The stories of two successful early farmers tell much about Cloverly past. One farmer was white, one was black, and both still live in local memories.

Charles T. Hill (1853-1942) spent his boyhood with the Asa Stablers much as an adopted son; they housed, fed, and clothed him and taught him to work. He needed little teaching: Asa Stabler, who had four boys of his own, often said, "I raised five sons, and Charlie Hill was the best." Frugal to a fault, Charlie saved, saved, saved. At mid-life he was able to buy a farm--149 acres on Norwood Road, from the Robert H. Millers. Soon he was running High Ridge Dairy, a hundred cows. His milk wagon to Washington also carried passengers, who sat on milk cans, five cents a round trip.

Joseph Harding (1822-1894) bought 200 acres as a young man, cleared most of it, and built a log house on today's Harding Lane. He began raising potatoes and eventually became known as the Potato King of Montgomery County. He served as toll keeper at the Ednor toll booth; he founded a small Free Methodist Church in Cloverly that eventually relocated in Spencerville. He established a family cemetery; the first Hardings he buried were wife Elizabeth Moore and one of their five children. Soon after the Civil War he built three-story Ash Grove, a substantial home reflecting a hard-working farmer's success.

The Laurel stage stops at Joseph Hardings's home Ash Grove. He built the sturdy residence on present-day Harding Lane at the end of the Civil War. Porches lined three sides, and in winter the basement filled with his large potato crop. The Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties recorded in 1976 that he built Ash Grove "to reflect his economic success and position in society as a relatively well-to-do man." Today it is the home of Stephen and Kim Lake.