History of Baltimore, Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1729-1898, including its early settlement and development; a description of its historic and interesting localities; political, military, civil, and religious statistcs; biographies of representative citizens, etc., etc, Part 3

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1344

USA > Maryland > Baltimore County > Baltimore City > History of Baltimore, Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1729-1898, including its early settlement and development; a description of its historic and interesting localities; political, military, civil, and religious statistcs; biographies of representative citizens, etc., etc > Part 3

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The act of April 30, 1802, for the admis- sion of Ohio, provides that one-twentieth part of the net proceeds of the lands lying within the said State sold by Congress from and after the 30th of June next shall be ap- plied to laying out and making public roads leading from navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic to the Ohio, to the said State and through the same, such roads to be laid out under the authority of Congress, with the consent of the several States through which the road shall pass. A com- mittee of the Senate reported that the net proceeds of the sales of land in the State of Ohio from July 1, 1802, to September 30, 1805, amounted to $632,604.27, and two per cent. on this sum was $12,652. This was the first money available for the building of the great road. Its final cost was $6,824,- 919.33.

The road when finished traversed seven States, and was about eight hundred miles long. In 1822 a single house at Wheeling unloaded 1,081 wagons, averaging 3,500 pounds each, and paid for the transporta- tion of the goods $90,000.

Hundreds of the original wagoners have become rich and respected members of society.

The late distinguished Johns Hopkins was fond of relating a story showing what could be done with a six-horse team: In 1838 he engaged Daniel Barcus to haul a load of merchandise, weighing 8,300 pounds, from his store corner Pratt and Light streets, to Mount Vernon, O. He delivered the goods in good condition at the end of thirty days from the date of his departure from Baltimore, the distance be- ing 397 miles. Mr. Hopkins paid him $4.25 per hundred; on the return trip he loaded 7,200 pounds of Ohio tobacco, hogs- heads, at $2.75 per hundred.

One of the peculiarities of the old wagon- ers was the manner of stating the amount of their loads, thus twelve thousand pounds was "one hundred and twenty hundred." Everything came to Baltimore, and for many years the city enjoyed a perfect monopoly of this great western traffic. Mil- lions of hogs, turkeys and sheep were driven from across the Ohio. It was also no unusual thing to see many gangs of slaves handcuffed together and made fast to a rope, marching two and two down the dusty pike. The Appian Way is a thing of the past, and so is the old National Road. On various parts of its bed the steel rails and overhead wires of the "trolley" have dis- placed everything else, and in that way it is still useful. To the old merchants and wagoners who used it and to hundreds of thousands of others it was a source of never failing riches, and to the City of Baltimore, until the coming of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the main artery of its trade and traffic.

About this time men began to look about for some means of transportation to our sis- ter cities and towns, and companies were

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

organized to run stages on land and packet sloops on water. These sloops, with spacious cabin accommodations, ran to Chestertown, Annapolis and the head of the bay, all starting from Bowley's Wharf at the foot of South street. Most of the stages started from the old Fountain Inn on Light street, where the Carrollton Hotel now stands. The journey to Philadelphia was made in twenty-six to twenty-eight hours if every, thing went well, and the charge, $8.00. An allowance of fifteen pounds of baggage was made to each person.

The whole community felt the impetus of peace and prosperity, and among the no- table enterprises of the time was the organ- ization of the Susquehanna Canal Com- pany, said to be the first in the United States. Then came the Potomac Canal Company. The Chesapeake and Delaware did not organize until 1799, but it had been talked about and virtually originated by Augustine Herman (or Heermans), more than a hundred years before, at his home on Bohemia Manor, in Cecil county. By a strange coincidence the same manor was the birthplace of the first inventor who ever propelled a vessel by the use of steam, James Rumsey.

The Assembly at Philadelphia, in March, 1785, gave him the exclusive right for ten years "To navigate and build boats calcu- lated to work with greater ease and rapidity against rapid rivers." In 1787 he was granted the right of navigating the rivers of New York, Maryland and Virginia, after his success in running a steamboat on the Potomac river. He made a successful trip on the river Thames, England, in 1792. The Legislature of Kentucky, in 1839, pre- sented a gold medal to his son "Com-

memorative of his father's services and high agency in giving to the world the benefits of the steamboat."

THE FIRST SUGAR REFINERY

Was established in the year 1784, and the glass works which had been located on the Monocacy river in Frederick county, as early as 1784, were removed to Baltimore in 1788, the plant being located on the south side of the basin.

In the ten years between 1790 and 1800, which were marked by the most wonderful activity in commerce and manufactures, the increase was about 100 per cent., or 26,514. Now we come to the period when the city was mistress of the West India trade, and did the chief part of the carrying trade be- tween the West Indies and Europe. For the former this was one of the principal markets of the world, the products of the Islands in large part first coming here and then being reshipped to the port of final destination. Almost all the sales on the wharves, as was stated before, were made by cargoes. This was the special feature of the Baltimore market.

THE FIRST MARINE INSURANCE COM- PANIES

Were established in the year 1795, before which time the merchants took risks them- selves, or some private capitalists would take the risk on ship and cargo.

In 1787, the year the Federal Constitu- tion was adopted, this city had 36,305 tons of registered vessels, and 7,976 licensed and enrolled, and in eight years afterwards 48,- 007 tons of shipping, and 27,470 licensed and enrolled. In the same year 100 ships, 162 brigs, 350 sloops and schooners, and 5,464 bay craft and small coasters passed into the harbor.

Martin Gullet

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

THE FIRST MARKET.

The open market, in which the producer deals directly with the consumer, is and al- ways has been, one of the pleasant features of domestic life in our city. The first was established at the northwest corner of Gay and Baltimore streets in 1763. We can now boast of eleven, which feed at least 300,000 people. Our system always excites lively interest in strangers.

THE FIRST COURT HOUSE.

As far back as 1768 it was thought best for the interest of the town and county to remove the Court House from Joppa, on the Gunpowder, which had for a long time been the county seat.

Our first Court House building was erected on the spot now occupied by the "Baltimore Monument," called by common consent to-day the Battle Monument; in front of this structure was placed the whip- ping post, stocks and pillory.

FIRST CUSTOM HOUSE.

During the Revolution the business of the town prospered and grew, and the West Indian trade assumed large proportions, so that it soon became necessary to afford some kind of relief from the vexatious de- lays imposed on merchants and shippers by having to enter and clear all their ves- sels at the Annapolis Custom House. This relief was at last accomplished by the es- tablishment of a Custom House in 1780.

THE FIRST PORT WARDENS.

Of course all this maritime prosperity en- tailed additional duties and responsibilities on the authorities of the port, and the depth of water and general condition of the har- bor became a matter of serious considera- tion, so that in 1783 a board of nine port

wardens was appointed and clothed with authority to make a survey and chart of the upper basin harbor and Patapsco, to make a full report of the depth of the channel and its course, and the best means for clearing the same.

To provide means for this work an im- post of one penny a tón was laid upon all vessels entering or clearing the port. This tax was afterwards increased to two-pence.

Fort McHenry, on the end of Whetstone Point, which is, so far as the writer can ascertain, the first United States fort, was erected in 1794, and named after the dis- tinguished Irish gentleman James Mc- Henry.

He studied medicine under Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia, and afterwards ac- companied Gen. Washington to Cambridge as assistant surgeon. Very soon he was appointed medical director, and on May 15, 1778, he became secretary to Washington, and his relations with him continued through life to be those of a trusted friend and adviser. He filled almost every posi- tion in the gift of his fellow citizens. He defeated Luther Martin and Samuel Chase in securing the ratification of the Constitu- tion by Maryland, was made Secretary of War in 1796, and died in Baltimore May 3, 1816.

The milling of fine flour had been going on in the vicinity of Baltimore since 1774, and twenty years later a large number of mills, estimated at fifty, were located in and about the city. The reputation of this flour has remained to the present time, and a virtual monopoly of the South American trade existed for many years.

During the second war with England the city was a perfect hot-bed of patriotism.

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

The very large number of ships of all rigs owned here, the thousands of experienced sailors of all ranks, made it easy to man any number of vessels. History will show that this State and city did about one-third of the fighting for the thirteen States. The United States Navy list for 1816, published after the close of the war, shows that Mary- land furnished more officers to the Navy than New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Con- necticut and Massachusetts. Nine more than New York, twenty-four more than New Jersey, eleven more than Pennsylva- nia. Theodore Roosevelt, of New York, says, "Maryland furnished both absolutely and proportionately the greatest number of officers, and in the matter of fitting out privateers against the enemy," he says, "Baltimore again heads the list." The first vessel captured from the British was the schooner "Whiting," Lieut. Maxey, in Hampton Roads, by the privateer "Dash," Capt. Carroway, of Baltimore, twenty-two days after the declaration of war. We can- not close this page without saying a word for Capt. Thomas Boyle, of the brig "Chas- seur," of Baltimore, described by Capt. George Coggeshall, a New England man, as follows: "The Chasseur was called "The Pride of Baltimore;' she was indeed a fine specimen of naval architecture, and per- haps the most beautiful vessel that floated on the ocean. She captured H. B. Majesty's schooner St. Lawrence, Lieut. J. C. Gordon, in fifteen minutes, exchanged broadsides with an English frigate in the English Channel, and in the same waters was surrounded by two frigates and two brigs of war, and made her escape by out- manoeuvering and out-sailing them all; the loss inflicted on the British by this one ves-

sel amounted to one million five hundred thousand dollars, and this vessel was only one of hundreds."

In connection with the battle of North Point, a word must be said for the gallant soldiers and sailors who defended this city against the victorious veterans of Welling- ton-the heroes of the Peninsular cam- paign. An English officer said, "As indi- viduals, they were at least our equals in the skill with which they used the weapon- our soldiers moved forward with their ac- customed fearlessness, and the Americans, with much coolness, stood to receive them. The Americans were the first to use their small arms; having rent the air with a shout, they fired a volley, begun upon the right and carried away regularly to the extreme left, and then loading again, kept up an un- intermitted discharge." This was very gal- lant conduct for men who had never been under fire before and reflects the highest credit on the courage of our countrymen.

We can hardly dismiss this subject with- out saying something for the gallant sol- dier, Armistead, who fought his guns so well in Fort McHenry, or Francis Scott Key, who embalmed that noted fight in the immortal song which will last as long as the American Republic. Armistead was a regular officer. Heand four brothers all took an active part in the war. He was promoted major of the Third Artillery, March 3, 1813, and distinguished himself at the capture of Fort George from the British, May 27, 1813. His defense of Baltimore against the conceited Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane, places him in the front rank of American soldiers. He was brevetted lieutenant colonel for his steadfast bravery in the fight. He died here on April 25, 1818.

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

Of Key it may be said that his song has placed him among the "Immortals," writ- ten on the back of an old letter, the song was placed in the hands of Capt. Benjamin Eades, of the Twenty-seventh Baltimore Regiment, who after it had been set up in type, hurried to the old tavern next to Hol- liday Street Theater, which was much fre- quented by actors. Key had directed his friend to have the song sung to the air "Anacreon in Heaven," and an actor, Fer- dinand Durang, mounted a chair and sung the "Star Spangled Banner" for the first time. A fund is now being raised in this State to place a monument over his (Key's) grave, and James Lick, of San Francisco, bequeathed the sum of $60,000 for a monu- ment to him in Golden Gate Park in that city. This was executed by William W. Story, in Rome, 1885-87.

The tremendous loss inflicted on the Brit- ish by the city of Baltimore had made them vindictive, and anxious and eager for re- venge; and while Boston, New York and Philadelphia were passed by, they kept a very large force in the Chesapeake, and burned, ravished and robbed the people of this State, our loss in killed and wounded being more than all the other States to- gether.

Poverty and deep distress had overtaken the English agricultural classes, for in the years 1817, 1818 and 1819 the wheat crop failed, and a strong demand for our wheat sprung up. Soon the old West Indian and South American trade came back, and trade with the far East and to China commenced with renewed vigor. It is worthy of remark that this China trade, after remaining dor- mant for about forty years, has again

opened, and direct cargoes of China goods are being landed at our piers.

During the period between 1815 and 1829, the demand on the banks for money caused them to suspend the payment of specie and to issue a paper currency. This method of making ready capital was at once simple and very attractive; but was followed by its own retribution to the dismay of all concerned.

After reason in a measure had resumed her sway it was proposed as a cure-all to make a uniform currency for the whole country by the re-establishment of a Na- tional Bank-we say re-establishment be- cause the original Bank of the United States had expired by limitation in 18II. So it came to pass that a new bank of the United States was established in the year 1816. The total capital stock was $28,000,- 000, of which amount $4,014,100, or more than one-seventh, was furnished by our merchants. While this bank was founded on a specie basis it did not prove an unal- loyed blessing, because it acted as a severe check upon the people who had been get- ting accommodation on a paper basis.

Much distress among the trading class was the immediate result. Financial mat- ters adjusted themselves in the course of years, and the general business of the city kept pace with its increasing population. The last bank failure in this city took place in 1834, and was caused by the removal of the Government deposits from the United States Bank by President Andrew Jackson, Roger B. Taney being at the time Secretary of the Treasury. Another very trying time was the financial exigency of 1837, which brought on a crisis that came near destroy- ing the whole monetary and commercial

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

fabric on which the country depended for its very existence, but the remarkable elasticity and nerve always displayed by the people of this city partakes of the character of the willow bending to the blast of the storm and arising fresh and strong after it had passed.

The city had been much further increased by the act of 1816, so that at the period of which we are writing it embraced about ten thousand acres, a first-class school of medi- cine had been established in 1820, and in 1839 the College of Dental Surgery. This was the first dental college in the world, and its diploma is to-day recognized all over the civilized universe as a guarantee of profes- sional skill, and the most eminent dentists, with few exceptions, at home and abroad, are graduates of this institution.

The Merchants Exchange had been be- gun in 1815, and was finished in 1820. This building is now used for the Custom House. The beauty of the proportions of the interior of the dome cannot be excelled, and the late William T. Walters never tired of looking at and admiring it.

Steamboats had been doing business on our waters as early as 1813, the first line running to Frenchtown, and connecting with the stages to Philadelphia and the North and East.

The charter of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company had been granted in February, 1827. This was the first charter given in the United States. A feverish de- sire appears to have animated our fore- fathers to be first in everything, and works of internal improvement took hold of the people of the period we speak of to such an extent that nothing appeared too great for them to undertake. On the same day

that Charles Carroll, the last survivor of the signers of the Declaration of Indepen- dence, laid the corner-stone of the Balti- more & Ohio Railroad, July 4, 1828, the President of the United States, John Quincy Adams, laid the corner-stone of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, so to speak, by digging the first spade full of earth from the spot selected for its commencement. Of the capital stock, amounting to $3,609,400, Maryland subscribed $1,000,000.

The survey for the canal was made by Gen. Simon Bernard, who had a most ro- mantic history; having been appointed as a charity scholar in his native town, Dole, he received a scholarship in the Polytechnic School in Paris, went on foot to get it, and almost died from cold; but with wonderful ability gained the second place in his class of engineers at the final examination; served under Napoleon, led the assault upon Ivrea in 1800, fortified Antwerp and defended Torgau during its terrible siege, for. which Napoleon made him lieutenant general of Engineers. He was at Waterloo, then en- tered the service of Louis XVIII. The most extensive work of a defensive character ex- ecuted by him in this country was Fortress Monroe, at Old Point, Va.

Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, was born in Annapolis, 1737. He came from a very ancient family in Ireland, who were princes and lords of Ely from the 12th to the 16th century, and had intermarried with the great houses of Ormond and Desmond in Ireland, and Argyle in Scotland. The late John H. B. Latrobe, one of the most dis- tinguished lawyers the State has ever pro- duced, and the biographer of Carroll, said: "After I had finished my work I took it to Mr. Carroll, whom I knew very well indeed,

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

and read it to him, as he was seated in an arm-chair in his own room in his son-in- law's house in Baltimore. He listened with marked attention and without comment un- til I had ceased to read, when, after a pause, he said: 'Why, Latrobe, you have made a much greater man of me than I ever thought I was; and yet really you have said nothing in what you have written that is not true.'" Mr. Latrobe said further that at the time of this interview Mr. Carroll was very old and feeble, but his manner and speech were those of a refined and courte- ous gentleman. This forms a beautiful in- cident in the history of the city, and links together in the lives of two of her most talented sons the extreme past and mighty present.

It appears almost superfluous to state in this article that among the many things ac- complished by our forefathers was the adoption of illuminating gas for lighting the streets, as early as 1816; this is claimed to be the foundation of its use in this coun- try.

There can be no doubt in regard to the first chartered railroad being the Baltimore & Ohio in 1827, nor has it ever been de- nied that its successful completion, driven as it was through endless rock, was up to that time the most gigantic engineering work attempted on this Continent.

Baltimore has the further distinction of being chosen by Professor Morse as the place from which to send the spark which electrified the world-1844.

In 1829 the Susquehanna Railroad was commenced. This occurred on the one hundredth anniversary of the passage of the act which created the Town of Baltimore. August 8, in 1837, the Philadelphia, Wil-

mington & Baltimore Railroad was opened for travel.

Thoroughly equipped now to do business with all parts of the country by railroad lines, together with the dauntless energy of her merchants, who by means of fast sail- ing vessels, manned by as able sailors as the world has ever seen, there is little won- der that the city made rapid progress in every direction, so that the town of 1790, with only 13,503 inhabitants, had grown to 169,054 in 1850.

This article on the early history of Bal- timore touches only upon the many beauti- ful and interesting facts of her brilliant past. With an assured future by land and by sea, with limitless resources for sustaining a population of millions, with pure air and water, sitting on her many hills, her dia- dem of green parks and limpid lakes, flash- ing and vivid, her diamonds and emeralds, crowned Queen of the Chesapeake, mother of brave men and beautiful women, it is the hope of all true sons of Maryland that she will embrace her golden opportuni- ties.

We cannot close this article without giv- ing to our readers a most beautiful event in the life of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.

In 1826, when all the signers of the Declaration had passed away, a committee waited on Charles Carroll to obtain from him a copy of the document, and again signed by his own hand, this copy was to be deposited in the City Hall. After he had signed the paper he wrote the following supplemental declaration:

"Grateful to Almighty God for the bless- ings which, through Jesus Christ our Lord, he has conferred on my beloved country in her emancipation and on myself in permit-

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

ting me, under circumstances of mercy, to live to the age of 89 years, and to survive the fiftieth year of American Independence adopted by Congress on the 4th day of July, 1776, which I originally subscribed on the 2d day of August of the same year, and of which I am now the last surviving signer, I do hereby recommend to the present and future generations the principles of that

important document as the best earthly in- heritance their ancestors could bequeath to them, and pray that the civil and religious liberties they have secured to my country may be perpetuated to remotest posterity and extended to the whole family of man." CHARLES CARROLL, of Carrollton.

Aug. 2, 1826.

CHAPTER II.

MILITARY AND NAVAL HISTORY.

By COL. GEO. W. F. VERNON.

Called upon to write a brief military and naval history of Baltimore, from early colonial days to the present date, neces- sarily involved not only a diligent search of the chronicles of the past and their segre- gation, but when the time came for a reag- gregation, an exercise of discretion as to what incidents and events would prove most interesting to the present inhabitants of this city, I therefore did the best that was possible under the existing conditions, with a full knowledge that what might be of in- terest to one would prove of no interest whatever to another.

I have endeavored to write a fair, just and impartial history, briefly reciting such facts and incidents as are embraced within the scope of my commission. I have freely quoted from "Events in Baltimore during the Revolutionary War," by Robert Purvi- ance; "Baltimore Past and Present," "Chronicles of Baltimore," Scharf; "Me- moirs of a Volunteer in Mexico," Kenly; and "Records of War Department," and have availed myself of verbal information received from the representatives of a day and generation long passed away.

The incidents of the late Civil War were indelibly impressed upon the minds of many of our people now living, and of many of which we were eye-witnesses.

I have arranged the work into epochs, pertaining to the various wars in which our city was participant, and trust that my

labors may meet with reasonable approval. GEO. W. F. VERNON. Baltimore, Md., May, 1897.

EPOCH I.

From Settlement of Baltimore to the Revolu- tionary War, 1729-1774.

The early history of Baltimore was not characterized by a warfare with the abor- iginal savages. The pacific policy pursued by the colonial authorities of Maryland in- sured a peaceful settlement to the pioneers of Baltimore and vicinity.

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Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n Publication date: 1898 Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1344

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1344