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From Lead Mines to Gold Fields
Memories of an Incredibly Long Life
By Henry Taylor, Donald L. Parman UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS
Copyright © 2006 Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8032-9076-1
CHAPTER 1
Growing Up in Virginia and Ohio
The average American is of a restless disposition, and I sometimes feel that the spirit of our forefathers must control our actions. It seems to me that a short history of those hardy pioneers, as handed down in the family, will explain why we were always found on the outskirts of civilization.
My ancestors came to [this] country long before the "Tea Party" was held in Boston Harbor, or Patrick Henry stood up in the Virginia House of Burgouses [Burgesses], and announced to the world and King George III that he preferred death to slavery. The present "stem," settled in Little York, Penn[sylvania], he was my great-great-grand-parent. He came to the colonies a boy of twelve years. After knocking about among the planters for a year, he shipped as cabin boy aboard a West India trader. He made himself useful and soon secured the good will of the captain, who took an interest in his welfare, teaching him the science of navigation, and by the time he had arrived at the age of manhood, he was [a] splendid seaman, and was given command of a fine three-mast schooner, plying between the South American ports, West Indies and the colonies. He made the seas his home and was often heard to say he never felt better than when bounding on the ocean waves. He lived to a good old age and died leaving to his son Charles a little squadron of trading vessels. My great-grandparent, not unlike his father, gloried in breasting the waves and storms of the ocean, and like him he prospered, living to be a very old man, and according to family traditions, died in 1815, [at] one hundred and one years old.
When the Napoleonic ware [wars] broke out, he had a fleet of fifteen vessels trading at nearly every civilized port in the world, and now trouble arose. The hatred between the English and French led to decrees by each nation that proved most disastrous to American shipping. In 1806 the English declared the coast of France blockaded, and many American vessels bound for French ports were captured and condemned as lawful prizes, and this was done without due notice to the neutral powers.
Napoleon, to get even, declared all British ports in a state of blockade, and this state of affairs continued until Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo. This made trading to European ports very hazardous, and, like running the gauntlet, subjected neutrals to a fire from both sides; that is if you cleared for a French port, you were liable to be captured by a British Cruiser, and if for an English port by a French vessel. Finally the English published orders in council, forbidding all neutrals to trade with the French. Napoleon retaliated by issuing his Milan Decree forbidding all neutrals to trade with England.
The old man [the great-grandfather] often remarked he cared nothing for the captured vessels for he had so far got one round trip out of three that cleared for Europe, and the profits were large enough to pay all losses and leave a handsome dividend, but what he disliked was the English cruisers, bringing his vessels too, sending a boat aboard and condemning one-half his crew as Englishmen, and taking them away to serve in the English navy. [Those seized were usually] Native born citizens of the Union, and many of them having family in the United States, but the old man always looked after their [the family members of those impressed] wants and provided them the common comforts of life until he died.
He had one vessel named Betsy Jane in honor of his two daughters, Betsy and Jane. She was of seven hundred tons burden, very fast, and known as one of a class of vessels at that day as Baltimore Clippers. She was on her homeward journey from the East Indies after a year's absence with a valuable cargo aboard. Captain and crew were in fine spirits, and bowling along under a fine breeze, expecting soon to be in Philadelphia, the port of destination, when the lookout at the masthead hailed the deck and reported a sail. "Where away?" cried the captain, "can you make her out?" "She is a large vessel carrying a heavy press of sail, and she is coming down on our weather quarter," he answered. The captain paced the deck for a few minutes, when having obtained his glass, he went aloft. He surveyed her for a few minutes, then came down, called his first mate, and both went into his cabin and held a little council. When they came out the captain again went aloft and remained some twenty minutes; when he came down, [he] called his crew together and told them the vessel was a large British man-of-war, not less than sixty guns, and possible seventy-four; a vessel of the line,6 and wondered what a British vessel of the line could be cruising off the coast of Virginia for. "But, never fear, only every man stand to his post, be quick to obey orders and if I don't fool that Englishman my name isn't Jason. Now put every stitch of canvas on you can find a place to fasten it, and every man who can carry a quart of water below or aloft, get to work, and keep the sails wet;" and to the second mate, "you get up that twelve pound carronade with two or three charges, not that we are going to fight a seventy-four, but I want to make them mad; and one thing more, that Englishman should never have the Betsy Jane; I will scuttle and sink her first."
"The second mate will see that all the [life?] boats are seaworthy, and ready to lower at a moment's command. But I don't think we will need them for the sun is nearly down, and the atmosphere is getting hazy. There will be no 'stars' crossing our masts." The Britisher was gradually gaining, but darkness was fast drawing down her mantle.
All hands were watching the Englishman with intense excitement, when [a] "boom" came [from] the sound of a cannon. The ball dropped short three cables astern. "Now Mr. gunner give them an answering shot. All hands vere[?] ship." The helm was put hard a [to] starboard, and the vessel's head came around to the east, keeping east for the next two hours, when she was brought [about to] head due south, and so double[d] on her tracks. When morning came nothing could be seen of the big man-of-war. We [the Betsy Jane] bore away for the Capes of Virginia, rounded Cape Charles,9 entered the Chesapeake Bay, and in three or four days were safe in the harbor at Baltimore, where the vessel remained as it was not considered safe to sail to Philadelphia, the place of her destination, while an English man-of-war was cruising in that neighborhood.
A messenger was sent off to notify the old gentleman of the arrival of the vessel at Baltimore and to report the cause for changing ports. As old as he was, he hastened off to the port to superintend the disposition of the cargo. While in Baltimore he got in company with Commodore Porter,10 and during a conversation, [he] told Porter what a narrow escape the Betsy Jane had from a British man-of-war and how Captain Jason had showed fight by firing a shot in reply to the British gun, and then as dark was rapidly approaching, steered away to the east and south and instead of going to Philadelphia came up the Chesapeake to Baltimore. When the old gentleman got through, Porter, with a big oath said, "I was aboard that man-of-war during the whole chase," and nodding towards the vessel ask[ed] if that was the clipper! "Well when your captain fired that shot, one of the British officers burst into a laugh, exclaiming! "I wonder if that d — — little Yankee is fool enough to fight!" "Well old man, I just told them that there was some Yankee captains fool enough to fight anything between hell and the aurora borealis. But it was fast growing dark and in an hour we had lost sight of her." "Well," said the old man, "she is safely moored now."
Everyone knows as a matter of history that Commodore Porter went out on the Pacific ocean in command of the United States frigate, Esicks [Essex]; and made such havoc among British East Indiamen that the English sent out two armed vessels, the Phoebe and the Cherub to protect their trade and, if possible, capture Porter who had, in the meantime, captured and fitted out for fighting the Esicks [Essex] Junior. They discovered him sometime in March A.D., 1814. Porter knew he was not strong enough to fight both vessels and sought refuge under the guns in the port of Valparaiso. The Chileans in violation of all international law allowed the English vessels to attack him right under their guns without firing a shot. Porter fought as long as there was enough men to man a gun, and then with his crew nearly all killed or wounded [he] surrendered. Some historians tell us that when [one of| the English officers stepped on board to take possession of the Esicks [Essex], that the sight of the mangled, torn and mutilated bodies, the deck smeared with blood and brains, sickened him, [and] he reeled, fainted and fell to the deck.
The English captain was filled with so much admiration and respect for Porter's gallant fight that he paroled him and gave him the Esicks [Essex] Junior to return home in. It was when he had nearly reached Philadelphia that he was hailed by the British ship Endyman [Endymion] of 74 guns, whose commander canceled his parole and called him a prisoner. Porter accepted the conditions with the remark, "Very good sir, I shall improve the very first opportunity to escape." He made his words good a few nights after, during a chase for the Baltimore Clipper, for while all hands were watching the pursuit, Porter lowered a boat at the stern, then leaped overboard, he regained the boat and made his way safe into New York City and that is how he was able to tell the old man about the chase, and to thank for the chance it afforded him to escape.
The old gentleman despised the English and was often heard to remark, "they were no better than a set of pirates, always carrying on war to satisfy their greed for trade and gold." And when he heard of their defeat by an American war vessel, he gave all of his sailors in port a rousing dinner and always washed it down with Jamaica rum and never considered it very wrong if they got "half seas over." When the news of Jackson's victory reached him, he shouted for joy exclaiming, "If Packenham [Pakenham] was brother-in-law to Wellington, he couldn't whip Jackson and his Kentucky riflemen!" But all they [the British] wanted was to fortify and capture New Orleans that they might collect toll on our inland products. Well the old man was quite cheerful and happy until he heard od [of] Wellington's victory and Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, Sunday, June 18th, 1815. The old man was a Quaker of the old William Penn stripe and was heard to say, "Napoleon done wrong by fighting the battle on Sunday. He should have waited till Monday, or Sunday 12 o'clock at night before he fired a gun." Death called him in the fall of 1815, and he died as he had lived, full of hope.
I now come to my grandfather, Thomas, who, with a number of Quakers, settled in Louden [Loudoun] county, Virginia, nine miles from Harpers Ferry, and founded the little town of Waterford. I do not know the time of this settlement, but it must have been about the close of the Revolutionary War.
My grandfather had received from his father a tract of 1600 acres of land upon which he had settled. At the close of the Revolutionary war he had got it in a fine state of cultivation. While some of it was rough and hilly, covered with a dense forest of timber, the greatest part was beautiful and comparatively level land, nearly all of which was seeded to red clover and wheat. Through this land ran a beautiful millstream full of fish. On this stream he had erected a large gristmill with four run of French burs. There were also a carpenter shop and still. Then there was the weaving or loom house, for all the wearing apparel for everyday use was produced on the farm, both woolen and linen.
As I have remarked, grandfather was of the William Penn style, and was opposed to slavery; hence, he never owned a slave; all the work on the farm was done by hired help, mostly Negroes hired from surrounding planters, who were always glad to let him have their surplus hands. He was very kind to the negroes, always taking good care of them, feeding them well, so that when they returned home, they were strong and in good health.
The wheat raised on the farm together with that raised on surrounding farms was made into flour, packed in barrels and sent abroad, always sent in his father's vessels, shipped from Alexandria or Baltimore. About two-thirds of it fell in the clutches of British men-of-war, and yet they took the chances as flour was enormously high in European ports; upon the whole, they would come out about even. As I have said before, if one cargo out of three got safely home, the profits would cover all losses and leave quite a margin. Grandfather was not lucky, and being a Quaker and hiring all his help instead of raising it, as other planters, and having two or three blacks to sell as they did, worth seven or eight hundred dollars apiece, he found consequently at the end of the year the proceeds of the season's labor were used up.
His family was very expensive, consisting of six girls and one boy, the boy being next to the youngest. Then there was a governess hired to prepare the girls at home for the finishing touches to be received at a two years' term of boarding school at Baltimore, for any person who did not give their daughters a finished education at Baltimore was considered poor white trash. This was expensive, and while Quakers wore no gaudy or flashy ornaments on their person, they bought the richest and most expensive goods. Silks [that] when made would almost stand alone, and all [were] imported from Europe, for at that day all our silks and cloth were brought from foreign countries, even our calico. I have myself seen bolts of calico lying on the counter with the English coat of arms stamped on the paper in which it was wrapped. Birmingham, England, [was] The place of manufacture, and it cost twenty-five cents per yard. And so with all our cutlery, all came from Sheffield, England. Well it cost money to dress these girls. All that were old enough had to go to Washington at least once during a session of Congress.
I have two cousins, or did have, [who were] old Quaker maids employed in the treasury department; they were there before Harrison's administration. Their duty was to inspect greenbacks. I never saw them but learned this much from my neice, who made a visit to Baltimore to see relatives. She was taken by members of the Family to Washington to see these cousins, but more Particularly to witness the inaugeration of Cleveland for the last term, and they got drenching wet while sitting in an open buggy. The great pity of it is that it did not drown Cleveland, for he denied the platform upon which he was elected, and today he is an outcast from his own Party with no hopes from any other, and is thought less of than John Tyler, who vetoed the bill introduced by Henry Clay in 1841, for the Charter of the United States Bank; that being the vital issue on which he was elected. Poor fellow, he went into obscure retirement and that was the last of John Tyler, and so it is with Grover Cleveland.
But I have drifted away from Grand Father. After the close of the War, He went on notes for a Freind to the amount of Ten Thousand Dollars. The friend failed, and Grandfather had to sell one-half of the Farm to pay the notes. He had hardly got this matter off his hands when the mill took fire and burned to the Ground. These losses so discouraged Him that He grew despondant and feeble, and then sickened and died. Grandmother took up the management of the Farm, kept the younger Children in School until my Father came of age, after which she lived but a short time. The old Farm was then sold, and the proceeds divided among the Children. The shares being small. In the meantime Father married and with his meager capital engaged in business, but having done nothing but go to school and hunt Foxes during vacations, and without any business training, [he] proved a failurs [failure], realizing with the loss of Property He had lost his social standing. This hurt Him more than the loss of Property, so in Co[mpany] with My uncle, Wesly Richards,22 they commenced Getting ready to wend their way westward.
At that time Ohio was the great Elderado of the west which state they decided to make their Home. Mother, my two Brother[s] and Myself were sent down to Fairfax County to spend the summer and part of the fall with Aunt Nancy Lee [Leigh], who was in goo[d] financial circumstances. A widow with good business qualifications, and super[in]tending the management of a large Farm worked by some thirty slaves, all of which were hers during her lifetime, and which at death would revert to her Children.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from From Lead Mines to Gold Fields by Henry Taylor, Donald L. Parman. Copyright © 2006 Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS.
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