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 21
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About this time, while the soldiers were quer- tered in Hagerstown, there seemed to be no end of publie excitements and alarms. About the Gret of October 1793 a public meeting was called in Hagerstown to adopt measures for protection from the infectious fever then prevailing in Philadel- phia. The measures adopted for safety call to mind the scenes described in the Journal of the great plague in London. All the towns and com- munities which had intercourse with Philadelphia were filled with alarm. Nor were their fcars ill founded, for in the last days of July a strange disease of a most dreadful and deadly character, now known as yellow fever, had begun to spread in Philadelphia. A fever would set in with pain in the head and loins. On the fourth day the
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whites of their eyes turned yellow, blood ran from the nose, the patient vomited profusely a black vomit, the body become of a yellowish-purple color and on the eighth day he would die .* But it was more likely that the physicians would not let him live until the eighth day, for at the appcar- ance of the very first symptom blood letting was begun and kept up without intermission until the patient would die from exhaustion. Deaths took place all the time. The constant ringing of church bells and the funeral trains became so depressing to the sick that it had to be prohibited and bodies were buried silently at dead of night. All who could procure means to leave the city fled and it was to prevent infection from this army of refu- gees that precautions were taken and quarantines established in all the towns within two hundred miles of Philadelphia. Baltimore was greatly alarmed not only on account of infection from Philadelphia but because a shipload of refugees from San Domingo had landed at her wharves and many supposed that it was refugees from that island who had brought the infection to Philadei- phia. So the Governor of the State issued a proclamation and all means which suggested them- selves were tried to secure the public safety. The public meeting in Hagerstown was presided over by Col. Henry Shryock. Doctors Samuel Young, Peter Woltz, Richard Pindell and Jacob Schnebly were appointed health officers. Thomas Hart, William Lce, George Shall, Rczin Davis, John Geiger, George Woltz,Levy Andrew, Levy, Jacob and David Harry and William Reynolds were constitut- ed a commitice. No person who came from Phul- adelphia or who was suspected of coming from there was allowed to be received into any family or indeed to come into the town. In order to keep them out, a large number of citizens enlisted and formed themselves into a patrol to guard every road and avenue by which the town might be reached and all persons suspected of coming from the scene of the plague were ruthlessly driven off. Clothing and supplies which were sent from East- ern Pennsylvania for the troops gathered in Hag- erstown were not permitted upon any account to be received. Nor indeed were fears of an infectious disease without good cause. But the committee of safety might have turned their attention to matters within the town limits as well as without. For at this very time the streets had gotten into
such a desperate condition-so filled with filth and impeded by piling earth at different heights, that even those on horse back rode on the sidewalk. In February 1793 the town authorities were compelled to obtain power from the Legislature by an amend- ment to the charter, to prohibit horses from being taken on the sidewalks, to compel the removal of nuisances at the cost of the guilty persons, to pre- vent the firing of guns and pistols, which had be- come a source of great danger to the public. One young lady about this time, while horseback riding through the streets had her horse frightened by the firing of pistols at a gunsmiths and she was killed. The same ordinance imposed a fine of seven shillings and six pence for allowing chim- neys to take fire and burn out at the top. This was a constant source of danger. Wood was the only fuel and most of the buildings and all of the roofs of the town were of wood and hence a chim- ney on fire was only to be prevented by the ent- ployment of a chimney sweep. From the year 1:90 down for a long time Col. Thomas Hart kept a little negro boy named "Dick" for this ser- vice. He was sent around the town once in every six weeks to offer his service to the citizens to sweep their chimneys. If a person was not ready to employ him on the day he came, he was com- pelled to wait six weeks until his turn came again. The frequent fires which were generally the result of carelessness or of foul chimneys, were apt to be attributed then as now to incendiarism. On Octo- ber 1790 a portion of the roof of Col. Stull's house and of the upper floor-the same house which was taken down by Mr. Wm. Hager, not many years ago-was burned, and a few nights later his barn, filled with grain was burned at midnight, it was at once "supposed to have been set on fire by some enemy to inankind and monster to society."
Up to this time there had been no organized fire company and the efforts to extinguish fires be- ing such as are now resorted to in the country. The neighbors gathered around and offered such help with as many buckets and tubs as they could lay hands on, the women frequently doing the most efficient service. A public meeting was called for New Year's day 1791 for the purpose of organiz- ing a regular fire company "when all who chuse to have their buckets insured will please produce them in order that they may be inspected and
*McMaster's History.
.
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
registered." At this meeting the United Fire Com- pany, was formed. It continued to exist until 1814. It held almost weekly meetings and did good service to the town.
Amidst the excitement of military move- ments, the whiskey insurrection and the Indian war, a man died in the city of London, on the 24th of December 1:92, who had made himself immor- tal in American history and whose chief achieve- ment took place within the limits of Washington County. The Washington Spy of March 15, 1793 contained this brief notice: Mr. Rumsey, of this State, who has distinguished himself by several useful mechanical inventions, and latterly applied to propelling vessels by the force of steam, died on the 24th of December last, in London in a sudden manner." James Rumsey who receives this brief obituary from the newspaper of the County where he had distinguished himself was born in Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, Maryland in 1:43. He learned the trade of machinist and became a millwright, making many valuable im- provements in the machinery used in mills. At the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War be enlisted in the Continental Army, and it is probable, served with credit and came under the personal observation of Washington for soon after the organization of the Potomac Company, he was appointed superintendent on that work by Wash- ington. It was this work and General Washing- ton's deep anxiety to improve navigation that gave an impetus to his desire for the application of steam to propelling boats. The idea of this appli- cation occurred to him some time before it took shape, for in his petition to the Maryland Legis- lature, which was received by that body and read on November 11th, 1784, he there says that he has been for several years engaged in perfecting a plan for moving boats by the power of steam. At that time there was not a steam engine in America. One of the old Newcomer atmospheric engines had been brought from England to work a copper mine in New York, but long before this it had been cast aside. Watts' improvement was not then known this side the Atlantic. After the close of the war Rumsey was engaged in mercantile busi- ness at Bath in what is now Morgan County, W. Va., in partnership with Nicholas Orrick, but during this time he left the store to Orrick while he de- voted his time to experimenting in steamers on the Potomac at Sir John's Run. In the summer of 1284 he exhibited a working model of his boat
to Washington wlio gave him a certificate of his approval of the plan. In the same year he peti- tioned the Legislatures of Maryland and Virginia for the protection he was entitled to for his inven- tion. Virginia passed an Act in October 1784 and Maryland in January 1785 giving him the exclusive right of navigating their rivers "with his newly invented steam boats." The former State in her act, reserved the privilege of pur- chasing the right conferred for £10,000. In Octo- ber 1184, he succeeded in a private but very im- perfect experiment, to test some of the principles of his invention at the mouth of Sir John's Run. The boat used on this occasion was about six tons burden. The machinery was made by the country blacksmiths under Rumsey's supervision. The boiler was a pot-ash kettle with a cover fasten- ed down with bolts, rivets and hard solder. The experiment was made after night and the boat steamed up against the current at the rate of three miles an hour. It contained Rumsey, his partner, Orrick and his brother-in-law, Mr. Barnes. Subsequently he built two other boats of consid- erable size, one in 1785 and the other in the fol- lowing year. The first was washed away by a freshet and the other one wrecked by ice.
But the boat upon which Rumsey's fame rests was built or partly built and first exhibited in Washington County. The greater part of the machinery was made at the Antietam Iron Works, the smelting furnace at the mouth of Antietam creek, in Washington County, which was built be- fore the war of the Revolution and with the excep- tion of occasional suspensions during periods of business depression, was in operation down to 1877. The remainder of the work was done in Shepherds- town, Rumsey himself making the tubes of the boiler by twisting gun barrels around a horse collar block at a saddler's shop. On the 7th and 11th of December, 1185, he made a public trial at Shepherdstown, and succeeded in propelling his boat by steam alone, at the rate of four miles an hour, against the current of the Potomac.
Among those on board, or on the river bank as spectators of this trial trip, were Generals Gates, Stephens and Darke, Mr. Berlinger, Dr. Alexander, of Baltimore, Mr. Kearsley, Mrs. Ann Baker, and hundreds of others. As the little rude structure darted out into mid stream, and then shot up the river, General Horatio Gates, who stood upon the shore, next to Major Henry Bedinger, took off his hat and exclaimed in reverent tones, "My God!
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
she moves, she moves !" After this satisfactory exhibiton Rumscy published a pamphlet containing certificates of those who witnessed it. This pamphlet is reprinted in the U. S. Patent Ofnee report for 1849-50. A part of the original pro- pelling apparatus was seeured by Hon. Alexander R. Boteler and placed in the patent office at Washington for preservation. It is now in the National Museum. The place where this famous trial was made is a spot of romantic beauty. There is a long stretch of the Potomac just below
the old town of Shepherdstown, where the water is decp and placid, reflecting upon its calm and peaceful bosom lofty cliffs of limestone rock which constitute its southern margin. This beautiful sheet of .water is now spanned by the Norfolk & Western railroad bridge. A mile below the town at the eastern end of the stretch of deep water in which Rumsey's boat floated is the "Pack Ilorse ford" where there has always been a ford, back in Indian times and then for caravans of pack horses carrying salt, &c. to the settlers. The road stretch- ed aeross Elk Ridge and passed over South Moun- tain by Crampton's Gap to Frederick. During the war soldiers constantly crossed and recrossed this ford and by it Lee's Army retreated to Virginia after the battle of Antietam. Over the high cliffs just referred to a detachment of Federal troops was swept by a body of Confederates retreat- ing from Antietam and drowned in the river below.
Rumsey's boat was about eighty feet long and was propelled by a steam engine, which worked a vertical pump in the middle of the vessel, by which the water was drawn in at the bow, and ex- pelled at the stern through a horizontal trunk in her bottom. The reaction of the effluent water carried her at the rate of four miles an hour when loaded with three tons, in addition to the weight of her engine, of about one-third of a ton. The boiler held no more than five gallons of water, and needed only a pint of water at a time; and the whole machinery did not oceupy a spaee greater
than that required for four barrels of flour. It seems that he and Dr. Franklin entertained simi- lar ideas about the same time. Mr. Rumsey went to England to put a vessel afloat on the Thames and died there in 1793 .*
General Washington was always favorably impressed with the practieability of this invention, as developed to him by Rumsey, and did much to encourage him. In a letter to Hugh Williamson, M. C., dated at Mount Vernon, March 15, 1785, Washington says in alluding to Rumsey's boat : "If a model of a thing in miniature is a just rep- resentation of a greater object in practice, there is no doubt of the utility of the invention. A view of his model, with the explanation, removed the principal doubt I ever had of the practieability of propelling against a stream by the aid of me- chanical power ; but as he wanted to avail himself of my introduction of it to the publie attention, I chose, previously, to see the actual performance of the model in a descending stream, before I passed my certificate, and having done so, all my doubts are satisfied."
While at Shepherdstown, Mr. Rumsey dwelt in a small log house, which stood near the town jail, in the outskirts of the village. He was sup- plied with funds for his undertaking by his broth- er-in-law, Charles Morrow, which proved the ruin of the latter. Mr. Rumsey's craft was called "the flying boat," by the town's people, and they gave him the name of "erazy Rumsey."
After the experiment before alluded to, Rum- sey being under the strong conviction that skilled workmen and perfect machinery were alone want- ing to insure perfect success, went to Philadelphia and the "Rumseyan Society" was formed, during the following year. of which Benjamin Franklin was president, and money was raised to send Rumsey to Europe. IIe went to London, and built a steamer to be cxhibited on the Thames, seeuring patents from the British government for steam navigation, bearing date in the begin- ning of the year 1788. Several of his inventions,
*Reigart's Life of R. Fulton.
*"October 9, 1784.
By the following certificate it will appear, that our beloved General, in his retreat from the Glories of the Field, still continues to encourage, and pay attention to, such undertakings as are pregnant with great utility to his country. Mr. James Rumsey (late of Baltimore) having been happy in a mechanic dis- covery, could not, for some time, impress his fellow-
citizens with an idea of its practicability; but, by a laudable perseverance, he hath at length obtained, not only the approbation of General Washington, but of General Wood, the Honourable Mr. Randolph of the Council, Doctor Craig, and several members of the Legislature of this State, and other Gentlemen of character and distinction; so that he may now expect a reward from his grateful country, that may, in some measure, compensate him for his ingenuity .- Virginia Argus.
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
in one modified form or another, were afterwards in general use; as, for instance, the cylindrical boiler (which was found much superior to their old tub or still-boilers. in the presentation of fire surface, and capacity of holding rarified steam), is described both single and combined, in his specifications, and is identical in principle with the one used in his Potomac experiment.
He was attended in England with the difficul- ties and embarrassments of pecuniary nature which so often have obstructed the progress of the inventor. He was frequently obliged to abandon his main object and turn his attention to other labors in order to obtain means to resume it. Thus he struggled on, undismayed, until he had constructed a boat of about 100 tons burden, and pushed it forward so near to completion that he fixed a day on which to give a public exhibition. This was not accomplished without transferring, at a ruinous sacrifice, a large interest in his inven- tions, to enable him to raise funds to eseape being incarcerated in a debtor's prison. Notwith- standing this sacrifice and his extraor- dinary efforts. his boat was seized by his un- sympathizing creditors, and he was not allowed to loose it from its moorings. but only permitted to show bow its machinery would work. While work- ing on his boat in London, he met Brissot de Warville, who mentions Rumsey in his book "New Travels in America,' as building a boat to go by steam and being so sanguine of the suceess of his invention as to believe he would be able to cross the Atlantie in fifteen days. Rumsey was also thrown mueh with Robert Fulton while in London. In one letter he says that he was threat- ened with the horrors of a London jail and was made the subject of play house wit.
Some, however, were found to sympathize with him in his distress, who were also intelligent enough to appreciate some of the merits of the invention. These urged him to deliver a lecture in order to raise funds, and interest the public in his behalf, to which he consented. The evening came and with it, to his astonishment and von- sternation. he found himself confronted with an audience which filled the house to overflowing, and was composd of the elite of learning, fashion and beauty of London. He was overwhelmed and em- barrassed at this unlooked-for token of interest, and his revulsion of feeling was intense and over
powering. He arose under these circumstances, to deliver the first (as well as the last) lecture of his life, and whilst he was arranging his notes his agitation was observed by a gentleman, who hand- ed him a glass of water. He uttered a few inco- herent words, when it was seen that his face became suddenly suffused and that he elutched at the table before him for support. His friends sprang for- ward and caught him in their arms as he fell in an apoplectic fit. The next day he died-another martyr to the cause of human progress. Some time after his death (in 1793), the boat which he had constructed was set in motion on the Thames. Robert Fulton (the reputed inventor of steam navigation) was with Rumsey in London; was associated with him at the time of his death; and the next year he applied for the right of protection for a boat to be propelled by steam. Chancellor Livingston, afterward minister to France, has the credit of finally bringing out the steamboat on the Hudson, from the drafts fur- nished by Robert Fulton, who knew little of ine- ehanical principles at the time, except what was taught him by the inventive genius of James Rumsey.
In 1839, Congress voted to James Rumsey's only surviving child a gold medal, commemor- ative of the father's agency in giving to the world the benefit of the steamboat .*
The Hon. Alexander R. Boteler, of Shepherds- town, who died in 1892, furnished many of the facts recited in this sketeh. He became deeply con- cerned in the project of doing tardy justice to the memory of Rumsey. He desired to erect a monu- ment to him upon the high cliffs overlook- ing the scene of his great triumph, and urged the legislature of West Virginia to make an ap- propriation for this purpose. Acting with him was the Hon. Daniel Bedinger Lucas, of Charles- town, W. Va., a grandson of Daniel Bedinger who stood on the bank and watched the little craft plow its way through the waters of the Potomac. These efforts bore fruit in an appropri- ation for a monument to Rumsey, to be placed at Shepherdstown, made by the Legislature of West Virginia in 1905 upon the recommendation of Governor A. B. White, of that State.
From a letter from Shepherdstown, W. Va., published in the Baltimore American April 2, 1905, the following extracts are taken :
*Shepherdstown Register.
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
The history of Rumsey's early life is one of hardship, privation and unremitting labor, through all of which he bore himself with that patience, determination and unswerving purpose which was the inheritance of his Scottish blood. His great- grandfather, Charles Rumsey, emigrated to America from Wales in 1665, and settled near the head waters of Bohemia River, in Cecil County, Md. His grandfather, Edward Rumsey, born in 1703, was the youngest of eight children, and married at a very early age a lady named Doug- las, of Seoteh lineage. The eldest son of this union, Edward Rumsey, Jr., was the father of Jas. Rumsey, who was the second of three sons.
The exact date of James Rumsey's birth has never been definitely settled, but is given upon reliable authority as March, 1743. His mother before marriage was Miss Anna Cowman, of Mary- land. His birthplace was Bohemian Manor, in Ceeil County.
Much of the early manhood of Rumsey is elouded in obscurity, but he emerged at the age of 33 years to volunteer for service in the Revolu- tionary War, in which he attraeted the attention of Major Henry Bedinger, who formed an attach- ment for the young man which lasted until the latter's death. Rumsey served throughout the War for Independence, and in 1783 removed to Bath, Berkeley County, Va., now Berkeley Springs, Morgan County, W. Va. Here he engaged in the mercantile business, having as a partner a Virgin- ian, Nieholas Orriek. Becoming dissatisfied with this business, he disposed of his interest, and then associated himself with Robert Throgmorton in eondueting an inn for visitors who eame to take the famous mineral baths. It was while at Bath that Rumsey formed the aequaintanee of George Washington, who was a frequent visitor, and who was impressed with the mechanical knowledge dis- played by Rumsey.
So great was the interest displayed in the plans of Rumsey by General Washington that in September, 1784, Rumsey exhibited to the General a working model of his boat, when Washington next visited the springs, and the following indorse- ment of the invention was penned at the time by him :
"I have seen the model of Rumsey's boat, constructed to work against the stream; examined the powers upon which it aets; been eye-witness to an actual experiment in running water of some rapidity, and give it as my opinion (although I
had little faith before) that he has discovered the art of working boats by meehanism and small manual assistance against rapid currents.
"That the discovery is of vast importanee, may be of the greatest usefulness in our inland anviga- tion, and if it succeeds (of which I have no doubt) the value of it is greatly enhanced by the sim- plieity of the works which, when seen and exam- ined, may be executed by the most common me- ehanic.
"Given under my hand at the town of Bath, county of Berkeley, in the State of Virgina, this 7th day of September, 1784.
"GEORGE WASHINGTON."
That Rumsey had been working upon his in- vention for several years previous to the time he exhibited the model to General Washington ap- pears from a petition to the General Assembly of Maryland, in 1783, which is on file at Annapolis, and in which it is set forth that he had been for several years prior thereto "engaged with unre- mitting attention in perfeeling an engine for pro- pelling boats on the water by power of steam." The number of engines mentioned by him in this petition shows the scope and range of his early mechanical conceptions. Rumsey also addressed a similar petition to the General Assembly of Vir- ginia, and the following year (1784) both assem- blies passed acts investing him with the exclusive riglit to make and sell the invention in those states until the year 1794, fixing penalties for a violation of these rights.
In a letter written at Mount Vernon, March 15, 1786, to Hon. Hugh Williamson, a member of Congress, General Washington said :
"Mr. McMeehen's explanation of the move- ments of Rumsey's boat is consonant to my ideas and warranted by the principle upon which it acts. The small manual assistance, to which I alluded, was to be applied in still water and to the steerage. The counter action being proportioned to the ac- tion, it must ascend a swift current faster than a gentle stream, and with more ease than it can move through dead water. But in the first there may be, and no doubt is, a point beyond which it eannot go without involving difficulties which may be found insurmountable. Further than this I am not at liberty to explain myself; but if a model, or thing in miniature, is a just representa- tion of a greater objeet in practice, there is no doubt of the utility of the invention. A view of this model, with the explanation, removed the prin-
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