Evening star., 1918-01-27

woods except where the Indians have cleared
for eorne. It abounds with delicate ,.ass springs
feathered there are intimate, as eagles. swans,
hernes. geese, bitters. duckes. partridge read.
blew partie coloured and the Like by wnlcn
will appeare. the place abounds not alone with
profit but also with pleasure"
The probabilities are that the whole
of the District was wooded and that Pc
soil of F street nourished big and ven
erable trees. that there were tangles OF
wild vines where now there are tan
giles of traffic and that the rattie-
snake, long ago banished from the
District. crawIed where trolley cars
crawl now.
The middle and latter parts Of the
seventeenth century mark the period OF
the issue of patents covering tracts OF
wild land which were turned into the
farms across which the boundary lines
and the lines of streets, squares. lots
and public reservations were surveyed.
The farm through which street was
surveyed and marked off was called
BealFs Levels, which at the time of
the survey Of the District was owned
by David Burnes. In a former article
the Rambler Briefly told the outline
facts of Bealfs Levels, as follows:
BeaIl's Levels adjoined Duddington on the
west. Its north line nearly conceded with the
present line of New York avenue, its south line
was about where street south of the Smith
soninn grounds runs now. and its west line was
ito Library Of Congress. House and Senate Of
fee buildings Union station and the new city
post office stand on Duddington. the White
House, Treasury, part Of the State. War and
Navy building, the Smithsonian. National Mu-
buildings, Washington Monument, Depart
ens Rsd o. pssnt % psn.on ne u
ing and The Star building stand on Bealfs
Levels
1908 to Ninian Beall, Scotch immigrant Of
note and worth. who lived at Upper Marlboro.
Prince Georges county. and who at various times
in the late seventeenth and eighteenth cen
turtles obtained important grants Of land on Rock
creek, on the Eastern branch and other parts of
which h m to be 81 within the
James Burnes. also Scotchman, came to
live on Beall's Levels. probably about 1850.
record of this. At any rate. Beall's Levels
was resurYeyed for James Burnes in 1859, his
intention being to take title to 1t from the Beall
estate. He did not perfect his title, but this
was done by his son. David Burnes. in 177l.
David was one Of the Original proprietors." He
sq Marcia, n snown 1 as @ rhe HERES, Of WasSins
ton,'' became the wife of John P. Van Ness. She
lived life Of gentleness and usefulness and
She died of cholera in 1882, the year Of one Of
the cholera epidemics in this city.
When the surveyors went to work
with their instruments the site of the
city presented Just such a picture as
one may see now In certain thinly
settled bits Of country in Prince
Georges and Charles counties, Maryland.
the parent and grandparent counties
of the site Of Washington. There were
rolling, undulating fields in which men
could be seen plowing in spring and
fall. Farm roads led over the fields
and public road led across the site
of the city from the Eastern branch to
Rock creek, but no one can retrace
the course of that road in its relation
to streets of Washington. The fields
were bordered by fences, generally high
snake fences or worn fences" built
of chestnut rails, because chestnut was
abundant and it was more easily split
or "riven" into rails than most other
woods.
Branches crossed the fields, flowing
from the high land to the north of
the city, emptying into larger streams
that united with still larger streams