Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-16
HISTORIAN REVIEWS
MOUNT. PLEASANT
Story Of Area, Including Me-
ridian Hin, Traced From
Indian Days.

The story Of Mount Pleasant anc
Meridian Hill, from the time the In
dams camped on the heights down u
the present time, was told to the Co.
lumbia Historical Society and its gnests
ct the Cosmos Club last night by Fred
A. Emery, president Of the Society Of
Natives.
beginning with theories of savants
that man may have existed 100000
years on q planet two billion year:
old, the speaker said that irrespective
OF whether washington hills were up
heaved in gigantic tumbles in the
worlds beginning and whether they
were once In glacial field, the per-
ttnent fact was that Mount Pleasant
Meridian Hill and Columbia Heights
have doomed conspicuously IN the Ma
tional Capitals development"
Time and modern trends" he con-
ciuded, "have swept the old hill and
the valleys beside it. The little quiet
village Of Mount Pleasant has faded
away, but only to rise. merged into the
throbbing life and full-fiedged glory Of
. great American metropolis"
Inquiries Into Past.
Mr.. Emery said that inquiries of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Blu
reau of American Ethnology had failed
to reveal the exact tribe of Indians
who lived on these heights, but the
Powhatan confederacy of the Algon-
Quins may have roamed the hills. He
referred to an old tribe called the Ma
nAcanS, who were constantly at war with
the Powhatan confederation. 1.-THE
Manacans, according to Capt John
smith," he said, inhabited this section
Of the country, were decimated by war
and smallpox, and after 1859 went
West and the Powhatans moved in
here"
Telling of the intimate association of
Rock Greek and Piney Branch with
Mount Pleasant and the hill" he re-
ferred to the old mills, including
Whites mill seat" Of 1884, afterward
Peters mill seat" far upstream in
Rock Greek among string of old mills.
and under the brow of the hill, the de-
velopment of Piney Branch, whose "tiny
rtvulet of today stills sings over the
ladses ana CLEANS in the lights and
shadows that pierce the forest coverings
Of tie graveled banks"
Tracing the white mans occupation
Of the hill from Lord Baltimore's patent,
through the Holmead developments, he
told how an Army engineer half CEN
fury ago recommended, without ape
proval, the creation of great reservoir
Rock Greek drainage area, including all
the way from Rockville pike through
the territory north of Columbia road
and on to Rock Greek Church road
northwArd to the Maryland line.
Cites Premise Of PARK.
Where Rock Greek Park IL today, ON
which the Government has expended
upward Of 100000 up to this time, he
said was once described by John Bur-
roughs, the naturalist, natural beauty
and grandeur, such as men seek for
Ia remote forests and mountains" with
passages a. Wild and savage and ap-
parent1y a. remote from civilization a.
anything one meets with in the NOUN
tain sources Of the Hudson or Della
ware" He referred to Burroughs
prophecy In 1858 that &c few touches Of
art would convert this whole region into
q park unequaled I'm the world"
He told of Meridian Hill a11d Column
bia Heights as once the mecca Of race
track crowds, Of stage coaches that
rumbled UP there, Of q stage line that
used to operate from his fathers bt1si-
ness place at Fourteenth and Park
road to the Treasury Department and
the downtown business center. Joaquin
Miller, poet of the Sierras, once lived
up on Meridian Hill, he pointed out.
washington In 1883, bought a plot of
ground up there, built primitive
cabin, chinked its logs with mud, had
only wooden latch and leather string
on his only door, left spider webs un-
disturbed and decorated his rude home
with ears Of red corn and with favorite
poems and friendly letters pinned to
the logs with pins. There was well
In his front yard, with an old-fashioned
pole and bucket. The old cabin, the
property of Henry White, was removed
down In the valley in Rock Greek Park
Tavern Days Recalled.
Another old landmark referred to
was the Eslin farm, last of the farms
on the hill, and once tavern patron
lied largely by downtown folks, COM
ing In carriages in Summer and sleighs
In Winter, for oyster suppers. He also
referred to the bob-tail Fourteenth
street car line that once stopped at the
foot OF Fourteenth street hill before the
line was extended up on the hill to old
Calumet place, the old home of the
Logans, the Columbian College on Four
tenth street hill that became the
George Warrington University down.
town, and to the pioneer developers of
Mount Pleasant, conspicuous among
whom at the beginning of the villages
history were 8. p. Brown, first presi-
dent Of the Metropolitan Street Rail-
way, and Gen. Hiram Walbridge, whose
Ingleside is today a Presbyterian home
at 1918 Newton street. Mony other