Evening star., 1922-04-16

thought or care from any man are put
ting on green leaves. Clumps of bushes
garlanded in white are there. There is
the old-fshioned spirea watch your
great-grandmother planted in her gar
den and which she called bridal
wreath" Greenbrier contributes to the
tangle.
81 X ----s.f.s
A MONG the pines and shrubbery are
many perhaps twenty - mounds
and depressions which are graves, or
which were graves. There are three
gravestones. On one you may read. ITO
Our Mother, Matilda Sheriff, and her
children. Langdon, Virginia and Thad-
ius." On the stone beside it is cut,
Our Father, Levi Sheriff" Nearby is
broken headstone carved with this,
Son of ]. w. and K. w. Dean, Died
January 5, 1884. aged three years"
Two hundred yards north of this
burial plot. and within the high and
heavy mesh-wire fence is a house. 1t
was about ten years ago that the RAM
bier wrote the story Of this house, and
it was just to revisit it for a moment
that he left the car and climbed the
ridge. Quite a change has come over it.
1t is tenantless and more nearly a ruin
than it was ten years ago. Then the
Rambler wrote tilis, which he resurrects
from his file:
The house is in grounds which once were
beautiful There is drive which winds uI
| FL, h
that Lave had many of their branches and
some of their tops broken by the winds There
are seedy and neglected box bushes and holly
trees and cedars around the house. From this
old garden much Of Washington can be seen,
and the view up and down the valley Of the
Eastern branch is extensive.
The house represents three periods Of time.
The oldest part Of tie structure is a plain
one room building at the east end There was
added totthe west end of that a one story and
garret building with a wide-sloping shingle
roof projecting beyond the wall of the house
and forming the cover of a deep porch. Two
dormer windows look out from this roof At
the west end Of the building another of the
same general construction was added. The
Rambler has means of determining tile
age of the three parts Of the house. but he
has heard that the oldest part was built about
1850 and the next oldest part was built soon
after the first. The third part was built a
few years before the civil war
Levi Sheriff was farmer. who owned an
extensive tract. now covered by numerous viii
lagos. From Levi Sheriff the property passed
to John Dean, his son-in-law. daughter of
the Deans was married to the Rev. Randolph
n. Lowrie, an Episcopal clergyman. and this
/ house, in its lofty situation, was long known
as the .Lowrie place Before coming into
possession of the Sheriff family the older part
Of this house was the home of tl.at Willing
Benning who a principal stock subscriber
to the Benning bridge of 1896 and for whom
the town Of Benning is named.
Folle~NS a path down the north
slope or \, ridge and coming into
the Sheriff. road. which runs along
the base, the Rambler turned east,
and when within about halfOa mile of
Addison Chapel turned to the right into
a road which he feels sure is part
Of that which once led from Bladens-
burg to the chapel, and which was
the road travelled by the young minis
ter, William Pinkney, in passing be-
tween his home. Blenheim, and his
charge, St Matthews. Reaching the
chapel, surrounded by acres of graves
marked and unmarked. the Rambler
set down these epitaphs:
| In memory of Mary Mitchell, who
was born May IL, 1897, and died
July 25, 1918.
In memory of Thomas L. Mitchell
who. departed this life September l.
1929, in the seventy-fifth year Of his
age.
Sacred to the memory of Mrs. Eliza
beth Mitchell, who departed this life
September 10. 1s40. aged seventy
eight years.
Sacred to the memory. of Lilbourr
D. Mitchell. born August 10, 1902; died
July IL, 1862, aged ffty-nine years
ten months and twenty-five days.
Sacred to the memory of Ann
Mitchell. wife of L. D Mitchell. who
was born September 4. 1897. and died
August 6. 1870. aged seventy-three
years.
Among the graves was one which
especially touched the Rambler. The
stone was marked: Our Darling
Catherine, beloved daughter of J. H
and Katie v. Frohlich, born Octohe,
9, 1914; died October II. 1915" Or
that grave was a little bunch OF
hyacinths about three days old. Or
it was a withered pink tulip that
must have been put there two days
before-just one day after the hya-
cinths. On the grave, when the
Rambler stopped at it, was a bunch
of white and pink sweet; peas thai
, could not have been there more thar
| few hours. Here was a grave
which some one visits every day.
| have no doubt the visitor is the
mother of the little girl.
xx x%
NEAR the graves Of the Lownde:
- family. the inscriptions ovel
which were published in one n o.trs
srevious Bladensbgrg ranbles. IL