Aunt Sadie
In 1890, Marian Bentley Millard, granddaughter of Richard T. Bentley, wrote the following "Memories of My Childhood" for Gleanings, a Friends House publication.
. . . I had an Aunt Sadie who would gather us around when she had returned to visit her family, and she told us the following story:
She was swinging on the gate at Bloomfield in Sandy Spring during her youth and at the time of the Civil War, when a lieutenant in the Union Army with a party of six men came galloping down the road toward her. He dismounted and asked if she could provide his men and horses with water to drink.
She willingly took them to a nearby spring on the grounds and men and horses got the water to drink.
As they mounted to leave, the lieutenant, whose name was William Lea -- leaned down from his saddle and spoke softly to my aunt, saying "Goodbye, little Quaker Sweetheart, I will be back for you with the war is over!!" -- and, happy ending, he did come back and married her. . . "
from Chronicles of Sandy Spring Friends Meeting and Environs, pg 90
