Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-06-23

rhomas J. Peacock. 1t must have
been more than eighty. years ago
when Tom Peacock bought that land,
Oliver; He also married James
divers daughter, Angelina Their
children were Albert, Molly, Eliza
beth, Namon, Delilah, Sarah and then
John. Albert married one of the
Walker girls of the Lewinsville
Masonry and died in Washington a
few years ago. Molly is now Mrs.
Mary A. VIM of Washington. Eliza
beth married Michael Jackson of the
Great Falls neighborhood and sleeps
in the cemetery of Arnon Chapel.
doun county, daughter of William
Hitaffer and niece of that John
Hitaffer of whom the Rambler wrote
in his narratives concerning the
Jackson-Cutts place and the neigh
borhood of Swink's mill. Delilahfmar-
neighborhood, on the Alexandria and
Leesburg pike. Sarah remained single
and is living near Kenmore. John
Is one of the Rambler's old friends.
He married Miss Ella Davis of Lou
doun county. A fact worth noting
here is that Aunt" Molly, who was
the wife of old Uncle Daniel Sharp
er, about whom the Rambler wrote
last Sunday, was nurse to Mrs. Thorn
as Peacock, who was born Angelina
Oliver
Bidding au revoir, but not goodbye
to John Peacock and his fruits and
flowers. the Rambler again took up
the road that leads by the site of Old
Union Church. Bethel Church and the
ancient Temple Smith homestead and
ran into the Alexandria pike near An
drew Chapel. The landscape presented
a - x1,I af1 ID
but about a mile along and off the
right at the end of long lane there is
an old house SO powered in big To-
Gust trees that one must look closely
to see that house is concealed there.
The top of a stone chimney-there
gle roof reaching down to form the
cover Of long porch. betray it. 1t Is
the homestead of the oliver family.
one of the 1ong-settled families in
Fairfax county, and closely related to
the Smith family.
xf
Young Temple Smith was sitting on
the porch holding very pretty little
child. When the Rambler walked in
the first thing Temple said was. "Come
in out of the sun and take chair"
Usually when you go to a strange
place and come upon the man who
lives there. he stands up straight.
looks you over carefully and keeps
his hospitality under rigid control UNI
til he finds out whether. you have
come to collect bill. sell him light
ming rod or a set of the worlds worst
sellers or to sting him with crayon
portrait. When he finds out that you
are friendly he usually loosens his
grin IN his hospita1ifv and saws he is
glad to see you.
But Temple waited for no explana-
ton or introduction before asking the
tired walker to come in and sit down.
Then another Smith, boy, brought
glass of water without a preliminary
old-style Virginia manners persist.
There is a gentle courtesy among the
people of the old families in the
country around Washington that runs
through generation after generation.
Crops may fail and mortgages may be
foreclosed, but the old manners re-
main, and these manners capnot De
initiated by people that were not born
right, no matter how hard they try
to put them on.
Fairfax county was young when
this Oliver-Smith house was built.
the country, which has been subject
to SO many changes and those things
called improvements, such as rail-
roads, telephones, wire fences. tar
roads, rural free delivery and the
like. that SO many venerable houses
remain. In this neighborhood there
are, in addition to Peacock and Oliver
houses, the Linney Jackson house at
Great Falls, the John Gunnell and
Richard Gunnell houses. near by: the
William Swink house, near Spring
Hill; the Wether Smith and Uncle
Daniel Sharper houses. near Bellevue;
the Temple Smith house, near Bethel
Church; the Robert Jackson house.
the James Jackson-Cutts house. near
Hitaffer. and the Todd house. OF
these only the Todd home is a ruin
and uninhabited. This part of Fair
fax county was wild west country
when those houses were built.
On a hilltop about hundred yards
southwest of the oliver house is the
oliver family burying ground. One