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 38
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pany bid $155,000 for the State's interests and the Board of Public Works accepted his offer. And thus the State's interest in this great work of internal improvement ecased. The canal was worth to the State all it cost, because it developed the great coal mining industry of Allegany County. But as a national thoroughfare, for which it was designed, it was a bitter disappointment to its projeetors.
CHAPTER XV
ARLY in the spring of 1832 the news 'went abroad over the country that Asiatie cholera, then but little known in this County, had appeared in Montreal. A vague alarm was felt which was increased among the timid and superstitious by the an- nouncement in June, of the expected appearance of Halley's great comet. Men looked forward with absolute dread to the expected appearance of its baleful light, connecting it, as it has always been, with approaching disaster. In June the Governor of the State issued his proclamation, setting apart the approaching Independence Day for religious observance, not only in thanking God for the political liberty we enjoy, but to offer pray- ers for its continuance and also that he would graciously arrest or mitigate the threatened dread- ful visitation. Clergymen were requested to read the proclamation from their pulpits. Towards the last of the month, Henry Clay offered a resolu- tion in the Senate of the United States, asking the President to appoint a day to be observed as a day of general humiliation and prayer to Al- mighty God that he might in his mercy, "avert from our country the Asiatic scourge, which is now traversing and devastating other countries. And should it be among the dispensations of his Providence to inflict this scourge upon our land, may it please Him, in His mercy, so to ameliorate the infliction as to render its effects less disas- trous among us." July 4th, that year, was the quietest up to that time in the history of the County. The desire to drink toasts was not en- tirely suppressed, but in Hagerstown there was less toast drinking and less hilarity than ever be-
fore. All business was suspended and a large concourse of people, including five hundred child- ren of the Beneficial Society and the. Sunday schools, gathered on Potomac street before the Market House, and marched in procession to the Lutheran Church to engage in religious exercises.
Before this William D. Bell, the moderator of the town gave public notice that the cholera must shortly be expected to appear in the town, and that under Providence, cleanliness is the best pro- tection. He therefore exhorted all citizens to cleanse streets, alleys, gutters, cellars and vacant lots. Ward committees were appointed to inspect the town thoroughly and they soon reported that the town was clean. It was probably due to this intelligent action of the moderator, that Hagers- town escaped so lightly compared with other towns similarly situated.
Meanwhile the epidemic was approaching. nearer and nearer. In July it was raging in the great city of New York. Deaths were occurring at the rate of from seventy-five to a hundred and fifty a day. It was estimated that not less than a hundred thousand people had left the city and fled for safety. Thirty thousand of thesc had departed in a single day. The malady came on with fearful suddenness and often had an equally sudden termination. The patient would feel an uneasiness of the bowels with great heat and intense thirst; then would follow a feeling of heaviness and weakness, an almost total suspension of the pulse with a low, weak and very plainlive voice ; then the "rice water" discharge would take place, violent vomiting, oppression of the stom- ach and an impeded respiration. The circulation
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of the blood became exeeedingly sluggishi, the forehead, tongue and extremities became very eold. .Cramps occurred in the legs, toes and hands, the face of the patient beeame livid and cadaverous, and the body presented a motted appearance.
These symptoms were quickly succeeded by the final stage, which was a complete collapse of the whole system, greatly resembling the appear- ance of death, which quickly succeeded. The patient sometimes died in a tranquil stupor and sometimes in violent spasms and in great distress. The different stages of the disease followed each other occasionally with sueh rapidity that death occurred in a few hours after the appearance of the first symptom. In New York it was reported that whole families had been wiped out within an incredibly short space of time. The most popular treatment at first was hot applications, mustard plasters, calomel and opium. With such accounts of the progress of the disease it is not surprising that the people were terror stricken, but fron the first there appeared to be but little fear of con- tagion. Early in July, Dr. Howard Kennedy and Dr. Joseph Martin went on to New York to ob- serve the disease and its treatment in order to prepare themselves to contend with it.
The first case in Baltimore occurred on Sun- day, August 5th, and before the next Sunday fifty persons had taken the disease, and twenty-two had died. One of the first to die in that city was a robust negro man who, for a wager, drank a quart of buttermilk and ate a watermelon. His death occurred a few hours after the wager was won.
About the first day of September intelligenee reached Hagerstown that the cholera had appeared within the limits of Washington County. Large numbers of Irish laborers were employed upon the line of the new eanal opposite Harper's Ferry and there is where the disease first appeared. The news that first came was distorted and exag- gerated by the terror of those who brought it. It was said that five or six dead bodies were lying in a single shanty at one time. The workinen were panic stricken and left their work and spread all over the country carrying terror and excite- meut with them. One of these flying men was stricken down and died four miles west of town on the last day of August. During the first week in September four dead bodies were brought from the line of the canal to Hagerstown for interment. They were Roman Catholics, and the graveyard in Hagerstown was the only burying ground they
owned in the County. But the citizens protested against bringing the dead to Hagerstown. The town authorities forbade its continuance, and the Rev. Father Ryan, the Priest in charge of St. Mary's Church, in eo-operation with Mr. Cruger the chief engineer of the canal, took steps to pro- cure a burying ground near the eanal. Mr. Cru- ger also promised to establish hospitals.
The following week several deaths in Boons- boro' and Sharpsburg and in the lower part of the County took place; one laboring man from the canal died in Hagerstown. Among those who died in Sharpsburg was Mr. John J. Russell. The public health of Hagerstown was reported excep- tionally good. The Board of Health, consisting of Frederick Dorsey, President, John Reynolds, Joseph Martin and V. W. Randall, assured thie people that cholera was not contagious and it was not probable great ravages would be committed. That if taken in time, not more than one case in a hundred would die. People were warned against imprudently cating fruit, certain vegetables and against dosing themselves with quack medicines and nostrums. In Williamsport there were two cases, one of which terminated fatally; and along the canal near that town twelve eases and six deaths were reported. Up to September 26, three citizens of Hagerstown and two strangers had died in the town. The Board of Health was very active, and the ladies of the sick society offered their services for the publie good.
The disease steadily increased. From Friday the 12th of October. to Thursday the 18th, there were seventeen deaths in Hagerstown and a num- ber in other parts of the county. mong those who died in Hagerstown were John Miller an old and prominent merchant. John McIlhenny, William Moffett and Thomas Kennedy. The latter was one of the most distinguished citizens of the County. He had filled many positions of honor and trust and had served many years in the Gen- eral Assembly as Delegate and Senator. As a member of the Legislature his career had been sig- nalized by his successful efforts to remove the po- litical disabilities of the Jews. At the time of his death he was fifty-six years of age, a member elect of the Legislature, having been elected to fill a vacancy, and the Editor of The Mail. His son Dr. Howard Kennedy, remained to fill his place. The next week a number of negroes died in the town and County. Van S. Brashears and Peter Newcomer died on the Manor and Vaehtel W. Ran-
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dall, secretary of the Board of Health and a prom- ising member of the Bar, died in Hagerstown. The last week of October, Parker Blood the bookseller died after an illness of two weeks with cholera. Peter Rench and several servants and canal labor- ers also died. Michael Wilson, of Westmoreland county, Pa., in passing through the town on the Western stage was taken with the disease and died at the Globe Tavern. In addition to these there were nine deaths in the poor house. Early in November, as the cold weather approached, the last vestiges of the cholera disappeared and people re- sumed their usual habits.
As soon as cases began to multiply, a hospital had been built upon the hill near the present site of the Roman Catholic graveyard. Patients were conveyed to it and carefully nursed under the di- rect supervision of the Moderator himself who went in and out among the sick and dying without fear and without tiring. Among the patients in the hospital was a well known character, a public jester for the town, harmless and popular and im- moderate in the use of whiskey-Jack Wolgamott. Jack had reached the stage of collapse which usu- ally preceded death by a very few hours, and as Mr. Bell left the hospital for the night he took leave of Jack expecting, and telling him that he had but a short time to live. The nurse told him that Wolgamott was begging for a pint of whis- key so Mr. Bell ordered it for him, saying that he had as well be gratified as he would die any- how. So the whiskey was brought, and when Mr. Bell returned in the morning he found Jack, in- stead of being a corpse the most cheerful person about the place and nearly recovered from the disease. Among the last cases which occurred was that Mr. Bell himself, but it was a mild case and he soon recovercd. The following year great fears were entertained of the reappearance of cholera. The town was again thoroughly cleaned-commit- tees of the leading citizens giving it their personal attention. In July it broke out among the labor- ers on the canal and ten died near Williamsport in one day. The bodies of most of these were brought to Hagerstown for interment. Many more died the following week and one of them came to Hag- erstown and died there.
The alarm of cholera this year like the pre- vious year was heightened by a celestial phenome- non-the falling stars on the night of November 13th. It was a repetition of the shower of Novem- ber 12th, 1799. Passengers on the top of stages
on the turnpike witnessed the magnificent spec- tacle. It appeared as if every star in the heavens was falling from its place and leaving a long trail of light behind. It continued from about four o'clock until day. People were filled with a strange fear. The stars appeared to shoot gener- ally from a point southeast of the zenith and showering in all directions. Some of them were brilliant enough to illuminate the whole heavens, and their tracks, it was fancifully said, hung like swords of fire over the earth. Ten or fifteen of these aerial weapons would be flashing upon the terrified people at once. The atmosphere was remarkably clear at the time.
Mr. John A. Freaner was at that time mail carrier between Hagerstown and Hauver's. When the meteoric shower occurred he was on the top of the mountain, and the horse he was riding, a famous little animal, became so frightened as to be unmanagable.
Many canal laborers died a violent death during the winter of 1834, after the final disap- pcarance of the cholera. Nearly all who were engaged on the canal excavations were Irishmen, but from different parts of Ireland. Some of them were from Cork and were called Corkonians, and the others were known as Fardowners or Longfords. Between these there was a continual and bitter strife.
On Monday, January 20, 1834, news was re- ceived in Hagerstown of a disturbance among the canal workmen, and it was supposed that it was occasioned by non-payment of wages or a discharge of men. Two companies of the Hagers- town Volunteers marched over to Williamsport and there learned that the scene of action was several miles down the river and it was reported that hostilities had ceased and that although many were wounded no lives were lost. The next day the militia returned to Hagerstown bringing thirty-four prisoners who were committed to jail. The cause of the battle among the Irish had been that one of the Corkonians had beaten a Fardow- ner named John Irons, so brutally that he shortly died of his wounds. After the battle occasioned by this incident there was general demoralization among the workmen and but little work was done. The following Thursday a party of Corkonians committed excesses above Williamsport. A party from above attempted to come into Williamsport but were met on the aqueduct by those in the town and driven back. The citizens of Williams-
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port took arms and put themselves in military order for the protection of the town. The next day a party of three hundred Fardowns, headed by intrepid leaders. approached Williamsport from below. They were armed with guns, clubs and helves. It was their intention, they said, to march to the upper dam and display their strength, but to do no violence unless attacked. Shortly after passing up over the aqueduct their numbers were swelled to six or seven hundred. In a field at the upper dam, they met three hundred Corkon- ians drawn up in line of battle upon the crest of a hill and in possession of a considerable number of guns. They made the attaek upon the larger party, and several volleys were exchanged and a number killed. The Corkonians then fell back before the superior face of the enemy and dispers- ed. But the victors had tasted blood, and were not content with their victory. A merciless pur- suit took place, the fugitives were overtaken in the woods, and many were put to death. Five were found in one place with bullets through their heads, and wounded were seattered in every direc- tion. At 10 o'clock at night the victorious party returned through Williamsport and marelied quiet- iv to their quarters below the town. The next day the Sheriff of the County, Col. William II. Fitzhugh, arrived upon the scene in command of the two Hagerstown Companies of Volunteers and one of the leading rioters was arrested. Col. Jacob Wolf, Captain Isaae H. Allen, a school teacher immediately organized companies of militia for duty. The latter company was named the Williamsport Riflemen, W. McK. Keppler, S. S. Cunningham and William Towson were licu- tenants. The Clearspring Riflemen, under Capt. Isaac Nesbitt were also on duty. But these forces were deemed insufficient for the emergency. An express was sent to Washington to ask for troops and deputations to the upper and the lower dams to bring the leaders of the two factions together and effect a reconciliation. About sunset on Monday these deputations returned, each bring- ing deputies who had been appointed by their respective factions, with power to effect a settle- ment. They accordingly got together at Mr. Lyles' tavern along with the magistrates and a number of gentlemen of the town. presided over by Gen. Otho Williams. Gen. Williams, William D. Bell, Col. Dall and others, prepared a regular treaty of peace which the Irishmen signed and they were then admonished that if either side
violated the agreement the citizens and the inili- tary would unite with the other faction and drive the offenders from the County. During Monday Gen. Williams brevetted Capt. Hollingsworth, Capt. Hollman and Capt. Allen. Captain Holl- ingsworth organized a troop of horse and each of the other captains enrolled a company of in- fantry, and the whole force was put under the eommand of Col. Dall. The next morning Gen. Williams received intelligence by an express mes- senger that a party of one hundred armed Corkon- ians had passed Harper's Ferry, and were on their way up to reinforce their friends at Middlekauff's dam. Col. Dall dispatched Captain Hollings- worth to meet this force at Holman's dam. There they were made acquainted with the settlement which had been agreed upon, whercupon they sur- rendered their arms and returned to their work down the river. The forty prisoners in the Hag- erstown jail were then released upon their own recognizances.
In the meantime Dr. Wharton, one of the delegates from Washington County, offered a res- olution asking the President of the United States to order out a sufficient number of troops to quell the riot at Williamsport. He read letters from citizens of Williamsport complaining that their lives and property were in danger and that the civil authorities had in vain endeavored to afford them protection. That the belligerent factions contained seven to eight hundred each, many of them armed with warlike weapons. Mr. Whar- ton's resolution passed the House, but the Senate substituted one asking the Governor to call out the militia and this was agreed to. But later on application was made to the General Government and Company B., 1st Reg. U. S. Artillery was ordered from Fort McHenry, and remained along the canal for some time. On the fifth of March, the commander of this company. Captain M. A. Patrick, of Windsor. Vt., died at Williamsport. His quecessor in command of the troops was Col. Alexander D. Mackay. This officer was one of the unfortunate gentlemen who lost their lives in January 1837. on the packet "Dolphin" as he was en route to join General Jessup in Florida. Another officer who died in this campaign was Lieut. John Francis Kennedy, the eldest son of Thomas Kennedy. He was at home on sick leave, but as soon as hositilities commenced he rejoined his company. But the hardships of the service and the climate soon broke him down, and he was
1
Old Orndorff Mill, Built in 1753-Oldest in the County.
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
ordered home. But he only reached Charleston, when he died, May 19, 1837, aged 31 years. He was buried at Fort Johnson.
A eurious ease of mistaken identity occurred in 1834. In 1822 Jaeob Hine of Pleasant Valley was murdered by one Peter Dean, who made good his escape. In 1834, twelve years afterwards, J. D. Keedy met with a man named William Clark, of Lieking Creek, and being entirely satisfied that it was Peter Dean, laid information and caused his arrest. Clark protested his innocence and deelared that he had recently removed from Har- ford County and many persons there knew him. His story was discredited but a letter was written to a man in Harford of, whom Clark had spoken. This man sent up a list of questions which were propounded to Clark and all of them were correct- ly answered. Application was then made to Judge John Buchanan for a writ of habeas corpus. At the hearing witnesses from Harford verified Clark's statement and he was discharged. There was much sympathy with him for the inconvenience and indignity to which he had been subjected and a purse of $130 was presented to him, Mr. Keedy giving $50.
In this year Pleasant Valley was laid off as the eighth district of the county.
In July 1834, the severest hail storm ever known in the County took place. Hail stones meas- uring a foot in eircumference and weighing a pound fell in different parts of the County and at Baker's Cross Roads, so terrific was this bat- tery that a cow was killed by the hail stones. The following January the weather was pronounced to be the coldest ever experienced up to that tine. The mercury fell twelve degrees below zero and in proof of the extreme rigor of the season a wild cat was driven by cold and hunger almost to Hag- erstown where it was killed. Since then the mer- eury has fallen much lower several times.
Two more veterans of 1776 passed away about this time. In the Fall of 1834, Samuel Lynch, aged 84 years, and a year later George Miller, aged 80 years, who had served five years in the Revo- lutionary army. The former was buried by the Williamsport riflemen with military honors.
In November 1834, the Williamsport Coloni- zation Society with John T. Towson, President, and William Van Lear and C. A. Warfield, vice- Presidents, was formed. The object of this so- ciety was the deportation of negroes to Liberia. This was a seheme in which many people about
that thne and for some years were deeply inter- ested and many slaves were emancipated and sent back to the original home of their race.
On the third day of December 1834 an event occurred which marked the march of events and improvement with immense emphasis. The first train of railroad cars entered the limits of the County. On that day the Baltimore and Ohio railroad was declared open to Harper's Ferry, and a passenger train left Baltimore each morn- ing at seven o'clock, arriving at Harper's Ferry about three p. m. Freight trains were also run and rates announced. The freight on a barrel of flour to Baltimore was 33 cents, and 32 cents from Wever's Mill. From Baltimore to Harper's Ferry the charge for carrying plaster of Paris was $2.40 a ton, on salt and salt fish 14 1-2 cents per hundred pounds and 22 1-2 eents for merchan- dize. As soon as these trains began to run it was proposed to construct a railroad from the Balti- more and Ohio to Hagerstown-a proposition which was not acted upon until a generation later.
In 1836 a company was formed in Williams- port to place two paeket boats on the canal to ply between that town and Harper's Ferry, where connection was made with Georgetown by a regu- lar line of Packets and with Baltimore by the railroad. A stage ran between Williamsport and Clearspring, and one to Hagerstown, where pas- sengers to the West could take the regular stage lincs.
On the same day, the fourth of July 1828, when President John Quincy Adams removed the first spade full of earth in the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal the venerable Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last survivor of the brave men who more than fifty years before had signed the Declaration of Independence, placed in position the first stone in the construction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The citizens of Baltimore had soon become jealous of the eanal as being a feeder to the rival city of Washington and distrustful, it has been said, of its ever reach- ing aeross the mountains to the Western waters. But we may well doubt whether any distrust was felt at that point. It is likely that if the East- ern terminus of the canal had been assured to Baltimore, it would have been many years before a railroad would have been considered necessary. The undertaking at the time was a far sighted and bold move. In the ease of the canal the grand expectations were doomed to disappointment whilst
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the hopes and expectations of the projectors of the railroad fell far short of the reality. As only about three miles of the main stem of the Balti- more and Ohio road lie within the limits of Washington County, an extended account of that great enterprise does not come within the limits contemplated by this work. But we are concern- ed in certain portions of its history. If the origi- nai design had been followed out about eighty miles of the road would have been in Washington County and a brief reference to the causes which brought about this change has already been made. The first division of the railroad was to have ended at Williamsport and several surveys were made of the routes to reach that village. A public meet- ing was held in the Court House in Hagerstown July 24. 1827 to take measures to facilitate the surveys for the road. Wm. Gabby was chairman and Wm. D. Bell secretary, and a committee of two from each election district of the county was appointed to afford to engineers all the informa- tion and assistance in their power. In December of that year a party of engineers surveyed the route through Harman's Gap to the Antietam and along that stream to some distance below Funks- town and thence to Williamsport. One survey was made through Mechanicstown, Frederick county and through South Mountain by the Ger- mantown Gorge. the route afterwards selected by the Western Maryland railroad to reach the same point. But at that time it was believed that a locomotive could only be operated on a level track and some time after the cars had been drawn by steam, horses were kept to draw them up the heavy grade to Mt. Airy. It was therefore con- sidered essential to flank the mountains and go up the valley of the Potomac from the Point of Rocks. Agents were sent forward to negotiate with the land owners along the Potomac in Fred- erick and Washington counties for the right of way. As soon as this came to the knowledge of the C'anai Directors an injunction was sued out of the Court at Hagerstown restraining the road from occupying the land between the mountain and river upon the ground that this right of way had been granted to the canal as the successor to the rights of the old Potomac company and that the railroad could not come in until after the canal had selected its location. The injunction was issued by Judge T. Buchanan and he was sc- verely criticised in the Baltimore papers for ex- cording his jurisdiction. The Judge was however
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