Editing Olney, Maryland (section)

==History==
In 1763, Richard Brooke received a [[land patent|patent]] for a tract of land located in the [[Province of Maryland]].<ref name= centuries>Sween, Jane C.; Offutt, William. ''Montgomery County: Centuries of Change''. American Historical Press, 1999.  {{ISBN|1-892724-05-7}}.</ref> Originally known as Mechanicsville,<ref name= centuries/> the village which became Olney was established in 1800. The area was mostly farmland, but it soon began attracting artisans. Early residents Sarah Brooke and Dr. Charles Farquhar were devotees of the English poet [[William Cowper]], and named their home after the poet's hometown of [[Olney, Buckinghamshire|Olney in England]].<ref name= centuries/> The area was later named for their home, which still stands and is known as the Olney House. In the town's center was a [[blacksmith]], William Kelley's [[wheelwright]] shop, Canby's pottery factory, and a Benedict Duley's store.<ref name= centuries/>

The Brooke family held the largest tracts of land in Olney, whose central village was at the intersection of the [[Rockville, Maryland|Rockville]] to [[Baltimore]] road, and the one which connected Washington with [[Westminster, Maryland|Westminster]] to the north. The Quaker community in [[Sandy Spring, Maryland|Sandy Spring]] thrived just to Olney's east. The [[Sandy Spring Museum]] is a historical museum featuring educational programs and displays. St. John's Episcopal Church was established in 1842 and survives to this day.

Although not as involved in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] as areas of Maryland to the west, Olney residents still experienced the tug-of-war between loyalty to the plantation economy of the South and to the Federal government in Maryland's midst. Both [[Union Army|Union]] and [[Confederate Army|Confederate]] forces made stops in Olney during the war. Union Generals [[George B. McClellan]] and [[Ambrose Burnside]] led soldiers through in the midst of the [[Maryland Campaign]] in 1862. During the [[Gettysburg Campaign]] in 1863, Confederate General [[J. E. B. Stuart]] marched between 10,000 and 20,000 troops north through the village and raided it of supplies, including horses and crops from surrounding farms in which they [[Bivouac shelter|bivouacked]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Farquhar|first1=Robert Brooke|title=Historic Montgomery County, Maryland: Old Homes and History|date=1954|publisher=University of Michigan|pages=148, 243|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NsdWAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>

Olney served as the original headquarters of the [[Emergency Management Institute]], founded in 1951 as the Civil Defense Staff College (CDSC) to provide training for civil defense. While there, the college built "Rescue Street," a training center designed to resemble atomic bomb ruins.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Furman|first1=Bess|title=Atom Bomb 'Ruins' Will Aid Defense|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1952/06/25/archives/atom-bomb-ruins-will-aid-defense-havoc-of-air-attack-simulated-to.html|access-date=May 3, 2018|work=The New York Times|date=June 24, 1952}}</ref> The CDSC was soon relocated to [[Battle Creek, Michigan]] due to security concerns of a potential attack on Washington, D.C. during the [[Cold War]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Emergency Management Institute (EMI) Overview|url=https://training.fema.gov/history.aspx|publisher=[[Federal Emergency Management Agency]]|access-date=May 3, 2018}}</ref>