Window Cleaning Darnestown

The first European (mostly Scottish and English) settlements in what would become Montgomery County, Maryland, were established in 1688, near Rock Creek and what was to become Rockville. The next stage of settlements was further west along the Potomac River near what is now Darnestown and Poolesville. The land had been occupied by Native Americans of the Piscataway Confederation. Ninian Beall was the first European landowner in the Darnestown area, settling around 1749. His daughter Ruth Beall married Charles Gassaway, who built a brick home named Pleasant Hills around 1765. This was one of the first brick homes in what is now Montgomery County, and still stands today. Gassaway purchased land from his father-in-law during the late 1700s-including land that would eventually become the Darnestown village. In the last half of the 18th century, a small village grew at the intersection of what is now Darnestown Road (Maryland Route 28) and Seneca Road (Maryland Route 112). At that time, Darnestown Road was called “the road from Georgetown to the mouth of the Monocacy River”. It was a Seneca Indian trail and is one of the oldest roads in Montgomery County. Seneca Road led from Darnestown to the Seneca Mill and a landing on the Potomac River-a trip of less than four miles (6.4 km).

Gassaway’s daughter Elizabeth married William Darne in 1798. Darne was a civic leader who served in the Maryland House of Delegates, as a judge, and as director of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. He also became one of the area’s biggest landowners. The community was called Mount Pleasant until the establishment of a post office around 1803, when it gradually began being called “Darnes” in honor of its leading citizen. The Darnes name lasted until the mid-1820s, when the village became known as Darnestown. Darnestown’s first store was kept by John Candler, and he is also cited as its first postmaster. Leonard W. Candler was the Darnestown postmaster as early as 1828, and he was still listed as such in 1850 when Darnestown was one of 15 post offices in Montgomery County. By the 1820s, the community had a wheelwright, mill, blacksmith, physician, and other businesses.

Originally, Darnestown area land was used by European settlers for growing tobacco and corn. Construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (a.k.a. C&O Canal), which was operating between Georgetown and Seneca by June 1832, provided farmers with better access to markets. A network of roads and mills grew to connect farmers with the canal. Mills in the area included the Seneca Mill (circa 1780), Black Rock Mill (built in 1815), and the DuFief Mill (established 1850). Darne died in 1845, and his farm was eventually given to his son Alexander. By 1860, farmers were growing corn, wheat and oats. At the beginning of the American Civil War, Union Army leadership realized that the Potomac River area near Seneca was a possible crossing point for a Confederate invasion that could include Washington. The Darnestown area was occupied during 1861 by 18,000 Union troops. About half way between the canal and Darnestown, Major General Nathaniel P. Banks kept his headquarters at the Samuel Thomas Magruder farm where the Potomac River could be observed from high ground. Troops from the 13th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment occupied the Pleasant Hills home originally built by the Gassaways. After the war, Darnestown continued to be a farming community. An 1879 atlas lists 19 of 22 Darnestown “patrons” as farmers.