“Look with all your eyes, look.” — Jules Verne

Oh look.

Rich Hill, southern Maryland.

Bel Alton. Samuel Cox farm, two riders in flight after a horrific deed.

Sitting under a mature happy linden tree, old and stately then, overhead branches full of fragrant blossoms and buzzing pollinators. The scent, clean and lovely.

Gone, gone.

A bee tree.

From NPS National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination form (1975):
“The historical significance of Rich Hill relates directly to its ownership by Col. Samuel Cox and the role Cox played in the flight of John Wilkes Booth through Charles County to Virginia following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, April 14, 1865.

“Samuel Cox, whose sympathy for the Southern cause was well known, hid Booth and his companion-in-crime, David Herold, on his Rich Hill farm after Booth and Herold were sent there upon being discovered in a nearby swamp by a neighbor's servant. Cox then proceeded to arrange for their safe (and secret) passage to Virginia. Booth and Herold remained hidden in a pine thicket at Rich Hill until April 21, when Thomas A. Jones, foster brother of Colonel Cox and a former Chief Signal Agent for the Confederacy, provided them with a small boat in which they crossed the Potomac River to Virginia. In the trials that followed Booth's eventual capture at Pope's Creek, Virginia, Cox and Jones were convicted of aiding Booth in his flight and sentenced to brief imprisonments Jones six weeks, and Cox seven.”
Alive and vibrant then, but time has passed. Rooted in rich soil, this linden had stood through many storms; broken branches and decay followed. That is the nature of aging, storms of life prune all living beings. (What prompted thoughts of this tree? A book, In Search of the Old Ones: An Odyssey Among Ancient Trees by Anthony D. Fredericks.)

Every no is a redirect.

Look, look.

Rich Hill, southern Maryland.

Bel Alton. Samuel Cox farm, two riders in flight after a horrific deed.

From NPS National Register of Historic Places Inventory — Nomination form (1975):
“The historical significance of Rich Hill relates directly to its ownership by Col. Samuel Cox and the role Cox played in the flight of John Wilkes Booth through Charles County to Virginia following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, April 14, 1865.

“Samuel Cox, whose sympathy for the Southern cause was well known, hid Booth and his companion-in-crime, David Herold, on his Rich Hill farm after Booth and Herold were sent there upon being discovered in a nearby swamp by a neighbor's servant. Cox then proceeded to arrange for their safe (and secret) passage to Virginia. Booth and Herold remained hidden in a pine thicket at Rich Hill until April 21, when Thomas A. Jones, foster brother of Colonel Cox and a former Chief Signal Agent for the Confederacy, provided them with a small boat in which they crossed the Potomac River to Virginia. In the trials that followed Booth's eventual capture at Pope's Creek, Virginia, Cox and Jones were convicted of aiding Booth in his flight and sentenced to brief imprisonments Jones six weeks, and Cox seven.”

Was the linden there when these events happened?

Was the tree growing when John Wilkes Booth and Herold rode up to the Samuel Cox farm to seek aid?

Was it a battered but living witness tree? Was it? Was it.

Was it prized at all in association with this house now preserved? The house survived; almost did not.

In 1988, knotweed choked the back steps. Curious travelers would dare to drive up closer, a long driveway past board fence and a barn to take photos, peek in the windows, imagine what it was once.

Two beloved finch were buried under that huge tree. A back bedroom where a wall was full of bees. Someone knows.

Handmade bricks stowed under the house; some with long-ago deer tracks imprinted in them. Imagine the drying process, hands that shaped these and shook out of molds.

A road ridden in the rear of this property, a spirited Standardbred trotter exploring companion to ride along a creek. Thickets. Back in time.

Horror when watching as a huge tractor with gang tillers plowed through the land and brought to light a rich rich debris field chockfull of now-broken glass objects. Then.

Time has passed for the tree. Rooted in rich soil, this linden had stood through many storms; broken branches and decay followed. That is the nature of aging, storms of life prune all living beings. (What prompted thoughts of this tree? A book, In Search of the Old Ones: An Odyssey Among Ancient Trees by Anthony D. Fredericks.)

How many years would be revealed by the rings of the cut stump? Leafy shade for humans, animals, events under its once majestic canopy.

Remnants of outbuildings imagined that were associated with the house, barn. (If you've lived and farmed, know the processes and structures that would have been here.)

Slatted tobacco trays in the barn shed across the road; a long shed that had intense bad vibes.

A white stone point worked but left (flaw in the quartz), found in the front field plowed up. Rains had cleaned and revealed it atop fresh earth. Still have this and will return the object with stories to this place in time. See also, additional page.

Oh tree, there is one person who mourns your loss.

It's me.

Editor's note: Why the interest? Read history on the site where choices led, conversations happened. Add imagination and keep reading, reading, reading. Connecticut is home once again, but life in southern Maryland led to discoveries threaded into my own life and work. Coming up, Deep River mill bleach houses and ivory, foundations and trails. How the town connects to Meriden, Pratt Street. Author Richard Conniff writings too. This story has been updated.

Pratt Street. Julius Pratt factory. Pratt's Pond? Detail Aero view of Meriden, Connecticut 1918. Library of Congress; Fowler, T. M. (Thaddeus Mortimer), 1842-1922.
Hughes & Bailey.
Created / Published
New York : Hughes & Bailey, c. 1918.