Date: 31 August 2020
Tell me about your family background? How did you end up here in the Ag Reserve?
I was born in Poolesville as the 5th generation to do so to Raymond Ethan and Billie Mae Williams Poole. The eldest of six kids, (four sisters and one brother.) My family line in the “Reserve” began when John Poole sold my 3 Great Grandfather 70 acres of wilderness which he called “Poole Hazard” or Tarra Development.
My great- great grandfather Benj. A. and his brother Joseph, Jr. opened a store in what would become Poolesville in an area of the present day Barber Shop. They managed to get the Post Office in the early 1800’s. My great grandfather, Benj. R. Poole and his brother opened a store at Edwards Ferry in the 1850’s with his brother-in-law, Charle Elgin, as a clerk but were forced to close due to the war and moved to the Martinsburg area. His son, John Elgin Poole had a store in Martinsburg and several farms.
My grandfather John Ethan Poole, along with his younger brother, Charlie, went into farming together starting out on the river bottom near Seneca. The 1926 flood forced them to rethink their choice and they bought the David Young Farm on Edwards Ferry Rd. in 1928. On the farm were two houses, but the one my grandfather lived in burned to the ground in 1933. They then bought an additional farm on the other side of Poolesville, the “Charles Sellman Farm” in 1936. In 1947 the Poole Brothers broke up their partnership and they sold the Sellman Farm. Charlie moved to Tanneytown and my grandfather moved back to the Young farm. Due to health reasons, he sold it in 1956 and moved to a house next to NIH’s farm on Elmer School Rd.
My father, Raymond Ethan Poole had worked at Guy Allnutt’s Store in Seneca since graduating High School in 1945. Guy sold the store and house to the Park Service and the business to the Pointers when he retired. They ran it for a few years and then sold the business to my father in 1964. It was a typical country store selling hardware, Southern States Feed, groceries, fresh meat, clothing, shoes, ammunition, fence post, live chickens, etc. As part of the business he delivered feed and fertilizer to the farms in the district. I was 15 at the time and it soon became my job to help make some of these deliveries when not in school. In those days, you didn’t worry about being stopped to check your driver license, there was hardly any traffic. My younger brother would help and when I went off to college, he got the job. Later still, my youngest sisters would do the work. In summer, things would slow down and I was free to work on area farms making hay and straw. In the fall, I helped in harvesting corn. In spring, I sheared small herds of sheep, something my father had done. I would take the wool to the Wool Pool at the Frederick Fair Grounds. My mother would drive and some of us kids would go with her to wait our turn to be weighed in. You couldn’t believe how long the line was.
As a sideline, my father started a small cattle herd in the lot next to to my Uncle Zack’s house in the middle of Poolesville (where the High’s Store was). Once the herd outgrew the lot he would find acreage around the area that usually had bad fences. My brother and I would be constantly chasing them around the area trying to get them back to where they belong. Finally, he was able to rent the Cocran farm near Edwards Ferry (Animal rescue farm). It was about 400 acres with only an outside fence to tend to. He used this farm for 30 years until Mrs. Cocran was talked into making it what it is today.Describe the Ag Reserve when you were growing up here?
Describe the Ag Reserve as you remember it when growing up. Any interesting stories come to mind? Most prominent memory?
Every Labor day my father would take me to Leesburg to the Livestock Auction. One year he bought a sow thinking he would take her to the Baltimore Livestock Market the next day for resale. During the night she had 13 piglets in our little shed outside of Poolesville and they all lived. Our fences weren’t set up as pig tight and we were stuck. She was a good mother and my father tried to teach me in the ways of pigs. Soon she developed this habit of making a hole in the fence and she (with all her babies in tow) would parade through town at about the same time each day. My grandmother would call to tell us about the escape. By the time I got there she had normally returned home.
Another story: I was dating my now wife who lived in Alexandria. One morning I was on my way to work up River Road. Just after I turned onto Willard Road I came face to face with a buffalo walking down the road. It didn’t seem threatened and just kept going towards Poolesville. I followed it until it turned onto the Golf Course. I called Wally Holloy, the buffalo’s owner. He never found it. Then about a month later we were doing our annual round up of my father’s cattle on the Cocran farm. The buffalo was there enjoying life among the cows.
Contentious issues in the community?
The only thing I can remember is the fight with Bernie Siegle who wanted to develop a large track of land that ran from Poolesville to River Road.
The School integration was another hot topic. My father kept me out for awhile but I don’t remember much about it. I was only in the second grade and having grown up in Sugarland thought all kids went to the same school.
Typical activities with friends?
We would ride our bikes, go fishing, play in the woods, hunt for pop bottles, go swimming, all unsupervised and if we did something wrong there was no waiting until our father came home, any adult would wack you. Then you had to worry about Dad.
Most influential place/shop/business in town
To me the most influential was Williams Store which was run by my mother’s parents Bill and Ida Willams. They had indoor plumbing.
Describe school here in the Ag Reserve.
I went to the new Poolesville School from kindergarten to the 12th Grade. At that time it was all one building.
What was it like?
I had many of the same teachers as my father, so they knew what to expect. Some were even related.
Local sports?
I tried out for cross country one year figuring I had a lot of experience chasing cattle most of my life. Didn’t have much time for anything else.
Transportation to/from school?
When I lived in Sugarland, I rode the school bus. When we moved to just outside of Poolesville, I walked the half mile. Sometimes I would ride the bus to do my homework being I was the first stop and it would take over a half hour to make the route.Employment
What jobs have you held here in the Ag Reserve?
At 12 I got a job as a “House Boy” on the Heflin farm (Tartan Farm), which soon evolved into feeding cattle, making hay, and cleaning out barn bays with a pitch fork. Helped out on several farms doing odd jobs. Worked at Poole’s Store in Seneca.
How did you get into that line of work?
Nepotism and being in the wrong place.
What kinds of jobs did your friends have?
Most worked on their family farms or in their family store.
Biggest change in the Ag Reserve since you’ve been here?
All the houses and new people. When I grew up here most people were related to each other in some way. New schools. No grocery store. Loss of open space and contact with the old ways and it’s history. Now most of the roads are paved.
Important moments of community bonding? (Tragedies, emergencies?)
I wish you asked me this ten years ago. My mind is somewhat fuzzy on certain things. On 9/11 I was in a government building living next to a water tower, the highest target for miles on the Dulles Air route. Families have always come together. You never had to worry if something bad happened, we all pulled together. If something was needed, there was always someone who would step up.
In 2080 the Ag Reserve will be 100 years old. What do you hope it looks like? What do you think it will look like?
Knowing the pressure developers put on the powers that be, I hope at least one old farm remains in tact and not chopped up in smaller and smaller chunks. They always find a loop hole.
