Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-10-31

the name of cassatowap. cacowone.
dian dignitaries. and Chitomachon, |
kfttmaquund. Maquacomen and other |
Maryland Indian worthless, why is a
tradition always handed down?
Why cannot 1t come down or get
theless. a tradition will always be
handed down.
AS the story Of this buried and ex-
numed boat was related to the Ram
bler. she was built of locust wood
and no metal nails were used in join
ing her timbers, that being done by
,ocust dowef pins. It was said that
her timbers were still sound That
she was this wood shows that she
was built in the colonies. for here is
the habitat of that old tree Robinia
pseudacacea, which since boyhood or
glrihood you have called black locust.
yellow locust or false acacea You
know we'll it's thorny branches. it's
delicate pinnate leaves and it's dense
clusters Of fragrant flowers which
dlstiil perfume along old roads and
IN the gardens of thousand homes
in Maryland and Virginia. The wood
rs heavy, hard. strong and very dura-
pie and has long been used as fence
posts and in turnery and for making
treenails'-thati is. pins for fasten-
ing together planking. You also
know what a popular tree it was for
ornamental purposes and how largely
IT was planted about the old house.
and probably long. long before you
about the olden times. and before
you became interested in any kind of
reading you played in the shade of
the old locust tree.
Two or three years ago the Ram
bier wrote of the homestead of the
which stands on really and truly
Braddock road between Sugarland
| run and Broad run. not far from
new town called Sterling, in Lou
doun county. He recalls that in con-
nection with the old home he wrote
something about locust trees. and,
though it may delay you a few min
utes on this "rambleS he would
like to turn to his file and lead it
out, not because he thinks it good
cause he knows that if you ever were
a boy or a girl, and If you lived in
the country near Washington, you
must have kindly feeling for the
old locust tree.
Turning to his carefully unindexed
files. and after an hours rumnhge, he
finds what follows:
The Rambler turned east along the historic
road rs far As tho LAne-B Bridges homestead.
and then lit his pipe under the big locust trees
that cast their shadows on the house and
across the road that passes BY it. The house
and the road was an old and travei-worn high.
way when Sir Peter Haikett's regiment of
British grenadiers. forming part Of Brad
dock.s army, marched over it from Alexlndria
to WncheNtef in ADfil 175S
Al the Rambler sat In the shade Of these old
trees and smoked pipe not quite ~ old as
seldom comes upon an old fashioned home in
Virginia or Maryland that is not shaded by
locust trees. Sometimes the trees stand long
after the house has persisted. There was an in
innate attachment between easry settlers and
the locust tree. II is fact that has often
| been commented on by persons who have never
come TO understand the regard in which our
ancestors held that tree The modern man will
say 1t is not beautiful. he will lind fault with
it because 1t Is ragged. lacks symmetry and
bsot.H presents "a 81. storm or tempest
woman 1t was hDe tree and had greater
merits than mere beauty. To them it was not
ragged. bot rugged. 1t nd not seek popularity
It had individuality. Its broken branches were
honorable scars: It had met an kinds Of
and had stood its ground !. was
| these characteristics made q stronger appeal to
our ancestors than the grace, daintiness and
lRA0 al
worth than the locust.
The rough old locust has 4 springtime beauty
which few other trees can rival. It decks itself
win pendants or white flowers. 1t never fails
70 welcome spring with outburst of gorgeous
| bloom. Rome fairy dressed in sunbeams and
vernal airs touches with her magic wand the
rough ana stern old locust tree. and It becomes
| as beautiful as . bride arrayed in lace and
orange blossoms. And also was 1t famous FOR
| the fragrance Of Its flowers. The locust filled
| the air with incense and invited all the bees n
come and reyei in the ~ IT,,
all the bees loved this tree nearly as dearly
as they loved the linden
Oae Of the, the beliefs Of the early settlers was
that the locust tree had the power to protect
| = house from lightning.
| Now let US get back to the Neabsco
and Marumsco narrative. Iron was
not known to the Potomac Indians
when the European invaders came.
The really first families of Maryland
ana virginia were still in the stone
age. NOR IS there mention of native
| iron In the early records which are
piled on the Rambler's table. In a
relation Of the Lord Delaware. be-
| ing THE Relation of the Right Hon
durable. the Lord De-La-Ware. Gou-
vernour. and Captaine General of
the Colonie Planted in Virginea, and
printed in 1911 at London by William
Hall for William Welbie dwelling in
| PauPs Churchyeard at the Signe of
the Swan" Is reference to mines of
oA'eA'Aoi'Ao oAio ASooc. ne wrote:
. The last discoverie during nv coutinpo,I
sicknesse was by Captaine Arxali who hoti,
found trade with Patomack "a king ms ,rsst
as Powhatan, who still remaines our enemis
though not able to doe hurt) This is =
goodly river, called Patowmack, upon the bor
ders whereof there are growne the goodliest
trees for masts that may be found elsewhere in
the world; hempe better than English grow
ing wilde in abundance, mines OF antimonie
and leade.
!! About two miles north of Neahsco
as the Rambler's memory serves him
is railroad station called Feather,
stone. He believes an earlier name
of the station was Negley, or NagIey.
or something like that. EveryWhere
in this country you hear that there is
some connection between 1t and a man
named Featherstone, and the Rambler
has been told that a tradition has
been handed down" that one of John
Smiths men named Featherstone was
killed here by Indians in 1908, and
was buried, none knows where, but
at least somewhere in that country
between Marumsco creek and Neabsco.
This is very interesting. The Ram
bier has at his hand Narratives of
Early Observation-Disclosures edited in
1907 by DIR. Lyon Gardiner Tyler. son
of. President Tyler and president of
the College of William and Mary at
williamsburg" Here the Rambler
finds lists of the men accompa-
nying Capt. Smith in 1908 i. on
two explorations of the bay and GER
tain rivers The first of these exnedf-