The Remains of the Day with The Smithwicks of Sunny Bank

from Country Zest and Style Fall 2020 Edition

HERE and THERE

Photos @dillonkeephotography.com

Sam Fred Road is just east of Middleburg and heading north on this captivating winding road along a curve leads to the entrance to the 1,100-acre Sunny Bank Farm. This is where history and horses cross paths at the home of Eva and Daniel Michael “Speedy” Smithwick, the fifth of sixth generations to live and work here. The family came to the area in 1769 and, during the Civil War, ancestor Catherine Broun (1820- 1908) owned a mercantile store on Washington Street and kept a diary, which has since been published. During the 1820s, Burr and Frank Fred farmed this very same land, growing corn and raising cattle and a few horses. Frank Fred’s grandson was Samuel Harrison Rogers Fred (“Mr. Fred” 1893-1981), whose daughter, Dorothy Fred, married Michael Smithwick, a Hall of Fame race horse trainer and steeplechase rider who won the Maryland Hunt Cup six times.

**Returning to the barn after evening turnout to the south field.**

**Evening turnout to the north field. Eva Smithwick**

Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, Speedy and his wife, Eva (Dahlgren), work sideby-side and their lives revolve around the farm and horses. He has worked at the racetrack full time (which included a stint when he was employed by the late Jack Kent Cooke in California and Kentucky), and now he keeps their horses in enviable, shimmering shape. Eva leads guests on long rides and is Jt.-Master and huntsman of the Snickersville Hounds. There is no word if their two grown daughters, Kathy and Trish, will carry on. For now, we are honored to offer up a visit with the Smithwicks of Sunny Bank on a recent soft and steamy early summer evening as they went about their routines in the remains of the day.