Salona was a working farm with a large barn, smokehouse, ice pond, and cabinetshop. Hogs, sheep, cattle and fowl were raised as well as wheat and corn. The old stone house, thought by the family to have been the oldest structure on the place, was surrounded by a peach orchard. The Smoots grew scuppernong grapes, plums and apricots. Italian grape vines adorned the arbor between the house and the brick privy. Descendants say that the farm had a consistently high yield per acre of corn and wheat, and that this information was faithfully recorded in account books which were destroyed when the attic was cleaned out or taken by vandals and lost.[111] But records in gazetteers listed J. G. and William Smoot as principal farmers in the Langley area for a period of more than 20 years.[112]
[Illustration: _Smoot family photographs, late 1800s._]
[Illustration: _This mahogany Sheraton writing cabinet was obtained from England by the Kurtz importing firm in Georgetown, and was used for many years by the Smoots at Salona._]
[Illustration: _These wine glass coolers are of deep blue glass with lips on opposite sides. They were used to rinse wine glasses between courses as different wines were served at Salona._]
[Illustration: _An unsigned charcoal portrait of Jacob Gilliam Smoot of Salona._]
[Illustration: _The marble-topped washstand and the blue and gold Haviland china were used by the Smoots at Salona._]
[Illustration: _Side chair with original horsehair seat._]
[Illustration: _These coin silver spoons, marked "M. W. Galt & Bro." on the back, were hidden by Helen Calder Smoot, Jacob's wife, who, according to family tradition, tied them around her waist beneath her petticoat during the Civil War._]
[Illustration: _Map from G. M. Hopkins_, Atlas of Fifteen Miles Around Washington, _1879._]
[Illustration: _Salona farm, about 1900._]
[Illustration: _Salona farm, about 1890._]
Like William Maffitt, Jacob Smoot died intestate, in 1875. He was survived by his widow Harriet and their four children, William S., Helen M., Harriet E., and Catherine C. After his widow died, each of the children received one-fourth of the estate. Even before Jacob's death, William Smoot, Sr., had taken over management of the farm while his unmarried sisters kept house. Each of the sisters took one of William's sons to raise. Jennie, William's wife, according to the Smoot descendants, acted as hostess, greeting visitors and entertaining them. Their son John moved to Georgetown; William Jr., went to Waterford to be the miller there; Gilliam stayed with his parents and gradually took over the farm operations. Life at Salona went on as usual, with no question of selling the farm or dividing its acreage.