Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-12-20

Clement W. Sheriff married Miss
Wood of Woodville, Prince Georges
County.
The Beall house stands near the
river, screened from the road by silver
poplars. The present structure is
about 10 years old built about 1880
and is on thee site of an earlier Beall
home which was burned In rear of
the house is the family cemetery and
among the epitaphs the Rambler reads
these: In memory of our dear aunt.
Susan Greenfield Beall. died Novem-
Der 6. 1919. aged Il years Ann 7.
Beall, died April !. 1881. aged 81 years:
A. T. Dorsett died January /, 1898.
aged II years. A. T. Dorset was a
woman and she and Ann Beall and
Susan Greenfield Beall We're sisters.
on other Iomhs are these inscriptions:
'LemueI Sheriff died August TO- 1875:
My Dear Son Lemuel Sheriff. born
July %. lS43. died November s. 1866;
DionySiuS TaddeuS Sheriff, born Feb
ruary %, 1910, died November I. 1904;
In memory of Magruder Sheriff. died
November s. 1898. aged % years: In
memory of our Grandmother, Susan
Beall Sheriff, born April 20. 1920. died
July 9, 1912.
"Ninian Beali named this tract Fife
!
where he was born III 1912. He came
to Maryland in 1868 and married Ruth
Moore. da ughter of Richard Moore, an
! immigrant 10 Calvert County. Ninian
Beall lived on Fife and it is believed
! that he died and was buried on this
/ farm i'll 1.1I. at the age of 10. The
| Rambler's friend, Caleb G. Magrutier
OF Marlboro, has made efforts TO dis
cover the burial place of Ninian Beall
| and thinks it likely that his ashes are
/ in the graveyard at the rear of the
| Beall- Young-Sheriff house at Benning
| One Of the Ramhler's friends. Miss
Minnie Lowrie Wallis of Locust Val
ley, Northkeys. Prince Georges
| County, has given him many facts re
Beall grant Fife" on the Eastern
Branch"
THE Rambler told you that he wrote
an authentic biogra ply of Nina n
BeaQ with no fewer violations of fact
| than are proper in authentic nara
! tiveS. ! was conVerSant with the
period in which Ninian Beall lived. 1t
was mainly through the Rambler
stories in The Star, setting forth the
advantages of this section, that Ninian
Beall was prompted to take out so
many grants to wild land in what was
to be the District of Columbia hun
dred and odd years later. If you will
turn to the rambles in The Sunday
star from about June, 1860. to July
$780, you will see that the valleys OF
the Eastern Branch and Rock Creek
and the hills and levels between 'em
were praised as lands that should be
settled by pioneers.
I wrote nothing about the fertility
of the soil. No statement was made
believe ha
would not get into debt by farming
You who try to grow vegetables on the
back lot or grass in the front yard will
understand what a District pioneer
was up against in trying to feed his
family from land on which the city
, stands. When l hear n gentle woman
say, MY great grandfather was
planter and his plantation covered half
the site of Washington" I drop a tear
in memory of that overworked planter
1t was easy to be a planter but to be
"a reaper was a different story.
In those articles of 1660-16S0, the
Rambler wrote that million people
would live near the junction of Patow-
mack and AnnacoStia Rivers and that
more people would be run over in the
streets than were bowled over In the
late battle Of Marston Moore. 1 re-
| member when Capt. John Smith came
! up the Patomac in 1908. The city
editor sent me down to the river
/ front to meet him and after MAX
! ing a snapshot of him and eXcha rg-
ing four words with him, I tele-
| phoned to the office a column inter
view. When Smith escaped from the
reception committee we went to the
harbor office and sat down with
/ Commodore Bob Sutton, Russell Dean,
| 81 Lewis. Engineer Davis, Frank
| Hughes, Jimmie Neale and others of
| the crew of the Joe Blackburn. After
a few rounds of hospitality, Capt. Ohm
| Smith said: you've got a city here
| that will be as big as jamestown if it
keeps on growing. What are the
| pressing needs of the metropolis
| And I said: John, we need new
building for the recorder of deeds
office, reclamation of the south side
of Avenue, a merger of the street
| car companies, more straps between
| s and 9 in the morning and 1870 and
pm"