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GARY
H. DITTO
Bethesda-Gateway
Office
|
Part 2 in a Series on the Early History of Kensington Joseph’s Park: The Story Continues June 1989 In the last issue, Miss Edith Ray Saul of the Kensington Historical Society began her history of “Joseph’s Park,” the early name for the Kensington area. Part 1 ended in 1684 as the third Lord Baltimore, Charles Calvert, appointed William Joseph, Esq. To act as President of the Council and Deputy Governor of Maryland. William Joseph had some pretty peculiar beliefs, as we discover further in Part 2. William Joseph hadn’t been here very long, a few weeks, when he addressed the Assembly’s House of Delegates, the elected branch of government. (Lord Baltimore appointed both the governor and the Council, the Upper House Assembly). William Joseph told them they were a group of “drunkards, adulterers and Sabbath breakers.” Well, of course, that was too much and there were petitions and the crisis came to a head, fueled by the news that King James II had abdicated and William and Mary had come to the throne. As one of their first acts, William and Mary took control of the Maryland government away with Lord Baltimore. However, it took them 3 years before they established Maryland as a royal colony with an appointed Royal Governor. Great stability was maintained by the county courts which were both judicial and administrative. In less than a year William Joseph went back from whence he came, but not before he had acquired 8,000 acres of land [see map] He got the Hermitage (which is now Ken-Gar and Wheaton) and Joseph’s Park. The warrants for these areas were for over 8,000 acres. A survey for Joseph’s Park charted 4,220 acres situated at the time in Charles County. By the time Joseph’s park was patented on September 25, 1705, it was a part of Prince George’s County. The parish was Piscataway which didn’t mean too much since there wasn’t anyone living here to go to church. You see, somebody in London took a map and made these parishes and a lot of them didn’t have any people living in them. Before William Joseph Jr. got the land patented (it would take him 16 years). He had sold it. In 1736 it was bought by Daniel Carroll of Upper Marlboro. From 1736 until the Civil War times, this was Carroll country. Daniel Carroll I of Upper Marlboro married Eleanor Darnell and they had 7 children. Daniel Carroll was a prosperous merchant. They say he ran a general store, and I guess in a way that’s true. But a Store – they always put it with a capital S – in those days was quite different from anything today. Tobacco was the one crop that they lived on; it was a tobacco economy. Tobacco was not only a commodity, it was also the currency. The great large planter all had frontage on the water. When the tobacco fleet was assembled in the fall they would do business on they own in waterfronts. However, the poorer and middling farmers had to pool their tobacco and send it to a Store where they would get credit for it. It was almost like a bank. Then these farmers would import what they needed against the credit they had build up in the Store. As soon as her husband died in 1751, Eleanor Carroll established a very elegant household right here in Joseph’s Park. We don’t know exactly where her home was. From the inventory when her will was probated we do know it was an extremely elegant house. (Their cousin Charles Carroll of Carrollton was one of the richest men in the country and coming right behind were the Daniel Carrolls.) Three of Eleanor and Daniel Carroll’s children were intimately connected with Joseph’s Park. Daniel Carroll of Rock Creek, known in the District of Columbia as the Commissioner, was one of three Commissioners George Washington appointed to lay out the new federal city. During the Bicentennial, Prince Georges County decided they would claim this Daniel Carroll. There was quite a hassle before we got him back to Rock Creek. The next son was Archbishop John Carroll. At one time the Jesuits were suppressed so John Carroll stayed for quite a good many years with his mother right here in Joseph’s Park. After a time the Jesuits were reinstated and he went about his ecclesiastical career. [ED.NOTE: Archbishop Carroll went on to establish schools and communities throughout his diocese. In 1789 he founded Georgetown University.] The other child who had something to do with Joseph’s Park was Ann. She married Robert Brent and their son Robert Brent was the first Mayor of Washington. Montgomery County now is supposed to be such an affluent county. In the early days it was very hard scrabble because they were living and working in a tobacco economy and Montgomery County is not tobacco country. The Algonquin Indians that were here when we came had almost completely died out, mostly from the white man’s diseases for which they had no immunity. The Indians that were coming in from Pennsylvania and Virginia were much more aggressive. There were forts in Frederick to defend against the Indians. Down here we had rangers that had a fort on the Potomac. These rangers ranged all the way over to a fort at the head of the Pataspsco River to protect the colonists. It was a very simple life; their houses were small. The Highlands In 1778 this property was deeded by Daniel II to Daniel III. Because Daniel III died before his father, the property was inherited by his son William. William Carroll, in turn, sold it to his first cousin Robert Young Brent. My grandfather bought it during the Civil War from the Brent heirs. This Highland property is now Rick Creek Hills. We were driving through Rock Creek Hills not long ago with a car full of friends when one of my cousins said to a non-cousin, “Have we ever told you that this was our grandfather’s farm?” And the friend gave a big sigh and said, “Dozens of times.” (Ed. Note: The story will continue in the next issue.) |
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