Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-19


water and of dripping ghosts that walk
the waves at midnight, spirits that have
come up from the graves of the church
ward long buried under the surface of
the Potomac
Church point is the southwest cape at
the mouth of Maddox creek. From this
point. on the Potomac the shore line of
Charles county, Md. is blue-purple
haze low and far. ten miles straight
across water that is usually blue. often
green and sometimes gray-Ereen ana
creenish-ycllow. At night the lonely
glare Of the lights at Blackstone Island
and at Lower Cedar point comes over
the black water or the silvcry water. ac-
cording to whether the night be dark or
nioonlit Looking up the river the wood
Ell point on Monroe hay shows plainly.
while below. far below. nearly merged
in the haze of river and sky. are the
Nomini or Stratford cliffs.
\ mile northward of the land end of
Church point has been set beacon.
black scaffolding by day and ruddy
torch 10y night. This marks the tip of
Church Point bar. a sandy. submerged
ridge covered with oysters and shells and
marine vegetation. SO close to the SUR
face of the water lies the top of this
wide long bar that small sailing craft
cannot cross except at full tide, and then
hat few take the chance.
The shore line is marked by cliffs twen-
~ feet high. around which the river
swirls at high tide On top of this clay
elf grow big trees. tanSles of weeds and
grass and in spring. summer and
autumn a gorgeous wealth of wild flow
he. Iv1ovv TING or
Underwriting of the river can he seen at
work. old trees. cedars that last for
wears show themselves black and gaunt
where they fell outward over so many
wears ago And here is a giant holly
lately fallen that its prickly leaves are
still fresh and its clusters OF berries
still atiame.
Back from the shore line are dense
thickets of cedar and holly. in whose
sunless gloomy tangles it is quite easy
/" imagine ruins of colonial homes and
churches. In the irregular contour of the
shore there are places where the deep
woodland growth is hundred yards
back from the tides. the intervening
space being loose white sand. mixed with
oyster shells and pretty pebbles and
grown with salt marsh grasses Then
comes "A stretch of steep or Overhanging
tmbankment which always shows in its
Crnss-section the depth of rich soil with
strata of oyster shell. which makes this
tUuntvy fertile.
= ::
Tho holly thickcts along the shore and
the thickets of this beautiful tree in the
woods and along the streams throughout
this country remind one that from this
section come much of the holly and rum
ming pine that are piled high around the
Washington markets and stores at the
Christmas season.
At Church point il is short view to
the long wharf now ruinous. which the
about 1896. built at Bridges creek to
wide fields where stood the American
Washingtons ancestral home and where
George Washington was born.
Church point was owned in the seven
teenth century by the Butler family, one
of whose daughters was the first wife of
George Washington's father. Augustine.
This daughter was Jane Butler. and her
ashes rest in the Washington burial plot.
about one mile from Church point. Up
Maddox creek is the ruin of very old
brick house and burial vault. in which
bones of various Buffers lie This estate
was called Bleak Hall, later become part
of Wirtland, the vast property of the
Writ family.
IT is difficult to verify the tradition of
the sunken church of Church point.
Lawrence Washington. a collateral de-
sceH5iant of George Washington. and who
lives perhaps a mile away. is nearly
eighty years old, and the sunken church
was q tradition which was not questioned