Evening star., 1925-12-13

oct-said phrase. 1t is true, but it
nl!sleads. l know that many Of the
''ocean-going ships that came to the
creek towns of the Potomac-and ]
believe most of Ihem-Were brigs
OF three TO five hundred tons. or about
the load of moderaJe-siZed schooners.
1t Is possible that one or more OF the
Queens had shares in a brig or
brigS trading between Bladensburg
and foreign port. But It was after
1742. 1t was not uncommon for
man to take shares in a ship. Out
side Of buying and selling land, there
were not many forms of speculation
that were respectable beyond ques
ton by anybody. The bank, store
and inn and mill were owned by one
man. The turnpike stock company
did not become a form Of investing
until late in the eighteenth and early
in the nineteenth century, and canal
stock companies came later, but far
hacg in the colony days men dubbed
in the ownership and operation of
trading vessel.
T GAVE you copy of the will OF
Richard Queen last Sunday. Sign
ed in 1898 and filed at Marlboro in
1894, he bequeath to Bishop John
Carroll two c9res Of land where the
Roman CatholiCk Chapel now stands.
being part Of the tract of land called
Enclosure" ! take what follows from
the newspaper story Of 1907: ''Tradi-
ton states that Bishop Carroll FIRE
quentiy ministered in the first
Queens Chapel, and when that edi
flee was destroyed by fire he caused
another chapel to be erected on the
site. This remained until 1914. when
it was destroyed by the British army
passing from Bladensburg to Wash
ineton. In 1906 a letter from Bishop
Carroll to Father John Grassi, supe-
rior Of the Jesuits. says, among other
things. The Jesuit fathers from
Trinity Church and Georgetown Col
lege shall continue TO attend the mis-
sion chapel, St. Narys. known as
Queens Chapel Therea fter the an
cient edifice appears quite frequently
In Jesuit annals, and among the shep-
herds of its scattered souls We're
Fathers Plunkett and Goring of
Georgetown and Fathers A. Cafray
and William Matthews of St Pat
rick's in Washington City. About
1855 the mansion of Charles l. Queen,
then the head of the family, was de-
stroyed by fire, and for several years
tho chapel sheltered the family. One
ligious services. and priests from
Washington and Georgetown came 10
administer about once a month. AT
this time 1t also served on week days
as a schoolhouse."
This old writer. who seems to have
got his knowledge from one Of the
Queens. says that in the Civil War
'somC Union soldiers, suspecting the
Queen family of Southern sympathies
deliberately destroyed the venerable
church, and from that time. about
1853, the entire place fell into ruin
We get some information out Of
that paragraph. The chapel which
Richard Queen bequeathed to Bishop
Carroll in 1793-1794 was called St
Mary's. Between that time and the
second war with England il burned
and was rebuilt. During the Bladens-
burg affair, August %, 1914, it was
destroyed. Another church was built,
The foundation of the chapel re
nlpined until the Church of St. Fran
els de Sales was begun, in the Win
ter Of 1906-l907 There were many
graves around the site. In the burial
lot OF the Queens each grave was
marked with stone. Today one iron
fenced lot holds a few broken stones.
whose inscriptions were given you
two Sundays ago. Ever earthly
trace Of the Queens graves, q few
yards northwest of the fenced lot. and
every trace of ScoreS-perhaps hun
dIeds-of other graves have been
effaced