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 48
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
John Hays Hammond, had so conspicuous a part, Mr. Hall was employed by several of the foreign corporations concerned in the gold mining and diamond developments of South Africa of which Cecil Rhodes was chief to supervise the hydraulic operations necessary to their irrigation and espee- ially the discovery and development of the sourees to which that system could be applied. Upon this work Mr. Hall had made much progress which was arrested by the breaking out of the Boer War and was terminated by his return to the United States.
William Fitzhugh, the only son of Peregrine Fitzhugh, who thien a ehild, accompanied lis fath- er's family to California, grew up in that State and graduated at the University of California and at onee entered into business in San Franeiseo and became prominent. As such he was made town and county surveyor. Subsequently he was employ- ed by the Consolidated Gold Fields Co. of Eng- land as its engineer, the duties of which required his personal inspection of its mining interests in various countries of the world, including the wilds of Siberia, of Alaska, of Australia and such other remote places as were supposed to contain gold. His home was originally in Paris, where he has resided with his wife, Mary Marsh, of California, and two children, during late years, interrupted only by occasional visits with his family to his relatives in this country. IIis suecess in life has been suel as to lead to his present establishment in London where he has built a home.
The family of Richard P. Hammond consisted of three sons : John Hays, (named after his unele, Colonel Hays) ; Henry Truett, (after a merchant of San Francisco, a warin friend of his father) ; Richard P., Jr., and a daughter, Elizabeth, a mem- ber of the family of her elder brother. In London and elsewhere she developed remarkable talent as a writer and is noted for her brilliancy of mind. Henry and Richard, Jr., are dead, the former hav- ing passed through the West Point Military Acad- emy, after brief service in the army, resigned and engaged in the praetiee of law in San Francisco, and was either nominated or elected to the office of City Attorney when his death occurred. The younger son, bearing his father's name, and barely of age, was appointed by President Cleveland, U. S. Marshal for the northern district of California. This was said to have been under the impression that it was the senior of the name thus honored, but upon the attention of the President being eall- ed to it, and upon further inquiry, he directed the
appointment to stand as one quite fitting to be made.
John Hays Hammond was born in 1855. As the companion of his father through life and the friend of his mother from the day she landed in San Francisco until my departure in 1857 my connection with the families of Colonel Hays and Major IIammond was necessarily intimate and a delightful remembranee. Young John had then attained his second year and when next we met it was in Hagerstown, on the oeeasion of his marriage to Miss Natalie Harris, the daughter of Judge Harris, of Mississippi, and niece of General Har- ris, a member of Congress from that State, by whom she had been adopted. She had met Mr. Hammond in Europe while he was prosecuting his work as a mining engineer and she on a tour of the Continent. Her sister was the wife of Dr. Broderick, of Hancock, and the marriage took place there, which was the occasion of the visit.of Mr. Hammond to Washington County.
His career during this intermediate time and immediately after his marriage forms an interest- ing episode in the history of the latter half of the nineteenth century. According to his biography he graduated at Yale, took a mining course at Freiburg, Germany, and was mining expert on the .U. S. Geological Survey and Mineral Census for examination of the California gold fields. In 1882 he became superintendent of silver mines in Sonora, Mexico, and was consulting engineer in gold and iron companies of Grass Valley, Califor- nia. In 1893 he went to Africa as consulting en- gineer of a London gold mining company and as suclı became connected with the chartered eon- pany of British South Africa and other organiza- tions. Then followed the Jamison affair, forming the most thrilling ineident in his romantic and adventurous life and which resulted in his trial, condemnation and sentenee to death. This Presi- dent Kruger commuted to fifteen years in prison and he was finally released by the Boers upon pay- ment of a fine of $125,000. Upon his release and return to the fields of his former labor with en- hanced distinetion in his profession, he had the satisfaction to find his mining property in Colo- rado and elsewhere greatly advanced in value, en- abling him not only to endow his alma mater, the University of Yale, with the munificent gift of a hall, but also to tender his services as leeturer in advancement of the profession of engineer to which he was so greatly indebted. Thus occupied he has
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
since passed his time surrounded by his family, in affluence and independence, between London and Yale.
I had scarcely finished the preparation of the preceding narration when at the instance of Dallas Brenner, one of the associates of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of our County, the paper appended hereto was handed me by his niece, Miss Nellie Watson. She had but recently found it on the attic floor of the old mansion in the Mitchell Ad- dition to Hagerstown, occupied by her parents, and for many years the home of the Mitchell fam- ily, one of the daughters of which was the wife of Dr. William Hammond, Jr., the brother of Richard P. Hammond.
Hagerstown, June 23rd, 1848. Lt. Richard P. Hammond,
U. S. Army.
Dear Sir :- In view of your gallant and dis- tinguished conduct in Mexico in the service of your Country and in view of the high estimate placed by your friends and associates upon your character as a gentleman and a soldier, the under- signed are anxious to tender to you some mark of their respect and to offer some evidence of the pleasure they feel upon your safe return to your native Country. They therefore beg leave to ten- der to you a public dinner to be' given in Hagers- town at such time as may suit your convenience, and to express the hope that it may be convenient and agrecable to you to accept this unostentatious mark of their esteem and friendship.
Very respectfully, your friends, JOHN THOMPSON MASON.
G. HOWARD HOLLINGSWORTH,
JAMES WASON.
ISAAC NESBITT. WM. MOTTER. JERVIS SPENCER.
JACOB HOLLINGSWORTH.
D. WEISED.
WM. CLINE. R. II. LAWRENCE. CITAS. HI. ENOCII. Z. S. CLAGGETT.
.
C. SHEPPERD. EDWIN BELL.
The death of John Buchanan Hall occurred just a fortnight before the great convulsion of the 18th of April, 1906, destroying the city in which fifty-five years before he had been literally baptised
in fire, and from the contemplation of which he was thus saved by so short a span. Almost simul- tancously with the announcement of the great ca- lamity, which had befallen this emporium of the Pacific, came to his family and friends, here, the tidings of his death, in a letter written by his son to Col. Buchanan Schley, whose mother was the elder sister of the deceased. In it the life and death of the last of my companions are so affection- ately portrayed that permission has been given me to make use of it, which I do by submitting the following extracts, more eloquent than any lan- gnage I could use in closing these my reminis- censes. It is as follows :
April 13th, 1906. Stockton, Cal.
"Col. Buchanan Schley : Ilagerstown, Md.
"Dear Buck :- My dear old Father has gone to his long rest after an illness of two weeks, the last four or five days of which, only, seemed to be alarmingly severe. He died peacefully in the early morning of the 4th inst. It was a case of a man conscientiously and industriously working himself to death. Several specially heavy jobs of work in the way of preparing an appeal and application for rehearing and new trial, involving long and exhausting work, piled in upon him in close succession. He would not ask for time ex- tensions but stuck to the work and completed it all- hundreds of pages of typed M. S .- very many pages in print." After tracing in detail the pro- gress of the disease and accompanying treatment, the writer adds that, "what is called senile pneu- monia developed, and he steadily declined, grow- ing weaker and less conscious, the heart trouble, of course, being heightened by the pneumonia and the latter being hastened by the former, until the end came. Ile made a gallant fight for life, but 85 years is a far advanced age at which to contend with such a combination." The writer then adds: "We buried him by Mother's side in a lot I have in a most beautiful cemetery near Oak- land." And in conclusion as if moved by an irresistable impulse writes: "He was a great strong Oak in the community, looked upon and respected by all who knew him, and died in the proud consciousness of having earned an honest liv- ing right up to the end.
Your devoted cousin, WM. HAM. HALL."
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
CHAPTER XIX
YING upon the table before me as I write is a copy of "Headley's Life of Washing- ton" which is connected with one of the most startling events in the history of the United States.
One evening in the early Autumn of 1859, as a quiet family in the Tilghmanton District of Washington County was gathered around the first fire of the season, there came a rap at the door. The visitor, upon being admitted, announced him- self as I. Stearnes, a book agent, selling Headley's Life of Washington and a life of Napoleon Bona- part. A copy of each book was bought from him, and his request for a night's lodging was cheer- fully complied with by the hospitable farmer. The man was in appearance a typical Yankee from down-east-lean, thin visaged and of a sanctimon- ious countenance, but of youthful appearance When supper was announced, the "grace" pronounced over the meal by the stranger was of such inordinate and extravagant length that the patience of the child- ren of the family became nearly exhausted. After supper Stearns made some excuse to leave the room and was shortly hard conversing with the negroes in the kitchen. It was afterwards learned that he was inviting them to join an insurrection, kill their master and obtain their freedom. The prop- osition was rejected with horror and indignation by the faithful servants and the emissary return- ed to the sitting room discomfited and crestfallen. This man was Captain Cook, one of the emissar- ries of John Brown.
.
One day in July, 1859, Judge Jacob Fiery, of Washington County, was just finishing his har- vest on his farm, three miles south of Hagerstown,
as an elderly man with a grizzly beard, acconi- panied by a young man, came up to his house. He introduced himself as I. Smith, and the young man as his son. Mr. Fiery was at that time ad- ministrator of the estate of Dr. R. F. Kennedy, and had charge of a farm near the Maryland Heights, three miles from Harper's Ferry. Smith as he called himself, told Mr. Fiery that he had been livng in the North and had been suffering from the extreme cold of the climate, and had de- termined to locate in the South, and he had called on Mr. Fiery to purchase from him the Kennedy farın. He believed there were valuable minerals in the mountain, he said. Mr. Fiery told him that he could not sell the farm until the court passcd a decree, so he rented the place, paying the first quarter's rent in advance. He paid this bill, as he afterwards did all his bills, in gold, saying he was a stranger, and wished to pay as he went, and pay in good money. Several times Mr. Fiery had occasion to visit his strange tenant. Upon one occasion he observed and remarked upon the tame- ness and gentleness of the cattle. Smith replied that wherever he lived he had everything around him to love him. Upon another occasion a nian brought some cattle to sell to him. Before he would negotiate at all, he went into the house and had prayer. He said he made it a rule never to enter upon any business transactions without first praying. Later on, upon visiting the farm, Mr. Fiery saw a large number of draw knives and asked what he proposed to do with them. The answer was he had been in Chambersburg and saw them very cheap and bought them, knowing that wlien he began his mining operations he would need
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
them to make piek handles. This man was no other than John Brown.
On Monday, October 17, 1859, news of an outbreak at Harper's Ferry reached Hagerstown by telegraph from Frederick. A body of armed men, it was said, had taken possession of the rail road bridges, had fired into the express train, and committed other outrages, and a company of mi- litia from Frederiek had been ordered to the Ferry to quell the disturbance. The cause of the trou- ble and the character of the rioters could only be eonjeetured. The rioters were painted black, it was sajd, and were supposed to be workmen in the employ of the Messrs. Snovel, builders of the great government dam, driven to mutiny by non-pay- ment of their wages. At 5 o'eloek the same eve- ning, another dispateh was received from Fred- eriek, announcing that the rioters had killed sev- eral persons and had imprisoned all the best eiti- zens of the town in the jail, of which they had taken possession. No person was allowed to leave the town, and all who entered it were imprisoned. The meaning of the riot was still a mystery. This much was learned, and then the wires were eut.
The next day reliable news of the events at Harper's Ferry were received, and great was the eommotion produeed. This County had been the headquarters of the conspirators and their base of operations. It was suddenly remembered that strange men had been prowling about the County in the guise of book-agents, making observations and doubtless tampering with the slaves. It was remembered that Brown himself had been in IIa- gerstown a short time before, and had quietly board- ed at one of the hotels without exeiting suspieion. The house on the Kennedy farm in Sample's Manor was the rendezvous of Brown's gang. To this place all things required for the undertaking were ordered to be sent. All arms and ammuni- tion were shipped in double boxes, so that the earters could not guess at the contents of the boxes they were handling. All consignments were made to I. Smith and Son. At Brown's house there were never more than twenty-two men at one time. These were ostensibly engaged in making search for minerals in the mountains; but their real oe- eupation, whilst awaiting the signal for revolt, was making handles with the draw knives already mentioned for the pikes or spears with which it was proposed to arm the negroes, rather than with fire arms, the use of which they did not under- stand. The handles to these weapons were elum-
sily and roughly made, and the heads were the work of ordinary blacksmiths. Brown had eol- leeted in the house two hundred Sharp's rifles, two hundred Maynard's revolvers and a thousand spears and tomahawks. An abundance of ammu- nition had also been proeured. Brown elaimed afterwards in an interview with Governor Wise, whilst he was awaiting trial, that he had a right to expeet reinforcements to the number of five thousand, but that the blow was struek too soon. This aid was, it was supposed, expeeted by Brown to come from the North. If the relianee was upon the negroes, the expectation was based upon Browns misapprehension of the condition of slavery and the relations existing between the slaveholders and the slaves. He supposed that the blaeks hatcd their owners, and only awaited the coming of a deliverer. On the contrary the blaeks at the first news of the outbreak fled to their masters for pro- teetion against Brown and his gang, whom they believed to be secretly slave-eatchers, intending to sell them to Georgia. It seemed almost beyond belief that a man in his right mind should have made such a venture; with an assured party of but twenty-two men, to raise the standard of re- bellion against the Government of the United States, which, when the time eame, had no difficul- ty in quelling the whole disturbance with a few dozen marines. It is true that Brown may have oxpeeted immediate rising of the entire slave pop- ulation and doubtless did. But he had no reason whatever for any such relianee.
Between eleven and twelve o'eloek on Sunday night, October 16, 1859, "Ossawattamie" Brown, at the head of about eighteen followers, left the Sample's Manor farm house, crossed the Potomae on the bridge of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad and stealthily entered the little village of Har- per's Ferry. The first point of attaek was the United States Arsenal. That such a place should have been left unguarded and unprotected save by a single watchman is indeed hard to believe. But sueh was the ease. The conspirators knoek- ed at the gate, and the watchman refusing to open it, it was the work of but a few minutes to beat the gate down, to enter and take possession. A strong brick engine-house was oeeupied as a for- tress, and into it were conveyed the arms and ammuniton which had been brought from the Ken- nedy farm. From midnight on Sunday until af- ter mid-day on Monday the insurrectionists had undisputed possession of the town. During that
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
time they received no assistance or sympathy from any citizen of Harper's Ferry. They seized the slaves of Col. Lewis Washington and Mr. Allstadt, near ' Harper's Ferry and upon five or six belonging to residents of the town, whom they found in the streets. Spears were placed in the hands of two or three of them and they were eom- pelled to stand sentinel at the door of the engine house. But they threw away their weapons and fled at the first opportunity. All the captured negroes were terrified.
In the early hours of the morning, a num- ber of the principal citizens were arrested and im- prisoned in the jail. One train of cars was per- mitted to nass through and in not stopping it, Brown declared he had committed a great blun- der. The telegraph soon flashed the news through- out the country, and miltary companies all over the land, as far off as Boston, telegraphed to the President and to the Governor of Virginia, offers of their services. The first offer the President received was from the Frederick Companies, and it was promptly accepted. Three companies from Baltimore also started up, and on the way were joined by Col. Robert E. Lee with a small body of marines. But in the meantime armed men were pouring into the town from the surrounding country. A special train came in from Martins- burg and brought a company under the command of Capt. Alburtus, a veteran of the Mexican war. These, approaching the engine-house, were repuls-
ed by a volley from Brown's party which wounded five. Col. Lee and his marines soon arrived, lost no time in battering down the door of the "fort" and captured or killed the entire party. Brown himself was severely wounded, having fought with great determination and bravery. This having been accomplished, Lieut. Simpson was dispatched at the head of a detachment of "Independent Greys" of Baltimore, upon information that Cap- tain Cook and a party occupied an old log school house in Sample's Manor, near Maryland Heights, and about a mile from the Ferry. Arriving in sight of the cabin, it appeared to be elosely barri- caded. The troops charged upon it, battered down the door, and entered. The occupants had just fled, leaving behind them sixteen boxes of arms and ammunition, besides a large number of Sharp's rifles scattered over the floor. These things were loaded into a wagon which Brown had recently captured; two horses found grazing near were hitched to it, and the party returned to Harper's Ferry. The marks upon the captured boxes of arms had been obliterated, but enough was left to show that they came from Cincinnati. Some of them were direeted to "J. Smith & Sons, Cham- bersburg, Pa., by American Express Co." or "by railroad via Pittsburg and Harrisburg."*
Shortly after the return of this party to Har- per's Ferry. it was reported that Cook had been scen upon Maryland Heights. A party consisting of about twenty mnarines and about the same num-
*Shortly after the breaking out of the "John Brown Insurrection" at Harper's Ferry, the original copy of the following verses was found in the house occupied by Brown on the Kennedy farm in Sandy Hook district. They were written by George W. Putnam and read at an anti-slavery meeting held April 13, 1857 at Peterboro, Madison county, New York. The original was in the possession of William Brashears of Sharpsburg.
JOHN BROWN.
In this age of brazen insolence, Of shame and frightful crime, Treason to truth all boundless, Blackening the page of time, Human rights are trampled under By slavery's bloody band And men for love of freedom Are hunted through the land.
We read our Country's history; And the quickened pulse beats on
As we scan the fearful perils Which summoned freedom's dawn.
And as we read we feel the gloom. And darkness of that hour When the little band of Patriots Met the Briton's myriad power.
And our hearts beat o'er the record How on the April morn O'er the hills of Massachusetts Rang the freeman's signal horn And armed from their homestead Through every rocky glen Up to the green at Lexington Hurried the minute men.
How ere the sun descended The young spring grass was red, For many a manly form that day Lay down on Glory's bed. How from fallen tree and stone wall Poured the Patriot's laden hail, How the red coats back to Boston Left their dead upon their trail!
We read how Marion's Mountaineers Like the wild torrent's flow
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
ber of volunteers, under Captain J. E. B. Stu- art, was immediately sent in pursuit. They fol- lowed the County road leading from Harper's Ferry up through Sample's Manor, and soon reach- ed the Kennedy farm, Brown's headquarters, about four and a half miles distant. The house was found in great eonfusion, a fire still burning and a savage mastiff was tied by a rope to the poreh. Considerable quantities of provisions and elothing had been left in the hasty flight. Eight or ten trunks and as many valises and earpet-bags had been broken open and their contents left seattercd over the floor. The most important discovery was a trunk full of papers, correspondenee and docu- ments, givng Brown's plans and expectations.
On Wednesday, October 26, Cook was arrested near Quiney, in Franklin County, Pa., by Daniel Logan and Clagett Fitzhugh, both formerly eiti- zens of Washington County. Cook with three oth- ers of Brown's gang had been left to guard the Kennedy house and its contents. Leaving his charge, he went to Harper's Ferry and there found Brown besieged in the engine-house. He then re- turned to the Maryland side, and after firing a few shots aeross the river took to the mountains, following them until he eame to Mont Alto Iron
Works. He had traveled by night and remained in hiding all day, suffering greatly from exposure and want of food. When he arrived in the viein- ity of Mt. Alto he had been fasting for sixty hours. Ile went to the furnace for something to eat. There he met Mr. Fitzhugh and asked him to sell him some bacon for himself and some com- panions who were hunting in the mountains. A reward of fifteen hundred dollars had been offer- ed for the eapture of Cook. He was aeeurately described, and Fitzhugh at onee suspeeted that the fugitive was /in his presenee. He thereupon told him that baeon eould be had at Mr. Logan's house, and the two went there together. Fitzhugh whispered his suspicions to Logan, who was a powerful man, and the latter seized Cook and se- eured him, after a short and fieree struggle in which the eaptors only saved themselves by pinion- ing Cook's arms so that he could not draw the revolver with which he was armed. It was men- tioned at the time as a eurious eircumstanee that Fitzhugh was the nephew, by marriage, of the two great abolition leaders of the country-Birney and Gerrit Smith. Cook was carried to the Chambers- burg jail, and there detainel until the arrival of the requisition of the Governor of Virginia. On
At the dark hour of midnight Swept down upon the foe! Lo! this day beholds a nobler, Sterner struggle for our race, And the Marion of Kansas Is with us face to face!
Bravely o'er Missouri's border He the slaves to freedom led; And for this he lives an outlaw, With a price upon his head! And ten thousand heartless poltroons, Bending low the pliant knee, But for their shrinking cowardice Would claim the bloody fee.
Few are his words-but oft along, The Border Ruffian's Hell, For freedom's cause his rifle's tongue Hath spoken loud and well! Wheresoe'er o'er the broad prairie, Are camped the settlers free, They bless the band led by John Brown Of Ossawattamie!
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