USA > Maryland > Harford County > History of Harford County, Maryland : from 1608 (the year of Smith's expedition) to the close of the War of 1812 > Part 3
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On November 9, 1739, Isaac Webster purchased Ranger's Lodge, 200 acres, from George Stokes and James Phillips.
In 1754 David Bisset leased from Robert Stokes, Ridge, Harkin's Folly, Parker's Choice, The Marsh, Natty's Island, now called Rumney Neck, 1,184 acres.
In 1742 Samuel Gover owned a tract called Repulta, near what is now Havre de Grace.
John Hall acquired the following properties on the following dates :
1670, Crab Hill, 100 acres.
1884, Hornesham, 50 acres.
1693, Bushwood, 150 acres.
1694, Prosperity, 140 acres.
1699, Galliens, 100 acres.
1705, Mascal's Humor, 50 acres.
1708, The Western Frolic, 100 acres.
1718, Woodpecker Hall, Enlargement.
1719, Jericho, 1,000 acres.
1720, Betty's Inheritance, 100 acres.
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HISTORY OF HARFORD COUNTY.
In 1777 Richard Johns and Richard Wilmott owned a tract called Christopher's Camp, consisting of one thousand acres. This tract is situated between Foun- tain Green and Creswell, and the Winchester farm, now owned by Mr. William O. Michael, is part of it. This tract was patented by Christopher Bayne.
In 1797 Dr. Jacob Hall owned a tract called Edward Lott, United Lott and Matthew's Neighbor Resur- veyed, containing one hundred and fifty-nine acres. This is the Booth, or Kyle, farm, near Fountain Green.
In 1704 John Webster owned Ah, Ah, the Cow Pas- ture, 194 acres, near the present village of Abingdon.
William Bradford acquired the following tracts in the following years :
1722-4, part of Enlargement, 96 acres.
1725, part of Come by Chance, 20 acres.
1727, Bradford's Barrens, 100 acres.
1740, Turkery Hills and Strawberry Hills, 131 acres. 1762, Littleton, 371 acres.
The Bradford's Barrens, as above stated, containing 100 acres, was on April 8, 1685, patented by John Nich- olson, alias "Jack the Dauber," and on November 17, 1727, by virtue of a special warrant of escheat, granted to William Bradford. The original name was Plas- terer's Hall. This tract is on Bynum's Run, on the opposite side from Hall's, or Hooker's, Mills, in the first district.
William McComas acquired the following named tracts in the following years :
1729, part of Gresham's College, 195 acres.
1746, Colling's First Shift.
1756, part of Littleton, 45 acres.
1741, Come by Chance.
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HISTORY OF HARFORD COUNTY.
1712-14, John McComas acquired part of Littleton, 182 acres.
1723, Alex. McComas purchased Macedon, 100 acres.
1726, John McComas purchased part of Come by Chance; 1741, Ann McComas purchased part of Come by Chance, 77 acres.
1753, Alex. McComas acquired part of Horse Range, 24 acres.
1756, Aaron McComas purchased part of Gresham's College, 45 acres.
1761, Daniel McComas owned Walnut Neck, 100 acres.
1762, Aquila McComas purchased Shere's Depend- ence, 83 acres.
In 1808 Daniel Lambourne bought of Buckler Bond, for 1,300 pounds, thirty acres of land, with a mill and other improvements, on Winter's Run, one and three- quarter miles from Bel Air. In 1818 this property belonged to Thomas A. Hayes, and the grist mill was afterward converted into a paper mill. Burned April 7, 1856.
William Holland, in 1709, purchased Batchelor's Good Luck from Enoch Spinks, the patentee. This tract contains one thousand acres and situated on both sides of Deer Creek.
CHAPTER III.
OLD COURTHOUSES.
THE MARYLAND COLONY AND ENGLAND REMOTE FROM THE TURBULENT EVENTS OF THE MOTHER COUNTRY-COUNTY SEAT ON BUSH RIVER-SOME OLD MINUTES-WM. OSBORNE-COUNTY SEAT REMOVED TO GUNPOWDER-NEXT TO JOPPA-GROWTH AND DECLINE OF JOPPA-BALTIMORE ON THE PATAPSCO.
The Indians gave occasional trouble; petty disputes and quarrels occurred between them and the whites; the English Revolution took place, and Charles, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and France- King, defender, etc .- lost his head; Naseby, Edgehill, Marston Moore and Worcester were fought ; Cromwell became Lord Protector and assumed sovereignty over the American colonies. He died, and a Stuart again reigned in the person of Charles II. The politics of England reached even the settlers in this distant land, and at times it was difficult for the good people of Maryland to determine who was their rightful sover- eign and ruler. But the province retained its au- tonomy and government ; settlements continued to go on, and the beautiful river lying within the limits of our county pursued its tranquil course, and the great water dividing the State passed, unvexed, to the sea.
It is true that for many years there were contentions with the Dutch settlers of New Amstel, on the Dela- ware bay, and with the people of Virginia ; Claiborne
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HISTORY OF HARFORD COUNTY.
continued to harass the settlers on Kent Island and at the head waters of the bay, but the Maryland colony managed to maintain its integrity throughout, and our forefathers lived in amity and brotherly love, enjoying by the charter of the colony a greater degree of civil and religious liberty than could be found under any other government then existing.
In the present limits of Harford were located the first two county seats and courthouses of Baltimore county. The first was on the east side of Bush river, about two miles below the bridge of the Pennsylvania Railroad, on the farm now owned by Mr. James L. Richardson. Tradition had fairly accurately located the place, but until very recently there was no authen- tic proof of its situation. By a paper recently read by Senator Charles W. Michael before the Historical So- ciety of Harford County, the location of the county land is clearly proven, and in the address delivered by Judge Albert Ritchie before the Maryland Historical Society, January 8, 1900, on the early county seats of Balti- more, much new light is thrown upon the old Balti- more of Bush river. By the act of 1674 a courthouse was authorized to be constructed, and by an ordinance of the Proprietary, dated June 10, 1676, appointing places where inns might be kept, it is provided that there should be one at the courthouse in Baltimore county. In 1679 a proclamation was issued from the courthouse of the county, prescribing the manner for giving and answering alarms upon the approach of the Indians. The alarm was to be given by the firing of a gun three times within the space of a quarter of an hour, and this was to be answered by firing from house to house throughout the hundred.
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HISTORY OF HARFORD COUNTY.
In 1686 a tract of land conveyed by William Osborne to James Phillips is described in the land records as beginning on Bush river at a point a little beyond the courthouse, and running, etc. By this deed and by the will of James Osborne, dated April 6, 1779, and by other land and will records, Mr. Michael has located beyond question the position of the court land. Wil- liam Osborne kept a ferry. As Baltimore county then included Harford and Cecil and much more, the ferry would probably cross to about the residence of the late William P. Taylor, and the road lead thence out towards Edgewood. At that date the roads were little more than paths, for in 1686 a petition was presented to the Council to move the courthouse to a point on the south side of Winter's Run, "near the path that goes from Potomac to the Susquehanna rivers." The proposed place must have been near the present loca- tion of Van Bibber, but the change was never made. In 1691 the meeting place of the court was moved to Gunpowder, and in 1712 to Joppa, in Harford county, where a courthouse was built.
William Osborne is said to have been the founder of Baltimore on Bush river, and to have built the first house there, and was the owner of the ferry across the river, by which the town was reached from the west and north. Philip Philips attended the ferry, which he afterwards purchased. Osborne's eldest son was stolen by the Susquehannock Indians. Pursuit was made, and the Indians were followed across the bay, but the child was never recovered. Osborne never saw his son again, but the captive was kindly treated. The father was informed by an old chief that the lost boy was living, and had become a chief among the red men,
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HISTORY OF HARFORD COUNTY.
and he is said to have signed the treaty between Penn and the Indians in 1682.
James Philips, grandson of Philip Philips, married Martha, daughter of John and sister of William Paca, Governor of the State and signer of the Declaration of Independence. In the eastern part of a field, the site of Old Baltimore, there is a burial ground in a grove of large walnut trees. In the midst of the grove there is a marble slab, on which is the following inscription : "Beneath this stone is reposed the body of James Phil- ips, and also, in compliance with his dying request, the body of his wife, Martha Philips, daughter of John and Elizabeth Paca. Born February 3, 1744; married Jan- uary 25, 1776; died March, 6, 1829, having survived her husband 26 years," etc.
In the month of June, 1687, the Nanticoke Indians complained that one of their members, whom they styled "the mad Indian," had been murdered at Bush river by three white men, one of whom was a servant of Mrs. Stansbury, who lived there. The parties charged were not properly punished according to the minds of the Indians, and this crime was made the excuse for counter-outrages by them on a family by the name of Enock, on Middle river, the head of which family was slain by the savages.
In 1692-3 there was a line of defense against the In- dians, consisting of small forts made of wood, ex- tending in a northeasterly direction from Garrison Forest, in the neighborhood of Pikesville, in Balti- more county, through the northern section of Har- ford to the Susquehanna. Captain Thomas Richardson commanded the fort on the Susquehanna. The forts were mere cabins, where sentinels could seek shelter,
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HISTORY OF HARFORD COUNTY.
and were the advance guards of the settlements. One of these cabins or forts stood near the present site of Bethel church, but years before any church was there.
At the court held in March, 1683, at Baltimore on Bush river, the justices present were Col. George Wells, Edward Bedell, Major Thomas Long and John Boring. Thomas Hedge was clerk, Miles Gibson, high sheriff, and by order of Court the key of the courthouse was placed in the custody of "John Hathway, the cryer." The land appears to have belonged to William and Margaret Osborne, and seems to have been taken by proceedings for condemnation under the old English law of eminent domain, for we find a rule laid on Osborne and his wife, in 1683, to show cause why they did not make over the land, and on September 4th, of that year, they conveyed the title to the land to the Commissioners of Baltimore county and their success- ors in the manner of the livery of seizin raw by de- livery of turf and twig.
The records show that the courthouse, on Bush river, had been constructed long enough to need repairs in 1683, "as to its dormant windows coursing the same with good boards, with sap drawne out and for nailes." The building was probably made of wood. It was offered for sale about 1696. The Baltimore, on Bush river, was known only by tradition as early as 1773, the date of the act for the formation of Harford county ; for in that year the testimony of Col. John Hall, taken in a law suit, states that he knew a place in Bush river neck called "The Old Plantation," and he had always understood that the town on Bush river was laid out there. Col. Hall had always lived in that section. The last trace of the meeting of the Court
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HISTORY OF HARFORD COUNTY.
on Bush river is in a suit brought in 1692, by Thomas Heath, an innkeeper there, for tobacco due him for the expenses of the justices during 1687-88-89. It would seem from this that in the early days the justices ex- pected the county to pay their tavern bills.
The county seat was then removed to Gunpowder, within the present limits of Baltimore county, but in 1712, in spite of considerable opposition, it was re- moved across the river to Joppa, which is within the present bounds of Harford.
"The courthouse there had been first built without legal authority, and when this difficulty was got over it was found that the Commissioners had built it on the land of a minor, who could convey no legal title. This stumbling-block hindered Joppa's progress for twelve vears more. The courthouse and prison were built, but not a dwelling-house ; but the Assembly, in 1724, legal- ized the conveyance by special act, but reduced the area of the town to twenty-one acres.
After so many false starts, Joppa was now fairly on her way. The "Act for erecting a town at Joppa, in Baltimore county, and for securing the land whereon the courthouse and prison are built," was passed by the General Assembly at the October session, in 1724. By this act Thomas Tolley, Capt. John Taylor, Daniel Scott, Lancelot Todd and John Stokes were appointed town commissioners. On the 20th of April, 1725, Messrs. Tolley, Taylor and Scott met at Joppa, and proceeded to lay off twenty-one acres of land-one acre for the use of St. John's Parish Church-for the use of the town. The town was laid out into forty lots, exclusive of the church lot, and divided by Court street and Church street, running east and west, and Low
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HISTORY OF HARFORD COUNTY.
street and High street, running nearly north and south. The lots were offered for entry at one pound seven shillings each, to be paid to Col. James Maxwell, whose land had been taken by the Commissioners for the use of the town. Among those who took up lots were Col. James Maxwell, Asaell Maxwell, son of James Max- well; Col. John, Dorsey, for the use of his son, Green- bury Dorsey; John Crockett, John Stokes, David Hughes, Thomas White, clerk of the town, Roger Mat- thews, Capt. Thomas Sheredine, Aquila Paca, sheriff of the county, John Hall, Jr., John Roberts, Joseph Ward, inn-holder, Richard Hewitt, Nicholas Day, Thomas Tolley, Aquila Hall, William Hammond, Benjamin Jones, William Lowe, Joseph Calvert, late merchant of Kent county, James Isham, Catharine Hollingsworth, widow, Samuel Ward, carpenter, Benjamin Johns, Abraham Johns, Stephen Higgins, Samuel Maccubbin, Hannah Ward, John Higginson, inn-holder, and Ben- jamin Rumsey. Like all these towns of the Legisla- ture's making, she was laid off into lots intersected by streets, lanes and alleys ; but, as if the Assembly wished to punish the town for its own rashness and negligence, the lots were ordered to be of half the usual size, or half an acre each. Takers-up of lots were bound to build each a dwelling-house, covering not less than four hundred square feet, with a good brick or stone chim- ney. And so the new town flourished and became a great tobacco market, to which hogsheads were brought from all the upper parts of the country by a simple, but practical contrivance then generally in use, which made each hogshead its own vehicle. A gudgeon, or pin, was fastened in each end, on which hoop-pole shafts were attached and fastened to the horse's collar, who thus
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HISTORY OF HARFORD COUNTY.
trundled the cask behind him; and the roads used for this transportation were called "rolling roads," by which name many of them are still known. To build up still further her commerce, all debtors paying their debts in tobacco at Joppa were allowed a reduction of ten per cent. She became a port of entry, and had a respectable trade with Europe and the West Indies. Tradition says that so late as the American revolution a vessel of war was built there."*
In 1731 the Legislature suspended the sittings of the court at Joppa on account of the prevalence of small pox there.
Baltimore, on the Patapsco, had meanwhile been growing, while Joppa stood still, and in 1768 was en- titled to be called a city. In that year, on account of the inconvenience to the inhabitants in attending court at Joppa, a law was passed authorizing a commission to build a courthouse and prison on the "uppermost part of Calvert street, next Jones' Falls," and the same commission was directed to sell the courthouse and prison at Joppa, although the courthouse in the present city of Baltimore was not built by public expense, the cost of it having been raised by private subscription. There was great opposition to the change in the section which is now Harford, and the actual removal of the records by Mr. Alexander Lawson was attended by some violence and outrage. t Thus in 1768 the county seat of Baltimore county was permanently removed from our soil, but our ancestors grew restive under the inconvenience of the change, and began housekeeping for themselves five years later, when our own county
*Scharf's History of Maryland. +Griffith's Annals.
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HISTORY OF HARFORD COUNTY.
was organized at Bush, as will be related a few pages further on.
"The grandeur of Joppa was not destined to endure, As old Baltimore on Bush river had faded before her, so she was to fade before Baltimore on the Patapsco. Her trade was drawn off, her population dwindled, her storehouses fell to ruin, her wharves rotted and her harbor filled up with mud. Yet the ancient town has not, like old Baltimore, utterly vanished. A solitary house, once a stately mansion, built of bricks imported from England, and a few mouldering grave stones, overgrown by weeds and grass, still mark the site of the once flourishing town of Joppa."*
The location of Joppa, and of the town there, is still well known, but the Baltimore, on Bush river, has en- tirely disappeared, and is now a field on the farm of Mr. James Richardson, on the east side of the river, the shore being well known as "Old Baltimore," and is a favorite landing place for sailing parties on the Bush river.
*Scharf's History.
1
CHAPTER IV. CUSTOMS AND MANNERS PRIOR TO THE REVOLUTION.
SLAVERY-PRIMITIVE CONDITIONS-THE LAWYER-DOCTOR-SCHOOL- MASTER- LIFE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE THE REVOLUTION- DOMESTIC CUSTOMS.
In the colony of Maryland there was much pretense to aristocracy and style. Annapolis and Baltimore con- tained a large population and people of considerable wealth resided there. Hospitality was freely dispensed, and, as in the South today, they gave a hearty welcome to all comers, even to the stranger within their gates. Slavery was an established institution, and the masters had that patriarchal manner that comes from the own- ership of slaves. The proprietors in this section were, as a rule, kind to their servants, and it was considered bad form to sell a slave. But the institution existed with all its withering effect upon the master and the bondman, and while in the Maryland colony human servitude was found in its least objectionable form, even here its blight only differed in degree from the characteristics in the entire section in which it pre- vailed.
It was looked upon with ill-favor to maltreat a slave, but the general regard in which the blacks were held was expressed by a distinguished Maryland judge in delivering an opinion in the Supreme Court of the
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HISTORY OF HARFORD COUNTY.
United States many years later, when he said that they had been considered so far inferior that they had no rights the white man was bound to respect. The negroes were, however, much better off here even in slavery than in their own country of Africa, where they were in servitude to members of their own race. The pleasant and happy condition of the blacks at the time of which we write gave no warning of the dreadful con- flict which was to be waged an hundred years later over their emancipation. He was not then born who was to be at the head of the nation in that dreadful struggle, who was to sit beside the sick bed of his country in her agony, whose large hand was to be on her feeble pulse, and whose knowledge and skill was to perform the miracle of her healing. There were few libraries and a man with a dozen books was considered quite a. scholar. A modest collection, such as may be found today in many private houses, would have been con- sidered in those days a considerable library. News- papers were few and not in general circulation, and the people depended on the gossip of the day for their news, and often on the political harangue for their poli- tics.
The great powers in the body politic of that early day were the schoolmaster, the lawyer and the doctor. The public school system did not exist, and the only schools to be found were those in which a gentleman of means would employ a teacher for his children, and the boys and girls of the neighborhood would be invited to at- tend.
The old Maryland Bar was an active, learned and in- telligent body, full of force and the greatest power, and contained in its membership Jennings, Holliday, Key,
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HISTORY OF HARFORD COUNTY.
Martin, Sprigg, Rogers, Johnson and Chase. They were well trained in the English common law, in all the traditions of the English Bar and the usages of the best society, and kept our customs and manners on a high level.
Stocks and pillories were in constant use, and the criminal code was more severe than it is in our day. This section of the colony was almost entirely an agri- cultural community. The plow was little used, except for the purpose of breaking up of new ground in the spring and fallow in the fall, and the chief implement of husbandry was the hoe. This was not the light steel implement of the present day, but a great, clumsy lump of iron, often rudely made by the blacksmith on the plantation, not sharp, but so made that it could not be broken.
Corn and tobacco were the chief crops; these were frequently shipped to England, the money arising from their sale purchasing in London clothes, merchandise and whatever manufactured articles might be needed on the farm.
Commercial fertilizers were unknown, and a piece of bottom land, which could be enriched by the over- flow of a stream, was particularly valuable. Fox hunt- ing and cock fighting were the chief sports then in vogue.
The doctor stood especially high in influence and popular esteem. Often he had depended for his medical education upon his apprenticeship to some physician in active practice in a large city. His term of tuition being over, the young man returned to his early home and be- gan the practice of medicine. As time went by he grew
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HISTORY OF HARFORD COUNTY.
in influence, popularity and wealth. His knowledge of the world, good sense and engaging manners, his hearty laugh and the interest he manifested in the family of the poorest of his sick people, made him an universal favorite. When he rode out the occupants of every farmhouse he passed were as well known to him as his own household. The boys took off their caps to him as he passed, and the girls paid him the compliment of greeting by dropping a curtsy. He would take the longest rides on the darkest nights to administer a dose of calomel to an old woman or attend a child with a cold. He was present at every birth ; he rode with the family at the funeral ; he was to be found with the minister at every death-bed, and his name at- tested the signature to every will. In those days there were no drug stores. The country store kept a few of the simplest drugs stored away on the shelves among shoes, harness, twine and salt meat. The doctor had to be both physician and druggist, and his saddle bags protruded with their load of drugs. The old mortar and pestle was in daily use, and the physician put up his own prescriptions and pounded his own drugs. Great quantities of medicines were taken in those days-more even by the well than is given to the sick now. Large doses of calomel and rhubarb had to be taken each spring, and nauseating combinations of senna and molasses were taken daily. Simple reme- dies of the present day were then unknown. The patient in a raging fever was denied water. So much mercurial compounds were taken that the lips turned blue and the gums fell away from the teeth. It was quite common to cup and leech. As quinine was not known until 1820 the cure for fever and malaria was
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HISTORY OF HARFORD COUNTY.
cinchona bark ; but it was scarce and expensive. Vac- cination had not been discovered, and small pox was frequent and fatal. The poorest man when injured has now better surgical attention than could be pro- cured at that time at any price.
There was little to be seen in the household that was not the product of the soil. In every home could be found the spinning wheel, and the housewife, besides her other duties, did the weaving of the material used for clothing, with the aid of her daughters ; and around the open fire in the long winter evenings their deft fingers plied the knitting needles. The furniture was of the simplest kind and stoves were unknown. Can- dles or the roaring fire served the purpose of lighting the room. Sewing machines, kerosene lamps and hun- dreds of modern conveniences had not come into use. Traveling was done on horseback or in lumbering vehi- cles, and visits along the water were made in boats.
CHAPTER V.
ORGANIZATION OF HARFORD COUNTY.
INCONVENIENCE ON ACCOUNT OF REMOVAL OF COUNTY SEAT TO BALTIMORE-PETITION FOR NEW COUNTY-HENRY HARFORD- LEGISLATIVE ACT FOR FORMATION OF NEW COUNTY.
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