The Insane Story Behind The St. Rose Of Lima Parish In Gaithersburg, Maryland!

We’re here in Gaithersburg, Maryland right in Montgomery County, Maryland right outside of Washington D.C.. We’re here at the St. Rose of Lima Parish. It was built over 150 years ago by a gentleman named Francis Clopper and his wife, Anne Jane Burn. Clopper is one of the earlier families to settle in Montgomery County so you’ll see clopper negotiated with clopper road which is a major thoroughfare. So right where we’re standing was where the original clopper house used to stand. It burned down and it’s no longer here but you could’ve imagined what it must have been like. The house was right here, it overlooked all of their lands. They were a large land-owning family. So we’re here in front of this lonely tombstone here, the base of this old oak. There’s a bit of local history here if you know where to look. There’s a large cemetery in the area but this tombstone is off on its own, not in the cemetery. This is the tombstone of William D Scott and was a 21 year old confederate cavalryman and he was in this area. This area in Maryland used to be pro-confederate. In fact, during the civil war, the southern portion of Maryland you couldn’t just move around freely. But the Clopper family were union supporters and William Scott showed up here mortally wounded one evening. He’d been shot in the side and he was by himself and needed help. He appeared on the front porch of the Clopper family’s home. They knew he was a confederate soldier but they helped him anyway. He famously requested of them, “May I have permission to die on your front porch?” So he asked permission before he went ahead and died here. They baptized him at his request before he died. Back then, it was punishable by death to aid confederate soldiers. So you can be killed for doing that. After he died, the Clopper family who were union supporters buried him in the dead of night under this lonely oak tree. His tombstone is alone here by itself. They couldn’t bury him in the cemetery and they had to do it at night so they wouldn’t get caught burying him. In Gaithersburg, there’s a lot of local history, a lot of civil war history. There were no major battles here but, even so, there is a lot of civil war history in the area.


Want to see more historic facts around the DMV area??
Visit our website and follow us on social media: