Friday, January 13, 2012
Doing Business with Horses -- 1870s - 1900s
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"Doing business with horses" -- a phrase that can be interpreted in several ways: using horses to conduct one's business; the businesses of buying, selling, or training horses; or working in a business that supplies the equipment and tools required by those who own horses for any reason. The end of the nineteenth century to the start of the twentieth was the period just before the beginning of the end for horses as a part of everyday life in both rural and urban areas. Although the automobile powered by an internal combustion engine had made its practical appearance in the 1880s, ownership was still limited and sightings even in Annapolis were rare until the early twentieth century.
When Boyd's Business Directory of the State of Maryland was published in 1875, horsepower for moving people and goods was still provided by horses, not cars. Of the businesses in towns that catered to the needs of horses, the directory listed one blacksmith, Gottlieb Feldmeyer, at 16 Carroll Street (in the area where the James Senate Office Building and other state agencies are now located). Joseph Hayes's harness making business occupied space nearby at 25 Cathedral Street and Arthur Carter's wheelwright shop was not much farther away at 64 Tabernacle Street (now College Avenue). With West Street providing the only land access to Annapolis, businesses catering to horses located on the perimeter of the city near West. Benjamin Martin's Hotel at 67 West and Moses Sellmon at 55 West both offered livery services and stabling for horses.
The term "livery" has several definitions, but the one most appropriate here is "a stable that boards horses and that keeps horses and carriages for hire." The dictionary definition encompasses both boarding and hiring, but the advertisements that appear in the diretories separate the two. Martin's Hotel offered horses and vehicles for hire but also provided a place to stable horses for travelers and perhaps for townspeople who owned a horse but didn't have a stable.
The Maryland Directory, published two years later in 1878, listed three blacksmiths in Annapolis. Gottlieb Feldmeyer was still in business, and two additional firms, Martin & Meyers and Peterson, Stites, & Co., also offered services in this line. Blacksmiths could not only shoe horses but also did the metal work for wooden carriage and cart wheels, repaired traces, and could fabricate or mend the metal parts of harnesses and riding gear.
By the publication of the 1882 edition of this directory, the number of city blacksmiths had increased to six: Feldmeyer, W. W. Martin on his own, Peterson, without Stites, as Peterson & Co., Arthur Carter, Ferdinand Hogan, and Jacob Niehl. The portion of the 1885 Sanborn Insurance Co. map of Annapolis shown above identifies the Feldmeyer blacksmith shop in the middle of the Carroll Street block, with a wheelwright shop next door.
Jumping ahead fourteen years to 1896-97, there were again six blacksmiths in Annapolis, but the personnel had changed once more. W. H. Feldmeyer now did business at 20 Carroll Street, Samuel Peterson was located on the waterfront at Medford Wharf and A. A. Stites served customers at City Dock. Newcomers included W. W. Morris at 117 West Street, J. F. Stevens at 167 West, and F. E. Stevens at 51 Prince George Street. The same 1896 directory listed thirty blacksmiths in the rest of the county, serving customers in twenty-five different towns or neighborhoods.
The three later directories show the same patterns of continuity and change in the other businesses related to horses. Joseph Hays appears as a harness maker again in 1878 but not in subsequent years. Theodore G. Friemel was the harness maker in Annapolis in 1882, perhaps in association with Gottlieb Feldmeyer. By 1896, his business was in the hands of C. A. Friemel and located at 53 West Street, and J. B. Martin, at 71 West, also made saddles and harnesses. In 1878, the directory had an entry for Martin & Myers (also listed as blacksmiths) under the wheelwright heading; they were the only wheelwrights listed that year. In 1896-97, according to the directory, there were no wheelwrights in town, but the city had one wagonmaker, F. E. Stevens (also listed as a blacksmith) at 51 Prince George Street.
Benjamin Martin remained in the hotel and livery business for the entire twenty-year period covered by the early directories. He was listed only as B. C. Martin under the category heading of "Livery/Stable" in 1878 and 1882 but reappeared as Martin's Hotel, at 73-75 West Street, in 1896-1897. James H. Vansant also operated a livery/stable business in 1878 and 1882, and 1882's listing included F. W. Duvall as well. In 1896-97, in addition to Martin's Hotel, there were two establishments in town: Richard G. Chaney at 121 West Street, near the railroad depot and the Annapolis & Bay Ridge Stables, at 61-63 West (established in 1870, according to their advertisement), with a Vansant family member as manager.
Two other categories of business related to horses appear in the directories published in 1875 and 1896-97. James Vansant's first directory listing, in 1875, was as the agent for Adams Express Company at 7 West Street. Adams was still in business twenty years later, but now had a competitor, the United States Express Company at State Circle and Francis Street. The advertisements of the livery and express businesses point to the mutually beneficial relationship between the steamboat lines and railroads on the one hand and the livery companies on the other. Freight arriving by boat and rail had to be transported to businesses, farms, and homes, just as passengers had to be brought to and from the wharves and depots. Livery companies were the taxis and rental trucks of the pre-combustion-engine era.
And just as later directories contain listings for gasoline stations, so too the 1896-97 directory included among its entries two businesses that provided fuel for horse power. John H. Rawlings, at 77 West Street, and Henry B. Myers, at 29 West, advertised hay and feed among their many products for home and farm.
Henry B. Myers opened his business on West Street in the late 1880s and Henry Myers & Co. continued to occupy the site until the early 1970s. In its earliest years, the company catered to a horse-powered agricultural economy, selling harnesses and hardware on West Street and advertising the availability of coal, lumber, flour, feed, and hay behind the store in buildings that lined Cathedral Street, as shown below in the 1891 Sanborn map (buildings have been renumbered since 1891). As cars replaced horses, harnesses, hay, and feed gave way to paints and oils, china, GE appliances, and housewares. The family business first occupied 47 and 49 West and later expanded into 45. Between 1908 and 1913, the company added a third story and gave the original 18th century buildings a uniform facade with a modern, 20th century look.
In the Sanborn map below, Cathedral Street runs along the left side of the block shown and West Street runs diagonally along the right. The supplies of hay and feed were stored in the sheds along Cathedral.
Looking down the first block of West Street toward St. Anne's Church (after 1908), horse-drawn vehicles still dominate the street's traffic although they no longer have exclusive use of the roadway. The remodeled buildings at 45-49 can be seen as the three-story structure on the right side of the street.
By 1928, the company advertised trucks as well as hardware, stoves, and household goods, but hay and feed could still be purchased.
A c.1930 photograph shows the remodeled storefront while the last photograph below captures the recent businesses occupying 45-49 West Street in 2008 as well as the modern color palette. And the internal combustion engine appears to have won the battle for the street.
.
"Doing business with horses" -- a phrase that can be interpreted in several ways: using horses to conduct one's business; the businesses of buying, selling, or training horses; or working in a business that supplies the equipment and tools required by those who own horses for any reason. The end of the nineteenth century to the start of the twentieth was the period just before the beginning of the end for horses as a part of everyday life in both rural and urban areas. Although the automobile powered by an internal combustion engine had made its practical appearance in the 1880s, ownership was still limited and sightings even in Annapolis were rare until the early twentieth century.
When Boyd's Business Directory of the State of Maryland was published in 1875, horsepower for moving people and goods was still provided by horses, not cars. Of the businesses in towns that catered to the needs of horses, the directory listed one blacksmith, Gottlieb Feldmeyer, at 16 Carroll Street (in the area where the James Senate Office Building and other state agencies are now located). Joseph Hayes's harness making business occupied space nearby at 25 Cathedral Street and Arthur Carter's wheelwright shop was not much farther away at 64 Tabernacle Street (now College Avenue). With West Street providing the only land access to Annapolis, businesses catering to horses located on the perimeter of the city near West. Benjamin Martin's Hotel at 67 West and Moses Sellmon at 55 West both offered livery services and stabling for horses.
The term "livery" has several definitions, but the one most appropriate here is "a stable that boards horses and that keeps horses and carriages for hire." The dictionary definition encompasses both boarding and hiring, but the advertisements that appear in the diretories separate the two. Martin's Hotel offered horses and vehicles for hire but also provided a place to stable horses for travelers and perhaps for townspeople who owned a horse but didn't have a stable.The Maryland Directory, published two years later in 1878, listed three blacksmiths in Annapolis. Gottlieb Feldmeyer was still in business, and two additional firms, Martin & Meyers and Peterson, Stites, & Co., also offered services in this line. Blacksmiths could not only shoe horses but also did the metal work for wooden carriage and cart wheels, repaired traces, and could fabricate or mend the metal parts of harnesses and riding gear.
By the publication of the 1882 edition of this directory, the number of city blacksmiths had increased to six: Feldmeyer, W. W. Martin on his own, Peterson, without Stites, as Peterson & Co., Arthur Carter, Ferdinand Hogan, and Jacob Niehl. The portion of the 1885 Sanborn Insurance Co. map of Annapolis shown above identifies the Feldmeyer blacksmith shop in the middle of the Carroll Street block, with a wheelwright shop next door.
Jumping ahead fourteen years to 1896-97, there were again six blacksmiths in Annapolis, but the personnel had changed once more. W. H. Feldmeyer now did business at 20 Carroll Street, Samuel Peterson was located on the waterfront at Medford Wharf and A. A. Stites served customers at City Dock. Newcomers included W. W. Morris at 117 West Street, J. F. Stevens at 167 West, and F. E. Stevens at 51 Prince George Street. The same 1896 directory listed thirty blacksmiths in the rest of the county, serving customers in twenty-five different towns or neighborhoods.
The three later directories show the same patterns of continuity and change in the other businesses related to horses. Joseph Hays appears as a harness maker again in 1878 but not in subsequent years. Theodore G. Friemel was the harness maker in Annapolis in 1882, perhaps in association with Gottlieb Feldmeyer. By 1896, his business was in the hands of C. A. Friemel and located at 53 West Street, and J. B. Martin, at 71 West, also made saddles and harnesses. In 1878, the directory had an entry for Martin & Myers (also listed as blacksmiths) under the wheelwright heading; they were the only wheelwrights listed that year. In 1896-97, according to the directory, there were no wheelwrights in town, but the city had one wagonmaker, F. E. Stevens (also listed as a blacksmith) at 51 Prince George Street.
Benjamin Martin remained in the hotel and livery business for the entire twenty-year period covered by the early directories. He was listed only as B. C. Martin under the category heading of "Livery/Stable" in 1878 and 1882 but reappeared as Martin's Hotel, at 73-75 West Street, in 1896-1897. James H. Vansant also operated a livery/stable business in 1878 and 1882, and 1882's listing included F. W. Duvall as well. In 1896-97, in addition to Martin's Hotel, there were two establishments in town: Richard G. Chaney at 121 West Street, near the railroad depot and the Annapolis & Bay Ridge Stables, at 61-63 West (established in 1870, according to their advertisement), with a Vansant family member as manager.
Two other categories of business related to horses appear in the directories published in 1875 and 1896-97. James Vansant's first directory listing, in 1875, was as the agent for Adams Express Company at 7 West Street. Adams was still in business twenty years later, but now had a competitor, the United States Express Company at State Circle and Francis Street. The advertisements of the livery and express businesses point to the mutually beneficial relationship between the steamboat lines and railroads on the one hand and the livery companies on the other. Freight arriving by boat and rail had to be transported to businesses, farms, and homes, just as passengers had to be brought to and from the wharves and depots. Livery companies were the taxis and rental trucks of the pre-combustion-engine era.
And just as later directories contain listings for gasoline stations, so too the 1896-97 directory included among its entries two businesses that provided fuel for horse power. John H. Rawlings, at 77 West Street, and Henry B. Myers, at 29 West, advertised hay and feed among their many products for home and farm.
Henry B. Myers opened his business on West Street in the late 1880s and Henry Myers & Co. continued to occupy the site until the early 1970s. In its earliest years, the company catered to a horse-powered agricultural economy, selling harnesses and hardware on West Street and advertising the availability of coal, lumber, flour, feed, and hay behind the store in buildings that lined Cathedral Street, as shown below in the 1891 Sanborn map (buildings have been renumbered since 1891). As cars replaced horses, harnesses, hay, and feed gave way to paints and oils, china, GE appliances, and housewares. The family business first occupied 47 and 49 West and later expanded into 45. Between 1908 and 1913, the company added a third story and gave the original 18th century buildings a uniform facade with a modern, 20th century look.In the Sanborn map below, Cathedral Street runs along the left side of the block shown and West Street runs diagonally along the right. The supplies of hay and feed were stored in the sheds along Cathedral.
Looking down the first block of West Street toward St. Anne's Church (after 1908), horse-drawn vehicles still dominate the street's traffic although they no longer have exclusive use of the roadway. The remodeled buildings at 45-49 can be seen as the three-story structure on the right side of the street.
By 1928, the company advertised trucks as well as hardware, stoves, and household goods, but hay and feed could still be purchased.
A c.1930 photograph shows the remodeled storefront while the last photograph below captures the recent businesses occupying 45-49 West Street in 2008 as well as the modern color palette. And the internal combustion engine appears to have won the battle for the street.
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Monday, January 2, 2012
The White Horse
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A couple of weeks ago, I was in New York for the weekend and took a break from a walk around Central Park to visit The Frick Collection. While in the museum, my eye was caught by a Constable landscape labelled "The White Horse." The horse in question is standing in the bow of a flatboat getting underway on the left side of the canvas. One man is busy coiling up an anchor line while two men are pushing the boat away from shore using long poles. A fourth man, smoking a pipe, sits in the stern with the tiller at hand. The catalog description of the painting describes it as showing "a tow-horse being ferried across the river Stour near Dedham."
The tow-horse will eventually be pulling a narrow boat on a nearby canal. His connection to the ferry is only as a passenger. The horse stands in a well between the bow and a low raised deck area that runs almost the length of the boat. Three of the ferrymen are standing on this raised deck while the fourth appears to be sitting on the side of a similar small well at the stern end. It is difficult to see how this vessel could carry much in the way of cargo except on calm days when passengers and baggage could rest securely on the elevated deck. Only the use of planking to cover the recessed space would allow the boat to carry any kind of wheeled vehicle.
What is certain, however, is that there is no cable, no provision for sails, and no arrangement for rowing. Is the river shallow enough at this point to pole the boat across? Does it drift with the current, steered by the tiller? That would seem to make crossings "on demand" unlikely and complicate the shuttle design of having a matched pair of ferry landings. Short of a time machine, an account by a very observant and obsessively detailed traveller, a manual for ferry operators, or some other contemporary description, the details remain unclear.
A couple of weeks ago, I was in New York for the weekend and took a break from a walk around Central Park to visit The Frick Collection. While in the museum, my eye was caught by a Constable landscape labelled "The White Horse." The horse in question is standing in the bow of a flatboat getting underway on the left side of the canvas. One man is busy coiling up an anchor line while two men are pushing the boat away from shore using long poles. A fourth man, smoking a pipe, sits in the stern with the tiller at hand. The catalog description of the painting describes it as showing "a tow-horse being ferried across the river Stour near Dedham."
The tow-horse will eventually be pulling a narrow boat on a nearby canal. His connection to the ferry is only as a passenger. The horse stands in a well between the bow and a low raised deck area that runs almost the length of the boat. Three of the ferrymen are standing on this raised deck while the fourth appears to be sitting on the side of a similar small well at the stern end. It is difficult to see how this vessel could carry much in the way of cargo except on calm days when passengers and baggage could rest securely on the elevated deck. Only the use of planking to cover the recessed space would allow the boat to carry any kind of wheeled vehicle.
What is certain, however, is that there is no cable, no provision for sails, and no arrangement for rowing. Is the river shallow enough at this point to pole the boat across? Does it drift with the current, steered by the tiller? That would seem to make crossings "on demand" unlikely and complicate the shuttle design of having a matched pair of ferry landings. Short of a time machine, an account by a very observant and obsessively detailed traveller, a manual for ferry operators, or some other contemporary description, the details remain unclear.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Ordinaries, Ferries, and Horses
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Wishing to write one more blog post for 2011, I then, as per usual, decided to defer the agonies of writing in favor of the pleasures of organizing the material that I have been collecting over the past couple of years. I started with the real paper but that proved to be such a heterogeneous collection that the task seemed too demanding for the evening of Boxing Day. So I turned to the virtual paper instead.
One of the first files I found bore the name "Anne Arundel County," which told me very little. When I opened it to investigate further, it proved to be a file of extracts from county court records, all having some connection to ordinaries or ordinary keepers. The file had been generously shared with me by Rod Cofield, Director of Interpretation and Museum Programs at Historic London Town and Gardens. Because the colonial town of London was one terminus of a ferry over the South River, operated by the holder of an ordinary license, all aspects of colonial ordinaries in Anne Arundel are important to the interpretation of the site.
William Brown House, Historic London Town and Gardens
To digress just a bit, in 1755 an Englishman named George Fisher traveled north from Virginia, passing through London Town on his journey. In the narrative of his travels, Fisher wrote "London Town, (a great name) where I arrived about Three stands upon the S W side of South River; is composed of a few houses only. After Crossing this small river not more than half a mile in breadth, Two great Fellows in getting my Horse out of their (Browns) Boat, threw him upon his back in the water; and tho' he lay at least a minute on his side in the water, the Boat beating on him, he received no damage. [William and Mary Quarterly, January 1909, p.175]
Returning to the path on which I originally set out, the file is voluminous with much information that has little to do with the content of this blog. But it does contain scattered entries that help shed additional light on the operation of ferries as they pertained to travel through the county on horseback. Enough information so that I promise to put to rest with this blog the question of the power source for Anne Arundel's ferries. Not that I'm convinced all the evidence has been assembled, but only because I don't plan to go looking for any more. If it turns up, however...
The court record volumes begin in 1703. The county levy for that year, established at the November court session, authorized payment of 6000 pounds of tobacco to each of the county's publicly supported ferrymen. In the manner of colonial roads, which meandered around fields and obstacles, the June 1704 court record presents another digression, in the account of a suit by Joseph Addison against Capt. Edward Hunt. Addison charged that Hunt "at Lyons Creek in Anne Arundel County… stood justly indebted" for an itemized list of expenses that included "money lent you at the race" in the amount of 18 shillings. This serendipitous entry testifies to horse races being held at Lyons Creek (near Herring Bay) as early as 1702.
In the record of the January 1705 court session, the clerk included the rates set for food, drink, and accommodations at county ordinaries. Travelers paid six pence for "a night's lodging in a bed" and the same amount for "good pasturage for a horse". For two shillings the horse's master could purchase a peck of shelled corn or oats as feed for his horse and hay or oat straw bedding for the same amount. The August court further decreed that the ferrymen on the Severn and South Rivers had to be in attendance on Sundays between nine and eleven in the morning and two and four in the afternoon to provide passage for all persons, whether on foot or horseback, who were going to church services.
Horses continued to receive equal, if not superior, consideration in court directives concerning ordinaries and ferries. When the justices appointed Joseph Crouch and James Hoskins as ferry keepers for the Severn River in November 1710, for example, they directed the two men to "ply the [river] with a good boat for carry over of horses and other passengers inhabiting in this county." Edmund Rumney, in petitioning for the appointment as ferry keeper for the South River in November 1713, stated that he had spent at least £300 to built "conveniences . . . fit to give entertainment for man and horse by land or water and is also provided with two good boats and hands."
The first clue as to the means by which the ferry boats moved across the rivers can be found in an entry for November 1715: "Edward Rumney agrees to keep South River Ferry for the ensuing year . . . and to find two good boats and two hands to row in the said boats." This stipulation doesn't rule out the possibility that sails were also used in favorable conditions but would seem to indicate that the ferries did not use any form of cable crossing.
Appointment as ferry keeper for the South River was a sought-after plum, judging from the petitions submitted to the court. John Holland petitioned for the post in November 1716; in granting his request, the court ordered Holland to find "two good boats and five able men to keep the said ferry." Perhaps the experience of the previous year suggested that a ratio of five men to two boats was a better arrangement than two men for two boats.
Strength would seem a desirable attribute for the able hands to have possessed, a judgment confirmed in November 1719 when the Severn River post was requested by Thomas Williams. His petition argued that the incumbent, Robert Jubb, offered poor service because he had "for the most part no body to row in the boat but a couple of very weak boys whose strength is not sufficient very often to convey passengers over[,] especially in hard winds, when tis both dangerous and delaying to those that cross the river." Despite Jubb's deficiencies, however, Williams's petition was rejected. Passengers would continue to take their chances with the weak boys.
The extracted records do not record any significant additions to understanding the operation of the ferries until the 1740s. The November 1746 court directed that "nothing is to be paid for bags containing anything," a charge of "only six pence for any man & horse," and "three pence for a single man or horse." Jurymen attending court could cross after sunset for free. It is tempting to picture horses, without riders, showing up at the ferry landing with three shillings in hoof seeking passage across the river or creek, but more probable to infer that passengers sometimes traveled with extra horses.
The same court session agreed to keep Stephen West as the operator of the South River ferry for another year. As part of the new agreement, the justices granted West permission, when it was not safe for two boats to cross the river, each with a crew of only two men, "by means of hard winds . . . liberty to place all the hands in one Boat if he think proper." Again, the language supports the conclusion that the hands employed by the ferry keeper rowed the boats across the river.
A general order issued in November 1750 set forth the clearest description of the services ferries provided and of the cargoes they typically carried: Ordered that the Ferrymen set over all persons belonging to the County [i.e., county residents] from Sun rising to Sun setting for the allowance [i.e., annual salary] made by the County and also at all times the Justices, Sheriffs, Jurymen, and Evidences [i.e., witnesses summoned to court to testify] during their attending courts, and all other persons set over before Sun rise or after Sun set to pay at the rate of six pence man and horse and three pence for a single person and that the several ferrymen may charge and take for carrying over every chaise or chair or other wheel carriage at the rate of three shillings and six pence each and all ferrymen carry over bags, wallets, baskets, dead meat, and fowls, poultry, geese, and turkeys without charging any thing for the same.
The clerk's record of proceedings in August 1751 contained an unexpected description of the crew of the Magothy River ferry. William Kitely appeared "to answer a the complaint of John Gray of Magothy concerning his keeping Magothy Ferry, and that he should bring with him the girl named Linstead[?] that usually rows in the ferry boat." Evidently the able hands could be female, as well as male, as long as they were strong enough to pull the oars. Three years later, in June 1754, the justices exempted Thomas Barrel, "who rowed in South River Ferry Boat" from payment of the annual levy and granted him a stipend of 320 pounds of tobacco for his support until the next November's levy court, "he having fitts and [being] unable to work." Taxes were levied only on those adults able to work, and residents who could not work and lacked family to care for them received support from public funds.
The men like Thomas Barrel who did the work of loading and unloading the ferries, as well as rowing them, received some consideration for their well-being in a directive of the court issued in November 1754. "The ferrymen are to assist in getting the carriages [on and off the ferry] but shall not be obliged to wade in the water in the winter season." Left unclear is who would wade in the water if that were necessary to move a carriage or chaise safely between shore and ferry. Travel by horse-drawn vehicle entailed various kinds of discomfort but the savings in time must have made their use worth the hardships for inland trips that avoided long sails up and down the Chesapeake region's many rivers.
When the court renewed William Brown's appointment as keeper of the South River ferry in 1762, modifications to the standard terms indicate the growth of public business that was occurring during the third quarter of the century. The justices required that Brown keep two boats and four hands "constantly attending" year round, but "in all public times such as Provincial and County Courts, elections, and other public meetings[,] to keep three boats and six able hands attending." How seaworthy the third boat would be and how skilled the two extra hands (idle or employed in agricultural tasks the rest of the year?) were should perhaps have been a concern.
The August 1769 court proceedings included publication of the current "Rates of Liquors and Other Accomodations." Ordinary keepers could charge 8 pence per gallon for oats and corn. The array of provision for horses also included "Fresh water, hay, corn tops, or oat straw with stableage" at a charge of 1 shilling per night. If fodder consisted only of marsh hay, the cost was 8 pence, and good pasturage per night could be obtained for 6 pence.
With this last entry, the information available from the court records relating to travel on horseback in connection with ordinaries and ferries comes to an end. The references, coupled with the one account by Philip Vickers Fithian of his experience of being called upon to row during a difficult passage, generally indicate that the ferries operating in Anne Arundel relied upon able bodied men (and an occasional woman) to row the ferry boats with their human and equine passengers across the county's waterways.
Wishing to write one more blog post for 2011, I then, as per usual, decided to defer the agonies of writing in favor of the pleasures of organizing the material that I have been collecting over the past couple of years. I started with the real paper but that proved to be such a heterogeneous collection that the task seemed too demanding for the evening of Boxing Day. So I turned to the virtual paper instead.
One of the first files I found bore the name "Anne Arundel County," which told me very little. When I opened it to investigate further, it proved to be a file of extracts from county court records, all having some connection to ordinaries or ordinary keepers. The file had been generously shared with me by Rod Cofield, Director of Interpretation and Museum Programs at Historic London Town and Gardens. Because the colonial town of London was one terminus of a ferry over the South River, operated by the holder of an ordinary license, all aspects of colonial ordinaries in Anne Arundel are important to the interpretation of the site.
To digress just a bit, in 1755 an Englishman named George Fisher traveled north from Virginia, passing through London Town on his journey. In the narrative of his travels, Fisher wrote "London Town, (a great name) where I arrived about Three stands upon the S W side of South River; is composed of a few houses only. After Crossing this small river not more than half a mile in breadth, Two great Fellows in getting my Horse out of their (Browns) Boat, threw him upon his back in the water; and tho' he lay at least a minute on his side in the water, the Boat beating on him, he received no damage. [William and Mary Quarterly, January 1909, p.175]
Returning to the path on which I originally set out, the file is voluminous with much information that has little to do with the content of this blog. But it does contain scattered entries that help shed additional light on the operation of ferries as they pertained to travel through the county on horseback. Enough information so that I promise to put to rest with this blog the question of the power source for Anne Arundel's ferries. Not that I'm convinced all the evidence has been assembled, but only because I don't plan to go looking for any more. If it turns up, however...
The court record volumes begin in 1703. The county levy for that year, established at the November court session, authorized payment of 6000 pounds of tobacco to each of the county's publicly supported ferrymen. In the manner of colonial roads, which meandered around fields and obstacles, the June 1704 court record presents another digression, in the account of a suit by Joseph Addison against Capt. Edward Hunt. Addison charged that Hunt "at Lyons Creek in Anne Arundel County… stood justly indebted" for an itemized list of expenses that included "money lent you at the race" in the amount of 18 shillings. This serendipitous entry testifies to horse races being held at Lyons Creek (near Herring Bay) as early as 1702.
In the record of the January 1705 court session, the clerk included the rates set for food, drink, and accommodations at county ordinaries. Travelers paid six pence for "a night's lodging in a bed" and the same amount for "good pasturage for a horse". For two shillings the horse's master could purchase a peck of shelled corn or oats as feed for his horse and hay or oat straw bedding for the same amount. The August court further decreed that the ferrymen on the Severn and South Rivers had to be in attendance on Sundays between nine and eleven in the morning and two and four in the afternoon to provide passage for all persons, whether on foot or horseback, who were going to church services.
Horses continued to receive equal, if not superior, consideration in court directives concerning ordinaries and ferries. When the justices appointed Joseph Crouch and James Hoskins as ferry keepers for the Severn River in November 1710, for example, they directed the two men to "ply the [river] with a good boat for carry over of horses and other passengers inhabiting in this county." Edmund Rumney, in petitioning for the appointment as ferry keeper for the South River in November 1713, stated that he had spent at least £300 to built "conveniences . . . fit to give entertainment for man and horse by land or water and is also provided with two good boats and hands."
The first clue as to the means by which the ferry boats moved across the rivers can be found in an entry for November 1715: "Edward Rumney agrees to keep South River Ferry for the ensuing year . . . and to find two good boats and two hands to row in the said boats." This stipulation doesn't rule out the possibility that sails were also used in favorable conditions but would seem to indicate that the ferries did not use any form of cable crossing.
Appointment as ferry keeper for the South River was a sought-after plum, judging from the petitions submitted to the court. John Holland petitioned for the post in November 1716; in granting his request, the court ordered Holland to find "two good boats and five able men to keep the said ferry." Perhaps the experience of the previous year suggested that a ratio of five men to two boats was a better arrangement than two men for two boats.
Strength would seem a desirable attribute for the able hands to have possessed, a judgment confirmed in November 1719 when the Severn River post was requested by Thomas Williams. His petition argued that the incumbent, Robert Jubb, offered poor service because he had "for the most part no body to row in the boat but a couple of very weak boys whose strength is not sufficient very often to convey passengers over[,] especially in hard winds, when tis both dangerous and delaying to those that cross the river." Despite Jubb's deficiencies, however, Williams's petition was rejected. Passengers would continue to take their chances with the weak boys.
The extracted records do not record any significant additions to understanding the operation of the ferries until the 1740s. The November 1746 court directed that "nothing is to be paid for bags containing anything," a charge of "only six pence for any man & horse," and "three pence for a single man or horse." Jurymen attending court could cross after sunset for free. It is tempting to picture horses, without riders, showing up at the ferry landing with three shillings in hoof seeking passage across the river or creek, but more probable to infer that passengers sometimes traveled with extra horses.
The same court session agreed to keep Stephen West as the operator of the South River ferry for another year. As part of the new agreement, the justices granted West permission, when it was not safe for two boats to cross the river, each with a crew of only two men, "by means of hard winds . . . liberty to place all the hands in one Boat if he think proper." Again, the language supports the conclusion that the hands employed by the ferry keeper rowed the boats across the river.
A general order issued in November 1750 set forth the clearest description of the services ferries provided and of the cargoes they typically carried: Ordered that the Ferrymen set over all persons belonging to the County [i.e., county residents] from Sun rising to Sun setting for the allowance [i.e., annual salary] made by the County and also at all times the Justices, Sheriffs, Jurymen, and Evidences [i.e., witnesses summoned to court to testify] during their attending courts, and all other persons set over before Sun rise or after Sun set to pay at the rate of six pence man and horse and three pence for a single person and that the several ferrymen may charge and take for carrying over every chaise or chair or other wheel carriage at the rate of three shillings and six pence each and all ferrymen carry over bags, wallets, baskets, dead meat, and fowls, poultry, geese, and turkeys without charging any thing for the same.
The clerk's record of proceedings in August 1751 contained an unexpected description of the crew of the Magothy River ferry. William Kitely appeared "to answer a the complaint of John Gray of Magothy concerning his keeping Magothy Ferry, and that he should bring with him the girl named Linstead[?] that usually rows in the ferry boat." Evidently the able hands could be female, as well as male, as long as they were strong enough to pull the oars. Three years later, in June 1754, the justices exempted Thomas Barrel, "who rowed in South River Ferry Boat" from payment of the annual levy and granted him a stipend of 320 pounds of tobacco for his support until the next November's levy court, "he having fitts and [being] unable to work." Taxes were levied only on those adults able to work, and residents who could not work and lacked family to care for them received support from public funds.
The men like Thomas Barrel who did the work of loading and unloading the ferries, as well as rowing them, received some consideration for their well-being in a directive of the court issued in November 1754. "The ferrymen are to assist in getting the carriages [on and off the ferry] but shall not be obliged to wade in the water in the winter season." Left unclear is who would wade in the water if that were necessary to move a carriage or chaise safely between shore and ferry. Travel by horse-drawn vehicle entailed various kinds of discomfort but the savings in time must have made their use worth the hardships for inland trips that avoided long sails up and down the Chesapeake region's many rivers.
When the court renewed William Brown's appointment as keeper of the South River ferry in 1762, modifications to the standard terms indicate the growth of public business that was occurring during the third quarter of the century. The justices required that Brown keep two boats and four hands "constantly attending" year round, but "in all public times such as Provincial and County Courts, elections, and other public meetings[,] to keep three boats and six able hands attending." How seaworthy the third boat would be and how skilled the two extra hands (idle or employed in agricultural tasks the rest of the year?) were should perhaps have been a concern.
The August 1769 court proceedings included publication of the current "Rates of Liquors and Other Accomodations." Ordinary keepers could charge 8 pence per gallon for oats and corn. The array of provision for horses also included "Fresh water, hay, corn tops, or oat straw with stableage" at a charge of 1 shilling per night. If fodder consisted only of marsh hay, the cost was 8 pence, and good pasturage per night could be obtained for 6 pence.
With this last entry, the information available from the court records relating to travel on horseback in connection with ordinaries and ferries comes to an end. The references, coupled with the one account by Philip Vickers Fithian of his experience of being called upon to row during a difficult passage, generally indicate that the ferries operating in Anne Arundel relied upon able bodied men (and an occasional woman) to row the ferry boats with their human and equine passengers across the county's waterways.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
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