Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1960-08-25

Is interesting to look back OF
what circumstances led to the
settlement of the town and how
it happened to become the seat
of government.
If we should go back three
hundred years to 1860, we would
find that what is now Montgom-
cry County was then unbroken
forest, the haunt of bears and
wolves, with a few Indian vii
lagos. White settlements did not
extend beyond the bounds of
present Charles County,
By 1850, great changes had
taken place. Settlers had spread
to the North and West, leading
to the establishment in 1896 of
Prince Georges County, which
at that time included what was
later to become Rockville. BY
1726, there were enough people
in the area to require the estab-
lishment Of new Parish,
whereupon the Assembly Great
Cd Prince Georges Parish, en-
bracing the present District
Of Column ia, Montgomery,
Frederick, Washington, Garrett
and Allegheny Countess
Parish 80 miles long, yet con-
tanning not more than 2400 in
habitants. At that time the
Parish Church was the present
st. Pauls in the City of Wash
ington which, in those days of
poor roads and travel on horse
back or by horse-dl avn vehicle,
was a long distance from Rock
vile. Accordingly the settlers
in this area about 1889 built a
Chapel-of-Ease in what is now
Rockville Cemetery just east OF
Rock Creek on land given by
Thomas Williams. This was
then known as Rock Creek
Chapel, but later became the
Parish Church and served as
such until 1921 when the fore
runner of the present Christ
Church was built in Rockville.
Georgetown Created
Incoming settlers in our area
not only were too far from a
church; they were also many
miles from the County Seat Of
gomery County as a sparsely
quently Frederick County was
created in 1748 with its County
Seat at Fredericktown. Three
years later a town was laid out
ut the mouth of Rock Creek and
called Georgetown. Connecting
the two towns was a great
road, later called Braddock's
Road, which was approximately
identical with the Rockville
Pike and It's westward extern
SION to Frederick.
Two hundred years ago, then,
we can correctly picture Mont
gomery County as q sparsely
settled frontier area with one
town-Georgetown-a n d one
heavily travelled road, along
which were q number Of tav-
ems or "ordinaries." Among
them were Owens Ordinary, 16
miles from Georgetown, and
Dowden's Ordinary near Clarks-
burg which were mentioned by
an officer accompanying General
ton to Fort Duquesne in IT'S.
ton to Fort Dequesne In IT'S.
The presence Of some 1000
settlers indicates that much OF
the land in Montgomery County
had been transferred by Lord
Baltimore to private ownership.
1t will be remembered that
when the Palatinate Of Mary
land was bestowed on Lord Bal
timore in 1882, he was given
title to all the land and water
within the boundaries of the
Province. Thus all land titles
IN Maryland originate with
Lord Baltimore. He, at first,
gave land to encourage settle
ment, but after 1888 those de-
string to take up" land had to
pay q definite amount of pur-
chase money and thereafter pay
an annual "quit-rent" to the
Lord Proprietor-about 20 shill-
ings for every so acres. After
1888 the purchase price for land
was five pounds sterling for
each 100 acres. After making
this "down payment" a pur.
chaser had his land surveyed
and received a "patent" Tor
decd from Lord Baltimore.
Speculation Flourishes
This modest down payment"
made it possible for bona fide
settlers to secure small tracts
of land directly from Lord Bal.
timore. But whenever new
areas were opened up, there
were apt to be on hand a mum
Der of prosperous purchasers
who took up land in large tracts