Progress Report on Rich Hill

[L Verge]

Many of you know that Dave Taylor and I have been working with the Historical Society of Charles County and the county government to preserve and restore the 18th-century plantation home, Rich Hill, a part of the Booth escape route. The Surratt Society has established a fundraising project to assist in the effort and will announce this in the September issue of the Surratt Courier.

The following article brings us up-to-date on the progress that has been made so far. http://www.somdnews.com/article/20150812...rnMaryland

One little error: Col. Cox was downstairs and his nephew/son upstairs when the fugitives arrived.

Please contact me at laurie.verge@pgparks.com if you are interested in helping with this project. Surratt House began as a community project to preserve history and has achieved much in the forty years since it opened as a public museum. I think it's time for us to give back by assisting Rich Hill.

I should note also that State Senate President Mike Miller is mentioned in the article as a driving force on the government level. It was Mike's grandparents who donated Surratt House to Prince George's County in the 1960s to get our project started. Mike is quite a Civil War buff and has an ancestor (E Pliny Bryan) who was very active with the Confederate Secret Line and demolition projects until his untimely death from disease in the middle of the war.

[RJNorton]

Laurie, thank you for sharing this with the forum.

[L Verge]

Following up on a previous announcement here that the Surratt Society was beginning a fundraising project to assist in the restoration of Rich Hill, I am excited to announce that the project was officially announced in the September issue of the Surratt Courier, and in the first week, Society members sent in over $600 in donations.

If you are not a member of the Surratt Society, but would like to donate, checks or money orders should be made to "Surratt Society" with Rich Hill added in the memo section. Mail to Surratt House Museum, 9118 Brandywine Road, Clinton, MD 20735. All donations will be acknowledged for tax purposes. We are planning one BIG check presentation to the Historical Society of Rich Hill in the future -- maybe as a Christmas present.