A supreme court justice ate ice cream in this home!
Mt. Nebo was built in a few different stages from the late 1700s to the turn of the 20th century. The Fletchall’s built the earliest portion of the home in the 1780s or 90s and lived on the property until difficult financial times forced them to sell in 1832 (multiple Fletchall’s are buried on the property). After being purchased by the Trundle Family in the 1830s (the Trundles were an extremely wealthy family as a result of the wheat boom in the early 1800s), the home was eventually sold to Joseph White in the 1850s. The home fell into significant disrepair in the 1970s but underwent a huge restoration in the 80s.
There are two amazing stories from the Civil War period worth sharing:
1) In September 1861, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (a member of a unit from Massachusetts who would go on to fight at the Battle of Balls Bluff a month later) was on guard duty near Edward’s Ferry. Holmes took excellent notes and wrote to his mother that while on guard duty, he was invited into the home of a “secesher” by the name of White, who fed him “delicious goose and ice cream.”
2) Somewhat related to the first story, there was speculation that Joseph White, given the proximity of his home to the Potomac and his southern leaning sympathies, was using candles in his windows to signal to rebels across the river about union troop movements in the area. Union soldiers hid in a barn one night to watch the home closely for any signs of signals. Just before dawn, the troops noticed odd lights in the second floor. Upon barging into the home, they discovered that the lights were simply the result of enslaved workers performing tasks to prepare
for the day.
