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1883.-

DEATH OF EDWARD STABLER.

Remarkable History of a Veteran Maryland Postmaster.
[Special Dispatch to the Baltimore Sun.]

ROCKVILLE, MD., Sept. 5.—Mr. Edward Stabler died at 9 o'clock last night at Sandy Spring, Montgomery county, where he had been the postmaster for more than 50 years.
He was nearly 89 years of age, and had been ill for several weeks, during which time his death was expected to occur at almost any moment.
His trouble was disease of the heart, complicated by infirmities incident to advanced age.

Mr. Stabler was born at Harewood, Montgomery county, Md., September 26, 1794.
His father was Dr. William Stabler, of Petersburg, Va., and his mother Deborah Pleasants, of Goochland county, Va.
His grandfather, Edward Stabler, was a prominent shipping merchant of Petersburg and came from York, England, in 1752.

Mr. Stabler's father died in 1806.
When he was fourteen years of age he was sent to live with his uncle, Edward Stabler, of Alexandria, Va., to learn the drug business.
In 1816 he removed to Baltimore and became a partner in the house of Norris & Brooke, importers of hardware.
He attended at the same time a course of medical lectures at the University of Maryland, but owing to ill health was not able to complete his course of study, and in 1821 he was forced to relinquish his business and remove to Sandy Spring, where he engaged in farming on the old homestead.
In feeble health and with very limited means, he undertook the discouraging task of earning a livelihood on a thoroughly exhausted track of land.
In 1823 he married Ann R., daughter of Bernard Gilpin, a resident of the same neighborhood.

About this time he took up the business of seal engraving and die sinking, having no previous knowledge of it, but a decided talent in that direction.
This proved to be a success, and he engaged extensively in the manufacture of seal presses, having built a shop and brass foundry for this purpose, all of the seals (in bell-metal) and cast steel dies being cut with his own hands.
He furnished seals and presses for the various departments of the national government, the consular agencies abroad, and many of the States, together with seals for corporations, State and county courts &c., and was considered to be at the head of his profession in this country.
He made among others the dies for the medals of the Maryland Institute and the press and die used by the Peabody Institute.

He was well known throughout the country as a writer on agricultural topics.
His essay on "The Renovation of Wornout Lands," to which was awarded the first prize, offered by the publisher of the American Farmer in 1848, in competition with a number of distinguished Marylanders, was extensively copied throughout the country, and has been republished in the American Farmer within the past two years.
Subsequent prize essays on "Underdraining and Ditching," "Drill Husbandry," were written in response to invitations for competitive papers by the Maryland State Agricultural Society.
For these, also, he took the first prize.

Mr. Stabler was also known as the oldest postmaster in the United States in point of service.
His brother, Jas. P. Stabler, was appointed postmaster when the office was established at Sandy Spring, but upon removing from the neighborhood and discontinuing his store the deceased was commissioned postmaster in 1830 by Wm. T. Barry, Postmaster-General during the administration of President Jackson, and removed the office to his residence.
It was afterwards reopened in the store in the neighboring village of Sandy Spring, where it continues to be, but Mr. Stabler's commission as postmaster was never revoked, and he continued in office through all successive administrations to the day of his death, a period of 53 years, the duties of the office being discharged by the merchants who occupied the store from time to time.

As a sportsman and fisherman he was extensively known throughout Maryland and the adjacent States, and was a frequent contributor to the sporting press upon firearms practice, angling, &c., &c.
He made valuable improvements in several of the present styles of breech-loading rifles and shotguns, among them the "magazine" attachment, which enabled the sportsman (using the Spencer and Martin rifles) to hold six to fourteen charges in reserve for any emergency.
He hunted extensively (previous to the past five years) through West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, being frequently accompanied by his friends, Francis P. Blair, Sr., Gen. M. C. Meigs, and other well-known lovers of the sports of the forest and stream.

Some ten years since he visited California and intervening States, and enjoyed rare sport among the buffalo and antelope of the foot-hills and plains of Colorado and Kansas, using his Roper repeating rifle, with telescopic sights (for long-range shooting) and the explosive hard-point balls, both inventions of his own.
He killed three buffalo the first day out, at a range of 350 to 400 yards while in Kansas.
The instinct for sport was developed by the state of his health, which required him to lead an out-of-door life as much as possible.
He took a great interest in fish culture as well as angling.
He wrote a good deal on fish culture, and was equally an adept with the rod and line and the pen and graver.
During the administration of Mr. Chapman as mayor of Baltimore he introduced the black bass into Lake Roland.

Mr. and Mrs. Stabler had ten children, eight sons and two daughters, all of them now living.
On December 24, 1873, they celebrated their golden wedding, with their en children, six children-in-law and eleven grandchildren.

Mrs. Stabler died after a short illness in May, 1882.
Of the ten children the oldest daughter, Margaret, is the wife of James S. Hallowell, a prominent farmer, living near Brookeville, Montgomery county; Philip T., a farmer, lives near "Harewood;" B. Gilpin, Kate (both unmarried) and Arthur live at the homestead; Samuel J., an attorney at law in California: Louis C., living in Kansas City.
Three of the sons live in Baltimore—Alban G., formerly connected with the Baltimore and Ohio and the Pennsylvania Railroads; Edward, Jr., coal merchant, Sun Building, and Jordan, family grocer, Eutaw and Madison streets.

Mr. Stabler, though never in robust health, was quite active to within the past year, when he was prostrated by an attack of angina pectoris, from which he rallied, however, and was in fair health until his last attack of debility and difficulty of respiration, growing out of the heart troubles, which occurred on the first day of August.
Besides his 10 children he leaves 15 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
He was a member of the religious Society of Friends, of which his ancestry have been members since 1680.
During the British invasion of Alexandria in 1814 he was conscripted for service in the District militia, but being a Friend could not conscientiously serve or pay the fine, he was committed to jail for three weeks, until President Madison, through Mrs. Madison, a life-long friend of Mr. Stabler's mother, heard of it and immediately ordered his release.
He died in the house in which he was born.

THE LATE EDWARD STABLER.

His Funeral from the House in Which He was Born.
[Correspondence of the Baltimore Sun.]

ROCKVILLE, September 6.—The funeral of the late venerable Edward Stabler took place this afternoon at his late residence, near Sandy Spring.
In accordance with the wish of the deceased, many times expressed, everything in the shape of show was discarded.
The remains were laid out in the room in which he was born, encased in a walnut coffin, very plainly dressed, with no inscription.
A few tube roses, tastily arranged on a begonia leaf, were the only flowers used.
On the side of the wall, and almost resting over the coffin, was a handsomely painted lithograph of the deceased, taken in hunting costume during one of his famous hunts in Meshack Browning in the glades of Allegany county many years ago.
Around the room were other hunting sketches which quietly voiced his taste in that direction.

As the sun-dial, which stood in the middle of the yard, and which he had struck and erected in 1826, marked the hour of 4 o'clock, the remains of the deceased was borne from the house which had known him from infancy, and under the aged trees which he had gamboled beneath nearly a hundred years ago.
The pall-bearers were Isaac Hartshorn, Henry C. Hallowell, Charles Abert, Asa M. Stabler, Charles G. Porter and Washington Chilchester.
The funeral cortege was large, and composed of the immediate family relatives and friends of the deceased.
At the Friends' church, which is but a short distance from where the deceased lived, there was quite a number in waiting.
In the church the coffin was opened, and the friends of the deceased were invited to view the remains, after which, with no further ceremony, the procession moved to the adjoining graveyard, and in silence and sorrow the remains were laid to rest in sight of the window where his eyes first caught the sunlight of heaven.
1883.—

Death of B. G. Stabler.
California [Poher?]

B. G. Stabler, who has been quite sick for some time, died at 3 o'clock yesterday morning.
Mr. Stabler was 58 years of age and unmarried.
He came here from Maryland in the early 80's and engaged in the fruit business in this county near the orchard of his brother, S. J. Stabler.
He was one of the best posted fruitmen in this vicinity and was always genial and pleasant, making friends everywhere.
His orchard is one of the best in the county and known as the Highland Orchard.
At the time of going to press the date of the funeral has not been set.
1892

DEATH OF A MARYLANDER IN CALIFORNIA.
1892

Mr. B. Gilpin Stabler, a native of Montgomery county, died near Yuba City, Cal., on Thursday the 29th ult.

Eight years ago he went to California.
He was an extensive grower of peaches and apricots and a producer of raisins from grapes dried in the open air.
Mr. Stabler conducted a large fruit ranch in Sacramento Valley, in what is called the citrous district, where oranges and lemons are largely raised.

He was fifty-nine years of age and the first who has died of the ten children of the late Edward Stabler, who was fifty-three years postmaster at Sandy Spring.
Two of his brothers, Philip and Arthur, and two sisters, Mrs. Hallowell and Miss Kate Stabler, are residents of Montgomery county, Alban G., Edward and Jordan live in Baltimore; Samuel J. in California, and Louis in Platte county, Mo.

The deceased represented two old Maryland families.
His grandfather, Dr. Wm. Stabler, settled at Sandy Spring just 100 years ago at the place and in the house where Arthur Stabler, Cashier of Customs for the Port of Baltimore, now resides.
His grand father, Bernerd Gilpin, whose name he bore, settled in the same neighborhood in 1775.
The Gilpin family can trace their ancestry in unbroken line back to 1370.

By his expressed wish the remains were shipped east and buried at Friends' Meeting House at Sandy Spring, in sight of "Harewood," the old homestead, where the father and ten children were born.
The deceased was unmarried, and ill about two weeks.

Death of Robt. M. Stabler.

Robert M. Stabler, a prominent resident of Montgomery county, Md., died at his home, "Edgewood," last evening.
Mr. Stabler was a son of the late Caleb Stabler.
He was one of the best known farmers in the neighborhood of Sandy Spring and was a charter member of the Enterprise Farmers' Club that was organized in 1865.
His wife was Hannah Taylor of Loudoun county, Va., who was also a member of the Society of Friends.
The widow, one son, Albert Stabler of this city, and five daughters survive him.
His funeral will take place from his late residence tomorrow afternoon at 2 o'clock.
Internment will be at Sandy Spring.

Death of Miss Lucy Stabler.

Miss Lucy Stabler, daughter of the late William Henry and Eliza Stabler, died suddenly at her home, "Auburn," at Sandy Spring, early Wednesday morning, aged sixty-six years, of congestion of the brain.
She had been in delicate health for several years, but her death was not expected at this time.
Miss Stabler was a granddaughter of William Stabler, one of the pioneer settlers of the county.
April 28 - 1899