NEWS AND NOTES FROM
The Prince George's County Historical Society
Vol. XI, no. 9 September 1983
The September Meeting: Art Deco in Greater Washington: Sept.
10
Those who study Prince George's County architecture rarely venture into the 20th century. Our 18th and 19th century heritage is so rich, that it affords endless opportunities for research and appreciation. But just as Victorian architecture was rediscovered some years back, so now is an even later styles. a 20th century style known as Art Deco. Greater Washington has many examples of Art Deco architecture, and in Prince George's County are some of the finest.
Art Deco derives its name from an exposition of arts and crafts in Paris in 1925 entitled "L'Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Moderne." What is Art Deco, ask those more familiar with tidewater styling and Georgian symmetry? "It is a look," wrote Michael Kernan in the Washington Post in January of this year. "It combines smooth, fat curves with the straight lines of the machine age. Its shapes are simple and unsubtle. Its colors and strong and definite." Art Deco, wrote Theodore Menten in The Art Deco Style (1972) is an attempt to unite arts with industry, embracing the machine age and repudiating the old antithesis of fine versus industrial arts. Anyone who has seen the Hecht Company Warehouse on New York Avenue lit up, from the inside, at night, or Greenbelt Center School gleaming white in the sun, will recognize Art Deco.
"Art Deco in Greater Washington and Prince George's County" will be the subject of the September meeting of the Prince George's County Historical Society, to be held on September 10 at Riversdale, the Calvert mansion. Our guest speaker will be Mr. Richard Striner, president of the Art Deco Society of Washington, who will present a slide‑talk on Art Deco in the Washington area. Mr. Striner is a resident of College Park and a national expert on Art Deco. He is currently writing a book on local architecture of that style. His slides are striking and his talk will be most interesting and enlightening.
Among the county buildings of the Art Deco style Mr. Striner will touch on are the buildings of Greenbelt, particularly the Center School, which has attracted a good deal of national attention
PRINCE GEORGE IF S COUNTY, MARYLAND
ERECTED ON ST. GEORGE'S DAY, APRIL 23,1696
recently. A few other county buildings (besides many in Washington) which are of the Art Deco style, or incorporate significant Art Deco features, are the Magruder Flat Iron Building in Hyattsville, George's Confectionery, Birk's Bakery, the old Cheverly and Hyattsville theaters, the Prince George's Apartments, and even Lustine Olds. They are not the grand mansions of ages past; they represent the bold, sleek, and streamlined look of the late 1920s and the 1930s. Anyone who knew the urban Prince George's County in that era will find Mr. Striner's talk particularly fascinating.
The meeting will begin at 2 p.m. The Calvert mansion (not an Art Deco structure) is located at 4811 Riverdale Road in Riverdale. As always, guests are welcome, and refreshments will be served.
New Members of the Society
We welcome the following individuals to membership in the Prince George's County Historical Society:
Sponsor
Dino & Deborah Bakeris Glenn Dale A. Ferguson
Mrs. Margaret G. Lewis Seattle, Wash. De Marr
Mr. & Mrs. Stanley R. Edwards Greenbelt E. Harmon
Phyllis A. Marron Beltsville W.Aleshire
Emory G. Evans Beltsville A. Virta
Rev. & Mrs. Thomas D. Andrews Bowie P. Clagett
David & Caralee Bixler College Park S.& D. Bourne
Dawn M. Viands Upper Marlboro F. De Marr
William & Claire J. Long South Bowie F. De Marr
Mrs. Thomas‑B. Douglas Washington P. Clagett
Lois C. McDonnell Whittier, Calif. F. De Marr
Madeline Green Greenbelt V. Chapman
Mr. & Mrs. Gary Shapiro District Hgts. A. Virta
Mrs. Charles W. Fake, Jr. San Antonio, Tex. F. Drane
Mrs. Lester Daniels Tulsa, Okla. F. Drane
A Stray Taken Up
"Taken up as a stray by Thomas Drane, living in Prince., George's county, near Queen‑Anne, a black mare, about thirteen hands high, four years old, branded near the buttock supposed to be an R. The owner may have her again on proving property and paying sharges.
‑‑Maryland Gazette, December 19, 1782
Events to Note
Montpelier Candlelight Cocktails, Sept. 10: 776‑3086
Perrywood Reception, Historical Trust, Sept. 25: 779‑5825
The County Fair at Upper Marlboro, Sept. 8‑11
St. Thomas Antiques Show, Upper Marlboro, Sept. 9‑11.
"The Best People. To Settle the Wilderness"
This Fall marks the 300th anniversary of the coming of Germans to America. On October 6, 1683, the ship Concord arrived in Philadelphia with the first organized party of Germans to reach these shores. This was but the beginning of one of the great migrations in American history; no group save the English has come in greater numbers to this country than they. In recognition of the 300th anniversary of German immigration to America, we present these notes regarding the early history of Germans in Maryland and Prince George's County.
Lord Baltimore's Entreaty to the Germans
"From the time that Moses led the hosts of Israel out of Egypt toward the Promised Land history records no such exodus of a people as that which took place from the Rhenish provinces of Germany in the early eighteenth century," wrote Daniel W. Nead in 1914 in The Pennsylvania‑German in the Settlement of Maryland. Indeed, Germans in great numbers did not come to America until the first years of the 18th century, although the first organized party (of German‑speaking, Swiss) came in 1683 and scattered individuals and families came even earlier. Continual warfare, religious persecution, and economic hardship prompted these Germans to leave their homeland, and the horrendous winter of 1708‑09 provided the immediate impetus for the first great wave. Nead reports that Germans began arriving in London in May and June of 1709, and by the Fall 13,000 had come; by order of Queen Anne 1000 tents were taken from the Tower of London and set up in the country outside the city to accommodate them. The English were anxious to be rid of these Germans, however, and those who did not leave for America were settled in Ireland or sent home.
The Germans settled chiefly in the middle colonies, with number going to Pennsylvania. The Quaker colony was by the Germans. The success of the earlier German the greatest much favored settlements there, the suitability of the land for German‑style agriculture, and the proprietor's guarantee of religious liberty, made Pennsylvania particularly attractive to them. They proved to be hardy pioneers, gladly pushing beyond the settled lands into the frontier and wilderness, building farms and towns, and serving as a buffer between the Indians and the English Pennsylvanians. Their contribution to the building of Pennsylvania did not go unnoticed, even very early, by officials in other colonies.
By the 1720s and 1730s, the Virginians began seriously promoting the settlement of the great Shenandoah Valley. Formal missions were dispatched to the Germans of Pennsylvania entreating them to settle in their valley, and many undertook the long trek from southeastern Pennsylvania to the Old Dominion. Their journey took them through Maryland along an old Indian trail now immortalized as the Monocacy Road, down the valley of the Monocacy River. This was wild and largely unsettled land, still attached to Prince George's County, and the Maryland officials wished to see it settled. They encouraged the Germans to go no further than the "'back parts of Prince George's County" (as the whole of Western Maryland was so often called in legal documents of the day),, and many of them, seeing how fertile the Monocacy Valley was, decided indeed to settle there. So did Western Maryland receive its first substantial settlement. Wrote Daniel Dulany in 1745: "You would 'be surprised to see how much the country is improved beyond the mountains, especially by the Germans, who are the best people that can be to settle the wilderness."
The new Prince Georgeans of the West were not happy as Prince Georgeans, however. As early as the 1730S they began petitioning for separation from the mother county; the great distance from Upper Marlboro most often expressed as their principal complaint. Finally, in 1748 their petitions were answered affirmatively, and Frederick County was created from our "back parts," reducing Prince George's County to about the size it is today.
Printed below is a proclamation from Lord Baltimore encouraging the settlement of Western Maryland, found in the Archives of Maryland, xxviii p. 25.
"By the Right Honourable Charles Absolute Lord and Proprietary of the Provinces of Maryland and Avalon Lord Baron of Baltimore etc.
"Wee being Desireous to Increase the Number of Honest people within our Province of Maryland and willing to give Suitable Encouragement to such to come and Reside therein Do offer the following Terms:
"1st That any person haveing a family who shall within three Years come and Actually Settle with his or her Family on any of the back Lands on the Northern or Western Boundarys of our said province not already taken up between the Rivers Potomack and Susquehanna (where wee are Informed there are Several large Bodies of Fertile Lands fit for Tillage, Which may be Seen without any Expence) Two hundred Acres of the said Lands in fee Simple Without paying any part of the forty Shillings Sterling for every hundred Acres payable to Us by the Conditions of Plantations, And without paying any Quit Rents in three Years after the first Settlement, and then paying four Shillings Sterling for Every hundred of Acres to us or our Heirs for every Year after the expiration of the said three Years.
"2d To allow to Each Single person Male or Female above the Age of Thirty & not under Fifteen One hundred Acres of the said Lands upon the same Terms as mentioned in the preceding Article.
"3d That We will Concour in any reasonable Method that shall be proposed for the Ease of such New Comers in the payment of their Taxes for some Years And tie doe Assure all such that they shall be as well Secured in their Liberty & property in Maryland as any of his Majesty's Subjects in any part of the British Plantations in America without Exception And to the End all persons Desireous to come into and Reside in Maryland may be Assured that these Terms will be Justly & Punctually performed on our part Wee have hereunto sett our hand and Seal at Arms, at Annapolis this Second day of March Annoq Domine 1732.”
Direct Migration to Maryland
Not all German immigrants to Maryland came through Pennsylvania. Some came directly here, although Daniel W. Nead (in The Pennsylvania‑German in the Settlement of Maryland) believes the direct immigrants were decidedly in the minority in the colonial era. A letter from Cecilius Calvert (uncle and principal secretary for Frederick, sixth Lord Baltimore) to Benjamin Tasker, President of the Governor's Council, confirms that there was direct migration and that the proprietor wanted to encourage it.
"London, July the 9th 1752.
"Sir: By the ship "Patience," Captain Steel, a number of Palatines [Germans] are embarked for Maryland to settle there, which being notified to me, and a Recommendation to you desired of me, in favour of Messieurs F. & R. Snowdens & D. Wolstenholme, to whose care they are consigned and recommended.
"I therefore desire you will give such necessary Assistance to the People on their Arrival, to forward them to Manockesy (which I understand is in Frederick County) or where else they shall want to go to settle within the Province, as in your power, and that they may be accomodated in a proper manner; But the charges attending any such service to them must be done in the most moderate manner in respect to the Proprietor and to answer their requisites necessary to their service. The increase of People being always welcome, your prudence would have supplied this Letter in a kind Reception of them; nevertheless as particular occasions may require your Favour I conclude my recommendation of them in giving them all possible satisfaction relating to the manner and Place they shall choose to settle in Maryland. I am, Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
Caecilius Calvert."
‑‑Reprinted from Nead, P. 53‑54.
A Provincial Reaction to the German Immigrants
"Why should the Palatine boors be suffered to swarm into our settlements, and, by herding together, establish their language and manners, to the exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us, instead of us Anglicifying them, and will never adopt our language or customs any more than they can acquire our complexion?"
‑‑Benjantin Franklin, 1751, as quoted in Nead
Old Clements in Peril
The last pre‑Revolutionary frame structure left in Bladensburg, Old Clements, faces an uncertain future. Also known as the Butler‑Davis House, it stands one block north of Annapolis Road (Route 450) on 46th Street. It is a residence, and the interior has been divided into two separate units since the late 19th century. The northern part of the house has been unoccupied for years and is in terrible shape. The roof has separated from the rear wall, leaving a wide gap which allows the weather to get in. There is visible insect damage. The county's building inspector has decided to condemn the building and condemnation procedures may begin this Fall.
Old Clements has an interesting history. It was built about 1760 and in the 19th century was the home of several notable residents, including magistrate Thomas Clements and Harrison Wallis, a county sheriff. In the 1890s it was deeded, in two separate parts, to two black men, William Giles Butler and Thomas Davis, whose descendants still own the respective sections of the house. Around 1900 an addition was built onto the southern end of the house and served for many years as a barber shop. This might be the earliest black‑owned business in the town.
Since Old Clements is privately owned, by two different families at that, the county cannot just come in and fix it up, even if it were so disposed. The land the house sits on is valuable commercial property‑‑ probably more valuable than the house itself. Furthermore, Old Clements is the last residential structure in an industrial area. All of these conditions, along with the house's physical condition, combine to make its future uncertain, at best.
A number of local groups, including the Prince George's County Historical and Cultural Trust, Prince George's Heritage, the Historic Preservation Commission, and the Prince George's Jaycees (who saved the George Washington House a decade ago) are beginning to work together to try to find a way to save Old Clements. An in‑depth, professional architectural review may soon be made of the house by a restoration architect who will provide a detailed analysis of its condition and estimates of the work necessary and the cost of restoring it.
Of the five colonial buildings in Bladensburg, Old Clements is probably the least known. It is a modest frame house that has stood a block off the main road for more than 220 years. Its ancient roofline and huge chimney have graced the streetscape in Bladensburg almost since the town's beginnings. Old Clements has been neglected in our generation and it may pay the ultimate price if something is not done soon.
Oct. Meeting: October S. Subject: Black History in this county
Bus tour to Frederick: October 22: Reserve space now
The Prince George’s County Historical Society, P.O. Box 14, Riverdale, 20737. President:
Frederick S. De Marr. Corresponding Secretary: Edith Bagot. Treasurer: Herb Embrey. Program Chairman: John Giannetti. Newsletter Editor: Alan Virta. Dues of $5.00 a year include a subscription to this newsletter.
NEWS AND NOTES FROM
The Prince George's County Historical Society
Vol. XI, no. 10
October 1983
The October Meeting: Black History in Prince George's County
The history of Prince George's County's black community will be the topic of the October meeting of the Prince George's County Historical Society, to be held on Saturday, October 8, at Montpelier, near Laurel. Our guest speaker will be Bianca Floyd, who is conducting the Park and Planning Commission's survey of black history in this county. Her research has uncovered much of great interest which she will share with us.
Africans were first brought to Maryland to work as slaves soon after the founding of the colony, but their number remained small until the 1700s, when the need for labor in the rapidly developing province could no longer be satisfactorily met by fixed‑term indentured servants from Britain and Ireland. The institution of slavery flourished in the plantation economy of Prince George's County, and by the time of the Civil War there were more slaves here than white citizens.
Ms. Floyd will discuss the black experience in this county from the slave days to the present day. She will tell the stories of black communities, their leaders, prominent personalities, and present vignettes of black life in slavery and freedom. At least one black church in this county traces its history back to a congregation formed in the late 18th century. Even before Emancipation, there were a few free blacks here, some of whom owned slaves themselves. The history of blacks in this county is not well known. Plan to be with us on October 8 to hear this most interesting story.
The meeting will begin at 2 p.m. Please note that the meeting will be at Montpelier, the Snowden mansion just south of Laurel. From the Baltimore‑Washington Parkway, take Route 197 north toward Laurel and turn left at the signs to the mansion opposite the Montpelier Shopping Center. As always, guests are welcome and refreshments will be served.
The Tour to Frederick:‑October 22: Deadline of October 12
The deadline for reservations for the Frederick tour was incorrectly given in the last newsletter. The correct date is October 12. For information, call Warren Rhoads at 464‑0819.
PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND
ERECTED ON ST. GEORGE'S DAY, APRIL 23,1696
Maryland's German Heritage
A number of events will be held in October to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the first coming of Germans to America and the 250th anniversary of the coming of Germans to Maryland. Among the events are these:
German‑American Conference. Saturday, October 15, at the Architecture Building, University of Maryland. All papers will be addressed to the educated layman. Speakers: Don Yoder, Richard Beam, Klaus Wust, Hoses Aberbach, Carl Bode, Hubertus Scheibe, and J. William Fulbright. There will be genealogical booths, wine tasting, slide lecture on Maryland Germans, and a‑concert. 9;30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.,. Donation of $2.00, Reservations suggested.
German Landmarks of Baltimore Tour. Sunday,, October 16. Headquarters at Zion Luthern Church on City Hall Plaza. Words by Mayor Schaefer at 12:15 will open the tour.
German Landmarks of Washington Tour. Sunday, October 23. Headquarters at Reformation Lutheran Church, East Capitol Street.
For more information on these events, con tact Maryland's German Heritage, care of Dr George Jones at the Dept. of German, University of Maryland, at 454‑4301.
Ballooning Commemoration Next June
The Prince George's County committee planning the celebration of Maryland's 350th year in 1984 is also planning the commemoration of America's First documented balloon ascension, which took place in Bladensburg in June of 1784. The event will take place in late June of 1984, 200 years after the ascension. The committee is looking for ideas and willing workers to help in the project.
Call or write William Aleshire, 12302 Chalford Lane, Bowie 20715 (262‑5505) who will be coordinating the event.
Events at the Colonial Farm
The Gatehouse (Visitors' Center) and reconstructed 18th‑century tobacco barn at the National Colonial Farm, Accokeek, will be dedicated on Sunday, October 2, at 2:00 p.m. On Sunday, October 16, the farm staff and volunteers will re‑enact a colonial‑style wedding, at 2 p.m. For more information, call the Farm at 283‑2113.
The November Meeting
Our guest speaker in November will be the Rev. Dr. A. Pierce Middleton, author of the classic Tobacco Coast: A Maritime History of the Chesapeake Bay in the Colonial Era. Date: Nov. 12.
Travels in the Confederation
In 1783 and 1784, a young German physician named Johann David Schoepf traveled through the newly independent United States recording his impressions of life in the new nation. Though his observations on American ways were often uncharitable and undeserved, his descriptions of the land, agriculture, politics, and economic live were quite perceptive. We are fortunate he came to this county.
Johann David Schoepf was born in 1752 in the German principality of Bayreuth. His father was a wealthy merchant who provided his son with an excellent education. Despite a keen interest in botany and mineralogy (quite evident in his journals), he took a degree in medicine from the University of Erlangen in 1776. On June 4, 1777, he arrived in America as chief surgeon to the German troops from Ansbach, a city not far from Nuremburg. His service with these troops ‑‑fighting for the British‑‑did not allow him much opportunity for travel in America, so when peace came, he left his troops as quickly as he could to see the country.
Johann David Schoepf came to Prince George's County in October of 1783, two hundred years ago. We republish below portions of Dr. Schoepf's journals of his travels. They were first published in Germany in 1788. An English translation (by Alfred J. Morrison) was published under the title Travels in the Confederation in 1911, and reprinted in 1968 by Burt Franklin, Publisher, of New York.
"Tranquillity was now in some sort re‑established in America. Ratification of the Peace had not yet come over from Europe, but under the guarantees of the provisional truce, there was already certain intercourse opened between New York [still in British hands] and the United States. Business and curiosity tempted a number of travellers from the one side and from the other. For near seven years I had been confined to the narrow compass of sundry British garrisons along the coast, unable until now to carry out my desire of seeing somewhat of the interior of the country. The German troops were embarking gradually for the return voyage; and having received permission, July 22 [1783] I took leave of my countrymen at New York, in order to visit the united American states, now beginning to be of consequence ....
"...The flora of this region [Baltimore], judging by what was still to be seen towards the middle of October, appeared to be very little different from that about Philadelphia.
"Several circumstances obliged us to spend a few days longer in this neighborhood, and gave opportunity for a little journey to Annapolis, the capital of Maryland, to Alexandria, Georgetown, and Bladensburgh. The first six miles from Baltimore was altogether through forest, mostly young wood. A forge near the Patapsco had for many miles around eaten up all the wood, which was just now beginning to grow again. Forges and other wood‑consuming works will be at length impossible of maintenance here, the wood being taken off without any order or principle of selection, and the second growth in this poor and sandy country starting up slowly. The land would have a still balder look, did not the forests consist largely in sprout‑shooting leaf‑wood. Eight miles from Baltimore we passed the Patapsco at a ferry and beyond the river kept on through monotonous woods, very little cultivated land to be seen along the road. The maize appeared everywhere in bad condition, small, and thin like the soil; and besides, late frosts and the general dry weather had very much held it back. The roads are, or are intended to be, kept up at the public cost, but are nowhere well cared for. The tendance is left to heaven. Bridges and ferries we passed today were almost all of them impracticable. So long as anything will do in a measure, people in America give themselves no further trouble. The country through which we came was hilly, showing the same species of rock as that around Baltimore. We arrived late at Bladensburgh whither it is counted 35 miles from Baltimore.
"In two or three public houses at which we stopped on the way we found much company. It was about the time for the election of the new members of the Maryland Assembly, and the curiosity and interest of all the inhabitants were aroused. Already in private companies the debate was over the business the new Assembly would have to be concerned with....
“Bladensburgh,‑‑a small place on the eastern branch of the Potowmack (here navigable only for boats and shalops) has a tobacco‑warehouse and inspection‑office. These tobacco‑Warehouses are, equally for the planter and the merchant, convenient and safe public institutions. They are distributed at suitable distances on all the rivers and little bays in Maryland and Virginia. Thither must the planters bring and deposit all their tobacco before they can offer it for sale. Responsible superintendents carefully examine the tobacco which is brought in, and determine its quality. The damaged or bad is condemned and burnt; but that which is good and fit for sale is taken in and stored, and the owner is given a certificate or note showing the weight and the quality of the tobacco delivered. The planter sells this tobacco‑note to anybody he pleases, without showing samples of his tobacco, and the purchaser, even if many miles distant, pays the stipulated price without having seen the tobacco, the inspectors being answerable for the quantity and quality by them stated. The merchants take these notes in cash payment for the goods which the planters get from them; they are counted as hard money throughout the province, and for that reason are often tampered with, of which there have been recently 3‑4 instances: however, the management is such that the cheat cannot stand or go long undiscovered. By this excellent and convenient regulation it was the case even under the British rule that in Maryland and Virginia no paper‑money was necessary, without which, as early as that, the other provinces could carry on no internal trade. The Acts of Assembly contain many long‑drawn laws touching this branch of trade, the ordering of the warehouses, oversight, inspection, and export of tobacco.
“The tobacco, before it is brought to the warehouse, is packed by the planters in hogsheads; and these, for the more convenient storage on shipboard, must all be of a prescribed breadth and height; the weight of the tobacco contained must be not less than 950 pounds, but more than this as much as they please; and really as much as 1500 to 1800 pounds are often forced into the hogsheads. The heavier they are so much the better for the merchants, four of these hogsheads, of whatever weight, being reckoned a ship's ton and paying a fixed freight, since the freight on vessels is counted by the space the goods take up and not by their weight….
"The planting of tobacco is a special branch of agriculture, requiring much trouble and attention, and in many ways exposed to failure. There are but few planters hereabouts who make more than 15 hogsheads in a year; most of them not over 5‑10. An acre of land, if it is right good, produces not much over a hogshead. In Maryland there is far less tobacco raised than formerly; particularly because of the disquiets of the war and the more profitable traffic in flour, many planters have been led to give up the culture of tobacco and to sow grain instead. [This was true more for the Eastern Shore and northern Bay areas than for Southern Maryland.]
"Hard by Bladensburgh there is a spring which has a strong content and taste of iron, and upon which the inhabitants have imposed the splendid name of Spa. Similar iron‑waters are nothing rare in America; but neither in these nor in others observed by me, have I been able to remark any fixed air [i.e. carbon dioxide, which would have made the water carbonated]. Nor have I learned of any curative springs supplied with any sort of salt, if I except those yielding kitchen‑salt, found in and beyond the mountains.
"The situation of Bladensburgh is unhealthy, among swamps which surround it on all sides, and every fall obstinate fevers spread among the inhabitants of the region, which on the other hand is rich in manifold beautiful plants. Negroes are beginning to be more numerously kept here, and the people show already a strong tincture of southern ease and behavior. Also several plants are grown here which farther to the north are scarcely seen. Cottonwool, (Gossypium herbaceum) and sweet potatoes (Convolvulus Battatas) are raised by each family sufficiently for its needs. The blacks raise 'Been‑nuts' (Arachis hypogaea) [benne]; this is a pretty hardy growth, which at all events stands a few cold nights without hurt. The thin shells of the nuts or more properly the husks are broken, and the kernels planted towards the end of April in good, light soil, perhaps a span apart. They must then be diligently weeded, and when they begin to make a growth of stems all the filaments or joints are covered with earth. After the blooming‑time, the pistils and young seed‑cases bury themselves in the ground and mature under the earth which is continually heaped upon them. The kernels have an oily taste, and roasted are like cacao. With this view the culture of them for general use has been long recommended in the Philosophical Transactions, and the advantages of making this domestic oil plainly enough pointed out, but without the desired result. [The benne was widely cultivated in the Carolinas and Georgia.] The wild chesnuts growing so generally in all the forests might yield a fruit quite as useful for the whole of America. It is known that in certain parts of Europe the chesnut is of almost as important a use as the jaka, or breadfruit‑tree. The native chesnut‑tree is found everywhere in America but is not regarded except as furnishing good timber for fence‑rails. Its fruit is indeed small, dry, and inferior in taste to the European great‑chesnuts, but in Italy these are had only from inoculated trees, the fruit of‑the wild cheshut there, as in America, being neither large nor agreeable in taste. By inoculation, then, there could be had quite as fine great‑chesnuts here. But without that, on account of its great usefulness this fruit has received some attention from the Americans who eat it boiled and roasted, convert it into meal and bread, and fresh‑shelled and ground use it as a kind of soap with plenty of water.
"Unfavorable weather and the hope of finding in the swamps along the several branches of the Potowmack certain other particular seeds or plants made our stay here also a few days longer. But we found very little we had not seen. However we were fortunate enough here to obtain a stock of acorns and nuts which elsewhere had failed. These with some other seeds we shipped on board a brigantine bound from Georgetown to London, but which never came to port.
"The family with which we put up at Bladensburgh was quite American in its system, according to which everything is managed regardless. When it was dark they began to bring in lights; when it was time for breakfast or dinner the blacks were chased about for wood, and bread was baked. In no item is there any concern except for the next and momentary wants. Whoever travels in America will observe this daily. For the rest, we lived in cheerful harmony, with two tailors, a saddler, a shoemaker, a Colonel, and other casual guests. A lady with a high head‑dress did the honors at table, and three blacks of the most untoward look and odor were in attendance. Our European ladies would be horrified to see about them negroes and negresses in a costume which starts no blush here; and besides, the disagreeable atmosphere would inevitably cause them vapeurs.. . .”
To be continued next month
The Prince George's County Historical Society
Dues of $5.00 per year include a subscription to this monthly newsletter. For membership information, contact the Society at, P.O. Box.14, Riverdale, Md. 20737.
President: Frederick S. De Marr Directors: Susanna Cristofane
Vice president: John Giannetti Anne Ferguson
Corr. Secretary: Edith Bagot W.C. Dutton
Rec. Secretary: Warren Rhoads Paul Lanham
Treasurer: Herb Embrey. John Mitchell
Historian: James Wilfong Alan Virta
Newsletter editor: Alan Virta (474‑7524)
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