#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 8 Courting: Henry Wright Gantt and the Weems Women

 My second cousin, Henry Wright Gantt, just couldn't get enough of the Weems women.  He married four of them. 

Henry Wright Gantt, the son of John Mackall Gantt and Margaret Wright, was born in Prince George's County MD on the 23 of October 1763, the second of their four children. He was baptized the same month at St. John's Parish. 

Henry's first marriage took place about 1797 in Prince George's County MD.  A newspaper account, written by a descendant in 1905, identifies Henry's first wife as Mary Weems, the niece of Mason Loch Weems, who died shortly after the birth of her only child at about the age of 20.  I have done a lot of research on the Weems family, and I cannot find a Mary Weems who would be a niece of Parson Weems who would fit this description, so I think that part is not true. I am not 100 percent sure about Mary's parents, but, by process of elimination, I think she was the daughter of William Loch Weems and Amelia Chapman of Billingsley, Prince George's County.  His will in 1783 says that he had three daughters and I know that two of them were Wilhelmina and Sarah Louise.  I think that Mary was the third daughter. If she was married in 1797, she would have been born about 1780 and would have been unmarried when her father wrote his will. 

In any case, Henry and Mary had a son John Weems Gantt, born in 1798, probably in Prince George's County MD.  You would think that this name might give a clue to his grandfather, but I have had no luck in finding a John Weems with a daughter Mary who could have been Henry's wife.  However, Mary Weems, above, did have a brother John Weems, so that is still a possibility.  John Weems Gantt was educated at Edinboro Medical School and practiced medicine and farmed in Albemarle County VA.

After the death of Mary Weems in 1798, Henry quickly remarried on March 3,1798 in Prince George's County MD.  (Someone had to take care of that new baby!) His second wife was Wilhelmina Weems, the daughter of William Loch Weems and Amelia Chapman, another reason why my identification of Mary Weems makes some logical sense. Wilhelmina's brother John confirms this marriage in a court case in 1802 and also indicates that his sister is dead by 1802.  Wilhelmina and Henry had no children in their short marriage. 

Again, Henry remarried quickly after the death of Wilhelmina, this time to Sarah Howell Weems, the daughter of Richard Weems and Mary Ward.  This Sarah was actually a niece of Mason Loch Weems, so perhaps that is where that notion originated in the 1905 story. Henry and Sarah were married in Anne Arundel County MD 17 October 1801, when Sarah was about thirty years old.  Henry and Sarah had three children, probably all born in Maryland: 

*Mary about 1802, married Alfred Tolson in 1826

*Caesar about 1804, married Rosa Preuss 

*Margaret Wilhelmina about 1805, married Dr. James Bonnel Carr Thornton in July 1823 and died a few months later. 

Meanwhile in 1813, Henry Wright Gantt purchased 734 acres of land in Albemarle County VA and moved there. 

On the 5th of December 1821, Henry bought a Maryland State Lottery Ticket and a week later, he won a prize of $40,000, quite a sizeable fortune. Henry then returned to his old home in Maryland leaving the farm to his oldest son, Dr. John Weems Gantt.

Sarah Weems Gantt must have died sometime before April 1824, when 60-year-old Henry married for the fourth time to 22-year-old Ann Ewell Weems, also known as Nancy, the daughter of Parson Mason Loch Weems and Fanny Ewell. Henry and Nancy had one son: Albert Weems Gantt about 1828.  Albert married Mary Elizabeth Moorman Jefferson in 1848 and had six children with her. He served in the Confederate army during the Civil War and died in 1895.

Ann Weems Gantt died in Prince George's County MD in March 1833.

Henry Wright Gantt died in Prince George's County MD in February 1838, having outlived all four of his Weems wives. 

Here is a chart showing the relationship between the Weems wives, descendants of the brothers James and David who came to Anne Arundel County in the early 1700's. 

So, was Henry just stuck in rut, or were those Weems women just irresistible?

#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 5 Branching Out: The Bird Family

 The marriage of my 2X-great aunt, Mary Priscilla Scrivener, to Stephen Lee Bird led to the family branching out from Maryland to several different states including Pennsylvania, New York, and Indiana.

Mary Priscilla was the daughter of John Scrivener and Eliza Smith Boswell, the ninth of their twelve children, born in Anne Arundel County MD in 1835.  She married Stephen Lee Bird, the son of Jacob Wheeler Bird and Susanna Lee, on the 31st of October 1851 in Anne Arundel County. 

Stephen was a Baltimore merchant, specializing in fancy dry goods as shown in this ad from 1857.  

Mary Priscilla and Stephen lived in Irvington in Baltimore County, where their five children were born, several of whom moved away from Baltimore. Mary died in Baltimore in 1884 and her husband died the following year.  Both are buried in Loudon Park Cemetery. 

Adelaide "Addie" Lee, born in Baltimore in 1852, married Warrington Gilmore Smith, a miller's agent, at the Church of the Redeemer in Baltimore in 1885. They had a daughter, Adelaide Gilmore Smith, in 1886. Addie died just a few days after the birth of her daughter and is buried in Loudon Park near her parents. Warrington remarried in 1890 to Margaret Bowie Chichester.

William Lee Bird, the only son of Stephen and Mary, was born in Baltimore in 1854.  He married Amelia "Amie" Von Phul in Baltimore in 1879.  She was the daughter of Henry Von Phul and Esther Powell of Cincinnati OH. 

In 1881, William partnered with Franklin Weems to open a foreign fruit and fancy grocery business in Baltimore, which he ran until about 1888 when he is shown in the Baltimore City Directory. 

Amie Von Phul Bird

But sometime after that, the family moved. In 1892, William and his family were living in Brooklyn where he was selling insurance. His youngest daughter Esther was born in New York.  He died 23 August 1894 at St. Mary's Hospital in Brooklyn NY of alcoholism according to his death certificate. 

Amie and William had six daughters (Anna, Alice, Disney, Mary Louise, Amie, and Esther) and one son, William Lee Bird Jr. Amie and the children moved to Indiana after William's death. Amie died in Greensburg, Decatur County IN in 1921 and is buried in her family's plot at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.  

Mary Thomas "Minnie" Bird was born in Baltimore 2 October 1855.  She did not marry.  She died in Baltimore 11 July 1939 and is buried in Loudon Park near her parents.

Katherine "Kate" Bird born in 1858, died as an infant in 1859.

Werner Heimendahl

Elizabeth Lee "Bessie" Bird was born in Baltimore MD 27 October 1860.  She married Werner Edward Heimendahl, a German musician, in Fairfax VA in 1895.  Heimendahl was a gifted composer, director, and music theorist who was a professor at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.  According to his obituary, he made his first public appearance as a violinist at the age of 8 and was a personal friend of such musical greats as Wagner and Liszt. Werner and Bessie had one daughter, Frederica Lee Heimendahl, born in Baltimore in 1897.  Werner died in Baltimore in 1910 after a fall on an icy sidewalk and is buried in Loudon Park.

Frederica married Henry May Gittings, a scion of the wealthy Gittings family of Baltimore, in 1924. They had one daughter, Rosalie May Gittings, in 1925. After Henry's death in 1931, Frederica married Alfred Coxe Gilpin in 1938 and moved to Philadelphia. 

Bessie Bird Heimendahl lived with her daughter in Pennsylvania until her death in 1944. She is buried in the family plot at Loudon Park Cemetery. 

#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 10 Worship: Andrew Keene Gwynn, Evangelist of the Piedmont

 

My 2X-great uncle, Monsignor Andrew Keene Gwynn, was the oldest son of Andrew Jackson Gwynn and Marie Louise Keene, both devout Catholics.  He was born in Baltimore MD 12 June 1870, but the family moved to Spartanburg SC shortly after his birth, where Andrew was raised along with his three sisters (Effie, Louise, and Mary) and two younger brothers (St. Charles and John).  That's him on the right in the picture with his two brothers. (I think that St. Charles is at the top left and John at the bottom left in the bowler.)

Andrew attended Wofford College, a private liberal arts institution in Spartanburg before moving on to St. Charles College, a minor seminary of the Sulpician Fathers, to begin his study for the priesthood. He graduated from St. Charles in 1890 with a certificate of distinction in classical studies. He continued to study at All Hallows College in Dublin, Ireland and finally completed his theological studies at Mt. Saint Mary's College in Emmitsburg MD. He was ordained to the priesthood on July 28, 1895 at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Charleston SC. 

Thus began a long career of service to the Catholic Church in South Carolina, at a time when Catholics were definitely in the minority in the South. (Even as late as 1950, there were only about 14,000 Catholics in the state.) Fr. Gwynn was assigned as pastor to St. Joseph's parish in Charleston and then to the Aiken Mission where he built a new church at Blackville.  In 1900, he was assigned as pastor of Greenville SC, where he spent the next 52 years until his retirement in 1952, making him the longest serving pastor in Greenville's history. 

Fr. Gwynn's new territory covered nine counties or about one-third of the state of South Carolina. Recognizing the importance of education, his first effort was the erection of a parochial school.  Working with the Ursuline Sisters of Columbia, he rented a small house a few blocks from St. Mary's Church to serve as a school. In 1930, he was finally able to build a large, modern school, dedicated by Bishop Fulton Sheen. 

However, Fr. Gwynn did not stop with a school.  He also oversaw the construction of a new convent, a new rectory and a new church for St. Mary's and was also instrumental in the establishment of a Catholic hospital in Greenville, opened in 1932.

The original wooden church at St. Mary's (ca. 1872) was moved to make room for the brick church which still serves the parish, dedicated in August 1903. 

St. Mary's Greenville SC 1904

Fr. Gwynn did not limit his efforts to the city of Greenville. He regularly braved the hardships of his scattered missions to bring Catholic services to congregations throughout the state.  He was responsible for building a number of new churches outside Greenville, including St. Joseph's in Anderson, St. Francis in Walhalla, Our Lady of Lourdes in Greenwood, and a chapel in Clemson. He also designed the chapel at the Charlston Cathedral. He served as dean of the Piedmont district of the diocese of Charlston for many years, winning "the esteem of his brother clergy and of the people of the Piedmont because of his priestly character and his prudent and zealous care in attending to his duties." (Greenville News, 23 February 1930)

In recognition of his parochial achievements, in 1929 Pope Pius XI elevated Fr. Gwynn to the dignity of domestic prelate with the title of Monsignor, becoming at the same time an honorary member of the Pope's household. The reception for his investiture was the first use of the newly built parish hall at St. Mary's. 

On the occasion of his jubilee (50 years in the priesthood) in 1945, Pope Pius XII named him Prothonotary Apostolic, making him an honorary member of highest non-episcopal college of prelates in the Roman Curia. 

In September of 1952, ill health forced Msgr. Gwynn's retirement at the age of 82, "regretfully and with a profound feeling of sorrow." In retirement, he went to live with his sister, Mary Gwynn Hammond at her home, Kathwood, in Aiken SC. He died there on the 5th of March, 1953.

His body was brought to St. Mary's in Greenville, his beloved parish, that he served for more than 50 years, where it lay in state for several days before a solemn requiem Mass. Speakers had to be installed so that all those who could not be seated in the Church could hear the service.

 He was buried in the churchyard at St. Mary's where his memorial still stands. 

Right Reverend Monsignor

Andrew Keene Gwynn, V. F., P. A.

Ordained: Charleston, S. C. July 29, 1895

Domestic Prelate August 29, 1929 - Prothonotary Apostolic December 21, 1945

The Builder of St. Mary's Church and St. Mary's School, Greenville. Sacred Heart, Blackville. St. Francis of Assisi, Walhalla. Our Lady of Loures, Greenwood. St. Andrew, Clemson.

Pastor of St. Mary's, over 52 years. First Dean of the Greenville Deanery.

Erected by the grateful parishioners of Saint Mary's Church and Friends

On a more personal note, Msgr. Gwynn officiated at the marriages of his sisters Mary Gwynn Hammond and Louise Gwynn Scrivener (my great-grandmother), as well as of his nephew Frank Scrivener (my grandfather) and his great-nephew, my father, Frank Scrivener III. 

#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 22 Conflict: John Francis Dent, Witness to War

 My 3X-great grandfather, John Francis Dent, often referred to with the courtesy title of Colonel, was the eldest son of John Benjamin Dent and Catherine Petrie. He was born at Dent's Inheritance, the family plantation in Charles County MD on the 20th of March 1814. The family's property in Charles County was sold after John Benjamin's death, and John Francis and his brother Walter bought extensive farmland in neighboring St. Mary's County.  Col. Dent owned Burlington Plantation at Oakley as well as several other large properties.

John Francis Dent married Lillia Blackistone, the daughter of George Blackistone and Rebecca Hebb in St. Mary's County in 1839.  He and Lillia appear on the 1840 Census along with their infant son Francis Blackistone Dent, 4 free persons of color and 6 slaves. In 1850, the Census shows John and Lillia with 4 children: Catherine age 7, John M, age 5, Mary age 3 and Lillia age 1 (Francis having died in 1841). At that point, he owned 12 enslaved people. His real estate was valued at $4500. 

From 1852 to 1854, Col. Dent represented St. Mary's County in the Maryland House of Delegates and was elected Speaker of the House in 1854.

By 1860, John and Lillia had had three more children: Frances, Grace, and Robert, although only Frances (Fanny) lived to adulthood. With the help of 18 enslaved people, John raised sizeable crops of tobacco, corn and wheat as well as herds of cows and sheep.  His land was valued at $24,000 and his personal property (including slaves) at $29,000.  

Although Maryland did not secede from the Union, St. Mary's County, deep in Southern Maryland, was hardly a stronghold of Union sentiment during the Civil War.  In the election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln got exactly 1 vote in the county. (The identity of that voter was no doubt a closely guarded secret.)  St. Mary's County was occupied by Federal troops throughout the war and arrests of civilians were quite common. In effect, St. Mary's was under martial law for most of the war. 

John's oldest son, Marshall, "skedaddled South" like many other young men of the county to serve in the Confederate Army.  (He was wounded at the Battle of Bunker Hill in Virginia in 1862, managed to make it across the river and was hidden at home to avoid capture until his wounds healed. He spent the remainder of the war doing administrative work in Richmond and later lived in Georgia for a number of years before returning to Maryland.)

It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that St. Mary's managed to elect John Francis Dent, a pro-secession representative to the House of Delegates in 1861. Dent also served on the Maryland Constitutional Convention in 1864 and 1867 and was instrumental in reviving the Democratic Party, which at the time was the pro-Southern party.  

Fortunately for family historians like me, Col. Dent was an inveterate writer.  He kept a diary from 1853 until his death in 1898 and wrote daily letters home from Annapolis when he was in the legislature. Not only do these writings give intimate details about the family and the workings of the farm (including almost daily weather reports), they provide  powerful insight into his feelings about the War.  

His diaries are replete with reports of the arrests of various of his neighbors by the hated Federalist soldiers as well as scathing comments about the few neighbors who supported the Union.

In March of 1863, for example, he expresses his outrage that Union soldiers were taking possession of all boats in order to prevent communication between St. Mary's County and the Virginia shore on the opposite side of the Potomac River. John's brother Walter was arrested that year and imprisoned in Washington DC for smuggling goods across the river to the Confederates.  John wrote to his distant cousin, Julia Dent Grant, wife of General Grant, in an effort to secure Walter's release.  Eventually Walter was freed on the argument that no evidence of smuggling was found (since the goods had already been unloaded in Virginia and he was on his way back when arrested.) 

Later that year he reported: "Had a round of words with an Irish soldier McDonald at Milestown.  He was very provoking and evidently wished me to say something by which he could cause me to be arrested.  I claimed stoutly in defiance of him a right to express my opinion with regard to the war. I believe him to be an unmitigated scoundrel and blackguard." 

John kept himself very well informed about the progress of the war and his diary comments regularly on the outcomes of various battles.  "News of Hooker's defeat reached us by private hands. The papers do not confirm it, but the tone of the news is such as to create the impression it is true." "Fresh news of Hooker's defeat.  Secretary Stanton calls it a failure, not a disaster.  But it looks too much like a disaster to pass for anything less."

In June of 1863, Col. Dent reports regularly on the Confederate advance into Maryland and Pennsylvania, noting that Federal troops in the county were called away to defend against that advance. On July 2, he reports that "a heavy battle is imminent" and noted that the Confederate army had been "very daring." On July 4, he reported that the Federal Army had been "worsted" in battle a few days earlier.  (Remember that he only got the news after a lag of several days.) By July 7, he acknowledged that Lee had been repulsed at Gettysburg, but also noted that many Federal officers had been killed or wounded. On July 19, he noted that "St. Mary's County Confederates suffered very severely at Gettysburg battle.  Most of the wounded are prisoners.  Much unhappiness in the county among their friends.  Several have gone from the County to minister to their wants including two physicians." 

One source of particular ire for Dent was the Federal confiscation of property and the recruitment/"abduction" of Negroes to serve in the Union army.  He describes this repeatedly in his diary.   In August 1863, he notes that "I learn that C. Spaulding's goods have been ...carried off. Spaulding prisoner aboard steamer.  Is it possible that such outright robbery can be done in our County without resistance or redress?  I confess there is a spirit of cowardly submission on the part of our people which astounds me."  The Colonel comments frequently on the "faithlessness" of the Negroes who run off to join the Union Army.  In point of fact, very few white men were drafted from St. Mary's County as most of the draft quota was filled by Negro volunteers, much to Col. Dent's disgust.  In 1864, he noted that "in all, twenty slaves have been taken from me by the Federal military, which I value at $15,000." He later tried unsuccessfully to claim damages from the government for his losses, and wrote personally to President Lincoln to protest what he saw as a grave injustice.

In September 1863, Col. Dent received word that he had been nominated to serve in the Maryland House of Delegates, again, having served several previous terms.  Election to the House at this time, with a Governor who sided with the Federalists, was fraught with danger to fortune and freedom and a most difficult assignment in a divided state.  "Having accepted such positions in prosperous times, I feel I have no right to decline in these disjointed times." He undoubtedly felt that without some Southern sympathizers in office, the Maryland "radical Republicans" would have it all their own way. He later describes his position in the House as "the Rebel corner."

During his last term in the House and during the Constitutional Convention in 1864, Dent's letters show his position on the war, as compared to one of his neighbors: "He for sustaining the Administration in the prosecution of the war, even to subjugation and holding the South as Russia does Poland while I oppose the war and am for separation, rather than continue the war." 

Early in 1864, he notes that he thinks this will be the last year of slavery in the state of Maryland, an intuition which proved correct as the Maryland Constitution of November 1864 abolished slavery, thus leading to Maryland's nickname: The Free State.  However, the new Constitution also instituted a loyalty test which effectively denied the vote to anyone who had supported the South, a provision that Col. Dent vehemently opposed (and which was later rescinded by the Constitution of 1867.)

 I addressed the House against the 'test oath' in the Convention Bill. ... I alluded to its effects on gentlemen, who at the breaking out of the war, some of whom filled the highest position in the state, whose first impulses were prompted by gushing and overflowing sympathies for those we were then pleased to call our Southern brethren and led them to interpose obstructions to the Federal authorities in various ways. ... All these who had in various degrees opposed and obstructed the Federal authorities and manifested sympathy with and for the South, even though now within the pale of the highest Church of recognized loyalty, would be disenfranchised by this oath.  

The Colonel felt himself under constant threat of arrest, noting that "the whole country is full of detectives.... They direct their efforts toward all who have the manliness to denounce the administration and they need only small pretexts to arrest whom they desire to get within their clutches."

I have very good reason to think they have been on my track and still may be.  But I defy the villains and their villainies. While I have denounced and will denounce all their outrages unsparingly, I know my duties well enough to keep within my rights in all I do and say. "

In fact, Col. Dent was arrested several times during the War, but always managed to secure his release.

With the end of the War and the emancipation of slaves, the value of Dent's property dropped dramatically to just $2300 in 1870.  He narrowly avoided bankruptcy (the fate of many Southern Maryland farmers) by selling off much of his land holdings. He was also a lawyer and supported his family in part by handling the legal affairs of his neighbors.

Following the war, Col. Dent directed a great deal of his effort to reviving the Democratic Party and, as his obituary noted, "to his end he kept the faith and ever followed the Party flag." 

He continued throughout the remainder of his life to be active in the affairs of the community, serving on various taxpayer and road commissions. For a number of years, he was president of the Board of School Commissioners of St. Mary's County and at his death was president of the Board of Trustees of Charlotte Hall Academy. 

Lillia Blackistone Dent died in 1884 and Col. Dent married for a second time to Lucy Chandler of Westmoreland County VA (directly across the Potomac) in 1893. 

Col. John Francis Dent died in Westmoreland County VA in January 1898 at the age of 84 and is buried at All Saints Cemetery in Oakley, St. Mary's County MD.  

Of his nine children, only three--his son John Marshall Dent (my 2X great-grandfather), his daughter Fanny, and his daughter Georgianna--survived him. 

While I’m not in agreement with a lot of Grandfather Dent’s thinking, his writing is helpful in understanding the attitudes and prejudices of his place and time. And no one can say he wasn’t right up front in laying out what was on his mind.

#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 45 Ghost Story: Abel Huntington Lee, the Man who Died Twice

 My distant cousin, Abel Huntington Lee, was born in Lyme CT in 1812, the grandson of Revolutionary War patriot Captain Elisha Lee and the son of John Murdock Lee and Anne Beckwith. 

In 1841 in Baltimore MD, Abel married Maria Louisa Weems, the daughter of Captain Elijah Weems and Mary Ann Shaw.  Abel and Maria had six daughters: Anna, Florence, Laura, Nina, Emma, and Rosalie, and one son: William Huntington Lee between 1843 and 1856.

Abel worked as a coach builder and painter, living first in Calvert County MD and later moving to Washington DC, where his skills were apparently very well regarded.  He had a shop on K street in the northwest part of the city. 

With the start of the Civil War, Abel was anxious to serve his country.  According to an 1896 account in the Washington Post, Abel was, in appearance, "one of those enigmas of humanity, apparently so delicate in health as to make one wonder how he was able to walk much less than to perform a man’s share of labor, and no one would suppose for an instant that he would be able to perform military or any other service for the government."  However, he applied to the Union commander to work as a spy since he believed his knowledge of southern Maryland and those who might be in sympathy with the rebellion could be used to Union advantage. The Union general thanked him for his offer and said they would get back to him if they needed him.

But Abel was not willing to be brushed off so easily and decided to do some spying on his own.  He was convinced that people in Southern Maryland were aiding in keeping open a mail route to and from the confederacy and that much of the contraband mail came through Washington DC.  He was determined to learn the details of the business and the agents behind it. After about two weeks of investigating, he was able to locate the confederate post office in DC and convey the information to the Union Army, which seized the location and captured a number of contraband letters and papers. 

This investigation gave him credibility and he was assigned to work with the Navy and the Potomac flotilla.  In August of 1861, he headed for Leonardtown in St. Mary's County, quite confident that he would be able to break up the entire clandestine route for confederate communications. Dressed in his working clothes and carrying his painting tools, he excited little suspicion as he travelled through Southern Maryland. However, he was betrayed by an erstwhile family friend and captured by the Confederate forces, who decided that he should be hung on the spot.  

His captors gave him a chance to say a few last words, and here his quick wit was able to save him from death by hanging.  Taking note of his slight build, Abel joked that “Gentlemen, if you hang me, you want to do it properly, break my neck; don’t you? Well, you had better wait till you can get a fifty-six pound weight to tie to my heels.”  That got a laugh from the Confederates and, admiring his pluck,  they decided to postpone the hanging and took him instead to the county jail in Henrico VA.  

Unfortunately, his family received a letter about Christmas in 1861 informing them that Abel had been hanged and so spent the Christmas season mourning the ignominious death of their husband and father. 

A year later in December of 1862, a number of exchanged prisoners were returned to Washington, Lee among them, and his family must have rejoiced at his miraculous return from the dead. 

Their joy was short-lived. After 16 months in Confederate prisons, Lee was so ill that he died about six months after his return in July 1863.  He was buried in Congressional Cemetery. 

Abel's wife Maria had great difficulty in obtaining a pension for her husband's service since he was not officially enlisted in either the Army or the Navy.  However, after some years of effort, Congress passed a special act in 1884 authorizing a pension for Maria of $28.40 a month.  

Maria Weems Lee died in Washington DC in 1903. 

Abel Huntington Lee was a man determined to serve his country and he paid the ultimate price for his devotion. His last words, according to his obituary: "I have endeavored to do my duty to my God and to my country, which is as dear to me as my life." 

#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 7 Landed: Francis Scrivener

 Of all the ancestors in the Scrivener line, my 4X-great grandfather, Francis Scrivener, was the largest landowner.  

Francis Scrivener, the third son of John Scrivener and Mary Lewin, was born about 1742 in Anne Arundel County MD.  This is the first appearance of the name Francis in the Scrivener family, and I have not been able to discover if Francis might have been named for some relative.  His older brothers Richard and John appear to have been named for their maternal and paternal grandfathers respectively, a very common naming pattern.   His younger brother, William, appears to have been named for his father's brother.  But Francis is an outlier.  Possibly he was named for a neighbor who was a family friend. However, I think that Francis may have been the source for the naming of his great-grandson, Frank Philip Scrivener. 

In any case, Francis's father John drowned in the Patuxent River in 1757 when Francis was still a teenager.  His older brother Richard died unmarried in 1762 and his older brother John died at about the same time leaving a wife and a daughter, Mary Scrivener. Thus Francis was left to take responsibility for his widowed mother and his handicapped younger brother.  In 1771 Francis deeded to his mother 127 acres of his Carter Bennett property for her lifetime, with the proviso that his brother William would be able to live on the property without rent for his lifetime.  Mary Scrivener died in 1772 with Francis as the executor of her estate. William died in 1797, living with Francis for the remainder of his life.

Although there doesn't seem to be a written record of his marriage, Francis was apparently married about 1770, in his late 20's.  By the census of 1776, he appears in St. James Parish with a woman and four girls (Mary, Ann, Elizabeth, and Sarah) as well as sixteen slaves in his household.  His neighbors were Samuel Chew, Lewis Scrivener (a cousin) and Morgan Jones.

Francis's three sons, John (my 3X-great grandfather), George, and Francis Jr., were born between 1776 and 1783. The Assessment of 1783 shows Francis Scrivener with 415 acres of Carter Bennett valued at $550. His household consisted of 4 white males and 5 white females, but only 1 white male was between the ages of 15 and 50, Francis himself. He was also assessed for 24 enslaved people. The 1790 Census of Anne Arundel County shows Francis's household as 3 white males under 16 (John, George, and Francis), 3 white males over 16 (Francis and his brother William and ?), and 5 white females (his wife, and daughters Mary, Ann, Elizabeth and Sarah).

I have not been able to identify Francis's first wife positively, but I suspect that she was Elizabeth Simmons, the daughter of Francis's neighbor, George Simmons.  I base this in part on the common naming pattern that a second son would be named for his maternal grandfather.  And George Simmons did have a daughter Elizabeth who was the right age to be Francis's wife and was unmarried when George wrote his will in 1764. The name George does not appear elsewhere in the Scrivener line up to this point.  Circumstantial, I know, but that's the best I've got until some heretofore hidden record of marriage turns up. 

In any case, his first wife and the mother of his children was dead by 1794 when Francis married for the second time to the already twice-widowed Eleanor Ward Lewin Robinson, the daughter of Quakers Robert and Elizabeth Ward of Anne Arundel County. Eleanor had two children by her marriage to Francis's cousin Richard Lewin: Eleanor and Richard.  She and Francis had no children. Eleanor died in 1802.

During the years between 1769 and 1796, Francis amassed several large tracts of land, all near Herring Bay and the present-day village of Friendship in southern Anne Arundel County.

* Carter Bennett 430 acres acquired in several different purchases

* Evans Purchase 200 acres

* Wells and West Wells 100 acres

* Kirketon's Choice 160 acres (whose history I have previously described)

In addition, Francis received several special warrants to resurvey his holdings in 1783 and 1793 to include additional vacant land adjoining the property, adding another 230 acres. 

Francis Scrivener died in 1797 at about 55 years of age, leaving a will that named all seven of his children. His inventory shows an estate valued at about L2600, including 26 slaves ranging in age from five to fifty years.  His household goods included four feather beds, two pine tables, a dozen "winsor" chairs and six two-armed chairs, a half dozen knives and forks, a spy glass, 950 gallons of cider and some shoemaker's tools.  His livestock included 26 cows, four yoke of oxen, 23 hogs and nine horses.  In other words, quite a sizeable estate. (Compare to his father's estate forty years earlier valued at L650.)  Francis's oldest son John and his son-in-law John Whittington were the executors of the estate. 

To his oldest son, John, he left his dwelling plantation at Carter Bennett as well as Wells and West Wells. To his son George he left two tracts--Kirketon's Choice and Evans Purchase.  To his other children he left slaves.

However, it was many years before Francis's estate was finally settled because a suit was brought by Joseph Camden, the husband of Francis's niece, Mary Scrivener, claiming that Francis had never given his brother William his fair share of his parents' estate.  William, who died in 1797, was described in the court record as "a simpleton incapable of managing his own affairs." William was unmarried and had lived with his brother since their mother's death.  

The case must have kept southern Anne Arundel County entertained for years as both sides took dozens of depositions from the Scriveners' neighbors testifying to Francis's treatment of his brother.  Some claimed that William was treated like a laborer and was afraid of his brother, while others claimed that William was treated as a beloved family member and never forced to work. 

In the end, the court decided William was entitled to a greater share of his mother's estate and that share was eventually distributed to his Camden nieces and nephews in 1808, and to Francis's children, all of whom were still living, as shown below. 

Elizabeth Scrivener married married John Whittington in 1797. Three children: Mary, Charles, and Samuel.

Mary Scrivener married Jack Wood in 1809.  No children.

Sarah Scrivener married William Ward in 1800.  Daughter Sarah.

Ann Scrivener married Henry Dowell in 1796.  Children: Francis, Henry, Mary, Elizabeth, Ann, George Washington, Elijah, John, and Richard. 

John Scrivener married Eliza Smith Boswell in 1817. Children: John, Sarah, Samuel, Elizabeth, William Boswell, Sydney, Francis, James, Priscilla, Maria Louise, Emily Augusta, and Rose Matilda.

George Scrivener married Lurana Childs in 1805, married Mary Ann Childs in 1807.  No children.

Francis Scrivener married Ellen about 1810.  Children: Samuel, Thomas, Ellen, James, and Henry.  This is the origin of the Calvert County branch of the family. 

Francis's son John ended up acquiring more of the Carter Bennett property through purchases in the early 1800's.  His son George got into financial difficulties and lost his inherited properties, but was bailed out by his brother John who purchased his brother's tracts.

#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 13 Sisters: Eunice and Evalina Sasscer

 My grandmother Theresa Evalina Sasscer (Summers) and her sister Eunice Loretto Sasscer (Turner) were inseparable.  They were born a year apart in 1898 and 1897 respectively in Prince George's County MD, two of the four children of Thomas Reverdy Sasscer and Theresa Evalina Wallis, along with their brothers Francis Wallis Sasscer and Clarence DeSales Sasscer.  Throughout their lives, they were never far apart. 

I am most fortunate that both my grandmother and my great aunt left wonderful narratives of their growing up on the farm at Breezy Hill, so I would like to share some of that story using their words.  

Eunice and Evalina attended the one-room school across the road from their farm, built on land donated by their father.  The girls were the "janitors," responsible for making the fire every morning and sweeping up the floors.  They used the money they earned for this to pay for music lessons with Mrs. W. Berry Early.  If the weather was especially cold and snowy, their father would go down early and start the old pot belly stove for them. Eunice remembered that they would have geography three days a week and history on the other two days, with English, arithmetic and spelling every day. 

The schoolroom below is not the one they attended, but it gives the idea of what it would have been like. 

During the fall, Evalina said, her brothers would go out early every morning to check the traps for rabbits that might have been caught during the night and all the children would rush to the chestnut trees trying to beat the turkeys at collecting chestnuts that the wind had blown down. 

Evalina described her father as a "kind gentle man who seldom got angry." He worked hard at his farm, but always cleaned up before a meal and put on his black coat before coming to the table. He was strict with the children, especially about their table manners.  "Many was the time," according to Evalina, "that we were sent to the kitchen for giggling at the table."  Rev (as her father was known) made his own cigars from special tobacco leaves that he brought up from the barn and kept in the closet under the staircase. His special love, his daughter said, was his team of spirited horses which he would drive when calling on his friends and to Mass at Marlboro. 

Miss Eunice and Miss Booty

In the mornings, Eunice and Evalina were expected to be at the breakfast table with their chores done: milk, cream, sugar and butter on the table--and no sleeping late.  They also had to make their beds.  One morning, Evalina said, they skipped off to school without doing that chore and their mother sent the cook down to the schoolhouse, where she announced: "Miss Eva (their mother) she say for Miss Eunice and Miss Booty (my grandmother) to come home and make the beds up."  My grandmother said they never tried that trick again. Their mother made all their clothes, and you can see her beautiful work in the photograph above. 

Eunice remembered the pantry at the farm house always had a huge barrel of flour that her father purchased once a year from Baltimore and a keg of sugar.  They raised a lot of corn on the farm which was then ground into corn meal and made into corn bread, which was used to feed the dogs on the farm. (There was no such thing as "dog food."  You had to supply your own.)  She said they always had plenty of milk because they raised cows.  

Evalina

Evalina noted that her Papa had a violin which he played by ear.  Eunice, she said, had inherited that musical talent and would accompany him on the black square piano which her parents had purchased. Eunice and Evalina were each supposed to practice on the piano for an hour after school using a small blue china clock to keep the time. In the winter, the parlor was cold, and they would make a fire to warm the room before practicing.  Evalina said she could remember sitting on her hands to get them warm.  Both the girls loved music; Evalina gravitated more toward the classical, while Eunice tended to play more of the popular music. Eunice remembered that her mother insisted that the girls sit down and play and sing "all the old songs" every Sunday afternoon.  (As a young woman, Evalina worked for the War Department and lived for a time at St. Vincent's orphanage in Washington DC, where Bishop Fulton Sheen was also in residence.  He was her audience in the evenings when she played the piano there.)

For entertainment, Eunice said, there was a lot of visiting among families and friends, driving to each other's houses for skating and sledding parties and attending church suppers.  She also remembered the Tournaments in the summer in various communities where the boys would ride horses with a long spear and use it to capture three balls along the route. Eventually this Jousting became the state sport of Maryland. 

Eunice Sasscer

While their brother Wallis attended Charlotte Hall Military Academy, Eunice and Evalina along with their brother Clarence (as well as my grandfather Paul Summers and you know how that ended up!) attended Baden Agricultural High School, opened in the fall of 1913. They drove a horse and buggy every day to school.  Eunice left Baden after a year and went to Towson Normal School to train as a teacher, taking the train from Brandywine to Baltimore. After graduation, she taught two years in Prince George's County and then in Washington DC for a year before getting married. Evalina finished at Baden in 1916 and then taught for two years before taking a job at the War Department, having decided that teaching was not for her. 

Evalina married her high school classmate Paul Summers in 1924 and lived the rest of her life near Upper Marlboro.  Eunice married Charles Littleton Turner and moved a little further south to Aquasco. 

Sasscer Siblings and their Spouses

As adults, Eunice and Evalina loved to travel everywhere together, especially after Eunice's husband died in 1966 and my grandfather died in 1970. The sisters visited relatives in the States and even travelled to Europe. I never remember attending a family gathering at my grandmother's house where Aunt Eunice was not there.