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 46
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"A few years ago I opened, in the offiec of a gentleman of this place, an essay on the life of the late Dr. Alexander, of Princeton, which I read with great interest, as it portrayed the life and character of one of the best and greatest men who has ever adorned the annals of Amcriea. An ac- count was given of an interview which took place sometime about the beginning of the present een- tury, between Dr. Alexander, as he was returning from Virginia, and a lady at Sharpsburg, in tins county, named Mrs. Orndorff, who was supposed to be in a trance. A minute and curious ac- count is given of the interview and of the pe- culiarities of the ease. I had never heard of it before. Here, thought I, is an opportunity of testing the memory of Dr. Dorsey. I met him soon after on the street, and by the simple query, "Did you ever hear of Mrs. Orndorff, who was in a trance?" I afforded hiin a text for a narrative of more than an hour long. It is sufficient for this occasion to say, that his representations precisely correspond with those of the biographer of Dr. Alexander, only that in addition he gave a min- ute account of the previous and subsequent history of this remarkable woman, and told me even pre- cisely where she was buried, a fact which few per- sons, I suppose, now eare much about knowing.
"It is true there was a class of parabolical stor- ies he used to indulge in, which, from their extrav- agant character, it is plain, he never intended any one should believe. They were told, I presume, to enforce some particular point he wished to estab- lish. For example :
"He used also seriously to affirm that of all bed-eovering snow was the warmest. To prove
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
this he stated that on a very cold winter's night he found himself in the mountains, a great dis- tance from home, and that he had to spend the night with his patient in the loft of a eomfortless cabin. The bed covering was so thin that lie at first thought he would freeze, but sleep, the friend who never deserted him, soon came to his relief, and eaused him to forget his sufferings. When he awoke, to his surprise he found himself as warm and comfortable as if he had been in his own bed, and upon examining into the cause of the great change in the condition of things, he found that during the night a driving snow storm had covered his bed about six inches with fresh snow.
"It sometimes happened also, that he would be deteeted in contradietions in some unimportant point in some of his long stories, and some exam- ples of a ludicrous character might be furnished. They never, however, disconcerted the narrator, who always managed to get out of them with perfect self-possession. He onee was describing to me a very large and gay party at General Spriggs'. The moon was bright, the sleighing superb, and the number of sleighs was legion. After relating many of the minute incidents of the party, he eon- tinued that he then asked Mrs. -- to take his arın and they walked into the garden, where "we picked some finc ripe strawberries." "Why," said I with more frankness than politeness, "I thought you said there was snow on the ground?" He immediately replied, without any discomfiture, "you are right; I was thinking of Spriggs' wed- ding, which took place forty-five years ago; that was in strawberry time ;" and he coolly continued his narrative to its close as if there had been no interruption.
"However agreeable may have been the inci- dents of this old man's life, his death was even more so. As all things but God and eternity have
an end, so the life of this extraordinary man at length approaches its close. In the midst of the same cheerfulness which had always characterized his life, he receives the summons to be ready. He resignedly takes his bed, from which he knew he never would arise. The time for the settlement of his great account is at hand. The shades of the eveninng of life are gathering around him. He feels that he is walking upon the solemn, si- lent shores of the Ocean of Eternity, about to em- bark upon its uncertain waters. And here let us pause and contemplate the great merey and forbearance of our Father in Heaven, as illustrated in the death which is now approaching. The fidelity with which he had discharged every duty . to his neighbor, seemed to disarm his great and good master of all resentments for any wrongs donc to him.
"And now, my fellow-citizens, in ending my task, and in describing the last scene in the life which I have so imperfectly attempted to delin- eate, permit me to use the appropriate language of Queen Catherine's usher, in announcing to her the death of her favorite Wolsey:
- "Full of repentance,
Continual meditations, tears and sorrows, He gave his honors to the world again,
His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace."
"The name of old Dr. Dorsey will long sug- gest to those who knew him a train of solemn, yet pleasant memories and emotions, and the com- ing generations of our people will indulge in a pious curiosity in looking at the house where he (welt, and in listening to descriptions of the per- son, and anecdotes of the virtues and peculiari- ties of one, who belonged to a period and a gener- ation which he had stamped with his impress, but which have passed away forever."
273
OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
CHAPTER XVIII
OWARDS the close of 1849, people be- gan to fear another visitation of the cholera. In July a public meeting was held in Hagerstown to see that the town was clean and in a healthy condi- tion. Hagerstown escaped, but, as on a previous occasion, the disease was fatal in Williamsport. In the early months of the summer of 1853 there were thirty-nine deaths from cholera in and around Williamsport ; thirty-two of them were in the town. The symptoms characterizing the dis- ease made many of the physicians deny that it was true Asiatic cholera.
"The first fatal cases were attended by the symptoms of cholera morbus alone. Subsequent attacks were attended by more strongly marked peculiarities of cholera; yet there was still an ab- sence of many of its prominent features., Where diarrhoea, sickness of the stomach and cramps were the first symptoms, successful treatment was not difficult; yet a bilious condition succeeded which left the system-already exhausted-to un- dergo a second treatment, different in its char- acter, yet none the less rigorous than the first. So, in instances where a bilious derangement was the first symptom, and readily yielded to medical care, the peculiarities of cholera developed them- selves, generally in their worst form. Since the first few cases, too, the disease assumed an en- tirely different phase. There was an almost en- tire absence of cramps and retchings-the patient sinking almost immediately into a collapse-cold- ness succeeding, with a constant watery discharge,
which soon proved fatal, without any apparent pain or suffering. Of these latter cases, death in some instances resulted in a few hours."*
The next week, after there had been a cessa- tion of the disease, the weather became cooler ; the mortality immediately increased, and there were five or six deaths in a few days and a dozen violent cases. In the families of the Messrs. Beatty, who resided in the vicnity of the town, the fatality was terrible, some eight persons, white and colored, having died in five days, one or two colored boys died below the town, and Mr. Nei- kirk some miles above it; there were several cases at Leiter's Mill on the Conococheague, but no deaths. William G. Van Lear, a native of Wil- liamsport, who had settled in Cumberland, died in that town of cholera during the summer. The College of St. James, although the health of the students remained good, yet as a precautionery measure, was closed for the summer vacation two weeks earlier than usual. In Hagerstown, prob- ably by reason of the thorough cleansing which the town had received, there was not a single case, and all through the epidemic at Williamsport, the health of Hagerstown was remarkably good. A victim of cholera in 1854 was Capt. John D. Hart, of Hancock. He was passing through Wood Co., Ohio, and there he and his brother were taken with cholera and died in a few hours. Capt. Hart fought the British in 1812 on the northern frontier. In 1844, he was a member of the As- sembly, and had held other offices. At the time of his death he was sixty-six years of age.
*Williamsport Journal of the Times.
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
The County became deeply excited in Sep- tember, 1853, over a trial removed to Hagerstown from Cumberland. Robert Swann and William O. Sprigg, two prominent young men in the lat- ter town, having high social position, got into a quarrel which resulted in the killing of Sprigg, in February, 1852. Sprigg was seated at the stove in the office of the Barnum Hotel, when Swan entered with a double-barrelled shot gun, and shot twice, the second load taking effect in the back of the head and causing instant death. Judge Perry declined to sit in the case, because of his near relationship to the prisoner, and Jos- eph I. Merrick was appointed special Judge. In the trial, the whole population became partisans of one side or the other, and when Mr. Merrick accepted bail for the prisoner he was promptly burned in effigy. With such a state of public sen- timent it was manifestly impossible to obtain an impartial trial and so the case was removed to Washington County. After a very protracted trial, the jury brought in a verdict of not guilty. This verdict excited almost as much indignation in Washington County as the release of the pris- oner on bail did in Allegany. Indignation meet- ings were held in various places, and in Boons- boro' the jury was burnt in effigy. This trial was among the last public acts of Joseph I. Mer- rick. His health failed, and he removed from his beautiful home, Oak Hill, on the northern suburbs of Hagerstown, to Washington, where he died in 1854.
Murder trials, about this time, when they did come, came like other troubles, "not single spies, but in battalions." Two months after the Swann trial, Mary Ellen Thomas, a free negro, was convicted of murder in the first degree and this was the first conviction since 1819, when the Cottrells were sentenced to death. The convict in this case was employed as a domestic in the family of William G. Baer, near Sharpsburg. Im- mediately upon entering the house, the girl had taken an unreasonable and violent aversion to one of Baer's twin infants, and did not rest until she had administered such a dose of laudanum as caused its death. The child's mother saw the girl pouring the poison into the child's mouth, but too late to save it. The trial for the crime resulted in a conviction for murder in the first degree, but the sentence of death was commuted, upon the ground of insanity, into imprisonment for life. At the same term of Court, Joshua An-
derson was convicted of murder in the second de- gree for killing George Parlett on the canal. In March, 1854, Michael Keplinger was found dead in Jonathan Hager's Mill. A jury of inquest pronounced the death accidental. Subsequently, suspicions of foul play were excited and a second inquest was held. This time the verdict charged John Spaet, the head miller, with the crime of murder. Spact was supposed to have been the only person in the mill at the time of the death. He was accordingly arrested. His case was re- moved to Frederick and there after a trial of four days, he was acquitted. At that time Thomas Harbine was the State's attorney.
But during the excitements of murder trials, politics held its own. This decade witnessed tlie rise and fall of the American or "Know Noth- ing" party, and the Know Nothing campaigns were among the most exciting in the history of the country. In 1853, the Whigs had pretty well run their course and that year they made no nomination for Congress in this district. Wil- liam T. Hamilton was nominated by the Demo- erats and Frank Thomas the "old war horse of Democracy," announced himself as an independ- ent Democratic candidate. This was the begin- ning of his departure from the political faith of his life, and he afterwards became as much dis- tinguished for his bitter opposition to the Demo- cratic party as he had previously been for his' advocacy of its principles. During the war he was a prominent republican and inscribed upon his tomb-stone in the little graveyard at St. Mark's Episcopal Church at Petersville, Freder- ick County, is an epitaph which claims for him the authorshin of that clause of the Constitution of 1864 which abolished slavery in Maryland. At the election in 1853, the Whigs did not give Thom- as that hearty support which he expected. Many of them said that if they had no choice but to vote for a Democrat, they would vote for a thor- ougli Democrat and so supported Hamilton. This gentleman was elected by a good majority and carried his County by a vote of 2,914 to 1,951 for Thomas. But the Whig candidate for Governor Richard I. Bowie, received 2,514 votes, only cighty- four less than Ligon, the Democratic candidate. The Whigs elected one candidate on their local ticket, A. K. Syester, to the House of Delegates. Indeed, this gentleman always made a strong can- didate and usually carried his County whenever he ran.
275
OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
The next Congressional campaign, the Know Nothing party had become powerful and at the clection in 1855 carried everything before it. William T. Hamilton was again the Democratic candidate and against him the Know Nothings put up Henry W. Hoffman, then a very young man and a graceful and eloquent speaker. The campaign was exciting to the last degrce, and the candidates rendered it the more interesting by a series of joint discussions. The Democrats knew all along that they were engaged in an almost hopeless contest, but that knowledge did not dampen the zeal and energy of their candidate in the smallest degree. He made a vigorous and gallant campaign, speaking at every hamlet in the district in his own peculiar style, so popular with the people among whom he lived. In many places he was subjected to interruptions and disturb- ances which would have discouraged a less de- termined man. Hoffman carried the district by 749 majority and Washington County by a vote of 2,622 to 2,566 for Hamilton; the latter car- ried Allegany County by 39 . majority. But the Know-Knothing predominance was of short dura- tion. Their downfall came as rapidly as cheir rise. In 1857 they re-nominated Mr. Hoffman to Congress, and this time Col. Jacob Kunkel was his opponent and defeated him by a majority of 168. A. K. Syester was again before the people, this time as the Know Nothing candidate for the bench of the Court of Appeals. The district in which he ran was composed of Allegany, Wash- ington, Frederick, Carroll, Baltimore and Har- ford Counties. His opponent, James L. Bartol, afterwards under the Constitution of 1867 Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals, defeated him by 22 majority. This was accomplished by some spe- cial work in the Clearspring district of Washing- ton County, where Syester fell sixty votes behind his ticket. At the State election this year, there was a tie between James W. Leggett and Isaac Leggett for the House of Delegates, and a special election was held in February. This time Dr. W. A. Riddlemoser was the Democratic candidate against Leggett and defeated him by a majority of 15 votes. The marvelous frequency of tie votes in this County is a subject of remark and they have later occurred as frequently with a vote of over eight thousand as when the population of the County was only half as great. . In 1859 Kun- kle and Hoffman were again in the field for Con- gress, and engaged in joint discussions that gave
rise to much bitterness of feeling which did not end with the election. Kunkle freely charged Hoffman with being in sympathy with the abol- itonists and Republicans of the North-a charge which was bitterly resented and denicd. Kunkle won the fight, and was re-elected. In Washing- ton County there was another tie, Kunkle and Hoffman each receiving 2,842 votes. On the local ticket the Americans elected two of their eandi- dates; A. K. Stake defeated Dr. Riddlemoser for the Assembly and Edward M. Mobley was elected Sheriff. Among the Democrats elected were Eakle, Coudy, Brining and Freaner to the Assem- bly and William Motter State's Attorney. It was during the session to which George Freaner was elected this year that he distinguished himself.
In January, 1858, an election was held in Hagerstown, entirely non-political but nonetheless exciting upon that account. For nearly a century the people of Hagerstown, like those mentioned by the Prophet, had walked in darkness. There were no street lamps by which to guide the foot- steps through the deep mud of the streets, or over the rough and ill-paved or unpaved foot ways. When the early bed-time of the people came and the lights disappeared from the windows, or a little later, where the feeble ray of the smoky lamp which marked the front of a tavern was extinguished, absolute darkness brooded over the town, unless indeed the moon or the stars were shining. At the beginning of 1858, a movement for street lights was started and the matter was discussed with all the zeal and intemperance which in those days invariably attended any dis- cussion of public matters. The matter was sub- mitted to a vote of the people, and at the election excitement ran high. The election was held in January, and 484 votes were cast, 236 for street lights and 212 against them. Upon that narrow majority the lighting of the streets rested, and from the little oil lamps which were then put into use, and which scarcely sufficed to render darkness visible, our present splendid arc lights were evolved.
Nor were lights the only improvements to the town about this time. In 1854 a company was formed which purchased the historic Globe Tavern for the purpose of demolishing it and building a modern hotel in its place. The old tavern had been the scene of many incidents of interest, in it many of the great men of the coun- try had been entertained ; there Harry of the West
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
had been banquetted and Andrew Jackson had re- ceived delegations of the citizens. Its walls had held Santa Anna and Albert Gallatin and Thomas H. Benton and David Crockett. Around this building clustered the memories of many great events in the history of the town and it is not surprising that its demolition should have excited more than a passing interest. The property was bought from James I. Hurley and Thomas Har- bine, and the new company entered into a con- tract with J. B. Thurston for pulling down the old tavern, and soon afterwards for building the new one. The price for erecting the new build- ing, which was to be called the Washington House, was $12,500 and the material of the old building. The lot upon which the Washington House was built was the castern two-thirds of the lot now covered by the Baldwin. But by the time the new building was completed, in March, 1856, the cost of the entire property amounted to $28,000. Of this sum $13,000 was paid in and the remainder raised by a mortgage on the property. Thomas and James Dixon of Baltimore were the archi- tects of the building, and when it was completed it was pronounced the finest hotel in the State outside of Baltimore and "a triumph of mechan- ical skill and genius." It was four stories in height, eighty feet in front, forty-eight feet deep, and with a wing fifty-two by thirty-three feet. This wing was subsequently enlarged. The hotel contained forty-six chambers and the necessary parlors and offices. The first landlord was Wil- liam Stetson, who began his career by giving a banquet. The leading gentlemen of the town wore gathered around the table, and we may be sure that the exuberance of the speeches made was in no wise diminished by the toasts which were drunk to the success of the host.
Another improvement in the town was the introduction of illuminating gas. In May, 1854, a company was formed for the manufacture of gas from "rosin oil." The plant was located on the rear of the Lyceum Hall lot. The capital stock was $6.000. J. D. Roman was President, with a board of directors composed of P. B. Small, Peter Schwartzwelder, Dr. H. H. Harvey, David Zeller, T. G. Robertson and William M. Marshall. The company, however, was not very prosperous. It got into debt and in August, 1859, the Sheriff advertised the plant at public sale to satisfy a judgment. The operation of the works ceased, and there was loud complaint and lamenta-
tion in the town because the people were com- pelled to go back to lamps and greasy eandles. This hardship had to be endured but a short time, for the matter was adjusted with the creditors, work was resumed, and customers supplied witlı gas as usual.
In 1855 the Washington County Branch Bank was incorporated and established with George Kealhofer as cashier. Its banking house was where the bank of Eavey & Lane now stands, next to the Court House.
In 1854 the assessed valuation of the County for taxation was $14,400,000. Of this, $10,400,- 000 was realty and $317,000 slaves. We may judge that the value of real estate in Hagerstown was very low compared with its present value, by the fact that in January, 1855, the property at the northwest corner of Washington and Jon- athan streets, then occupied by Daniel G. Mummna, was sold to Oliver Stonebraker for $4,000. The value of a slave, a young and healthy man, at the same time was about $1,000. In 1854, several slaves of Jacob H. Grove of Sharpsburg ran away and made good tlicir escape to New York. There they were arrested and returned to their owner. Among them was a man named Steplien Pem- broke, who had a brother who was a preacher in New York City. When Stephen Pembroke was returned to slavery, the congregation of his broth- er raised the sum of $1,000 with which they pur- chased Stephen and gave him his freedom.
During these events, at least during the sum- mer and autumn of 1854. the people of the County, and indeed of the whole country were in a bad plight, and almost enduring a famine. There was no rain for months, the wheat crop had failed and the corn in the field was as dry as tinder. Flour was selling as high at $9 a barrel, and corn at 90 cents a bushel. Prices would have been even higher but for the abundant crops in Europe, and people began to look across the ocean for their bread. But the most curious man- ifestation of the great drought was the wretched paper upon which the County, and indeed all the newspapers were printed. Streams which sup- plied the paper mills of the country had failed and no paper could be made. The New York journals were obtaining their supply from Eng- land, the Mail, the Torch Light and the Herald of Freedom had to take such as they could get and they had great difficulty in obtaining any at all, even of the inferior quality which they used.
277
OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
The next year there was a good corn crop and Dr. Wm. Ragan took a prize at the Agricultural Fair for raising 122 bushels of corn on an acre.
Possibly it was the hard times consequent upon the drought which stimulated the veterans of 1812 to seek some relief from the Government. A meeting was to be held in Washington on the 8th of January, 1855, to take action with regard to the land warrants to which veterans were en- titled. On the day after Christmas, 1854, the old soldiers then living in Washington County met in the Court House in Hagerstown to choose dele- gates to that convention. John Miller was the president, Daniel Hawer and James Biays were the secretaries. Many people gathered to witness the proceedings and Andrew K. Syester made a speech to the old soldiers. Among the veterans were Daniel Creager and Frederick Kinsell, the drummer and fifer of Captain Shryock's Company, who played one of their old time marches with animation and thrilling effect*
On the 12th of September, 1858, there was a celebration of the battle of North Point in Hagers- town. A procession marched through the town under command of Dr. J. Clagett Dorsey chief marshal. The fire companies of Hagerstown, Winchester and other towns were in the procession, at the head of which were the old defenders in carriages. The oration was made by A. K. Syes- ter from the veranda of the Washington House. About the time of this meeting died old "Aunt Suckey" a negro belonging to James Davis of Hagerstown. She was a hundred years old and claimed to rank among the old defenders, because she had several times cooked dinner for General Washington. Jack Wolgamot, a soldier of 1812,
died in Martinsburg in 1856, and in April of the next year John Van Lear, Cashier of the Wash- ington County Bank died suddenly at the age of seventy years.
On the night of January 18, 1857 what might have been an appalling disaster occurred. Kemp Hall, a large four-story building at the College of St. James, was destroyed by fire. The winter of 1856-'7 was long remembered as one of the severest in many years. The weather was bitterly cold, and the snow fall was very heavy, impeding travel, stopping mails and cutting off communica- tion between places in close proximity to each other. During the heaviest snow storm and bitter- est cold of the season, at three o'clock in the morn- ing, this building in which nearly seventy-five per- sons were sleeping, suddenly burst into flames. The Prefect, the Rev. John K. Lewis, felt the heat in his room, and awakened Professor Joseph Coit. He then took a lame boy from his bed and carried him over to the Rectory, the end of the main building occupied by Dr. Kerfoot, the Rector of the college, whom he found dressed and in attend- ance upon a sick child, and whom he notified of the fire. Mr. Coit then went through the building and awakened each boy. This was done in such a way as to avoid a panic and to secure prompt renioval from the building. No time was allowed for dressing. The fire had begun at the furnace very near the stairway, and before anyone could escape it was in flames. Exit was then made through the now suffocating smoke, by ladders through trap doors from floor to floor, a fire escape which had been provided for such an emergency. Soon the sixty-five boys were out in safety, stand- ing in their night clothes in the bitter cold and
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