This is a tale of some farmland located about 2 miles SE of Fruitland, MD along St. Lukes Road. It is not just any farmland but is the very place that this author was reared and lived in the 1960s and 70s. But, in digging deeper into its origins, it revealed a fascinating story of early life in the area. It could be the story of any farmland on the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland as many will have similar tales to tell but let’s focus on this one for now.
Samuel Clarence Hitch (1880-1956) was the son of Samuel Henry Hitch (1848-1924) and Hettie Ann Driskell (or Driscoll, 1845-1915) who lived out in Worcester Co. on Stevens Road across from where McGrath Road terminates with it (then collectively called Eden, MD). Clarence took to liking a young lady who lived down in Mt. Vernon in Somerset Co. near where the Steamboat Wharf picked up and dropped off passengers while on its trek from Baltimore to Salisbury, MD and back on a daily basis. She was Anna Virginia Jones (1881-1954), or Virgie as they called her then, the daughter of George Henry Jones (1855-1893) and Annie Elizabeth Murrell (1860-1946).
The distance between the home in which Clarence lived to where his beau Virgie lived was about 17 miles by road – and roads were dirty, rut-borne byways back in those days. Clarence would often relate to the family in later years that, when he was courting Virgie in the time from 1901-1904, he would take an old buckboard cart hitched to a mule and head down the road to Mt. Vernon. When it came time to return, he would get back in the buckboard, start the mule in the direction of home, and then lay back in the bed of the cart and take a nap. The mule would instinctively find its way along the roads back home and Clarence would rouse from his nap as the mule was pulling into the barn!
Figure 1 – Clarence Hitch house c1910. Far right, side by side are Clarence and Virgie Hitch. Virgie's mother Annie Murrell Jones is standing on the left side of the door. This writer's grandfather is the little boy with his thumb in his mouth.
After a few years of courting, and one scare of a break-up as evidenced by a “Dear John” letter from Virgie to Clarence in 1902 that this writer still has, Clarence Hitch and Virgie Jones were married on Oct 4 1904. Clarence wasted no time in providing for his new wife for, on Apr 1 1905, he purchased a 64 acre plot of land in Wicomico County from and mortgaged[1] with Warren Durand (1867-1946) and Mary E. Fooks (see Wicomico Land Records, Liber EAT47, Folio 157, 159). Mary E. Fooks (1875-1975) was Clarence’s older sister who had been married to Mr. Fooks for about 10 years at the time of this transaction. Soon afterwards, Clarence, in 1905, built a two-story farmhouse mainly from the local woodland and began raising a family. From there, three generations of Hitches lived in the house, including this writer, and four generations have enjoyed its shelter until it was sold in 2017.
Figure 2 - Clarence Hitch house on St. Lukes Road near Fruitland, MD, c1910-12
But, while delving into family and local history of the area, this writer wondered, how had the land become to be owned by Durand and Molly Fooks in the first place so that they could eventually sell to Clarence Hitch in 1905? Moreover, who had owned the land before that and what of its ownership since the earliest times of English settlement? That is the tale I want to express herein. It’s an interesting history that plays out like many locations on the Lower Eastern Shore and should interest genealogists and historians of the area alike.
In the quest to find out the genealogy of the land, we turn to the old land records. And it gets interesting the further back in time we go and will lead us down several tangents of very intriguing stuff. We get somewhat lucky in the first step to tracing the origins for, in the deed where Clarence Hitch purchases the land from Durand and Molly Fooks, it states that the tract is, “part of same land conveyed by Affria Fooks to Warren D. Fooks by JTT38:282 in 1903 and from Levin F. Morris to Affria Fooks by JTT34:190 in 1902 and from Thomas C. Morris and mother Sallie to Levin F. Morris by SPT2:322 in 1877.” The cryptic letter and numbers are simply reference to the Wicomico land records Liber:Page where each transaction occurred.
Affria Fooks (1855-1925) was son of Jehu Fooks (c1829-??), who was a brother to William Fooks (1834-1891), who was father to Durand Fooks (i.e., Affria and Durand were first cousins). So it was a family transaction that got the land into “Uncle Durand’s” hands. Next, we see that Affria Fooks had purchased the land from Levin F. Morris in 1902. This is Levin Fountain Morris (1836-1903) who had gotten the land from his younger brother Thomas Covington Morris (1838-1911) in 1877. So, how did Thomas C. Morris end up with the land? This is where things get rather interesting.
Figure 3 - Brothers Levin F. Morris (left) and Thomas C. Morris (right), sons of James Morris. Photos from L. Paul Morris Jr.
Levin F. and Thomas C. Morris were sons of James Morris (1780-1873) with his second wife Sallie Disharoon (1804-1880). They lived in a plantation house along Milton Mill road, that spans between St. Lukes and Phillips Roads, just across a big field from the old Hitch farmhouse of this story. This writer knew it to be near the location of “Old Miss” Johnson’s house as I remember her a quaint little lady who wore a bonnett and she breathed very coarsely with ephysema. Tommy Johnson and I went to visit her (she was Tommy’s grandmother) one Fall day in the early 1970s when we were probably 10-12 years old and I was amazed at the house - it was old and had slanted floors but Miss Johnson was navigating them well. Her breathing was a little scary to this old country boy until she went and pulled out a fruit pie for us each to have a piece. Any trepidations I may have had melted quickly away and I can still remember the smell and taste to this day – it was outstanding. Later, when I began doing more family history, I learned that “Old Miss Johnson” was really Lula Hitch (1887-1977), a 2nd cousin of mine, who had married Archibald L. Johnson (1880-1950) about the very same time that Clarence Hitch began building his house in 1905. I would also later learn that the house was ‘old’ but not all that old in the grand scheme of things – probably dating to the Victorian era but more on that later.
On another excursion to the property, Tommy, myself and a couple other boys visited a little old cemetery not far from Miss Johnson’s house in the field. It had no headstones, only a big field rock placed on it and a cedar tree growing nearby. Of course, as young boys are inclined to do, we wanted to explore the cemetery. One grave we could see was exposed, encased in brick, and had caved in and we would peer down inside to see if there was a casket or bones (which there was neither that could be seen). The story back then was that the cemetery was either an old slave cemetery or native American. As “youngins,” we did not know otherwise but, now I realize that it would be unlikely for it to be either slave or native with a brick crypt and, in fact, it was probably someone of higher means to have afforded to be buried in brick so many years ago.
More on the cemetery mystery later, but I then found that this parcel of land was also sold by Thomas C. Morris to a Sydney Tull Brown (1868-1961) in 1893 (70.1 acres WiLR-JTT:414). We get a good description of the land Morris sold to Brown in the “Salisbury Advertiser” newspaper of Oct 8 1892 where Thomas C. Morris listed three of the tracts of land he inherited from his father James for sale. Tract Number 1 was the Sydney Brown tract that originally included the Pollitt/Morris plantation house: “TRACT No. 1: All that tract of land containing 175 ACRES with Improvements thereon, consisting of large dwelling house, large barn, corn houve, and ample stables, and other outbuildings. This tract contains about 75 ACRES of cleared land, the balance in oak, pine, maple, and gum timber. The soil is well adapted to all crops of truck and vegetables, also wheat and grass. Soil Is easily improved, and has a clay bottom. This tract adjoins lands of Wm. P. Morris, John W. Morris and others.” A very impressive estate, indeed. While I did not trace it forward further, the land was eventually was sold to the Johnsons in the early part of the 20th century.
Thomas C. Morris was selling off portions of land all around the area back in the late 1800s. He even sold 24.4 acres to Otis F. Robertson in 1893 (this is Tract No. 3 in the aforementioned newspaper article). The Robertson land is adjacent to the Clarence Hitch land that his son (and my grandfather) G. Carroll Hitch (1908-1990) purchased in 1930, situated between the Clarence Hitch house and Miss Johnson’s. As shown earlier, the land that this writer grew up on was adjacent to these tracts but had already been transferred from Thomas Morris to his brother Levin.
Thomas had become quite the land owner in the area when, in 1873, his father James Morris set forth in his will to him, ‘half of the farm and wife's half of the farm at her death and also a tract of 50 acres called "Careys Folly" and 5 acres of "Collins Lot." Besides the tracts here named, James also held portions of the tracts “Holdfast”, “Hopewell”, “Timber Range” and “Hog Range” as well as “mills and land adjoining the mills.”
Figure 4 - James Morris (1780-1873) and his 2nd wife Sallie Disharoon Morris (1804-1880). Photos from L. Paul Morris Jr.
But before we get further into the particulars of these tracts, let’s take the time machine back further, to before the American Revolution. James Morris was the son of Jacob Morris (1745-1822) and his first wife, Rebecca Pollitt (c1753-c1785). Rebecca was the daughter of Thomas Pollitt III (1717-1788). This Thomas also had sons named William and Samuel (and other children but, only the three mentioned here are important to this story).
When Thomas Pollitt died in 1788, he bequeathed to son William, part of a land tract called "Holdfast" and "Chestnut Hall" both in Worcester Co., also a cow and yearling, one heifer, a book called Burket on the New Testament and, to son Samuel, part of tract "Holdfast" next to land given to son William Pollitt, also a cow and yearling, one heifer, my big Bible and feather bed/furniture. Thomas Pollitt had purchased the 400 acre tract “Holdfast” in 1769 from Richard Hull/Hall of Virginia and, in 1771, he had the 30 acre tract “Chestnut Hall” surveyed for him for which he received a land patent in 1773. So, in his will, Thomas was dividing those tracts between his son William and Samuel with Samuel getting the NE portion of “Holdfast” and William the portion on the SW plus the nearby tract “Chestnut Hall.” From here, we will track William Pollitt, who was the brother of Rebecca (Pollitt) Morris and uncle to James Morris aforementioned.
William Pollitt took his 230 acres of the Holdfast/Chestnut Hall combination and began to expand his holdings in the area considerably. Here are his holdings he acquired through land warrants, the first two he had patented while his father was still living near the lands he eventually inherited so it was natural for him to have received the land he did from his father Thomas Pollitt:
· 1775, he has surveyed the tract “Timber Lot” for 153 acres
· 1784, he has two tracts surveyed; “Addition To Timber Lot” for 121 acres and “Fooks Disappointment” for 20 acres
· 1791, “Bachelors Lot” for 187 acres
· 1794, “Hog Range” for 34¾ acres
· 1795, “Pollitt’s Discovery” for 98 acres
· 1801, two tracts, “Pollitt’s Second Discovery” for 125 acres and “Gum Branch” for 30½ acres
· 1802, three tracts, “Mill Support” for 1¼ acres, “Addition To Hog Range” for 42 acres, “Buck Hall” for 186 acres
· 1805, the tract “Hard Struggle” comprised of two disjointed tracts totaling 111 acres
He also purchased some land; “Carey’s Folly” for 50 acres and “Hacklah and “Venture” for 150 acres total. Adding these 200 acres to the 923½ acres patented to the 230 acres he already owned and we get a sizable holding of 1353½ acres of land – over two square miles! And, on top of this, he had also purchased saw mills from Robert Nairn which was not trivial for, on Jan 16 1801, Pollitt purchased a 1/3rd share of interest in the mills and land in the tracts “Austins Security” for 104 acres and “Hunger & Thirst” for 107 acres for £450 of Maryland money (WoLR-U:10). These tracts today are located to include Morris Mill Pond and along Division Street at the intersection of Morris Mill Road on the NE side of Fruitland, MD about 2½ miles distant from the Pollitt/Morris plantation house.
All this wealth accumulated for a man who was a bachelor until age 47 (hence his 1791 “Bachelors Lot” patent) when he married Sally Irving in 1803. She was closing in on age 40 at the time herself and the couple had no known children (at least none that survived childhood). So, when William Pollitt died in late 1815 or perhaps January of 1816, he left his vast holdings to his siblings and their children. Here is a summary of his will that he wrote on Mar 22 1814 and was proven in Worcester County on Jan 19 1816:
- To sister-in-law Nelly Pollitt, the land I bought of Robert Ellegood in Somerset Co. called "Hacklah" and "Venture" laid out for 150a
- To Nelly Pollitt's children Gilliss, Nelly and Easther all the personal estate in my possession
- To dearly beloved wife Sally, my white horse and riding carriage
- To sister Jane Pollitt, my big riding sorrell mare and riding sulkey and negro girl Elisar
- To nephew James Morris 700a of land with my dwelling plantation laid off in it
- To my negro man Tite and his wife Rachel their freedom and their name shall be Titus and Rachel Frost
- To negro Tite Frost a tract of land called "Careys Folly" containing 50a taken up by one Margaret Carey
- I give to Tite Frost his son forever.
- To sister Jane Pollitt a home with my nephew James Morris or $60/year to be paid by him as long as she remains single
- To nephew James Morris all my title to the mills and lands I bought of Robert and wife Polly Nearn (Nairn)
- To nephew Levin Morris, all remaining land
- To sister Jane Pollitt and nephews James and Levin Morris, all remaining personal estate
- Nephews James and Levin Morris to be sole executors.
Witnesses: Eben Disharoon, Kirk Gunby, Joshua Hayman
Figure 5 - Tracts 1688 HOLDFAST and 1791 BACHELORS LOT. William Pollitt inherited the SW side of the former and patented the latter. Landmarks of interest shown as well showing the 180 perch line from the boundary of BACHELORS LOT towards Pollitt' house. Special thanks to John Lyon for his excellent Land Records of Old Somerset data.
There are lots of interesting things within this will besides the land but let’s cover that first – for the purposes of this story, the lands of interest went to Pollitt’s nephew James Morris, including his “dwelling plantation,” 700 acres and all rights to his mills and their associated lands. It is evident that Pollitt wanted his legacy to continue and, in want of children as heirs, he chose his favorite nephew, who was age 34 at the time, to carry on with the land and the business. James Morris was married and had heirs at the time so, per L. Paul Morris Jr., this may also have be a large factor.
Even more interestingly, it turns out that the house on the dwelling plantation was located very near the spot where “Old Miss” Johnson’s house was mentioned before where I had enjoyed some fruit pie on a brisk Fall day in the early 1970s - but, how do we know this? When William Pollitt had the tract “Bachelors Lot” surveyed in 1791, he was taking up vacant and tidying the land connections that existed between the tracts “Holdfast” and “Chestnut Hall” left to him by his father Thomas Pollitt. When “Bachelors Lot” was laid out, the surveyor defined the first boundary point of the land as the same as the first boundary point of the tract “Holdfast” being ‘about 10 feet westward of a chestnut tree that is also the first boundary of George Pollitt's land (of 189 ac) about 180 perches northwest-ward of William Pollitt's dwelling house.’ A perch or rod in surveyor’s terms is equal to 16½ feet so 180 perches is 2970 feet, making the boundary point about 0.56 miles NW-ward of Pollitt’s house.
Figure 6 – Tighter shot of Figure 5 showing the probable location of the Pollitt/Morris plantation house later owned by Sydney Brown when it burned in 1897.
See Figures 5 and 6 showing the location of the 1791 tract “Bachelors Lot” and the older 1688 “Holdfast” and associated landmarks already discussed herein. William Pollitt inherited the latter in 1788 and added the former in 1791. When his father Thomas died, Thomas was living in Somerset County so there was likely no dwelling house here in then Worcester County for William as of 1788. Therefore, it is likely that William Pollitt built his house near the end of the illustrated “180p line” in the Figures a few hundred feet out from where “Old Miss” Johnson’s Victorian farmhouse stood (the red star in the images) sometime c1788-90 as it was erected by the time of its mention in the 1791 patent. A close-up view of the area is shown in Figure 6 with the likely location of the Pollitt/Morris plantation home in the orange shaded circle.
The old cemetery that us boys peered into in the 1970s (see the yellow star in the images) no doubt contains James Morris who died in 1873 at a minimum and likely William Pollitt who died c1816 and their wives and other family members. It probably also contains some of the “slaves” that we had been told about back then. Both Pollitt and Morris were well-renowned for treating their slaves with compassion. In the Nov 1 1873 newspaper, the “Salisbury Advertiser,” there is an obituary for old Mr. James Morris who died “in his 95th year” where it states, “He was a large slaveholder before emancipation, and his humane treatment of his servants, so firmly attached them to him, that the wife of the Rev’d Frost Pollitt, refused to leave his service when her freedom was offered her.” As shown previously in William Pollitt’s will of 1814, he gave his servants “Tite” and Rachel their freedom and declared them as Titus and Rachel Frost and also gave them 50 acres of land, the tract “Carey’s Folly” which was part of the vast contiguous land holdings of Pollitt[2]. Though given the Frost surname, the two decided to adopt the Pollitt surname instead, in deference to their old master.
The house, built c1788-90 by William Pollitt and given to James Morris in 1816, then descended to Thomas C. Morris in 1873. Thomas Morris sold the land to Sydney T. Brown in 1893 and the house was still standing and in-use and depicted in the 1892 newspaper. However, we turn again to the “Salisbury Advertiser” to learn its fate, this time the Nov 20 1897 edition: “Fruitland, Md.; The residence of Mr. Sidney Brown was destroyed by fire on Friday afternoon November 12th. It was formerly the home of the late James Morris and was a noted landmark. Mr. Morris having raised a large family of children there, besides a great many colored people. His land is adjoining the one of the late William P. Morris. We regret to see them old fashioned homesteads, as they have been the scene of many happy bygone days, destroyed. Mr. Brown had $200 insurance.”
We see the house was indeed a notable landmark. It had stood for about 108 years before succumbing to ashes on Nov 12 1897. Sydney Brown probably rebuilt a house on the land c1898, for the $200 he collected from an insurance policy that became the house that Miss Johnson lived in for us boys to visit back in the day. Her house was razed in the 1980s and a modern rancher placed there where J.R. McGrath resides in 2018. Boy, I wish I had a piece of that Miss Johnson pie now…
[1] The mortgage was dutifully paid over time and acknowledged as paid-in-full by W. Durand Fooks on Jun 19 1912.
[2] Titus Pollitt had sold “Carey’s Folly” to James Morris before he died in 1843 so the tract had come full circle. Thomas C. Morris then sold the tract to Enoch Pratt (of Baltimore fame) in 1875.
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