USA > Maryland > Montgomery County > The history of Montgomery county, Maryland, from its earliest settlement in 1650 to 1879 > Part 7
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
"N. B .- As nothing effectual ean probably be done for less than about thirty thousand pounds, this subscription is not to be binding unless to the value of thirty thousand pounds, Penn- sylvania Currency, should be subscribed.
"GEORGE WASHINGTON, five hundred pounds Virginia Cur- rency;
" Ralph Wormely, 66 66
"Th. Johnson, Jr., for self and Mr. L. Jacques, £500 Penn'a Cur'y.
"Dan of St. Thos. Jenifer, three hundred pounds, Dol'rs at 78. 6d.
"Geo. Plaix, three hundred pounds, Currency.
"T. Ridout, two hundred pounds, Currency.
"Daniel Dulany's son Walter, £200, Currency.
"David Ross, for the Fredericksburg Co's, 500 pounds Pen'a Cur'y.
"David Ross, for himself, 300 pounds Pennsylvania Currency.
"Dan'l and Sam'l Hughes, five hundred pounds Penn. Cur- reney.
" Benj. Dulany, five hundred pounds Pennsylvania Money.
"Thos. Ringgold, one thousand pounds, Pennsylvania Cur- rency.
"W. Ellzey, one hundred pounds.
"Jonas Clapham, one hundred pounds, Virginia Currency.
"William Deakins, Jr., one hundered pounds-dollars, at 78. 6d.
"Joseph Chapline, fifty pounds common current money.
"Tho. Richardson, fifty pounds, Pennsylvania Currency.
"Thomas JJohns, fifty pounds, common Currency.
" Adam Stephen, two hundred pounds, Pennsylvania Cur- rency.
"Robt. and Tho. Rutherford, one hundred pounds, Penn'a Cur'y.
"Francis Deakins, one hundred pounds, Com'n Cur'y of - Maryland.
"CHARLES CARROLL, of Carrollton, £1000, Cur'cy, Dol. at 7.s. 6d.
"By Act of Assembly in 1784, the State of Virginia gave to 'George Washington, Esq.,' fifty thousand shares, capital stock of the Potomac Company, and one hundred thousand shares of
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
the James River Company's stock to testify their sense of 'his unexampled merits towards his country.' For this Washington returned his thanks in the mnost profound and grateful manner, but respectfully declined the gift; and in doing so, he uses these memorable words, which ought to be printed in gold over the door of every man who accepts high public trust,-'When I was called to the station with which I was honored during the late conflict for our liberties, I thought it to be my duty to join to a firm resolution to shut my hands against every pecuniary recompence; to this resolution I have invariably adhered; from this resolution (if I had the inclination) I do not consider my- self at liberty to depart.'""
The old Potomac Company was chartered in 1784, and Gen- eral Washington was its first President, and assisted in person in the survey of the river. The object of the Company, was to render the upper Potomac River navigable by the means of locks, dams and short canals.
The work was so far proceeded with as to afford a precarious navigation at high water for batteaux or flat bottomed boats, from Cumberland to Georgetown. But the route was exceed- ingly dangerous, and a great number of boats were wrecked every spring. The people of Cooney, a settlement on the Vir- ginia shore of the Potomac, at and around its Little Falls, obtained from the wrecks a bountiful supply of flour, meat and groceries, and with the fish taken from the river, furnished them with their principal means of support.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, which succeeded the old Potomac Canal, was first projected in 1823 by the States of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania, and the National Govern- ment. It was chartered by the State of Virginia in 1824; but its organization was not completed until 1828. It is one of the greatest works of internal improvement in the country and of inestimable value to the people, extending as it does, along the entire Western border, and offering cheap transportation to some of the richest sections of the County.
An evidence of the magnitude of the business transmitted over the Canal in the one article of coal alone, can be formed from the number of boats unloaded at the elevators in George- town every year. Last year six thousand boats unloaded at these elevators, averaging one hundred and twelve tons each,
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
making the total number of tons received, six hundred and sev- enty-two thousand. Some years past it has amounted to over one million tons. The facilities for unloading are so perfect, that from fifty to sixty boats can be unloaded per day. The freight from Cumberland is about eighty-five cents per ton, while the toll amounts to forty cents per ton. The Collector's office for the Company is at Georgetown, and William E. Porter is super- intendent of the Canal Company. Mr. Porter is from Cecil County, and was appointed superintendent in 1878. Previous to this, he was with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company for twenty-seven years, twenty years as assistant master and seven years as supervisor of the road. During the war he had general charge of repairing and constructing bridges west of Harper's Ferry. Previous to the battle of Winchester, General Shields ordered him to construct a suspen- sion bridge across Back Creek, for the passage of his army. He accomplished the work in three hours, over which General Shields and his army of sixteen thousand men crossed in safety. Mr. Porter received the acknowledgments of the General after the battle.
The Collector is William Snowden, from Anne Arundel County, and has a thorough acquaintance with the duties of the office. Mr. F. M. Griffith, who has been connected with the Canal since 1870, is Assistant Collector, and is from Beallsville, Montgomery County .- Mr. James S. Kemp, of Clarksburg, Montgomery County, is Harbor Master, and is assisted by Mr. Frank Fisher, from near Darnestown, of this County.
In 1830, the Canal Company constructed a railroad four or five miles in length, to facilitate the transportation of stone from the great "White Quarry," at the foot of Sugar Loaf Mountain, for the building of an Aqueduct over the river Monocacy at its junction with the Potomac.
Excavations for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad may have commenced before the excavations for this little mountain road. yet it is quite certain that here the first rails were laid, and here the first railroad in Maryland, and perhaps the first in the United States, was put in full operation. The Canal Com- pany, in preparing to construct the great Aqueduct at the mouth of Monocacy, first thought of the transportation of ponderons hewn stone from the foot of the Sugar Loaf, by
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
routes over which wagons could not possibly pass, and pro- ceeded to construct the first, and now almost forgotten railroad. As short as it was, and diminutive as it appeared before other ' great lines of road, which soon followed on its construction, it should be described in the history of the County. Iron rails were not used, the wooden ones, or "string pieces," as they were called, consisted of nothing more than trunks of, trees, generally oak, cut from twelve to sixteen feet long, so as to allow the diameter at the smaller end to be not less than eight or ten inches. Along the whole length of these string pieces a groove or triangular trongh was cut with an adze from the cir- cumference to the centre, taking out a fourth part of the wood. which left two flat surfaces, forming a right angle at the heart or centre of the log. The trackway was graded and the log, or string piece, put down with one of its flat surfaces parallel with the surface of the ground, and the other perpendicular to it. The perimeter of the car-wheel ran on the flat surface of the groove or trough, and the outside or outward edge of the peri- meter moved along the perpendicular surfaces of the string piece on each side of the track, holding the car firmly in its place, and preventing it from running off to the ground. The track was firmly ballasted on the inner and outer side with blast rock. This was generally called, simply, blarst by the Irish laborers, because it consisted of small pieces of rock thrown off by blasting. A smooth path was made between the string pieces to accommodate two horses abreast. No cross ties were used; the weight of the string pieces and the stone ballast was sufficient to bind the track together. When one flat surface of the rail or string piece was worn and split by the pressure of the wheel, the other was turned down by turning the rails "end for end," or from "side to side," of the track, and thus the road was repaired, until it became necessary to put in new string pieces. The road was built up hill and down, through a rough and mountainous country, for the greater part of the way- very little grading being done. The cars consisted of a plain wooden platform only, supported by iron wheels and axles. One wheel, or more, on each car, had cogs on the inside of the perimeter, into which an iron lever could play, so as to lock a wheel or two in going down hill. The lever was held in the hand of the driver of the horses; and when the wheel or wheels
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
were locked, the car, with its great load of hewn rock, would, to the relief of the horses, slide down the hill like a locked wagon on an earthen road. Snow was removed from the track by Irish laborers with shovels. A car containing tools and provisions, with "gigger" cups and big jugs, was dispatched from each terminus of the road to clean off snow, and when the two parties met on the road double giggers were dealt out by the "grog boss," and great hilarity pleasantly followed, unless the laborers happened to be hostile, and then an attempt might be made to repeat the battle of the Boyne. The road was kept in active operation until the Aqueduct was finished, and then abandoned to decay. Most of the string pieces, however, were soon seized by the mountaineers for firewood, and the ballast hauled off to build and repair stone fences.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the pioneer of all the great railroad systems of the world, was chartered in 1827. This is not strictly a Montgomery work, and nowhere touches the County, yet as it, together with its Washington Branch, skirts the entire eastern and northern borders and approaches nearly to the western boundaries, and has been of such great import- anee to so large a portion of the people of the County, that a sketch of some of the results accomplished by the building of the road will be interesting.
The Metropolitan Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was chartered in 1865, and completed and operated in the spring of 1873. The road runs diagonally through the County from its north-west corner to its south-eastern extremity, and is avail- able to nearly every section of it, and when its Hanover Switch Branch is constructed, every neighborhood of the County will be within easy reach of either a railroad or canal.
Richard Randolph, Assistant Engineer, located the whole line, and was then transferred to Valley Road of Virginia.
James A. Boyd had the first contract, which was for section 11, Parr's Ridge, which is here 250 feet lower than the Parr's Ridge on Main Line; this was a deep cut three-fourths of a mile long, running from grade to 30 feet ent in one-fourth, then 30 feet for one-fourth of a mile, then running out in the next one-fourth of a mile. About the time this section was finished, several of the next heaviest were put under contract.
James A. Boyd took sections 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16. Henry Gantz, 17, 18, 19 and 20. E. D. Smithi, section 7, includ-
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
ing the masonry of Bridge over Monocaey; the grade is 90 feet above low water over this stream; there is a very heavy embank- ment on west side, greatest height 70 feet; a long rock ent on east side, 20 to 30 feet deep for more than three-fourths of a mile.
The iron superstructure for this Monocacy Bridge was built, by the Company, at their Mount Clare shops. Three spans of 200 feet each and one of 100. This one mile section cost, including graduation, masonry and bridge superstructure, $300,000. Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, including the Calico Rocks, were built by the Company's forces. Seetions 5 and 6, by Bernard Riley. Sections 8 and 33, by Peter McNamara. Section 9, by White and MeArdle. 21, Timothy Flaherty. 22 and 23, B. R. Codwise. 24, 25, 26, Michael Buoy. 27 and 30, Dennis Murphy. 28 and 29. Timothy Cavan. 31, 32 and 33, G. M. Watkins. 34 and 37, Patrick McCabe. 35, Alfred Ray. 36 and 39, James Forward. 40, Thomas A. Waters. 41 and 42, by Company's force.
Not finding materials for bridges at the crossing of Little Monocacy, Little and Big Seneca,-these streams were crossed on trestles, constructed by the Company's forces. Little Monoe- acy and Big Seneca, 70 feet high, and at Little Seneca, 106 feet high. The intention is to replace these trestles with permanent structures of stone and iron, when the trestles shall have been used to a proper extent.
The maximum grade is 50 feet per mile. Minimum radius of curvature, 1000 feet. Elevation at Gaithersburg, 516 feet above tide.
Distance from Point of Rocks to Baltimore by old line 69 miles. 6 66 " via Washington new line 80 «
As the location of Washington seems to be on ground pre- pared for a site of the seat of Government of a great Nation, so Montgomery County seems prepared to furnish supplies of all kinds for the inhabitants of such a city; Milk, Butter, Poul- try, Hay, Fruit and Vegetables, in fact, every thing which will not stand long carriage. Also, by means of this road, to furnish locations for country residences for those who can afford it, the whole line from Washington to Sugar Loaf Mountain furnishes sites for cottages, where abundant water of best quality, shade trees and soil most favorable for gardeners can be found.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
All important passenger trains of the Baltimore and Ohio Company, including local and fast freight, pass over the Metro- politan Branch, affording unprecedented facilities to the people for personal travel and transportation of productions and sup- plies. There are twenty-eight stations on the road from Wash- ington to Point of Rocks, or the Washington Junction, the intersection with the Main Stem, a distance of forty-two and one- half miles, viz:
METROPOLITAN BRANCHI.
Stations.
Miles
Stations.
Miles.
Washington ..
0)
Rockville
164
Metropolitan Junction.
1
Derwood 19
Queenstown.
34
Washington Grove.
203
Terra Cotta.
4
Gaithersburg 214
Stott's ..
Clopper's .2.43
Brightwood.
64
Germantown.
263
Silver Springs.
7
Little Seneca.
28.3
Linden.
9
Boyd's. 293
Forest Glen.
94
Barnesville.
334
Ray's Quarry.
Dickerson. .353
Knowles.
11
Tuscarora. 39
Windham's
133
Sugar Loaf. 413
Halpin
15}
Washington Junction 423
The following is the list of Officers of the Road at present :
President.
J. W. Garrett.
Vice-President.
John King. Jr.
2d Vice- President. Wm. Keyser.
Chief Engineer James L. Randolph."
General Freight Agent.
M. R. Smith.
Master of Transportation.
W. M. Clements.
" Road. John Bradshaw.
Machinery. John C. Davis.
Treasurer
W. H. Ijams.
Auditor W. T. Thelin.
Superintendent Pittsburg Dirision. E. K. Hyndman.
. 66 Trans. Ohio Division C. H. Hudson.
General Ticket Agent. L. M. Cole.
Supt. Terminal Trucks and Stations. John L. Wilson.
CHAPTER XIII.
PROMINENT MEN.
Col. John Berry. Elisha Riggs. Samuel Riggs. Mrs. Ann Poultney. Philip E. Thomas. Rev. Reuben T. Boyd. His Ordination as Minister of the Gospel. His Certificate to per- form marriage, signed by General Wm. Henry Harrison. John C. Clark. George R. Gaither. Israel H. B., and A. and R. R. Griffith. Thomas. L. Reese. William Darne. Rev. Thomas McCormick. Thomas Moore. Caleb Bently. Isaac Riggs. Roger Brooke.' Hon. Francis P. Blair. Robert Pot- tinger, Dr. Wm. Bowie Magruder. Major George Peters. Drs. Duvall. Tobacco Inspectors. Robert Sellman. Thos. B. W. Vinson, Triadelphia Cotton Factory.
COL. JOHN BERRY, who participated in the defence of Fort McHenry when bombarded by the British in 1814, and whose well directed guns caused the British lion to weigh anchor and drop down the river, ont of the reach of the artillery of the Fort. For his gallantry on this occasion he attracted the atten- tion of Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott-by an offer of promotion and transfer to another important military post. He preferred, after successfully defending his adopted City, to return to private life, and devoted himself to the development of the patent fire briek with his brother, Mr. THOS. L. BERRY, in the south-east part of the City, which proved eminently successful and profitable. He accumulated a large fortune, leaving as his representatives, Gen. John Summerfield Berry, and John Hurst, the successful dry goods merchant and president of the National Exchange Bank.
ELISHA RIGGS, for many years the head of the well known firm of Riggs, Peabody & Co., on Baltimore street, near Hanover; afterwards Peabody, Riggs & Co., German street. The elder partner removed to New York, after aiding and estab- lishing the well known firm of Corcoran & Riggs, of Washing-
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
ton. He died, leaving a fortune of a million and a half of dollars. Mr. George Peabody, at one time his clerk, afterwards his partner, had in the meantime removed to London, where, in his successful efforts to maintain and uphold the credit of Maryland, he laid the foundation of his own colossal fortune, a part of which, in his life-time, he devoted to the development of art and instruction for the benefit of the City of Balti- more, by the establishment of the magnificent institute, "The Peabody Institute," on Mount Vernon Place, which bears and will hand down down his name to generations yet unborn.
SAMUEL RIGGS the junior member of the firm died in early life, leaving a fortune of $300,000 dollars.
Mrs. ANN POULTNEY, reliet of the late Charles Poultney, and sister of Philip E. Thomas, remarkable for her culture, piety and refinement, also as a prominent member and speaker of the Society of Friends.
PHILIP E. THOMAS, founder, and for many years the Presi- dent of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,-the first commer- cial railroad undertaken in the United States.
The Rev. REUBEN T. BOYD, of this County, father of Col. T. H. S. BOYD, the publisher of this history, born July 3rd, 1794, on the old estate of the Boyd's, known as "Boyd's Delay," on Rock Creek, three miles east of Rockville. He studied for the ministry, and was anthorized to preach the Gospel in the Baltimore District of the Methodist Episcopal Church, November 26th, 1825. His certificate being signed by Rev. Joseph Frye, President, James R. Williams, Secretary; renewed December 30th, 1826, signed Joseph Frye, President, and J. S. Reese, Secretary. For several years preceding and during this time a great reform was being agitated in the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, the object of which was a change in the form of government, so as to admit of the representatives of Lay members in the councils of the church.
Mr. Boyd took an active and zealous stand in behalf of the projected reform, and was a constant contributor to the columns of a pamphlet published by William Stockton, father of the late Rev. Thos. H. Stockton, one of the most eminent pulpit orators of his day, and Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives. This pamphlet was published in the interest of the reformers, and soon brought down on their devoted
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
heads, the violent denunciation and abuse of the Bishops and Elders of the Church, which finally resulted in the expulsion of eleven Ministers for advocating the rights of the Laity. Reu- ben T. Boyd was the youngest of the eleven, and many amusing anecdotes are related of the Radicals, as they were called by their former associates. The controversy waxed warm, and shook the government of Methodism to its foundation. But the original eleven were not to be crushed; imbued with the fire and spirit that animated their forefathers, they soon gathered around them a strong following, and banded themselves together under the name of the Associated Methodist Churches, and at the Maryland Annual Conference of Ordained Ministers and Lay Delegates, held in Baltimore, April 5th, 1829, he was ordained for the office of Deacon, and authorized by the said Conference to administer the ordinance of Baptism; to assist the Elder in the administration of the Lord's Supper, to celebrate Marriage, and to preach and expound the Holy Scriptures, so long as his life and doctrine accord with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Signed by Rev. Nicholas Snethen, President, and Luther J. Cox, Secretary.
Their organization rapidly increased, when they gave it the name of the Methodist Protestant Church, and at their Mary- land Annual Conference of Ministers and Delegates, held in the City of Georgetown, District of Columbia, April the 8th, 1832, he was ordained for the office of Elder in the Methodist Pro- testant Church, and authorized by said Conference, so long as his life and doctrine accord with the Holy Scriptures, to admin- ister the Lord's Supper, to Baptize, to celebrate Matrimony, and to feed the flock of God, taking oversight, not as a Lord over God's heritage, but being an example to the flock.
Signed by order and in behalf of the Maryland Annual Con- ference, Rev. Eli Henkle, President, James Hanson, Secretary. Mr. Henkle was the father of the present member of Congress from the Fifth Maryland District.
Their Church membership rapidly spread, and new Confer- ences formed especially in the South and West. Feeling that his sphere of usefulness would be enlarged by removing to the West, he was transferred to the Illinois Conference in 1838, and from there to the Ohio Conference in 1840, where he remained nine years.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
The following certificate recorded in the Court of Common Pleas for Hamilton County, State of Ohio, and signed by Gen- eral Harrison, Clerk of the Court, and afterwards President of the United States, will be of interest, showing as it does that General Harrison, at the time of his election to the Presidency, was Clerk of the Court of Hamilton County, Ohio.
"STATE OF OHIO, HAMILTON COUNTY, SS .:
" Be it known, that on the 28th day of November, in the term of November, A. D. eighteen hundred and forty, of the Court of Common Pleas, within and for said County, Reuben T. Boyd produced to said Court satisfactory evidence and credentials of his being a regular ordained Minister of the Methodist Pro- testant Church, in the Ohio Annual Conference, and now officiat- ing as such on the Cincinnati Circuit. Whereupon the Court grant unto said Reuben T. Boyd, a License, authorizing him to solemnize Marriages throughout said State, agreeably to the requisitions of the Statute of said State, in such case made and provided, so long as he shall continue a regular Minister in said society or congregation.
" By order of Court.
"In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of said County at Cincinnati, this the 28th day of November, A. D. 1840.
"WM. H. HARRISON, CIK. "J. J. SNIDER, Dep."
Endorsed on the back :
" Recorded in the Marriage Records of Logan County, Ohio, on the 4th day of April, 1844.
N. L. MCCOLLOCH, Clerk.
"Entered on the Records in the Clerk's office, Champaign County, March 28th, 1844.
SAMUEL H. ROBBINSON, Clerk.
" Entered on the Records in the Clerk's office, Union County, April 24th, 1844.
JOHN CASSIL, Clerk."
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
He returned to the Maryland Conference in 1849, where he continued an active and efficient Minister, until 1859, when health failing him, he was placed on the the superannuated roll of the Conference. After an active and continuous life of thirty-four years in the Ministry, he was compelled to seek rest, and where should he look for this haven but in his native County, where the scenes of early childhood would recall the happy memories of his youth. He bought property in Clarksburg, and removed his family in 1859, where he lived to enjoy the remaining days of his life in the happy enjoyment of a consciousness of a bright future beyond the grave. He died seated in his easy chair, surrounded by his books and papers, on the 15th of Feb- rnary, 1865, in his seventy-second year. At peace with God and mankind, honored and respected by all, he left behind a record worthy of example. During his life he was a constant and voluminous writer, his publications in the Methodist Protestant and Western Recorder attracting universal attention.
JOHN C. CLARK, the well known Merchant and Banker, was born in Clarksburg, and in early youth removed to Baltimore, and engaged in business with more than ordinary success. Hle was very unfortunate in the death of his children; of a family of nine, all of whom, with one exception, attained adult age, and several married-he had buried all several years before his own death, which occurred in 1867, at the age of seventy-four. After providing well for his grandehildren, all of whom are now living in Baltimore, or its vicinity-and making other bequests, he bequeathed property to the value of half a million of dollars to a Beneficiary Society, which, at his instance, had been incorporated in connection with Saint John's Methodist Protestant Church in Liberty street, Baltimore, which is to occupy a magnificent site on Madison avenue, near the Park.
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