'H#23-67 MARYLAND HISTORICAL TRUST
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INVENTORY FORM FOR STATE HISTORIC SITES SURVEY
HISTORIC
Pleasant Hill Site
Cemetery
·AND/OR COMMON
0LOCATION STREET & NUMBER
:.,:~,~,.;.;;"jc;iJ:
.,.. ...
dirt road, north of Brookeville, near power lines . • ,..... ... ·. . .. .· t~.~;;~,i CONGRESSIONALD!StRICT . >:\•'
ClTY. 10WN STATE
CATEGORY
'
STATUS
/
PRESENT
use:. .
_DISTRICT
_i;oeuc
_OCCUPIED
~GRfruLTIJRE
_BUILOINGlSJ
..:!PRIVATE'
_UNOCCUPIED
-COMMERCIAL
-BOTH
_WORK IN PROGRESS ·
-EDUCATIONAL. ;:;_PRIVATE RESH:IENQ;,c·•
-1f"RUCTURE
PUBLIC ACQUISITION
J.ls1TE _OBJECT
ACCESSIBLE
.
-MUSEUM _PARK
_,EnT£RTAINM-ENT
.;....RELIGIOUS
-G.OVERNMENT
__SOENTIFIC
1~~S: UNRESTRICTEL
_INDUSTRIAL.
_TRANSPORTATION
_NQ
-••UUTARY
_OTHER:
_IN PROCESS
-25:
_BEING CONSIDERED
RESTRICTEf'-'. ...
DOWNER OF PROPERTY NAME
Telephone ffi
Nathan N. Lubar et al STREET & NUMBER
OTY.TOWN
STATE _
. 6LOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION COURTHOUSE. REGISTRY OF DEEDS; ETC. .
I
ZJ.p
VICINITY OF
Liber i: Folio J:
Montgomery County Courthouse
STREET & NUMBER STATE
OTY. TOWN
Marvland
Rockville
EJREPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS TITLE
DATE.
_FEDERAL
-5TATE
_COUNTY
-LOCAL
DEPOSITORY FOfi · SURVEY RECORDS
OTY.TOWN
STATE
code
·D DESCRIPTION CONDITION _EXCELLENT
CHECK ONE
. _;{ETERIORATEO
-GOOD
{RUINS
·
_FAIR
_UNEXPOSED
_UNALTERED ·
-ALTERED
· ·
c;MECK ONE {ORIGINAL SITE ~OVEO .DATE._ __
DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORl_GINAL (IF KNOWN) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
This was the site of the ancestral Riggs heme-a stone house built about the mid-18th Century. The house is long gone, but the Riggs family cemetery remains, and severa.l. stone markers are visible... ·
CONTINUE ON SEPARATE SHEET IF
NECESSARY
.iJ SIGNIFICANCE ,,_fERIOO
• >
REHISTORIC
AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE·- CHECK AND JUSTIFY B.ELOW
--ARCHEOLOGY-PREHISTORIC
_COMMUNITY PLANNING
_LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
-1400-1499
--ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC
_CONSERVATION
_LAW
_SCIENCE
-1500-1599
--AGRICULTURE
_ECONOMICS
_LITERATURE
_SCULPTURE
-;/,.600-1699
--ARCHITECTURE
_EDUCATION .
_MILITARY
_SQCJAt./HUMANITARIAN
~00-1799
-ART
_ENGINEERING
_MUSIC
_THEATER
-1800-1899
_COMMERCE
_EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT
_PHILOSOPHY
_TRANSPORTATION
_1900-
_COMMUNICATIONS
_INDUSTRY
_POLITICS/GOVERNMENT .
_OTHER (SPEC!FYl
_RELIGION
_INVENTION
BUILDER/ARCHITECT
SPECIFIC DATES STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
See Farquhar•s OLD HOMES~ HISTORY
(1961) 'pp., 247-249$
CONTINUE ON SEPARATE SHEET IF NECESSARY
.QE
MONT. CO./"'MD.
,•
IJMAJOR BIBUOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES /"'"'
Farquhar, R.B.. OLD HOMES fil!Q HISTORY Qf.. (1961) pp. 247-249
MO~""'T.
CO .. " MD ..
CONTINUE ON SEJ?AR,ATE SHEET IF NECESSARY
,.... ·-~·-- -
lmGEOGRAPHICAL DATA
· ~ :".
ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY _ _ _ _ _ _ __
VERBAL BPUND~RY-DESC~l.PTION
..••;•.
LIST ALL STATES AN.D COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OR COUNTY BOUNDARIES STATE
COUNTY
STATE
COUNTY •
mFORM PREPARED BY NAME/TITLE
Michael F. Dwyer, Senior Park Historian ·~-DA
ORGANIZATION-
TE '
· · -, · · '--"'-i''-".''--
8/l5/7S
M-NCPPC STREET & NUMBER
TELEPHONE
8787 Georgia Ave.
589-1480
Silver Spring
Maryland
STATE· ·
ClTYORTOWN
·
c · ~
The Maryland Historic Sites Inventory was officially created by an Act of the Ma.ryland Legislature, to be fotmd in the
Annotated Code of Maryland, Article 41, Section 181 KA, 1974 Supplement. The.Survey and Inventory are being prepared for information and record p.µrposes only and do not constitute any infringement of individual property rights.
RETURN TO:
Maryland Historical Trust The Shaw House, 21 State Circle Annapolis, Maryland 21401 (361) 267-1438
f .... b.
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,.
Pleasant Hill HE nncestral home of the Riggs family, in Montgomery County, is now deserted, nud the house is falling into decay. No mcrnher of that illustrioul:! family lms livc
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NO. 87
D-9
S..\.'\H.:EL RIGGS
CA. 1769
BRICK
Situated on a hill, ovedooking the \illage of Brookeville, this site offers a view of beantiful expanses of countryside for miles around. It wns two centurfos ago, on September 11, 1751, that John Rigg·s, a planter residing in Annc Arnur of BordlC'y '!; Choice, was the pro!-(<'nitor of a numerous und l1onored family O\ er
afterward identified with t.his rcgiou. Eal'licr members of this fawily were in Virginia anqually among five of his sons: ThoumA, Joh11 1 Jm110s, Snmucl, and Elisha Riggs. The youngest son, ...<\.mou, receivc'1 tlle parental lnncls in .Anne Arw1dcl. The thrnniclc of Pleasant Hill al:i a family rcsidcntc hegins with Samuel Riggs. Born October G, 1740, tl1e ninlh <'hild of John, he grew to lllauhoocl in Anno ..Arundel County. Early in life ho hctamc a Slll"\'l•yor, probably receiYiug his first instruction from an uncle, Rohert D:wis, who dividcll Bordley's Choice among the fh-e brotl1crs. Ho wus also active in local affairs, antl rC'<'ords show SamuC'l Riggs as 'l'ohuceo fospC'Ctor for Queen Caroline Parish in 1766-67. J>hilemou Dorney was a district surveyor, the owner of thousands of acres in what is today Howard County, wember of a numerous and iuOuentinl family, nud the father of five daugl!ters by his marriage fo Catharine Ridgely. The youngest of these, Amelin, horn .August 23, 1749, hecame the bride of Samuel Riggs in 1767. This young couple cstnblishe
247
248
H1sT0Rrn l\foNTGOMERY CouNTY, MARYLAND
Like other militiamen, he and his neighbors brothers. He was one of the first natives of were at once identified with the patriots' cause. . Montgomery County to become a millionaire. On May 14, 1776 he was commissioned a second When a youth he went to Georgetown to seek lieutenant in the Middle Battalion of Montgom- his fortune. In 1815 George Peabody was taken ery County Militia, led by Colonel Zadok Magru- into partnership, and the firm of Riggs & Peader. The Maryland Archives indicate that he body prospered from the outset. In the second was in the Seventh Company of the Upper war with Britain, and the attack on the City of Battalion of the same militia on July 15, 1780. Washington, the young Elisha was active in the After the Revolution he eontinued to buy ill-fated attempt to halt the invaders at Bladensland in Montgomery County. Pleasant Hill was burg, where be served as aide to General increased to a plantation of about 500 acres be- 'Winder. fore he died. Elisha Riggs was twice married. First, in Samuel Riggs and Amelia Dorsey had seven 1812, to 'Alice, daughter of James Lawrason of sons and five daughters: Mary, "\vife of Henry Alexandria, Virginia, by whom he had two sons: Griffith 3d of Retirement; Henrietta, wife of George Washington Riggs, the most noted Daniel Gaither of Gaither 's Rocks on Hawlings banker of his family, partner of W. \V. CorcoRiver; Thomas; Anna, who married her first ran, and founder of Riggs & Co. of· Washingcousin, Colonel John Hammond Riggs; Reuben; ton, D. C.; and Lawrason Riggs, also a capitalist George ·washington; F.Jlisha; Eleanor (died un- of high repute in New York, St. Louis, and Baltimarried); Romulus; Julia (died unmarried) ; more. He married secondly, in 1822, Mary Ann, Samuel, Jr.; and Remus Riggs. Samuel Riggs,. daughter of Joseph Karrick, a Baltimore priJr., was the only unmarried son; he died in vateer associated with' Simon Bolivar in the 1805. Two years later, on August 6, 1807, Amelia . struggle for South American independence. By Riggs, the mother, died and was laid to rest this marriage there were three notable sons: near this son's grave in the family cemetery be- Joseph K. Riggs and Elisha Riggs, Jr., bankers hind,the house. Samuel Riggs died at Pleasant ,••.~n ·washington; New York, and Prtris; and WilHill on May 25, 1814, and was buried beside his liam Henry Riggs of Paris. wife. · Remus Riggs, born January 12, 1790, youngBy the time he died it is evident from family , est child of Samuel, inherited Pleasant Hill, and papers that the cultivation of tobacco, had all lived there until his death on December 18, 1867. but ceased. The lands had been given over to the In 1830, at the age of forty, he married an raising of grain and livestock. His comfortable eighteen year old wife, Catharine Adams, estate was divided chiefly among his sons. daughter pf John Adams of Baltimore County, Thomas, Reuben, and Remus Riggs were the and heires.s to a shipping fortune. Six children sons identified exclusively with Montgomery were born'to them; the lat:e John H. Riggs of County. George Washington, Elisha, and Locust Grove; near Brookeville, who married Romulus, left the parental roof, and established Annie Eliza Hutton; Remus G. Riggs, who themselves in Georgetown about the year 1800. entered the banking house of Riggs & Co. and George Washington Riggs, born August 4, died at Washington in 1866; \Villiam C. Riggs, 1777, third son of Samuel, though he married inheritor of Pleasant Hill; and two daughters, Eliza Robertson, a native of the county and a Catharine and Amelia. member of an important landowning family, Remus Riggs held a commission as Captain started his career as a silversmith tn George- . in the state militia, and served during the vVar town. After accumulating a comfortable fortune of 1812. He was a trustee of the Brookeville he retired to his country-seat, Woodville, in Bal- Academy for forty-four years (1823 to 1867). timore County, where he died in 1864. His first His sons, John H. and Thomas D. Riggs, and wife died in 1819, and he remarried in 1820. On grandson, the late Lawrason B. Riggs, carried his wedding day he settled what has since been on this tradition of membership until the discalled the Goshen Farm on his new bride. Their solution of the Academy about a generation ago. son, the late Remus D. Riggs of Goshen, in- In 1848 be became a director of the Mutual Fire herited the property (Fertile Meadows). Insurance Company of Montgomery County, Elisha Riggs, born June 13, 1779, fourth son organized at Brookeville in that year. of Samuel, left the most notable record of the Upon the marriage of his son .William in
HISTORIC ~foN·.ruO:'>lERY COUNTY, )L\HYl,A:-11)
r
lt:IB2, to A11nic S. Hallowell, cr of yPnrs before retfriug to live at Brookeville. He
died in 190fi i11 an accident, uud wus the lust of hil:5 family to he bm·ietl nt Plummnt Hill. 'l'hc property pns:-ied to his
Pleasant Hills
XO, 88
PROH.\HJ,Y BY A GAS.~AWAY CA . ~HIN tiECTJO)J liGS <'.\ . 1900 WE.ST WI~G DR. JOH~ T. KELLiff, 1918
EAST WI~G .JOHX T . IrnI.LEY .\LL BRJCh'.
UE olcl saying, "Whut's in n nmne ?" is parttl of sevcrnl tracts, including Good Will, cmphnticnlly nnswerer hn
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