USA > Maryland > Washington County > Leitersburg > History of Leitersburg District, Washington County, Md.: Including Its Original Land Tenure. > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29
In 1791 a number of important county roads were resurveyed, including the road from Hagerstown to the Frederick County line, from Hagerstown to Hancock, from Hagerstown to Charlton's Gap, from Hagerstown to Nicholson's Gap, from Hagerstown to Williamsport, and from Williamsport to Turner's Gap.
The construction of the Cumberland road was authorized by act of Congress in 1806. Its eastern terminus was at Cumber- land, Md., which was connected with Baltimore and Washington by turnpikes constructed by incorporated companies. A great overland highway was thus established from the Atlantic sea- board to the West. It passed through Boonsboro, Hagerstown, and Clearspring and was for many years an important factor in the development and prosperity of the county. A number of other turnpikes have since been constructed.
The Potomac Company was organized in 1785 for the purpose of improving the navigation of that river, the futility of which was finally apparent, and its franchises eventually became vested in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company. The excavation of the canal was begun in 1828, and in 1850 it was completed to Cumberland. It passes through Washington County parallel with the Potomac river.
The construction of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad was begun
16
HISTORY OF LEITERSBURG DISTRICT.
in 1828; it was opened for travel to Harper's Ferry in 1834 and to Cumberland in 1842. The Washington County branch, which extends from Weverton to Hagerstown, was opened in 1867. The Cumberland Valley railroad was constructed to Hagerstown in 1841 and extended to Martinsburg in 1874. The Western Maryland railroad was opened to Hagerstown in 1872 and to Wil- liamsport in 1873; a lateral line extends from Edgemont to Ship- pensburg and a western extension from Williamsport to Cherry Run. The Norfolk and Western railroad was opened from Ha- gerstown to the valley of Virginia in 1880. The street railway system of Hagerstown was constructed in 1896 and is operated by electricity. Lateral lines extend to Williamsport and Funkstown.
TOWN AND VILLAGE GROWTH.
Hagerstown, the county seat of Washington County, was founded in 1762 by Jonathan Hager. The proprietor conferred upon it the name of Elizabeth-Town in honor of his wife, and many years elapsed before the present designation acquired undis- puted currency. Rev. Philip V. Fithian, a Presbyterian clergy- man, visited Hagerstown on the 18th of May, 1775, and entered the following brief description in his journal:
Hagerstown-a considerable village. It may contain two hundred houses. Some of them are large and neat, built with stone or brick, but the greater part of the houses are built with logs, neatly squared, which indeed make a good house. There are many stores here and many mechanics, and it is a place of business. The inhabitants are chiefly Dutch. East and southeast of this town the Blue mountains appear like thick, hazy thunder clouds just above the horizon in sum- mer. There is here a Dutch Lutheran church and they are building an English church .*
Business and industrial activity has continued to be the promi- nent characteristic of Hagerstown. Turnpikes and public roads radiate to every part of the county, while its railroad facilities are unsurpassed by those of any other inland city on the Atlantic sea- board.
Sharpsburg received its name in compliment to Horatio Sharpe, Governor of Maryland. It was founded in 1763 by Joseph Chap- line, rapidly attained the proportions of a frontier village, and in
*Egle's Notes and Queries 1881, p. 156.
17
INTRODUCTION.
1765 its population was deemed sufficient to warrant the appoint- ment of a constable by the Frederick County court. Within a few years after its founding it had become the business center of the lower Antietam valley, and in 1776 it was an unsuccessful as- pirant for the location of the county seat. On the 17th of Sep- tember, 1862, the town and adjacent country were the scene of one of the most important battles of the American Civil War.
Williamsport is situated on the Potomac river at the mouth of the Conococheague. It was founded by General Otho Holland Williams, an officer in the Revolutionary War, and was laid out in 1787 under authority of the Maryland Legislature. The Po- tomac was then extensively used for the shipment of grain and merchandise, for which Williamsport possessed every advantage as a point of consignment, while the construction of the canal and of the turnpikes to Greencastle and Hagerstown were addi- tional factors in its business growth.
Boonsboro is located at the foot of the South mountain, on the turnpike from Frederick to Hagerstown. A century ago the site of the village was owned by two brothers, George and William Boone, from whom its name is derived. In 1796 it comprised five houses. It received an important impetus from the comple- tion of the turnpike in 1810, and was for many years one of the most important business centers of the county; but with the de- cline of travel over this thoroughfare its prosperity also suffered, and for some years it has been practically stationary.
Funkstown derives its name from Jacob Funk. Here he built a mill prior to 1768, and before the Revolution he founded the town, of which the original name was Jerusalem. Since the early part of the present century the town has been a manufac- turing point of local importance. It is situated on the Boonsboro turnpike, two miles from Hagerstown, with which it is connected by an electric railway.
Hancock, one of the oldest towns in the county, perpetuates the name of its founder, and came into existence prior to 1790. It is situated in the extreme western part of the county on the line of the canal and the old National road.
Smithsburg was founded prior to 1815 by Christopher Smith. It is situated on the Western Maryland railroad at the foot of the South mountain.
18
HISTORY OF LEITERSBURG DISTRICT.
Clearspring was founded in 1821 by Martin Myers, who de- scribes it as located "on the turnpike leading from Baltimore to the western country," eleven and one-half miles from Hagerstown and one mile east of the North mountain. It is the business cen- ter of a rich agricultural region.
Among the minor villages of the county are Cavetown, Rohrersville, Leitersburg, Chewsville, Tilghmanton, Sandy Hook, Maugansville, etc.
HISTORY OF LEITERSBURG DISTRICT.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY LAND TENURE AND SETTLEMENT.
ANTIETAM - PREHISTORIC REMAINS-LONGMEADOWS-SKIPTON- ON-CRAVEN-DECEIT-DARLING'S SALE-LAMBERT'S PARK- DOWNING'S LOT-CHESTER-WELL TAUGHT-ALLAMANGLE- ALL THAT'S LEFT-RICH BARRENS-PERRY'S RETIREMENT -HUCKLEBERRY HALL-DRY SPRING-BURKHART'S LOT- SCANT TIMBER-FATHER'S GOOD WILL-ELYSIAN FIELDS-THE FARMER'S BLESSING-ADDITION TO CUMBERLAND-TURKEY BUZZARD-CUMBERLAND -SMALLER TRACTS - ADJUSTMENT OF BOUNDARIES-MASON AND DIXON'S LINE.
THE watershed of Antietam creek includes the whole of Lei- tersburg District. A short distance north of the State line two branches of nearly equal volume unite to form this stream, but its only affluent of importance in the District is the Little Antie- tam, whose waters it receives half a mile below the village of Leitersburg. A smaller stream, known at the beginning of the century as Tipton's run, empties into the Little Antietam near the eastern boundary of the District. Marsh run, which drains the western part of its territory, rises in Franklin County, Pa., where its course possesses political significance for some miles as the boundary of Washington and Antrim Townships. It is also a tributary of the Antietam.
While the name Antietam is perhaps the most enduring me- morial of the Indian occupation, there are also others. A well defined village site has been identified a short distance beyond the eastern line of the District at a spring on the farm of C. L. G. Anderson on the north side of Little Antietam. Here hundreds of arrow heads and numerous axes, scrapers, celts, pestles, etc. have been found. In 1831 Ira Hill of Funkstown, Md., pub- lished a book entitled "Antiquities of America Explained," in which the following description of prehistoric remains near Lei- tersburg occurs:
20
HISTORY OF LEITERSBURG DISTRICT.
In this part of the extensive valley west of the Blue Ridge are * many remains of antiquity. * * * On the banks of the Antie- tam near Leitersburg are many such remains. There are numerous ar- rows of different sizes, many remains of burned bones, large pieces of purest flint of various shapes, and many other kinds of stone curiously carved as if designed for some important use.
There are innumerable pieces of a kind of ware which was un- doubtedly manufactured at this place. From the convex and concave surfaces of the pieces it is evident that the vessels were of as many sizes as those made use of at the present time by the generality of community. This ware is about as thick as that generally made in our potteries, and though it may have remained for thousands of years under the earth or exposed on its surface to wind and weather, yet it is harder than any I have ever seen manufactured in any part of the country. The outside is rough as if fashioned into innumer- able figures ; the inside is as smooth as glass. The rims are likewise adorned with many cuts or figures. The greatest degree of heat that I have been able to apply to this ware seems to have no effect, and other methods I have taken to dissolve it have proved as ineffectual. This ware and many other remains are all mingled together, and among which are to be seen ashes and charcoal. The gentleman on whose ground most of these remains are found observed that when he first ploughed up this field it seemed that bones had been burned in log heaps.
Near to these curiosities on a beautiful bottom are two circles, the one about ten yards in diameter and the other somewhat less. These are in a meadow and though the ground has been cultivated for many years and is on a perfect level with the circles, yet from the growth and color of the grass that grows upon them they are distinctly seen from the surrounding meadow. The soil appears the same as that around them and the whole has been richly manured, yet the grass on these circles has a more thrifty growth than the other. Here were undoubtedly the places on which they moulded their ware or on which they mixed the materials of which it was composed.
Not many hundred yards from these places are many Indian graves : these mounds are still a number of feet higher than the ground around them. A number of gentlemen assisted me in opening one. On account of a mill-dam which has raised the water above the level of the bottom on which these graves were made the water rushed in so fast that we could not succeed entirely to our wishes in this work. But we found pieces of the ware above mentioned, a number of curious stones, and what was once undoubtedly part of a human foot now petrified. These were all incased in a black mud, interspersed with whitish veins, which we conjectured were the remains of bones.
The earliest authentic information regarding the settlement of Leitersburg District is that which occurs in connection with
21
EARLY LAND TENURE AND SETTLEMENT.
its original land tenure. From this source it is ascertained that there were settlers here prior to 1738. The frontier population of Maryland at that date, like that of the other Atlantic colonies, was composed of a variety of elements. Here the restraints of civil- ized society were comparatively weak; wants were few and easy of gratification; the cheapness of the land and its certain appre- ciation in value presented strong inducements for its acquisition. Hence the less ambitious and industrious, the indolent, the shift- less, and the criminal, as well as the adventurous and enterprising, gravitated from the older communities to the frontier. All these classes were doubtless represented in the early population of Lei- tersburg District. Some of the earliest residents were hunters and trappers rather than agriculturists, mere squatters upon the land they occupied with but little desire for its permanent possession, and their history is as destitute of memorials as that of the savages who preceded them. Then there were others who acquired land and improved it, founded homes and reared families, established churches and schools and the miscellaneous industries of an agri- cultural community, and laid the foundations of the present social and material development of the District. It is with the latter class and their descendants and successors that these pages are principally concerned.
LONGMEADOWS.
The first tract in Leitersburg District secured by original pat- ent was Longmeadows, which first received this designation in 1738. On the 10th of March in that year Thomas Cresap peti- tioned the Land Commissioner of the Province for the survey of a tract under this name, for which he received a patent, June 16, 1739. The preamble to the latter instrument recites that "pur- suant to our instructions to our Governor and judge in land affairs for granting our back lands on the borders of the Province afore- said a certain John Church obtained from his Excellency Samuel Ogle, Esq., an order for three hundred acres of vacant land, all whose right, title, and interest of, in, and to the said order and the land therein mentioned the said Church assigned and made over to the petitioner [Cresap]; and forasmuch as he has discovered that quantity of vacant land lying and being in the county afore- said on one of the branches of Antietam, between that and Cono-
22
HISTORY OF LEITERSBURG DISTRICT.
cocheague, and near some ponds of fresh water in said Antietam, partly cultivated," a warrant for its survey was issued in his favor, March 10, 1738. This was executed by J. P. Dent, deputy sur- veyor of Prince George's County, June 14, 1739, and his return describes the boundaries as "Beginning at a bounded red oak, standing on the west side of Neal's meadow, below the mouth of a drain that comes out of a great pond being in the said land." The area of the tract was 550 acres.
Colonel Cresap resided at Longmeadows from 1738 to 1741. The improvements he erected here included a stone building in which he resided and which also served the purposes of a forti- fication and trading post. It stood on the east bank of Marsh run, on the farm now owned by Mrs. William S. Young, and was doubtless at the time of its erection the most substantial building in Leitersburg District.
The original area of Longmeadows was twice enlarged by Col- onel Cresap- July 30, 1742, by an additon of 110 acres, and Au- gust 8, 1743, by an addition of one hundred acres. Daniel Du- lany secured the entire tract, aggregating 760 acres, in 1746. Within a few years he had it resurveyed, resulting in the acquisi- tion of 1,371 acres of vacant land, thus increasing the area to 2,131 acres, for which he secured a patent, November 7, 1751. In the following year he was granted a warrant for a second re- survey, by which 2,370 acres were added, but owing to disputes with other claimants no patent was issued. He sold the tract to Colonel Henry Bouquet, a native of Switzerland and a British officer of distinction in the French and Indian War, who, "being willing and desirous to adjust the said disputes," secured a second . resurvey, as the result of which the area of the tract was in- creased to 4,163 acres, for which he was granted a patent, Sep- tember 16, 1763.
Bouquet made the following disposition of Longmeadows by his will, executed on the 25th of June, 1765:
I constitute and appoint my friend. Colonel Frederick Haldimand. my heir and executor, and to him I give and bequeath all and every- thing which I may die possessed of in North America, without any exception whatever, upon the condition of paying my just debts and above legacies: my estate, consisting for the present in the farm called Long Meadows Enlarged, situate in Frederick County in the
Province of Maryland, * * * the said farm to be sold with *
.
23
EARLY LAND TENURE AND SETTLEMENT.
the saw-mill, tan-yard, houses, tenements, and appurtenances on the same for the payment of my debts and legacies .*
It does not appear that Bouquet ever remained at Longmeadows any length of time, although it is not improbable that he designed to make it the place of his residence in the event of his retirement from the army.
Colonel Haldimand was a compatriot of Bouquet. His early military experience was obtained on the Continent, where, like Bouquet, he had been in the service of the Dutch against the French. He entered the British army with the same rank as Bou- quet, that of eolonel in the Royal American Brigade. The Long- meadows estate continued in his possession until November 6, 1773, when he sold it to Joseph Sprigg of Prince George's County, Md. It is not probable that he ever resided here, al- though in some legal documents relating to this locality Long- meadows is referred to as "Colonel Haldimand's plantation." In the deed of conveyance to Sprigg he is described as "Frederick Haldimand, at present of the City of New York in the Province of New York, and major general in His Majesty's army."
The Longmeadows tract extended along the western boundary of Leitersburg District from Paradise school house almost to the Pennsylvania line. A considerable part of its area was also be- yond the District line on the west and south. It embraced one of the most fertile and desirable sections of Washington County. Fortunately for the development of the District Joseph Sprigg was the last individual owner of this extensive tract, the disinte- gration of which began about the close of the Revolutionary War. In 1779 he sold to Samuel Hughes 1,300 acres, to John McConkey 521 acres, and to Dr. Henry Schnebley 322 acres, and in the fol- lowing year 781 acres to Thomas Sprigg.
The purchase of Samuel Hughes embraced the original Long- meadows tract and improvements. In 1789 he sold the entire tract of 1,300 acres to Thomas Hart, who came to Hagerstown in 1780 from Hillsboro, N. C., a locality that he was obliged to leave on account of the depredations of his Tory neighbors. At Ha- gerstown he engaged in merchandising and was for some years the partner of Nathaniel Rochester, the founder of Rochester, N. Y. He resided at Longmeadows for a time and here a daugh-
*Colonel Henry Bouquet and his Campaigns of 1763 and 1764, by Rev. Cyrus Cort, p 76.
24
HISTORY OF LEITERSBURG DISTRICT.
ter was born, who afterward became the wife of Henry Clay, the Whig candidate for President in 1844. Hart removed to Ken- tucky in 1794.
Thomas B. Hall succeeded Colonel Hart in the ownership of 510 acres of the Longmeadows tract, now embraced principally in the farms of Mrs. William S. Young and Abraham Lehman. Hall was connected with the internal revenue service of the United States as collector of direct taxes for the Eighth district of Mary- land. There was a deficit of $17,916.68 in his accounts for the years 1815-16, for the recovery of which the United States mar- shal levied upon the Longmeadows farm; it was sold at public sale, March 30, 1827, and purchased for the United States, to which the marshal accordingly executed a deed, February 15, 1831. From this circumstance it was long known as "the United States farm," and such in fact it was. In 1831 Richard Ragan and William D. Magill, of Hagerstown, purchased it from Virgil Maxey, solicitor of the Treasury of the United States, by deeds "signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of J. Marshall, Jo- seph Story," chief justice and associate justice, respectively, of the Supreme Court of the United States. The part purchased by Ragan is now owned by Mrs. William S. Young of Baltimore and that purchased by Magill by Abraham Lehman.
The large brick mansion near the terminus of the Marsh turn- pike was built by Thomas Sprigg, whose purchase of 781 acres from the Longmeadows tract has been mentioned. His estate eventually comprised 1,754 acres and bore the name of Sprigg's Paradise. It consisted of 1,581 acres from Longmeadows En- larged, Pleasant Spring (seventy-eight acres, patented by John Rench in 1760), Race Ground (twelve acres, patented by Joseph Sprigg in 1776), and The Grove (eighty-five acres, patented by Joseph Sprigg in 1777). General Sprigg secured a warrant for the resurvey of these tracts in 1785, but the patent was not issued until December 12, 1804. Sprigg's Paradise was situated on both sides of the Marsh turnpike. The proprietor, who was a member of Congress, brigadier general in the State militia, and otherwise prominent in public affairs, resided here until his death in 1809, and in 1810 the estate was divided among his three chil- dren. The Sprigg residence and several hundred acres adjacent thereto are now owned by the Messrs. Cressler.
In 1780 McConkey sold the land he had purchased from Joseph
25
EARLY LAND TENURE AND SETTLEMENT.
Sprigg to John Rench, whose son, Peter Rench, resided thereon; in 1833 the larger part of this tract was purchased from his heirs by Jacob B. Lehman.
In 1789 Thomas Hart sold to John Dorsett six hundred acres of land, of which 395 acres were purchased from Dorsett by Wen- dell Gilbert in 1791. Samuel Gilbert, his son, subsequently owned part of this land, which embraced the Paradise spring and the site of Longmeadows church.
SKIPTON-ON-CRAVEN.
Colonel Cresap was also the owner of an original tract several miles east of Longmeadows, and to this he gave the name of Skipton-on-Craven, his native place in England. The certificate of survey, returned under date of November 27, 1740, describes the boundaries as "Beginning at a bounded Spanish oak standing on the south side of a branch of Antietam known by the name of Forbush's branch;" and in the preamble to the patent, which was granted March 27, 1744, the tract is described as "lying and being in the County aforesaid in the fork of Antietam creek, whereon a certain Thomas Catens formerly settled and made some improve- ments."
In 1749 "Michael Miller, yeoman, of Frederick County," pur- chased Skipton-on-Craven from Colonel Cresap. Nothing is known regarding his personal history, although it may be stated with certainty that he resided for many years in the vicinity of Leitersburg near the mouth of Little Antietam. Here he owned at one time about seven hundred acres of land, now embraced in the Ziegler, Hartle, and Stockslager farms. In 1760 he was con- stable for Upper Antietam Hundred.
In 1765 John Reiff purchased from Michael Miller 117 acres of land, part of Skipton-on-Craven, "whereon John Reiff now lives." He was therefore an actual resident of the District and a near neighbor to Jacob Leiter. By successive purchases he even- tually acquired more than four hundred acres of land, southwest of Leitersburg and on both sides of the Antietam and the turn- pike, much of which was doubtless reduced to cultivation and im- proved by him.
Jacob Good was also a resident of the District as early as 1765. when he purchased from Michael Miller 163 acres, part of
26
HISTORY OF LEITERSBURG DISTRICT.
Skipton-on-Craven, "being the land whereon the said Good now lives." Good's house was a log building and stood between the Little Antietam and the stone residence of Harvey J. Hartle. It was near the bank of the creek, and on the opposite side there was a saw-mill. Surrounding these improvements Good owned 350 acres of land, embracing the confluence of Antietam and Little Antietam, the whole of Harvey J. Hartle's farm, and adjacent lands now owned by Levi Hartle, John Hartle, and Alveh L. Stockslager. In 1787 he sold this land to Joseph Long, his son- in-law, from whom in 1795 it passed to John Barr, of Lancaster County, Pa.
In 1775 Christian Lantz, formerly a resident of Lancaster County, Pa., purchased from John Reiff 476 acres of land south- west of Leitersburg, along the turnpike and Antietam creek. Here he resided until his death in 1798. In 1776 he was a mem- ber of the County Committee of Safety. A large part of his landed estate is still in possession of his descendants. He built one of the first mills in the District.
DECEIT.
"Forbush's branch" is now known as Little Antietam, the latter designation having completely superseded the former, which would no longer be recognized in this locality. Yet George For- bush, from whom the stream derived the name by which it was known in 1740, was undoubtedly one of the earliest settlers along its course; and although he took his departure about the time the first permanent settlers began to arrive, the location of his planta- tion can be determined with a fair degree of probability. On the 23d of August, 1743, John Darling secured a patent for Deceit, a tract of 108 acres, the boundaries of which are described as "Beginning at a bounded white oak standing nigh a branch of Antietam on the top of a steep hill and near the place that George Forbush formerly lived on." In the patent for Darling's Sale (surveyed in 1739), its boundaries are described as "Beginning at a bounded white oak standing on the southeast side of Little An- tietam creek, near the plantation of one George Forbush." From a plot of the Stoner lands entered in the land records of Washing- ton County in 1820, it is ascertained that this "bounded white oak" stood on the present line between the lands of Daniel W.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.