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 6
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
measurement was to begin. No matter which cir- cle was intended the conditions were impossible to be gratified and this uncertainty gave Penn his opportunity to claim everything, and after a pro- tracted and tortuous negotiation extending over many years to finally gain his point. At an inter- view between Penn's representative and Lord Baltimore at Upland, what is now Chester, it was discovered to the amazement and confusion of the former that that town was twelve miles south of the 40th parallel, the northern limit of Maryland and that thus Lord Baltimore's domain would extend to the Schuylkill. This discovery led to freshi importunities for an additional grant from the Duke of York, who finally, in August 1682, granted him. what in nowise belonged to the grantor, the town of New Castle and with the territory twelve miles around it and extending south of it to Cape Henlopen. It is not necessary for the purposes of this history to follow this negotiation and show how the Proprietor of Mary- land was finally cozened out of his rights.
This circle around New Castle required in Penn's first grant, gave rise to Mason and Dixon's line and also give the curious shape to the northern border of Delaware and the corresponding south- ern boundry of Pennsylvania. An examination of the map shows, where the three states of Mary- land, Pennsylvania and Delaware come together, or rather where they should come together, a small point which separates them. Various measure- ments have made the area of this lost bit of land all the way from five hundred to fifteen hundred acres. William Smith and his ancestors had lived there for generations, always supposing that they were in Delaware until 1849, when a survey by United States officers disclosed the old error. Ad- vantage has been taken of the uncertainty as to jurisdiction to make the strip the location in the past of several duels and a few prize fights, but with these exceptions nothing approaching blood- shed has marked the progress of the half-century struggle between William Smith and the Comnion- wealth of Pennsylvania.
In 1685 the referees to whom the controversy had been committed by the king decided in favor of Penn's claims that Lord Baltimore's grant included only "lands uncultivated and inhabited by savages and that the territory along the Dela- ware had been settled by Christians antecedently to his grant and was therefore not included within it." They then proceeded to divide what is now
the State of Delaware nearly equally betwen the two claimants. Lord Baltimore being at that time threatened with a loss of his whole Province by a writ of quo warranto to which had been issued, had nothing to do but to submit quietly to this unjust decision.
An agreement between the contending parties as to the northern boundary of Maryland having been made in 1732, a suit to compel its specific performance was begun in chancery. In May 1750 Chancellor Hardwicke rendered his decision in which he held that the circle around New Castle which was to determine the beginning of the divis- ion line between the Provinces, was to be of twelve miles radius from the centre of the town, and in a further decision that it should be twelve miles of horizontal measure and not of superficial ineasure. The Proprietor of Maryland having made objections to the execution of the decree, a final agreement between the parties was entered into in 1760. This agreement contained provis- ions for the protection of Maryland grants which should fall into Pennsylvania and like protection to Pennsylvania grants which should be thrown on the other side. The northern boundary, ac- cording to the agreement of 1732, was to be ascer- tained by running a line due west from Cape Henlopen, (a point about fifteen miles from the present cape) across the peninsula; this line is the present southern boundary of Delaware. From the centre of this line should be drawn and bear northerly (in fact + degrees west) until it touched as a tangent the circle of 12 miles radius around New Castle. If that point should prove to be a point 15 miles south of the southernmost part of the then city of Philadelphia, the due west line of the survey was to start there and run its proper course and distance. But if the tangent point should fall short of the point for starting west, as indicated, then from the tangent point on the circle a line should be projected through that part of the circle due north until it bi-sected the circle and from the point of bi-section a due north line should be run till it reached a point on the latitude of 15 miles south of Philadelphia, and then start west. The line within the circle formed no part of the boundary and only served to ascertain the true point at which to start the duc north line from the upper segment of the circle. So that the boundary between Delaware and Maryland was the base line, then a line from the peninsula base to the tangent point; then
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
along the segment of the circle, as the stones indi- cate, to the north line. All east of the tan- gent line and segment was Delaware, all west was Maryland. From the point where the circle left the north line. the Delaware interest ccased and it became a question solely between Baltimore and Penn under his Pennsylvania charter.
It resulted that the projection north of the circle was the necessary running, and as that pro- jection was a north line, three miles and a half long, and the curve of the circle on its trend eastward kept widening from the point of bi-sec- tion, at the spot where this curve reached the lati- tude on which the north line stopped, there was between the end of the north line and the corres- ponding point on the circle a distance of three- quarters of a mile. The due west line is what is popularly known as Mason and Dixon's line.
Under the deed of 1760 Commissioners were appointed to lay down the lines. They met at New Castle to begin work on the 19th of Novent- ber 1760. They made but slow progress and the Penns and Calvert who were at the time in Lon- don, becoming impatient at the delay, engaged Charles Mason and James Dixon of that city, to complete the survey. These two men are described as mathematicians and surveyors, or merely as surveyors, but it is evident they were both men of profound scientific learning. Both were after- wards elected members of the American Philosoph- ical Society. Mason was at one time assistant at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. After re- turning from their work in America which in- cluded, in addition to laving down the boundary line. the measurement of the length of a degree of longitude in Maryland, they were sent to the Cape of Good Hope by the Royal Society to ob- serve the' transit of Venns. Mason did other important astronomical work. Later in life he came to Philadelphia and became a citizen of that city where he died in 1787. Dixon died in Dur- ham. England, ten years previously.
These two men whose names have become so familiar to Americans. left England in August 1763. and arrived in Philadelphia the 15th of November. The work on the boundary line was begun carly the following year and completed in 1767. In 1768 the placing of the stones was com- pleted. In establishing the difficult points around the circle bounding Delawarr on the North, one of which was to be the beginning of the line to the west, these scientific engineers with their superior
instruments, reported that the line as ascertained by them would not pass one inch to the westward or eastward "of the points indicated by the colonial surveyors several years previously, and that the sighting along poles and the rude chain measure- ments of 1761 and 1762 would have answered every purpose, had the Proprietors so thought." The beginning of the east and west line was indi- cated by setting up a "remarkable stone" bearing on its east and north faces the arms of the Penns and on the other sides the Baltimore coat of arms. Beginning at this stone, the end of the line fifteen statute miles due south of the most southern point of Philadelphia, the line, which is known as Mason and Dixon's in political history, was ex- tended due west two hundred and eighty miles, eighteen chains and twenty-one links and two hundred and fifty-four miles, thirty-eight chains and thirty-six links due west from the river Del- aware, and would have continued it to the end of · five degrees of longitude the western bounds of the Province of Pennsylvania, but hostile Indians pre- vented.
As the surveying party proceeded westward they cut down the trees of the forests through which they passed, making a path or "visto" as they called it, eight yards wide, or four yards on either side of the line. During the month of October 1765 the party was engaged on the part of the line which bounds Washington County on the north, and on the twenty-seventh of that month they had ascended the summit of North Mountain whence they observed the Potomac river. On the 4th of June, 1:66 they had reached the Little Allegheny and there broke off work through fear of the Indians. A number of months was occupied in negotiating with the Six Nations, and under the escort of a. body of braves the party reached the point two hundred and forty-four miles from the Delaware river, just thirty-six miles from the proposed end of the line. They dared go no further because their Indian escorts ordered them to desist at this point. Before the survey was finally abandoned twenty-six of the party became frightened and left their com- rades. The line was completed by other surveyors many years afterwards and its end is shown by a caisson of stones five feet in height which is the north-west corner of the State of Maryland."
Lord Chancellor Hardwicke in his decree had specified how the boundary lines should be marked and in obedience to this decree a stone was
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
erected at the end of every mile from the begin- ning to the foot of Sideling Hill. Every five mile stone was larger than the others, and had engraved on the north side the arms of Thomas and Richard Penn and on the south face the arms of Frederick Lord Baltimore. The intermediate stones have the letter P on the north face and M on the south face. The country to the west of Sideling Hill, being so very mountainous as to render it in most places extremely difficult and expensive, and in some impracticable, to convey stones or boundaries which had been prepared and marked, to their proper stations, instead of using such marked stones the line westward from that point to the "top of the Alleghany Ridge" was shown by raising on the tops of mountains and ridges over which the line passed, heaps or pilcs of stone or earth from three and a half to four yards in diameter, at bottom and six to seven fcet in height. Westward of the "Alleghany Ridge" posts were erected and surrounded with piles of stone or earth about seven feet high. The regu- lar boundary stones are of "oolitic limestone or the Portland stone of Great Britain" and they were carefully cut in England. A sufficient number was sent over to mark the whole line. Those not used were left near Fort Frederick and some of them are probably there now. A few years ago a visitor to Fort Frederick saw one used as a corner stone upon which the sills of a corn house rested and four or five formed into steps for a negro's cabin. Several of them were also used for steps in the house of Mr. Joseph Seibert, of Clearspring, and one is preserved in the rooms of the Md. Historical Society. Thus the dispute was finally ended after a bitter contest lasting nearly a cen- tury.
But during this time the controversy had not been simply on paper and between the Proprietors. It had given rise to a regular border warfare. The disputed territory being unquestionably within the limits of Lord Baltimore's grant, great num- bers of persons obtained grants of the fine lands in the belt from Lord Baltimore and made their homes there. The Penns also undertook to grant the lands to settlers, so there necessarily arose
conflicts between these different claimants to the same soil. Fights and bloodshed followed and all was confusion and turmoil. Some settlers who had obtained grants from one Province went forth- with and got deeds from the other and sought to
evade the payınent of taxes to either government by claiming to be under the other when the collec- tor of one came along. Several Catholie settle- ments were made in the debatable ground under the distinct impression that they were in the Prov- ince of Maryland. Several of these received harslı and severe treatment at the hands of Penn- sylvanians. Hard knocks being given and received we find brave Col. Thomas Cressap on the stage both giving and receiving. Lord Baltimore had sent him to the disputed border with orders to hold the country for him. He settled himself on the banks of the Susquehanna opposite Colum- bia. Here he constructed a block house and occu- pied it with his family. In the same neighbor- hood a colony of Germans had settled under Penn- sylvania grants. Cressap raised a party of fifty men and marched against these invaders. The scheme was to drive them out and divide their lands among the members of the party. In the fracas which ensucd a Pennsylvanian named Knowels Dant was killed. The sheriff of Lancas- ter then proceeded against Cressap with a posse. They attempted to surprise that wary leader. But he obtained information of their movements and secured himself, together with six associates, in his house and stood on the defensive while the official read his warrant and called upon Cressap to surrernder. Cressap was provided with an abundance of fire arms and attacked the sheriff so furiously that he gave up all hope of taking him by force. When night came on the sheriff found means to set fire to the house and offered to quench it if the inmates would surrender, but those who made the proposal were met with a volley. When the whole building was enveloped in flames, Cressap and his family and his party rushed out, firing upon the enemy as they ran. In the confusion, one of Cressap's men, Michael Reisner, shot down by mistake one of his com- rades, Lanchlan Malone. Cressap was apprehend- ed, and according to the representation of the Government of the Provinces of the King, in an address to his Majesty, with four of his compan- ions, "were hurried into the Gaols of the Province of Pennsylvania, where one of them actually per- ished for want of sustenance, and the rest now Lye." The jail to which Cressap was carried was in Philadelphia and as he was borne through that city. we are assured that the streets, doors and windows were thronged with spectators to see the
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
Maryland Monster, who taunted the erowd by exclaiming, 'why this is the finest city in the Province of Maryland !' "
In the midst of the Pennsylvania boundary dispute the Six Nations made a elaim to a large part of the territory of Maryland, including our own valley. The French and Indian war was threatening and it was thought safest to satisfy their demands. The Governor consequently ap- pointed a commission to treat with them and this was the occasion of one of the many wrangles between the Governor and the Assembly. The Assembly denied the right of the Governor to make the appointment and to assert their own authority, added two names to the list of com- missioners. This offended His Excellency and he
iet the whole matter drop. But later on as the situation became more threatening, the Governor appointed a commission to treat with the Indians and paid their expenses out of the ordinary rev- cnnes. In consideration of the payment of three hundred pounds current money of Pennsylvania, partly in goods and partly in gold money, the nations renouneed and disclaimed to Lord Balti- more all the lands that lie on the Potomac, alias Colongaroutan, or Susquehanna rivers up to Capt. Thomas Cressap's hunting cabin on the uppermost fork of the Potomae.
One of the crown stones in Mason and Dixon's line stands near Midvale, Franklin County, Pa., and is protected by a wire screen from relic hun- ters.
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
CHAPTER IV
NE morning in the early part of May, 1755, a small army descended the western side of the South Mountain, winding like a scarlet thread down through Turner's Gap where now passes the National Pike, down to the site of Boonsboro and on through the unsettled plain, across the Antietam at the "Devil's Back Bone" where "Delemere" Mill afterwards stood, and on over the broad trail which an advance detachment had laid out, to the settlement of Conococheague the present town of Williams- port. This was the first regularly organized army ever seen in the Valley of the Antietam. A little more than a century later the spectacle had grown sadly familiar.
In 1755 the seven years war had begun and at first disaster and disgrace had attended the Brit- ish upon the right hand and on the left. Under the leadership of the Great Commoner the war ended with the British in undisputed possession of the greater portion of North America.
In the early part of 1754 every Indian sud- denly and mysteriously disappeared from our valley. But the mystery was soon solved. The emissaries of France had been among them and had enlisted their aid in their scheme of taking possession of the Valley of the Mississippi in addi- tion to the whole of the present British Territory in America and the flourishing settlements on the lower Mississippi, which they already held. As is well known, England claimed the whole of North America by virtue of Cabot's discovery. The French had established a colony at New Orleans and their settlements were gradually extending up the Mississippi river and when the English Gov-
ernment inade a grant of certain privileges beyond the Alleghany Mountains to the Ohio Company, the French began to establish rapidly a chain of forts from Canada to their Mississippi settlements. The object was to confine the English possessions to the Atlantic slope. Upon the first intelligence of the construction of Fort Duquesne on the pres- 'ent site of Pittsburg, George Washington, then a youth, was dispatched through the wilderness with a remonstrance from the Governor of Vir- ginia.
In order to put an effectual end to French pretensions General Braddock was sent to America with a thousand British regulars. He enlisted a number of colonial troops and invited Wash- ington to accompany him as his aid. For cont- mander of such an expedition, no worse selec- tion could have been made than that of Braddock. He was a brave soldier, but was as ignorant of the people he had to contend with and the face of the country he had to traverse, as he was super- silious. He regarded those who wished to inform him, with the utmost contempt. He was a marti- net and had but slight regard for soldiers who could not go through with their exercises with the precision he was accustomed to exact in the parades of Regent Park. The fate which would overtake such a man, who knew nothing and re- fused instruction, was but too plain to the practical and experienced mind of Washington, who acconi- panied lim, and who no doubt expected to share that fate. In conversation with Benjamin Frank- lin at Frederick ('ity, Braddock said "after taking Fort Duquesne I am to proceed to Niagara ; and having taken that, to Frontenac, if the season will
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
allow time, and I suppose it will; for Duquesne can hardly detain nie over three or four days, and then I see nothing that can effect my march to Niagara. A few weeks later he, and nearly all of his regulars, had been shot down before reach- ing Duquesne, by the Indians who could not detain him above three or four days. "Having before revolved in my mind," remarked the sagacious Franklin, "the long line his army must make in their march by a very narrow road to be cut for them through the woods and bushes, and also what I had read of a former defeat of fifteen hundred French, who invaded the Illinois country, I con- ceived some doubts and some fears for the event of the campaign. But I ventured only to say, 'To be sure, sir, if you arrive well before Fort Duquesne, with these fine troops, so well provided with artillery, the fort, though completely forti- fied and assisted with a very strong garrison, can probably make but a short resistance. The only danger I apprehend of obstruction to your march, is from the ambuscades of the Indians, who, by constant practice, are dextrous in laying and exe- cuting them; and the slender line, ncarly four miles long, which your army must make, may expose it to be attacked by surprise in its flanks, and to be cut like a thread into several pieces, which. from their distance cannot come up in time to support each other." He smiled at my igno- rance, and replicd, "These savages may indeed be a formidable enemy to your raw American militia, but upon the King's regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make any impression, I was conscious of an impropriety in disputing with a military man in matters of his profession and said no more."
Braddock had been detained for a considerable time at Frederick City which place he had reached on his march to the West, by inability to procure transportation for his baggage. It was said that he roared like a lion at this detention and show- cred curses upon the colonies and especially upon Maryland, with a liberal and lavish profusion. On June 7th, 1755, Washington wrote from Fort Cumberland to Mr. Wm. Fairfax that: "The Gen- eral, from frequent breaches of contract, has lost all patience; and for want of that temper and moderation which should be used by a man of sense upon these occasions, will, I fear, represent us in a light we little deserve ; for instead of blam- ing the individual, as he ought, he charges all his
disappointment to public supineness and looks upon the country, I believe as void of honor and honesty. We have frequent disputes on this head, which are maintained with warmth on both sides, especially on his, as he is incapable of arguing without it, or giving up any point he asserts, be it ever so incompatible with reason or common sense."
Braddock required two hundred wagons and twenty-five hundred horses to convey his baggage and the amount of baggage required by the young officers filled Washington with disgust and dismay and caused him to greatly underrate these gentle- men. When the time came to test their courage and fighting qualities they amply redeemed them- selves. The contractors who had undertaken to furnish the army with the means of transportation failed utterly because there was not so large a number of wagons in the western part of the Province. It remained for that great man, Ben- jamin Franklin, to relieve Braddock of his diffi- culties. In Pennsylvania Franklin was relied upon for everything. Nothing seemed to be be- yond his powers. As a legislator, as a scientist, as a philosopher, as a commander of militia, as an inventor, as a financier, as a diplomat, he was equally eminent. Whenever any difficult or deli- cate work was to be done, it was Franklin, who was called upon to do it. No living man knew better how to deal with men than he and when the Colonial Assembly of Pennsylvania needed a man to conciliate the British commander, Franklin of course was selected and equally as a matter of course accomplished the desired result. "We found the General at Fredericktown," says Frank- lin, "waiting impatiently for the return of those he had sent through the back parts of Maryland and Virginia to collect wagons. I stayed with him several days, dined with him daily, and had full opportunities of removing his prejudices, (against Pennsylvania) by the information of what the assembly had before his arrival actually done, and were still willing to do to facilitate his operations. When I was about to depart, the re- turns of wagons to be obtained were brought in, by which it appeared that they amounted only to twenty-five and not all of those were in a service- able condition. The General and all the officers were surprised, declared the expedition was then at an end, being impossible, and exclaimed against the ministers for ignorantly sending them into a
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
country destitute of the means of conveying their stores, baggage &c., not less than one hundred and fifty wagons being necessary."
Franklin volunteered to obtain them in Penn- sylvania and advertised for them and they were offered with great celerity, but he found it neces- sary to give his individual promise for the hire as well as for payment for those which might be destroyed by the fortunes of war. The people of Pennsylvania were more willing to trust Franklin than they were to look to the British Government for their pay. It was agreed that there should be paid for each wagon with four good horses and a driver, fifteen shillings a day, and for each able horse with a pack-saddle two shillings per diem, and for each able horse without a pack-saddle eighteen pence per diem, the pay to commence from the time of their joining forces at Wills Creek, which was to be before May 20th ensuing, and a reasonable sum allowed for going to and coming from Wills Creek, each horse and wagon to be valued, and in case of loss, this valuation to be paid to the owner. Franklin in his adver- tisement assured the people that the service would be light as not more than twelve miles per day could be made by the Army. In two weeks after undertaking the matter Franklin had a hundred and fifty wagons and two hundred and fifty-nine carrying horses were on the march to the camp. After the defeat of Braddock the wagoners de- manded twenty thousand pounds from Franklin for their property and some of them brought suit, but the Government came to the rescue and re- lieved him of his embarrassment ; the last payment to Franklin was only made however, on the very breaking out of the Revolution.
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