"Going down the hill"

Wm Peake Jr (1837-1920) father of 17

In Owensville, people used to say “You can always tell a Peake”. 
Curly dark hair, dark brows, and dark eyes were a give-away.

William Peake, Sr had 13 children. 
His son William Peake, Jr had 17 more.

Sallie Peake, one of the 13, married Summerfield Chew in 1867.  In 1901 Howard Peake, one of the  17, married Sallie’s daughter Mary Chew.  By the third generation of intermarriage, the recessive blue eyes of the Chews had all but disappeared.  

Cousins Elizabeth Peake and Kate Chew were 3rd generation.  They traded memories of Tamarack Hill, the farm of their grandparents Sallie & Summerfield Chew.

Summerfield Chew 1840-1921

Elizabeth:  “Grandpa Chew was an amateur horticulturalist.  His whole front field was planted in vegetables and watermelons, and his orchard boasted every kind of apple.”

Kate:  “On hot days a ripe watermelon would be brought from the ice house.  When the sharp knife halved it, you could hear the satisfying crack.  In melon season there was always a platter on the table with a dozen cut cantaloupes filled with ice.”

Kate:  “In Grandpa’s meadow, Gott’s Branch ran slow and smooth.  It was delightful to wade in and perfectly safe.  We fished in the lower pool, about 3 ft deep.  Small catfish and minnows lived there and were very gullible.  They loved the worms we dangled in the water on safety pins.”

Eliz:  “Tamarack Hill got indoor plumbing in the 1940's.  Before that we used a privy in back, below the dairy.  When you went to the privy, you said ‘I’m going down the hill’.  You never said the word ‘privy’.”

Kate:  “In 1921 there was a bad ice storm.  Grandpa went down the hill early and couldn’t make it back up.  Grandma missed him, and then heard him calling.  They helped him up, but he was chilled from contact with the cold ground.  He went to bed and never recovered."  
He was 80.

Tamarack Hill c1939.  Elizabeth's mother Mary Peake, 3rd fr right.  Kate's mother Liza Chew, far left.

Snapshots of Owensville in 1912

Our Lady of Sorrows rectory & church

15 Homes and 3 Churches:

Entering Owensville from the west on Owensville Road, you crossed a wooden bridge at Gott's Branch. 

On your right was Our Lady of Sorrows Church and Father Anthony’s rectory. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Behind the church was Tamarack Hill, Summerfield Chew's house.

Tamarack Hill 1974 (Amy Hiatt photo)

 Next on the right was Morgan Wayson’s house which held the telephone switchboard.  
Then, Wayson's cow pasture.

Owensville School (ClemenceBurwell photo)

A wire fence separated the cows from the school yard. On a rise stood the small gray school house, a baseball diamond in front, and a privy out back.

Js Cheston Hse 1909 (Burwell)

Next was the yellow 
Victorian house of 
James Cheston.

Morris Cheston Hse 1914 (Burwell)

Opposite James was the house of his brother Dr Morris Cheston.  Morris' widow Sally lived here with 3 daughters.

Methodist Church & Parsonage

On the right, on a bluff, stood the Methodist parsonage and the Methodist church.  Mr Perkins was minister. 

Then you arrived at the Owensville crossroads. Here was the public well,  used by the whole neighborhood.

Clifton Park (Jacqueline Billard photo)

Left from the crossroads was the lumber mill of Stallings Wayson whose arm had been severed in a mill accident.

Beyond Wayson's mill was Bettie Byrd’s house Clifton Park.

Cawood Hse (IreneWayson photo)

If you turned right at the crossroads, you bumped down 'the cardboard hill' constructed of logs and sand to prevent washout.  Dr Cawood’s house was on the left,

and then Sam Chew’s house, Roselawn, built by his great grandfather Wm Peake, Sr.

Roselawn (MarionCarroll photo)

Back to the crossroads and continuing east toward Galesville, schoolteacher Mamie Chew's house was on the right. Mamie taught every village child from 1860 to 1910.

                                                                          

Mamie Chew's House (Evelyn Lyon-Vaiden photo)

                                                                   

Opposite Mamie's was her brother Summerfield Chew's general store & post office.

Chew's Store 1911 (Burwell)

Parish Hall, early 1900's (fr SallyWhall)

 

Behind the store was the old 1850’s Classical Institute. The building was now used as Christ Church's Parish Hall.  

Christ Church early 1900's (Burwell)

Next on the left was Christ  Church itself,

Christ Church Rectory

and Rev Mayo’s rectory. 

John Hopkins Hse (EvelynHopkins photo)

On the right, John Hopkins’ house stood above a large yard.

Then came Henry Owens’ house surrounded by boxwood bushes.

Woodstock c1900 (Alice Randall photo)

Finally, past two fields and a barn, at the east end of the village, was the yellow house of Alec Murray, Woodstock. 

(village description excerpted from Kate Chew’s memoir)

Death in the Forests

August 1914 ... Kate Chew's memory of the summer when she was 6, about to start school:

Kate's mother, Liza Chew c1920

“Mother invited the new school teacher to supper to get 

acquainted with us.  We were going chestnut hunting, and she came along.  

“With our tin pails, we trotted down the hill to the cool dark woods.  The chestnuts had fallen and were lying around under the trees with their spring burrs open.

“We used our heels to open them further, mashing the outside burr until the nuts were safe to handle.  We bit into them, spitting out the bitter husks, and ate the sweet inner kernels.  Our pails were soon full and, come November, we would roast the chestnuts in the open fire.

Sam, Kate, Virginia Chew c1914

“It was an idyllic affair, a warm breezy afternoon, the children running through the woods, the ladies in their long white skirts making friends.  

“In Europe, where the summer had also been beautiful, the guns of August had been readied.  A grand duke and his wife had been assassinated, and the nations were lining up and taking sides.  

“But we played heedlessly, not knowing the world would never be the same.

“That was also the year of the American Chestnut Blight - death in the forests.  Soon the trunks of tall gray ghostlike trees showed throughout the eastern states.  No more sweet juicy nuts to enjoy.” 

(from “Memories of a MD Girlhood 1908-28” by Kate Chew Robinson. Unpub.)

Armed with a Hunting Horn

Oxcart at Chew's Store (SallyWhall photo)

Passing through Owensville always meant a stop at Chew’s Store.  It was the place to get provisions and information, to pick up mail, and to water the oxen.  

The Chews who ran the store were merchants with a pedigree.  In 1624 John Chew of Jamestown was named “one of the ablest merchants in Virginia”. (VA Mag vol 1 p87).

Seven generations later, in 1840’s, his descendent John Walter Chew opened a store in Owensville. In 1870 John Walter’s son Summerfield took over, and in 1921 his grandson Sam took charge.

Sam Chew c1933. KChew photo

The store was the center of village life.  Neighborhood men gathered there to talk until closing time at 10.  Young children waited there after school until parents got home from work. 

Inside was every commodity from corsets to chamber pots, from plow rope to horse collars.
  
"One display case held sewing materials, another held candy.  On the lefthand counter was a cash register, also a small scale for spices, and a cylinder dispensing wrapping paper.  The boxes of flavoring, baking powder, soda, and syrup were behind the clerk."  (Kate Chew)

Credit was extended as well as charity. 

“Aunt Fannie Camphor had worked for the Hopkins family for years.  She still thought her food was supplied by ‘Old Marse’, but really Chew’s Store fed her.” (Kate Chew)

The Post Office was at the back.  

Before automobiles, a post rider would bring the mail 3 times a week on a fast horse from Millersville.  This was Southern Maryland’s Pony Express.   But instead of a gun, the rider was armed with a tin hunting horn.  His horn brought the village children running!

Chew’s Store was torn down in 1952.  

Thus ended the Chew merchant dynasty and Owensville's commercial heyday.

Chew's Store teardown. Owensville MD

Two Women

Anne Cheston(1881-1951)

Dr Morris Cheston was Owensville’s doctor from 1881 to 1898.  

His daughter, Anne, got the idea at age 35 to start a business.

So, in 1916 she built a charming little cottage beside the new State Road.  She planted shrubbery, a rose trellis, hung window boxes with flowers, and called it The Tea House.  

“Friends made reservations to come for tea & sandwiches in the afternoon”, remembered Sally Whall, Anne's niece.  

Parents took their children for homemade ice cream.  Auto travelers stopped for cake and lemonade.  “At that time the State Rd was the only road from Baltimore to Washington, and Anne had a right good little business.” [Kate Chew]

The Tea House c1920 (SWhall photo)

In 1917 two companies of soldiers marching from Ft Foote stopped and camped overnight behind the Tea House.   They were headed to the War in France.  

“Miss Anne Cheston, who heard of their coming, notified all the whole countryside and everyone thronged in automobiles, carriages and horseback and afoot to give them a welcome.” [news clipping Jun.1917]

“Soon after the war, King Albert and Queen Elizabeth of Belgium came from Baltimore to Washington with a small cavalcade.  One of their cars went off the road near The Tea House and an aide was hurt.  Dr Cawood was sent for.  He told us afterwards he met the monarchs, and I’m sure he did, for they would have surely thanked him.” [Kate Chew] 

Anne closed her Tea House after 5 or 6 years of operation.  For awhile it was rented by various newlywed couples.  Then, in the 40's, Dr Emily Wilson bought it for her office.

House call 1950's by Dr Wilson (b1904-d2007)

Dr Wilson was a living legend.  Beginning in 1929, she was the first woman doctor in southern Anne Arundel County. 

Emily Wilson: “People weren’t sure I knew what I was doing.  So my first patient was a dog that had been hit by a car.  The dog survived and my practice picked up!” 

Dr Wilson served the West River area for 53 years.  She lived to be 103.  In the days of segregation she was scrupulous about treating her patients equally.  Her waiting room was integrated, with a first-come-first-served policy.  She carried on the service tradition of Anne’s father, Dr Cheston, who in 1898 got up from his death bed to attend one last patient, an indigent former slave.

In 2012 Anne Arundel County declared the Tea House  “significant” for its association with early 20th century women’s history & commerce.

As I write this, the State Highway Administration is widening roads on two sides of the Tea House.  Earth movers, gravel trucks, and flagmen are milling about, but the little cottage is secure.  The County has an eye on it.

"AnteLebanus"

Half the deeds in Owensville trace their titles back to “AnteLebanus”, a 685-acre tract purchased in 1793 by Dr Wm Murray.  He and his wife Harriet settled there in 1800.

DrWmMurray 1752-1842 (ARandall photo)

At the northwest edge of AnteLebanus was a small crossroad.  As Dr Murray began selling land around the crossroad, Owensville was born.  

Isaac Owens bought the N corner for his store & blacksmith shop.

The S corner was Isaac’s too, where his house doubled as a place for preaching and funerals. 

The E corner was John Hopkins' - his shops produced wagons, carriages, farm implements, harnesses, saddles, boots, brogans, and cloth. 

Wm Murray, the benevolent village doctor, lived to age 90.  His secret to long life?  “A happy mind”.  

His wife wrote in 1840:  “I have never heard him express anything like discontent...  His health is very good, and but for the loss of his sight, he enjoys life as much as he has for many years; he can scarcely discern one colour from another, yet he watches the monthly rose bushes and regularly brings me his morning offering of a

1860 Martenet Map - "West River Country"

Rose.”

After Murray's death in 1842, Owensville grew some more.          

A Methodist Chapel was built in 1849, and a Masonic Hall.

In 1850, a Classical Institute whose catalog boasted:  

“Owensville’s citizens breathe a pure atmosphere and enjoy most excellent health.

Maryland can present no village more favorable to mental and moral improvement.”   

                 

In 1852, an Episcopal chapel and a public school.  In 1866 a Catholic Church.  
In 1867 a larger Episcopal Church.

Owensville was on a roll!

But alas, the automobile was the undoing of Owensville's commerce.  Villagers began driving to Annapolis to shop.

Isaac Owens’ store closed after 150 years. 

By 1952 Owensville consisted of fifteen residences, two churches, a school, and a post office.

Kate Chew in her 1970's memoir wrote, “Perhaps Owensville will be an historic district someday.  It should be.”  

5 years after her death, in 2003, it happened: 

   

  ->  The Owensville National Register Historic District  <-    Ta-Da ! 

.

A Revolver Under the Pillow

The new West River Methodist Circuit, created in 1836, consisted of 3 member churches:  Friendship, Mt Zion, and Hope Chapel.

The Parsonage for the new Circuit was in Owensville - in a house built by Isaac Owens (c1818) and purchased 1836 by the Circuit.  Here resided the Methodist Circuit Riders.  A rough life, theirs... on horseback in all weather, traveling and preaching to three congregations.

In 1853 a Fund was established to care for ”worn out preachers”.  By then there were five churches, including a new one at Owensville, and one in The Swamp (Shady Side). 

Owensville Methodist Church & Parsonage c1910 (SWhall photo)

       

     During 112 years the Parsonage sheltered 104 different preachers.  Most were there only a year before being called to their next assignment.

Several preachers left family members behind in Owensville:

George Hildt served the Circuit in 1840 - his granddaughter Eliza married Owensville’s storekeeper Sam Chew. Eliza’s daughter Kate wrote a memoir, Maryland Girlhood 1908-28, which is quoted in this blog.

James Sanks served the Circuit 1856-7.  One daughter Jennie married Wm Peake Jr, Owensville’s native son architect.   The other, Carrie married Tom Weedon and was a beloved school teacher in Galesville for decades.

Two preachers left “skeletons in the closet” at the Parsonage:

One, famous for his sermons threatening hellfire, had a daughter (secretly pregnant) who hung herself in the attic rather than face his wrath.

Another had an unstable son who set fire to his bedroom.  Charred beams are still visible under new oak flooring on the second floor.

In 1948 the West River Circuit sold its Methodist Parsonage, skeletons and all, to a private family, the Johnstons. 

The "Parsonage", private residence of the Johnstons. 1949 (LWilson photo) 

 

The Johnstons' daughter remembers hearing a woman’s light footstep on the stairs at night (the suicide in the attic?)

Mrs Johnston returned one time from a trip to Canada to find a gun in her bed.

"Robert dear, why is there a revolver under the pillow?" 

"Oh Elizabeth”, he answered.  “I've barely slept a wink.  A ghost has been harassing me.“ 

______________________

P.S.  from the editor of Owensville Stories: 

From 1978-2018 while my family lived at The Parsonaage, the ghosts were at peace. -SW

 😊

The Thomas Book

Owensville’s golden age as a commercial center was the 19th century.  

Highwy marker on Rt.255 WRiver Md

200 years earlier the Owensville site was part of William Richardson's plantation, Watkin’s Hope.  

William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, visited Richardson here in 1682.  

Another plantation Lebanon, south of Owensville's site, was owned by Philip Thomas.   

Philip's great grandson John Thomas married Sarah Murray in 1777.  Sarah's brother William Murray came to visit her and fell in love with her neighborhood.  He purchased nearby Watkins Hope and renamed it "AnteLebanus". 

Meanwhite, John Thomas, a Md State Senator, was, privately, a poet.

Here is part of a poem he wrote as a youth in 1762:

“Written Under a Young Lady’s Picture”

                                                                                                                  

...When Jenny's Picture was seen, the Youth said,

'No Maid on Earth could boast so fair a Face'

... But, when he saw Fair Jenny ...   

Raptured, he cry'd,

'To Nature, Art must yield.'   

Jenny's Picture 1757

In 1808, 3 yrs after John's death, his complete poem was published anonymously by an unnamed "Lady of Maryland", and was soon forgotten.

In 1960, 152 yrs later, the Maryland Lady's book resurfaced, and a search was made for the identities of “Jenny”, “the Youth”, the “Picture”, and the "Lady".

Jenny turned out to be Jane Galloway of Tulip Hill plantation - 12 yrs old in the Picture - 17 at the time of the poem. 

The Picture, an early work by renowned artist Benjamin West, was found at the Pa Historical Society.

The anonymous Youth/poet, was of course John Thomas, neighbor of Tulip Hill. 

The Lady of Maryland was John's sister-in-law, Wm Murray's wife Harriet.

And the Sequel ...?

Lebanon c1900. Burned Oct 27 1915. (SWhall photo)





   

In 1915, the Thomas home

Lebanon burned to the ground. 

In 1980 Kate Chew recalled the fire in her Owensville memoir:

“One night Daddy woke me, and lifting me to the south window, he told me to look, that Lebanon was on fire.  I could see a red light above the trees.  He wanted me to remember it, and I do to this day.  

"Lebanon had been the colonial home of the Thomas family.  Philip Thomas in the 1700's had written a day-by-day account of happenings in the neighborhood, and when anyone wanted to settle a dispute, it was taken to The Thomas Book.  I think the Book was saved."