Not a great while after the birth of Irene’s little son, John Carroll, Jr., we began to make automobile trips to various localities in Maryland and Virginia. When our little grandson was about five months old we made our first trip of any consequence. Our party consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Donohoe, John Carroll’s paternal grandparents, his frather and mother, the little grandson and I. We went in the car of Grandpa Donohoe. This was through a portion of western Maryland. We went from Washington, north through Montgomery County, passing through Silver Spring, Bethesda and Rockville, the latter named town being the county seat of the county. It is quite an old town, many of the buildings having been erected before the Civil War and looked quite ancient. It is a town I think of about 1200 inhabitants.

From Rockville we continued in a northern direction passing through some small villages in Montgomery County, the names of which I do not remember, and thence into Frederick County. The first town of any consequence through which we passed being Frederick, the county seat, a city of several thousand inhabitants. Frederick is a very old town having been established before the Revolutionary War and during the Civil War had grown to be quite a good sized town, one of the best at that time, in western Maryland. In passing through this town we noticed that on the main street after we turned west, many of the buildings looked old and weather beaten, and the street was partly unpaved and partly paved with cobble stones. On this street we saw the house which was the home of Barbara Fritchie, a heroic Union woman who during the Civil War, when the confederate Army was making a raid through Maryland and was passing through Frederick, stood at the window of her home and defiantly waved the Stars and Stripes. It is said that the Confederate General in command of the raiders so admired the courage of the plucky Union lady that his troops did not molest her.

Passing on west after leaving Frederick, we soon began to ascend the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains. Though the country was rough there were many fine, well improved farms in the valleys and upon the tablelands interspersed among the increasingly high hills. We passed through several towns, the largest of which was Middleburg, situated among the pretty high hills which the natives call the Mountain. It is a string or one street town, the Street following the windings of the mountain. It too is quite an old town. Many of the houses look like they might be a century or more old and the street is unpaved and rough.

After we left Middleburg, we continued to ascend the mountain which became steeper and more rugged, and we reached the place of our destination and seemingly the apex of that section of the Cumberland Mountain, and is called South Mountain. This is where a battle was fought between the Federal and Confederate Armies during the Civil War, the Confederates being the raiders who had come across the Potomac River from the state of Virginia and were attempting to subdue the Union forces in that section of Maryland. There were a number of large tablets which had been erected near the highway at the point where we stopoed, which gave sketches of the battle of South Mountain. After spending some time reading the tablets and viewing the part of the mountain over which the armies fought, we ate our dinners and then returned home late in the evening over the same route we had came from Washington..

In passing through Frederick on our return home we saw some stone buildings, very ancient looking, which were said to have been built either before or just after the Revolutionary war. After leaving Frederick we passed, as we had come in the morning, through a fine section of Frederick County which it is said is the third richest county in the United States. It is surely a beautiful and splendidly improved section of Maryland, the prettiest I have seen in the East.

During the year 1926 we made several automobile trips from a few hours to a day’s duration to points in Maryland and Virginia. One of these trips was to the old Pahick Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia and about twenty-one miles from Washington. This ancient church is on the Lee Highway which extends from Washington, D. C., to Richmond, the capital of Virginia, and farther south. The route passes through Alexandria and thence through a section of the Old Dominion in which were the homes of some of the famous statesmen of tne Revolutionary period in the nation’s history. Chief among whom was first President, George Washington. Arriving at the church we found it to be a brick structure, about square in shape and the external appearance of the building at once evidenced that it is very old. We were told by an old gentleman, the caretaker, that it was constructed before the Revolutionary War, largely through the instrumentality and financial aid of George Washington, who was a member of the protestant Episcopal Church, and often attended religious services in the old Pohick Church. The church was occupied far some time during the Civil War by Federal soldiers. We saw on the outside near the window and door facings or columns, the names of several soldiers and the numbers of their companies and regiments cut in the rock. Before the Civil War the church was intact, just as it was on the interior which was equipped with pews and pulpit such as were in use in churches during and subsequent to the Revolutionary War. Among the pews in Pohick Church was that of George Washington which he and his family occupied when they were in attendance at the services in the Pohick Church. But either during or soon after the Civil War the old church was destroyed by fire and nothing salvaged except the brick walls. Later the church was rebuilt using the walls which were not materially injured by the fire, which destroyed the rest of the building.. On the inside a replica of the pews, pulpit and other furniture of the church was restored, and we were shown the pew of George Washington and others who worshipoed in the church during the early years of its history. The pulpit is elevated several feet above the floor and is reached by a short stairway. There is a visitor's book in which all comers are asked to write their names and addresses and of course make a contribution to the funds for the care of the church.. Near the old church is a cemetery in which are buried many who died more than a century ago, and on down to the present day as it is still in use as a burying ground. The church and all its surroundings look old and are an interesting sight.

During the year 1926, in the latter part of the summer or early fall we made an automobile trip to Baltimore. As we went into the city we went by the large mercantile establishment of Montgomery Ward & Co., who are well known mail order merchants, with the parent house in Chicago, and branches in many of the large cities of the United States. We went on this trip on many of the streets through the old part of the city and the buildings were principally small, old looking houses built on or near the street, with no lawn in front and few if any shade trees. The streets were poorly paved with much worn bricks and traveling over their uneven surface was rough and uncomfortable. In the extreme eastern part of Baltimore we came to the Patapsco River, a considerable stream looking almost as large as the Chesapeake Bay and on which we saw several small boats. The part of the city through which we passed was principally the residential section except in the east part where there were many mercantile and manufacturing establishments. One peculiarity of the dwelling houses in addition to being right on the street was that in front of each house was marble steps or else wood or stone steps painted white and looking like marble. Returning home we came by the town of Laurel,. which was the home of lawyer Amos Smith before he came west and located at Hermitage, Missouri.

On another trip in the fall of 1926, we went to Annapolis, via Baltimore, there being at that time no good hard surface road from Washington nearer than the route we went. Annapolis is not only the capital of the state of Maryland, but is the city in which is located the Naval Academy of the United States. It too, quite an old city of probably twenty-five thousand inhabitants. One of the interesting buildings which we saw is the State House, a fairly large brick structure with a tall cupola, and is in the center of a square in which there are a number of large shade trees which look like they might be a century or more old. The most attractive looking buildings we saw however, were the extensive structures of the Naval Academy which are constructed of stone and are massive and imposing in appearance. Annapolis is on the Severn River and not a great way from the Chesapeake Bay. Where we saw the river it looked almost as large as the bay did where I saw it on a later occasion. Most of the streets of Annapolis, as well as many of Baltimore, are narrow, and except in the newer residential section, were poorly paved in some places with bricks and others with cobblestones. In the old part of Annapolis the residences are small and look old. But in the newer section they are larger and modern looking. Returning home we came by Upper Marlboro, the county seat of Prince Georges County. It is a small town of a few hundred inhabitants.

In the fall of 1926 we got an early start one morning intending to make a round trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where one of the great battles was fought in a northern state during the Civil War. We went the same route we had gone on a previous trip through western Maryland to some distance beyond Frederick and were congratulating ourselves on having made such good progress, when having gone a few miles beyond the town of Emmitsburg in the northern part of Maryland, and just a few miles north of the line between Maryland and Pennsylvania the motor in Carroll’s car got out of commission and we were stranded in the road several miles south of Gettysburg. Carroll worked with the motor quite awhile and finally got it so it would work very feebly and imperfectly, but fearing it was so badly out of fix to risk going on several miles to our destination, he turned the car around and drove back to Emmitsburg, where he got a man in a garage to try to repair the crippled motor.

While we were there a collision between two automobiles occurred about a mile south of Emrnitsburg and the garage man sent a car out and brought in one of the cars disabled in the collision. None of the people in the cars in the wreck were injured. The people in one of the cars were deaf and dumb and were delegates to a convention of deaf and dumb institutions to begin the next day in Washington; a man and his wife and the man was the secretary of the convention. They had to stay at Emmitsburg until the next day to wait for their automobile to be repaired, and the woman talked a little but the man was entirely deaf. They asked us to take with us to our home some literature they were taking to the convention and if they got their car repaired in time to reach the convention before it convened the next morning they would call by our house and get the literature. If not, they would phone to someone in Washington to come to our address, which we gave them, and receive the literature in their stead. It took the garage man at Emmitsburg a long time to get the motor of Carroll’s car fixed so it would run, but finally about ten o’clock that night we got started. The engine was still defective and we made poor speed and were uneasy all the way back home fearing it would go dead again. But finally about two o’clock the next morning we reached home. It had been a fruitless and wearisome trip. On this trip were Carroll, and Irene, Mary and I; Nelle and Bernice having stayed at home to take care of John Carroll, Jr., who was then about seven months old, and attend to the wants of their mother. Soon after breakfast the next morning, the young deaf man and his deaf wife came by our house and got the literature of theirs we had brought the night before. They seemed to be nice folks and were grateful for our help.

On our trip to the Pohick Church were Carroll and Irene, Nelle and I; on our trip to Baltimore were Mary and I, and Irene and Carroll, and on that to Annapolis were Carroll and Irene, Mary, Nelle and I. We made a second trip to Pohick Charch and this trip there were Mary, Carroll, Irene and I. This note is made, to correct the oversight in naming the persons along with me on each of several trips.

Some time during the fall of 1926 we made a trip to Fairfax Courthouse, a small town which is the county seat of Fairfax County in the state of Virginia. It is a very small place and judging by the name of it, I presume when it was named there was very little of any kind of improvement. The village for that is aptly descriptive of the small county seat is probably not more than twenty-five miles from Washington, and the few houses look like they were built many years ago. The dwellings and business houses are small and mostly of the colonial style of architecture. The only building of any consequence is the courthouse, a very old looking two story brick structure which occupies a small square which faces the main street or road through the village. As well as I remember, the street is unpaved and there are very few sidewalks. It is a fairly good country adjacent to Fairfax Courthouse but not very well unproved. On this trip one afternoon were Irene, Carroll, Mary and I.

In the summer of 1927, in company with Mr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Donohoe, Irene and Carroll, Mary and Josephine Pitts, who was visiting us, I went to Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the state, and during the Civil War the capital of the Southern Confederation. We went on the Washington-Lee Highway which is a very good hard surfaced road all, of the way, and part of the way through a well improved section of the Old Dominion. Our route was through Alexandria, where, as on several other occasions when we were in this ancient city, we passed by Christ Episcopal Church, an old two story brick structure with tall spire, in which George Washington often attended religious services. After leaving Alexandria, we passed through Accotink, Lorton, Occoquan, Dumfries and Stafford, all small villages, and then we came to Fredericksburg, the only large town on our route to Richmond. At this city was the home of former President James Monroe. It is a small unpainted frame house of two rooms, and looked very old. We also saw ex-President Monroe’s law office, a small unpainted frame building of two rooms both of which faced the street. We also saw the Rising Sun Inn, an old stone building at which it is said George Washington was frequently a guest when he was in Fredericksburg, and we also saw a stone Masonic Hall, said to have been one of the oldest Masonic Temple in America, where George Washington often attended the meetings of the Fraternal Crder of which he was a distinguished member.

We saw at Fredericksburg the tomb of Mary Washington, the mother of George Washington, which is enclosed with an iron picket fence. Her home for years before she died was in this historic city. The house is said to be still in existence but we did not see it. We saw another important building, the town hall, a building of stone and brick which is said to be "a small section of the market space where Fredericksburg children once gathered to greet Gen. Washington." Another noted building in Fredericksburg is the house where John Paul Jones lived when he was a tailor's apprentice, but we did not see this building. Fredericksburg is located on the Rappahannock River and before the days of railroad transportation was an important river town and the head of navigation on this river. Our route from Fredericksburg to Richmond was through a fairly well improved section of country. Many of the farm buildings were large old mansions similar to those seen in many other sections of the southern states and were doubtless the mansions of wealthy slave owners before the Civil War. We did not pass through any towns of any size from Fradericksburg to Richmond where we arrived about noon, and we stopped in a suburb of the city and ate our lunch. It was a very hot summer day, but while we were traveling we did not notice the heat, but when we stopped we realized its intensity.

Chapter twenty-eight continued...