|
| 1634 |
Landing of the Arc and Dove; founding of the
Colony of Maryland |
| 1695 |
Establishment of Prince Georges County (includes future
Montgomery County and Sandy Spring). Area opened to land speculators |
| 1713-28 |
John Bradford, Richard Snowden, Charles Beall,
Thomas Bordley, James Brooke, and others obtain land patents on large parcels of the future Sandy Spring area |
| c.1724 |
An overseer for Richard Snowden builds log core
of the future home Greenwood north of present-day Brookeville, establishing Greenwood as Sandy Spring's and Montgomery County's oldest still-standing home |
| 1727 |
James Brooke buys 889 acres of Charley Forrest
from John Bradford. |
| 1728 |
James and Deborah Snowden Brooke build the westernmost
framed home south of Canada the start of Quaker Sandy Spring |
| 1729 |
John Thomas and wife Elizabeth Snowden, Deborah's
sister, build Cherry Grove on 549 acres of "Snowden's Manor Enlarged" |
| c.1737 |
James Brooke builds a grist mill and biscuit factory on
the Hawlings River north of present Gold Mine Road. He, father-in-law Richard Snowden, and the Thomases add to their landholdings |
| 1742 |
John Thomas builds Clifton, oldest largely-intact surviving
home in the eastern piedmont |
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| 1745 |
Friends begin conducting their Meetings near the spring that
will give the community its name. |
| 1747 |
Anglican William Waters builds Belmont in the center of an
enormous farm occupying much of the land between present Olney and Brookeville. He is among the earliest in an influx of Anglicans settling the Olney-Unity-Laytonsville area |
| 1748 |
Frederick County, containing the future Montgomery
County, severed from Prince George's |
| 1751 |
Anglican John Riggs of Anne Arundel County buys "Bordley's
Choice", north of present day Brookeville, presaging the family's settlement in Sandy Spring and Laytonsville |
| 1753 |
Sandy Spring Meeting "settled" (formally organized); Friends
hold first recorded meeting in frame Meeting House (perhaps a tobacco barn) near the spring |
| 1754 |
Philip Thomas, age 19, becomes first member of
Quaker settlement to be buried in Friends' graveyard next to Meeting House |
| 1758 |
Anglican petitioners establish a Chapel of Ease at Brighton,
Sandy Spring's earliest formal house of worship |
| 1760-65 |
James Brooke's sons settle at Fair Hill, Falling
Green, Brooke Grove, and Brooke Meadow |
| 1776 |
Declaration of Independence; Montgomery County formed |
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| 1777 |
Transfer of Isaiah and Hannah Boone from Virginia to Sandy
Spring Friends Meeting marks first recorded entry of Meeting members named other than Brooke or Thomas; Baltimore Yearly Meeting bans Quaker buying and selling of slaves |
| 1781 |
Quaker Monthly Meeting imposes "disownment"
banishment from Meetings of Friends still holding slaves |
| 1783 |
Treaty of Paris ends the Revolution and recognizes
the United States |
| 1784 |
James Brooke dies; distribution of his estate (now nearly
20,000 acres) takes five years |
| 1794 |
William Stabler family arrives at Harewood, part of Deborah
Stabler's inheritance from her mother, Elizabeth Brooke Pleasants |
| 1800 |
Richard and Deborah Brooke Thomas lay out a town they call "Brooke Ville" largely on land she inherited |
| 1801 |
Earliest records of Oakdale Emory United Methodist Church |
| 1802 |
Post Office and store established at Brookeville,
Caleb Bentley postmaster. Town quickly becomes a major commercial center boasting two tanneries, a grist mill, a mill for grinding flaxseed into oil, several stores, and two doctors |
| 1803 |
Thomas Moore patents refrigerator (a name he also invented) |
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| 1804 |
President Jefferson appoints Isaac Briggs Surveyor General
of Louisiana Purchase |
| 1806 |
Quaker Richard Thomas provides for manumission of
112 slaves; they become nucleus of black community Cincinnati, near Brinklow; Thomas Moore becomes Chief Engineer for C&O Canal and National Road west. |
| 1808 |
Brookeville Academy enrolls boy students; receives formal
State charter in 1815 |
| 1809 |
Town of Triadelphia laid out by brothers-in-law Caleb Bentley,
Thomas Moore, and Isaac Briggs, all husbands of Brooke daughters. They establish a cotton mill |
| 1812 |
St Bartholomew's Church (Episcopal), successor to the
1758 Chapel of Ease, established on Hawlings River; later moves to Laytonsville |
| 1814 |
President Madison, fleeing invading British in War of 1812,
spends night at home of Caleb and Henrietta Bentley in Brookeville |
| 1816 |
Using brick fired on the site, Friends erect a Meeting House,
the county's largest church at the time; Sandy Spring Post Office established at Harewood, James P. Stabler postmaster |
| 1819 |
Caleb Bentley and James P. Stabler open general store at site of today's Sandy Spring Store; Sandy Spring becomes a village; Fair Hill Boarding School opens in Mechanicsville (today's Olney), operates for 46 years; Benjamin Hallowell begins teaching at Fair Hill Friends School in Mechanicsville |
| 1822 |
Sandy Spring blacks establish Sharp Street Church (Methodist) |
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| 1824 |
Unity Post Office opens, William Price postmaster |
| 1825 |
Post office established at Mechanicsville (Olney),
Amos Farquhar postmaster |
| 1828 |
Philip Thomas becomes founding president of the B&O
Railroad, the nation's first |
| 1830 |
Edward Stabler becomes postmaster at Sandy Spring,
with post office in his home, Harewood: serves for 53 years |
| 1833 |
Dazzling meteor shower awes neighborhood |
| 1834 |
Salem United Methodist Church established at Brookeville |
| 1842 |
Subscription library formed at Sandy Spring |
| 1845 |
Elizabeth Ellicott Lea publishes her celebrated cook book |
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| 1848 |
Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Montgomery County opens
in Sandy Spring; later becomes Montgomery Mutual |
| 1849 |
Union Turnpike Company established to build and
maintain road from Washington to Brookeville (today's Georgia Avenue); Subscription library formed at Brookeville; Pannings along stream on Brooke Meadow farm trigger Sandy Spring's largest gold strike and give name to road
1851 Former Mechanicsville Post Office becomes "Olney",
named after poet William Cowper's home in England |
| 1852 |
Post office established in Stabler home Drayton, Caleb
Stabler postmaster; later moves to Spencerville; Post office established in Stabler home Roslyn, Henry Stabler postmaster |
| 1857 |
Sandy Springers establish Women's Mutual Improvement
Association, today the nation's oldest continuously operating women's club |
| 1858 |
Mt. Carmel Church (Methodist) organized in Triadelphia; later
moves to Sunshine |
| 1859 |
Spencerville Post Office opens, William H. Spencer postmaster;
Stanmore Boarding School for Boys established across from present Olney Theatre; Sandy Spring Lyceum Company launches educational programs in Lyceum hall next to Meeting House |
| 1860 |
Sacramental records make first reference to St. Peter's
Catholic Chapel, built by parishioners at present-day Mt. Zion |
| 1863 |
U. S. Emancipation Proclamation becomes law;
Lyceum initiates Annals of Sandy Spring, read yearly and ultimately compiled as five volumes covering nearly a century; one of nation's longest-running community records; Horticultural Society established |
| 1864 |
Confederate troops rob Sandy Spring Store; a posse of locals(including many Quakers) sets out in pursuit, engages the rebels near Rockville in a skirmish known as Battle of Ricketts Run, kills the leader, and recovers stolen goods |
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| 1865 |
Enterprise Club (Junior Farmer's Club) founded; Ashton
Methodist Episcopal Church organizes; new Brighton post office opens in Peirce store, Edward Peirce postmaster |
| 1868 |
Savings Institution of Sandy Spring founded, embryo of
today's Sandy Spring National Bank |
| 1869 |
Brookeville Academy moves to enlarged Riggs home Bordley's
Choice, known later as Marywood and today as Merrywood |
| 1870 |
Home Interest Club founded; St. Luke's Church (Episcopal)
established at Brighton; Sunshine acquires Unity Post Office, the first of several shifts between the villages |
| 1873 |
Montgomery Farmers' Club founded; Joseph T. Moore
establishes Olney Grange |
| 1878 |
County's first telephone line connects the homes Sharon
and Brooke Grove; Rockland Boarding School for Girls succeeds Stanmore school, until 1892 |
| 1883 |
Sherwood Friends School opens, becomes public school in 1906 |
| 1885 |
Ednor Post Office established, Dr. Francis Thomas postmaster |
| 1888 |
Mt. Zion Methodist Church established |
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| 1889 |
Post office established at Ashton, Alban G. Thomas postmaster;
Norwood Post Office opens, James M. Holland postmaster; Disastrous flood ends Triadelphia's role as mill town |
| 1890 |
Brookeville incorporated as a town |
| 1894 |
Enterprise Telephone Co. of Sandy Spring, headed by Dr.
Roger Brooke and Alban G. Thomas, links Ednor, Ashton, Olney, and Oakdale with some 30 subscribers. Sold to C&P Telephone Co. in 1906 |
| 1897 |
Post office established at Cloverly, Ida Leizear postmistress;
Post office established at Brinklow; 899 St. Peter's Catholic Mission moves from Mt. Zion to Olney; Memorable snow storm paralyzes area, earns vivid description in Annals |
| 1900 |
First National Bank of Sandy Spring created as mortgage
arm of Savings Institution; Annals record first automobile observed in neighborhood |
| 1901 |
Annals record "last" deer seen in neighborhood, at Riverside |
| 1904 |
Wednesday Club established |
| 1906 |
Sherwood opens as public school, through grade eleven |
| 1909 |
Dr. Jacob W. Bird begins practice, at his residence
Glenwood and in house calls by horse and buggy; New glass windshield shelters grateful passengers on Olney-to-Laurel stage |
| 1910 |
Original St. John's Church set on rollers and pulled by mules to
present site in Olney |
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| 1912 |
Parcel Post established through efforts of Reuben Brigham of Olney Grange |
| 1915 |
Electric lighting installed in Insurance Company |
| 1916 |
Dr. Bird opens temporary hospital in private home
Wrenwood in Brinklow; William W. Moore acquires Sandy Spring's first tractor |
| 1917 |
Mary Ellicott Gilpin of Avalon becomes first woman director of
the First National Bank of Sandy Spring |
| 1918 |
Construction of Montgomery County General Hospital begins |
| 1920 |
Hospital opens before completion amidst raging flu
epidemic that kills Dr. Bird's wife and two of his doctors; Women win right to vote, due in part to suffrage efforts of Sandy Springers Mary Bentley Thomas and Caroline Hallowell Miller; Bank robbers slay Francis Hallowell, a tragedy that leads to founding of State Police; Hospital Women's Board holds first annual Hospital Supper, launching a major community event; Norman Price Post of American Legion holds charter meeting; named for chauffeur of Dr. Jacob Bird who died of flu at Ft. Meade the only Sandy Springer to die during World War I |
| 1923 |
Local baseball great Jack Bentley signs with New York Giants |
| 1924 |
Sandy Spring Volunteer Fire Department organizes as
fourth unit in county |
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| 1925 |
Local chapter of Women's Christian Temperance Union
cites lack of enforcement of Prohibition laws, claiming a still brazenly brews moonshine near Sherwood School; Dean and Alice Acheson buy the Stabler home Harewood on Meeting House Road |
| 1926 |
Clara May Downey opens the Olney Inn with three tables
seating 12 diners |
| 1929 |
Tornado slashes swath from Unity to Mt. Zion, killing four and leveling houses and barns |
| 1930 |
Women's Auxiliary of Fire Department organizes;
Strength of bank during Depression helps protect local farmers from loss of farms |
| 1935 |
First apartments open in Sandy Spring, built atop Sandy Spring
Store by owner Herbert H. Adams |
| 1938 |
Olney Theatre opens with play "The Lady Has a Heart"; Facing
a water shortage at the Burnt Mills Filtration Plant, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission begins pumping water from the Patuxent at Mink Hollow over Parr's Ridge at Ashton and into the Northwest Branch behind Ingleside; Meeting House wired for electricity |
| c.1940 |
Headwaters, Olney home of Secretary of Interior
Harold Ickes, becomes the frequent poker retreat of President Franklin Roosevelt |
| 1942 |
Annals record flurry of World War II activities: plane spotting, sewings and preparation of surgical dressings, heightened fire protection, war bond promotions, bundles for Britain and the Red Cross, rationing of tires, gasoline, and food, and scrap metal drives; Brighton Dam begins impounding Triadelphia Reservoir on the Patuxent River; Annals record "stray" deer, observed near Brown's Corner; Olney Theatre closes due to wartime gas shortage, will reopen in 1946 with Helen Hayes in "Good Housekeeping" |
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| 1950 |
Orthodox Friends reunite with Hicksites to form Sandy
Spring Friends United; Brooke Grove Foundation established as county's first licensed group home for elderly |
| 1952 |
First plat recorded in Williamsburg Village, one of the
earliest subdivisions in an oncoming tide |
| 1954 |
New building replaces original Sherwood High; Olney Elementary School opens |
| 1957 |
Integration begins at Sherwood, four black students enroll;
St. Peter's Catholic Church builds parish hall and school on Route 108 in Olney |
| 1961 |
Sandy Spring Friends School founded by S. Brook Moore |
| 1963 |
Bank opens first branch office, at Coleville; Ashton resident
Sam Rice, former fielder for Washington Senators, inducted in Baseball Hall of Fame |
| c.1964 |
St. John's Episcopal Parish School opens in Olney |
| 1965 |
First plat recorded in Olney Mill subdivision, the
neighborhood's largest |
| 1967 |
Sandy Spring Friends House opens as retirement community |
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| 1968 |
William H. Farquhar Middle School opens |
| 1970 |
Greenwood Elementary School opens |
| 1971 |
Montgomery General Hospital moves into new building
behind the old facility |
| 1972 |
First National Bank and Savings Institution combine as Sandy
Spring National Bank and Savings Institution |
| 1974 |
Belmont Elementary School opens |
| 1977 |
Montgomery Mutual Insurance Company moves to new
building on Meeting House Road; Fair Hill, old Brooke/Canby/Farquhar home and Quaker School, destroyed by fire; Village Mart, first large local shopping center, opens on site of Fair Hill and Richard Brooke's grave |
| 1978 |
Widening of Olney intersection erases heart of the old village;
Olney Inn burns despite efforts of more than a hundred firefighters; Longwood Recreation Center opens |
| 1980 |
Delmas Wood and Willard Derrick found Sandy Spring
Museum in basement of bank branch in Olney |
| 1982 |
County opens Olney Community Library across from
St. John's Episcopal Church |
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| 1986 |
Sandy Spring National Bank moves headquarters into new
Willard H. Derrick Building on site of old Olney Inn |
| 1986 |
Sandy Spring Museum moves to Tall Timbers, former home of Dr. and Mrs. Charles C. Tumbleson |
| 1990 |
Brooke Grove Elementary School opens |
| 1992 |
Rosa M. Parks Middle School opens; school openings reflect
explosive growth particularly in the Olney area |
| 1993 |
Sandy Spring Meadows, a 50-unit public housing project,
opens in Sandy Spring village |
| 1994 |
Brookeville celebrates Bicentennial; Mrs. Helen
Bentley donates land for new museum in honor of husband Jack |
| 1997 |
Grand opening of new Sandy Spring Museum, located at
Bentley Road and Rt 108; Sharp Street United Methodist Church celebrates 175th anniversary |
| 1998 |
New Hampshire Avenue widened to four lanes from
Colesville north to Brown's Corner |
| 1999 |
Members' generous contributions retire museum mortgage;
Sandy Springers prepare to welcome new millennium |
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