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 28
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94
Along with the completion of the pike came "line teams" through from the West. These were great wagons with the hind wheels ten feet high, drawn by six horses, and making almost as fast
157
OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
time as the stages or a modern freight train. They were loaded with bacon or other Western produce which they were carrying to market to sell. On the return trip, they were loaded with dry goods and groceries for some Western store to be reached perhaps, by boat from Wheeling. The very heavy merchandise for these stores for which there was no hurry, was sent by vessel down the coast, through the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi river. Often the "line wagons" would sell their cargo of Western products in Hagerstown and then load up with flour for the rest of the distance. In Hagerstown the two popular taverns for wag- oners, or wagon stands as they were then called, were Rising Sun Tavern on South Potomac street, opposite the Lutheran Church, and Frederick Stover's Tavern which was later the Mansion House, on the corner of Washington and Walnut streets. The principal stopping places for the stages were the Western Tavern, a portion of the same building afterwards known as the Antietam House, which was pulled down to give place to the Hotel Hamilton, and the Globe, which was situ- ated where the Baldwin now stands. Up to these famous taverns the stages dashed, horses were changed there, and passengers stopped a few min- utes for meals. The scene was a lively and bust- ling one and the approach of a stage was announc- ed by a horn. Mounted mail carriers entered the town on a long run ; their horns announced their arrival, and the postmaster would be ready to change the mail while the rider sprang from one horse to another. The passengers' baggage was carried on the "boot" of the stages and was some- times stolen as the stage proceeded through lonely places on dark nights. In the winter of 1832, two trunks were cut from the boot of the Western stage between Clearspring and Licking Creek. One of them belonged to an Arkansas gentleman, contain- ed $1,100. The thieves were soon arrested at Winchester ; $554 of the money and goods worth $250 which the robber had sold, were recovered.
Some of the most distinguished public men of that day passed through Hagerstown on their way to and from the Capital. Early in 1841, Gen. W. H. Harrison, en route for the White House, passed through. He caused much sensation among his enthusiastic admirers. He spoke from a store- box for a short time, to a large audience. One of his Washington County relatives tried to proteet him from the heated rays of the sun by an um- brella, but he smilingly pushed it aside and com-
pleted his remarks unprotected and hatless.
One morning in front of the old hotel on the corner of Washington and Jonathan streets, oppo- site the Court House, on the arrival of the stage from the West, a large crowd had collected. It was found that "Black Hawk," a Sioux and Fox Chief, was en route for Washington, D. C., to see the President. He was in charge of an Indian Agent, and accompanied by several Indians. He had on an old black hat-stiff and high crowned, a white shirt or collar blouse and blue pants. He could not be drawn into conversation and seemed sullen and stolid.
The days of the old National Pike were the romantic times of the County. The sight of the distinguished men of the country was common to our people. To them the faces of old Andrew Jackson, of Henry Clay, of William Henry IIarri- son, of Davy Crockett, James K. Polk and Zackary Taylor were familiar. No other road did as large a business as this. Coaches dashed through at the rate of twelve miles an hour, and wagons fol- lowed each other so closely that it was said with some pardonable exaggeration that the heads of one team were in the rear of the wagon before it. There were many private carriages, many travel- ers on horseback, and an endless procession of cat- tle and sheep from the rich pastures of what was then called the West. Along the road every few miles, was a tavern and the reputation of the mcals served in them, the venison, the bear-steaks, the hot bread, the ham and eggs, the whiskey have lost nothing from the lapse of time. The stand- ard price of meals along the road was twenty- five cents and five cents a glass for whiskey. Bar- ton's Tavern in Hancock was a favorite stopping place for General Jackson and there as well as at Hagerstown and Boonsboro, would addresses he presented to him. His affability and that of Clay knew no bounds-all were cordially greeted who presented themselves. Rival lines of coaches pat- ronized different taverns and travellers were strong partisans of favorite lines. At Wheeling, when there were many passengers landing from the steamer, there was a struggle among them for desirable places in the coaches, and when the pas- sengers were few the contest was among the coaches which frequently underbid each other un- til the price to Baltimore was marvelously low. One of the best known and most popular lines was that of John E. Reeside. The first coach used on the pike was a clumsy affair, carrying sixteen pas-
158
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
sengers, built in Cumberland by Abraham Russell. Then the Trenton coach was adopted, and this was succeeded by the Fry Coach, carrying nine pas- sengers inside and two outside. The last and best was the Concord coach. Many stories are told of the old coaching days. It was a favorite amuse- ment among passengers to hold out letters to coun- try people, and induce theni to run after the stage to get them, but a damper was put upon this sport by a well-known citizen of Washington County, old Daniel Oster, upon whom this trick was played. He pursued the coach until he overtook it and dragged the joker out and gave him an unmerciful thrashing.
From the summit of South Mountain to Clear- spring, about twenty-five miles, the road passes through one of the most fertile and beautiful ag- ricultural portions of the United States. Shortly after passing Clearspring the ascent of North Mountain, the eastern wall of the Alleganies is begun and from its summit, at Fairview, a pros- pect of magnificent grandeur presents itself. Away towards the east, to the foot of South Moun- tain, is the panorama of farms, of villages and towns, of hills and valleys of surpassing beauty whilst to the right is the tortuous Potomac shim- mering like molten silver in the sunlight and on either hand mountain top after mountain top un- fold themselves. From Clearspring on through Hancock to Sideling Hill, the western boundary of the County, the scenery is of romantic beauty -a succession of wooded ridges and sylvan dells with a wealth and variety of vegetation most en- chanting. It was at Hancock that the traveler from the West got his first view of the Canal- then a national work of importance, which John Quincy Adams had pronounced to he more wonderful and stupendous than any of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
But the name of the pike and the canal alike is Ichabod. Their glory has departed. The same freshet which wrecked the Canal in 1889, destroy- ed the hridges on the pike between the Conoco- cheague and Sideling Hill. The traffic was not sufficient to justify the company in restoring them, and so it surrendered its charter and resigned the road to the authorities of Washington County, and it became an ordinary County road, and its epitaph has heen written. Besides the turnpike roads al- ready mentioned, seven others have heen made in the County, to all of which the County Commis- sioners subscrihed liberally. In the Beaver Creek
and South Mountain road the County subscribed for a hundred and two shares at $20. In the Williamsport and Greencastle road, a hundred and fifty shares at $20 a share. In the Hagerstown and Leitersburg road, one hundred shares at $25 a share. Up to and including 1888 the County had received in dividends upon this $2,500 of stock $4,175. In the Hagerstown and Smithsburg road the County subscribed for a hundred and fifty shares at $20. In the Hagerstown and Sharpsburg road, chatered in 1856, the County took a hundred and eighty shares, and up to 1888 had received $6,041 in dividends. In the Hagerstown and Mid- dleburg road. the County's stock is 75 shares at $20, and in the Hagerstown and Cearfoss road sixty shares at $25. Upon all these, dividends are received each year and in addition the County is released from the expense of maintaining the pub- lic roads. Whilst the ordinary public roads of Washington County are bad and discreditable, the system of turnpikes is the pride of the County. These turnpikes radiate from Hagerstown like the spokes from the hub of a wheel and afford ac- cess to every important point in the County. They arc smooth and well kept, and are a great attrac- tion to bicyclists and automobilists who visit the County in great numbers each summer.
It was in 1818 that an effort was made in Hagerstown to provide a better fire apparatus than the old engines which had been used here- tofore. In February of that year, the Legislature granted authority to the Town Commissioners to levy a tax, and raise $1,200 to buy a fire engine.' The same Act of Assembly conferred a like privi- lege upon the town of Williamsport. The Wil- liamsport Company was incorporated by the Leg- islature in 1827, and the same Legislature granted a charter to a company in Funkstown. In 1803 a lottery had heen authorized to purchase a fire en- gine for Sharpsburg. The fire Company of Wil- liamsport was in active and successful operation for years, and in 1834 was sufficiently vigorous to respond to a call when the cast wing of General Ringgold's mansion at Fountain Rock now the College of St. James, took fire. The Williamsport department arrived there in time, although the dis- tance was four miles, to confine the fire to that one wing and save the fine house. The next pub- lic meeting abont a fire company in Hagerstown, after the one in 1791 mentioned in a former chap- ter, was at the Court House in 1802. In Febru- ary, 1803. the firemen divided the town into two
159
OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
districts; Main or Washington street was the divi- ding line between the two. The fire companies were directed by general officers, selected by them- selves, the chief being a director-general, and he had an assistant. There was also an officer or di- rector, with a corps of assistants, to take charge of goods rescued from burning buildings; there was a hook and axe director, a ladder director and a number of directors and assistants for each of the two fire engines-Nos. 1 and 2. Regular meet- ings for exercise were held and attendance was strictly required under penalty of a fine of twenty- five cents for those whose duty it was to work the engines, and one dollar for directors. The United Fire Company, as this was named, lasted from 1791 to 1815, when it was allowed to go down, and the engines probably became useless. In 1817, when the Hagerstown Fire Company was organ- ized, Peter Humrichouse, David Harry, Arthur Johnson and J. A. Donaldson were constituted a comminittee to examine them and report their condition. Of this new fire company, Otho II. Williams was president, and William Heyser direc- tor-general, Richard Ragan, assistant, John Ken- nedy, treasurer, John A. Donaldson, keeper, and Samuel Hager, collector. Henry Kealhofer was director of engine No. 1, and George Shryock of No. 2. In 1820 Robert Douglas was president and Thomas Greaves, secretary. When there was an alarm of fire at night the firemen were greatly embarrassed in getting through the rough and dark streets. In 1817, George Shryock, the moderator, published an advertisement requesting all citi- zens, directly they heard a cry of fire at night to place lighted candles in their front windows. Just before the fourth of July of the next year, Moder- ator Seth Lane issued his proclamation warning people against fire crackers within the town. In 1821, the old engines had been repaired and a new one purchased and in November of that year, the town was divided into three fire districts. The citizens of each district were admonished to repair, in case of fire, to their engine house to carry the engines to the fire. South Potomac and Antietam streets were the first district; Franklin, Church and North Potomac, north of Franklin, the second; Washington and North Potomac south of Frank- lin the third. This fire company, however, does not appear to have been very efficient, for when the Torch Light office and Capt. Lewis' house on the Public Square, took fire in 1822 effective work was done by a line of buckets, in which the women
were very helpful. Just after this fire, in conse-' quence of the evident need of such an organization, the first call was made for a meeting to organize another company. This meeting was held April 17, 1822, and on that day the First Hagerstown Hose Company was formed-an organization which is still regarded with pride by the town, and which has for its home the "Hose Building" on South Potomac street, erected in 1882, one of the finest buildings of the town. Its first president was George F. Kreps; Charles C. Fechtig was vice- president ; H. J. Rahauser, secretary ; and William C. Drury treasurer. It was the first company which was regularly incorporated by an Act of Assembly. In May, 1824, an ordinance was passed dividing the town into two districts, Washington street being the dividing line. All white male taxpayers except members of the Hose Company, were required to assemble in the Town Hall and form themselves into fire companies. The two companies formed in pursuance of this ordinance were called "The Washington Mechanic Fire Com- pany" and "The Franklin Union Fire Company." It was the custom about this time to furnish re- freshments to the firemen at fires, and upon nearly every such occasion there is a publication of thanks by the firemen for the courtesy. In 1827, a prac- tice prevailed of using the ladders, hooks, axes and buckets belonging to the fire companies for private purposes. This was finally prohibited by an ordi- nance which imposed a finc of one dollar for each day one of these articles was retained for private use.
The Antietam Fire Company was incorporated March 9, 1835. The incorporators were William D. Bell, William Holliday, Daniel Carver, R. Annan, William Johnson, Jolın W. Kennedy, Jacob Swope, Jacob Bachelder, William Weber, Alex. Armstrong, Peter Swartzwelder, Victor Thompson and William S. Brown. This company had its home in a small building on the southwest corner of the Court House lot fronting on Jonathan strect, until it was torn down by the County Com- missioners in 1889. The Company then bought a lot on the same street and erected a fine building.
The Junior Fire Company on Monday in Whitsun week 1852, laid the corner stone of Junior Hall on North Potomac street with Ma- sonic ceremonies. The building was condemned as unsafe in 1889, and was removed to make way for a new and finer structure. The Pioneer Hook and Ladder Company was organized in 1872 with
160
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
William H. Armstrong as first president, and the Western Enterprise shortly afterward. This lat- ter company brought the first steam fire engine to the town in 1872. About 1876 their hall on West Franklin St. was built. The water used at fires was taken from large public cisterns in various parts of the town. After the water works were completed the pressure in the fire plugs was sufficient to cast a much stronger stream than the engines, so- the three engines were kept only for use in the sub- urbs, or in places where the water service does not reach, or in cases of emergency. The fire already alluded to, which partially destroyed the Torch-Light office on the Square and scattered the type broadcast, originated in Shank's shop from which it spread to the brick building which con- tained the Torch-Light office and from these to Colonel Lewis' stone house on the north-east corner of the Square. None of the buildings were completely destroyed but all were damaged and the editor of the Torch Light, for two weeks, was only enabled to issue his paper by the courtesy of the editor of the Herald and Mr. Gruber the pro- prietor of the Almanack.
But in 1811, and for some years following, whilst the people of the town were agitated about fire companies, the people of the County at large were concerned about a much more important af- fair. About this time a machine for threshing wheat which should supersede the flail and the treading by horses, was coming into notice; iron plows were talked about ; and not long afterwards, cradles began gradually to take the place of the sickle. On their farm near Hagerstown, Samuel, David and Hezekiah Clagett had a field of a hun- dred acres, and when the wheat in this field was harvested, as many as a hundred harvesters with their sickles could be seen at a time. When farm- ers began to put out a hundred acres of wheat, it became manifest that treading out the wheat with horses or beating it out with flails and reaping it with sickles was too slow an operation. It is difficult to tell just where the first attempt at a threshing-machine was made in this County. In Great Britain. Andrew Merkles threshing machine, upon which the present admirable machines are based, had been in use since 1787; but it is not like- ly that one of them was ever brought to this Coun- ty. In 1817 Thomas Beatty manufactured a ma- chine "on a new and improved plan" for George Reynolds of Shepherdstown. It could thresh with one horse and three hands, ten bushels of wheat
in an hour or a hundred bushels a day. It was claimed that it cleaned wheat well and would answer for a rubber in a merchant mill. The exclusive right to manufacture and sell machines after Reynolds' patent, in Washington County, was owned by John Harry. In 1821 D. Nicholson and John James manufactured a thresher in Hagers- town which they sold for $100, and which they boasted could thresh and clean thirty-five bushels in an hour. A year later, William Kirk's machine, newly invented by him upon an improved plan, only claimed to thresh ten or twelve bushels in an hour. This machine was first put in operation at the mill of the Clagetts in January, 1822, and one was tried after the next harvest on Wil- liam H. Fitzhugh's farm. There it threshed a hundred bushels in a day, with two horses and three men. These machines were manufactured in Hagerstown by Isaac Parker and John Cur- rey. From that day to this there has been a constant improvement in threshing machines. The substitution of steam for horse power, began about 1872. In 1821 wheat fans were manufactured in Hagerstown by a man named Watkins and one of his machines took the first premium at the State Fair that year. Many of the plows used by the farmers of the County at this time were manu- factured in Hagerstown by Matthew Murray, and were after Peacock's patent. William Schnebly made Reaping Machines at Hagerstown between the years 1825 and 1832. At first a revolving apron was used, but this was discontinued, and . after the grain had been thrown on the platform by the reel, it was raked off in piles with a three- pronged fork. In 1837, Obed Hussey, one of the inventors of a successful reaper, lived in Hagers- town and sold his machines. He had a reaper designed for smooth land, and another for uneven ground. One reaper he kept for hire and cut wheat by the acre for farmers who did not own a machine. He had abundant testimonials of the good work done by his invention.
An Act of Asssembly passed in 1818 Com- missioned Samuel Ringgold. William Gabby, O. II. Williams, Henry Lewis and William Heyser to sell the old jail, and to build a new one. The purchase of a lot was to be approved by the Court, and the cost of the new building was not to exceed $12,000. The County was empowered to levy this sum in four years or to borrow it at 6 per cont. interest. The building was erected on the lot now occupied by the County jail. The
161
OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
contractor was a man named Lloyd who completed the work about the year 1826. The contractor did not live in the County, and his employment cre- ated great dissatisfaction among the meclianics of the town, who complained bitterly that the work was not given to them, and charged that he was enabled to underbid them by not strictly filling the contract. It was destroyed by fire in 1857, and was rebuilt by John B. Thirston. In 1888, it was remodeled and steel cages placed in a second story which was erected over the old arched cells. The jail had grown to be a public shame, and males and females were thrown into it together there being no separate apartments provided.
Among the last prisoners who were confined in the old jail on East Franklin Street, afterwards owned by Richard Sheckles, which was sold by the commission of 1818, were the Cotterills. They were tried in the old Court House in the Square. This was a case removed from Allegany County, and was one of the most celebrated which ever took place in the County. The Cotterills,, an old man named William and his two sons, John and William, had been indicted for the murder of James Adams on the 9th of May 1819.
It appeared in evidence, during their trials, that William Cotterill, sen., and his two sons, William and John, in company with James Adanis, who had a considerable sum of money and a check on a mercantile house in Baltimore for a further amount, in his possession, sailed, in the ship Ceres, from Liverpool for Baltimore, about the 1st of February. Arriving in Baltimore in the latter part of April, they all took lodgings in one house, and remained there a few days, when not able to procure employment in the city, they proceeded West in quest of it. They met with none until they reached the house of Wood & West in Allegany County. On Thursday the 6th of May, they contracted with those gentlemen for employment as laborers on the turnpike road, at which they continued until Saturday evening fol- ing. On Sunday morning the 9th, Adams, be- lieving that he had lost the check which he brought from England with him, determined to return to Baltimore in search of it, and in the event of his not there finding it, to guard against its payment, and sail for England. The three, Adams and the two younger Cotterills, then started down the road together, leaving the older Cotterill at the house of Wood & West. Between two and three hours after their departure with Adams, the two Cot-
terills returned, not along the road but through the woods, having their pantaloons wet up to their knees. On their appproach to the house, they were met by their father, who manifested much uncas- iness and appeared considerably agitated during their absence; a short conversation ensued, in which one of the sons was heard to say, "Father, we have done it;" they then applied for their wages, saying they intended returning to England, and in about three quarters of an hour after the return of the two sons, the three set off, not along the road but through the woods, in the direction in which the two had returned. On Sunday the 16th of May, the dead body of Adams was acci- dently found, a short distance below the road, in Fifteen Mile Creek, in a dreary, recluse spot be- tween two mountains. It was much mangled about the head and breast, the clothes nearly torn off, and the pockets rifled. Suspicion immediately fixed on the three Cotterills-they were promptly pursued to Baltimore, where they were apprehend- ed on the eve of embarking for England, their trunk being on board the ship Franklin, just about to sail. On examining the trunk, a part of Adams' clothes, his watch, and some other articles known to have belonged to him, were found in it; and a part of the money believed to have belonged to him was found secreted about the persons of the prisoners.
Under these circumstances they were commit- ted to the Baltimore jail, where they remained until the session of the Allegany Court, to which county they were removed for trial. Unwilling however to be tried there, they requested a further removal to this county, where they were severally found guilty of murder of the first degree.
The prosceution was conducted by Roger Per- ry, and the two young prisoners were defended by Beal Howard. Samuel Hughes was associ- ated with Mr. Howard, in behalf of the elder pris- oner.
On the 22nd of November Judge John Buch- anan pronounced sentence of death upon the three convicts. The gallows was erected in a hol- low about fifty yards above the hill on West Church street and on the 23rd of February, 1820, the execution took place, Mr. Post being the sher- iff. The following is the account given by a Ha- gerstown paper at the time:
"During the day and night preceding, a great concourse of people arrived in town ; and on Fri- day morning the roads, in every direction, were
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.