These are "the people called Quakers." Some of their ancestors arrived in the early 1700s as the earliest settlers of Sandy Spring In large measure they defined Sandy Spring's character. Anglican farmers settled among them, followed soon by Catholics and Methodists. Through their work and that of their slaves they cleared the forest and raised tobacco and corn.

In the hundred-plus square miles of the Sandy Spring neighborhood grew up a mosaic of crossroads communities—Ashton, Mechanicsville (now Olney), Brookeville, Brighton, Brinklow, Ednor, Norbeck, and others. Each of these villages featured a general store and post office, a blacksmith shop and wheelwright shop. Largely self-sufficient, claiming residents of diverse religious affiliations, these crossroads communities nevertheless felt an allegiance to the Quaker hamlet of Sandy Spring, which served as the focus important institutions such as the farmers' clubs, the insurance company and bank, the Lyceum lecture hall, the historical record known as the Annals, a proud succession of fine schools, and numerous social groups.

In our Sandy Spring of the late 1800s, agriculture is the source of virtually all wealth; nine out of ten Sandy Springers live and work on the farm. Barns dominate the subdued skyline, amid a cluster of outbuildings: corncrib, smokehouse, icehouse, woodshed, pig pen, chicken house, carriage house, springhouse, outhouse, perhaps a tenant house that once was a slave quarters.