#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 3 Long Line: The Weems Steamship Line

The Weems family of Anne Arundel County MD has a long history of seafaring. David Weems (my 9X great-grandfather), son of the immigrant David Weems and brother of Parson Weems, George Washington's famous biographer,  was a sailor as was his brother William.  His slaves built a sailing vessel which he used to cross the Atlantic to England, returning with rare and beautiful treasures from his voyages. Along with Thomas Morton, he owned Weems and Morton, a trading and shipping firm located at Pigg Point on the Patuxent, now Bristol Landing.

Not surprising then, that his son, George Weems, born at the family home of Marshes (or Marshall) Seat in 1784, inherited a love of the sea.  As a young man, George sailed with Captain James Norman to the East Indies.  When Captain Norman died during the voyage, George was put in command and brought the ship safely back to Baltimore.  He subsequently travelled the world and during the War of 1812, he outfitted a sloop for privateering and was taken prisoner.

Captain Weems married Sarah Sutton in 1808 at Old St. Paul's Church in Baltimore.  They had a daughter Margaret and five sons, three of whom followed their father to a sailor's life.

By 1817, George Weems was intrigued with the possibility of steamboat travel and chartered the steamboat Surprise to travel along the western shore of the Chesapeake and to the Patuxent, Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers. Four years later, he purchased his own steamship, the Eagle, and almost ended his career before it really began.  A boiler explosion in 1824, wrecked the steamer, killed a passenger and injured Captain Weems so badly that doctors wanted to amputate both his legs.  Fortunately, Weems' family was able to nurse him back to health and save his legs. That passenger death was the only one recorded in the history of the line.

By 1827, Captain Weems had prospered to the point that he established his own company, the Weems Line, later known as the Weems Steamship Company. The Patuxent, completed in 1828, was the first of thirteen steamers built expressly for Weems and the first to claim the proud distinction of being built in Baltimore. Her route began in Baltimore, stopped at Herring Bay in Anne Arundel County and then went on to Fredericksburg VA on the Rappahannock.  The Patuxent was at the time regarded as a floating palace with comfortable equipment and a bounteous cuisine. The Weems Line always prided itself on having the very latest in nautical equipment and a high standard for its dining table. Captain Weems and his successors further developed the Chesapeake trade by building wharves along the river and thus creating convenient avenues of commerce for farmers and traders.  The Weems boats eventually became official carriers of US Mail as the fastest way to transmit letters to coastal points.

Captain George Weems died at his home in Fairhaven, Anne Arundel County in 1853.  By the time of his death, Weems had given the management of the company to his four sons: George Weems Jr., Mason Loch Weems, Theodore Weems, and Gustavus Weems.   Three of his sons--George Weems Jr., Mason Loch Weems and Theodore Weems--each eventually captained his own ship for the line.

During the Civil War, the Weems ships were seized by the government and used as transports, but after the war, they resumed their usual routes. Mason Loch Weems, the last surviving son, developed his father's property, Fairhaven, as a well-known excursion resort for Baltimoreans who wanted to get out of the city for a relaxing day in the country.

In 1874, at the death of Mason Loch Weems, his two daughters--Georgianna Weems Williams and Matilda Weems Forbes--bought out the rest of the family's interest and became the sole owners of the Weems Line. Georgianna's husband, Henry Williams, became the president of the company.

By 1895, the Weems Line had consolidated its pre-eminence by buying out most of its competition on the Patuxent, Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers. The Weems steamers with their distinctive stack marking of a red ball with the letter W dominated the trade until in 1905, the company was sold to the Maryland, Virginia and Delaware Railway Company and steam ships gave way to railroads as the transportation backbone of the middle Atlantic. At the time of its sale, the Weems Line employed 600 people and had a fleet of ten ships, all named for counties in Maryland and Virginia.

#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 2 Favorite Photo: William Boswell Scrivener

This photo of William Boswell Scrivener and his son, my great-grandfather, Frank Phillip Scrivener, is one of my favorites because it is one of the oldest photos I have.  Frank was born in 1864 and looks to be about 6 in this picture, so I date the picture at about 1870.

William Boswell Scrivener, the fifth of twelve children and the third son of John Scrivener and Eliza Smith Boswell, was born in the town of Friendship, Anne Arundel County MD in 1828.  I think he was named for Eliza's brother, William Henry Smith Boswell.

William inherited a farm and seven slaves from the will of his father in 1849.  In 1855, he added to his holdings by purchasing Holly Hill, a plantation near Friendship, from his brother-in-law, John Howe Somervell who had run into financial difficulties. In all, he had about 600 acres of farm land in southern Anne Arundel County.

In 1856 he married Sally Jane Barber, at Silverstone, the home of her parents, Jonathan Yates Barber and Mary Wheeler Kent, in Calvert County. William and Sally had ten children between 1857 and 1877, five sons and five daughters.  The children were all born and raised at the family home, which they called Rose Valley (AKA Holly Hill).

William was a tobacco farmer and active in the community, serving as a trustee of the primary school in Friendship in 1869, and advocating in 1880 for the county to support a railroad line between Baltimore and Drum Point.

William Boswell Scrivener died after a fall from a horse in July of 1895 at age 67.  While he had at one time owned considerable land and many slaves, the inventory of his estate shows a modest lifestyle of a tobacco farmer with horses, cows, oxen and hogs along with wood stoves and oil lamps and simple furnishings. After William's death, much of his land and farm animals were sold by his sons although the family continued to live at Rose Valley until 1936. Sally Barber Scrivener died in Baltimore in 1911.

Frank Scrivener, like his brothers and sisters, was baptized at All Saints Episcopal Church in Sunderland, just over the Calvert County border near Friendship.  His Barber grandparents were his baptismal sponsors.  He was educated at the local public schools and since there was no high school in Anne Arundel County at the time, he attended Glenwood Academy in Howard County.  About 1896, he moved to Baltimore where obtained work as a bookkeeper and accountant.

In Baltimore, he met Louise Gwynn, the daughter of  Confederate Captain, Andrew Jackson Gwynn, who was attending Mt. Saint Agnes College.  They married in 1899 and had one son, Frank Phillip Scrivener Jr., in August 1900.

Frank died in Upper Marlboro, where he and his wife had moved after his retirement, in May 1939, at age 75.

#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 1 Fresh Start: The Redemption of Hinton P. Wright

Hinton P. Wright seemed to have everything going for him. Born in 1849 in Franklin County GA, he was the eldest son of a prominent lawyer (later Judge), William Felix Wright and his wife Elizabeth Caroline Dent.  His maternal grandfather was a well-known member of Congress from Georgia, William Barton Wade Dent, who helped found the city of Newnan GA where Hinton grew up. Hinton's name was the family name of William BW Dent's wife, Sarah Hinton.  (I never have found out what the P. stands for!) Hinton went into the law profession himself and was regarded as a talented legal mind as well as an exceptionally handsome man.

Unfortunately, Hinton also had a temper and a seeming proclivity for using his considerable talents in his own self-interest rather than his clients.

In 1869, he was courting Marie Louise Robinson, the beautiful young daughter of John Evans Robinson.  Her family opposed the marriage, and her brother Edward challenged Hinton to a duel one morning outside of the Baptist Church in Newnan.  Hinton shot Edward dead, was arrested, but managed to escape custody.  Eventually, Hinton was acquitted, the young couple eloped and were married in March 1870, and had two children: Ida Dent Wright in 1871 and Albert Spaulding Wright in 1873.

The Atlanta city directories from 1872 to 1888 show Hinton practicing law with various partners, including, at one point, with his father. In 1876, Hinton was a magistrate, a low-level judge.  Even after his death, other lawyers told admiring stories about his courtroom exploits and clever legal maneuvers.

In 1879, however, Hinton was involved in a bribery scandal that got national attention. The Comptroller-General of Georgia was impeached for stealing public funds and apparently used Wright to bribe two members of the legislature to vouch for his innocence. After this scandal, Wright went rapidly downhill. As his obituary noted, "the handsome, well-dressed lawyer became a seedy drunk and a pitiful wreck." "His name became a proverb for debauchery."

Marie Robinson Wright divorced Hinton in 1886 and she went on to become a renowned writer for the New York World, a contemporary of Nellie Bly, famous for her explorations of Central and South America.

The divorce apparently spurred Wright on to reform.  In 1887, he spoke at a meeting of the Young Men's Prohibition Club declaring that he had stopped drinking, regained his health and was all in on the cause of prohibition. (Atlanta Constitution, 4 November 1887.)  He married for a second time in 1888 to May Bowen and had a daughter Lucille with her. Hinton left Atlanta for Chattanooga with his wife and daughter and was initially well-received there, according to the local paper, because of his seemingly excellent credentials and his imposing physical appearance:

"He had a large massive form, weighed nearly 220 pounds and was nearly six feet tall. His smooth-shaven face was lighted up by a pair of bright, intelligent black eyes and his head was covered with a heavy mass of black hair that had a decided tendency to curl. He was apparently about 40 years old and was a suave, chatty, and not uninteresting conversationalist."  (Chattanooga Daily Times, 24 November 1889)

But, alas, Wright swindled his landlady and several other citizens and fled the city.  He was arrested in Atlanta, Chattanooga, Birmingham and elsewhere on various criminal charges. By 1889, the newspaper reported that he weighed nearly 300 pounds and was no longer practicing law. .

Hinton Wright's redemption came late in his life.  A friend induced him to attend a tent revival outside Atlanta, suggesting that the alternative was commitment to an asylum because he was in such bad shape.  Wright's agreed to attend the revival and his conversion there became the talk of the town.  He vowed to become an evangelist himself and began preaching against the evils of drink.  "I know," he said, "that if I serve God half as well as I have served the devil, I will be successful as a Christian." As one newspaper noted, "Wright is a man of great natural ability . . . and it is predicted that he will be a singularly successful evangelist." (Memphis Appeal-Avalanche, 10 May 1891)

Wright returned to the practice of law and spent the next year or so preaching revivals, exhorting others to avoid the "rocks and quicksand" that he encountered in his own checkered career. In his obituary, the Atlanta Constitution reported that he was often seen at the police station trying to help some poor fellow out of trouble.  That became his religion: aiding others.

He died in August 1892 at Marietta GA.  As the Constitution dramatically reported: "Just as a new life of usefulness and honor was spreading before him beauteous with promise, Hinton Wright was touched by the chill finger of death and his career was abruptly ended."

#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 46 Poor Man: William Weems and the Wheel of Fortune

David and William Weems, the sons of David Weems the Immigrant (and my 7th great-grandfather) and his second wife, Esther Hill, were both born in Anne Arundel County MD at their father's estate, Marshes Seat.  They were the older brothers of Parson Mason Loch Weems, the legendary biographer of George Washington. The Weems brothers experienced both riches and poverty, but their responses to the vicissitudes of life were quite different.

David Weems, born in 1851, was the 14th child of his father and the 5th to be named David, the other four Davids having died in infancy. In 1777, he married Margaret Harrison, the daughter of Richard Harrison and Rachel Smith. David and Margaret were the parents of seven children: David, Gustavus, Rachel, Sydney, George, Theodore and Mason. The family lived at Marshes Seat, which David inherited from his father.

In addition to farming, David made a living as a merchant mariner. Before the advent of steam power, David Weems and his slaves constructed a sailing vessel, upon which he crossed the ocean to England, returning with rare and beautiful treasures and towing in the wake of the vessel a great mahogany log, which he had found adrift in mid-ocean.  The log was afterward converted to a carved mahogany table which is still in the possession of his descendants.  He also brought to Maryland a silver flagon, which is also included among the family heirlooms.

This love of the sea and seafaring adventure was passed along to David's son George, who was the founder of the Weems Steamship line.

David's brother, William, born in 1758, was also a sailor, captaining the ship Nantes on trans-Atlantic voyages and running a privateer operation with his brother's sloop "Little Sam" during the Revolutionary War. Captain Weems married three times, each time to a wealthy woman.  In 1784, he married British heiress, Rachel Morris, with whom he had three children: William Morris Weems, Captain Elijah Weems, and Sophia Morris Weems.  At the time of his marriage, he also purchased 350 acres of Maidstone in Anne Arundel County. He married secondly Ann Ewell, the daughter of wealthy Virginia planter James Ewell, and had two children with her: Mariamne Ewell Weems and James Ewell Weems.  He married thirdly Sally Taylor of Virginia and had two children with her: David Loch Weems and Anne Weems.

However, David experienced a number of financial setbacks and borrowed money from his brother William. Eventually the two brothers settled the matter in a chancery suit in 1815, shortly before William's death.

Now this may sound like a nice story of brotherly love, but according to David's son Gustavus, that would be an incorrect interpretation.

Gustavus's autobiography paints a very different picture of an uncle who loved to rub in his wealth on his poorer relations:

"I cannot forget a rich and pompous Unkle I had, whose children grew up with us, and very often both parent and children would be boasting of there wealth, and poore Bro. Davey's children's poverty. Dear God Child was my Unkle's hobbey word, and he had a way of coming into our rooms after we had gone to bed, to unbutton his Dear childrens shirt collars, and all the time he would be pitteying us, and entalling his dear children by saying-Dear God child, my children are well provided for, but Poore David's children, I don't know what will become of them, poore things, in this way night after night, frequently bringing tears out of our eyes, in hearing our destiny so bad, (recollect we all roomed together). "

According to Gustavus, William came to a very unhappy end, committing suicide with laudanum, bankrupt after having gone through all his money.

"But oh me what an awful change a few years brings about-The wheel of fortune is ever in motion-rolling some up, and others down-Now it will appear Exceedingly strange, but nevertheless as true as preaching-Not one of those lazy Harrisons, and the Bragging Weems's are to be found upon the face of the wide Earth and not one foot of there land owned by them, all gone out of there names, cliff and clear-Three of Bro David's poore children are no more, in Heaven I hope.

For at that time he had lost his first and best wife and had married the second, a Miss Ewell, and carrying on as if there were no end to the rope, or in other words, he could not find the bottom of his purse, and this was apart of the $43,000 got by Miss Morris, the first wife, and here let me mention a little incident that happened with him and myself. My father had told me to pay him I think $40.00 and knowing he would be at Friendship Meeting House, so I took the money with me, and offered it to him there, but lo and behold he was too good to receive it-in this he was right, (and I wrong) but oh my God, I awfully fear he was not in as good mind and feelings, the awfull day he took the dose of Laudanum that took his life. 

Now this was the awfull end of my Dear Unkle, that had so much pitteyed Poore Brother David's children, my poore Dear Unkle then a bankrupt after having buried three Wives and sinking all their estates, so much then for Extravagance and bringing up the children with great views and promises, Parents and the children die poor, and I would pray God that they may be better off in another world."

After William's death, his estate at Maidstone was sold to pay his debts. 

Gustavus's daughter Rachel reports that William's daughter Mariamne "married George Simmons. He drank and left her so poor that once we stopped at her miserable hovel with a dirt floor on the roadside. Father did everything he could to help him along and always cared for the poor orphans and loved them all the same."

William's youngest son David Loch, was apprenticed to a sailmaker and eventually moved to Connecticut with his sister Anne.

Gustavus's father David, on the other hand, died venerated and respected, as Gustavus writes in the family Bible (the spelling is the original):

"The last respect of my ever respected and Dear Parrent to be inroled in this Bible. On the 22 Day of January 1820 Departed this Life David Weems, Father of the before mentioned seven Children aged 68 5/12 years. He was confined to his room and Bed upwards of two months during which time he with perfect resignation bore the chastising hand of Affliction with intire submition sustained by Divine providence he was prepared and resigned to his will. In this happy state of mind he left those mondain shores of anxiety & care with a full asshureance of Blissful Eternity praising Jesus in his last expiring moments. But a few moments before the Spririt made its escape or flight with perfect composure he called his Children to his bedside, then and there admonished them to live peaceabilly & happily together, this promise being made he calmly took his leave and fell asleep in the Armes of Sweet Jesus. The next day his funeral sermon was delivered by the Revd. Mr. Lewis Stratton in St. James Parish (a privilege denied my mother) to a very large and attentive audience, from these words (Acquaint now thyself with him and be in peace thereby good shall come unto thee, this text will be found in Job 22, after which his remains were deposited in the Churchyard to mingle with its Mother earth."