Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1945-09-20
MONTGOMERY SIDELIGHTS
By ELSIE WHITE HAINEs


We know you enjoyed r. Bent.
ley Thomas story last week sew.
eral have told us so. We left him
and Jack Bentley, also of Sandy
Spring, in Chester County, Pa.
looking up data on their ancestors
Mr.. Thomas says we gave him the
wrong great grandfather-it was Ell
not Caleb. Caleb was a brother OF
the grandfather. This week he will
tell you about an unique fireplace
: more about Bentley clocks and of
the Chester Historical Building. A
story about the "Star Gazers'
Stone" which was a part of the
tale will he found on Page 1. Mr..
Thomas resumes:
We first drove to the old house
where Eli Bentley lived from 1774
to ITS, this was about six miles
from West Chester in West White
land Township and known as the
Ball Farm. The house was built of
stone and showed plainly that it
had been added to at various times;
floors on different levels, etc, the
original kitchen on the right had a
huge fire place, seven feet eleven
inches wide, four feet and nine
inches high and a little over three
feet Deep. There was a huge crane,
big pot and built in Dutch Oven.
1t was here that all the cooking
was done by the successive families
til 1910 when the kitchen was NOV
ed to the other end of the house;
fortunately the old fire place re-
mains much the same as when built.
A very interesting thing about
this fire place is that it was what
they called "An end logger"
had seen old fire places where
the wood had been fed end ways
into the fire from within the room
but this was quite different. A hole
had been built thru the shoulder OF
the chimney, now closed, but still
discernable, where the logs hac
been fed in lengthways from out.
side the house as they were con.
sumed. Right here found Out
where my lazy streak came from
The logs could be either large OF
small and length made no differ.
ence; some lazy man devised this
unique scheme for heating a house
The question arises, what prevent
ed lot of cold air from coming
in with the wood?
1t was here that Eli Bentley
lived for four years; several OF
his clocks have on them, Eli Bent.
ley, West Whiteland; some have in
addition Eli Bentley (fecit) which
translated from the Latin means
he made it. A curious thing We
noted in all the clocks we saw was
that no two of them we're alike
and we concluded that the one Jack
Bentley owns is the handsomest
one we have seen so far.
We next went to LionvilIe where
Joseph Bentley our great, great
grandfather, ran a tavern, known
as the Red Lion Tavern from 1855
to 1776. 1t was probably here that
Caleb saw Washington's Army
pass on their way to the Battle of
Chads Ford nearby. Joseph, no
doubt sold good hard liquor along
with his lodging; a little ceremo-
NAL wine was an appropriate ae-
compartment along with any bap-
tism and probably made some of
his guests overstay their time,
much to his further profit. The only
thing left here of the original es-
Establishment was an old barn that
looks as tho it might have been
used to stable the horses of his
travelling clientele.
We saw another place where
Joseph had lived on the Great
Newport Pike in West Fallowfeld
Township where he had kept a
tavern also. Caleb may have been
born here as the family lived here
around the time of his birth.
We next saw two farms that our
fourth great grandfather John
Bentley had bought in 1928 con-
sisting Of $50 acres; this he had
divided between two of his sons
Jeffry and John. A little further,
just over the hill we found the site