History of Western Maryland, Vol. 4: Carroll & Washington Counties – J. Thomas Scharf
The preparation of “History of Western Maryland”, one of the most voluminous works on the history of that part of the United States, imposed a vast responsibility and an immense amount of labor. In the compilation of this history no authority of importance has been overlooked. The author has carefully examined every source of information open to him, and has availed himself of every fact that could throw new light upon, or impart additional interest to, the subject under consideration. Besides consulting the most reliable records and authorities, over fifteen thousand communications were addressed to persons supposed to be in possession of facts or information calculated to add value to the work. Recourse has not only been had to the valuable libraries of Baltimore, Annapolis, Frederick, and Hagerstown, but the author and his agents have visited personally the entire territory embraced in the six counties of Western Maryland, spending much time in each district, examining ancient newspapers, musty manuscripts, family, church, and society records, conversing with the aged inhabitants, and collecting from them orally many interesting facts never before published, and which otherwise, in all probability, would soon have been lost altogether. In addition to the material partly used in the preparation of his ” Chronicles” and ” History of Baltimore City and County” and ” History of Maryland,” the author has consulted an immense number of pamphlets, consisting of county and town documents, reports of societies, associations, corporations, and historical discourses, and, in short, everything of a fugitive character that might in any way illustrate the history of Western Maryland. Sketches of the rise, progress, and present condition of the various religious denominations, professions, political parties, and charitable and benevolent institutions, societies, and orders form a conspicuous feature of the work. Manufacturing, commercial, and agricultural interests have also a prominent place. An account of the county school system is also given, and a history of the various institutions of learning of which Western Maryland has every reason to be proud. Many of the facts recorded, both statistical and historical, may seem trivial or tediously minute to the general reader, and yet such facts have a local interest and sometimes a real importance. Considerable space has also been given to biographies of leading and representative men, living and dead, who have borne an active part in the various enterprises of life, and who have become closely identified with the history of Frederick, Washington, Montgomery, Allegany, Carroll, and Garrett Counties. The achievements of the living must not be forgotten, nor must the memories of those who have passed away be allowed to perish. It is the imperative duty of the historian to chronicle their public and private efforts to advance the great interests of society. Their deeds are to be recorded for the benefit of those who follow them; they, in fact, form part of the history of their communities, and their successful lives add to the glory of the Commonwealth. A distinguishing feature of the work is its statistics of the various districts into which the six counties of Western Maryland are divided. In them the reader is brought into close relation with every part of Western Maryland. This is volume four out of six, covering Carroll & Washington Counties.
History of Western Maryland, Vol. 4: Carroll & Washington Counties.
Format: eBook.
History of Western Maryland, Vol. 4: Carroll & Washington Counties.
ISBN: 9783849658670.
Excerpt from the text:
The territory embraced within the limits of Carroll County was settled at an early period in the history of Maryland. The first settlers were Scotch-Irish, Germans, and the descendants of the English from Southern Maryland. The Indians, before the advent of the whites, had retired across the South Mountain into the Cumberland Valley. A remnant of the ” Susquehannocks,'” numbering between sixty and seventy, lived within less than a mile of Manchester (then a part of Baltimore County) until 1750 or 1751, and were probably the last aborigines residing in the county. About that period, without any stir or apparent preparation, with the exception of two, they all disappeared in a single night. The exceptions were a chief named Macanappy and his wife, both old and infirm, and they survived the departure of their race but a few days. The similarity of names has given rise to the impression that this tribe found its way to Florida, and that Miconopy, the celebrated chief, who afterwards gave the United States so much trouble, was one of the descendants of the old Indian left to die near Manchester. In the Land Office at Annapolis patents are recorded for land grants in this portion of the State as early as 1727. In that year ” Park Hall,” a tract of land containing two thousand six hundred and eighty acres, was surveyed for James Carroll. This land .was then situated in Prince George’s County, between New Windsor and Sam’s Creek. In 1729 “Kilfadda” was granted to John Tredane, and subsequently sold to Allan Farquhar. It now embraces a part of the town of Union Bridge and the farm of E. J. Penrose. ” Brierwood” was surveyed for Dr. Charles Carroll in 1731. ” White’s Level,” on which the original town of Westminster was built, was granted to John White in 1733. ” Fanny’s Meadow,” embracing the ” West End” of the present town of Westminster, was granted to James Walls in 1741. “Fell’s Retirement,” lying on Pipe Creek, and containing 475 acres, was granted to Edward Fell in 1742. ” Arnold’s Chance,” 600 acres, was granted to Arnold Levers in 1743. ” Brown’s Delight,” 350 acres, situated on Cobb’s Branch, near Westminster, was granted to George Brown in 1743. ” Neighborly Kindness,” 100 acres, to Charles Carroll in 1743. ” Cornwell,” 666 acres, on Little Pipe Creek was patented in 1749, and afterwards purchased by Joseph Haines and his brother. “Terra Rubra” was patented to Philip Key in 1752, for 1865 acres; “Ross’ Range” to John Ross in 1752, for 3400 acres; ” Spring Garden,” on part of which Hempstead is built, to Dunstan Dane in 1748; ” Brothers’ Agreement,” near Taneytown, to Edward Diggs and Raphael Taney in 1754, for 7900 acres; ” Foster’s Hunting Ground” to John Foster, 1439 acres; ” German Church” to Jacob Schilling and others in 1758, for a German Reformed and Lutheran church at Manchester; “Five Daughters” to Carroll’s daughter, 1759, for 1500 acres; “New Market,” on which Manchester is built, to Richard Richards in 1754; ” Rattlesnake Ridge” to Edward Richards in 1738; ” Caledonia” to William Lux and others in 1764, for 11,638 acres; ” Bond’s Meadow” to John Ridgely in 1753, for 1915 acres (Westminster is partly situated on this tract); ” Brother’s Inheritance” to Michael Swope in 1761, for 3124 acres; ” Ohio,” north of Union Mills, to Samuel Owings in 1763, for 9250 acres; ” New Bedford,” near Middlebury, to Daniel McKenzie and John Logsden in 1762, for 5301 acres; ” Gilboa” to Thomas Rutland, 1762, for 2772 acres; ” Runnymeade,” between Uniontown and Taneytown, to Francis Key and Upton Scott in 1767, for 3677 acres; ” Hale’s Venture” to Nicholas Hale in 1770, for 2886 acres; “Windsor Forest” to John Dorsey in 1772, for 2886 acres; ” Rochester” to Charles Carroll of Carrollton in 1773, for 4706 acres; and ” Lookabout,” near Roop’s mill, to Leigh Master in 1774, for 1443 acres.
Among the earliest settlers in this section of Maryland was William Farquhar, whose energy, thrift, and wisdom aided materially in the development of the country. His ancestors emigrated from Scotland to Ireland, where he was born July 29, 1705. When sixteen years of age he left Ireland with his father, Allen Farquhar, and settled in Pennsylvania. Allen Farquhar, as was mentioned above, acquired from John Tredane a large tract of land on Little Pipe Creek; but there is no evidence that he actually resided there. In 1735 he conveyed this tract, known as ” Kilfadda,” to his son William, one of the conditions of the gift being that he should remove from Pennsylvania to ” ye” province of Maryland. In compliance with the terms of the deed, William Farquhar, with his wife Add, came to Maryland and entered into possession of his estate. The country was then a wilderness and destitute of roads, except such paths as were made by wild beasts and Indians, and no little intrepidity was required for such a journey, clogged with a helpless family. Farquhar had learned the trade of a tailor, and by his skill and industry in making buckskin breeches, the garments then most in vogue, he prospered. He invested his savings in land, and in 1768 he was the possessor of two thousand acres, in which was included ail the ground upon which the present town of Union Bridge is built. He was a counselor and peace-maker, and it is related of him that upon one occasion he rode home in the evening and found his house surrounded with emigrant-wagons belonging to settlers who had been driven from their homes by the Indians and had fled to him for protection. They had their stock and movable property with them, and were afraid to go back to their lands. Farquhar visited the Indians and soon pacified them, and the settlers returned to their homes and were never afterwards molested. Between the years 1730 and 1740 great advances were made in the settlement of what is now known as Carroll County. ” The Marsh Creek settlement,” in the western section of York County, Pa., including the region around Gettysburg, composed almost exclusively of Scotch-Irish, furnished a number of industrious and enterprising immigrants, and Hanover and Conewago, in the same county, settled entirely by Germans, provided a large contingent. The latter located principally in the Manchester and Myers Districts, where many of their descendants now live.
Many were attracted thither also from St. Mary’s, Prince George’s, Anne Arundel, and Baltimore Counties, on the Western Shore of Maryland. The dispute concerning the boundary line between the provinces of Pennsylvania and Maryland was a fruitful source of trouble to those who possessed interests in the debatable ground. A strip of land six or eight miles wide was claimed both by the province of Pennsylvania and the proprietary of Maryland. John Digges obtained a Maryland grant of six thousand eight hundred acres in the vicinity of Hanover, and Charles Carroll procured a similar grant in the neighborhood of Fairfield or Millerstown, and the latter now goes by the name of the Carroll Tract. Hanover, at that time known as McAllisterstown, or Kallisterstown, was within the disputed territory, and became a refuge for disorderly characters, and hence was called ” Rogues’ Harbor.”
This vexatious boundary question, which had agitated the two colonies since the arrival of William Penn in America in 1682, was decided, as we have shown elsewhere, in favor of the province of Pennsylvania in 1709 by Mason and Dixon, two surveyors sent out from London for that purpose, and Mason and Dixon’s line has ever since remained the unquestioned boundary between the two commonwealths. The dispute having reached a definite conclusion, an impetus was given to development. Settlers multiplied, the country was cleared up, and convenient farm-buildings were erected. The inhabitants soon learned to appreciate the fine water-powers so abundant in this portion of Maryland, and in 1760 David Shriver, the grandfather of the older members of the family of that name now living in Western Maryland, purchased a tract of land on Little Pipe Creek and erected a mill and tannery. Mr. Shriver was a prominent and useful citizen. He represented Frederick County in the convention called in 1776 to frame a constitution for the State of Maryland, and for a number of years he was the representative of that county in the Senate and House of Delegates. In May, 1765, a bateau loaded with iron was successfully navigated from the Hampton furnace on Pipe Creek to the mouth of the Monocacy River, in Frederick County. There is no record of the establishment of this furnace, but that it must have been in operation for some time prior to the date given above is evident from the advertisement which appeared May 28, 1767, in which Benedict Calvert, Edward Digges, Normand Bruce, William Digges, Jr., and James Canady offer for sale the ” Hampton Furnace, in Frederick County, together with upwards of three thousand acres of land. The furnace (with casting-bellows) and bridge-houses were built of stone, also grist-mill and two stores, the whole situated on a branch of Monocacy River.”
The entire stock of negroes, servants, horses, wagons, and implements belonging to the works were offered for sale. There was on hand at the time coal for six months, fourteen hundred cords of wood, five hundred tons of ore at the side of the furnace and four hundred tons raised at the banks. The advertisement concludes with the announcement that Normand Bruce lived near the works.
Solomon Shepherd, grandfather of Thomas, Solomon, and James F. Shepherd, married Susanna Farquhar, the youngest child of William Farquhar, Oct. 27, 1779, and settled on a portion of the Farquhar estate, about three-quarters of a mile east of Union Bridge. Mr. Shepherd was a wool-comber and fuller, and established a fulling-mill where the factory now stands. For some time after the construction of his mill he was without a house of his own, and boarded with his father-in-law, at some distance down Pipe’s Creek; and it is related of him that in walking back and forth along the banks of the stream from the mill to the house at night he was wont to burn the ends of a bunch of hickory sticks before he would set out on his hazardous journey, and when the wolves (which were savage and ravenous) approached too near he would whirl his firebrand about him to drive them away. He afterwards moved into a log house, which is still standing, and in 1790 built the brick house in which Shepherd Wood now resides. The latter was at that time considered a palatial extravagance, and the neighbors dubbed it ” Solomon’s Folly.” In 1810 he built the present factory, and put in carding and spinning-machines and looms for the manufacture of cloths, blankets, and other fabrics. In 1815 he purchased land of Peter Benedune, and removed to the place now owned and occupied by E. G. Penrose, where he lived until his death in 1881:.
In 1783, David Rhinehart and Martin Wolfe walked from Lancaster County, Pa., to Sam’s Creek, where they purchased a tract of land and soon afterwards settled on it. Wolfe was the grandfather of Joseph, Samuel, and Daniel Wolfe. He was somewhat eccentric after a very unusual fashion, and is said to have been unwilling to dispose of property for a price which he believed to exceed its real value. David Rhinehart was the grandfather of David, Daniel, William H., E. Thomas, J. C, and E. F. Rhinehart. William H. Rhinehart, the great American sculptor, received his first lessons on the farm now owned and occupied by Daniel Rhinehart, twelve miles southeast of Union Bridge.
Joel Wright, of Pennsylvania, married Elizabeth Farquhar, daughter of William Farquhar, and settled on a part of the land acquired by his father-in-law. He was a surveyor and school-teacher, and superintended a school under the care of Pipe Creek Monthly Meeting, at that time one of the best educational institutions in the State. His pupils came from all parts of the surrounding country, and many were sent to him from Frederick City and its vicinity. It was common in those days for ladies to make long journeys on horseback to attend religious meetings or to visit friends. Mrs. Wright traveled in this way to Brownsville, then called ” Red Stone,” in Pennsylvania, to attend meeting and to visit her relatives. She brought back with her, on her return, two small sugar-trees and planted them, and from these have sprung the many beautiful shade-trees of that species which adorn the vicinity of Union Bridge.
Francis Scott Key, whose name the ” Star-Spangled Banner” has made immortal, was born at Terra Rubra, near the Monocacy, in what is now the Middleburg District of Carroll County, Aug. 9, 1780. In his day he was well known as an able lawyer and Christian gentleman, but with the lapse of time his reputation as a poet has overshadowed his n)any other excellent qualities.
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