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 23
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
and sixty-nine; the fourth, Williams thirty-seven, Kershner two hundred and nine; the fifth, Wil- liams one hundred and thirty-five, Kershner thirty- threc.
In due course of time it was known that John Adams had been defeated, but no one was elected. Under the system of electing President and Vice-President, the one receiving the highest number of votes was President and the next highest, Vice-President. Jefferson and Aaron Burr, fun- ning on the same ticket, although it was well un- derstood that the people had voted for the latter with the intention of making him Vice-President, he received the same number of votes with Jeffer- son. The election therefore went into the House of Representatives, and after a great number of fruitless ballots Jefferson was finally elected, in accordance with the intention and wishes of the people. When this news reached Hagerstown, there was great joy among the Republicans. Na- thaniel Rochester, the secretary of the Republican committee, published a call for the citizens of the County to assemble in Hagerstown on March 11, 1802, to rejoice over the result. The committee, learning that many Federalists would be deterred from attending by the fear that they might be insulted by the jubilant Democrats assured them that all who came would be wel- eomed, and that the main object of the meeting was to restore peace and harmony. Those who responded to the call, came to the Court House and formed the procession which marched to Rohrer's Hill, were estimated at not less than two thousand. The committee had not only pre- pared a bountiful dinner for all these but had enough whiskey for them to drink sixteen toasts. The best and most friendly spirit animated the assembly and when the people dispersed they were in good humor with themselves and all the rest. The rejoicing extended even within the walls of the county jail. The unfortunate debtors there confined found means to drink sixteen toasts, not omitting one to "A speedy releasement to the op- pressed prisoners of the United States."
An election for Congressman was held in April, 1801. The candidates were General Heis- ter and Eli Williams. The former was elected by a majority of six hundred and thirty-six in the three western counties, which constituted the dis- trict. Washington County gave him a majority of three hundred and four. Following the elee- tion, Albert Gallatin, the new Secretary of the
Treasury, arrived with his family in Hagerstown on his way to Washington. He remained in the town all night. The previous summer the town was honored by a visit from the Secretary of State, John Marshall, shortly afterwards appoint- ed Chief Justice of the United States.
About the same time, the curious had a sight of several parties of distinguished Indians, who passed through the town on the way to and from Washington. In January, 1802, came Little Tur- tle, the chief of the Miami's, accompanied by four other chiefs, in charge of Captain Wells. The next week came a party of thirteen Shawnees and Delawares, and later, the celebrated chief "Corn- planter," and fifteen Senecas. In May, 1800, the tentli regiment of U. S. troops passed through the town going from Carlisle to Harper's Ferry. They remained in the town about half a day-long enough for a duel between Captain Gibbs and Lieutenant Franklin. Captain Gibbs was wound- ed in his side, painfully, but not dangerously. This appears to have been a fighting regiment, for only a week or two after their arrival at Har- per's Ferry there was another duel between two of the officers. Lieutenant Swan came upon pa- rade without his uniform, and for this offence was placed under arrest by Lieutenant Elliott and upon the first opportunity challenged him for the affront. Swan received a ball in his thigh and fell to the ground, but when his opponent eame up and asked whether he was seriously wounded, he was ordered back to his position by the wounded man who claimed his right to shoot. But he could not stand upon his feet to deliver his shot and so fired in a sitting position. His bullet penetrated Elliott's breast, and came out at the shoulder, inflicting a severe, but not mortal wound. A worse act of violence took place at Beaver Creek about this time, November, 1801. James Manuel asked some of his neighbors to come to his house. He thought his wife was dying. Upon arriving at the house, the neighbors who responded to his request witnessed a horrible and ghastly sight. The woman was cold and stiff and her head in a pool of blood from a fractured skull. Manuel was at once suspected of the mur- der and he and his son were given into the custody of the sheriff.
The sheriff that year was Jacob Schnebley, and the Chief Judge was William Craik. Before him was Chief Justice Richard Potts with Thomas Sprigg and Henry Shryoek, associate justices, in
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1791. The Justices of the Peace of the County, presided over by the Chief Justice, constituted the County Court. Judge Craik's circuit comprised the counties of Frederick, Montgomery, Washing- ton and Allegany. William Craik was a native of Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland. His father was Dr. James Craik, a surgeon of the Rev- olutionary Army and a member of Washington's military household. He had removed from Port Tobacco to Alexandria. William Craik either did not go to Alexandria with his father, or had moved back to Maryland some time before this date. Upon his appointment to the bench, he went to Frederick to live. In February, 1802, he was succeeded in office by Judge William Clagett. At the same time Ignatius Taylor, Eli Williams and Jacob Ilarry were appointed judges of the Or- phans' Court, and Thomas Sprigg, Samuel Ring- gold, Adam Ott, Richard Cromwell, John Good, Charles Carroll and William Yates were appointed justices of the Levy Court. In April, 1800, Eli Williams, who had been clerk of the Circuit Court from the formation of the County, resigned the office and the Justices of the Count appointed his son, Otho Holland Williams, to fill the office, a position he held for forty years.
The County lost several prominent citizens during the first two years of the century. In June, 1800, John Barnes died of gout on the magnificent plantation known as "Montpelier," then written "Mount Pelier." This estate is sit- uated near Clearspring, about eleven miles from Hagerstown, in one of the most fertile and beauti- ful portions of the County. Its value at the time of Mr. Barnes' death was estimated at three hundred thousand dollars. John Thompson Mason, who inherited this estate, was a young practitioner at the Bar, after the County was organized and was, when Jefferson was elected President, one of the most brilliant men of his time. It is said that Jefferson visited him at Montpelier. Hle offered to him the position of Attorney General. John Thompson Mason died at Montpelier Dec. 10, 1824, aged 60 years. Mr. Mason came to Washington County from Fauquier County, Vir- ginia. Mrs. Mary Ball Washington, mother of General Washington, was a visitor at his house when she died. Mr. Mason wrote to Gen. Washing- ton apprising him of his mother's death. His descendants have Washington's letter replying to this notification. They also have the letter to Mr. Mason from Jefferson, urging him to take the
office of Attorney General, and reproaching him for his persistence in refusing to use his brilliant abilities in the service of his country. In July, 1806, Mr. Mason was induced to accept the ap- pointment of Attorney-General of Maryland to succeed William Pinkney but he resigned in a few months. One of the daughters of Mr. Mason mar- ried Dr, John O. Wharton, son of Jesse Wharton, U. S. Senator from Tennessee. Hle met Miss Mason while studying medicine in Baltimore. They went to Tennessee to live, but in a year re- turned to Maryland, and resided on a portion of the Montpelier estate. They were the parents of Col. Jack Wharton, of New Orleans, of Wm. Wharton and of Mrs. Richard H. Alvey, the first wife of Chief Justice Alvey. Dr. Wharton was the founder of the Maryland Agricultural Col- lege. He was collector of the Port of Baltimore under Franklin Pierce, and was for many years prominent in Washington County politics. He died in Louisiana, May 8, 1875.
Captain Richard Davis died in Hagerstown July 26, 1801. He was a soldier of the Revolu- tion and had a highly honorable career. He as- sisted Captain Michael Cressap in recruiting his celebrated troop of riflemen, and marched as a lieutenant under Cressap, from Hagerstown to Boston, in 1775, to join Washington. Captain Davis was taken prisoner by the British at Fort Washington. He maintained the reputation of a brave soldier and an honorable man. His dust is entombed in the old Episcopal graveyard in Hagerstown where he was buried with the honors of war.
In December. 1800, Alexander Neill, the first of his family in Washington County and the progenitor of four generations of Alexander Neills, was married, according to the account published at the time, to the "amiable Miss Sally Owen." Alexander Neill lived in York, Pa., in 1794 and shortly afterwards removed to Hagerstown, where his descendants have occupied high positions to the present time. At one time he filled the posi- tion of sheriff of Washington County. His son, Alexander Neill, Jr., was a prominent member of the Hagerstown Bar for many years, and married Miss Nelson, of Frederick. Of this couple the present Alexander Neill, now a leading lawyer, is a son. He married Miss Ella Loughridge, the daughter of the inventor of the air-brake and their son, Alexander, is the fourth generation.
The political campaign of 1801 was the elec-
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
tion of members of the Assembly and of Electors of the State Senators. For the latter office Dr. Hen- ry Schnebley and Samuel Ringgold were chosen. This election took place in September. The con- test was between the friends of Jefferson and the Federalists. The former had a decided majority and the Federalists made no nominations. But the week befor the election the Republicans receiv- ed information that their opponents proposed to trick them. Nathaniel Rochester, Benjamin Gal- loway and Charles Carroll, of the Republican coin- inittee, warned their friends to come to the polls, as it was the intention of the Federalists to pre- tend that they were going to make no opposition, with the design of keeping the Republicans from the polls ; whereas it was their intention to nomi- nate candidates at the last moment, and turn out in full force to elect them. If this design was entertained, it was not carried out, for the seven candidates were all Jeffersonians. Robert Smith, John Cellar, Frisby Tilghman and Adam Ott were elected by a vote ranging from 643 to 942. A. Geoghegan, a surveyor who lived at Mount Pelier, and who had served several terms in the Assembly, J. McClain and L. Jacques were defeat- ed receiving from 220 to 278 votes each. The campaign of the following year was more bitter, and an anti-Jefferson inovement was started in the County. That sentiment had no newspaper in the County. The German paper and the Herald were both Jeffersonian. Certain enemies of Jef- ferson secretly offered John Gruber, the publisher of the German paper, "the Western Correspond- ent," to guarantee three hundred subscribers for three years and to pay him three hundred dollars in cash upon condition that he would oppose Jeffer- son. Gruber asked for time to consider the pro- posal and the next day rejected it. Later, Gruber entered into partnership with his son-in-law, May, and these two, as Gruber and May, published the Western Correspondent until 1830, when it died for lack of patronage-but few reading people at that time being unable to read English. In Jan- uary, 1831, there was an unsuccessful attempt to revive it. Early in the year Nathaniel Rochester had offered himself as a candidate for the shriev- alty.
In the political campaign of 1802, the Jeffer- sonians had everything in their own hands. The Federalists knowing themselves to be in a hopeless minority, nominated for the Assembly two well- known Democrats, Martin Kershner and Ambrose
Geoghegan, along with two Federalists, Robert Hughes and Matthew Van Lear. This was prob- ably done hoping to slip the latter in along with the first two. But the reason they assigned was, that it was done in the interest of peace and har- mony. The two Democrats, after giving some sort of an acceptance to the nomination, subse- quently published a card declining to be consid- ered Federalists. The methods of nominating candidates did not differ materially from those of the present day. A meeting was called in August 1802 at the house of David Ridenour, for the purpose of "recommending four Republican characters" to represent the County in the Assem- bly. Candidates were invariably spoken of as "characters." Of the meeting at Ridenour's, 'Thomas Sprigg was president and Tench Ringgold the secretary. Resolutions were passed condemn- ing the prevailing judiciary system, approving the act for universal suffrage passed by the preceding Legislature, and favoring its ratification by the next Legislature, and asking the people of the dis- tricts to appoint five delegates for each district to a county meeting which would recommend dele- gates to be voted for. This convention met in September and nominated Martin Kershner, Rob- ert Smith, Richard Cromwell and Frisby Tilgh- man. These candidates were elected by a major- ity of about three hundred. Soon after reaching Annapolis, Richard Cromwell died there, on Christmas day, 180%. Ile was buried in the grave- vard of St. Anne's Episcopal Church in that city. The Governor and his Council, the Senators and members of the House of Delegates, and all the officers of the Government attended the funeral, the expenses of which were paid by the State. Short- lv before this time, November 11th, 1802, another distinguished gentleman who had been an official and a citizen of the County, died in Vincennes, Indiana. William Clark, a poor Irish boy, had left his native land and found his way to Hagers- town. Here he got a position as clerk in the office of the sheriff, and whilst performing his official duties, he studied the classics and law. It was not long after his admission to the Bar that he secured a large practice. In 1795, he had at- tained so high a position that President Washing- ton appointed him United States Attorney for the district of Kentucky. When Adams became President and the Indiana Territorial Government was organized Mr. Clarke was appointed first judge and he was occupying that position when he
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
died. A remarkable instance of longevity is re- corded in the Herald in November 1802. On the 20th of that month, a man named Hanna died in the County at the age of 106 years, six months after the death of his wife who had reached the age of 102.
The appointments for Washington County in 1803 were Ignatius Taylor, Eli Williams and Jacob Harry, judges of the Orphans' Court, and Thomas Sprigg, Samuel Ringgold, Adam Ott, William Yates, Robert Smith, Josiah Price and William Heyser, justices of the Levy Court.
In the summer of this year the Republicans of the County were delighted by a visit from John Randolph, of Roanoke, then a member of Con- gress. He arrived in Hagerstown on the 20th of July and "a number of respectable citizens of the town and County waited on him and gave him a dinner at Mr. John Ragan's tavern, as a tribute of respect and gratitude for his great services to the country." The Republican convention which assembled at Ragan's tavern in August, 1803, re- solved that Martin Kershner, Robert Smith, Jacob Zeller and Henry Ankeny were proper characters to represent the County in the Assembly, and they were accordingly recommended to the voters. Ankeny declined and the convention reconvened and selected Wm. Yates. A committee was ap- pointed to correspond with similar committees in Frederick and Allegany Counties on the subject of nominating a proper character. Daniel Heister was selected, and was elected over Eli Williams, the Federalist candidate by 1,184 majority in the district. The opposition candidates for the Assem- bly were Robert Hughes, Dr. Zachariah Clagett, Thomas C. Brent and William Van Lear. The questions discussed during this campaign were universal suffrage and the bill to establish a gen- eral Court and Court of Appeals. Of course Benjamin Galloway took an active part in this discussion and opposed the latter bill and also contended that three dollars a day was an extrav- agant sum to pay members of the Legislature and that they should receive but two. The Republi- can candidates were elected by about 700 majority. At this election, Nathaniel Rochester who had announced himself a candidate a year before, was elected sheriff over Rezin Davis by a vote of 1,631 to 833. Rochester resigned the office of Postmas- ter of Hagerstown, and was succeeded by Jacob D. Deitrick who kept a book store and circulating library. Mr. Rochester's predecessor in the sher-
iff's office, a few weeks before the election, had a severe sentence to execute. Peter Light, of Sharpsburg, had been convicted of making coun- terfeit dollars, and was whipped, pilloried and cropt.
Until the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1789, of course there was no national currency. Accounts were kept in pounds, shillings and pence but English money was rarely seen or at least was not as common as the Spanish. Each State had its own shilling and there were pounds of various values. These values were in some instan- ces fixed by law. Circulating in Maryland for many years before and after the Revolution were the Spanish milled "pieces of eight," worth 4s, 6d. English milled crowns and French silver crowns 5s. The Johannes familiarly known as the "Joe" worth $18, the half joe, the Moidores worth $6.75; English Guineas, French Guineas worth one shilling less than the English, Doubloons worth $16.50, Spanish and French pistoles, Ara- bian chequins worth $2.12 1-2. These values were all established by the act of the Maryland Assem- bly in 1984 chartering the Potomac Company. It is a remarkable circumstance that for nearly twenty years after the adoption of the Federal Constitution and an American currency judgments were entered up in colonial pounds, shillings and pence and recognizances taken in pounds of tobac- co. In 1807 the clerk of the court began in a desultory way the use of the Federal currency but for some time he generally gave the amounts in colonial currency and then translated them into dollars and cents. It would seem almost incredible that it should have taken people so long to learn the simple decimal system, did we not see at this day the same tenacity in hold- ing on to the old weights and measures in prefer- ente to the more simple decimal system. But the circulation of foreign copper coins was stopped by an act which declared that no copper coins except cents and half-cents should pass or be offered after February 15, 1804, under a penalty of a fine of ten dollars. Even after the present coinage was established by law, the great volume of small sil- ver change was foreign and for nearly fifteen years after the adoption of the Constitution the merchants in Hagertsown still kept their accounts in pounds, shillings and pence. Although the goods had to be paid for in dollars and cents, the price was always given in shillings and pence and the habit is not entirely lost to this day for
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
cents are called pennies by a majority of people. It was not until 1803 that a movement was begun to change the method of keeping accounts to which they had been accustomed from infancy. In January of that year, the printer of the Herald suggested the reform, and begged that all the merchants in the town would join in it. It was well understood that the change could not be made unless the great majority adopted it. All who were willing to make the change on the first day of the following April, which was the day fixed upon for the new system to go into operation, were requested to come into the printing office at once and sign a declaration of their attention to do so.
Another reform started the same year was a movement for improving the streets of the town. They were in so deplorable a condition that it secmed hopeless to raise sufficient money by tax- ation to mend them. It was therefore attempted in another way. An Act of Assembly was pro- cured in February, 1803, authorizing a lottery to raise a sum of money for this purpose. The man- agers of the lottery named in the Act were Nathan- iel Rochester, Adam Ott, Otho H. Williams, Jacob Harry and William Heyser. They were required, as soon as the money was raised to mend the streets as well as the sum procured by the lottery would admit.
The trade of the County at this time was in a flourishing condition, and the shipments in boats down the Potomac were very large. A few years previously the flour market of Georgetown was of so little account that it was with difficulty that two or three wagon loads could be sold for cash in a single day. In the first twelve days of April, 1803, no less than fourteen thousand bar- rels of flour passed through the locks at Great Falls, and other produce which altogether would have required a thousand wagons, a thousand men and four or five thousand horses to move. In November, 1804, the difference in the price of wheat in Baltimore and Hagerstown was 25 cents a bushel, being $1.50 in the former market and $1.25 in the latter. For the elective officers in 1804 the Republicans nominated for the As- sembly Martin Kershner, John Bowles, Tench Ringgold and Adam Ott. Kershner and Ott de- clined and Wm. Yates and Benj, Clagett were substituted. This ticket was elected without op- position. Although the Federalist had made some show the previous year of an opposition to Jeffer-
son's re-election, when the time came, Dr. John Tyler, of Frederick, and Dr. Frisby Tilghman, of Washington County, the Jefferson Electors, were elveted without opposition, although the vote was small. In Sharpsburg district but eight votes were cast; in Langley's or Williamsport but 84; Fiery's 57; Hancocktown 39; and Hagerstown 124. For Congress, Roger Nelson of Frederick, was elected without opposition for the term begin- ning March 4, 1805, and also for the unexpired term of General Daniel Heister, who had died in Washington the previous March, at the age of fifty-seven years. General Heister was a native of Pennsylvania and had represented one of the Western Districts of that State for five years. He was in Congress at the time of the whiskey Insur- rection, and presented the petitions of the "whis- key boys" of his district for the repeal of the excise. He had also served as an officer in the Revolutionary Army, but not through the entire war. IIe had married the daughter of Jonathan Hager the elder. Ile was three times elected to Congress in his adopted home. His name is per- petuated in the southern addition to Hagerstown, which he laid out in streets and lots and which is known in deeds and records as "Heisterboro." He was interred in the graveyard of the Gerinan Reformed Church, of which he was a member and a funeral discourse was preached by the Rev. Mr. Rahauser.
The interment was first made in the lot op- posite the church which had been devised to the church by Gen. Heister. But finding that the church did not need it, it was conveyed to Mr. Wingert, the devisee of Gen. Heister, who paid $500 for it. Heister's body was afterwards remov- ed to the present church yard. About the same time Col. Richard Barnes, of St. Mary's County died. Col. Richard Barnes and John Barnes were sons of Abram Barnes, who came from England, and settled in St. Mary's County. He had one daugh- ter, Mary, who married Thompson Mason of Vir- ginia. Richard was a very wealthy man. He owned a large number of negroes, and bought a large tract of land in Washington County, in- cluding "Mount Pelier" estate. His brother John occupied the "Mount Pelier" place and became an active citizen of Washington County. Richard Barnes bequcathed the Mount Pelier estate "to the oldest son of his favorite nephew John Thom- son Mason," son of Thomas and Mary Mason, "provided he would assume the name Abram
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
Barnes." He also emaneipated several hundred negroes three years after his death, provided they behaved themselves. They attained their freedom and went to Pennsylvania, where they formed a settlement, and became so great a nuisance that they were dispersed by Aet of Assembly. The eldest son of John Thompson Mason died in infan- cy. A second also died. The third, Abram Barnes Mason, grew up and married Margaret Patterson. The will of Richard Barnes was contested by the Pendletons and other nephews and nieees in Vir- ginia.
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