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Darnestown
The 19th Century Crossroads
The thriving crossroads community of Darnestown during the 1880s looked much different than it does today. Photographs from that time, however, help us understand what someone traveling through Darnestown might have experienced.
Darnestown grew during the 19th century to include a store and post office, blacksmith, schoolhouse, tavern, and church. Darnestown's growth and prosperity during this period was due to local grist mills, proximity to the Seneca Quarry, and the neighboring C&O Canal. Improved farming methods and the proliferation of slave labor encouraged farmers to grow tobacco, which was also sent down-river on barges.
By 1871, Darnestown ranked 9th among the most populous towns in Montgomery County with a population of ninety-nine. Population growth increased rapidly during the decade; by 1879 the population doubled to two hundred.
Richard Beall's house was located east of the graveyard in this park. This Harper's New Monthly Magazine depiction of the house shows it as it looked during the Civil War, when inhabited by Dr. Richard and Mrs. Cecelia Beall. Mrs. Beall inherited the land from her mother, Elizabeth Gassaway Darne. Dr. Beall acted as the community physician until his death in 1879.
The house and lot located to the west of the graveyard site (right foreground) was owned by the Griffith family at the time this photograph was taken. The frame and log house may have been built as early as the 1850s; by 1863 it was used as a house and store by Samuel Fisher, who eventually sold the property to Ulysses Griffith and James Windsor, who also used it as a store. Griffith and Windsor continued as partners for ten years, until Windsor built his own store and house at the southwest corner of Seneca and Darnestown roads.
Champion Trees:
Two champion trees are located between the former location of Dr. Beall's house and the graveyard: a Northern Catalpa and a Kentucky Coffee Tree. Both are native to the Midwest and likely planted circa 1800-1840, possibly by members of the Darne family.
As one of Darnestown's oldest trees, the Northern Catalpa (Catalpa speciosa) has witnessed much of the town's history. The tree, located to the east of this sign is 77 feet tall, has a trunk circumference of more than 20 feet and a crown spread of 85 feet. As the largest known tree of its species in Maryland, the catalpa was listed as a State Champion Tree on the 2009 Maryland Big Tree Register and a County Champion on the 2009 Montgomery County Register of Champion Trees. |