USA > Maryland > Montgomery County > The history of Montgomery county, Maryland, from its earliest settlement in 1650 to 1879 > Part 6
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at the door, asked me to come into his room, and said it was nothing-he had seen the like before. The shower continued till overpowered by daylight, the stars rushing down through space like snow-flakes, yet vastly more luminous. Fearful balls of fire shot madly towards the earth, like the pyrotechnie rocket shoots upward, consuming their substance in flight, or losing it by fric- tion against the walls of air. Most of the meteors were as large and brilliant as the stars themselves; and it required no vivid imagination to suppose that these celestial bodies were then rushing down to earth; for the heavens blazed with an inces- sant discharge of fiery globes that burst in countless numbers from the cloudless sky.
"Leaving the old soldier's house, I hurried on to Rockville, through Gaithersburg, looking all along the road for traces of the great phenomenon; some natural record or engraving of its occurrence; but could discover none, save in the eternal flint of words and memory. All whom I talked with on the way took a religious view of the case, none venturing an astronomical or meteorological solution of the great problem so suddenly sprung upon them. It was therefore generally believed that the time had come when 'the stars of heaven shall fall,' and when 'the powers of the heaven shall be shaken,' for the con- fusion was so great that not one could call to mind the fact that the great Egyptian, Grecian, Roman and Jewish stars of empire and powers of heaven, referred to by the great Teacher and Prophet, had already fallen along the Mediterranean shores, to make way for other great stars of empire, climbing the canopy of nations, and holding their way westward.
"At Gaithersburg, and on the road from that village to Rockville, I met great numbers of people hurrying to and fro, that their knowledge might be increased. The theory that all the stars were down and that not a luminary would blaze and twinkle in the heavens during the coming night, was generally supported by those who took a Biblical view of the matter on their 'own hook;' but such as had the least claim to common sense, knew better, and sought an explanation somewhere out- side of the lids of the Bible.
"About 9 o'clock on the morning of the 13th, I reined up before the old hotel in Rockville, and soon entered the bar-room, but I shall break down in the attempt to describe appearances
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in that room, in front of the door, on the porch, in the street, and wagon-yard,-not that I did not see and remember well enough to do so-but that description was so beggared that no pen was, nor is, adequate to the task .- I saw lawyers, physi- ciais, ministers, farmers, wagoners, sportsmen in the chase, and at the card-table-all repenting of their sins; confessing to one another; taking and denying positions, and covering up tracks. Certain of them confessed that when they first saw the raging meteorie shower cast its globes of fire to the ground, and against the outside walls and the windows of their room, they rushed from the card-table, cast their pack into the fire, and kneeled in prayer before a long neglected throne of mercy. They prayed ardently, it is said, until the shower was overpow- ered by daylight, and just as I entered the bar-room, I saw some of the accused coming down stairs with elongated faces unwashed, uncombed hair, unbrushed clothing, unblacked boots, and caved-in beavers! One excited orator stood forth in the bar-room, and declared that every man, who believed the big stars had fallen, was a fool; for he had watched them dur- ing the whole time of the shower, and not one of them had for- saken its post in the heavens. 'When night comes,' said he, 'you may miss some of the little stars, but my word for it, the big ones will be there.' Countrymen on their way to market declared that they saw great stars fall, explode and bury their fragments in the earth.
"I soon left for Georgetown to gain experience there; and here, in conclusion, I remark, that persons grown up since the year 1833, can never obtain an idea of the great meteoric shower worthy of the name of an idea, for it must be seen only to be realized, and that by large and cultivated capacities."
CHAPTER XI.
First Member of Congress from this County. Whiskey Insurrec- tion in Pennsylvania. Names of Montgomerians who serred in the Federal Congress. Hon. Montgomery Blair as Cabinet Minister. Members of Reform State Conrentions, 1850-51, 1864, 1867. First County Surreyor. First Schools. An Act for Purchasing School Property. Academies, Colleges, de., and their Students. First Church in the County, Parson William- son, Rector.
THE first Member of Congress from this County was General JEREMIAH CRABB, a member of one of the first Congresses. At the close of the Revolutionary war, he received a commis- sion as General from General George Washington, and was employed against the whiskey insurrectionists in Pennsylvania. This was occasioned by the first attempt at obtaining a revenue from internal taxes, by an Act, passed in 1791, imposing duties on domestic distilled spirits. This Act had from the first been very unpopular in many parts of the country. During this year the attempts to enforce the Act led to open defiance of the laws in the western counties of Pennsylvania. After two ineffectual proclamations by the President, he was compelled to call into action a large military force, in order to quell the insurgents.
The names of the different gentlemen who have at various periods since served in the Federal Congress, from this County, are, PATRICK MAGRUDER, THOMAS PLATER. PHILIP BARTON KEY, ALEXANDER CONTEE HANSON, at one time Chancellor of the State, GEORGE PETER, GEORGE C. WASHINGTON, and RICHARD J. BOWIE, who has also held the position of Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, and is now one of the Associate Justices of that Court, and Chief Judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit of this State. The County has also fur- nished one Cabinet Minister to the General Government-Hon. MONTGOMERY BLAIR; and two Presidents of the Mary-
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land Senate-BENJAMIN S. FORREST and WILLIAM LINGAN GAITHER.
The members from this County of the Reform State Conven- tion of 1850 and 1851, were Dr. WASHINGTON WATERS, JAMES W. ANDERSON, JOHN BREWER, ALLEN BOWIE DAVIS, and JOHN MORTIMER KILGOUR. Of the State Convention of 1864, Dr. EDMOND P. DUVALL, THOMAS LANSDALE and GEORGE PETER; and of the Convention of 1867, Dr. NICHOLAS BREWER, Dr. WASHINGTON DUVALL, SAMUEL RIGGS of R. and GREENBURY M. WATKINS.
THOMAS DAVIS was Surveyor of the County in 1790, and besides being a good practical surveyor, was frequently elected to represent his native County in the Legislature, the Electoral College for electing the State Senators, under the old Constitu- tion, and as a member of the Governor's Council. He served as a Justice of the Peace, a member of the Board of Tax Com- missioners, Judge of the Levy and Orphans' Courts, and also was one of the Associate Judges of the County Court, before the change of the system requiring all three of the Judges to be taken from the legal profession. Besides these publie duties, he was frequently called upon to draw deeds, wills and con- tracts, and to act as umpire or arbitrator in settling disputes between neighbors and other citizens of the County. He was also one of the founders and leading trustees of the Brookville Academy, and of St. Bartholomew's Protestant Episcopal Church, in whose Vestry and Communion he died in 1833, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, deeply lamented and mourned by a wide circle of friends and relatives,-a life worthy of record and imitation.
An Act for the encouragement of learning and erecting schools in the several Connties of the State, passed in 1723, enacted that one school should be established in each County, with seven visitors appointed for each, with power to hold lands to the value of one hundred pounds sterling per annum, and were required to purchase one hundred acres of land for the use of the school, and erect necessary buildings for master and school, and certain moneys were appropriated, and directed to be equally divided between the Counties.
The masters were required to teach as many poor children as the Visitors should determine. Under this law, County Schools
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were erected in all the older and more populous Counties. In further pursuance of this policy, the Assembly of 1763, chapter 32, declaring it was reasonable that education should be extended equally to the several parts of the Province, and that there should be a Public" School erected in Frederick County, as well as in other Counties. In order to the erecting and build- ing a house and other conveniences for a County School, enacted there should be one acre purchased in Frederick Town, in Fred- erick County ; that Col. Thomas Cresap, Mr. Thos. Beatty, Mr. Nathan Magruder, Capt. Joseph Chapline, Mr. John Darnall, Col. Samuel Beall and the Rev. Mr. Thomas Bacon, be Visitors of the School, and authorized to purchase the lot. It was further enacted that an equal dividend of the duties, taxes, &c., collected for the use of the County Schools, shall be paid to said Visitors, and applied to the purchase of said lots and buildings.
The Public School System, under the control of the Church of England, although tainted with the intolerance of the period, displays a commendable solicitude for the cultivation of the minds and morals of the youth of the Colony. In the absence of Collegiate Institutions, Private Schools conducted by learned men, ecclesiastical and lay, of all creeds, laid the foundation of scholastic knowledge. The more affluent youth were educated abroad; but the log school house, and the winter fireside, developed the seeds of science in many minds, and produced a race of men of extraordinary mental endowments and capacity for public affairs.
The first School of any reputation in the County, was a Sem- inary for young men, established towards the close of the Revolutionary War, by Mr. JAMES HUNT, a Presbyterian Clergyman from Philadelphia, on his farm called "TUSCULUM," now memorable as the Alma Mater of William Wirt. It was here he was prepared, as far as scholastic training could pre- pare him, for that brilliant career which has made his name one of the most illustrious in American annals.
The next Classical Institution established in the County, was the ROCKVILLE ACADEMY, chartered in 1809, and the BROOKE- VILLE ACADEMY next in 1814. Both of these Institutions are handsomely endowed by the State, and have been in successful operation ever since their foundation, and have exerted a refin-
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ing and elevating influence, not only on the youth of the County, but extending throughout the different sections of the country.
Many private institutions of learning, of efficiency and repu- tation, have since been established af Rockville, Brookeville, Sandy Spring, Darnestown and Poolesville, while the Public School System is the best that could be devised. Involuntary ignorance is no longer possible, and ignorance of every kind is being rapidly eradicated.
A description of one of the early schools will be interesting, describing the scenes and incidents connected with education fifty years ago, at the BARNESVILLE ACADEMY, near the Village of Barnesville in this County. It was called in those days Hays' School House, and consisted of a room sixty feet long by thirty feet wide, built to accommodate about one hun- dred scholars; old style desks, carefully made with drawers for keeping the books in safe condition, were arranged around the walls, and along the middle of the floor. Two ten plate stoves, made for burning wood, half the eord stick in length, warmed the hall; shelves extended all around the upper part of the walls near the ceiling, for the storage of grub baskets; and nails were driven in the walls, close under these shelves, for the hanging up of eloaks, hats, bonnets and shawls. The princi- pal's desk was placed at the south end of the hall. On it sat the bell, the much dreaded bell in "play time," whose sound must not be disregarded. Before it, reposed the rattan, a foreigner by growth, yet it frequently made itself too familiar with the school boys, for the comfort of the latter. Contrary to the general laws of war, it would attack them in the rear, and make retreat impossible.
The halcyon days of the academy were from 1830 to 1836; Thomas Carr Lannan, a graduate of Belfast College, Ireland, was the principal; and, for a time, Mr. Rogers and Mr. McGary, two young candidates for holy orders in the Catholic Church, his assistants.
Beginning with the young ladies, who graded high ingMr. Laman's classes, comes Miss Henrietta Herwood, a beautiful and queenly young lady, sixteen or seventeen years of age, who came four miles to school, riding on the same horse behind her elder brother. She was an orphan and resided with the family of Richard A. Harding near the mouth of Monocacy;
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Miss Mary Plummer, a mild and gifted young lady of sixteen, beautiful of face and form, with energies sufficient to induce her to scorn the foot of any class; Miss Caroline Murphy, the accomplished belle of the Sugar Loaf, so charming as to be able to break multitudes of strong hearts without her knowledge or consent. She rendered "Old Zip Coon" so sweetly on the piano, that, on oft-repeated occasions, the light fantastic toe of her admirers would be set in motion keeping time with the melody. Miss Martha Hayes, a very neat and handsome figure, deep blue eyes, and intellectual forehead and face; she wa gifted in conversation, and general favorite in the school. Miss Mary Nicholls a beautiful, intellectual, and winning young lady, bound to gravitate to the head of her class; Miss Frances Trail, who fell behind none of the above mentioned in accomplish- ments, and Miss Jane, her sister, a handsome blue-eyed girl, a sharp scholar, and general favorite; (Miss Sarah Ellen Hays, a rare beauty, sweet singer, and an accomplished performer on the piano; Miss Ellen Jones, sixteen years old, beautiful and winning and a great favorite, highly esteemed by all her class- mates; Miss Mary Pearre, sister of Judge Pearre of Allegany County, not less beautiful than her classmates, yet more affec- tionate than many-her face just as intellectual as fair, was always scen at the head of her class, or thereabouts; Miss Catharine Pearre, her sister-the words spoken of Mary are admirably adapted to her also; Miss Henrietta Wilcoxen, was the queen among the beauties of the County.
These young ladies bore the old names of the County which carried a prestige, socially, of dominant influence. They silently told the story of their well-bred existence to every one who saw them; and appeared to be, as they really were, the daughters of unostentatious gentlemen of the old school, who planted and built for themselves and their posterity.
The young gentlemen who attended the academy at this time were Edward Hays, Mortimore Trail, Oscar Trail, Thomas Nichols, Richard Belt, Thomas Harwood, Jolm Sellman, Gassa- way Grimes, Howard Sellman, Thomas Johnson, James Pearre, Thomas Austin, Stephen Jay, Pickering White, George Pearre, David Hershey, John Hershey, Lemuel Beall, Avery Bell, William Sellman, Richard Thompson, John Reid, Robert Sell-
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man, William Saffell, Hamilton Anderson, King Jay, Reuben Carley, Philemon Plummer.
Gassaway Grimes, Richard Thompson and John Reid belonged to the higher Latin and Greek classes. They entered upon the study of medicine, graduated, and became very respectable in the profession.
Dr. THOMSON now lives in Clarksburg and . has an extensive practice, surrounded by his children and grand-children; he bids fair to live long in the enjoyment of his pleasant surroundings. Dr. REID lives in Washington County; Dr. GRIMES died in early life, not long after he commenced practice.
Oscar Trail, Edward Hays, Richard Belt and Thomas John- son belonged to the same class, and stood foremost in the academical course.
Mr. TRAIL commenced the mercantile business in Baltimore, where he became a highly respected and successful merchant, but, to the great regret of all his friends and classmates, died early in life, leaving a young family. Messrs. Hays, Belt and Johnson took up some learned profession.
GEORGE PEARRE studied law in Frederick, became learned in the profession, and removed to Cumberland, where he became a Judge of Allegany County, whose distinguished abilities on the Bench fully declare his worth.
WILLIAM and ROBERT SELLMAN were respectable and earnest scholars, bent on "a business education," which this school well afforded. They made successful business men, highly respected in the community; John is now residing in Baltimore in very easy circumstances, and has recently filled a seat in the City Council with much ability and favor. Robert is also in Baltimore, where he has, for a great number of years, held and is still holding, to the entire satisfaction of the mercantile community, the office of Inspector of Flour. William now resides in our County, and has recently represented it in the Senate of Maryland, in a manner very satisfactory to his constituents.
JOHN HERSHEY, a noble young man, went into the ministry, after winning many prizes in the Latin and Greek classes, and became a useful and prominent Minister of the Gospel.
At this school, the foundations for a thorough business educa- tion were well and truly laid down under the personal superin-
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tendence of the principal, and a training for the higher collegiate course was performed by him in a scholarly manner. All the Latin historians, poets, and orators occurring in the course between Jacob's Latin Reader, and the polished sen- tences of Tacitus were well read and understood, and a similar Greek course kept equal pace with the Latin. A "business education," as understood at the Barnesville Academy, consisted in reading through the "English Reader," committing to memory a definition of all the words in Walker's Small Diction- ary, ciphering as far as the "Single Rule of Three" in Arith- metie, with Grammar from Murray or Kirkham, sufficient to qualify the student to write an essay or letter over a half sheet of the large foolscap paper used in that day. To this was added Single Entry Book-Keeping, done on unruled paper, stitched together for the purpose with needle and thread; but more frequently with awl and "wax end," obtained from shoe shops in the village. A balance sheet was struck at the end of six months, the course was finished, the student then graduated with "a business education" and retired from the school. This is what was generally understood as a business education fifty years ago.
Graduating with a business education, with brains sharpened for the contest, the student, instead of retiring to the pursuits of life, would often enter the higher classes, springing as a lion into the arena, then woe to the poor stragglers in the rear, for somebody must "step down and out," or make rapid strides towards the front.
After a course of gentle hazing, the new student was fully admitted into the society of the school. This was done by enticing the freshman into some amusing scrape with the principal, by ducking him in the snow in the winter; or he was by strategy on the part of the old regulars, repeatedly brought to "the knucks," at the game of marbles played in holes, until his hands were severely bruised. Mr. Lannan always made it a point to ascertain from the new scholar what business he wished to follow when grown up to manhood, and trained him accordingly, directing special and constant attention to the development of all his capacities in that direction.
Public examinations were periodically held at the Academy. For a month or more previous they were drilled for the great 6
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
competitive struggle, in hard questions calculated to span over every branch of study.
There was little or no literature in the early days of the County.
But the public archives, the proceedings, reports, resolutions, and letters of publie men, embodied in the Journals of the Con- vention; the legislation of the State immediately succeeding its organization as an independent sovereign power; the judicial opinions and the brilliant career of members of the bar edu- cated before and after, Martin, Pinkney, Wirt, Taney, Johnson, and men of that stamp, attest that the fountains from which they drank were both pure and invigorating.
The first church in the County was the Rock Creek Church, in the Parish of Prince George, which extended over a portion of Prince George's County, and what is now the District of Columbia, and the whole of Montgomery and . Frederick Counties, but now only embraces a small territory around Rockville. Parson Williamson was the Rector in charge at the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, and built the fine old mansion of Hayes, formerly the seat of the Dunlaps, and now the property of William Laird, Esq. He was supported by the compulsory tithe system.
CHAPTER XII.
First Public Rouds. Rolling Tobacco to Market. Union Turu- pike. Washington, Colesville and Ashton. Columbia. The Old Baltimore. River Road. Old Annapolis. Conduit. Old Potomac Company. Subscriptions to said Company. Chesa- peake and Ohio Canal. Coal Elevators in Georgetown. First Railroad in the Country. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Metropolitan Branch.
THE first public roads mentioned in the County, are the roads from Georgetown to Frederick, and from Georgetown to Watts' Branch, provided for in the loan granted to the several Counties for road purposes, by the Act of Assembly, 1774. The next mention is of the road from Frederick to Georgetown, the road from Georgetown to the mouth of the Monocacy, and from the mouth of Monocacy to Montgomery Court House, (in the Act of Assembly, 1790, to straighten and amend the public roads in the several Counties.) The planters at that early period did not use wheeled vehicles, but attached a sapling to each end of a tobacco hogslead, and thus formed a pair of shafts, by which they hauled the hogsheads for shipment to Europe, to Bladens- burg, Georgetown, Elk Ridge, and Baltimore, and brought back their supplies of groceries and other necessaries on the backs of horses. They even brought their annual supply of herring and shad in this manner. Their clothing and bed linen were chiefly woven from home-grown flax and wool. Their personal travel was done exclusively on horse- back.
Roads after this period rapidly multiplied. The turnpike from Rockville to Georgetown, the first paved road in the County, was originally chartered in 1806; but was actually constructed under an amendatory Act, containing the chief provisions of its present charter, passed in 1817.
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The Union Turnpike Road, leading from Washington to Brookeville, was chartered in 1849. It has recently built several branch roads.
The Washington, Colesville and Ashton Turnpike road, chartered in 1870.
The Columbia road runs from Washington to Westminster, passing through Brookeville.
The Old Baltimore road runs through the County, commenc- ing on the Monocacy near its mouth.
The River road runs along the Potomac from Georgetown to White's Ferry.
The old Annapolis road runs from the Brookeville Turnpike, near Mitchell's Cross Roads to Annapolis.
The Conduit road from Georgetown to the Great Falls on the Potomac River, was completed in 1875. It follows the line of the Washington Aqueduct, and crosses Cabin John Branch on a bridge of a single arch, the longest span in the world. This Aqueduct is also a Montgomery County work, having its source and almost its entire line within the limits of the County, and its permissive right from the State of Maryland.
The initial movement towards internal improvement in North America, was inaugurated in this County, in 1774, two years before the Declaration of Independence, and ten years before the organization of the old Potomac Company. George Washing- ton and Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, were conspicuons as promoters of the movement. The following is a copy of an old subscription paper, showing the names of the subscribers and the amounts.
"WE, the subscribers, have considered JOHN BALLENDINE'S plan and proposals for clearing Potowmack River, and do ap- prove of it; and to enable him to set about that useful and necessary undertaking, do hereby agree and promise severally, to contribute such assistance, or pay such sums as we respec- tively subscribe, to the TRUSTEES named in the said plan and proposals, or to their order at such times and places, and in such proportions as shall be required by them, for the purpose of clearing the said RIVER. Witness our hands this TENTH DAY OF OCTOBER, ONE THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FOUR.
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