#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 31 Help: Andrew Jackson Gwynn at the Battle of Gettysburg

 I have known for some time that my 2X-great-grandfather, Andrew Jackson Gwynn, served in the Confederate army during the Civil War, but I had not filled in the details of his service, so I am taking the opportunity to do that now.

Andrew Jackson Gwynn, the son of John Hilleary Gwynn and Ann Eliza Dyer, was born in Piscataway, Prince George's County MD, 24 November 1836, the youngest of their eight children. The family property was known as Pleasant Springs. According to AJ's daughter, Effie Gwynn Bowie, it was a large two-story and attic house with piazza's latticed at the ends and covered with running roses. John Hilleary Gwynn was a slaveholder; the 1850 Census shows 18 enslaved people on his property. 

When John Hilleary Gwynn died in 1857, he left the Pleasant Springs house to his son Andrew, with the proviso that his two widowed daughters, Margaret Emily Edelen and Susan Heiskell, as well as his single daughter, Ann Eliza Gwynn, should continue to live at the family home. 

The map below shows the Piscataway area about 1861.  Several Gwynn properties are identified as well as the local Catholic Church.  The Gwynns were devout Catholics and John H. left money in his will for a pew at St. Mary's in Piscataway. 

In the 1860 Census, Andrew, age 25, has his sister Susan, his nephew Willie Heiskell, and his sister Ann in his household. Unfortunately, Andrew did not long enjoy the Pleasant Springs home. Shortly after this census, Pleasant Springs burned down, supposedly set on fire by a disgruntled servant who had been bribed by a Union officer to do it. (This according to Effie Gwynn Bowie, that fount of family history and gossip.) Aunt Effie tells us that a Confederate spy had been found in the house, but escaped the Union soldiers, who, in turn, burned down the house in revenge using that servant, who supposedly confessed to the crime on her deathbed. 

In any case, the house was destroyed by fire about 1862.  Susan Gwynn Heiskell built a small house on the estate and lived there until her death.  Ann Eliza Gwynn entered the Sisters of Mercy convent in Baltimore, becoming Sister Mary Augusta. Margaret Gwynn Edelen moved to Baltimore where she lived with her widowed sister Celestia Gwynn Belt. I have told their stories elsewhere. 

So, with his inheritance pretty much destroyed, AJ decided to join the Confederate Army.  Maryland being officially a Union state, he headed for Richmond VA where he enlisted as a private in the 2nd Maryland Infantry on August 26, 1862. (Even though they were in Virginia, the members of this battalion were Marylanders.) By October 1862, he had been promoted to Captain. 

I have no letters or diaries or other documents from Grandfather Gwynn that explain his feelings about the war or his decision to fight for the Confederacy.  Certainly, many other Maryland young men took the same path, including my 2X-great-grandfather, John Marshall Dent.  But I have to think that if the story of the Pleasant Springs fire is true, that may have influenced his decision along with any other factors. 

The 2nd Maryland Infantry was assigned to General George Hume Steuart, and spent the winter of 1862-63 in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, without seeing much action. Few of the men were equipped with tents and according to Captain Goldsborough, who chronicled the history of this battalion, "it was no unusual thing to see several hundred men arise from a covering of a foot of snow that had fallen during the night." 

In the summer of 1863, the battalion was joined up to General Richard Ewell's 2nd Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia and began to advance into Maryland. The Marylanders were apparently jubilant to be returning to their home soil.  General Steuart is said to have jumped down from his horse, kissed the ground and began whistling Maryland, My Maryland.

 "We loved Maryland, we felt that she was in bondage against her will, and we burned with desire to have a part in liberating her."--General Steuart

In June 1863, 2nd MD fought fairly successfully at Winchester VA before heading north to Gettysburg PA, arriving late in the afternoon of July 1. They took a position at the far edge of the Confederate left at the foot of Culp's Hill, exhausted after a 130-mile forced march. 

On July 2, the Confederate troops attacked the hill and were able to hold the lower part until the next day, when they saw the full strength of the Union position.  Union artillery cut down the Confederate troops in an area referred to as "the slaughter pen," the casualties being so severe that General Steuart is said to have broken down and wept at the losses. Steuart's brigade lost between a half and two thirds of its men.  Andrew Jackson Gwynn was wounded in this battle, a bayonet wound through the thigh, and carried the physical scars for the rest of his life. 

According to his military records, Captain Gwynn fought in several other battles after Gettysburg and was wounded several more times. He stayed with the Army through the end of the War, being paroled in Greensboro NC in April 1865. 

After the War, AJ Gwynn married Marie Louise Keene, the daughter of Benjamin Gaither Keene of Dorchester County MD.  They were married at the Basilica of the Assumption in Baltimore MD on January 8, 1868. I believe the picture at the right is their wedding picture.

AJ Gwynn worked as a travelling salesman for a New York import house. The couple made their home first in Baltimore and for a time in Brooklyn NY (where my great-grandmother was born), but eventually they settled their family in Spartanburg SC where they raised their six children. Captain Gwynn was a leader in the social and commercial life of that community, at one time serving on the City Council. He and his wife were largely responsible for building a Catholic Church in Spartanburg. 

He died in Spartanburg in August 1908 and is buried there next to Marie Louise, who died in 1913. 

#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 18 Social: Finding John among the Woods with help from his FAN Club

 As you might expect, there were a lot of men named John Wood in Anne Arundel County MD during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  It is not an uncommon name. In fact, I have already researched a couple of men of that name in previous family history studies.  While I was studying the relationships among the men in Captain Thomas Simmons' company of the Maryland Militia in the War of 1812, I came upon yet another John Wood and wanted to see if he was related to the others I had already researched, or if not, what were his family origins. In order to track him down, I had to explore a lot of his social connections, or his FAN (Friends, Associates and Neighbors) Club. 

John Wood served in Captain Simmons' company in Anne Arundel County in 1813 and 1814.  His widow, Sarah E. Wood, filed an application for bounty land in December of 1850 which provided some basic information, including the fact that he had fought at the Battle of Baltimore (Fort McHenry). 

She also stated that John had died at his home in Friendship on the 10th of January 1849, and that she had married John on the 23rd of July 1846. She stated that her former name was Sarah Drury. James W. Allen and Robert Plummer supported her application. I was able to find her signature in the court suit settling her husband's estate.

In 1878, Sarah came back to apply again and provided more information, including the fact that both she and John had been married before.  She was the widow of Richard Drury, who died in 1841. Also, her first cousin Richard P. Jackson and her niece Mary Sophia Jackson attested to her application. 

Using these clues, I was able to identify John's second wife as Sarah Ellen Ward, the daughter of William Ward and Sarah Plummer, born in Anne Arundel County MD in 1813, died 1881. 

I found a memorial for a John Wood in the Wood Family Cemetery in Jewell, Anne Arundel County.  This man was born 30 January 1794, which put him the right age range to serve in the War of 1812.  The gravestone was broken and only a partial date was listed--10 January.  But this did match the date that Sarah had given for her husband's death.  

In the same Wood Family Cemetery, were four more burials:

My Ellen, born 28 January 1798, died 21 June 1845. ELW

Ellen L. wife of James W. Allen, born 17 May 1829, died 13 November 1850

Matilda J. Plummer, died 3 July 1853

Robert Plummer, died 21 January 1853. 

Since James W. Allen and Robert Plummer had supported Sarah's first pension application, this John Wood seemed pretty promising as the man I was looking for. There was at least some connection among the men.

Next, I looked at marriage records in Anne Arundel County MD and found a marriage for John Wood and Eleanor L. Simmons 21 January 1818.  Right initials and right time frame to be "My Ellen" buried in the cemetery above. And also to allow for John's second marriage in 1846.

In the 1840 Census of Anne Arundel County, 1st District, John Wood appears age 40-49, with 1 M under 5, 2 M 10-14, 1 F 40-49 (presumably Ellen), 2 F 10-14, and 1 F 15-19. There is another John Wood in the 2nd district, but I believe this man in the 1st District is the John I am interested in, looking at the make-up of his family and his neighbors in the census.  

I also knew from my research on Thomas T. Simmons that he named a daughter Eleanor Wood in his 1832 will.  So, I suspected that John Wood was Thomas Simmons' son-in-law.  I also did some research on James W. Allen and Robert Plummer, both of whom married Wood women.  James W. Allen married Ellen Lois Wood in 1848.  Robert Plummer married Mary Jane Wood in 1850.  So, they were likely John Wood's sons-in-law. 

I was also able to find two cases in Chancery Court at the Maryland State Archives that involved John Wood.  One in 1847 involved the estate of Joseph G. Harrison, for whom John Wood was the executor. This case included Samuel W. Thomas, Matilda B. Harrison, Thomas L. Simmons, Susan Simmons and Kinsey Johns. (The two Simmons were children of Captain Thomas and the niece and nephew of Joseph Harrison.) I was able to find John Wood's signature among the court records of this case.

Another one in 1849 involved the settlement of John's own estate and included Susan A. Wood, Emory Wood, Robert Plummer, Mary Jane Plummer, Sarah E. Wood, James Allen, and Ellen Lois Allen and several pieces of property that John Wood owned. Lucky for me, the court suit spelled out the relationships among these folks and confirmed James and Robert as John's sons-in-law. Robert Plummer also served as the administrator of John's estate, completing an inventory of $2006 in February 1849.

So now I had this family picture:

John Wood, born 1794. Married 1st Eleanor Simmons 1818. Daughters: Susan, Ellen and Mary Jane. Son Emory. Married second Sarah Ward Drury 1846. Died 1849.

Now, could I place John Wood with his parents? I had one clue.  Joseph G. Harrison's wife, as shown in the court case above, was Matilda B. Wood whom he married in 1816. Was she related to John?

Fortunately for me, Matilda B. Wood showed up in another document in Anne Arundel County (Thank goodness for her slightly unusual name.  If she were named Mary Wood, I might never have found her.) The 1801 will of John Jones Wood names his wife Barbara, his son Samuel, his son John and his daughter, Matilda Burgess Wood.  

"I give and bequeath unto my beloved son John Wood my dwelling plantation whereon I now live being part of the tract or parcel of land called and known by the name of Burkhead's Lot containing by Deed to me 95 acres more or less together with all and singular the improvements appertaining thereunto to him and his Heirs forever, also my best feather bed and furniture - but if he my son John Wood die before he come to the age of 21 years then my land as above devised to him and the bed to desend to my daughter Matilda Burgess Wood & her heirs forever." 

Here, I had to go to the land records.  John Wood, the son of John Jones Wood, inherited a piece of property from his father: Birkhead's Lot.  John Wood had purchased Birkhead's Lot from Samuel Maynard in 1778. The plat of the property is shown below. (My plat is slightly off, since the acreage does not match John’s description, but it is pretty close.)

It is located in the Lyons Creek district, near the town of Friendship in southern Anne Arundel County, the area where John Wood, Thomas Simmons, and Joseph Harrison lived.  The main road mentioned in the plat is the road going through Friendship, although the town did not exist in 1778.

The Chancery case I mentioned above shows Birkhead's Lot as one of the properties that was distributed in John Wood's estate in 1849.  His heirs sold the property in 1855.  So, John Wood who died in 1849 is the son of John Jones Wood and Barbara Burgess and the brother of Matilda Burgess Wood and brother-in-law of Joseph G. Harrison. Matilda confirms this relationship in one of the court documents.

(And just for fun: Joseph G. Harrison was also the brother-in-law of Captain Thomas Tillard Simmons, who married as his second wife Ann V. Harrison.) 

I have not yet been able to go back another generation for John Jones Wood, but I'm still working on it, especially that great clue in his middle name. So far, he does not seem to be related to the other John Woods that I have previously researched, but maybe I just haven't gotten back far enough.

To me, this confirms again the value of doing cluster research.  I would not have been able to place this John Wood without researching his associates and neighbors through cemeteries, church records, deeds, wills, and court cases. 

To summarize:

John Wood, the son of John Jones Wood and Barbara Burgess, was born in Anne Arundel County MD, 30 January 1794.  He married in 1818 Eleanor Lyles Simmons, the daughter of Thomas Tillard Simmons and his first wife, Elizabeth Lyles.  John and Ellen had three daughters and a son: (although the gaps and the 1840 census suggest that there could have been other children who died young)

*Mary Jane 1819 m. Robert Burgess Plummer

*Susan Alverda 1826 m. Mordecai Plummer

*Ellen Lois 1829 m. James W. Allen (who was the grandson of Barbara Burgess Wood by her first marriage to Adam Allen, just to keep things in the family) 

*Emory 1836, still alive in 1850

John Wood served with Thomas T. Simmons, Joseph G. Harrison, John Scrivener, and many others during the War of 1812. 

He died at his home near Friendship (Birkhead's Lot) in January 1849. 

#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 4 Curious: Al the Cat

I am reminded by the little fur ball in my lap that not all of our important family members are human.  So this week, I'm writing about my faithful (and curious) companion, Al the cat.

Sam checking out snow

Before Al came into my life, I had another cat named Sam, a girl despite her name.  Sam was a gift to me from my sister-in-law's litter of kittens. Sam lived with me in Maryland and more or less patiently endured moves to Virginia and the long drive to Connecticut. When Sam died, I was devastated and didn't really have the desire to get another cat. 

But the universe had other ideas, and another cat found me anyway.  Literally, she found me.  One morning while I was living in Boston in 2009, a scraggly little gray kitten showed up on my doorstep, flea-bitten and starving.  I could not turn her away.  I put some tuna out for her, and she returned the next day. Eventually, I just took her into the house and adopted her, took her to the vet, got her shots, etc. I named her Al, short for Alley Cat. This picture shows her as a kitten napping in one of her favorite spots. A spot she has claimed in every new home since.

Since then, I have spent many happy hours with Al on my lap, reading, watching TV, and during the pandemic, even attending virtual church with me. She is definitely a snuggler. She also likes to sleep on top of me or burrowed under the covers next to me.  

Al is not a big talker, but she is an excellent listener, and she doesn't even snore too much when she listens.  I have perfected my napping technique under Al's expert tutelage. Our Motto: There's a Nap for That.

But it's not all about napping.  Al is also an interested participant in my other activities. Like all cats, she loves to work on the computer, particularly when I have a tight deadline for a project. 

Naturally, Al was a huge help when I had to pack up and move from Boston back to Maryland. She is always available to guard my luggage whenever I get ready to travel and occasionally tries to hide in the suitcase so she can travel with me. 

 

Al has an artistic side and generously supervises my artwork, offering many helpful suggestions.

She is also adept at puzzles and helpfully hides key pieces to make sure I don't solve the puzzle too quickly, thus prolonging the enjoyment of the activity.

The one flaw in Al's character is that she is jealous, particularly of children.  She can accommodate my adult visitors, (except for the cleaners with their ferocious vacuum) but when my grandchildren come over, she will hiss at them to try to make them go away.  She can't stand it that I pay so much attention to them, even though I try not to neglect her when they are at my house.  Despite the children's best efforts to be friends with Al, they have an uneasy truce at best.  One of my granddaughters even made a special "Cats Rule" card for Al, but it didn't soften her heart.  Al is clearly a one-human cat, and no child better get in the way!

Overall, though, Al is a constant reminder that life is short, and I should stop and smell the roses, and of course, pet the cat more. 

Now you may have noticed that Sam and Al look a lot alike, both gray domestic short-hairs. I have wondered about that myself. Perhaps there is reincarnation among cats.They do, after all, have nine lives. Maybe Sam decided to share another one of hers with me.  In any case, I know that Al was chosen specially for me and sought me out. I'm grateful that she found me.

This is a small collage I made to honor my furry companion.

#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 12 Joined Together: Captain Thomas Simmons' Company of the 2nd Regiment Maryland Militia

 I have written before about the experience of my 4X great-grandfather, Lt. John Scrivener, in the War of 1812. 

Now I'm looking at a different aspect of that experience: the connections among the soldiers in his company. 

John Scrivener served in the 2nd Regiment of the Maryland militia, the company headed by Captain Thomas Tillard Simmons, from about April 1813 to November 1814. 

I was able to identify a little over 90 men who served at various times in his unit, all from the general area of Friendship, in southern Anne Arundel County and northern Calvert County. Look at the Census rolls for 1800 and 1810 and 1820, and you will find these same men living side by side. Most of the men were in their twenties and thirties, as you might expect for soldiers, but there were a few older men. The company also included two Negroes, Nace Butter and Nathan Pherson, the fifer and drummer, respectively.  They were the servants of Lt. Scrivener and Captain Simmons (not clear if these men were enslaved or free). 

These men were not full-time soldiers. The company was mostly called out when British ships were spotted in Herring Bay or making their way toward Baltimore: "An English ship and brig laying off Herring Bay was the cause of my ordering out my company." The location of this company made it perfect for spotting British ships and preventing their landing.  See map below. On a few occasions, some of the men were sent to Baltimore, and a few helped in the defense of Fort McHenry, although that was not their usual duty.  

When I started looking at the men as a group, I discovered that they were connected by a whole web of relationships besides their military status and the geographic proximity of their homes. The men in Captain Simmons' company fought alongside their fathers, fathers-in-law, brothers, brothers-in-law, cousins of various degrees, nephews, uncles, sons and sons-in-law. Any injury or death in this company was not just a strategic loss but a very personal loss. 

Here are a few of the examples of the relationships I found. 

Brothers

There were at least four sets of brothers in the company, including John Scrivener and his younger brother Francis, about whom I have written previously. There were five Ward men in this company: William, Richard, Robert, Samuel, and John, all the sons of Robert and Sarah Ward.  The Whittington family contributed three brothers: Francis, Benjamin and Charles, the sons of Francis Whittington Sr. Plus there were a couple of Whittington cousins: John A. Whittington, William Whittington and Richard Turner. Two of the oldest men in the group were brothers Samuel and Henry Wood, 60 and 40 years old respectively, both sons of William Wood.

There were also several Hardesty men--Benjamin, William, and Joshua--that I strongly suspect were brothers, but I haven't found the evidence to back up that suspicion, yet. 

Unfortunately, there aren't any photos from 1814, but I'm sure these brothers were just as cute as the two at the right, to their mothers, anyway. 

Captain Thomas Simmons, the son of Abraham Simmons and Priscilla Lyles, was serving with his cousin Isaac Simmons, the founder of the town of Friendship. His unit also included his brother-in-law, Joseph G. Harrison, the brother of his wife Ann Harrison, as well as his future son-in-law, John Wood, who married his daughter Eleanor Lyles Simmons in 1818. John was also the executor of Captain Simmons' estate when he died in 1832. John Wood's second wife, by the way, was Sarah Ward, a cousin of the Ward brothers, above. 

Lt. John Scrivener, besides serving with his brother Francis, was also serving with his brother-in-law, William Ward, who married his sister, Sarah Scrivener. The Whittington brothers above, were the nephews of John and Francis's stepmother, Eleanor Ward Scrivener. John A. Whittington was the stepson of John and Francis's sister, Elizabeth Scrivener Whittington.

Samuel Stevens' mother was Lavinia Whittington, the aunt of the three Whittington brothers, above, making them first cousins of Samuel. Joshua Hardesty's mother-in-law, Araminta Wood, was Samuel Stevens aunt. 

Dr. Walter Wyvill married Ann Wood, the daughter of Samuel Wood, above. Dr. Wyvill's half-sister, Eleanor Wyvill Connor, was the mother-in-law of Sabrett Trott.

Samuel Gover was a trustee of the Friendship Methodist Episcopal Church, along with Lt. John Scrivener. He married Sarah Ann Hardesty, a cousin of the Hardesty's above. 

Walter Carr married Mary Scrivener, a cousin of John and Francis. 

William Sullivan, the son of Thomas Sullivan and Sarah Wood, was the nephew of Samuel and Henry Wood, above. 

Joseph G. Harrison married the sister of John Wood, Matilda Burgess Wood and his sister, Ann Harrison, was the second wife of Captain Simmons. 

Even when the war was over, the men supported each other.  When the US authorized bounty land and later pensions for service in the War of 1812, the applications required witnesses who could verify the service of the applicant and vouchsafe that the applicant was, in fact, who he said he was.  When Richard Ward died, for example, his fellow soldier William Hardesty represented his children in applying for their father's pension in 1855. Two other men from Simmons' company, Samuel Gover and Richard Griffith, supported his application. When Samuel Gover applied for his pension, John Scrivener's son William Boswell Scrivener, supported his application. 

In addition, these men often witnessed each other's wills and land deeds and served as bonds for the administration of estates. 

These are just a few examples of the complex web of relationships I found among the men who served in Captain Thomas Simmons' company. I'm sure if I worked on it long enough, I could make a connection for just about every man with at least one other member of this unit. These citizen-soldiers were not professional military men.  They served for days or weeks at a time when they were called upon, but in between they went back to their regular work of farming or managing a store or caring for sick patients and raising their families.

Captain Simmons' men were not strangers thrown together in battle; the men in the militia unit were neighbors and family, people who shared their everyday lives, not just their lives as soldiers. These people went to each other's weddings and funerals, attended the same schools and churches, gathered for family dinners together, complained about the weather and the stupid politicians, and the decline of the younger generation. Many of these men lie buried together at Friendship United Methodist Church Cemetery. 

I know these relationships must have made a difference in how these men experienced the war. 

#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 29 Fun Facts: The Ancestor Hunt

This is just a quick look at how I am doing in tracking down my ancestors, after about 40 years of working on it. And God bless my grandmother Summers and great-grandmother Scrivener who were avid genealogists and left me a wonderful inheritance of family information.

I'm doing pretty well on the first 6 generations. In fact, I know exactly the two women I am missing in Generation 6 and I recently wrote about my frustrating attempts to nail down the name of one of my 4X-great-grandmothers, Mrs. Henry Boswell. 

I’m also not too bad on generation 7 (5X great-grandparents). That takes me back to about the early18th-century (1700) or so.  Most of these folks were living in Maryland or at least in the mid-Atlantic area, so somewhat easier for me to research, since I still live in Maryland and Maryland has done a great job of preserving its early records. 

After that, my success rate drops off, although I am helped somewhat by the fact that there was a lot of intermarriage among my ancestors' families. You know, two brothers who married two sisters. Or cousins who married cousins.  Seems to be a popular pastime in Southern Maryland. So, there are a fair number of duplicate names on these lists. Also, a few of these people were wealthy and therefore left better records, like wills and land purchases. 

Alas, some of my 18th-century ancestors did not have the common decency to write down their parents' names in a conveniently located document!  Or even worse, they chose to live in an area that is prone to courthouse fires. Poor planning on their part, but a challenge that keeps me endlessly entertained as I try to track them down. 

(Note to future generations: please see that your parents' names are chiseled on your tombstone, especially if you are not buried right next to them, much less in a different state. Also, please name all of your children in your will, even if you don't like some of them, and make sure your will is in a nice fireproof safe.--You do have a will, don't you?--Your great-grandchildren will thank you.)

I do know some of the ancestors in generations 11 and 12, but it got too tedious trying to count them, so I quit while I was ahead, so to speak. I will try to catch up with those numbers later. Until you get to actually counting them, it's easy to forget how many ancestors were needed to bring you into this world!

I will try to remember to repeat this next year so I can see if I have made any progress in finding those elusive 7X great grandparents. If only I had another 40 years.  Sigh!

The Ancestor Hunt 2022

Generation	Number of Members	Number Found	Percentage
1.       Parents	2	2	100
2.       Grandparents	4	4	100
3.       Great Grandparents	8	8	100
4.       2X Grandparents	16	16	100
5.       3X Grandparents	32	32	100
6.       4X Grandparents	64	62	97
7.       5X Grandparents	128	114	89
8.       6X Grandparents	256	158	62
9.       7X Grandparents	512	249	49
1.   8X Grandparents	1024	294	29
1.   9X Grandparents	2048
1  10X Grandparents	4096

#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 32 At the Library: The Autobiography of Gustavus Weems

 

So, I have always been a fan of libraries.  Even as a child, I could happily while away an afternoon among the books. As a genealogist, of course I love searching for family history treasures, and I make it a point to visit the local library whenever I am on a genealogy trip.  

My very best library discovery, however, was close to home at the University of Maryland library.  They hold a large collection of Weems family papers and among them is a 330-page hand-written autobiography of my cousin, Gustavus Weems. When I found that listing in the library catalog, I knew it was gold. I had to see it. Besides giving details of his family, his autobiography provides a fascinating look at life in Anne Arundel County MD in the late 18th and early 19th century. It was so fascinating that I paid for the library to make me a copy that I could bring home and study at leisure. (Weems-Reynolds Family papers, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries. http://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/1310 Accessed July 27, 2022.)

Gustavus Weems, referred to in his narrative as Gusta, was the grandson of David Weems, the Scots immigrant (my 7X-great-grandfather), and the second of seven children of David Weems and Margaret Harrison, born in 1779 at Marshes' Seat in southern Anne Arundel County MD. The map below shows the area where Marshes' Seat was located.

David Weems children, Gusta's siblings, were:

*David 1778: went to sea about 1800 and was impressed by the British.  The last the family heard from him was about 1814. 

*Gusta 1779: more on him later

*Rachel 1780: married Jesse Ewell and had three children with him--David Weems, Mary Frances, and Margaret Ewell.  Rachel died in Anne Arundel County in 1817.

*Sydney Bedolf 1782: never married.  Gusta comments in 1851 that she was blind and crippled. She outlived the rest of the family, and it was she who erected a memorial to her family at St. James Parish in Anne Arundel County. 

*Captain George 1784: one of the founders of the famed Weems Steamship Line, about which I have previously written. Married Sarah Sutton and had six children with her: Margaret, Thomas Sutton, Mason Loch, Gustavus, Theodore Mason, and George William Weems. He died in 1853 in Anne Arundel County.

*Theodore 1786: died in Baltimore in 1817, shortly before his intended marriage and just a few weeks after his sister Rachel.

*Mason 1789: Not married. Drowned in 1811 after he fell overboard on a return trip from Baltimore.

Gusta and his siblings were raised as Methodists. Although his mother was a Catholic, she "gave up her priest for Jesus, and I think she done well," in her son's words. In any case, it was an orderly and prayerful household, according to Gustavus. His father was strict and "his rules had to be kept and orders obeyed or our backs paid for it. . . .We were brought up in the fear of God, and faithful admonitions, and taught to love God and all mankind, to keep holy all the commandments, not allowed to use bad words or sinful expressions. . . .We loved to oblige and feared to displease, for here was the ruling and governing principle with parents and children."

David Weems, like many in the Weems family, made a living from the sea, running a shipyard, which he owned in partnership with his brother-in-law, Thomas Morton. 

However, as Gusta reports, his father was in considerable debt, due to a number of misfortunes such as lightning striking and destroying one of his ships and some cheating on the part of his business partners. "God had smitten him Job-like." David had to borrow money from his brother William (a ship's captain) to keep the business afloat.  So, there was not much money to spare in the David Weems household.

There being no school near them in Anne Arundel County, Gusta and his brother David went to live with their childless Aunt and Uncle Susannah and Thomas Morton in Montgomery County so they could attend school there. Gusta was apparently quite a prankster, and he delighted in describing the jokes he played on his aunt and uncle, his schoolmasters and his fellow scholars. Since these tricks

sometimes involved tripping people or jumping out to scare them, or throwing dust in their eyes, I'm not sure everyone else saw the humor that Gusta seemed to enjoy. (He never seemed to get over this love of tricks because he describes these throughout his story.)

His tricks must have gotten him in trouble, because his academic career involved switching schools frequently.  Even Gusta acknowledges that "his little innocent playful tricks kept me back from learning as much and as fast as I ought, together with the short time at each school, so that after all, I had but little education and knew as much about languages as a cow would." 

Gusta was put to work on the family farm, but desperately wanted to run away to sea. His parents persuaded him to stay and promised to open a small store that he could manage, and so he agreed to stay. After about three years on the farm, he ventured into commerce, opening a general store. "No more a plough boy, but a merchant." He immediately felt his lack of real education and set about buying books to improve his reading and math skills.  He particularly relied on a copy of Lord Chesterfield's letters to help him improve his manners. He also cites his uncle, Parson Mason Loch Weems, the famous biographer of George Washington, as an important influence and follows a schedule somewhat like that of Benjamin Franklin, rising early in the morning to read and study, and eating very abstemiously. 

His business prospered, but most of the money he made went to paying back his father's loan to Uncle William (who turns out to be quite a villain in Gusta's story and eventually comes to a very bad end!). I have previously written about Uncle William Weems.  

In the end, Gusta acknowledges, his hard upbringing strengthened him and led him to a righteous life, as opposed to his relatives "those lazy Harrisons and bragging Weems (his Uncle William)."  Our father, Gusta says, "brought us up right and my brother George and myself have brought our children up in the same way." If he had had his own will, he says, he "should have gone to the dogs with the Harrisons and the Weems." 

Rejected Suitor

When he was about 18, Gusta says that he was beginning to feel very big among the girls."I have ever
and anon loved the Dear Creatures." He considered girls, "the most refined, pleasant and improving company." He describes his unsuccessful first romance with Miss Rebecca Lane, who was quite willing to marry him provided that he would join the Methodist Church.  Alas! Gusta said, that would not work since "she was too good to leave her church and I was too bad to go into it." A second marriage proposal to his cousin Sophia Weems also came to naught. Yet another marriage possibility was turned down because Gusta refused to convert to Catholicism. And another father refused him because he didn't want his daughter to marry a merchant. Picky, picky, picky!

Parson Weems

When he turned 21, about 1800, Gusta set off to visit his Virginia relatives and stayed with his uncle, Parson Weems.  While he was there, he met a number of members of the Ewell family (Parson Weems' wife, Frances, Gusta's aunt, was a Ewell.) and became engaged to Miss Fanny Ewell, a cousin of his aunt Frances.  But yet again, his romance was foiled, this time by his wicked uncle William, who had married Miss Fanny's older sister, Ann Ewell. Uncle William told Col. Ewell that he should by no means allow his daughter to marry his spendthrift nephew Gusta, and Fanny obediently called off the engagement. Gusta never really forgave Uncle William for this final insult. 

After several other false starts at engagement, Gusta moved his store to Calvert County and finally did get married to a local girl, Dorcas Gray, the orphaned daughter of George and Jeanette Gray, who lived at the house where he boarded. He says that he was first attracted to her because she was able to pleat the ruffles on his shirt so well. (Apparently, he was quite the clothes horse in those days!) 

But to be fair, he also admired her "amiableness," so on a rainy day when he wasn't doing much business at the store, he decided to go up to her guardian's house and propose marriage. Gusta said the whole neighborhood was amazed that "so moral and fine a girl" would marry such a "frolicsome and wild fellow, so full of fun and devilment."  Indeed, Gusta said he was surprised himself that she accepted. Later, he acknowledged her as "the instrument in the hands of God of saving my soul." 

They were married a few weeks later in October 1806, when Gusta was 27 years old and Dorcas 20.  More than 100 people attended the wedding, leading Gusta to say "Good Lord, Madam.  Are you kin to all of Calvert County?" 

Gusta and Dorcas had seven children together, four of whom lived to adulthood. 

*Margaret, 1807, named after her grandmother, died in infancy.

*David Gustavus 1809.  Married first his cousin Rachel Weems.  Married second Martha Richardson and had fifteen children with her.

*Jane Dorcas, 1812.  Married Dr. John Fletcher Petherbridge and had nine children with him.

*George Gray, 1815. Died young.

*George Gray, 1817.  Died young.

*Rachel Thomason, 1821.  Married Dr. Thomas Reynolds and had two children with him.

*Theodore Mason, 1822.  Married Eleanor Stanforth and had one child with her. 

Gusta served in the Calvert County militia during the War of 1812 under Captain Mackall.

Gusta's mother Margaret Harrison Weems died when Gusta was a teenager.  His father David died in 1820, while Gustavus was serving in the Maryland Legislature in Annapolis. Gustavus reports that he hurried from Annapolis to his father's bedside as soon as he got the news but arrived a few minutes too late to see his father before he died. 

Dorcas Gray Weems died in 1839 and is buried at St. Mark's Chapel in Tracy's Landing, near the Weems family residence.

Discussing Gustavus Weems, Charles Petherbridge described him this way:

Your grandfather Weems was a man of very commanding appearance.  His very presence inspired respect--tall, stout, and well-formed, a fine person.  He was a great lover of the flute, his favorite tunes to play on it "Hail Columbia" and "Star Spangled Banner." 

I should also note another debt owed by family historians to dear Gusta.  It was he who kept up all the entries in the Weems family Bible.  He carefully added the dates of births, deaths and marriages that we depend on for so much information about his family.

Gustavus Weems died in 1852, at Marshes' Seat, a year after finishing his Autobiography, at the age of 73. He is buried beside his wife. 

It took me many years to get through reading Gusta's story.  The copy is sometimes faint, the handwriting is often difficult, and the spelling is idiosyncratic, to say the least. But the effort was totally worth it. Gusta is a fascinating character whose story deserves to be told for its own sake. I can't begin to do it justice in the short space I have here. His store of local gossip and legend, plus his pungent observations about his family and neighbors, and his strong opinions about how life should be lived provide an absolutely unique take on life in Anne Arundel County.  Someday, I hope that I can transcribe his entire book and get it published somewhere because it deserves to be better known.