History of Baltimore, Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1729-1898, including its early settlement and development; a description of its historic and interesting localities; political, military, civil, and religious statistcs; biographies of representative citizens, etc., etc, Part 1

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1344

USA > Maryland > Baltimore County > Baltimore City > History of Baltimore, Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1729-1898, including its early settlement and development; a description of its historic and interesting localities; political, military, civil, and religious statistcs; biographies of representative citizens, etc., etc > Part 1

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Luke Viernau 1798

HISTORY

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

FROM

ITS FOUNDING AS A TOWN TO THE CURRENT YEAR

1729-1095

INCLUDING

IT EARLY SETTLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT; A DESCRIPTION OF IT'S HISTORIC AND INTERESTING LOCALITIES; POLITICAL, MILITARY, CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS STATISTICS; BIOG- RAPHIES OF REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS, ETC., ETC.

H. E. Shepherd

ILLUSTRATED

S. B. NELSON, PUBLISHER 1898

PREFACE.

1217063

N the present work, which is submitted to the discriminating judgment of an enlightened community, the design of the Publisher has been to exhibit in clear, simple and concise language the origin, growth and expansion of the city of Baltimore. It ha been his purpose to trace its development from lowly origins, through a series of changes aud vicissitudes material, political, commercial, to its present highly organized and complex state, as one of the chief world centers of enterprise, energy, advancement in moral and intel- lectual, as well as in purely practical and tangible spheres of progress and achievement. In accordance with the recognized principle ennin- ciated by Thomas Carlyle, that "history is the essence of innumerable biographies," the lives of many of those who have contributed to the renown and accomplished greatness of Baltimore in every phase of human effort and human activity-trade, commerce, finance, law, medicine, science, theology, education, literature, art, statesmanship, manufacturing, are exhibited not in elaborate narrative, but lucidly and succinctly, as concrete examples of the results attained by in- dividual genius and energy, in the broadening, indeed in the creation of a rich and harmonious civilization.

Patho Book Store -7/

PREFACE.

The absence of many names which should properly find a place in the biographical section of the history, while deeply to be regretted, is one for which the Publisher is in no sense responsible. The failure to take advantage of so rare an opportunity will prove a cause of genuine disappointment, if not to the persons immediately concerned, at least to their descendants. The several features of the work have been assigned to the following gentlemen :

Hon. Wm. T. Brantley.

Rev. Arthur Chilton Powell.

Rev. Lucien Johnston, by appointment of Cardinal Gibbons.

J. H. Hollander, Ph. D.

John Morris, M. D.

Col. Geo. W. F. Vernon.

Frederick B. Hubbell, Esq. Hon. W. M. Marine. Col. W. H. Love.

Richard Grady, M. D., D. D. S.

H. E. Shepherd, LL. D., Editor-in-Chief.

Their names alone are a guarantee of thoroughness of execution, as well as accuracy in detail. The Publisher trusts that a critical and dispassionate perusal of the book will demonstrate that his estimate of its general excellence is not an unfounded and pretentious claim, and that in following the development of Baltimore from humble beginnings to its present condition of assured rank in the intellectual,

PREFACE.

as well as in the material world, the reader will find a conspicuous illustration of the profound truth, so simply and gracefully embodied by the sovereign of form and of philosophic wisdom in contemporary poetry :

" I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns."

S. B. NELSON, Publisher.

CONTENTS.

Chapter

I. Early History,

9-30

Chapter II. Military and Naval History, 31-51

Chapter III. The Educational Institutions of Baltimore, 52-69

Chapter IV. The Political History of Baltimore, 70-89

Chapter V. Events from 1835 to 1859, 90-III

Chapter VI. Events from 1860 to 1866, 112-168

Chapter VII. Events from 1867 to 1874, 169-200

Chapter VIII. Events from 1875 to 1895, 201-245

Chapter

IX. A Historical Sketch of the Bench and Bar of Baltimore City,

246-263

Chapter

X. Hon. Thomas Yates Walsh,

264-286

Chapter

XI. Church History (Roman Catholic),

287-310

Chapter

XII. The Protestant Churches of Baltimore,

311-444

Chapter XIII. Some Successful Preachers Who Have Occupied Baltimore

Pulpits, 445-475

Chapter XIV. Medical Profession in Baltimore, 476-504

Chapter XV. Dentistry and the Dental Profession, 504-514

Chapter XVI. Railroad History, 515-530

Chapter XVII. The Monuments of Baltimore, 531-535

Chapter XVIII. Biographical Sketches, 536-1032 Chapter XIX. The Modern City, 1033-1048 Index, 1049-1058

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MD.

CHAPTER I .- EARLY HISTORY.

'COL. WM. H. LOVE.

"It was convenanted on the part of the King, that neither he nor his successors should ever impose customs, taxes, quotas or contributions whatsoever upon the people, their property or their merchandable commodities laden within this province."-Charter.

It would be well before going into the history of the city, to make some inquiry into the origin of the name and its meaning. Baltimore is a compound word-Bal is a corruption of Baal or Beal, the Sun-god Ti is the Irish for spot, place and circle. It also means burning. More is the same word as the Irish or Celtic Mor, which means great or large. A writer sums up the meaning as follows: "Beal-Ti-Mor, as the great place or circle of Baal. That is to say, The Great Temple of Baal. It has also been translated "The place of the Great House." Baal was the Sun-god of the Egyptians, Persians, Syrians, Phoenicians and Irish. It is uncer- tain whether the Irish adored the sun before the Phoenicians landed on their shores un- der Milesius in the time of Dana the Psalmist. Learned writers, however, think that the Irish, like the ancient Phoenicians, worshiped the sun with outstretched arms, just as the other sun-worshipers did. To this ancient name and title, George Calvert,

principal Secretary of State to James I of England, fell heir, his title being "Baron Baltimore of Baltimore in Ireland." This town, whose history, perhaps, is as old as the Pyramids of Egypt, is beautifully situ- ated on a fine harbor in St. George's chan- nel, and has for some years been prospering under the patronage of the Baroness Bur- dett Coutts, who has revived the fishing industry. The first settlement on land in- cluded in the present site of Baltimore, was made in 1662. Charles II was King of England, and Charles Calvert, Governor of the province. Oliver Cromwell had been in his grave only four years. The English people had been making history very fast, and among their most brilliant achieve- ments was the planting of successful col- onies in various parts of the world, notably the Virginia colony, the Massachusetts plantations and the Province of Maryland, founded in 1634. So that the first actual settlement on land, within the present city

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

limits, was made only twenty-eight years after the landing of the first colonies at St. Mary's.

I662.

The investiture of the Lords of Baltimore with the royal prerogatives enjoyed by the Bishop of Durham within the Palatinate of Durham in England, made them sovereign princes, with the exception and limitations, namely: "That the laws were to be enacted by the Lord Proprietary with the advice and approbation of the freemen and free- holders, or their deputies ; and secondly, that no interpretation of the Charter was to be made whereby God's Holy Rights and the Christian Religion, or the allegiance due the sovereign of England may in anywise suf- fer by change, prejudice or diminution," so that Christianity was the only religious limitation on the rights of conscience, some- thing unknown in the Old World, and a good foundation for the first province of the great British Empire.

In the year 1662, the year after the first county court was held, contracts were made for tobacco deliverable at North Point, which would show that commerce had already gained a foothold in this locality. Mr. Abraham Clark, a shipwright, was among the first settlers on the north side of the Patapsco river. But to Mr. Charles Gorsuch, of the Society of Friends, belongs the honor of first settler, as in that year he took up and patented 50 acres of land on Whetstone Point, the present site of Fort McHenry, it being the practice while there were few competitors, to take up but little waste land, though the purchase money was only four shillings. The quit rent four shil- lings per annum, and alienation four shil- lings sterling per 100 acres, payable in

specie, tobacco or other products. The next land taken up within the city's present limits was the glade or bottom on each side of the run, now called Hartford run, at present under Central avenue, in 1663, by Mr. Alex- ander Mountenay, for 200 acres, and called Mountenay's neck. In 1665 Timber neck, lying between the heads of the middle and north branches of the Patapsco, was pat- ented for by Mr. John Howard, and in the same year the tract north of it, upon which the first town of Baltimore was laid out, was granted to Mr. Thomas Cole, for 550 acres, and called Cole's Harbor.

This tract of land extended from Mounte- nay's land, westerly, across the north side of the river one mile, and northwardly from the river about half a mile, but in the form of a rhomboid divided into two equal parts by the stream, afterwards called Jones's Falls. Copu's Harbor, Long Island Point, Kemp's addition and Parker's Haven on the east, Lunn's lot and Chatworth on the west, on the south David's Fancy and on the north Salisbury plains, Darley Hall and Gallow Barrow, were patented for different persons at later periods, and have been ad- ded to the town with many others since. Mr. Thomas Cole left an only daughter, who became th : wife of Mr. Charles Gorsuch, and they sold and conveyed separately, in 1679 and 1682, the tract of land called Cole's Harbor, to David Jones, who gave his name to the stream, which rises in the beautiful "Green Spring Valley," and passing down through the present city, is crossed by 21 bridges, many of which are very fine. There being no evidence to the contrary, it is almost certain that David Jones was the first resident on the north side of the Harbor. He erected a house on the east side of the

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

stream, near the head of the tidewater, on what was called the Great Eastern road, crossing the stream at a point near what is now called French street. It is sup- posed that this road crossed what is now the bed of Baltimore street, at or near Sharp street, McClellan's alley being the actual bed of the old road. The alley now known as Elbow lane, running from Fay- ette to Lexington street in a northeasterly direction towards what was known as the "Parish Church Lot" (St. Paul's), passing down a gulley northeast of it, then turning easterly across the "Falls." Mr. James Todd, step-son of David Jones, came into possession of Cole's Harbor and also the whole part of Mountenay's neck, having in- termarried with the owner's daughter. In 1696, Mr. Todd re-surveyed the first tract and procured a new patent for it, by the name of Todd's Range, for 510 acres; and in 1702, Todd and wife jointly conveyed 1352 acres of Cole's Harbor to Mr. John Hurst, who was an Inn-keeper and kept an Inn at or near Jones's, and the balance of the latter tract to Charles Carroll, Esq., the agent of the Lords proprietors. In the same year John Hurst mortgaged his 300 acres to Capt. Richard Colegate, one of the county commissioners, whose residence was on a creek bearing his name to-day, and which enters the Patapsco at Point Breeze. In 17II, Mr. Charles Carroll sold 31 acres of his part of Cole's Harbor, together with a mill seat, to Mr. Jonathan Hanson, mill- wright, who erected the mill of which some of the remains were standing as late as 1821. Mr. Edward Fell, a member of the Society of Friends, and a merchant from Lanca- shire, England, who had settled on the east side of Jones's Falls in 1730, took an escheat.

warrant and employed Mr. Richard Gist to survey Cole's Harbor or Todd's Range, and the next year purchased the right of it of Mr. John Gorsuch, son of Charles, but the sons of Mr. Carroll, deceased, entered a caveat, and prevented a sale.

During the seventeenth century we find our statute books burdened with many laws creating town after town on paper, as many as thirty-three having been created, three of them being within the boundary of what was then called Balti- more county. By the act of the General Assembly of 1706, a town was to be established on Whetstone Neck on the Pa- tapsco river. No name was given to the town in the Act. Another town, called Baltimore, was located near the mouth of Bush river on its eastern side. This town is shown in the map made by Augustus Herrman, the Bohemian, in 1670, and some fourteen years after the actual found- ing of the present city, the General Assem- bly ordered another Baltimore to be laid out on Indian river in Worcester county. Nothing was ever done in regard to this last town, the county surveyor refusing to proceed with the work.

Then came the true founding of the city of Baltimore, by the passage of an act en- titled "An act for erecting a town on the north side of Patapsco, in Baltimore coun- ty, and for laying out in lots sixty acres of land in and about the place where one John Flemming now lives." (1729, chap- ter 12.)

A deed now in possession of the Ridgley family, of this city, in the handwriting of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, gives posi- tive evidence as to the location of the first stake in the survey of Baltimore town. It

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

reads as follows: "This indenture, made this day of .... , in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty- .. ., between Charles Carroll, of Carroll- ton, of Anne Arundel county, esquire of the first part, and Benjamin Griffith, Philip Hall, John McClellan and Leonard Helm, of Baltimore county, gentlemen of the other part. Witnesseth, that the said Charles Car- roll, for and in consideration of the sum of eight hundred and fifty pounds, common current money of Maryland, to him in hand paid before the unsealing and delivery of these presents by the said Benjamin, Philip, John and Leonard, the receipt whereof of us hereby acknowledged, hath bargained and sold, aliened, released, enfeoffed and confirmed; and by these presents doth bar- gain and sell, alien, release, enfeoff and confirm unto them the said Benjamin, Philip, John and Leonard, their heirs and assigns, forever all that tract, pieces or parcel of land, situate and lying and being in Baltimore county aforesaid, be- ing part of a tract of land called "Cole's Harbor," and afterwards resurveyed and called "Todd's Range," beginning at a stump where is planted a young locust tree, on a bank near a bridge built of brick and stone in Charles street, which said stump is the beginning of a tract of land called "Deep Point," and stands within thirteen feet of a locust post, the beginning of Baltimore Town."

The bridge referred to must have been about the intersection of Uhler's alley and Charles street, over the stream which emptied into the head of Harbor or Bason, as it is written in all the acts of Assembly.

Baltimore county, in which the town was to be located, had been formed by proclama-

tion as early as 1659, and included at first all land lying to the north of Anne Arundel county on both sides of the Chesapeake Bay. The whole sixty acres mentioned above were purchased by the commission- ers appointed for the purpose for about six hundred dollars of our present money. As the selection of the site was a most happy one, a particular description of it will not be out of place.

"Beginning at a point near the northwest intersection of what are now called Pratt and Light streets, and running northwest- erly along or near Uhler's alley, towards the Great Eastern road, and a great gulley or drain at or near Sharp street; then across Baltimore street, east of the gulley, north- easterly with the same road, afterwards called Church road and now Mcclellan's alley, to the precipice which overhung the falls at or near the southwest corner of St. Paul street (now Saratoga) and St. Paul's lane; then with the bank of that said stream, southerly and easterly various courses unto the low grounds, ten perches west of Gay street; then due south along the margin of those low grounds to the bank on the north side of the river, and then by that bank va- rious courses, nearly as Water street runs, westerly and southerly to the first men- tioned point."

The time was most fortunate for the founding of a commercial city. Sir Robert Walpole, the great minister of George I and II, saw what no statesman had till then seen, that the wisest course a statesman can take, in the presence of a great increase in na- tional industry and national wealth, is to look quietly on and let it alone. He said that nothing would more conduce to the extension of commerce than to make the

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

exportation of our own manufactures, and the importation of the commodities used in the manufacturing of them, as practicable and easy as may be, and in the very year of the actual founding of Baltimore, 1730, he allowed Georgia and the Carolinas to export their rice direct to any part of Europe.

The result was that the rice of America soon drove that of Italy and Egypt from the market.

So the town started on the tract of land commonly known as "Cole's Harbor." The owner of the land had the first choice for one lot, the remaining lots were taken up by others ; but no one was allowed to take up more than one lot during the first four months, nor was any lot allowed to be taken up by any but inhabitants of the county within six months after laying out. After that time, however, vacant lots were taken up by other persons on payment to the owner of the land, the valuations of the sixty acres proportionately to their lots, which gave such purchasers, their heirs and assigns an absolute estate, in fee simple, in the said lots.

It was further stipulated that if any person who had taken up a lot or lots should neglect to build thereon within eighteen months a house that would cover 400 square feet, the contract with the commissioners should be void, and they could sell to some other person, who was obliged to build a house of the same dimensions.

The commissioners were directed to em- ploy a capable clerk to make true and im- partial entries of their proceedings, upon oath, which entries shall be made up into a well bound book, and lodged with the

clerk of Baltimore county, for the inspec- tion of any one,

"Saving to the Crown, the Lord proprie- tor, all bodies politic and corporate, and all others not mentioned in this act, their sev- eral rights."

The well bound book mentioned above is now under lock and key in the City Li- brary, City Hall, its old-time worn pages bound in vellum, the Alpha, if not the Omega, of the story of Baltimore.

About two years after the founding of Baltimore town an act was passed entitled "An act for erecting a town on a creek, di- vided on the east from the town lately laid out in Baltimore county, called 'Baltimore Town,' on the land whereon Edward Fell keeps a store." (1732, c. 14.)

Commissioners were appointed and em- powered to purchase (by agreement with the owner or in case of such owner's re- fusal, etc., by valuation of a jury) ten acres of land, lying most convenient to the water and to lay out the same into twenty lots, etc.

Almost the same conditions were to gov- ern lot holders as in the first town, and the name of this town was to be "Jones's Town." A proviso was also inserted that the possessors of lots were to pay one penny current money per annum to the Lord Pro- prietary and his heirs forever.

The next step for the enlargement of the original town was the passage by the Gen- eral Assembly of the act of 1745, c. 9, fifteen years after the founding. This act was passed on the joint petition of the inhab- itants of Baltimore and Jones's Town, that the two towns be incorporated into one en- tire town, and for the future to be called and known by the name of Baltimore Town

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

and by no other name. It was stipulated that the bridge built by the inhabitants on the branch that divided the said towns shall for the future be deemed a public bridge.

In order to encourage the building of wharves at this early period, it was stipu- lated in this last act that all improvements of what kind soever, either wharves, houses or other buildings, that have or shall be made out of the water, or where it usually flows, shall be forever deemed the right, ti- tle and inheritance of such empowers, their heirs and assigns forever.

By the provisions of this act none are permitted to keep or raise any swine, geese or sheep within the said town, unless they be well enclosed in lot or pen.

The town was again enlarged two years later by the act of 1747, c. 21, on petition of the inhabitants by the addition of eigh- teen acres, which was not included in Jones's Town nor in Baltimore Town. In this year the lanes and alleys were found to be so narrow that by consent of the own- ers of lots they were enlarged.

This act of 1747 is very interesting from the fact that it provided for two annual fairs, one to begin on the first Thursday of October and the other on the first Thursday of May. These fairs are to be held for three days, and during the continuance of such fair or fairs all persons within the bounds of said town shall be privileged and free from arrests, except for felony or breach of the peace, and all persons coming to or return- , ing therefrom shall have the like privilege for one day before the fair and one day on their return therefrom.

At this time we begin to find the first laws and ordinances for the better government of the town, but all rules and orders of the

commissioners must be consistent with the laws of the province, and the statutes and customs of Great Britain.

The first provision for preventing fire was made at this time, a fine of ten shillings cur- rent money being placed on any one who- permitted his chimney to take fire so as to blaze out at the top.

All persons who owned houses in use were required to have a ladder high enough to extend to the top of the roof or pay a fine of ten shillings. And in this same act it was especially provided that the commis- sioners or inhabitants shall not elect or choose any delegate or delegates, burgess. or burgesses, to represent the town in the General Assembly of the province.

The town was again enlarged in 1750, by the addition of 25 acres on the north and east side of the original Jones's Town, and again in 1753, on its western side, by an ad- dition of 32 acres.

The growing commerce of the town ap- pears to have called for stringent laws to prevent an injury to navigation, and in the last mentioned a rigid law was passed by the General Assembly to prevent the open- ing or digging into the banks of Patapsco river for iron stone, which caused large quantities of earth and sand to be washed into that river. It was made unlawful for any person or persons to permit or allow his servants or slaves to lay or put on the beach or shore of the said river, earth, sand or dirt, except it be "well secured by stone- walls, dove-tailed log pens, so that nothing could wash into the river."

In 1765 another addition to the town was made on petition of Cornelius Howard and other persons, consisting of thirty-five acres on the west and south sides of the town.

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

We now come to the gigantic work of re- claiming "Harrison's Marsh," it having been declared a nuisance in 1766, and Thomas Harrison, Alexander Lawson and Brian Philpot are named as the owners of said marsh. They were required to abate the nuisance by wharfing in all the marshy ground next the water, by a good and suf- ficient stone wall, not less than two feet thick and two feet high above the level of the common flood tides, or at their option they could use hewed logs. These gentle- men had to give bonds to be approved by Robert Alexander, John Smith, William Smith, Jonathan Plowman, William Speer, Andrew Stygar, Charles Ridgely, Jr., John Merryman, Jr., and Benjamin Griffith, and they had two years in which to complete the work. Otherwise these commissioners were empowered to sell the property to the highest bidder, first giving notice in the Maryland and Pennsylvania Gazettes for sixty days.

The town was again enlarged by the act of June, 1773, by the addition of eighty acres on the east and southeast which were by the act declared part of the town, to all intents and purposes whatsoever, as if included originally therein, and have the same im- munities and privileges as the rest of the said town has or by former laws ought to have; saving to his most Sacred Majesty, his heirs and successors, and all bodies poli- tic and corporate.

In the same year, by the authority of the Right Honorable, the Lord Proprietary, by and with the advice and consent of his Gov- ernor, and the upper and lower houses of Assembly, certain lands, the property of John Moale and Andrew Stigar, were in- corporated into the fast growing town,

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Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n Publication date: 1898 Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1344

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1344