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 72
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Ernie Ball
443
OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
of a "commons" strewn with debris. In this con- dition the property remained in market for some time, and was purchased by William D. Bell for the round sum of three thousand dollars. In April, 1832, he took possession and to it removed his family, and it continued to be his home through life. His plans of improvement had been pre-arranged, and he commenced operations by dividing the entire area into building lots, and opening Prospect St., as well as cutting down the lot upon which the mansion stands into terraces. This involved the removal of a vast body of stone; the work continued for many months, and with necessary changes, ran into years. Antietam street presented a barrier to the extension of Pros- pect street in a rock-ledge that completely closed it, but this was removed, and the old stone bridge that spanned it for many years was constructed. Then in conjunction with Mr. Franklin Anderson, the owner of the property to the Academy line, that portion of Prospect street was opened. Still later it was extended in sections and by other hands, to its present outlet.
"The first house built on the property pur- chased by Mr. Bell was commenced almost simul- taneously with the work on Prospect street, and was erected before the street was entirely opened. It was constructed of stone taken from the foun- dation on which it stands and roughcast, and was designed to be the residence of Rev. Matthew Lind Fullerton, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, whose death occurred in 1833, and was never oc- . cupied by hin. It is now the property of Mr. Samuel B. Loose, and its conversion into a modern Colonial mansion is much admired. About the same time Dr. John Reynolds (whose wife was sister and heir of Gen. Wm. E. Sprigg, of "Para- dise" farm) purchased from Mr. Bell the first lot on Washington St., and upon it, erected the pres- ent brick structure, which was afterwards the prop- erty and home of Mrs. Upton Lawrence, and is now owned by Mr. C. S. Hunter. Almost at the same time Mr. Geo. Gillmyer, who taught a male school, purchased the lot at the corner of Wash- ington and Walnut streets, and Mr. Jacob Yeakle, a tinner by trade, bought a lot at the corner of Antietam and Walnut streets, upon which they erected small brick houses, the former using his as his residence. Between these two another brick house was built by the Catholic congregation. All these were removed when the Franklin Railroad was built and subsequently became the property of
the Cumberland Valley R. R., and upon it the passenger station now stands.
"Between the Reynolds house and the Gill- myer house, Mr. Philip Wingert erected the large brick edifice recently known as St. Joseph's School, and Miss Elizabeth Harry the small brick house now occupied by Dr. Boyle and for a time the home of Judge Alvey. Miss Harry was connected with one of the original families of the town, and there reared her three nieces, the Misses Geiger, who became the wives of Rev. Mr. Johns, Tilgh- inan Holliday and Benjamin G. Fitzhugh. On Prospect street, the building on the lot adjoining that of the Fullerton house, was erected by Col. Frisby Tilghman, the proprietor of "Rockland" with the intent of using it as a town residence but he soon tired of it, and returned to his coun- try home. It was afterwards the residence of William Beverley Clarke, the son-in-law of Wil- liam Price, as well as his partner, in the practice of the law, and prominent in political life as a Whig. As a candidate for governor, he was de- feated by Enoch Louis Lowe, of Frederick. It is now the home of the family of the late Joseph B. Loose. Adjoining this property on the north is the home of the family of the late Dr. Wroe, which was built by the late William Holliday, son-in-law of Col. Tilghman. On the opposite side of Pros- pect street, and on that portion of the property at- tached to the original purchase, the neat cottage of Mrs. Ellen Griswold, mother of Mr. B. Howell Griswold, of Baltimore, was erected, soon after the opening of Prospect street, by the venerable Mrs. Smoot, a widow of a former register of wills of Washington County. The home of Mrs. Smoot had been in Rohrer's Addition, on the opposite side of N. Walnut street to the C. V. Railroad station, and was the centre of a large and beauti- ful garden, from which she was crowded out by the march of improvement.
"The completion of the old stone bridge over Antietam street replaced by the existing iron structure, terminated my father's labors in that direction and the extension of Prospect street to its connection with Summit Ave. was the work of other hands. This comprised the removal of the old Academy and the straightening of the street which had been curved to pass around and in front of the old institution. The first houses erected on the Anderson lot were by Mrs. Mary Chandler and Martin Rickenbaugh. In place of the former stands the rectory of the Episcopal
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
Church; of the latter the home of the only sur- viving child of its builder. Mrs. Chandler was the sister of Alex. Neill, then president of the Hagerstown Bank and grandfather of the present president. On the Academy lot, fronting on the newly opened street, the first house erected was the present home of Judge Alvey, and was built by Elie Beatty, cashier of the Hagerstown Bank, and brother-in-law of Col. Nathaniel Rochester.
"The opening of Prospect street and develop- ment of projects incidental to it, infused new life into that entire section and inspired its rebuilding to a marvelous degree. Almost at once the four plain houses standing on lots immediately oppo- site the property of Mr. Bell on Washington St., were purchased and one by one replaced by the structures which now adorn them. About the first to be built was that which is now the town residence of the family of the late Governor Wil- liam T. Hamilton, erccted by David G. Yost, a prominent member of the Bar. In its construc- tion he perpetrated an innovation upon established custom, and had his plans drawn by an aecom- plished artist from abroad. The result was a structure then unique, and since an object of un- failing admiration. The house on the west of this was of hewn logs, and was replaced by the pres- ent handsome and commodious briek dwelling erected by Gen. Otho Holland Williams, then clerk of Washington County Court, and his home through life- now St. Joseph's Female School. The lot adjoining that of Mr. Yost, on the east, had upon it a singular one-story brick house with a high porch extending along the entire front, and oc- cupied by Benjamin F. Yoe, one of the first vic- tims of the cholera in 1832, now replaced by the residence of the late Dr. T. W. Simmons, and was built by Robert Logan, a builder and contractor of that period. The remaining lot, fronting Pros- pect street was purchased by the widow of Gen. Samuel Ringgold, of Fountain Rock, now St. James School. She married Robert M. Titball, of the Hagerstown Bar and built the house now occupied by the family of the late Judge French. "While these improvements were going on and at their very height, the dreaded Asiatie cholera was moving up the Potomae along the line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, then in course of con- struction. Its approach caused almost a panic in Hagerstown. As the ravages of the disease were confined principally to the laborers along the line of that work, and most of them were from
Ireland and attached to the Catholic communion, their remains were bronght to this place for burial in consecrated ground. This condition imposed upon the board of Town Commissioners, of which my father was head, as Moderator, the chief re- sponsibility of meeting it. Almost immediately, the town was struck by the pestilence. Within a day or two, three of its most prominent citizens were stricken to death: V. W. Randall, of the Hagerstown Bar, whose descendants still reside here ; Benjamin F. Yoe, one of whose daughters was the wife of Mr. George Fechtig, whose de- scendants now fill important places in this com- munity ; and the third, Mr. Joseph MeIlhenny, a merchant doing business in the house on North Potomae street occupied by MeCardell Bro's. He left seven daughters, prominent in the society of the Presbyterian Church. His brother, John, also a member of that communion, was the father of seven sons, and was proprietor of the hotel kept by him on the N. W. corner of the Public Square and West Washington street. One of his sons, John H., was for many years connected with Bar- num's Hotel, Baltimore, in its palmiest days, and was noted for its geniality. Another, Edward, established himself in New Orclans early in life, married the daughter of one of the leading citi- zens of Louisiana, became the owner of Tabasco Island and established the manufactory of the "Tabasco Sauce" which today retains his brand. His son, John, as we learn from newspapers, lately entertained at his beautiful home, Miss Alice, the daughter of President Roosevelt, and still more recently took "a dip" in the waters of the Atlantic at St. Augustine, Florida, with the President him- self.
"The first act of resistance to the- cholera was the ercetion of a temporary frame hospital on the north-western border of the town known as "Gal- lows Hill," the place upon which had been execut- od a criminal called the "Guinea negro," and a father and two sons, named Cotterill, convicted of the murder of a peddler in what was Washington, now Allegany County. The hospital was under the supervision and personal control of the Mod- orator. There every case was treated, my father giving daily and nightly supervision. One of liis experiences was an application for whiskey. A noted local character, Jack Wolgamot, who was in the collapsed state and pronounced incurable, asked permission to have his last hours soothed with his cherished beverage, the night before my
445
OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
father left the hospital. It was granted, and in the morning Jack was found not only alive, but in a fair way to recovery.
"Towards the close of his life, which was ap- parently in its fullness, my father was engaged in other enterprises, of very considerable magni- tude, and which furnished a promise of good re- sults not only to himself, but to a remote section of the County. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal had been opened to traffic, and he was induced to purchase a large body of land on its borders in Hancock and Indian Spring districts, known as "Timber Ridge." It was owned by the Farmers' Bank of Maryland and contained three thousand, one hundred and ninety-five acres, mostly in tim- ber and much of it susceptible of being divided into farms. This was procured by him at one dollar per acre, in July, 1839. His design was lo establish a steam saw mill on the Canal at what was known as the "Little Pool," upon which the property abutted, to use the timber, and to divide into farms and dispose of such portions as were suitable. These operations were being successfully carried out when his death in October, 1841, put an end to them. Already then he had establishicd a tentative lumber yard on Prospect street, and had commenced the sale of the product of his mill, shipped by boat to Williamsport, and hauled to Hagerstown, on the turnpike, of which he had been one of the building company and of which he was president. This was his last undertaking in the way of progress, to which his life had been devoted.
"With him, an annual visit with congenial friends to Black Rock, on the Fourth of July, was never, if possible, omitted, and on that of 1841, a rude monument of the stone lying around the summit, similar to that overlooking Boonsboro' was commenced. In handling one of these stones, it fell upon his foot and inflicted some injury which was indifferently regarded. But his system, probably exhausted by the many cares and unceas- ing activity, succumbed to a fever which super- vened, and he expired in the morning of the day after which the Democratic candidate for Gover- nor, Frank Thomas, whom he had vigorously op- posed, was elected.
"The entire decade preceding the death of Mr. Bell, filled as it was with thrilling events, was marked by one more prolonged and as intense as any of them. This was a schism in the Presbyter- ian congregation, in which he was called upon to
take the leading part, as spokesman and controver- sialist on the one side, against the pastor and ses- sion of the Church on the other, which resulted in the separation of the congregation into two distinct organizations, under different govern- ments.
"This was the First Presbyterian Church of Hagerstown, standing on South Potomac street, and when built was known as "Kennedy's Church witli a chimney." This nomeclature needs no ex- planation. The founders of it were from the north of Ireland. Their devotion to their church was as true as it was unbending. Rev. John Lind had been its first pastor and was succeeded by a relative, the Rev. Matthew Lind Fullerton, who was installed in September, 1825, and died in September, 1833. To both, the congregation had been devotedly attached, and the death of the lat- ter, in the bloom of youth, from whom much was expected, was deeply deplored. As his successor, the Rev. Richard Wynkoop, of New York, was called and installed June 25, 1834, and continued in charge until his death, April, 1842. He was a man of distinguished presence and great force of character, with an unbending will. As a church- man he was orthodox, and as rigid as Jonh Knox himself, and in this respect, particularly, was ac- ceptable to one portion of his congregation. On the other hand my father and others were less drastic in their views. In fact, a difference upon this point had already caused a split in the Pres- byterian Church of the United States, which was productive of great fecling and some acrimony.
"The Rev. George Duffield, D. D., of Carlisle, Pa., was the head of a secession movement which had resulted in the organization of a new Church which was known by the name of "New Light." This gentleman and my father, were descendants of William Duffield, of Ballymena, Ireland, (1600- 66), and although they had never met, and may have had no sentiments on this point in common, it was thought by Mr. Bell that the connection had inspired distrust of his orthodoxy in the mind of Mr. Wynkoop. Whether or not this was so, no one could tell, but it was manifest that the two were not in accord, and to the one might have been applied, as to the other, with slight verbal change, the couplet :
"I do not like you Doctor Fell;
The reason why, I cannot tell."
"Whatsoever the cause, five members of the congregation were arraigned, tried and found
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
guilty. They were Joseph Gabby, George I. Har- ry, John Curry, Roberdeau Annan and William D. Bell. The Session was composed of the Rev. Richard Wynkoop, (the Moderator), and John Kennedy, John Robertson and Joseph Reneh, el- ders.
"John Kennedy was senior member of the wholesale and retail mereantile house of Kennedy & Ferguson, consisting of himself, his brother, James Hugh Kennedy, and James Ferguson. IIe had two sons, John Wagoner Kennedy and James Hugh Kennedy. The latter was prominent in the publie eye as one of the first vietims of the anti- slavery agitation preceeding the eivil war. In re- elaiming a fugitive slave at Carlisle, Pa., he was beset by a mob and received injuries resulting in his death. John Kennedy had also two daughters of wliom one married Benjamin Priee, of the Fred- eriek Bar, and the other, the Hon. James Dixon Roman, of the Hagerstown Bar, and a representa- tive in Congress from the 6th district of Maryland. "John Robertson, who like Mr. Kennedy, was a native of Ireland, was engaged also in the mer- eantile business in connection with his brother, Col. William Robertson, and was married to a daughter of Jacob Harry. He had one son, Wil- liam, married to the niece of James Ferguson, and two daughters, one of whom was the wife of Rev. Robert Douglas; and the other of William H. Steele, the owner of the "Good Intent" stage line of those days.
"Joseph Rench was married to Elizabeth Schnebley, whose family connection was one of the largest, and with his own constituted one of the most influential in the County.
"On the opposite side of the Church eontro- versy was Joseph Gabby, whose trial was the first to take place. He was the proprietor of a valuable farm and distillery on one side of the Antietam, above Leitersburg, both of which he personally su- pervised, and brother of William, who had a fauni on the opposite side of the ereek, one of the Judges of the Orphans' Court. Joseph Gabby had been in earlier days a member of the Governor's Coun- eil, which, under the existing constitution of the State, filled the place of a Senate and in ease of death or disqualifieation, he would have been in line of success to the onhernatorial chair. He had three daughters, one of whom was married to Dr. James Johnson, another to Dr. Thomas Bu- chanan Duekett, and the third to Nathan MeDow- ell. The elder son of Dr. Duekett, named after
his grandfather "Gabby" was shot and killed by a Federal guard during the eivil war as he was erossing the Potomae to join the army of General Lee.
"Jolın Curry had been engaged in the cabinet- making business and was living a retired life. He had a son named after the Rev. John Lind, who beeame a printer, and three daughters, who rc- speetively married Mr. Eieholtz, Dr. Downey and Mr. Smith, living elsewhere after their marriages.
"Roberdeau Annan was a groeery merehant, whose store adjoined the old Torch Light offiee on Washington street. He was married, but had no children, and one of his brothers, Mr. James Annan, established himself in Cumberland, at an early day, married the sister of the Hon. Thomas Perry and left a son, Daniel Annan, the sue- eessor of the late Governor Lowndes, as president of the Second National Bank of Cumberland.
"George I. Harry was the eldest son of Jaeob Harry, twiee inarried, first to Amelia Knode and secondly to Susan Bell, the sister of. William D. Bell. Her eldest daughter was the wife of Dr. Dennis Murphy, of Martinsburg, Va., paymaster, U. S. army, at the commencement of the civil war, who resigned his commission and resumed his practice of medieine in Virginia. Another daugh- ter was the mother of Maj. Rogers Birnie, Ord. Dept. and also of Upton Birnie, Jr., 1st Lieut., 20 field battery, U. S. Army. Another daughter was the wife of T. A. Boultt, of Hagerstown, jew- eller, and officially connected with the common schools of the County. Still another was the wife of Hon. A. K. Syester, of the Hagerstown Bar, member of the House of Delegates, Attorney Gen- eral of the State and Asso. Judge of the Circuit Court. Another daughter was the wife of the Rev. William Love, a graduate of Dublin Umver- sity, who, emigrating to this country with his father's family, passed through the Theologiea! Seminary at Princeton, N. J., and was one of the pastors of the Presbyterian Church of Hagerstown during the separation. And another was married to John Likens, of Martinsburg, Va., and subsc- quently of St. Joseph, Mo.
"William D. Bell, the brother-in-law of John Robertson and George I. Harry, was the father of Brig .- Gen. George Bell, U.S.A., (retired), whose sons Maj. George Bell. Jr., 1st Inf'y., Capt. Edwin Bell, 8th In'fy., and Maj. William D. Bell, surgeon 71st Reg't., N. Y. V., participated in the recent operations in Cuba, Alaska and the Philippines.
447
OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
Mr. Bell's youngest son, Henry, joined the Con- federate army on its retreat from Gettysburg, and served in Virginia till the close of the war. His eldest daughter was the wife of Hon. Wil- liam Motter, Hagerstown Bar, member of the Con- stitutional Convention of 1867, State's Attorney for Washington County, and Associate Judge of the Circuit Court. A younger daughter was the wife of Mr. Thomas E. Tootle, of St. Joseph, Mo., one of the active business men of the north- west for many years and the head of a banking institution in that place.
"Thus arrayed the prosecution of the church fight was in a great measure a passage at arms between the pastor and Mr. Bell. I recently picked up an old manuscript signed by William D. Bell, the following extracts which furnish a sufficient understanding for present purposes :
"To the Moderator and Session of the Presbyter- ian Congregation of IIagerstown :
"I have notified you of my intention to appeal -to the Carlisle Presbytery, from the judgment and to complain of the conduct of your body, in rela- tion to, and pending the trial of a libel filed against me bearing date 29th August, 1836, upon grounds and for reasons set forth below." [The reasons are then given in detail.]
"P. S .- 1 also complain of unnecessary delay in bringing my trial to a close. The session had gone through with the examination of all the wit- nesses they adduced in the case in September last ; notwithstanding, my sentence was delayed until the past month, a period of six months, during which I have been, as I conceive, most cruelly and unnecessarily excluded from church privileges." (Dated March 31, 1837.)
"This appeal was carried up to the Presbytery at its next session in Carlisle. After full argu- ment the judgment of the Session was reversed. From this decision, Mr. Wynkoop on the part of the Session entered an appeal to the next highest court, the Synod. That body, after a most elab- orate argument, in which my father's defense was much commended, affirmed the finding of the Pres- bytery, and a notice of appeal to the General As- sembly was at once given by the Session through its Moderator. Pending this notification, the Session applied for and was granted permission
to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, and became attached to the Associated Reformed Church, of the United States. It retained possession of the church property, and from that time for a number of years, the two sections of the congregation wor- shipped apart, the one, as the Associate Reformed, and the other as the Presbyterian Church. Hav- ing no fixed abode, the latter by courtesy of the pastors of the other churches, held services in different places of worship, but more regularly in the lower room of the old Court House, which had not then been destroyed by fire. The Associ- ate Reformed Church, after the death of Mr. Wyn- koop, had regularly called ministers, and the Pres- byterian received supplies from time to time, fur- nished by the Presbytery, until the acerbities of the late conflict had gradually worn away, and the active participants in it were resting in their graves. Then by mutual action a joint meeting was had in the old Court House, at which resolu- tions were unanimously adopted requesting admis- sion as a united body into the Carlisle Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church, and a commission composed of James Hugh Kennedy and Edwin Bell was appointed to present the resolutions to that body at its next annual meeting. This took place at Mercersburg, in the church of which Rev. Dr. Kreigh was pastor. The duties devolving upon the two sons of those niost prominent in the sep- aration of the congregation, were successfully per- formed, to the satisfaction of all, who were once more united, in the old sanctuary known as "Ken- nedy's Church with a chimney." My experience in this transaction was but the forerunner of one somewhat similar, when about five or six years later, in 1850, I was requested by Mr. Joseph W. Findlay, a member of a Maryland Presbyterian family, to act with himself and Col. Coyler, of Ohio, Collector of the Port, as one of the Trus- tees of the Presbyterian Church, then being organ- ized in a canvas tent, in a corner of Portsmouth Square, San Francisco, California, by the Rev. Mr. Williams- the first church of that denomination planted on the Pacific coast. This request was cheerfully complied with, and associated with the reunion of the church at home, is now among the most pleasant reminiscenses of a long life."
CHAPTER XXXI
HE first great improvement to make Ha- gerstown a modern town and to promote the comfort of living as well as the pub- lic health, was the provision for a supply of pure water from the breast of the mountain. Up to the completion of the Water Works the supply for domestic purposes was drawn from springs, wells and cisterns. The conformation of all limestone countries is such that the land is fill- ed with passages through which water from the surface reaches the underground streams. As impurities accumulated in Hagerstown with the growth of the town the wells became contaminated and the waters dangerous to drink.
The streets were macadamized with soft lime- stone and the surface became pulverized by traf- fic into exceedingly fine dust which filled the air when the wind blew. The supply of water for fire protection was also insufficient. All these condi- tions made water works imperative and in 1880 a company was chartered under the name of the Washington County Water Company. The incor- porators were William T. Hamilton, William Up- degraff, Alexander Armstrong, Edward Stake, Henry H. Keedy, George R. Bowman, Jacob Roess- ner, David C. Aughinbaugh, George W. Smithi, John B .. Thirston, P. A. Brugh and Joseph Kaus- ler. The directors for the first year were William T. Hamilton, William Updegraff, Charles W. Humrichouse, George R. Bowman, Edward W. Mealey, Edward Stake, Henry H. Keedy, David S. Boyer, Wm. Gassman, George W. Harris and George W. Grove. The contract with Hagerstown provided for the appointment of two directors by the Mayor and the submission of the rates of
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