"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