Evening star., 1921-11-06
THE RAMBLER FOLLOWS AN OLD ROAD
THROUGH PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY, MD.

find the road wide framed in colored
borders. Sweet gum and sour gum
are dressed in scarlet leaves, and
green alder and many shades OF vel
low line the way. once In a whils
you pass a clearing set with brown
ranks of corn shocks. On hilltop
ahead of you white house peeps out
from bower Of greenery. From the
form Of the trees you know that some
are cedars. and you guess that the
At the top Of the hill you turn in
through a green grove, whore big
leaved Irish Ivy makes q mat at the
base of a tall black spruce and then
climbs the trunk. A Virginia creeper
has also climbed the spruce an
waves It's crimson leaflets at you. u
a summer house. which stands on
knoll above the road and looks dow
upon the ancient highway and oI.
across many miles of as fair countr-
as there is in America or elsewhere,
you read a sign. REST Haven" That
is the name of the home seat. 1t IS
now the home of Charles Z. Morton.
who came to Washington in 1883,
went to work in the government
printing office and Is there today.
Charley and his pleasant wife live In
the big and fine old place and look
down upon the valley of the Eastern
branch and the big ridges which close
II in on the east and west. From
cluster OF venerable cedars Where
once a hammock swung and where
a fine old man dozed and read on
summer days you can, on clear day.
pick out against the sky about 200
feet of the Washington Monument
Mr.. Morton bought this place from
the widow Of Vincent Hall. Be1orc
that it had been the home of Gen.
home of a DR.. Belt. whose Christian
name the Rambler has not yet learn
ed About a mile north and west one
can see a fine old house that was the
home of Admiral Daniel Ammeh'
brother of Gen. Jacob Ammen. Inc
and called 1t Ammendale, and that Is
! its name today.
i * x y
A T the top Of the hill on which the
"a Gen. Ammen-Charles Morton
| house stands there is a road fork.
The left leads on to Baltimore and
| It is the "old way" the original
Washington Baltimore turnpike. The
right fork leads on to Annapolis and
a hundred other places. In the fork
OF the roads is the site of historic
| frame house, which stood there tof
more than a century and was buried
down about eighteen years ago. close
by and on the northerly side OF the
| road to Annapolis arc three frame
| houses Across the road from the last
of these is a row of storm-broken To-
| Gust trees, and at the roots OF these
trees are graves. There stood In the
long ago a little Episcopal church,
whose name and story the Rambler
could not learn in the neighborhood.
This place is Nansville. The frame
house that stood SO long In the anglo
\ of the roads was the Vansville raw
| ern, famous wayhouse ana STAGE
relay on the Washington -Ba ltlmore
route years before the Stourbridge
Lion, John Bull and other pioneer To-
| com olives took to the rails.
| In the house next to where the tav-
ern stood lives John D. Hitaffer with
| his wife and children. In the next
live Mr.. and Mrs. Delay A. Vail. the
| Oldest inhabitants of Vansville. In
| the next house live an old-time col
ored family, of which Guss Gather
is the head.
The Ammen brothers, admiral and
general, settled in that neighborhood
in 1870. Both are dead. The admiral
died in Washington, July IL, 1898. but
the date of the generals death is not
among my notes. However, he was
sixteen years older than his brother
of the Navy. Gen. Ammen was born IN
Botetourt county. Va, and Admiral
Daniel Ammen was born in Brown
county, Ohio. and was childhood play
mate and lifelong friend of Gen. Grant.
But Of this, more in another ''r1lmble. y
The Walls are from central New