Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1955-09-29
Early Grants
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Montgomery County's early set
tiers brought with them a sense
of humor as evidenced by some
of the names of the first land
grants.
Girls Honesty, Clean Drinking,
Easy Purchase, Dung Hill.
Thompson's Hop Yard, Cuttings
Ha! Hal, Easy Come BY, Boyd's
Delay, Magruders Hazard, Pork
Plenty If No Thieves, Errors Cor.
rected and Trouble Enough In
deed are a few of the choicer
ones.
Beginning in 1858, immigrants
from England and the older
established parts of Maryland be.
gan recording deeds to land on
both banks of Rock Creek up as
far as Rockville. Settlement
along the Patuxent as far as
Smells Ridge followed next and
then the country lying west of
Rock Creek, north and east of
Rockville towards the Potomac.
The red lands of the Potomac
in the vicinity of Jamestown
and .Poolesville were included in
the fourth group of land grants.
There is also evidence of squat.
tiers about the headWaters of Dry
Seneca and Great Seneca and at
least one of the early settlers
established a happy hunting"
lodge at Seneca as place to get
away from it all!
1t is amusing to note that the
suburbanites of the twentieth CEN
fury are merely following pat
tern established flor them by the
original escapists 300 years ago.
A 1854 acre tract, known as
Brooke Grove, went to James
Brooke on September IA, 172S.
This included the sites of the
present day Brookeville and Lay
louisville and was the first grant
of the Quaker settlement in the
Sandy Spring neighborhood.
From this time on, more and
more settlers poured into the
county until IT'S there was no
more acreage left for land grants.
Curiosity about the origins of
the names of the land grants
has created a number of legends.
Clean Drinking, a tract of 700
acres along Rock Creek to Jones
Bridge, granted to John Coats on
October /, 1899, is supposed to
have been So-called because the
workers on the Manor House ran
"clean out" of whiskey and had
to drink water from the spring.
This is a lovely version and its
only nasty old cynics who point
out the fact that Clean Drinking
was the name of the grant long
before the Manor House was
built.
Perhaps the spirit of this le-
gend came from the epitaph on
the headstone of Walter c. Jones
who established a mill on this
survey at later date. II reads
Here lies the body and bones.
of old Walter c. Jones. BY his
not thinking, he lost Clean
Drinking" and by his shallow
pate, he lost his vast estate"
Other early land grants of spec.
ial interest to Rockville are those
along Watts Branch. Our coun-
ty seat came close to being named
Wattsville in 1901 when the town
was set up. II was finally de.
cided that Rock Creek, the larger
Of the two streams nearby, would
have more influence.
Younger Brother, a 600 acre
tract, west of Watts Branch was
granted TO William Offut on Aug.
ust 2, 1717 and later comprised
the farms Of William Viers and
Joseph T. Bailey.
On January 10, 1918, the head
waters Of Watts Branch we're i'm.
cluded in go acre land grant,
Dispute, to Charles and William
Bcall. East of this is a 1900 tract
known as Two Brothers with the
road from Rockville to barnes
town running through it.
Arthur Nelson was granted The
Exchange on March 10, 1719 and
the New Exchange, January 20,
1719. These were resurveyed in
December, 1921 and called Ex-
change and New Exchange En-
larged, comprising 1920 acres ex.
tending a long way down Watts
Branch and including the site on
which Rockville was originally
built. The County Poor Farm
and the farms of Judge Bouie and
I John T.. Wilson are located on