USA > Maryland > Washington County > Hagerstown > A history of Washington County, Maryland from the earliest settlements to the present time, including a history of Hagerstown > Part 20
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These events were taken from the narration of Mrs. Budey, a daughter of Joseph Tomlinson, who was an eye witness of the transactions, and then six years old. Mr. Tomlinson in his prime of life was a celebrated trapper and hunter, but made no attacks on the Indians, except in case of necessity .- S. P. Hildreth in the Genius of the West.
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express their sentiments on the critical and alarm- ing situation in this country, and for the purpose of acquainting foreign nations with the unanimity of our people in supporting our Constitution and liberties." This latter clause did not appear as absurd in those days as it does at present, for France was depending largely upon the adherence of the people of the United States to herself rather than to their own government. General Thomas Sprigg was the President of the meeting and Eli Williams secretary. The resolutions were present- ed by Gen. Sprigg, Nathaniel Rochester, Charles Carroll, Daniel Heister, Wm. Lee, Wm. Fitzhugh, Samuel Hughes, Martin Kershner and Eli Wil- liams. They set forth the desire of the meeting to cultivate pcace with all nations, the regret at the delay by France in receiving our envoys and then concluded with the declaration that "we do not hesitate to declare our firm determination to support our Constitution, Government and inde- pendence against every attack." The paper was presented to the President by Mr. Baer, the meni- ber of Congress from this district, and a polite note of acknowledgment was shortly afterwards received from Mr. Adams.
About the same time the people of the lower district assembled at Sharpsburg. Joseph Chap- line was the chairman of the meeting. The tone of the resolutions passed was much more hearty than those passed at Hagerstown, and those who framed them were evidently political friends of the President. They held party spirit a reproach, and declared that in the defence of our rights as frcemen, we shall ever act as one man, animated by one soul, and that "any foreign nation is mis- taken in the American character which supposes it capable of any division upon great national questions in which its independence is involved ;" and that "upon this subject our ground is taken and our opinion fixed." The meeting expresesd its approbation of the conduct of the President and of the Envoys. The resolutions were accom- panied by a long address to the President in which the whole county was congratulated upon the unanimity of the people in their resolution to preserve their independence.
The President was applauded for his wisdom and spirit in dealing with France and the hope was expressed that his future conduct might meas- ure up to the same standard. "Shall the proud Republic of France attempt to pluck from the brow of Columbia the laurels which her gallant
sons have planted there? No. We are unani- mously resolved to defend them and are prepared to succeed or perish in the conflict. Be to us an Aristides of whose adininistration no man con- plained, and who never permitted any part of the public treasure to be exhausted in vain." The services of the people were offered with an humble confidence that they would not be found wanting in the day of trial. This was presented as the other and elicited a reply of some length. The President thanked his fellow citizens for their generous applause and assured them that the determination to defend the rights of freeman or perish in the conflict was heroic and glorious. He could not promise an administration of which none would complain unless they could assure hin that no man "in this querulous age will complain of truth, liberty and humanity." But he could and did assure them that no part of the publie treasure would be exhausted knowingly and will- ingly in vain.
The next meeting was one on Cannon Hill in Hagerstown to express approbation of the ap- pointment of Washington as commander-in-chief of the army. Sixteen regular toasts and four vol- unteers were drunk and among the latter one to Nathaniel Rochester, asking him to run for Con- gress. At this meeting a paper was addressed to the President hoping for the maintenance of peace with France, a country similar in government to our own but approving the course of the President and pledging support. It would have been hard to express a sentiment more likely to irritate the President than the comparison of the French gov- ernment to our own. In his reply he expressed his surprise that the people should have such an idea and then went on to show the great contrasts between the two. He spoke of their magnificent profusion of expense as well as of their prostitu- tion of morals and depravity of manners. Hc would meet with sincerity any honorable overtures of peace but would himself make no more.
Out of all the warlike talk and military prep- aration grew a conflict which also caused some excitement at the time and ended in a manner not sanguinary. Captain William Lewis, a vet- eran of the Indian war, had asserted that Alexan- der Cooper, who just then appeared in Hagerstown as Ensign of the "additional" army, was probably the same man whom the British had sent into the American camp near the Miami Town as a spy to bribe the American officers to desert. A violent
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newspaper warfare ensued. Cooper produced a certificate from Alex. Neill that he had been living in York at the time of General Wayne's campaign, and that Cooper had been there the entire time. Capt. Lewis sent a challenge to Cooper, and they went over the river and met just opposite Wil- liamsport. Cooper had the first shot, aimed at Lewis and missed, and then Lewis discharged his pistol in the air and a reconciliation took place.
The contest for Congress in 1798 was between John Baer, for re-election, and General Daniel Heister. The polls was held at the Court House and continued from October 1st to 4th, inclusive. Heister carried the county by a vote of 1,340 to 936, but Baer was elected in the distriet by a ma- jority of 511. There was a great rejoicing among the Republicans or Demoerats over this victory which they celebrated at General Heister's spring, a large number gathering at the Court House and marching to the spring where they were met hy four hundred others. Gen. Sprigg and Nathan- iel Rochester presided at the abundant feast. One of the toasts was "may our publie servants, in their ardor to avoid the 'Gallie snare,' never leap into the steel trap of Britain." Soon afterwards a barbecue was held at the same place in honor of the President.
In the last month of time eentury, a remark- able tragedy took place in the vicinity of Hagers- town. John Jacob Werner, an elderly man, tom- ahawked his wife and four children, and then committed suicide by cutting his throat with a razor. He entered the room where the children were sleeping, and after, as he supposed, killing them all, he enticed his wife into the room and gave her a blow with the Indian weapon, which fractured her skull. He then killed himself. His
mind was disturbed by a suit which was pending against him in the court. The wife and two of the ehildren recovered.
In a communication from the Rev. F. R. Ans- patch to the German Reformed Messenger, an- nouncing the death of the late Henry Shafer, of Funkstown, the following reminiscences are given in 1855:
"Mr. Shafer was born in Pa., Jan. 11th, 1766. He came to Washington County, Md., which was then called the Back-woods, four years before the Declaration of Independence. He settled in Funkstown (Jerusalemn,) in 1790, where he resided up to the period of his death. He was received into the German Reformed Church by Rev. Jacob Weimer, at Hagerstown. About the year 1797 he connected himself with the German Reformed Church at Funkstown. He was a member of the church council about half a century, and only withdrew fromn office in 1847 on account of the infirmities of age. He was indeed in more than one sense a pillar in that church.
I have heard him say that the beautiful lots of tall timber which are now seen in Washington County grew up during his lifetime. When he first came here, many acres now covered with tall oaks were overgrown with hazel bushes. The buildings of those days were of an humble charac- ter, and the Indian paths served as their roads .- Railroads, canals, telegraphs and other improve- ments which have done so much to advanee the country in all the elements of a high state of prosperity were brought into existence during his sojourn on earth. Flour made at his father's mill was transported to Fort Pitt, now Pittsburg, on pack-horses in half barrels. What a change in the condition of our country during one lifetime !"
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
CHAPTER VIII
OR A century after the first settlement of the Valley of the Antietam and the Conococheague, one event followed anoth- er to keep alive the military spirit of the people. For more than a generation there was a constant struggle for existence- a war against the Indians and the privations and hardships of a frontier life. Then came the great struggle with the Mother Country. After that the new member of the sisterhood of nations had to remain always upon the defensive and al- ways ready to resent the insults which were show- ered upon her, and it was only by the skin of the teeth that a war with France was escaped. The people of the county had just been called upon to surrender their arms to the State when another occasion arose for their use and they were again distributed. The great question which faced the early Congresses was how the revenues of the Gov- ernment should be raised. In solving this ques- tion serious internal complications and disturb- ances arose, and the new County of Washington was a portion of the theatre in which these dis- turbances took place and our own people took a prominent part not only in the disturbances them- selves, but in suppressing them. In 1791 the second Congress passed what is known as the "Ex- cise law," the very name by which it was called being hateful to a large portion of the American people. Whiskey was one of the staple produc- tions of Washington County and of all that coun- try near this latitude west of the Blue Ridge Moun- tains which had no facilities for the transportation of their grain to market. Wheat was ground into flour and carried in covered wagons to the seaport
towns at a heavy expense, but corn and rye, which were largely produced, were not of a sufficient value to justify this expensive method of trans- portation. They were therefore converted into whiskey and shipments of these crops were made in this less bulky form. And in those days of great scarcity of coins or currency of any kind, whiskey was largely used as a measure of value and an article of barter. A gallon of rye whiskey at the stores of the county and in Western Penn- sylvania was equivalent to a shilling. When there- fore Congress put a tax of from seven to eighteen cents a gallon on whiskey according to its strength or proof, or an alternative tax upon the still, it was regarded as an oppressive and tyrannical meas- ure. Western Pennsylvania was instantly in a ferment. The revenue collectors who came among them received the same treatment and even worse than had been visited upon the sellers of stamps twenty years before. Those who gave a collector shelter or countenance were tarred and feathered and left bound to trees ; those who gave information against the illicit distillers or moonshiners receiv- ed even worse treatment. Their property was de- stroyed by the torch and they might esteem them- selves fortunate if they escaped with their lives. Conventions of the "Whiskey Boys" were held and they had friends in Congress and in the Legisla- ture of every State. Governor Mifflin of Pennsyl- vania, appointed commissioners to treat with them and whilst he and his commissioners were 'treating,' the President of the United States issued his proc- lamation warning the insurgents to disperse and submit to the law and called for twelve thousand volunteers. The Whiskey Boys had sent their
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emissaries to the towns farther east and it is sup- posed some of them reached Hagerstown. Among the rabble of . the town, composed of men who could not read with facility and many of whom had perhaps never seen a newspaper in their lives, they found easy credence for their absurd tales. They assured these ignorant people that not only was whiskey taxed under the new and hateful excise law but wheat and rye at four pence per bushel and in Pittsburg even the children of the poor and rich alike had been taxed-each boy at its birth fifteen shillings and each girl ten. The columns of the Washington Spy, the only newspaper published west of the Blue Ridge Moun- tains, began in the early part of 1791 to give some indication of what was going on. In the issue of May 11 of that year it is announced that Henry Gaither has been appointed by the Governor com- mander of the levies now raising in the State for service against the Western Indians, viee Col. Rawlings, declined; and Captains Wm. Lewis and Benjamin Price were appointed to command two of the companies. From this time for four years Hagerstown was a camp and a recruiting station. Whilst in command of the levies in March 1794, Henry Gaither's house in Hagerstown was burnt down at night, and although he and his delieate wife escaped with their lives, they suffered intense- ly from the severe cold. Three months later he was relieved of his command-the Governor ap- pointing Moses Rawlings Brigadier General for Washington and Ailegany counties, with Thomas Sprigg, Rezin Davis and Wm. Van Lear Lieuten- ant Colonels for Washington County, and Josiah Price. Charles Carroll, William Fitzhugh, Adam Ott, Hanson Briscoe and Christian Orndorff ma- jors. Captains Lewis and Price were constantly in motion backward and forward from Hagers- town to points further to the West. May 11, 1791, Lewis advertises for recruits. "All able bodied young men who are willing to render their country service for six months, will have an opportunity to see a new country, free of expense, by applying at drum head in Hagerstown, where they shall have their bounty, clothing, and be taken into pay and kindly received." The pay into which they were taken was right dollars a month. The new country which Lewis promised they should see was the thick, impenetrable forests and the fever breeding swamps which bordered the Mau-
mec river. For in the midst of the exeitement occasioned by the exeise law the campaign against the Indians in the Northwest which resulted in the disgraceful defeat of General St. Clair, was undertaken and put an end to the enforcement of the laws of Congress until the Indians had been finally subjugated. By June two hundred re- eruits had been gathered and on the twelfth of that month Captain Lewis and Captain Price marehed for the scene of the war. If this little detachment saw this new country it is probable that only a few of them ever saw their own beau- tiful land again. Two weeks later another com- pany of soldiers under the command of Captain Carberry marched through the town to Pittsburg to defend the frontiers from the Indians. The next year, April 1792, Captain Lewis was baek again in Hagerstown gathering reeruits and of- fering a bounty of eight dollars a month for able- bodied young men. On the tenth of July Captain Price who had gone further east for soldiers, marched into the town on his way to Pittsburg, and here received his instructions from Captain Carberry of the United States Army who compli- mented him upon the appearance of his men and assured him that they would be inferior to none in the army he was about to join. This detaeh- ment was followed on the fifth of November by a larger body of recruits under the command of Captain Carberry and which joined the body rais- ed by Captains Lewis and Stephenson which was already in Hagerstown. In Stevenson Company Ensign Whistler, a soldier in the army which Burgoyne surrendered and who has been already mentioned in these pages, was engaged. He was still an Ensign but shortly afterwards received his promotion. The troops arrived in Hagerstown on Monday and left the same week. On Tuesday they delighted the people of the town by a "lively representation of a fight between regulars and savages, Captain Lewis commanding the former and Stevenson the latter. each of whom with his respective subalterns, (Lientenant Smith and En- sign Whistler ) displayed the different eharaeters with dexterity and address -- both parties adhering to the signals of that old and well tried veteran Captain Carberry, whose tactical adroitness ex- coeds most officers of his rank. Eye witnesses thought the Indian mode of warfare gave them the advantage over regulars."* During Captain
*Washington Spy Nov. 7, 1792.
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
Carberry's stay in Hagerstown he was married on the 9th of November to the "amiable Miss Sybila Schnertzell of Frederick County."
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The early part of 1793 Captain Lewis spent in Hagerstown which was his home. Some person ventured to criticise him for remaining inactive for so long a time and expressed the opin- ion that he should be at headquarters. To this in accordance with the custom of the time the Captain replied through the newspaper and in no measured ternis. He informs his critic that he has no orders to move and that he, the critic, does not understand the importance of his duties in Hagerstown and concludes by advising him to mind his own business and not to meddle in mat- ters beyond his comprehension. In June 1793 Whistler who was now a Lieutenant in the 1st Sub Legion U. S. Army, received orders to go to Hagerstown to raise recruits. He was in the town engaged in this business and in drilling his men until October when he marched for the west with a detachment composed almost entirely of Hagers- town men. He maintained the strictest discipline among his recruits, whilst in the town and receiv- ed hearty commendation from the citizens on that account. During all this period of military occu- pation the soldiers had been fed by citizens of the town upon contracts awarded to the lowest bidder. A soldier's ration consisted of one pound of bread or flour, one pound of beef or three quar- ters of a pound of pork and a half gill of spirits, rum, brandy or whiskey. With each hundred rations went one quart of salt, five quarts of vine- gar, two pounds of soap and one pound of candles. During Captain Lewis' absence in 1794, Freder- ick Rolirer warns him by an advertisement in the Spy that if his ground rent is not shortly paid his two lots will be sold to satisfy the same. In May 1794 Rezin Davis requested all who wished to join a troop of horse which was then being formed, to leave their names at his store. Among those who marched to the Indian war in 1794 was Robert Elliott, of Hagerstown. He was mortally wound- ed on the bank of the Miami and desired his servant to leave him and save himself. This the faithful fellow did with great reluctance but the next day he returned for his master's body and was himself killed. Elliott was the father of Commo- dore Elliott famous in the battle of Lake Erie. During the summer of this year the excitement over the excise law was revived and the first indica- tion of it was a violent controversy in the news-
paper. "A Lover of Order" wrote a long letter to the editor severely censuring the whiskey rioters and justifying the excise law. He was immediately set upon by a number of writers with all the fe- rocity and volubility at their command. One signing himself "Republican" deplores the degen- eracy of America, once the home of the free and calls upon his Country in tragic tones to blush for that degeneracy. The next issue "A Lover of the Genunine Stuff" makes an assault upon "A Lover of Order" and advises him to double distil his article. To both of these the Lover of Order replies in a tone unbecoming to his assum- ed title and the controversy is closed for the time by "Pacificator." One article the printer declines to publish as being too inflammatory. On the 20th of August the President's Proclamation warn- ing the rioters to submit to the law was published in Hagerstown and the following week Captains Daniel Stull, Robert Douglas, John Geiger, John Lee and Casper Shaffner called upon their respec- tive companies to assemble at the Court House and Captain Jacob Schnebley calls for volunteers to form a company of light horse. The next week "an old subscriber," .(the Spy was only about three years old) from South Mountain, published a letter violently denouncing the excise law. Along the base of South Mountain it is probable there was at that time a great number of small stills, for in that portion of the County the resistence to the law was more determined. An organized body of men armed themselves and proceeded towards Frederick town with the avowed determination to attack the town and to take possession of the mag- azines there deposited. Frederick had already been notified by messengers from Hagerstown of the meditated attack, but as there were five hun- dred enlisted men in the town and a large number of the Baltimore militia within easy reach, no fear was felt nor was there any occasion for ap- prehension for the attack was not made. At the first outbreak of the disturbances messengers were dispatched to Annapolis and the Governor of the State hastened to the scene of the disturbances. He arrived in Hagerstown on Saturday and re- mained over Sunday, returning to Annapolis on Monday. A number of men from each of the com- panies of militia had been drafted into a body to be sent to Western Pennsylvania to join the army which was moving forward to quell the disturb- ances there. This draft was the occasion of a riot in Hagerstown which was confined to what
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was called the rabble of the town, but it grew to large and formidable proportions. It soon ap- peared that the object of the mob was not entirely bound up in the present excitement but that ad- vantage would be taken of the occasion to take vengeance upon any respectable citizen against whom any one of the rioters had a private grudge. It was well known that animosity was felt against certain of the leading citizens of the town. Two days before the rioting began John Thompson Mason had made an eloquent and powerful speech to the people explaining the excise law and exhort- ing them to maintain order and observe the law but nothing but force could restrain their madness. In imitation of the French Revolutionists it had become the fashion among the whiskey boys to erect liberty poles. The Hagerstown mob accord- ingly planted one in the Market House. Cols. Sprigg and Shryock and Major Price went among them and remonstrated with them at the risk of their lives, but could produce no impression. Shortly afterwards the pole disappeared. It was thoughit at the time that one of the rabble who erected it had cut it down in order to give the mob occasion to do violence to certain prominent gentlemen namely, Adam Ott, the sheriff; Henry Shryoek, Rezin Davis, Wm. Lee, Benj. Clagett, Nathaniel Rochester and Josiah Price, whom they held in especial detestation. They therefore put up a handbill in the Market House, written in the German language, ordering these gentlemen by name to put un another Liberty pole without delay upon pain of being put to death. This threat was "Valiantly Despised" by these gentlemen. But by this time things had gotten in such an uproar that the orderly citizens of the town armed themselves and patrolled the streets and mounted guard and sent detachments into the country to arrest rioters. In this restoration of order Captain Lee and Cap- tain Schnebley took a prominent and honorable part. At this time General Bailey arrived at the head of three hundred and twenty troops, seventy of them being mounted. They immedi- ately joined themselves to the citizens and assisted in restoring order and a great many arrests were made. They found there was no further occasion for thein and after a few days they returned home. Just as they left, two hundred men under Major Lynn bound for the western country, arrived in town. They were halted here and directed to re- main until further orders and the veteran Major Ott took command of them. The spirit of the
rioters which was probably of that ephemeral kind which is inspired by whiskey fresh from the stills, was now completely broken and they tamely sur- rendered whenever called upon. A party of five cavalrymen captured a party of sixteen who offered no resistence whatever. They just now began to appreciate the serious trouble in which they liad become involved and begged hard for mercy and plead ignorance as their excuse. Judge Craik and some of the magistrates investigated a number of charges and held many of the rioters for bail. During this time Adamn Ott was sheriff of the County. He had been an officer in the Revolution- ary Army and made good use of his military train- ing during these times. For many years he lived in the house at the northeast corner of Franklin and Potomac street opposite the present Market House. During the whiskey insurrection he im- prisoned those whom he arrested, within its walls. This old house was one of the first erected within this town and stood until May 1870 when it was demolished to make room for the Hoover House. Thus ended the whiskey insurrection. And it is as much due to the firmness and wisdom of Presi- dent Washington as to his humanity that he was able to quell this formidable insurrection without bloodslied. On the way to join the troops which had assembled at Cumberland, Washington had a second time since becoming President, honored Washington County with his presence. On the thirteenth of October 1794, he arrived at Wil- liamsport "in good health. His presence made every heart rejoice and beat high with affection and gratitude."That night every window in the town was illuminated. Early in the morning he proceeded to Cumberland.
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