There’s a lot of confusion in documents written about the Quakers regarding Potomac Creek and Potomac Run. The Stafford Quakers lived and met along Potomac RUN, which is a teeny waterway that begins east of Hartwood Road, meandering south toward Poplar Road south of Christy’s Estates and just north of Shackleford Well Road where it bends east and connects to Long Branch, which drains into the north side of Abel Lake.
Potomac CREEK begins on the south end of Abel Lake and travels east completely across US Route 1 and Interstate 95 to the south side of Crow’s Nest Park where it connects to the Potomac RIVER.
Potomac Run Meeting – Quakers at Poplar Road
The Quakers called their Poplar Road settlement the “Potomac RUN Meeting”, sometimes referred to as the Poplar Settlement by non-Quakers. It was part of the Crooked Run meeting. See https://quakermeetings.com/Plone/meeting_view?anID=2065
I believe the locals called the Quaker Potomac Run meeting the Poplar Settlement because of the Lombardy poplar trees that Quakers planted in this area, including here on Poplar Grove Farm. Lombardy poplars are not native to North America, and their tall, thin form would have drawn attention of the locals. We have photographs from about 1935 of Poplar Grove, and there are no Lombardy Poplar trees anywhere to be seen. These trees are short-lived, and I don’t think there are any Lombardy poplars left in the area. These Lombardy poplars seem to have died off before 1935.
