24. Book, "My New Home"

This book, My New Home by Sarah Stuart Robbins, is an 1881 edition of a book first published in 1865. Once the property of the “Library of the Poolesville Presbyterian Sabbath School,” by 1903 it had passed into the hands of a young African-American woman who inscribed the reverse of the title page, “Feb. 19, 1903. Margaret Lee age 17 years Poolesville, Md is my staying place but Sugarland is my house where I live.”

Located southeast of Poolesville, Sugarland is an African-American community founded by former slaves after the Civil War on part of a tract known as “Sugarland Forest.” The Lees were one of the first families to purchase land and set up household in the new community. Margaret Lee can be found in the 1900 census, living at home with her parents Wallace and Martha; the book inscription indicates that by 1903 she was living, and likely working, in the larger town of Poolesville, which is not to be mistaken for her actual homeplace.

From an 1863-1866 series written for girls by a prolific, but usually anonymous, author, this book is a gently religious story about a woman moving out of her childhood home after the death of her mother. Like its first edition, it was published by Robert Carter and Brothers, New York.

This well-read and dog-eared volume bears a scratched-out paper label of the church school (the 1847 brick church building located at 17800 Elgin Road). Inscribed “Dr. Ayler” above the label, it may have been donated by Dr. John W. Ayler (1839-1916), a physician who lived in Poolesville from the 1870s to the 1890s and was an active church member. Many years ago, the book was donated to the Historical Society’s fundraising used book sale from which it was rescued for the collection without further provenance.

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