#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 6 Same Name: The Four Frank Philip Scriveners

For almost 150 years, there has been a Frank Philip Scrivener in Maryland.

Frank I 1896

Frank Philip Scrivener I was the son of William Boswell Scrivener and Sarah Jane Kent Barber.  He was born in 1864 at the family home, Rose Valley, (AKA Holly Hill) near Friendship in Anne Arundel County MD.  I don't know for certain how the Scriveners decided on that name, but if I had to guess, I'd say he was named for his great-grandfathers--Francis Scrivener and Luke Philip Barber (although as far as I know, no one ever referred to him as Francis; it was always Frank).

Since Anne Arundel County had no public high school until 1896, Frank attended Glenwood Academy in Howard County after he had completed the local public schools.  He went on to work as an accountant in Baltimore for the George H. Foster Company and then as a bookkeeper for the Joseph Gottschalk Company until his retirement in 1928.

In 1899, Frank married Louise Carmelite Gwynn, the daughter of Andrew Jackson Gwynn and Marie Louise Keene.  Louise and Frank made their home on Lafayette Avenue in Baltimore until Frank's retirement when they moved to Prince George's County, where Louise's sister, Effie Gwynn Bowie, also lived.  Frank's grandchildren remember him as a quiet gray-haired man who walked with a cane due to his arthritis.  He would often spend the afternoon rocking on the front porch of his home.  He delighted in giving the children small treats when they came to visit.

After a number of years as a semi-invalid, Frank Scrivener died in Upper Marlboro in May 1839 at the age of 78.




At his funeral, the pastor of St. Mary's Church eulogized him as "a constant edification to the children of the parish by his reverence.... He was always ready with a cheery word to anyone who spoke to him and generous supporter of everything that was for the good of his church.  … We will miss his ready smile and twinkling eyes that never lost their sparkle. "

Frank and Louise had one child: Frank Philip Scrivener Jr (my grandfather) in August 1900.

  Frank Jr. grew up in Baltimore and attended Baltimore Polytechnic High School. At 5'11" and 170 pounds, he enlisted in the Navy at the start of WWI.  He served at the Great Lakes Naval Air Station until 1922, where he played football in addition to his military duties.  According to family legend, he even played once against the Notre Dame football squad (before the Four Horsemen became famous).

After leaving the Navy, he returned to Baltimore where he began a 46-year career with the Maryland State Roads Commission, rising to the position of Chief Engineer for Maintenance and Operations in 1964.  Although he never earned a college degree, he continued his education through adult programs at Loyola College, became a registered professional engineer and served as president of the Maryland Engineers Association.

Frank and Lib 1924

Travelling around the state to district offices of the State Roads Commission, Frank met a young school teacher in Prince George's County whom he started courting. In 1924, Frank Jr. married Elizabeth (Lib) Dent, the daughter of John Marshall Dent and Mary Peterson Turner of St. Mary's County MD. Frank and Lib had five sons and a daughter, the oldest son  (my father, born in 1925) carrying on the namesake tradition as Frank Philip Scrivener III.

The Scriveners lived in St. Mary's County until the early 30's when they purchased a home in Baltimore.  Fortunately, Frank's state job kept them from some of the dire financial consequences of the Great Depression, especially as the boys grew older and could take on odd jobs like making deliveries after school.

Frank III 1929

My grandfather would always treat his grandchildren to ice cream when they came to visit, and he was a beloved customer of the local shop.  That love of ice cream continues to this day as a Scrivener tradition.

Frank Philip Scrivener Jr. died in Baltimore in 1980 at the age of 80, leaving a family that included 25 grandchildren.


Thanks to the generosity of his grandmother,  Frank III attended Newman Preparatory School in New Jersey, where the 12-year-old was one of the horrified witnesses to the spectacular crash of the Hindenburg in 1937.  At Newman, Frank learned to play tennis, a lifelong avocation that filled his home with trophies recognizing his talent at the sport. He graduated from Calvert Hall High School in Baltimore in 1943, where he captained the tennis team among other activities. Immediately after graduation, he joined the Army and served in Italy during WWII (where he also managed to play tennis.)

Frank and Anne 

Returning to Maryland after the war, in 1947 he married Anne Summers, the oldest daughter of Paul Summers and Evalina Sasscer, whom he had met during his many visits to his Scrivener grandparents in Upper Marlboro.  They were married at the same church where both of their parents had married: St. Mary's in Upper Marlboro.

Anne and Frank lived in Baltimore while Frank continued his education at Loyola College under the GI Bill. (And yes, was captain of the tennis team.)  Their first child (me) was born in 1948.  Their first son, Frank Philip Scrivener IV, was born in Baltimore in 1957.

Frank III worked for E. Stewart Mitchell Asphalt for several years before moving to Anne Arundel County in 1954, where he helped to found Reliable Asphalt.  He served as Vice-President of Reliable until his retirement in 1990.  He was president of the Maryland Asphalt Association and a member of the Board of the National Asphalt Pavement Association. He continued to play tennis and was nationally ranked as a senior.

Frank Philip Scrivener III died at Washington Hospital Center in 1990, only a few months after his retirement.

Frank (Phil) IV

Frank Philip Scrivener IV (my brother), who goes by Phil rather than Frank, attended Mt. St. Joseph High School in Baltimore and Towson University.  He has run his own landscaping and construction business and recently retired from the Department of Public Works in Annapolis.  He does not have children, so, so far there is no Frank Philip Scrivener V.

I have not given up hope, though.  I have 30 nieces and nephews and more than 40 great-nieces and nephews.  Surely one of them will decide to continue the long tradition and name a son Frank Philip Scrivener V.

#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 5 So Far Away: Emily Augusta Scrivener

The Scriveners mostly stayed close to home, settling around the village of Friendship, staying in Anne Arundel County MD, occasionally moving to Baltimore or the District of Columbia.  Emily Scrivener was the exception.

Emily Augusta Scrivener, called Emie, the 11th child of Lt. John Scrivener and Eliza Smith Boswell, was born in Anne Arundel County MD 21 August 1838 with her twin sister, Maria Louisa. Her father died in 1849 and she is shown in the 1850 Census of Anne Arundel County (8th District) at age 12 with her widowed mother, Eliza (46),  her older brothers Francis and James, three of her sisters--Mary Priscilla, Maria Louisa and Rosy, her father's sister, Mary Scrivener Wood (80) and a governess, Sarah Long.

In 1859, at age 21, Emie married Charles Porter Culver at St. Peter's Church in Baltimore MD.  Charles, the son of Henry Porter Culver and Lamira Sigourney Lacy, was born in Monroe County NY in 1828 and at the time of his marriage was a farmer living in Janesville Wisconsin with his parents, his brother Samuel and sister Harriet.  I would love to know how Emie and Charles met, but I have no clue how the man from Wisconsin ended up with a Maryland bride. So far, I  haven't been able to find a Maryland connection with the Culvers or what would have brought Charles to Baltimore.

In any case, Emie moved to Janesville with her husband and most likely never saw her Maryland family again.  She appears there in the 1860 Census with Charles' family.

In July 1861, Emie and Charles' daughter Louise (Lulu) Culver was born in Janesville. She was followed by Harriet Lamira Culver in 1868.  The 1870 Census of Janesville shows Charles, a farmer, age 46, with real estate worth $19,000. Emie (29), Louisa (9), and Lamira (1) are also in the household along with a housekeeper, Frances.

In 1875, a third daughter was born to Emie and Charles--Ruth Sigourney Culver.

The map below shows Charles Culver's property in Janesville in 1873 (at the top of the map).

About the time of Ruth's birth, Charles' health began to fail.  According to his obituary, his health had been poor for several years before his death in 1879 and he had travelled as far as Georgia seeking a better climate.  He died in April 1879 in San Antonio TX where he had gone looking to improve his health.  His obituary speaks of his standing in the community:

Mr. Culver was a man of kindly spirit, and void of all ostentation. To all he was courteous and genial, ever inspired respect and esteem, but it was only his friends who really saw the wealth of character which he possessed, and who truly appreciated his good qualities of mind and heart. He was acquainted with many. He was known by few. He was a man of sterling integrity, a man who had a mind of his own, who was never ashamed to express his opinion, and however it might differ from the opinion of others, they never doubted that he was honest in his views. In all his dealings he was prompt and reliable. In fact there was much true manhood in him.

The 1880 Census of Janesville shows the widowed Emie (43), with her three daughters--Louisa (18), Hattie (11) and Ruth (5), along with a servant, Mary Motsie. Alas, the year ended sadly with Lulu's death in December of consumption.  The Janesville Gazette lamented her passing a few days before Christmas:

She had reached and passed her nineteenth birthday, and while her life was a comparatively brief one, yet it was a life of inestimable value to the widowed mother, to the two younger sisters and other relatives and friends, and a life whose going out causes a loss to the community.  Her character was one worthy of much praise, and loved most by those who knew it best, and the sympathy extended to the mourning family will come from many friends, who feel that the loss is in part their own. 

The following year in 1881, Emie married Marquis de Lafayette (Mark) Ripley, the son of Daniel and Sophia Ripley and a widower himself, who had recently lost his only son. His wife, Elizabeth, died while trying to save a young girl who was drowning.  Mark was born on Grindstone Island in the Thousand Islands area of Jefferson County NY.  Daniel Ripley had played in the band that welcomed Lafayette in New York in 1825 and named his son after the famous general.  Mark was in the Secret Service during the Civil War and later worked as a miller and farmer as well as constructing the railroad between Fond du Lac and Janesville.  When he settled in Janesville, he operated the lime kilns and stone quarry on the Strunk Farm and was later associated with Frank Strunk in a livery stable in Janesville. He was also in the insurance business for many of his later years. The drawing below shows the Ripley house in Janesville (1873).


In January 1893, after completing her education at the Rockford Female Seminary in Illinois, Emie's 24-year-old daughter Hattie married banker Charles Fremont Page, the wedding taking place in the Ripley's home. The couple moved to Minnesota and had two children: Charles Culver Page in 1893 and Jeanette Page in 1896. 

By the 1890's, Mark Ripley's health began to fail, and although he travelled to New Mexico and California seeking a better climate, he succumbed to consumption in 1896, leaving Emie a widow for the second time. 

In 1898 Hattie Culver Page died in Crookston MN. The 1900 Census shows Emie in Riverside CA with her widowed son-in-law, her two grandchildren and her daughter, Ruth.  I am not sure what brought the family to California, perhaps again a search for a more healthful climate.  In any case, Emie died back in Janesville WI in March 1902 at age 63.  According to her obituary, the death was sudden and unexpected, the result of a cold which developed complications. The Janesville Gazette praised her: 

By her death, Janesville loses a noble woman, who has always devoted a portion of her time to the care of others.  Her kindly, loving disposition has made for her a large circle of friends outside of her immediate relatives. 

Back in Maryland, two sisters--Eliza Sullivan and Sarah Jane Somervell--and one brother--Samuel Wesley--survived her. 

Emie's third daughter Ruth did not long survive her mother.  In September 1902, Ruth married Frank Irving Sanner, a hardware salesman.  The wedding was described in the local papers as a very posh event, held at the home of District Attorney William G. Wheeler in Janesville.  The young couple seemed to be very popular in the town:

 The bride who has grown to womanhood in this city, has been an acknowledged leader a favorite in the younger society circles.  By her pleasing personality she has surrounded herself with friends whose sincere affection she holds and who regret her permanent departure from the city. The groom is the son of Adam Sanner and is also popular in Janesville social circles, having made his home here until about a year ago when he removed to El Paso Texas.  He is connected with the firm of Tanner and Pennybaker wholesale hardware merchants , and has so established himself in the esteem and confidence of his employers that he is to become a member of the firm on the first of next January. 


After living in El Paso for a short time, Ruth and Frank moved to California where they hoped the climate would be better for Frank's health.  (Are you noticing a pattern here?) In August 1903, the Sanners had a daughter, Emily Ruth Culver Sanner, but the child was an orphan before her first birthday.  Frank died in Riverside CA in April 1904 and Ruth died there in June 1904.  

Frank's mother, Henrietta Sanner, brought the infant back to Janesville where she died in April 1905.

The picture below shows Emie with her daughter Hattie and her granddaughter Jeanette Page. (Thanks to cousin Tom Wright for sharing this great photo with me. )

 I'm glad to see she got to enjoy a little time with her darling granddaughter, considering all of the tragedies that her life brought to her, far away from her family of birth. 

The Culvers created quite a unique memorial in the Janesville cemetery, a stone tree showing all the family members, even those who weren't actually buried in Janesville. 

#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 4 Close to Home: Friendship, the Scriveners' Home Town

The Scrivener family in Maryland stayed pretty close to home for several hundred years, from their arrival in the early 1700's to the mid-1900's.  And home was the small village of Friendship, in southern Anne Arundel County, right up against the Calvert County border and along a major north-south road (now Rt. 2) and  a main route from the Chesapeake Bay west to the Patuxent River. (See the red square on the map below. )


The Scriveners were in Friendship before the town even existed.  Richard Scrivener's three sons--John, William, and Richard--are recorded in the Register of St. James Parish, which encompassed the area that would become the town of Friendship, in 1709, 1711 and 1713 respectively.

John Scrivener purchased two tracts in the area--Trent and Gowry Banks--in 1746, the earliest record of Scrivener land holdings. As the modern map shows, the properties abut the current town of Friendship.

John's son Francis purchased several more tracts in the area including almost 600 acres of Carter Bennett  (See Plat). In 1811, Francis's son John Scrivener purchased even more of the tract, which bordered on Herring Bay about a mile east of Friendship, from the estate of William Wood.

In 1856, John's son William Boswell Scrivener purchased Holly Hill, just outside the village (marked on the map above) and raised his twelve children there. This 1856 sale of John Scrivener's property mentions Friendship and also the adjoining property of John's sons Samuel and William Scrivener.

The village of Friendship was officially founded in 1804.  According to an account by Isaac Simmons, the founder of the town, in the late 18th century, the area was used for public sporting events and had no buildings.  Simmons attributes the founding of the town to religious fervor.  About 1785 David Weems collected money to build a gathering place called "Weems Preaching House." In 1804, Isaac Simmons purchased property near the Preaching House and built some small cottages, adding to      his holdings in the next two years. As Simmons noted, "the place bid fair to prosper," and "much ado was made in naming this fair place."

Simmons continues that many names were nominated but "the Lord did not approbate to them."  Then in 1806 the Methodist district conference sent minister Eli Towne to the care of this circuit.  In 1807, Simmons says, "came Eli to this place as a day in course for preaching; though weak in body, warned a goodly number of precious souls to improve their lives. " Towne was so weak after his efforts that he was unable to make it to his appointed lodgings and the kindly people of the area pressed him to stay the night with them.  He was thus the first regular minister to stay overnight in the town.  In the morning, feeling much better, he called the place "Friendship,"  and that is the name that the town officially adopted, praying that "the friend of all mankind bless it and ever sway his scepter in it."  The Friendship Post Office officially opened 3 March 1807 with Samuel Gott as Post Master.

In 1890, Robert S.D. Jones (grandson of the founder Isaac Simmons) wrote an account of his years in Friendship, spanning the years from 1825 to 1862.  Jones came from Baltimore via packet boat (the only available transportation)  to work in his uncle George Simmons' store.  He describes a lively village with a number of residences and stores, a blacksmith shop, a wheelwright, tailor, shoemaker, saddler and harness maker.

Fearing insurrection after the Nat Turner Rebellion in 1831, Friendship organized a militia captained by Cephas Simmons.  In 1832, the town formed a Temperance Society, of which John Scrivener was a member of the board of managers. The Temperance Society was apparently very strict: unlike most other such groups, their pledge of abstinence included wine and cider as well as distilled liquor.  By 1833, the town decided to build a new brick church to replace the old frame building using clay from the site.  That 1835 building is still in use today.

Friendship today covers about 1.79 square miles and has a population of 447.  No Scriveners live there any more (although many live in Anne Arundel County), but the Scriveners are remembered by a road opposite the town named Scrivener Drive.

Anne Arundel County has recently recognized Friendship's significance as an early community gathering place with a new historic marker.

Historic Friendship Crossroads . Est. ca 1800

This commercial cross roads in southern Anne Arundel County has been an important gathering place since the late 17th century. It is located near to the fleeting 17th century port of "Herrington", and near one of the County's most significant historic homes and plantations, Holly Hill. 

Friendship was well-established by the 18th century, populated mostly by those of the Quaker faith, whereby the town got its name.  Quakers were referred to as "Friends."  By the Civil War, the town was a thriving commercial hub. Though quieter today, as the main Route 2 thoroughfare bypassed the town in the 1970s, the charming town still boasts many historic homes, and several commercial and religious buildings. One of the oldest is the Friendship parsonage, built ca 1804 and now lovingly restored to house a local antique shop. 

#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."