Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1941-01-30
MONTGOMERY
Nl SIDELICHTS
By ELSIE WHITE HA1NEs

We SCdrL6u ldSC week
Mr.. John E. Muncaster was the
last Robertson descendant-he and
his wife too, are descendants of
the Magruder family-both men,
bers of the Scottish clan, Nc
Gregor-Mr. Muncaster tells an
amusing story of the day follow
ing the battle of Bladensburg,
where the British licked the
Americans in 1914, told him by
his grandmother Robertson.
The road ran little differently
then-the Norbeck Redland road
passed close by the Robertson
house-torn down around 1900 and
the present house-now Mr.. Wins
lows residence-built. The day
after the battle, the retreating
army began to come thru, most
of them were men from the vi
cinity-the first was Ricketts,
who stopped in as the cook was
taking the breakfast biscuits from
the oven, 80, Mis- Robertson,
please give me a biscuit, I'm
nearly starved"
He was given a biscuit and a
piece of sausage-and he kept
moving-all day long they kept
coming one-by-one, and all day
long Mrs. Robertson and old
Nanny baked biscuits, cooked
bacon, and handed them out-you
know that was called the 'Blad-
ensburg race" for many a day, the
men just kept retreating until
they reached home-so the story
goes.
Farther up stream on land pat
ented to Nathan Magruder around
175O-and later the property OF
Francis Fraley, father Of Ernest,
Francis, John Fraley and their
brothers and sisters, there was an
old mill-unique because its en-
tire gearing was of wood-the
wheels and even the cogs were
wooden. Only a trace OF the wall
now remains, tho thirty years ago
the frame and master gear wheels
were still there.
Since writing on the Milton
Mills ghost last week, we have
been reminded Of an incident that
occurred when we were IN our
early 'teens-a group OF young
people of the neighborhood were
sitting on the rocks that may still
be seen on the hillside by the
house, looking toward the mill
shining so white in the moonlight
it was almost as light as day.
"Would you be afraid to go IN
there alone at night" asked some
one.
The writer was the only girl 10
saw she was not afraid-do not
think the boys were very anxious
to try it-so upon being dared
and double dared" we started out
alone-walked down the midtown
the road-the distance seeming
longer and longer-across the
bridge = unlocked the basement
door bravely-but was it dark in
there!
We had agreed to go up to the
second floor and raise and lower
the water gate to show we had
actually been inside-just as we
pulled the lever, something-prob-
ABLY a mouse-moved behind us,
and in fright the gate was pulled
high, starting the mill-too fright
ened to stay long enough to push
the lever up, we ran all the way
back, and it took the entire group
to find courage enough to go back
and shut off the water.
Did you ever stand, or better
sit-over a water wheel and watch
the water flow into the buckets
with that indescribable swish
swish swish? Children of the
neighborhood loved it-how they
begged to be allowed to accom-
pany the men to the MILL!
Children of the Kirk family,
Brooke Farquhar, Shaw, Barns
ley, Cashell, Penn, Stabler, Welsh,
Beall, Bell, Kemp, Prescott, Bur-
riss, Thompson, Belt, Raney, Cur
tbs, Riley, Hewitt, Phillips, and
many other boys and girls, now
with grazing hair, and scattered
all over the country, have shared
the "water wheel door" Of Milton
Mills with the White children.
We remember how the mill fas-
cinated "Boo" Kellogg, a young
uncle of the Prescotts'-son Of an
army officer-even when as a
man, he was home from a stay
| in Japan or China, as the repre-
sentative of New York bank,
he visited the mill, and so inn
pressed us with tales of the