. Those that went down on Sunday were snowed up near Sligo on the return trip; and on Thursday, when the effort to go to Washing on was resumed, E. P. Thomas had sixteen horses and seven men on the road.
In many places provisions of one kind or another, or fuel, ran low or gave out ; water pipes burst, and at Mirival a radiator froze and split, flooding the house and necessitating the putting out of the furnace fire.
One of the greatest hardships endured in the storm was taking care of stock, for which, in many cases, · water had to be carried a considerable distance over a track that would not stay broken through drifts up to a man's waist, and swirling snow that blinded and bewildered the breathless toilers.
The kerosene supply at the stores ran low, and sev- eral families were only saved from spending their evenings in darkness by the kindness of a neighbor who had a barrel of oil in his cellar.
But in spite of all the might-have-beens no one seems to have suffered for the necessaries of life, and
-
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in so far we were better off than many people in the city who keep a smaller stock of provisions on hand.
During this crisis we came to appreciate the tele- phone as never before, and even the feeble and ex- hausted voice in which "Central" said "Number!" failed to check our perpetual calls. They estimate the number as between four and five hundred a day during the blizzard.
When at last the wind went down at noon on Tues- day the 14, the outside world offered an amazing sight to our wondering eyes. Open fields were filled with soft billows of white, and wherever fence or hedge or building, bank or ditch had stayed its flight the snow lay piled mountain-high. Looking at the drifts, we thought that they might last till the 4 July, but the last one only lingered till about the 13 April.
Travel was completely blocked and the roads to Washington had to be shoveled out almost every foot of the distance, at a cost of about $32.00 per mile, on the Colesville pike. The county roads were cleared in whatever fashion best suited the volunteers who opened them, and everybody anticipated the thaw with dread.
Wednesday February 15, was the coldest day of all; the mercury being as low as 24° that morning, but it was so calm, and everyone was so busy digging that nobody paid much attention to the thermometer.
On Thursday the 16, came a heavy rain, which began the reduction of the drifts, and next day when the mercury rose to 48º-a rise of 72º in a little
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more than twenty-four hours-they rapidly assumed the consistency of slush. Locomotion still contin- ued to be a problem. Snowshoes, which various peo- ple had used when the storm first ceased, were use- less in the seas of sloppy, half-melted snow between the drifts, and it was an open question whether a sleigh or a carriage was the more desirable vehicle in which to bump and lurch over the uncertain bottom of the white-walled canals we called roads, so we com- promised by staying at home.
Several of the societies missed a meeting because of roads or weather, and Sherwood and the public schools were closed for a week. The only note-worthy social event of the blizzard was a certain evening call, which broke all calling records, lasting as it did from Sunday evening till Tuesday afternoon.
By Sunday, the 19, the tracks were so far bare that sleighs were put by; the sea of slush was quite transformed into a sea of mud, and county roads were almost impassable again.
. The great blizzard of 1899 was a thing of the past, and an impartial view of it shows that the only good purpose it served was to give a new spice to that time-honored topic of conversation, the weather.
It also revived traditions of a snow in 1798, which was so deep and covered with such a hard crust, that people traveled about on it across lots regardless of fences, and ignoring "main-traveled roads." Then trees cut for firewood left stumps high enough to make cord sticks after the thaw, and the last wild
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deer found in this section were disovered after the snow had melted, starved to death in a great hol- low stump on the back part of Stanmore farm. George E. Brooke knew the tree as long as it stood, but it is gone now.
February 17, J. C. Williams died at his home in Olney, after a very brief illness. He had carried on a successful mercantile business there for a num- ber of years, and his universal kindness will make him greatly missed by a large circle of friends and customers.
February 20, Ridgely Brown, son of Eliza M. H. and Washington B. Chichester, Jr., was born at Springland.
February 21, the twenty-seventh Farmers' Con- vention was held at the Lyceum. Robert H. Miller presided, and in spite of the bad roads and the recent Institute it was well attended. The discussion of the advisability of making the turnpikes free roads, es- pecially in view of the recent blizzard and of existing conditions, was most lively and interesting, and the other questions of the day with regard to ensilage and the growing of grass, were also of importance.
The board of Lyceum Directors, on February 26, gave the first and only sign of life it manifested dur- ing the year. It secured for us a most interesting illustrated lecture on "The Campaign in Cuba," by William Dinwiddie, of Washington, who, with his camera, was in camp or on the field all last summer: and more than one who heard him and saw his pic-
.
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tures felt to understand better than before just what happened, and how it all really was.
On the 4 March, torrents of rain were followed by a severe thunder storm ; and on the 7, we had another blizzard. Several inches of snow, a high wind and a temperature of 20° did all they could to make us believe it was a genuine article of blizzard, and the roads were filled as full as the quantity of snow would allow. With our experience of three weeks before fresh in mind, the drifts caused a panic which pre- vented the milk wagons from traveling and the teach- ers and pupils getting to school, though they proved insurmountable only in a few places. They did not stay with us long either, for the weather turned mild, and on the 12 the mercury stood above 70°. The snow vanished as if by magic, and only the deepest drifts in sheltered spots were left after that. The very last of the snow, however, lay till the 11 or 12 of April.
March 5, Warner Cook, an aged and well known colored man, died at his home at Cincinnati, leaving 108 descendants.
March 25, Elizabeth, daughter of Robert H. and Mariana S. Miller, was born at Alloway.
April 1, George F. Nesbitt became a partner of A. G. Thomas & Co., but his friends will not believe that that day was set for his admission to the firm with any uncomplimentary intention.
April 2, William Howard, son of Clarence L. and Rose M. Gilpin, was born at Della Brooke.
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Hope is often delusive, especially hopes of spring this year. March brought just one bright, calm, mild day, and April was a week old before any garden in Sandy Spring, save only that at Alloway, received a single seed. But we had ice every day that week, though there was not much rain.
April 9, Elgar Hallowell, son of Newton and Mary H. Stabler, was born.
We note with pleasure the return of Emilie T. Massey and her daughter Madge to Sandy Spring, where they expect to reside with Mary E. Gilpin, at Avalon. And after more than a year in the far Northwest, Hillis Robison has returned to his home here to aid Walter H. Brooke in his plumbing busi- ness.
April 21 brought us an unusual treat in a lecture on Japan by Sophia E. Easter of Baltimore, who was well up on her subject after a long stay in that verit- able wonderland; while the Japanese dress she wore, and the many Japanese curios by which she was sur- rounded, helped to make the admirable text of her lecture yet more vivid.
During the week just past, spring has begun to make some coy advances towards us, but the season is nevertheless very late. Only four days later than this, twenty-one years ago, the 28 of April, 1878, the day of the great hailstorm in this section, trees were in full leaf, wheat in head, and clover fields in bloom.
But a year that has so over-exerted itself in ex- tremes of wet and dry, and in showing a range of 121° of temperature in the same spot, by the same
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thermometer, may be expected to need a tonic towards spring.
In the last twelve months, more building has been done than in several years previous ; considerable ad- ditions were made to the house at Ingleside; a large sheep barn at Alloway, a wagon and corn house and a new back building at Pen-y-bryn, a cottage adjoining the house of Hallie I. Lee, a green house at Fairfield, and a Catholic church at Olney have been completed. The house at Burnside is being rebuilt; Mt. Airy is being improved by a new back building and Mrs. Dorrance is building a barn on the Wetherald farm, which she has bought.
Samuel B. Wetherald has purchased Mrs. Leizear's house and lot at Sandy Spring as a home for Esther and Annie Wetherald.
All through the year our friends and neighbors have kept up a perpetual flitting. California was the most distant point reached by any of them, but Bos- ton, New York, Philadelphia, Wilmington and New Orleans, not to mention various seaside and mountain resorts, received visits from Sandy Springers; while trips to Washington and Baltimore have been too numerous to count. But the distant spot most fre- quented was Asheville, N. C., where Alice T. Stabler, Charles E. and Florence M. Bond took a house for the season, and entertained several other people from this vicinity.
Besides all these temporary changes of residence. Ernest and Sallie Janney Adams moved from Brigh- ton to their home in Howard County. Fred L.
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Thomas, who graduated from Swarthmore in June, received a situation in Phildelphia, and Wm. C. Nesbitt secured employment in New York.
As usual in preparing these notes, there are several items of interest that do not make special connection with anything else, so rather than leave them out I simply tie them together like bobs in a kite tail. Among these disjointed facts may be mentioned the painting of two pictures of the interior of Sandy Spring meeting house, by Milton Bancroft.
Another is, that in digging a ditch on Della Brooke farm, Clarence L. Gilpin discovered, deep in the earth, a perfect buffalo horn.
The woods of this section continue to furnish many large telegraph poles, the preparing and hauling of which is quite an industry here at present. One re- cently sent to Washington measured seventy-seven feet long, and was estimated to weigh about seven tons.
One of the special uses of history is to preserve the "tradition of the elders," and the present historian would fail in this should she omit all mention of the Sandy Spring railroad from these pages. The sub- ject has been discussed here and elsewhere for over forty years, and we are certainly one year nearer the attainment of that long-cherished wish than we were in April, 1898. Some people think we have made even more decided progress than that, for did not the Washington and Gettysburg R. R. bill pass the last Congress, and receive the President's signa- ture ? Has not the Washington and Gettysburg R.
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R. Co. been formed with Allan Farquhar as one of its directors ? And have not those directors informed Sandy Spring capitalists, that their money would not be needed to build the road ? Has there not been a large and important railroad meeting held in the Lyceum within two days, wherein rival parties con- tended for the privilege of building us a trolley line ?
Furthermore, have we not been promised-for who knows the how-many-eth time ?- that the road to Sandy Spring will be in operation within a year ?
Doubtless those who attend the Annual Meeting next April will come in a trolley car, and the sen- tences of next year's Annals will be punctuated by the sharp clang of the gong.
But prophecy lies outside the province of the his- torian, so we will not further anticipate the events of time to come sufficient unto the present are its own good and ill.
CHAPTER V.
1899-1900.
The soft April night on which our year's record began, brought out many people to discuss the state of the Lyceum Company, and other matters usually considered at the Annual Meeting.
April 25, Mary Bentley Thomas and Sarah T. Mil- ler went to represent Maryland at the N. A. W. S.
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A., at Grand Rapids, Michigan, where they enjoyed a week-long "feast of reason and flow of" warm hos- pitality.
Miss Sophia Easter's lecture on India, delivered at Norwood, on the afternoon of April 26, was an even greater treat to her audience than the one on Japan, recorded last year.
April 29, Mary Willis Kirk died. "The youngest child of Amos and Mary Elgar Farquhar; she was born at Stanmore, near York, Pa., in 1819, and dur- ing her childhood the family moved several times, finally settling at Fair Hill. Here her father died while she was away at boarding school at Westchester, Pa., and travel being difficult in those days before the time of railroads-and the journey, therefore much too long for a young girl to undertake alone-she was denied even the sad privilege of a last look at the face and form of one of the most devoted fathers, and loveliest and best of men !
. "On her return from school she found a broken home, and strong necessity for exertion towards self- support.
"For two or three years she lived with her sister Margaret Hallowell, and assisted with unusual en- ergy and efficiency in the many and arduous duties of the Alexandria Boarding School. After this she entered upon her career as a teacher, in which she was most successful at Pipe Creek and Brookeville, finally establishing a large private school in Alex- andria, and winning not only the love and respect, but also the ardent admiration of her pupils.
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:: "The child of gifted parents, surrounded in her family by brothers and sisters of uncommon intelli- gence and ability; disciplined by the sacrifices and struggles of her earlier years, she gradually developed and matured into the woman whom we all knew and honored. She possessed a striking and charming per- sonality, a rare nobility of countenance and manner, so that strangers who only met her casually could not forget her ; and the sobriquet of Duchess followed her wherever she was known.
"Her character was woven of a triple cord, strong as the Universe itself-Truth, Loyalty, Earnestness of Purpose; and her daily attributes were industry, untiring devotion to her family and friends, and a surpassing love of literature. Many of us can recall -and thrill at the remembrance-her perfect render- ing of some of her favorite poems.
... "On the 19 of September, 1850, at the home of her brother-in-law, Benjamin Hallowell, in Alexandria, Va., she was married to Richard S. Kirk, of Sandy Spring; and in the spring of the next year they were appointed by the Baltimore Yearly Meeting, Super- intendents of the Friends School for girls which was about to be re-established at Fair Hill. . This institu- tion flourished for many years under the new manage- ment. Finally through their industry and economy, aided most effectually by their children-a son and a daughter, who had been spared to them out of a family of four-Richard and Mary Kirk were able to purchase of the Yearly Meeting this desirable property, soon clearing its broad acres of all shadow
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of debt. And here, in this dear old home-the home where her beloved father and her idolized daughters had passed away from earth-the bright and brave subject of this sketch passed her declining days, cher- ished by her devoted children, guarded by them with a love and reverence, which though perhaps equalled, has never been surpassed; and here; on the 29 day of April, 1899, the sum of her upright and unsullied life sank beneath our horizon. And lo! while her pure spirit arose in the effulgence of a new and glor- ious morning, dark shadows fell upon the home where she had been so long the center of light and life. But thanks to the merciful order of our creation the dawn of a new day must follow upon the darkest and most dreary night." (Caroline H. Miller.)
The warm weather continued through the first week in May, vegetation developed rapidly, and the month altogether was more pleasant than usual.
A William Penn Tea at Alloway on the 24 of May, realized a considerable sum for the Darling- ton-Friends' Home-in Baltimore; in spite of the fact that furs and a fire would have been more in keeping with the temperature than white gowns and tea on the lawn. But the little waitresses, in their Quaker caps and kerchiefs, seemed to have exercise enough to keep them warm, and everyone else looked cheerful, if chilly.
On May 28, the mercury rose to 85°, and there was no more cold weather to remark.
May 6, George Floyd, Jr., son of Anna T. and George F. Nesbitt, Jr., was born at Tanglewood.
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May 19, the pupils of Sherwood School gave an entertainment for the benefit of their Chemistry class, to such a crowd as had not been seen in the Lyceum for years. There was not even standing-room vacant, and everyone present enjoyed the songs, recitations essays and drills which were rendered in a highly creditable manner.
May 25, Samuel S. Bond gave a gramophone re- cital at the Lyceum to a small audience.
May 26, Phrenaskeia's fifth banquet, at Plain- field, scored another success for its enterprising mem- bres, and especially for its toast-master Mortimer O. Stabler. The guests were more numerous, the speeches as clever, the music more varied than ever, and the menu fully up to the mark.
The first ten days of June brought the hottest weather of the season, the thermometer registering 99° on the 6 and 7, and the hot wave ended with a fierce storm on the 9. Torrents of rain, high wind, thunder, lightning and hail were general in all parts of the neighborhood, and the damage would have been fearful had the hailstones been numerous in propor- tion to their size; the smallest of them were as large as pigeon's eggs, some measured six inches in circum- ference, and cattle were killed by them in the upper part of the County. The wind seemed particularly severe about Brookeville and Brighton, a barn having been blown down at Longwood, and many beautiful trees were injured at Gladwyn.
At Spencerville one man was killed and two were injured by lightning, and it killed an ox at Leawood.
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Quarterly Meeting, June 10-12, was small, and the only visiting ministers were A. Haviland Hull, and Sarah J. Price ; but the weather was pleasant, and the occasion was enjoyed by entertainers and visitors alike.
"Sallie E. Ellicott, who died sixth month 19, 1899, in the seventy-third year of her age, was of English birth, the daughter of Dr. James and Sophia Duck of Taunton, Somersetshire, Englannd.
"They came to America when she was sixteen ; for some years New York was her home, and she taught school for a time. Later she moved to Baltimore where she formed new ties, and from there she came to Sandy Spring as the wife of Samuel Ellicott. They were married September 18, 1862.
"Her duties as a wife were two-fold; not only was she a companion to her husband, who had lost his eyesight when young; but it was her loving mission, by the influence of her bright and cheerful, yet reli- gious nature, 'by the calm beauty of an ordered life,' to give joy and gladness to the lot of one who missed so many pleasures that others enjoy.
"As a proof of the happiness of their married life, she said 'she would not exchange it for all England.' She survived her husband nineteen years, and when her summons came to join him in the world beyond she was glad to follow." (S. E. Stabler. )
June 24 an automobile passed through the neigh- borhood. en route from Baltimore to Washington, the first vehicle of its kind to traverse our roads.
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Early in June the tide of summer guests set in; Richard P. Thomas and family, of Baltimore, took possession of Myrtlebank, and the houses at Plain- field, Rockland, Cloverley, The Anchorage, Bloom- field, Falling Green, and Brooke Grove were occupied by boarders during the season.
Dr. S. I. Scott, with his family, returned about this time to make his home and practice his profes- sion of dentistry in Sandy Spring again; repairing and fitting up a house on the Mt. Pleasant farm for a dwelling and office.
During June, two enterprising young women, Mary E. Thomas and Margaret C. Bancroft, put the Sandy Spring Library to rights, and afterwards opened it to the public regularly one day in every week all summer.
Wheat harvest this year was favored with perfect weather, clear, breezy and "neither too hot nor too cold, but just right;" so, as the crop was fair, there was nothing for the farmers to complain of just then, When, however, it rained on the short hay crop, they had a chance to make up for past deficiencies; and when the potatoes were gathered they had good rea- son to indulge in their favorite pastime, as the yield of the ubiquitous tuber was the smallest and of the poorest quality ever known in this section of Mont- gomery County.
July 1, the Laurel-Sandy Spring stage line again changed hands, once more coming under the manage- ment of P. H. Connell.
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July 4, Margaret Sherman, daughter of Josiah W. and Margaret S. Jones, was born in Washington. July 17, Frank Jones, Jr., son of Frank J. and India Downey, was born at Charley Forest.
From the 18-25 the W. C. T. U. camp at Washing- ton Grove, claimed the attention of an even larger number of our people than heretofore, the meetings being, on the whole, most successful and encouraging.
July 21, Gertrude, infant daughter of Dr. Charles M. and Ida M. Iddings died at Millwood, and was interred at Woodside Cemetery.
July 25, there was an interesting reunion of Sher- wood' students on the school grounds, in honor of Belle W. Hannum, for many years connected with the school. About 125, many of whom had been Miss Hannum's pupils, were there to express their pleasure at seeing her again, and a shower at supper time did not prevent its being a very enjoyable affair.
July 26, Elizabeth, infant daughter of Robert H. and Mariana S. Miller, died and was buried at Alloway.
Francis T. Leizer, who died at his home in Sandy Spring, July 27, aged fifty-eight years, was born in this neighborhood, and lived here nearly all his life. He was a most skilful carpenter, a man of genial, pleasant manner, and of high local reputation as a weather prophet His wife and one son survive him.
August 5, Eliza N. Moore returned from a two months' trip to the "land of the midnight sun," and on the 22 she invited all her friends for miles around
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to come to the Lyceum and hear of what she had seen and done. The crowd, which on that occasion occu- pied every available inch of room in the hall, listened with great interest to her pleasant narrative, which was illustrated with photographs and curios of no little value and beauty, while the speaker herself, in her Norse peasant dress, made a charming living pic- ture.
During a severe thunder storm August 2, floods of rain and some hail fell throughout this section, ac- companied by more or less wind, which at Clarks- ville and Woodside amounted to a tornado, and did great damage to buildings, trees and crops. The only incidents of the storm worthy of remark in our imme- diate neighborhood were the striking of a tree at Homewood, the shock being felt by the people in the house, and the destruction of a large flower pot near the porch at Gladwyn by a thunderbolt.
"At his residence, Rockland, August 11, 1899, Henry C. Hallowell died, aged seventy years.
"He was the eldest son of Benjamin and Margaret E. Hallowell, and was born in Alexandria, Virginia. He leaves a remarkable example of what the mind and will can accomplish, even when the tenants of a deli- cate, frail body. At an early age he evinced the fac- ulty of seeing a silver lining to every cloud. Being constantly in his father's society, he treasured in his memory the many lessons learned from that noble source, where he was taught that 'to improve the un- derstanding corrects and enlarges the heart.' After taking a course in his father's school, he went to
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