Samuel DeButts was born in Ireland in 1756. He began a career as a doctor in England and there met and married his wife, Mary Welby, in 1785. Samuel’s medical practice was difficult, unprofitable, and kept the couple apart for weeks at a time. . . . — — Map (db m49056) HM
“I should not be surprised if Government persists in their determination to quarrel with England that we should experience all the horrors of civil discord.”
Letter of Mary Welby De Butts to her brother, Richard Earl . . . — — Map (db m49145) HM
“I cannot express to you the distress it has occasioned at the Battle of Bladensburg. We heard every fire. …Our house was shook repeatedly by the firing upon forts and bridges, and illuminated by the fires in our Capital.” Mary DeButts, . . . — — Map (db m48949) HM
"We found three rockets on our hill evidently pointed at our house but fortunately did not reach it”
Mary DeButts, writing to her sister Millicent on March 18, 1815
Samuel and Mary DeButts were lucky not to be home . . . — — Map (db m48954) HM
“It was indeed a day and night of horrors, the fleet … lay directly before our house.”
Mary DeButts, writing to her sister Millicent on March 18, 1815.
From this farm, Mary DeButts saw a small fleet on the Potomac . . . — — Map (db m48959) HM
The history of Oxon Cove Park is a small part of the larger story of the Potomac River, which is one chapter in the long tale of the Chesapeake Bay. But the three stories overlap in many details and eras.
For thousands of years, the abundance of . . . — — Map (db m49288) HM
In spring and summer, wheat and tobacco grow in this garden. These two plants alone tell an important part of the history of this farm.
Tobacco was the most valuable crop in the American colonies in the 1600s and 1700s. Planters such as John . . . — — Map (db m48947) HM
This root cellar may not look much like a refrigerator. But in the 1830s, it was probably the closest thing the DeButts family had.
A good root cellar is damp, well ventilated, and very cool but never freezing. Like this one, most root . . . — — Map (db m48948) HM
A 175-year-old brick stable is rare in this region. Most stables and barns built in Maryland in the 1800s were made of wood and had one story, not two. Brick buildings were more expensive to build, but lasted longer. When this stable went up, . . . — — Map (db m48943) HM
This antique machine is a sorghum mill. With a mill like this, a horse, plenty of sorghum stalks, an evaporating pan, and years of experience, you can make sweet sorghum syrup.
In the early 1900s, farm families used sorghum syrup like molasses . . . — — Map (db m194199) HM
Two hundred and fifty years ago, the Potomac River was a highway. Roads were bumpy, narrow, winding routes, littered with stumps and fallen trees. They led from tobacco barns and small villages down to the real thoroughfare – the Potomac. When . . . — — Map (db m48956) HM
