purchased from Henry W. Clagett, nephew of Mordecai Plummer, approximately one-and-one-half acres on the road which led to the Mount Pleasant Ferry. The deed clearly indicates that this small house was already standing at this time; it was very likely built by Quander himself. The Quanders’ new home was immediately south of the large new house, Bowling Heights, built circa 1870 for the daughter of Mordecai Plummer at the time of her marriage to John Bowling. The men of the Quander family worked as farm laborers, and it is likely that they relocated in order to work on the Bowlings’ developing new farm, especially after the death of Mordecai Plummer in 1873.
“The tea parties were held outside on the beautiful lawn… under the walnut tree.”
The large Quander family continued farming their own and other land in the Marlboro vicinity, and for several generations remained very active in the black community of Upper Marlboro. Members of the Roman Catholic Church, they were among the founders of the St. Mary’s Beneficial Society. Gabriel Quander, son of John Henry, was a delegate to the Colored Catholic Congress,1 which first met in Washington in 1889. His brother, William Dominic Quander, served for some time as trustee for the Upper Marlboro school, and William’s daughter, Henrietta Quander Walls, continued after him in the same position. The extended Quander family has continued to be much involved in church and in education. This modest house is fondly remembered by the third generation of Quander children who grew up in it: for the family and church gatherings there and the huge walnut tree which provided shade and fruit. Evelyn Quander Rattley was interviewed when she was 83 years old in 2008. Her father and his siblings were born in the house and grew up there. “We were there for Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, weddings, picnics, lawn parties, teas...oh, we had so many of the teas. We dressed up for teas...[the house] seemed large, and very comfortable and just so warm and loving...there was a big potbelly stove in the main room that kept the whole house warm....All the linens in the house had beautiful lace on them...We would pray, we would sing... The tea parties were held outside on the beautiful lawn...under the walnut tree. Outside there was a meat house...where they smoked the meat. And then there was an open space with an awning over it where we ate in the summer time....They raised chickens and had hogs and cows...one cow. And a vegetable garden...The kitchen was outside... there was plenty of food always. Plenty of food and just happiness.”
1
This movement was an initiative born in the black Roman Catholic community to address the injustices facing the country’s African-Americans.
174 UPPER MARLBORO African-American Historic and Cultural Resources