Evening star., 1921-12-04

| ~ vile and Ammendale stories
~ are to be gathered together
and a few promises kept be-
fore the Rambler passes into other ter
ritory. On the top of the hill which
is the site of Vansville, twelve miles
north by east from Washington. you
were told there Is row OF storm
broken locust trees and that at the
roots of those trees is a line of graves.
Three of them are marked by stones.
One is marked by a stone on which is
set down in the rudest carving that w.
d. Walker departed this life in 1884.
On another is carved &c A. Walker
and other facts, no doubt the date of
death and the age or date of birth, but
time has SO marred the figures or let
ters that the Rambler could not make
them out. East Of the line of trees
and gravestones is a large plot of
level ground covered with old thick
sod on which a cow was grazing and
on which very likely many cows and
horses have grazed. 1t is not unrea-
sonable to assume that many graves
We're dug and filled in that land,
though there is no surface trace OF
them.
The oldest two settlers in the viii
lage of Vansville, or at least those
two who have lived at Vansville longer
than any of the other seven or eight
inhabitants-Mr. and Mrs. Delay A.
Vail-told the Rambler that an
Episcopal church stood on that spot
long, long time ago. 1t must have
been many years ago as we measure
time in a section where white settle
ment goes back only about ESQ years.
Mr.. and Mrs. Vail came to live at
Nansville in 1875 and they had the
story from some folk who at that
time were old dwelIers in the hamlet.
There is no other information of that
vanished and apparently forgotten
church tc be had in the neighborhood.
and no information concerning that
church has come to the Rambler from
any source.
that 1t was an Episcopal church that
stood there. 1t is possible that 1t was
the site of a Catholic church. 1t is
possible that some church. not Cath
olic. stood there. 1t smacks of in
difference or inefticiency that sup
go through bit of territory close to
Washington and not be able to un-
fold the story of a church. the site of
which is indicated by graves of so
late date as 1884, but l assure you
that so far i have done my best to
fill in this historic blank. or rather
to fill in this blank in history.
x X X X
GENERAL years ago the Rambler
- told the story of the Episcopal
Church at Beltsville-St. Johns. 1t
was built in 1857. destroyed by fire in
1860 (my old carbon copy of the story
is faded and the date seems to be
1860 or 1860 rebuilt in 1868. de-
stroyed by storm, in 1874 and rebuilt
in 1871 These dates in the life
story of the church are inscribed on
the corner stone or on one of the
church walls. The Rambler does not
remember where he got those dates.
but he does remember that he copied
them from an inscription on the
church. The land for this church was
given in 1856 or 1851 by John w
Brown who in the early part of the
nineteenth century drove a stage
coach on the Washington and Balti-
more turnpike. being then in the en-
ploy of the stage line operated by
Stockton & Stokes. Brown ran the
Rossburg Hotel. at which Lafayette
and his suite stopped over night on
their way from Baltimore to Wash
ington in the fall of 1924, and then
for many years conducted the White
House Tavern on the pike about
mile southwest of Beltsville.
The Rossburg Hotel is still stand
ing being part OF the plaEt ol tiit
Maryland Agricultural College at Col
lege Park, and the White House TaV-
eIu is standing and has had varied
career as road house. The Rambler
believes that it is still being run as Il
road house. but he is not sure. not
having passed that way for some
time and only having seen the Old
building from distance.
The Brown family burying ground
is close by the track Of the electric
railway. about half a mile east of the
White House Tavern. Among the
tombstones is one inscribed I'm Mem
ory of John W. Brown, born April %.
1899; died June IS, 1862" Brown was
not the proprietor of the Rossburg
Hotel at the time of Lafayette's visit.
but al an earlier time. The name of
the proprietor at the time Lafayette
came was Ross. Brown kept the White
House Tavern from lao until his
death in 1862 and his widow con-
tinusd the management of the place
until several years after the close of
the civil war. Brown owned 1.750
acres of land around the tavern. and
scores of the pretty villas. the homes
of Washington commuters, have been