USA > Maryland > Cecil County > History of Cecil County, Maryland, and the early settlements around the head of Chesapeake Bay and on the Delaware River, with sketches of some of the old families of Cecil County > Part 31
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The roads in this county seem, at this time, to have been a fertile source of annoyance and vexation. This was in a great measure owing to their crookedness which is shown by certain plats of them to be seen among the records in the commissioners' office. This crookedness was caused by the desire of the land owners to have the roads, if possible, located on the division lines of their farms, which were often very ill-shaped. The subject of straightening the public highways was of so much importance that it entered into the politics of the county soon after the organization of the State government; and the people, if the traditions tliat have been handed down to the present time are true were divided
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
into two parties, as in the case of the road near Charles- town, one of which advocated, while the other opposed, the measure. By the act of 1790 the commissioners therein named were directed to straighten the road leading from the Head of Elk to Back Creek, thence to the head of Bohe- mia, thence to Warwick, and from that place to the Head of Sassafras. It was not until 1794 that the justices of the levy court were authorized to appoint three freeholders upon the petition of two-thirds of the taxables of the hundred, pray- ing for the widening and straightening of a crooked road, to view the same, and make the improvement prayed for. The undulating character of that part of the county north of the Elk River rendered the construction and maintainance of the roads there more expensive than in the other part of it, and the citizens of the southern part of the county thought themselves aggrieved when compelled to pay an equal share of the road-tax, a large part of which was spent upon roads they seldom or never used.
The Legislature sought to remedy this cause of complaint by the act of 1794, which required the levy court to assess a tax of not more than three shillings in the hundred pounds to be applied to the construction and repair of the roads in the county, and providing that "one-third of the tax levied on the inhabitants on the east and south sides of Elk River should be expended on the roads on the cast and south sides of said river." This tax was found insufficient, and in 1795, the levy court was authorized to increase the sum levied for the roads, so as not to exceed five shillings in the hundred pounds. Inasmuch as nothing is said in this act about where the money was to be expended, the provision in regard to that matter in the former act is believed to have been repealed, though it is not so stated in the law.
Previous to the revolution there had been no provision made by law for the maintenance and support of the poor, except such relief as was given to them by the levy court in the matter of outpensions. This method of relieving the
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
wants of those persons who, from the effects of old age or from any other cause, were in necessitous circumstances, had been practiced almost from the earliest settlement of the county, and the records of the court contain many curious petitions for relief and bills rendered for services done in behalf of paupers. These bills strikingly illustrate the customs that prevailed, and the ignorance of the people who made them, of this class is the following specimen :
"Samuel Brown, deceased, Dr. 8.
d.
To making your grave
5
0
To making the cofing
15
0
To nine quarts rum.
13
6
To 1 sheate.
9
0
To 4} lbs. sugar
3
0
"17 May, 1763.
£2 58. 6d.
Errors excepted. his Per SAMUEL X PHILIPS. mark."
This is probably the first instance in which a dead man was ever charged with making his coffin and digging his own grave. The reader will observe that much of the bill is for rum, most of which, no doubt, was used at the funeral. The use of liquor at funerals at that time, and for many years afterwards, was so common that a decent funeral could not take place without it; but there is reason to think that some of that charged in this bill was used by the under- taker while making the coffin, it also being customary to furnish liquor for the use of those who were employed in the service of the public.
The Legislature, in 1787, passed an act making provision for the maintenance of the poor and providing for the erec- tion of an alms and work-house for their benefit. Nine persons were named as trustees of the institution, who were authorized to take possession of the free-school property in Sassafras Neck, and with the consent of the county court
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
were authorized to sell and convert it into money for the purpose specified. The justices were also authorized to levy a sum not exceeding £400 for the use and benefit of the almshouse. This act, like many others of that period, was not well adapted to the purpose intended, and by a supple- mentary act passed in 1788, it was enacted that the trustees should have power to purchase land not exceeding two hun- dred acres. They were also authorized to take possession of a bequest to the poor of St. Stephen's parish, and all the estates of all persons dying intestate and leaving no legal representatives, and apply them to the use and benefits of the poor of the county. The bequest referred to in the act of 1788, was made by a certain Joseph Phelps to the poor of St. Stephen's parish by his will dated November 1st, 1783. The return of the appraisers of his personal estate shows that it consisted of his wearing apparel, a chest, prayer-book, pocket-book, brush, about two pounds of to- bacco, and a pair of spectacles, valued at £3 11s. 8d., and cash in the chest, consisting of English, French and Spanish gold and silver coins, to the amount of £84 13s. 4d., making £88}, which was decreased by the deduction of two other bequests to £58}. He also had about £53 in continental money, which was worthless. But little more is known of this charitable man, except that he had no "kin," as is stated upon the appraisement list.
On the 11th of June, 1788, the trustees of the poor met in Elkton, and received £48 16s., partly in Spanish milled dol- lars, and partly in corn, from James Hughes, whose step- father, John Price, had rented the free school farm and had the use of the negroes then on it, who seem to have been rented with the land the year before. The free school land has been described in a preceding chapter. There is reason to believe that there was six or eight negroes on the farm, but the number is not stated in the records. It is probable that the negroes had been purchased for the use of the master of the free school, and had been employed by him
374
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
in cultivating the farm, but this is only a matter of conjecture.
On the 13th of June, 1788, the trustees of the poor pur- chased one hundred and eighteen acres of land from Henry Hollingsworth, which is described under the name of St. John's Town and addition, for £295. This purchase was subsequently increased in 1791 by the addition of fifty-seven acres, purchased from the same person for £142 10s., all of which now constitutes the present Almshouse farm.
The trustees authorized Colonel Hollingsworth to erect a house on the farm purchased from him as soon as practi- cable, he agreeing to rent them a house for the use of the poor, lately built by him at the Head of Elk, until the new house was ready for use. This house is the old log building now standing in Little Elk, on the north side of the street, west of the Marley road.
The construction of the new house was delayed by freshets in the Little Elk, which prevented the workmen from get- ting stone from the bed of the creek and hauling timber across it, and was not ready for occupation until June 2d, 1789, at which time it was formally accepted by the trustees, who, on the 3d of the previous March, had chosen George Harris and his wife Ann, as overseer and matron of the in- stitution, at a salary of £40 a year.
In 1791 the trustees sold the free school land to Robert Milligan for £1,200. What became of the negroes is not stated, but there is reason to believe they were sold to Milligan.
By the act for the establishment of Washington College in 1782, the visitors of the free schools on the Eastern Shore were authorized, if they thought proper, to incorporate the bonds and estate in their hands with the funds and estate of that institution. This measure was strongly opposed by the vestry of North Elk parish, who appointed a committee to consult with the vestry of St. Augustine's parish, and with the visitors of the free schools, and to protest against
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
diverting the school property from the use originally intended.
The number of inmates of the Almshouse at first was not large, but in 1802 they had increased to forty, and the trustees were obliged to erect an addition of twenty-five feet in length to the original house, which cost £250. This year a contest took place between several of the physicians of the northeastern part of the county, about which of them should have the job of attending the paupers. One of them in addition to his regular services, offered to keep a statistical record of the various diseases of the inmates, etc., for £40 a year. Another one in addition to all that, offered the use of an electrical machine and attendance once a week in order to use it upon the paupers that might need it, and the trustees, no doubt thinking the paupers would be benefited by the use of electricity, gave the contract to him.
The successful termination of the Revolutionary war seems to have given a great impetus to the inventive powers of the people. Among those who distinguished themselves in this way was James Rumsey, then of Virginia, but a member of the Rumsey family which once resided at the head of Bohemia River, who was the inventor of a steam boat constructed upon a novel plan. He applied to the Legislature for a patent for his invention, in 1784. The con- stitution of the United States, not then having been adopted, and the articles of confederation containing no provision in regard to this matter, inventors were obliged to apply for patents to the Legislatures of the States. Rumsey's inven- tions is described as a method of propelling vessels by means of the reaction of a stream of water forced by the agency of steam through a trunk or cylinder parallel to the keel, out at the stern. The action of this stream upon the water in which the vessel floated, it was believed would cause the vessel to move forward. The legislature gave him the exclusive right to the use of his invention for ten years. He afterwards formed a society in Philadelphia called the
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
Rumseian Society, of which Dr. Franklin and Levi Hol- lingsworth were members, for the purpose of introducing his boat and other inventions to the public, but like most geniuses he met with little success. John Fitch claimed priority for his steamboat, which led to a contest between them, and neither profited by their efforts to introduce steamboats. In 1783, the Legislature passed an act entitled, " an act for making the river Susquehanna navigable from the line of this state to tide water," in which it is stated that a company, of which William Augustine Washington, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Thomas Russell, Aquilla Hall, John Churchman, and forty others, mostly of Baltimore city, had subscribed the sum of £18,500, and had obligated themselves to raise the further sum of £1,500 for the purpose named in the title of the act. The Legislature considering the enterprise a laudable one, incorporated the company under the name of "The Proprietors of the Susquehanna Canal," and enacted that they should meet at Havre de Grace in February, 1784, and elect a governor and three directors. This was the origin of the old Maryland Canal which was one of the first works of the kind chartered in the United States. It extended from Love Island, near the State line, nearly to Port Deposit. . No doubt the Maryland Canal Company was formed with a view of securing the prospective trade from the upper waters of the Susquehanna to Baltimore city, most of which at this time found its way to the towns on the Delaware. This view of the case is strengthened by the fact that provision was made in the act of incorporation for condemning a quantity of land not exceeding two hundred acres for the purpose of erecting grist-mills and other water-works along the line of the canal for the purpose of grinding the wheat, the product of which it was expected would find a market in Baltimore. By the first act the company was authorized to charge a toll of one shilling per ton, carpenter's measure, on all boats and rafts that passed through the canal. The act also directed that
377
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
the work was to be commenced on or before the first of Oc- tober, 1783, at Love Island near the State line and to be prosecuted with diligence till tide water was reached, and fully completed within seven years. The work seems to have been commenced by the time specified, for in a supple- ment to the act of incorporation passed at the session of 1784, it is stated that considerable progress had been made. This supplemental act exempted the property of the com- pany from taxation and legalized a long list of tolls for all sorts of merchandise, except dry goods, that might pass through the canal, and specified the value at which foreign coins were to be estimated, when taken in payment of tolls.
Probably for the want of means the canal was not finished in the time specified, and an extension of one year was granted in 1790, by another supplementary act, which au- thorized the company to increase the number of shares to thirty, and provided that foreigners might become share- holders. The work of constructing the canal was of greater magnitude than was at first apprehended, but there is reason to believe that it was so near completion in 1795, as to indi- cate that it would never be very successful. Twelve years had elapsed since the work was commenced, and it is proba- ble that a change had taken place in public opinion in reference to its utility.
About this time the people living in those counties of Pennsylvania that bordered upon the Susquehanna River, began to agitate the subject of improving its navigation, and at a meeting held at Harrisburg, in August, 1795, took that matter into consideration. Some of the consequences of this meeting are manifest in the action of the Legislature of Maryland, at its session in the December following, from which it is very plain that the citizens of Havre de Grace, which had been laid out about twenty years before, were jealous of the advantages that would naturally accrue from the canal to those who resided upon the Cecil side of the river.
378
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
George Gale, a prominent citizen of this county, had pur- chased a hundred and ten acres of land on the east side of the river, near Watson's Island, in July, and on the 1st of December following, purchased eighty-eight acres adjoining it from John Creswell, and proceeded to lay out a town, which he called Chesapeake. This town, which was a short distance above Perryville, was incorporated by an act of the Legislature on the 24th of December, 1795. On the same day an act was passed making an addition to the town of Havre de Grace, and authorizing a lottery for the improvement of the navigation of the Susquehanna River. This was the beginning of a contest between the proprietors of the Sus- quehanna Canal and certain persons in Pennsylvania, who were jealous of the privileges that had been conferred upon the proprietors of the canal, that was settled many years afterwards by the organization of the Tide-Water Canal Company, which purchased and now own the rights and franchises of the other company. Probably the real object of those who sought to effect the enlargement of Havre de Grace, was the same as that of the founder of the rival town on the other side of the river, namely, a desire to speculate in town lots; and very likely they concealed their real de- sign under the plausible pretext of improving the naviga- tion of the river. But civil engineering was not as well un- derstood then as it is now, and they may have honestly thought that $50,000, which was the sum authorized to be raised by lottery, was sufficient for the purpose designated. It was specified in the act for the improvement of the river, that none of the money raised by the lottery was to be ap- plied to opening or improving the Susquehanna Canal, which seems to indicate that the Legislature might have lost faith in its utility.
Nothing ever came of the effort to build the town of Chesapeake, and it must be added to the long list of abortive efforts to build towns where they were not needed.
379
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
The next year, 1796, a German named Breider, who owned a flour-mill on the Juniata River, near Huntington, Pennsylvania, is said to have built an ark and loaded it with flour and ran it down the Susquehanna, and thence to. Baltimore. This is believed to have been the first venture of the kind, and Breider having demonstrated the practic- ability of navigating the perilous river as well as the profit- ableness of the Baltimore market, his example was followed the next year by several others. By a supplementary act, passed January 20th, 1797, the time for the completion of the canal was extended to the 1st of December, 1805, and the bed of the Susquehanna River was declared to be " a public highway, free for any person or persons whatever to work thereon in clearing the obstructions to its navigation," which warrants the inference that something was about to be done for its improvement at this time by those in charge of the lottery. The early history of this canal is involved in great obscurity, occasioned by the loss of the records of the proceedings of the directors previous to 1817. Land was condemned for the use of the proprietors, in 1800, at which time Robert Gilmer was governor of the canal. The work is believed to have been completed in 1805. It was too narrow at first to be of much use, and the proprietors had it widened, about 1810. During the time of the con- struction and enlargement of the canal, many of the laborers employed upon it were afflicted with a malignant fever, from the effects of which many of them died.
In 1805, the inhabitants of Elkton also suffered from a malignant fever that baffled the skill of the most eminent physcians. There is some evidence tending to show that it was caused by the miasma from the marsh on the north side of the river, which at that time was embanked so as to exclude the tide. The following extracts from a diary kept by the late Dr. Amos A. Evans, who at that time was a student of medicine under the late Dr. George E. Mitchell, show the malignant character of the epidemic. It is stated
380
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
in Morse's Gazzetteer of the Western continent, that Elkton five years after this time, contained ninety houses, which, at five persons to each house, would give a population of four hundred and fifty. In 1805, the town probably contained less than four hundred inhabitants.
Under the date of September 26th, 1805, Dr. Evans says : "Cloudy morning, wind from S. E. About 60 persons now sick in Elkton. Every person afflicted with languor and lassitude. Want of appetite and dreadful sickness of stomach are the general precursors of the reigning epidemic, which is attended with tormenting and excruciating pains of the extremities. This sudden change of the weather has in a number of cases occasioned this epidemic to take on the form of dysentary and diarrhoea. The chills which pre- cede are of long continuance, the fever succeeding, very in- flammatory, demanding remedies powerful and energetic. 28th September; good fires are very necessary and quite agreeable, cases of bilious fever still increase. The symptoms of this fever are anomolous, the pains in the extremities and lumbar regions.are violent, the eyes are painful and often much inflamed. October 3d and 4th; more than 80 persons sick in Elkton. October 14th; sicknesss con- tinues to increase in the country. November 4th; several cases of bilious and intermittent fevers still continue, which are remarkably stubborn this fall. Diseases in general, this season have been much more stubborn then they have been known for some time, and the people of Elkton and its vicinity have been more generally afflicted. Catharties and emetics though given in double doses, in some cases produce little or no effect."
CHAPTER XXII.
Octoraro forge-Cecil Manufacturing Company-New Leeds-Chesa- peake and Delaware Canal-Benjamin H. Latrobe-The canal feeder- Riot at Elkton-" Treeket the Loop"-Supplementary Act-Work re- sumed on the canal-John Randel-He sues the canal company-Com- pletion and cost of the canal-Difficulty of construction-Port Deposit- Philip Thomas-Port Deposit Bridge Company-Bridge burned-Sale of Susquehanna canal-The log pond-Susquehanna and Tide Water caual.
IN 1788, John Churchman, the distinguished scientist and mathematician of Nottingham, who was the owner of large quantities of barren land, which he, no doubt, had purchased because he thought it contained valuable deposits of mineral, formed a partnership with Samuel Hughes, of Harford County, for the purpose of erecting a furnace and such other works as they might think necessary for the manufacture of iron, upon a tract of land containing 3,000 acres, which was two-thirds of all the land owned by Churchman in Cecil, Chester, and Lancaster counties, and which seems to have been embraced in one tract. The tract to be selected by Hughes for the iron works, it was stipulated in the arti- cle of agreement, which may be seen among the land records of the county, was to embrace the Horse Shoe Bend, in the Octoraro Creek, near the junction of the three counties be- fore named. Hughes was to furnish the capital for the en- terprise, and Churchman was to be resident manager, the profits being equally divided between them. Nothing is known of the history of this enterprise, but the land records of the county show that the forge which was just below the Horse Shoe Bend, where the Cecil paper-mill now stands, was built sometime previous to 1795, at which time it was in the
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
possession of a certain John Jones and Thomas Rogers. It was subsequently purchased in 1801 by John Frey and Mathew Irwin, and was known for some time as Frey's Forge.
The Cecil Manufacturing Company, whose mill for the manufacture of linen, woolen, and cotton goods, was on the Little Elk Creek, just above Marley, was organized in 1794. This company is believed to have been organized by the efforts of Colonel Henry Hollingsworth, of Elkton, who was at this time, the owner of the site of Marley Mill. This gentleman purchased ten acres of land, on both sides of the Little Elk, from John Anderson, on the 31st of July, 1794, for £100. The company, which consisted of the following members, viz .: Colonel Henry Hollingsworth, of Elkton ; Levi Hollingsworth and Paschall Hollingsworth, of Phila- delphia ; Francis Partridge, John Gilpin, Levi Hollings- worth, Jr., and James Mackey, of Cecil County ; and Solo- man Maxwell and William Cooch, of New Castle County, Delaware, are believed to have organized on the 1st of the following November, for on that day Colonel Hollingsworth executed a deed to the others for eight-tenths of the ten acres he had purchased from Anderson, retaining the other two-tenths for his own share. The company proceeded to build a stone factory, the walls of which were quite thick and are now standing, though the wood-work of the build- ing was consumed by fire many years ago. The durability of the stone-work of this mill seems to have warranted the assertion of an historian, who, in speaking of it in 1807, said it was the best mill of the kind in the United States. Some of the machinery used in this factory was imported from Europe. In 1796 the company purchased upwards of five hundred acres of land adjoining the site of the mill, in order to obtain pasturage for the sheep they intended to keep for the purpose of obtaining wool to supply their mill. In 1805 the company obtained the services of John Wilson, a native of Yorkshire, England, who had learned the art of manufacturing broadcloth in his native country, and who
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
had one-tenth interest in the business. This company manufactured a considerable amount of goods, and it is said presented ex-President Jefferson with cloth sufficient to make him a suit of clothes, which he wore when being inaugurated President of the United States.
Owing to the custom which then prevailed, of nearly every family manufacturing their cloth by means of the old-fashioned spinning-wheels and hand-looms, the com- pany did not succeed in finding a remunerative market for their goods, and in 1811 Mr. Wilson severed his connection with it and purchased the mill property next above, on the same stream, where he erected a woolen factory. Mr. Wilson was a preacher of the society called Independents, and it was through his exertions that the New Leeds church was built. He also had the honor of naming that village after the manufacturing city of Leeds, in England. Mr. Wilson's daughter, Hannah, organized the first Sunday-school in this county, probably the first in the State, at New Leeds, in 1816.
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