USA > Maryland > Dorchester County > History of Dorchester County, Maryland > Part 18
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The English methods of warfare then were to devastate by fire and plunder the property of those they dare not slay with the sword or thrust with the bayonet.
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
Capt. Nathaniel Applegarth's company of militia was at Royal Oak in Talbot County when the British attempted to capture that place. The large force of militia collected there checked the advance of the enemy and saved the little village.
British barges several times entered the Nanticoke River and alarmed the people. Captain Craft's company was then called out in anticipation of an attack on several occasions.
Below is given a partial list of officers who served in the militia infantry regiments of Dorchester County during the War of 1812-1815. They were appointed by the Governor and Council of Maryland in August, 1812:
Levin Walter, Major; Wm. Jackson, Jr., Surgeon; Sam- uel Griffin, Surgeon's Mate, Eleventh Regiment, Dorchester County.
John Willis, Lieutenant; Wm. Medford, Ensign, in Cap- tain Eccleston's Company, Eleventh Regiment.
William Hayser, Captain; Samuel Briely, Jr., Lieutenant; Joseph Whiteley, Ensign, in A Company, Eleventh Regi- ment.
Wm. B. Smith, Captain; John Lynch, Lieutenant; Gama- liel Banks, Ensign, in the same Regiment.
Minos Adams, Captain; Solomon Davis, Lieutenant; Robert Medford, Ensign, in the same Regiment.
John Rowens, Captain; Arthur Lowe, Lieutenant; David Andrew, Ensign, in A Company, Eleventh Regiment.
Joseph Elliott, Lieutenant; Richard Pearcy, Ensign, in Captain Craft's Company, same Regiment.
Abraham Saunders, Lieutenant, in Captain Webbs' Com- pany, same Regiment.
John Vinson, Ensign of Captain Mills' Company, same Regiment.
Wm. Colston, Captain; Samuel Williams, Lieutenant, of A Company, Forty-eighth Regiment, in Dorchester County.
The following is a brief list of a few volunteers who served
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LIST OF VOLUNTEERS
either in active line of duty or in the County Militia during the War of 1812-1815:
Wm. G. LeCompte.
Wm. Pasterfield.
Wm. Windsor.
William Andrews, of Lakes District, "First Lieutenant in Forty-eighth Regiment (Jones), Md.," Dorchester County Militia.
Nathaniel Applegarth, Captain of Dorchester County Militia Company.
With no official records to examine, it is difficult to obtain the names of many of the soldiers of the War of 1812 from family history.
Education-Schools.
CHAPTER XXX.
In early days of the colony of Maryland, some of the chil- dren of the few wealthy settlers were sent to England to be educated; others were taught at home by indentured servant teachers, priests and rectors, while most of the poorer classes were neglected and grew up utterly illiterate.
In 1723 an Act was passed for establishing a public school in each county, and a Board of Visitors was appointed in each county to execute this law. The School Board in Dor- chester was Rev. Thomas Howell, Col. Roger Woolford, Maj. Henry Ennalls, Capt. John Rider, Capt. Henry Hooper, Capt. John Hudson and Mr. Govert Lockerman. Teachers for these schools were required to be members of the Prot- estant Episcopal Church, pious (?) and capable of teaching well grammar, good writing and mathematics, for a salary of £20 a year, with free privileges of a dwelling house and firewood, and such food products as were raised on the land allotted for each public school. Though influ- ential men were in charge of educational matters, yet pro- gress was slow, shown by inquiry made by the Bishop of London, in 1724, when he addressed Rev. Thomas Howell, rector of Great Choptank Parish, as follows: "Have you, in your parish, any public school for the instruction of youth? If you have, is it endowed, and who is the master?" The rector's reply was: "There is in my parish one public school, endowed with £20 Sterling current money, which is about 15 shillings Sterling yearly, for which the master is obliged to teach ten charity scholars. The master is Philep Albeck."
To a similar inquiry from the Bishop, Rev. Thomas Thompson, rector of Dorchester Parish, replied: "I have no
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CAMBRIDGE HIGH SCHOOL.
M900 ....
255
"RUN AWAY MAN"
public school in my parish for the instruction of youth at present, nor any prospect of there being one."
The first public free school in the province was King Wil- liam's School, built at Annapolis in 1701; the Act to establish it provided for seven visitors or trustees to be appointed from each county; those from Dorchester were Rev. Thomas Howell, rector of Great Choptank Parish, Col. Roger Wool- ford, Maj. Henry Ennalls, John Rider, Capt. Henry Hooper, Capt. John Hudson and Govert Lockerman.
In 1753 the Council issued an order that schoolmasters must be licensed, and that teachers of all public and private schools must take the test oaths. Many Catholics refused to take the oaths and closed their schools.
The following advertisements in the Maryland Gazette of February 17, 1774, show what class of people were employed in some places as school teachers :
"To be Sold-A schoolmaster, an indentured servant that has got two years to serve.
"N. B .- He is sold for no fault any more than we are done with him. He can learn book-keeping, and is an excellent good Scholar."
"RUN AWAY MAN."
DORCHESTER COUNTY, January 14, 1771.
Ran away from the subscribers, a servant man, named William Henry Bawden, he is a slim made man about 24 years of age and has followed the Occupation of a school master. Had on when he went away, a blue Coat, country made Jacket with Lappells, Snuff colored Velvet Breeches, and wears his own Hair which is black and straight: It is supposed he took a small bay Mare away with him, the Mare has two white Feet, and her mane hangs on the rising side; there was a good Saddle on the Mare, and a Pair of blue Housing Bands with Leather and Surcingle to the Saddle.
Whoever takes up the Man and Mare, and secures them, so as the Owners shall get them again, shall have Five
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
Pounds paid them if taken out of the County, and if taken in the County, Satisfaction for their Trouble. Paid by the Subscribers.
WINLOCK RUSSUM. JEREMIAH CARTER.
N. B .- The above Servant was born in England, he is a great talker and loves gaming.
The first public school law for the State was passed in 1826.
Funds were raised to support the schools by lottery grants. The first school fund raised by taxation was a tax laid on bank stock, of twenty cents on every $100 of stock.
In 1864 Rev. Dr. Libertus Van Bokkelin framed a public school law for the State. Under this law, in 1865, he was appointed State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The Board of School Commissioners and Examiners first appointed in Dorchester County under this Act was Dr. E. F. Smithers, President; Travers Spicer, John E. Graham, John G. Robinson and Robert F. Thompson, Commissioners (Thompson, Secretary and Treasurer). There were then but forty-nine school-houses in the county and 1000 pupils enrolled and taught by twenty-nine male and sixteen female teachers.
In 1867 this school law was repealed, and, under a new law, another Board of School Commissioners was appointed, viz: Dr. James L. Bryan, who was elected President, February 6, 1867, Daniel J. Waddell, John G. Robinson, John E. Graham, Travers Spicer and Joseph E. Muse, Secretary and Treasurer.
On April 1, 1868, Dr. James L. Bryan was elected Secre- tary, Treasurer and Examiner of the Board, an office to which he was successively reelected biannually, and which he held continuously until January 30, 1898, a period of almost thirty years. His collegiate education, military train- ing and service in the Mexican War eminently qualified him to organize and superintend the public schools in the county, and to this great work he devoted his time and talents. He
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PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
succeeded in more than doubling the number of schools and teachers and in raising them to a plane of excellence equal to any others in the State.
The Doctor's successor in the office of Secretary, Treasurer and Examiner was Josiah L. Kerr, who well filled the posi- tion until August 7, 1900, when he was succeeded by W. P. Beckwith, the present incumbent, who is ably discharging his responsible duties.
Much credit is due the members of the several school boards who have managed public school affairs and school finances in Dorchester for the last thirty-five years with gen- eral satisfaction to taxpayers and patrons. Many citizens to-day, who began within that period to assume the active duties that belong to mature life, highly appreciate the edu- cational advantages they had under the benevolent control of public school officials.
In the Appendix are the names of the several Boards of School Commissioners of Dorchester County as far as obtain- able.
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Federal and Confederate Soldiers from Dorchester County in Civil War, 1861-1865.
CHAPTER XXXI.
FEDERAL SOLDIERS.
The great rebellion of the southern part of the United States that began in 1861, was not the outbreak of an op- pressed people under a tyrannical government-a cause that leads to justifiable revolutions-but, while in possession of the legislative and judicial branches of the government in control of its naval and military power, that section of the country voluntarily surrendered all its governmental juris- diction at Washington in the height of political excitement over the loss of the executive branch of the government. They claimed to be apprehensive of future interference of their property rights by the minority party then only in executive control, and decided to try to dissolve the Federal Union by the revolutionary method of secession.
While Maryland was by common interests and location attached to the South, yet many of her people so loyally loved their country they could not submit to its dissolution. Hence, many Marylanders entered the Federal Army as volunteers to defend and protect the "Union."
The First Eastern Shore Regiment of Infantry, Maryland Volunteers, was organized at Cambridge, Md., in September, 1861. James Wallace was elected Colonel.
Of this regiment, Companies A, B and C were recruited in Dorchester County. Company A was mustered out of service August 16, 1862, by orders from the War Depart- ment, they having refused to leave the Eastern Shore to do military duty in Virginia.
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CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS
This regiment, including Companies D, E, F and G from Caroline County, Company H from Talbot County, Company I from Baltimore City, and Company K from Somerset County, were detailed for guard duty along the coast lines of the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland to prevent blockade-runners from carrying contraband goods South.
When General R. E. Lee invaded Maryland with his army, the First Eastern Shore Regiment asked to be sent to join the Army of the Potomac at the front. They were sent to Bal- timore, and from there marched with General Lockwood's Brigade to Gettysburg, which they reached on the morning of July 3, 1863, and immediately joined the Twelfth Army Corps on Culp's Hill; went actively into battle and won a record of splendid service. With the Army of the Potomac, they pursued the retreating Confederates to the Potomac River, assisting in the capture of prisoners and munitions of war.
After a brief duty on the upper Potomac, the First Eastern Shore Regiment was ordered back to the Eastern Shore, where it performed guard duty until its partial consolidation with the Eleventh Regiment of Infantry, Maryland Volun- teers, and final discharge of others by the expiration of term of enlistment. (For Roster of Dorchester Companies, see Appendix.)
CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS.
In 1861 and 1862, after the outbreak of the Civil War, which divided public opinion and sympathy on the great national questions of "States Rights" and negro slavery, a number of young men from Dorchester County of courage and with strong feelings for "Southern Rights," decided to go "South" and enter the Southern Army at the risk or sacrifice of their lives in defence of the principles they con- scientiously entertained. It is the purpose here to give some of their names and rank in the Confederate service, with
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
the sad fate or good fortune that each met as a soldier in whatever branch of the military or naval service they enlisted.
Following is a list of only a small part of those who went South during the Civil War from the county:
George Lankford, Linkwood, Md., private, Company G, Second Maryland Infantry.
McCready, private, Company F, Second Maryland Infantry.
- McCready, Vienna, Md., private, Company F, Second Maryland Infantry.
J. P. Finstwait, Federalsburg, Md., private, Company G, Second Maryland Infantry. Wounded and died on battle- field, near Culp's Hill, at Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, 1863.
William Laird, Second Maryland Infantry.
Winder Laird, Adjutant, Second Maryland Infantry, Killed in Battle on Weldon Railroad.
George Manning, Drawbridge, Md., Sergeant, Company G, Second Maryland Infantry. Returned home after the close of the war.
Willis V. Brannock, Church Creek, Md., Corporal, Com- pany A, Second Maryland Infantry. Returned home.
William Brannock, Townpoint, Md., private, Company G, Second Maryland Infantry.
Washington Vickers, East New Market, Md., private, Company G, Second Maryland Infantry. Returned home. Detailed to Life Saving Station.
James L. Woolford, Milton, Md., private, Company G, Second Maryland Infantry. Returned home.
George Twilley, Salem, Md., private, Company G, Second Maryland Infantry. Returned home.
Benjamin Twilley, Hartford, Conn., private, Company G, Second Maryland Infantry. Returned home.
William H. Bryan, Madison, Md., Company G, Second Maryland Infantry. Returned home.
George A. Smith, Vienna, Md., private, Corporal, Sar-
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CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS
261
geant, Fourth Maryland Battery. Served throughout the war; returned home.
John Green, Fourth Maryland Battery.
Thomas Canfield, private, Fourth Maryland Battery. Died in service.
John Tregoe, Madison, Md., private, Chesapeake Battery. Returned home.
John Mowbray, Cambridge, Md., private, Chesapeake Bat- tery. Returned home.
Frank Stewart, Battle Mountain, Nev., private, Chesa- peake Battery. Returned home.
Daniel Lloyd, Cambridge, Md., private, Chesapeake Bat- tery. Returned home.
Travers Davis, Taylor's Island, Md., private, Ninth Vir- ginia Cavalry. Returned home.
Charles Tubman, Church Creek, Md., private, Artillery Service. Returned home.
Samuel N. Breerwood, private. Returned home.
Martin Tull, Dorchester County, private, Detailed Service. Returned home.
F. C. Hackett, private.
Luke Hackett, private, detailed to Commissary Depart- ment. Died in Chimborazo Hospital in 1863.
Frank H. Jones, from Williamsburg, Md., went to Rich- mond, Va., in November, 1862. He volunteered in the Con- federate service, was wounded at Fredericksburg by a frag- ment of a shell in December, 1862, which kept him in a hospital several months. He then was detailed clerk in the Quartermaster's Department at Hanover C. H. In 1863 he was sent to Richmond for telegraph duties, and was severely exposed in that line of volunteer service in numer- ous engagements, and along advanced picket lines. In 1864 he reenlisted and recruited the Second Regiment of Alabama and Tennessee Border Rangers, of which he was elected Colonel and served until the close of the war in Gen. B. Hill's brigade. After the surrender of General Lee's
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
Army, Colonel Jones remained in the South until 1880 and then returned home to Dorchester County, Md.
Dr. Thomas H. Williams, from Cambridge, Md., entered the Confederate service as Surgeon. For his excellent ser- vice and professional skill, he was promoted to Assistant Sur- geon-General of the C. S. A., where he served until the close of the War, when he returned to Cambridge to prac- tice his profession and where he also engaged in the "drug" business.
J. McKenney White left Cambridge early in July, 1861, with a party including Winder Laird, Lake Scleigh, William Laird, John Phillips, Elias Griswold and a large man they called "Jeff Davis," all of whom joined Wm. H. Murray's Company H, First Md. Reg't, except Griswold, who was appointed Provost Marshal of Richmond. This company had been mustered into service June 18 as one year volun- teers and not being liable for longer service, was mustered out of service at Staunton on June 18, 1862, after having been in numerous fights, first at Manassas, where their Col- onel Arnold Elzey was promoted on the field. Kirby Smith's brigade, consisting of the Ist Md., 10th and 13th Va., and 3d Tenn. of Joe Johnson's Army, broke the Federal Army lines by their charge in this fight.
This regiment then went through Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign, in which it bore a most conspicuous part. (See official orders of Jackson and Ewell.)
Mr. White was so severely wounded at Cross Keys, June 8, 1862 (one of the closing battles of the campaign), that he was disabled for active service in the field until the spring of 1864. During the time of his disability for active service he was an assistant and passport clerk to Major Griswold, Provost Marshal of Richmond. The trouble from his wounds so increased that he was transferred to the Second Auditor's office in the Confederate Treasury Department. While there, General Grant's Army crossed the Rapidan. Mr. White resigned his position and rejoined the Army as private with Murray's Company A, 2d Md. Infantry, and with this regiment he remained until the close of the War.
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CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS
He was again wounded in the charge of the 2d Md. Reg't at Cold Harbor, where that regiment won imperishable honors for heroic bravery. (See Lee's and Breckinridge's official reports.) Then he went through the arduous and trying campaign around Petersburg and was in the midst of the desperate fighting at the Weldon Railroad, Hatcher's Run, and at all points wherever the 2d Md. could be placed to confront the Federal Army.
After the close of the War, Mr. White returned to Mary- land and is now one of Baltimore's prominent and prosper- ous business men.
A. Hamilton Bayly, Cambridge, Md., entered the Confed- erate Army and joined Peyton's Battery, in which he was Sergeant. No details of service are given. He returned to Cambridge, where he now lives, actively engaged in business.
Dorchester County from Another Point of View.
CHAPTER XXXII.
In the heart of the Eastern Shore lies fair Dorchesterland, an expanse of gentle undulations, in the upper section here and there crowned with diminutive hills and broad fields, in season full of white, gold and amber-colored grain, sweet- blossomed clover and varied orchards laden with ripe and luscious fruits, and intervening woodlands of stately oak and evergreen pine, that lend reflection to the attractive view of the receding plain; the low southlands that level and stretch away with the downward course of the county rivers as they go out to meet the Bay. On this charming landscape live a thrifty, happy, courteous and kind people, the descendants of a noble ancestry, chiefly English, with a slight sprinkling of Irish, Welsh and Scottish blood, a racial combination that has given the English some wit, tempered Irish impatience and modernized Welsh and Scottish irony.
What our ancestry was heredity has largely made us, a typical people, whose lot in life has been so favorably cast in the midst of a peninsular garden, overflowing with Nature's bounties, graphically described by Calvin Dill Wilson in Lip- pincott's Magazine of January, 1898. In part he says: "It is a famous region. Its local name is known to most of the intelligent citizens of the United States. * * * It has
greatness of its own and has claims upon attention. Its situation is interesting; its population has a marked char- acter; its products are valuable and are in demand every- where in this land and in many places outside of America, and its fame great because of the sensations it provides for the palates of men. The Eastern Shore lies like an arm thrust up by the ocean between the Atlantic and the Chesa-
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A PENINSULAR GARDEN
peake Bay; around it break the surge and thunder of the sea and ocean's breezes sweep perpetually over it. * * It is a garden and an orchard. Nature seemed unkind when she strewed this sand upon clay without stones; but she repented, clothed it all in verdure, made it yield almost every fruit, vegetable and berry in profusion and of finest quality, filled even the swamps with cypress, cedar and pine, stored the streams with fishes, filled the waters along the coasts with shell fish, * *
* sent flocks of birds into fields and woods, and flights of wild fowl upon all the waters."
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Historical Notes. CHAPTER XXXIII.
DEMOLISHED CHAPEL.
The chapel built in St. Mary-Whitechapel Parish-by authority of an Act of Assembly, passed July 4, 1755, was used for church service until the Revolution in 1776, when it seems to have been abandoned by rector and vestry. After standing unused for many years, about 1812, the neighbors decided to tear it down and divide the old material among themselves. Benjamin Nichols and Henry Nichols, his brother, assisted in its demolition, and got some of the bricks for their share which are in the kitchen chimney on the farm now owned by Jasper Nicols, near Hynson. The lot where the chapel stood is in part an old graveyard, in which is a broken marble slab, on which is the memorial inscription of Thomas Haskins. The farmer's plow has not invaded all of this lot, which has been known for the last hundred years as the "Church Old-field."
RELIEF OF POOR.
In 1785 an Act was passed to provide for the building of alms and workhouses. The trustees of the poor at this time in Dorchester County were Henry Hooper, Robert Harri- son, Joseph Ennalls, Joseph Daffin, Nathaniel Manning, James Steele and Robert Griffith. The penalty for refusing to serve as trustee was ten pounds of current money.
The poor were compelled to work if able. Those who received alms had to wear a badge of letters "P. D." cut from red or blue cloth upon the shoulders of the right sleeve. The penalty for disobeying this regulation was abridging or with-
267
DATES OF LOCAL EVENTS
drawing the usual allowance or a whipping of not more than ten lashes or hard labor for not more than twenty days.
The people were unable to pay the taxes for the support of these buildings and, in 1788, the trustees were empowered to make use of all free school property for that purpose. In 1793 a law was passed that poor dependent children, "under the ages of three years, should be put out in the neighbor- hood at the most favorable terms to be obtained to be nursed and supported."
"HUE AND CRY."
Dorchester County Justices, as in other counties of Mary- land in colonial days, were required to appoint constables for every hundred in the county once every year, who swore on taking office to "levy hue and cry," and cause refractory criminals to be taken.
The hue and cry method of looking for criminals was a custom in remote Anglo-Saxon time, when all the popula- tion went to hunt the thief.
DATES OF LOCAL EVENTS.
Cambridge Academy was incorporated in 1812.
An Act authorizing a lottery to raise a sum of money for building a wharf at Cambridge was passed in 1809.
In the year 1793 the Town Commissioners of Cambridge were authorized to establish and regulate a market there.
An Act to open a public road from Federalsburg to Crotcher's Ferry was passed the same year.
Wild deer living in the forests of Dorchester County in 1799 were permitted to be killed by hunters from September 5 to December 15 annually. A fine of $30 imposed on white men and thirty-nine lashes inflicted on slaves were the penalties for killing each deer during the exempt period.
A public road was opened from Hunting Creek to Dover, in Talbot County, in 1765.
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
A COINCIDENCE.
In 1775 the Dorchester Delegates to the Convention or General Assembly at Annapolis were composed of Capt. Henry Travers, Col. Henry Hooper, and James Sulivane, Esqrs. The first was the great-grandfather of Samuel M. Travers. The second was the great-grandfather of Mrs. Mary E. Hooper, née LeCompte, mother of Jeremiah P. Hooper. The third was the great-grandfather of Col. Clem- ent Sulivane, who, with Capt. Samuel M. Travers, in later years represented Dorchester County in the Legislature of Maryland.
POPULATION OF DORCHESTER COUNTY CENSUS OF 1900.
Dorchester County, 27,962. District 1, Fork, 1850; Dis- trict 2, East New Market, including East New Market town, 2398; District 3, Vienna, 1522; District 4, Parsons Creek, 946; District 5, Lakes, 1740; District 6, Hooper Island, 1298; District 7, Cambridge, including Cambridge town, 7346; Dis- trict 8, Neck, 1350; District 9, Church Creek, 1159; District 10, Straits, 2120; District II, Drawbridge, 1082; District 12, Williamsburg, 699; District 13, Bucktown; 1024; District 14, Linkwood, 1219; District 15, Hurlock, 1379; District 16, Madison, 830.
The density of population averages 46 to the square mile. Only four other counties in the State, Calvert, Garrett, Charles and Worcester, have less than fifty to the square mile.
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