A history of Washington County, Maryland from the earliest settlements to the present time, including a history of Hagerstown, Part 50

Author: Williams, Thomas J. C. (Thomas John Chew)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chambersburg, Pa.] : J.M. Runk & L.R.
Number of Pages: 622

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 50

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"To conclude this narrative, it appears that as soon as intelligence could be conveyed to Washing- ton of the state of things at Harper's Ferry, the marines on duty at the Navy Yard were ordered to the scene of action, under command of Col. Robert E. Lee of the army. The official report of Colonel Lee, found in the appendix to this report, will show in what manner the affair was ended by the capture of Brown and his remaining party, and the rescue in safety of those he detained as prisoners. Colonel Lee, it will be seen found it necessary to carry the house by storm, the party within refusing to sur-

For some years, since a new generation has grown up and men have forgotten the horrible and diabolieal nature of Brown's seheme, the ineiting

render except on terms properly held inadmissable. In this affair one marine was killed, and another slightly wounded.

"Such, it is believed, are succinctly the facts attending this great outrage; and the committee find, in response to so much of the resolutions of the Senate, that the armory and other public works of the United States were in the possession of and under the control of this hostile party more than 30 hours; that besides the resistence offered by them to the military force of Virginia, they resisted by force the lawful authority of the United States sent there to dispossess them, killing one and wounding another of the troops of the United States, and as shown, that before they were thus overpower- ed they killed in the streets three of the citizens of Virginia, who were alone and not even in the mili- tary array, besides the negro who was killed by them on their first arrival. It does not appear that any of the public property was stolen or car- ried away, although a large sum of money was in the paymaster's office near the engine-house, and doubtless would have been seized had they known where it was. There was nothing to protect it but the ordinary safety of an iron door."

[There follows a discussion of the evidence con- cerning the connection of the Massachusetts-Kansas Committee with this insurrection. This occupies ten pages of the report. It was concluded that the rifled carbines used had been given to Brown by the Massachusetts-Kansas Society for use in the intes- tine strife in Kansas, and were allowed to remain in his possession after the chairman had been warn- ed of his purpose to put them to some use not war- ranted by those who owned them. It was also shown that Brown collected a large sum of money in New England just before entering upon the Har- per's Ferry enterprise.]

The committee concluded that "upon the whole testimony there can be no doubt that Brown's plan was to commence a servile war in the borders of Virginia, which he expected to extend, and which he believed his means and resources were sufficient to extend through that State and through the entire South. * * * The point chosen for the attack seems to have been selected from the two-fold in- ducement of the security afforded the invaders by a mountain country and the large deposit of arms in the arsenal of the United States there situated. * * * Of the list of 'insurgents' given in Col. Lee's report (14 whites and 5 negroes) Brown, Ste- vens and Coppie of the whites, with Shields, Green and Copeland of the negroes, were subsequently ex- ecuted in Virginia after judicial trial; as were also John E. Cook and Albert Hazlett, who at first es- caped but were captured in Pennsylvania and de- livered up for trial to the authorities of Virginia- making in all seven thus executed. It does not seem to have been very clearly ascertained how many of the party escaped. Brown stated that his

296

HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD

of a servile insurrection with its attendant horrors of midnight murder, not respecting age nor sex, such as overtook Hayti, relics of Brown have come into demand. Quantities of pig lead buried on the mountain side above the village of Sandy Hook, near the cave which was one of Brown's resorts have been divided into small cubes and sold as souvenirs. The scaffold upon which he was hung

was taken down, and the lumber used for building a porch to a small house near the spot. This lum- ber was afterwards purchased by a speculator, manufactured into souvenirs, and sold to admirers of the old fanatic .*

I will close this chapter which ends with the last generation, with a hasty narration of minor events which should not go unrecorded. Towards

party consisted of 22 in number. Seven were exe- cuted, ten were killed at the Ferry, thus leaving five to be accounted for. Four of these, it is believed, were left on the Maryland side in charge of the arms when Brown crossed the river, who could not afterwards join him, leaving, it would appear, but one, who as it would appear is the only survivor of the party who accompanied Brown across the bridge and whose escape is not accounted for. * * *

"Tho invasion (to call it so) by Brown and his followers at Harper's Ferrry * * * was simply the act of lawless ruffians under the sanction of no public or political authority-distinguishable only from ordinary felonies by the ulterior ends in con- templation by them, and by the fact that the money to maintain the expedition, and the large armament they brought with them, had been contributed and furnished by citizens of other States of the Union, under circumstances that must continue to jeopar- dise the safety and peace of the Southern States and against which Congress has no power to legis- late."

The three Senators signing this report were James M. Mason of Virginia, afterwards minister of the Confederate States to England; Jefferson Davis, afterwards President of the Confederate States; and G. N. Fitch of Indiana, afterwards an officer in the Federal army during the Civil War, and in command of the land forces at Fort Pillow.

The minority report was signed by Senators Joseph Collamer of Vermont, and J. R. Doolittle of Wisconsin. The main object of their report was to negative the idea that the abolition societies in the North had any knowledge of Brown's plans at Har- per's Ferry. "Although some of the testimony," the report said, "tends to show that some abolition- ists have at times contributed money to what is oc- casionally called practical abolition-that is, in aid- ing the escape of slaves-and many have placed too implicit confidence in John Brown, yet there is no evidence to show or cause to believe they had any complicity with this conspiracy, or any suspicion of its existence or design, before its explosion." These Northern Senators in no way sought to palliate the wickedness and atrocity of Brown's diabolical effort to incite a servile war-It was at a later day that the assassin was elevated into a hero.

*The following extracts from the Hagerstown "Herald and Torch Light" give an insight to the state of feeling at the time.

THE HARPER'S FERRY INSURRECTION.

The recent diabolical and most extraordinary out-break at Harper's Ferry, by a few misguided,

fanatical abolitionists from the North and elsewhere, has justly excited this community to a degree hith- erto unknown. So hideous-so devilish-so mon- strously wicked-and yet so really absurd did the whole story seem to our people, even when the truth was told, that it was not believed here until the capture of the insurgents was fully accomplish- ed, and citizens of this place had gone to the scene of disturbance and returned with a full detail of the astounding reality. The people of our quiet town could hardly realize the fact that a plot of such villainy could have been concocting almost in their midst, without even a suspicion of its existence; and that it should have been attempted, if at all, at the place it was. That a few phrenzied, malig- nant out-laws, roused by no provocation, and num- bering in all, originally, only about twenty-two men, or a little upwards, should attempt an enterprise ot such fearful magnitude, with all its consequences vividly painted to their imagination, in case of a failure-and what else could they hope for-is to us most wonderful; yet it shows to what fearful risks men may be hurried by the fell spirit of an intense fanaticism. These scoundrels, it seems, rented. some months ago, an old delapidated house and worn-out farm belonging to the late Dr. Kennedy, of Sharpsburg, and situated about mid-way between the Antietam Iron Works and Harper's Ferry, in an obscure part of the County known as Sample's Manor. Here these cut-throats had their rendezvous for many months, pretending to be seeking for ores and minerals in the adjacent mountains, and having various tools and implements of their ostensible profession in their possession, and to be seen by any body. These rascals were constantly prowling about through the County around, making their observa- tions, and doubtless tampering with our slaves, some of them pretending to be book agents, engaged in procuring subscriptions to works of great inter- est and value; and yet so adroit were they in their nefarious scheme, that at no time, we believe, was suspicion cast upon their movements. They were seen at various times conveying to this house loads of boxes, in wagons, but still no wrong was suspect- ed; and to a teamster, who hauled a heavy load ot those boxes from Chambersburg, Pa., to their house already spoken of, they said they meant to establish a large hardware store, by which they expected to make large gains. Their leader, Brown, and a few others of the gang were seen here, in Hagerstown, frequently during the last summer; and the former actually boarded at one of our respectable hotels, without creating suspicion or even scarcely exciting an enquiry as to their business.

JOHN GRUBER.

John Gruber's Printing House.

C.k

Residence of John Brown in Washington County during his preparation for and raid on Harper's Ferry.

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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.

the latter part of 1859 there was an earnest move- ment to put the Canal in the hands of the holder of the bonds of 1844, and a bill to accomplish it passed the Senate, but failed in the House. The same effort was made several times, and came up in the Constitutional Convention of 1867, but it was defcated mainly by the views of Mr. Richard H. Alvey, and so determined was he and those who

agreed with him that the State should not lose its control over this important work, that a clause was put into the Constitution, prohibiting its sale except by the concurrent action of two successive Legislatures.

The importance of the eanal to Washington County was greatly diminished by the reopening of the Franklin railroad. That portion between

The sudden appearance of these bloody marau- ders in the Ferry, on the night of Sunday the 16th, and the following morning, was well calculated to create alarm among the good people of that town. To find their town in the possession of a lawless band, and their lives at the mercy of a servile revolt, were sufficient in themselves to spread dismay and terror; but to witness their unoffending friends and fellow-citizens shot down when peacefully walking along the public thoroughfares of the town, any ene of whose lives was worth more than ten thousand such heartless abolitionists was indeed enough to strike a panic to the heart of every one of that seemingly devoted town.

But the hour of retribution was close at hand! The summons sent upon the lightning's wing was soon obeyed by the citizen soldiery of the neigh- boring towns and cities; and being soon re-enforced by a company of United States' Marines, the insur- gents were quickly made to feel their impotency, and to pay with their lives the enormity of their guilt. And may such be the end of every like at- tempt upon the peace, order and government of the country. The few who escaped instant death, are now confined in the Jail at Charlestown, awaiting, it is truc, a little more tardy yet a more ignoble death.

Nothing we believe has yet transpired to show how far the slave population throughout this part of the country was affected by these prowling vag- abonds; but it is hoped and believed that it has had little or no extent. The Legislatures both of Vir- ginia and Maryland will be in session within the next three months, and we have no doubt that such means will be adopted as to prevent, as far as prac- ticable, any such another foolhardy enterprise. In the mean time let the South be wide awake to de- tect any similar plot that may, by possibility, be hatching here or elsewhere. All these miserable men were either killed or captured on the spot of their revolt, except Cook .- Herald and Torch, Oct. 25, 1859.

POLITICS OF HARPER'S FERRY INSURGENTS!

We sincerely advocate a union of the whole South on every question affecting the civil and polit- ical rights of her people, and are ready, as are all our American and Whig friends, to stand by the in- stitutions which have been transmitted to us by Washington Jefferson, Madison and the other pa- triots of the Revolution until the last armed foe to them expires. But we cannot for a single moment recognise the claims which modern Democracy, with it Douglas Squatter Sovercignty doctrine predominat- ing in all Free States, impudently sets up to the

peculiar championship of those institutions, and be- cause our party is unwilling to do this, unwilling to swallow down that miserable deception, they are in effect charged with entertaining feelings in com- mon with those of the Harper's Ferry fanatics. We not only hurl back into the teeth of these libellars this monstrous slander, but carry the war into Africa, by charging that Capt. Cook and four of his confed- erates were Democrats. Upon a regular roll of these men found in their den, they are thus classified.

Democrats.

Republicans.

John Kagi 1111-1

Railf,

Moffit

Tidd,

1111-1

Cook

111

Whipple,

Parsons

Robertson,

Leman 1111-111 Brown,

In corroboration of the above, we are authorized to state that whilst Cook was canvassing this Coun- ty for subscribers to the Life of Washington, he stopped at the house of one of our most respectable farmers living less than five miles from this town, and repeatedly declared himself to be a member of the Democratic party! ! The gentlemen told us that he would certify to the fact if necessary .- But this is not all. When old Brown's house was searched some days after the outbreak there were found by a highly respectable gentleman of Boons- boro', two newspapers, one of which was the New York Tribune, and the other, oh! tell it not in Gath nor publish it in the streets of Askalon, the Hagers- town Mail! ! Yes, in this old fanatics abode, these lovely prints were found in close proximity, and both well worn from repeated handling and perusal. Brown no doubt imbibed from one of these shects the mistaken notion that one half of the whites in Maryland and Virginia were ready to join the insur- rectionists the moment they committed the overt act, and this accounts for the astounding delusion under which he labored .- Herald and Torch Light, Nov. 2, 1859.

THE DAY OF EXECUTION.

The second of December has been set apart by the Virginia authorities for the execution of John Brown. It was at first said that all the insurgents would be hung together on the 16th inst., but it is now thought that no suspension of the death-warrant, beyond the time limited therein will be accorded to Brown, so that he will probably pay the penalty of his remarkable crime on Friday next. The exe- cution will be public, and will no doubt draw to- gether an immense number of people from the ad- jacent counties in Virginia and Maryland, although an effort has been made to discourage or prevent a large assemblage of persons on the occasion. But

300

HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD

Chambersburg and Greencastle was opened Feb. 5, 1860, and the remainder, to Hagerstown, on the 29th of the same month. The service consisted of one mixed train each way daily. In August, a second train was put on, and this was regarded as a splendid passenger service. It was now possi- ble it was boasted, for a person "to spend the day in Chambersburg with a friend, returning the same day refreshed and ready for the business of the next day." Great quantities of flour awaited the opening of the road, and in a few days five thousand barrels, which would naturally have gone to Georgetown or Baltimore, were carried off from Hagerstown to Philadelphia. This gave the people of Baltimore great concern and immediate steps were taken to regain the important trade of Hag- erstown by extending the Western Maryland rail- road. In July, 1861, the City Council of Balti- more passed an ordinance endorsing a half-million of Western Maryland bonds. But the completion of the Western Maryland like the construction .of the Washington County road, was delayed several years by the war.

The anticipations of a new war, which now begun to fill the minds of people, did not eause them to forget the old. In 1860, the Legislature presented a beautiful rifle to John Harrigan of Williamsport, an aged soldier of the war of 1812 who had been severely wounded at the bloody bat- tle of Bridgewater, on the Canadian frontier,

and had distinguished himself for bravery. The Legislature at the same session laid out the Ring- gold, or fourteenth election district and at the same time enacted the law which empowered the County Commissioners to create and change eleetion dis- tricts. Indian Spring distriet was the first laid out by the County Commissioners, and this was done in 1860, directly after the passage of the law.

The Legislature, in 1859, also enacted the Coudy school law which abolished the payment of one dollar as a quarterly tuition fee, and made absolutely free sehools for the first time. This caused an additional taxation of seven cents on the hundred dollars. Added to the County tax there was a state taxation of ten eents, making in 1860 a total taxation of fifty-three eents on a hundred dollars, the highest rate for many years and one which caused deep complaint. In January, 1861, it was discovered that the amount levied to make good the deficiency eaused by the remission of the tuition fee was insufficient, and that there was an annual deficit of $5,200 and so a rapidly accum- ulating debt. The schools were closed on the first of March 1861, and the Legislature that year, in view of the heavy taxation eaused by the war, restored the "pay feature" of the school law. At that time, in 1861, there were a hundred and twenty-three schools in the County kept open nine months. The average salary of the teachers was

whether the number be large or small, who may witness this old man's death-throes on the gibbet, the interest and excitement occasioned thereby, will not be confined to them, nor to a limited circle of society, as in the case of an ordinary malefactor. John Brown has committed an offence, not alone against the laws of Virginia, but against the peace and harmony of the Union; he is not alone a mur- derer but a seditionist, and his death for such an offence will variously exercise the hearts of mil- lions of people far away from Charlestown, and be an event in the history of this country to be referred to in after time as a warning to others, who, urged on by a wild fanaticism as he was, would rise in opposition to the settled institutions of that country. The tone of the Northern Press is not generally as sound on the Harper's Ferry outbreak as it should be, and hence we infer that there will be a vast deal more sympathy expended over the fate of Brown than he deserves or a proper sense of jus- tice and a genuine love of country would justify. While few of the conservative Journals North pre- tend to excuse Brown's predatory incursion for the liberation of the slaves of Virginia, they nearly all, down even to Mason and Dixon's line, take great

pleasure in ridiculing the fears of the people of Charlestown and vicinity, and sneering at the ex- traordinary measures which have been adopted by the authorities to guard the prisoners, and protect their homes from the incendiary's torch. "Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh." These papers appropriate a few lines of their space to a formal and cold condemnation of Brown's raid, and then follow it with a half column of ill-natured jests and bitter sarcasms upon the state of alarm which exists among a people who have just cause for it, in whose midst a train has been laid which may yet involve them iu all the horrors of a real servile in- surrection, and whose property is nightly being burnt as a sequence of the enormous crime which has been committed by wicked fanatics of the North, and the unnatural excitement resulting therefrom. Such newspaper tirades are put forth near the bor- ders of the Slave States, and are anything else than a mark of good neighborhood between people who ought to be bound together by the strongest ties of friendship and interest. If the shoe fits any of our near Pennsylvania cotemporaries they are welcome to wear it. Herald of Freedom and Torch Light, Nov. 30, 1859.

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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.

$249. The Hagerstown Charity School, an insti- tution begun in 1815, which has done great good, received substantial help at this time.

In July, 1860, Victor Thomson, a druggist of Hagerstown died, leaving an estate of sixty thousand dollars. After providing for his two sis- ters, he devised $20,000 to the four Boards of the Presbyterian Church, $5,000 for improving the church in Hagerstown, $2,000 to the Mayor and Council of the town to be invested, the interest to buy fuel for the poor people of Hagerstown, $500 to buy the Miller spring for the public use and enjoyment, and $1000 for the Charity School. The Miller spring is on North Potomac street in the rear of Blew & Lucas' drug store, approached from the street by an arch. The water of this spring used to be considered especially pure and good, and many people used it for drinking, but the owner refused to sell it for $500. The Hag- erstown Charity School was established by Miss Isabella Ncill in 1815. The first officers were: President, Susan Hughes; Treasurer, Isabella Neill; Secretary, Rebecca Fitzhugh; Managers, Betsy Harry, M. Humrichouse, Maria Sprigg, Janc Milligan, Eliza Schnebly and Jane Herbert. In 1818 it was incorporated with Rev. J. C. Clay, John Kennedy and Alex. Neill as trustees. It re- ceived a number of small legacies the interest of which supported it. In 1842, Martin Hammond left it $1,500 which was used for erccting the building at the corner of East Washington and Locust streets. It was formerly the custom to

preach a sermon in cach church in the town in behalf of the charity. Now, with public schools frce to all, the charity school is doing an excell- ent work in instructing poor children in elemen- tary knowledge and in sewing, but before the days of free schools, the good accomplished was incal- culable. Hundreds of girls were taught who would otherwise never have learned to read and write.

The Rev. Samuel H. Gicsy, for a long time the pastor of Zion Reformed Church in Hagers- town, where he was greatly beloved, preached his farewell sermon in October, 1860, and went to Philadelphia. Subsequently he became a clergy- man of the Episcopal Church, and when he died, about 1885, he was Rector of Epiphany Church, Washington, D. C. The lot on North Potomac strect at the corner of Church, opposite the Re- formed Church was given to the church by General Daniel Heister for a burying ground, upon condi- tion that it should be kept fenced and in good order. A vault was constructed in it. and in that vault General Heister and Rosannah his wife were buried, but as the church had an abundance of ground surrounding it, this lot was abandoned, in order to avoid the expense of maintaining it, and it reverted to Henry Wingert the adopted son of General Heister to whom much of his property was devised. Mr. Wingert gencrously paid $500 to the church upon its relinquishing of the lot. In November, 1860, the remains of General Heis- ter and his wife were removed to the present grave yard adjoining the chruch.

CHAPTER XX

N THE progress of these ehronieles, I have now reached a period in which the events are fresh in the memory of a large por- tion of the population of the County. The excitements of the war were more lively and the feelings of animosity were necessa- rily much more bitter here than elsewhere. This County was a battle field. It was overrun by both armies. Vast quantities of property were destroyed. The population were divided in senti- ment, and each portion ascribed to the other the losses and indignities they suffered. It was liter- ally a fratricidal strife and a fratricidal strife Is always the most embittered. It seemed that the words of the Prophet had been fulfilled. No trust could be placed in a friend, no confidence in a guide and it was well for a man to keep the doors of his mouth from her that lay on his bosom, for the son rose against the father, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's enemies were often the men of his own house. There was strife and division within the family eirele. In some instances the father would sympathize with one side, the mother with the other. Some of the sons would join the Northern army and some the Southern or it might be that the father would be arrayed against his sons and not unfrequently would brothers be brought into direet conflict in opposing forees.

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A history of Washington County, Maryland from the earliest settlements to the present time, including a history of Hagerstown, Part 50

Author: Williams, Thomas J. C. (Thomas John Chew) Publication date: 1906 Publisher: [Chambersburg, Pa.] : J.M. Runk & L.R. Number of Pages: 622

Author: Williams, Thomas J. C. (Thomas John Chew)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chambersburg, Pa.] : J.M. Runk & L.R.
Number of Pages: 622