Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1917-02-23
Germantown-OId Ard New.
WRITTEN BY A MEMBER OF THE WoMAN's
CLUB OF GERMANTOWN.

IN 1852 vessel came into Baltimore
bringing many emierants. There were
Germans among them. One family con-
sisted Of father, mother, several girls and
two little boys. There was plenty of work
In Baltimore, but Jacob Snyder's family
did not tarry. Gathering together their
household effects, they hired a team going
South to take them to small settlement
called Steptcwn, now Middlebrook. There
they lived for four years. The large farms
OF the county were worked by the slaves,
but there was work for the industrious
German. He trimmed the orchards for
miles around and did other skilled labor.
Trampine through this partly settled
country, he saw large forests, much wild
ground and abandoned fields Once making
his way from Steptown towards barnes
town. passing through woods and swampy
land. after crossing the McCubbin Mill
Road. he came to a sunny hill. Here was
a site for home. The surroundings were
so wild and deserted that he thought surely
this must be some of that free land Of
which they had heard. To the south and
east were the Gassaway and Williams
farms to the west was farm where the
women of the place worked very hard
weaving clothes for the slaves and counter.
panes, which are still talked of. Away to
the north was Mrs. Mullicans little house
on the hill.
So the Snyder house was built, at first
with a wooden chimney, but wooden
chimney tall enough to carry off the smoke
not like those on the cabins in the woods,
so low that the rooms were always full of
smoke.
But the land was not free after all; it
could be bought though. and three or four
dollars an acre was not too much for such
land. so Jacob Snyder bought his land and
paid taxes just as they did in the old
country.
The family was prospecting, the boys
growing up as skillful as their father.
When the road was run from the Neels-
vile Church to Jamestown In 1849 the
Snyders help to build it. and then moved
their home to stand on the road near
where Mr.. Jacob Snyder's stands today.
That was the beginning of Germantown.
Other Germans settled near, the Richter.
the Metz and the Stang families. The
first house at the corner of the Neelsvlle
and McCubbin Mill Road was Mr.. Stane's.
Stang was blacksmith and his house stood
where Mr.. H. D. Waters keeps his bees.
When two or three houses were there, they
began to call it Germantown. The first
official use Of the same was much later,
when Mr.. Joseph fancy wrote it in a deed
conveying land to Mr.. Jacob Snyder, who
was adding to the land received from his
father.
When John Snyder was eighteen he built
the big stone chimney on the addition Mrs.
Mullican was building to her house. on the
hill overlooking the swamp where German
town Station was afterwards to stand
The first store was below the Arnold
house. 1t was kept by man named Lowe.
Lowe died between 1845 and 1850. Then
came Rosenmer & Adler. This store did
well. but was raided during the Civil War
by soldiers under General Banks. After
the war Mr.. Joshua Dorsey opened his
store and was succeeded by Mr.. H. D..
Waters
The Snyder children attended a school
near the present Musser house. Mr. Musser
was the first teacher The next school was
held in the log building now owned by
Mandy Lee. Early teachers there we're
Mr.. johnson and Miss Sarah Musser. Later
came DR.. Charles Waters and Mr.. Kicker
son. 1t became public school about 1850
and was moved to the present site. The
building now there is the second one built
A great granddaughter of Jacob Snyder is
the teacher.
The charter for the Metropolitan Branch
of the B. & o. R. R. was granted in 1865,
and the road completed in 1878. The
biggest cut on this road was run through
Mr.. Leaman's farm, running his fine spring
all that was left was small stream
flowing through the cut. flowing past the
station, Germantown Station, the New Ger
mantown. Mr. F. C. Chopper gave the land
where the station building stands. 1t was
always swampy place. and the drainage
has puzzled even railroad engineers Until
the railroad came there was no pOstOffice
nearer than Jamestown or Steptown. Poor
Mrs. Mullican must often have travelled
that weary way to Steptown. But when
the railroad came and the postoffice. her
farm buildings were gone, the house where
the slaves lived was gone. she was gone.
everything-Only the little house with the
big chimney, the happy little home, was
left: There 1t stood until. in the line Of
improving the station. Mr.. P. f. Waters
built his house on the well-known site
Mr.. Leaman's house was moved when
the road went through from Neelsville to
! Jamestown. He wanted TO live on the
public road The railroad gave him
pump at his back door, but his fine old
spring was gone; and soon the rows Of
snowballs up the front walk were gone, but
the locusts are still standing. and the old
house, too, remodeled and rebuilt, the home
of Mr.. A. II. Baker. And The Station be-
came Germantown. and the first settlement
| Old Germantown.
MISS ANNA M. BAKER.
! ->.s.~--
The HannY Little Home.