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 42
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*Scharf's History of Western Maryland.
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
ducts of the works shipped in the boats owned by Mr. Brien.$
J. McPherson Brien was a man of marked ability and untiring energy. In politics he was an enthusiastie Whig and each one of his white em- ployees had to vote the Whig ticket. The day before each eleetion he would visit the Toreh Light office and procure tickets printed upon eolored paper. Each man had to present one of these tickets in at the window. The Antietam Works were erected by William M. Brown, and were operated by Ross, Bell & Henderson, of Baltimore, until they came into possession of Mr. Brien. In July 1853 they were sold to Wm. B. Clark for $54,500. In 1855 Clark sold a half interest in the property to Levi Easton for $35,000 .. After- wards the property was sold to Daniel V. Ahl, of Pennsylvania. For some years it has not been operated.
Bentzes' Coffee Mill Factory in Boonsboro' was in active operation and during 1849 turned out three hundred coffee mills each day.
Casper W. Wever bought a large traet of land at the foot of Pleasant Valley, and the water power of the Potomac between the present Hagerstown Junction and Harper's Ferry-an almost unlimited power, as the quantity of water is enormous. and the fall in two miles and a half not less than fifteen feet, sufficient for three hun- dred thousand spindles. The design of Wever was to establish a manufacturing town upon his property. the power to be furnished at an annual rental. It was claimed that no place in the Union was more favorably situated for manu- factures. The water power was equal to that of Lowell, while the climate was less rigorous and there was a greater abundance of food, which would make labor cheaper. A company was ac- cordingly formed with George Jacobs of Waynes- boro, Pa., as President; Mason Kinsell, of Chest- nut Hill, Pa., C'apt. Hezekiah Boteler, Edward Garrott, Lewis Bell, John Gray and Barton Bote- ler, directors. In May, 1847, the first sale of lots was advertised. Twenty-six lots were sold, at an average price of $15-being $1800 for less than an acre of land. A contract was made with Jos. P. Shannan to construct a dam for $25,000, the work to be supervised by Charles B. Fisk, the engineer of the Canal. Lots were offered at a nominal price for factory seats and free to any chureli.
But lots were sold upon the condition that no liquor should be sold. In 1849, Joseph G. Chap- man, of Charles County, succeeded Mr. Jacobs as president of the company, James M. Buchanan was elected counsel, Barton Boteler, treasurer, Win. Loughridge, General Agent, and Casper We- ver, Secretary.
The Potomae Company erected a large mill but it was never operated. The Henderson Steel and File Manufacturing Company also ereeted a building in 1846 and continued operations until the approach of the war, about which time Caspar Wever died. William Loughiridge also had a mar- ble works furnished with power by the Weverton Company. William Loughridge was the inventor of the Air Brakes and various important appli- ances. The discovery of the application of air to car brakes was his and the Westinghouse is simply an improvement. He was working on it for many years and a notice of his experiment was pub- lished in 1858. He was a citizen of Washington County and the wife of Alexander Neill is his daughter. He died in Philadelphia in 1890. The great scheme of Wever finally collapsed, and there is nothing now left but a number of stone houses erected for the mill operatives, many of them in ruins, and also some other ruins. Weverton is now the junction point of the Washington County branch of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad with the main line. In 1858 a bill had been introduc- ed into the House of Representatives to establish a National Foundry. Weverton immediately as- pired to be the seat of this great industry. A publie meeting was held and a large committee was appointed to wait upon Congress. Nor was Weverton the only point in Washington County which was thought fit. for this purpose. Willianis- port, which had been disappointed in so many expectations, had seen the Federal City pass her by, had failed to become a station on the Balti- more and Ohio railroad and the junetion point when that road should receive the west-bound travel from Philadelphia and the whole of east- ern Pennsylvania. now saw its opportunity; Wil- liamsport was of all places the place for the National Foundry. It was accessible to Washing- ton and at the same time inaccessible to an invad- ing army and it was believed that the best ore in the United Stats for casting great guns was to be found in the immediate vicinity. A large meet-
*Wheeling Gazette.
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
ing of the people of the town and the surround- ing country was held. Resolutions were adopted setting forth all these advantages and ealling upon adjoining countics of the three States to unite in urging the claims of Williamsport. A little later, after it was supposed that the passage of the bill had been assured, a county meeting was held in Hagerstown, which urged the selection of some site within the limits of Washington County. At- tention was also directed in the newspapers to the junetion of Beaver and Antietam Creeks, at a place known as the "Devil's Back Bone."
In June, 1847, an ineident occurred which arrested the attention of the whole country, and contributed its share towards bringing on the great Civil War. In the latter part of May, about a dozen slaves had fled from their masters in Washington County and taken refuge in Penn- sylvania. Three of them were arrested near Ship- pensburg, and were taken to Carlisle and commit- ted to jail. The owners of these fugitives, Col. Hollingsworth and James H. Kennedy, went to Carlisle, sued out a writ of habeas corpus, and brought them before Judge Hepburn, who upon indentification remanded them to the custody of their owners. The seenes which occurred ai this hearing were described to the author by Judge Hepburn himself. He was the youngest Judge who ever sat on the bench in Pennsylvania. Dur- ing the hearing, a large and infuriated erowd of negroes had gathered into the court room and immediately upon the announcement of the Judge's decision, a rush was made upon the pris- oners to deliver them. Judge Hepburn descended from the bench and seizing a long pole from the hands of a by-stander, called upon the sheriff to do his duty, and drove the mob from the court room. At the Court House door, a carriage was waiting, to convey the prisoners away. As the party reached the door of the carriage, a furious onset was made by a mob of negro men and women, armed with paving stones, clubs and sticks. In the melee the captured woman and girl escaped, but the third slave, a man, was hurried into the carriage and brought back to Maryland.
Kennedy, however, had fallen under a success- ion of blows. The white citizens of the town stood by and did not interfere. Mr. Kennedy was carried to bed, and his principal injury appear- ed to be in the knec, but on the 25th of June, he was suddenly seized with an affection of the heart, brought on by the treatment he had undergone,
and expired in an hour. Whilst suffering in Car- lisle from his injuries, Mr. Kennedy was treated with the utmost kindness and devotion by the people. Nothing which could contribute to luis comfort or to his recovery was left undone and after his death, as his body was borne through the streets on the way to its final resting-place in the old Presbyterian Churchyard in Hagerstown, it was aecompanied by a long procession of citi- zens, who moved to the tolling of the Church bells of the town. The sidewalks of the street through which the procession passed were lined with citi- zens, who stood with uncovered heads. In the afternoon a public meeting was held in Carlisle. and resolutions were adopted, characterizing Mr. Kennedy's death as a public and private calamity -"public, because a citizen had been lost whose whole life was an ornament and whose character was a valuable example of a good nian -- the more to be regretted because his untimely death was in some measure, connceted with the acts of a lawless mob, disgraceful to Carlisle." When the unexpected news of Mr. Kennedy's death reached Hagerstown, it set the whole town in a blaze of indignation. Words were not strong enough to express the feelings of the people. Per- sonal affection for the man who had been killed and deep indignation against the State which by its legislation had nullified laws of Congress and encouraged such scenes of violence drove 'the people almost to frenzy. Public meetings were held and resolutions setting forth the arbitrary conduct of the government of Pennsylvania and the grief of the people were passed. The news- papers of Hagerstown, and espceially the Torch Light and Herald of Freedom, were unmeasured in their denunciation of Pennsylvania and their threats of border retribution. The language used sounds strange indeed now-more as if the time when it was written was a century ago than not much more than half that period. The Carlisle Herald had said "our citizens generally made no interferenec. The evidence that the slaves were fugitives, was clear, and the mass of our citizens therefore regarded them as the rightful property of their owners." This the Hagerstown Herald of Freedom declared to be self conviction. "Sup- pose," argucd the Herald of Freedom, "a hundred of their horses were stolen and brought to Hagers- town, and suppose the owners followed and proved their property and wished to take it away, but a mob arises, in the light of day, in the public
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
streets, strikes them down with bludgeons and stones .and wrests from them their property What would be thought of the mass of our citi- zens if they made no interference?" The next excitement was the trial of the rioters in Carlisle. Professor MeClintock, of Dickinson College, was more than suspected of being what in those days was considered the most despicable of persons, an Abolitionist. Evidence which caused his ar- rest of inciting the riot was produced. All the Southern students of the College, a large portion of the whole number, demanded the dismissal of MeClintock from the faculty, the alternative being their own immediate withdrawal. The trial for rioting came off, and to the general surprise, Mc- Clintock was acquitted and thirteen negroes con- victed. Then the school-boys were appeased, and McClintock began to talk about suing the Hagers- town papers for libel. But lie probably well un- derstood that if he had ventured into Hagerstown, his reception would have been of a most inhos- pitable character. Indeed, the Herald of Freedom in response to a demand by the Pennsylvania papers for the return of a negro girl who had been cajoled into this State and then sold, pro- posed that the girl would be returned if McClin- tock was sent over in exchange. In his message to the Legislature in January 1848, Governor Pratt referred to the incident of Mr. Kennedy's death and the refusal to gratify his requisition by the Governor of Pennsylvania upon the ground that a certain law passed in Maryland for the punishment of runaways in 1838 was unconstitu- tional. The whole matter came up in the Legis- lature, and an animated debate took place, in which the late Judge French related the circun- stances of Kennedy's death and the grievances of citizens of Washington County and Mr. Clag- ett offered a series of resolutions, calling upon the Legislature of Pennsylvania to repeal the ob- noxious law which prevented the recapture of fugitive slaves.
In the early days of Washington County there were but few negro slaves. The great mass of the people were Germans of small means, and whilst there were some owners of large or manorial tracts of land who owned many slaves, the aggregate in the County compared with that of the tidewater counties was small. But there were for many years great numbers of "indentured" Dutch and Irish servants, or Re- demiptioners, as they were called. A "Redemp-
tioner" was simply an assisted immigrant; a person who desired to emigrate to the new world, had not money enough to pay his passage, and agreed to serve any one for a term of years who would pay it for him. This result was obtained by the master of the vessel who, upon his arrival in America, would sell his passengers at public auction, for a term of years. The law protected the purchaser, and the Redemptioner was practic- ally a slave for a time and could be sold as often as successive owners should see fit. As late as September, 1818, we find an advertisement in one of the Hagerstown papers of German Redemption- ers for sale, "principally young people, farmers and tradesmen of every kind." Indeed, just as among the ancient Romans, poets and men of learning were held in bondage, so among the Re- demptioners were men of education and attain- ments; now and then a school master would be offered for sale. From these people are descended some of the foremost of our citizens; one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was the son of a Redemptioner. Now and then the unfortunate immigrant would fall into the hands of a cruel master, and advertisements offering re- ward for the capture of runaway indentured ser- vants were not infrequent ; advertisements of sales were more frequent still. For instance in June, 1799, Edward Drury of Sharpsburg, advertises for sale in the Herald the time of an indented Irish servant girl, one year and nine months. But gradually the indentured servants disappear- ed from the County, by becoming citizens and their places were filled by negro slaves. As wealth increased, the numbers of these grew, until check- ed by the growing disposition in Pennsylvania to nullify the fugitive slave laws of Congress, and the encouragement of the people across the bor- der to fugitives. Then slave property became too precarious. The total number of slaves in the County decreased from 2193 in 1800 to 2090 in 1850. But Hagerstown was always a noted slave market. Fugitives from the Southern coun- ties or from Virginia would pass through the County on their way to Pennsylvania. There were here many "professional" slave catchers who would capture them just as they were about to reach the promised land ; and indeed the free soil of Pennsylvania was often invaded, and negroes caught and hurried back across the line before they had any opportunity to appeal to the laws of that State for protection. The general penalty
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
for running away was to be sold. to the Cotton States, and the buyers came to Hagerstown for the purpose of purchasing those unfortunate crea- tures who liad so nearly, as they supposed, reached their goal. For years it was a constant cause of complaint that the jail was improperly used to imprison negrocs until their owners came to claim or sell them. In 1825, the Grand Jury of the November terni, in its report to the Court, charged that the jailor had been using the jail as a repository of the slave-trade; that he caught slaves, and whilst they were held in chains in some private dungeon, the jailor was negotiating with their owners, and extorting from them un- reasonably high prices. The jury therefore in- sisted that the sheriff should discharge his jailor. In 1819, a petition was sent to the Legislature, signed by many of the leading people of the Coun- ty, asking that a stop should be put to the slave traffic in Hagerstown, and the improper use of the jail. Growing out of this recapturing runaway slaves, a case was tried in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, in 1824, which excited intense interest throughout the State. It was the test case to decide under some recent legislation, wheth- cr Pennsylvania would continue to surrender fugitive slaves or would nullify the laws of Con- gress upon that subject. One Peter Case was indicted for kidnapping a negro man named Heze- kiah Cooper, and lodging him in the Hagerstown jail. The penalty under this indictment was a fine of $2,000 and confinement in the penitentiary for a term not exceeding twenty-one years. Coop- er claimed to be free. But at the trial, Major Edward G. Williams and Thomas Kennedy proved conclusively that the negro was a fugitive slave, belonging to Major Williams. In his charge to the jury the Judge said that it was not their duty to decide cases upon abstract principles of Chris- tianity or humanity, but in accordance with the law of the land. Under that law, the owner of the slave had a right to him and he directed the jury to bring in a verdict of not guilty. Slavery in Washington County was necessarily of a mild character. Any harsh treatment upon the part .. of a master resulted in a flight to Pennsylvania, and the recovery from that State, with many of its people in sympathy with the fugitives, was difficult. Indeed, slaves were generally unprofit- able, and they appear to have been a somewhat unruly class, for the papers are filled with com- plaints of gatherings of noisy crowds of negroes
in the Market House and elsewhere, drinking, gambling and carousing, pitching cents, playing cards and other unlawful games in stables. The town statute books were full of ordinances prohib- iting these gatherings, but apparently there was no good result. The only thing the negroes stood in mortal terror of was being sold to the Cotton fields. A threat of such a sale always produced results. One unmanageable negro girl about 20 years of age, the property of Mrs. Susan Gray, of Boonsboro', had been threatened with a sale, and seeing some visitors come to the house whom she mistook for negro buyers, she deliberately took an axe and cut off her left hand so as to make herself unmarketable. A man confined in jail cut off four of his fingers to prevent the sale, and another with a similar motive broke his skull with a stone.
A writer in the Washington Union in 1847 contended that the change of destination of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad from Pittsburg to Wheeling was due to the Kennedy riot. It was customary for gentlemen to travel with body ser- vants and no one would desire to carry them through Pennsylvania, for fear of being deprived of them.
The condition of Hagerstown and its streets began again to attract public attention. The streets were in a most desperate condition, and money was required to mend them. Whenever money was needed for any public purposes, whether to build a church or make streets, a lottery was deemed the best expedient for raising it. A town meeting was accordingly held to petition the Leg- islature for a lottery grant. Chapter 198 of the laws of 1847 changed the name of the town from Elizabeth Town to Hagerstown. It had not been known as Elizabethtown for many years. Every- one called it Hagerstown and it was thought best to make its legal name conform with its actual name. In the case of Funkstown, this was never done and to this day the legal name of the town is "Jerusalem" although but few persons know it. In writing deeds, lots are described as "lying in the town of Jerusalem. commonly called Funks- town." Under authority of the act of 1847, North strect in Hagerstown was opened and Locust and Mulberry streets continued northward to intersect it. Potomac street went off into the Leitersburg road. The completion of the turnpike to the Pennsylvania line was celebrated by a cotillion given by the contractors, Robert Fowler and F.
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
K. Zeigler. But the turnpike did not begin im- mediately at the northern limits of the town, and between the two was one of the worst pieces of road in the County. A great deal of heavy wagon- ing was done over this road from Pennsylvania and the rich section of the County lying between Hagerstown and the Pennsylvania line. A wagon stuck fast in the tenacious mire in the road be- tween "Wayside" and the Reformed Church was no uncommon sight, and jack-screws were the only appliances by which it could be lifted from the mud. Since the building of the railroads which diverted travel from the National pike, Hagerstown had made no progress. On the eon- trary, it had deereased in population. In 1840 there were 3,900 inhabitants and in 1849 the number had decreased to 3,691. Of these, 600 were negroes-211 slaves and 389 free. This cen- sus was taken by Daniel F. Little, who was em- ployed by the town cominisisoners, receiving the sum of ten dollars for the service.
But the spirit of enterprise was not entirely dead in the town. In 1847, Edwin Bell, the editor of the Torch Light, suggested the necessity of a public hall. Since the foundation of the town, there had been no other place for conven- tions for public meetings and for theatrical per- formances than the Court Hall, the room of the Town Council in the town hall and the ball-rooms of the taverns. Mr. Bell pointed out the necess- ity for a commodious room to be used for such purposes. The project met with the approval of the people and the sum of $3,500 the amount deemed necessary, was quickly subscribed. A pub- lic meeting was held in January, 1848, of which Isaac Nesbit was chairman and Edwin Bell sec- rotary. The proposed lots which were suggested as sites for the hall give us some idea of the value of the town property sixty years ago. Four lots were proposed. That of George I. Harry, which fronted 40 feet on Washington street was offered for $1300. The building would cost $3,300 in addition. The estimated rental of rooms under the hall was $250. This lot was finally selected. The second lot offered was owned by E. M. Mealey. It fronted 45 feet on Jonathan street, and had a depth of 45 feet. It was immediately in the rear of Mr. Mealey's residence and was offered for $600. The store-rooms at this location, it was estimated, would rent for $212. The third lot was that of Mrs. Price, fronting 54 feet on Washington street and this was offered at $1000.
The other property was that of Peter Swartzwel- der, fronting 80 feet on the Square and extending back 45 feet on Washington street. This was the fine old residence of Gen. Heister which is now standing. The building eould have been made suitable by an expenditure of $2,000. The price asked for this property was $4,000, and the store rooms under the hall would rent for $520 a ycar. This property, at the first meeting of stoek- holders, was unanimously selected, but for some reason it was abandoned in favor of the Harry lot. The elaborate ceremonies used in laying the corner-stone of a building which was to eost but a little over $1,000 seems absurd, but it was rel- atively an important event. The building was begun by the laying of the corner-stone in Septem- ber, 1848, by the Masons. The celebration was in charge of Col. George Schley, who was assisted by two aids, Matthew S. Barber and Dr. William Ragan. Judge Daniel Weisel delivered an oration and the Rev. Mr. Conrad offered a prayer. The long procession which moved to the site of the. proposed building and which stood around the corner-stone to listen to the oration, was made up of bands of music, several military companies, the Temperance Association, Odd Fellows, Free Masons, the clergy of the Town, the Mayor and Town Council, officers of the Lyceum Company, laborers and contraetors. the Literary Association, the Franklin Debating Society, the Beneficial So- ciety, the Orphans' Court, the representative in Congress and the delegates to the Legislature, the Hagerstown Bench and Bar, teachers and children of the schools, citizens and strangers. The en- tire cost of the property was $5,500, the stoek $3,600 leaving the difference a debt upon the com- pany.
Matters of vastly greater importance were occurring. which attracted comparatively but little attention, because their importance was not un- derstood. The Legislature in 1847 gave a eharter to the Western Union Telegraph Company, to eon- struct a telegraph from Baltimore to Wheeling and provide for an office in Hagerstown. But it was not until Saturday, July 1, 1854, that the first telegram was taken from the old fashioned registering instrument by William D. Bell, son of the founder of the Toreh Light, a lad in H. P. Aughinhangh's store, who was the first oper- ator. There was then a local telegraph company, of which J. Dixon Roman was the President, and William M. Marshall, M. S. Barber, Peter
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
Swartzwelder, Dr. Howard Kennedy and George W. Smith, were directors. In November, 1849, while the telegraph line was building, Edward M. Mealey & Co., who ran a line of stages between Hagerstown and Frederick, extended the Adams Express route to Hagerstown. Mr. Mealey's little son, the present Edward W. Mealcy, was the first agent. The Adams Express Company was a part- nership concern. Mr. Mealey was one of Adams' first partners and became owner of some of the stock. Mr. Mealey and Mr. Adams became also strong personal friends, and the intimacy was kept up by Edward W. Mcaley until the death of Mr. Adams.
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