Since we are approaching Christmas 2018, it occurred to me that I've always had a keen interest in local history and especially my family's history and that has been true since I was a boy. Flash back to Christmas 1970, I had just turned 12 years old and remember I received a Kodak Instamatic camera as a gift. You remember, the ones with the cassette cartridge film and little cubes as flash bulbs? I loved that thing and took loads of photographs that first year I owned it.
One of my first photos on that camera was one of my grandmother Doris Elizabeth (Hamilton) Hitch riding her bike on Christmas morning 1970. See the second photo below for a scan of that picture; I spent many, many hours with my grandmother in the late '90s and until her death at almost age 94 on New Year's Eve 2003 talking about old photos and family stories and history of the area where I grew up. I cherish that 1970 photo and I cherish the time I had to spend with her in those later years.
Back to my camera gift of Christmas 1970 - a few months later - in the Summer of 1971, my grandfather Carroll Hitch called me over one day and said, "Git your camera and we'll go see your great great grandfather George Washington Hitch's house so you can take a picture!" We got into his 1970 Ford F150 pickup and headed a couple of miles back on country roads into the "forest."
When we got back to the location of the house, I saw it was in very bad shape and overgrown with weeds, brush and small trees. But we piled out of the truck and my grandfather led me back to it for the photo opportunity. I snapped the photo shown below then and it's the only picture of the house I have seen to date. Now, I wish I had had a better camera and had taken more pictures but, the crudeness of the single photo added to the mystic of the house when I was a boy as would periodically see it in our family album. My grandfather must have known at the time that the house was soon to be razed and got me out there for a photo for, indeed it was torn down shortly after I snapped this picture.
Now, I had often asked my grandfather about our Hitch ancestors and he would quote me information that he had heard over the years that was often a combination of factual truths and some errors that had been anecdotally altered by inconsistencies and inaccuracies one gets when retelling stories time-and-time again over the years. For instance, I later learned in my own detailed research that the person that originally lived in this house was not my great-great grandfather, but rather my 3x great grandfather and his name was Washington Henry Hitch and not George Washington Hitch! I remember my grandfather revelled in the fact that, what was his great grandfather, was named after the first President of the United States.
He had also told me that Washington Hitch's father, purportedly my 3x great per his notion, was named Irving Hitch. Again, there was some truth here but it was not accurate for, Irving Hitch was Handy Irving Hitch, the BROTHER of Washington Hitch and hence my 3x great grand uncle. But, I would use the tidbits of information from my grandfather and hone it into an accurate rendering of my family history later. I just wish I had done that a little earlier to share it with my grandfather Hitch but, he died in 1990 before I had ventured into my detailed family studies.
As I had gotten older and got into serious research into my family and its local history I reconnected with the old house photograph and curiosity begged me to find out more details about it. I began with the basics - asking surviving family members about my ancestors and then delving into the census, cemetery and other records to connect the proverbial dots as it were. Finally, I researched the land where the house was located and it completed much of the story for this line. The information is this blog article is a summary of what I found out.
My grandfather Hitch was George Carroll Hitch (1908-1990) who was the son of Samuel Clarence Hitch (1880-1956) and Virgie Jones (1881-1954). Clarence grew up near Fruitland, MD and Virgie was of the Jones' from Mt. Vernon in Somerset County. Clarence Hitch was the son of Samuel Henry Hitch (1848-1924) and Hettie Ann Driskell (1845-1915) and, finally, Samuel H. Hitch was son of Washington Henry Hitch (c1821-c1872) and Margaret Matilda Denston (1824-1884). But, from there, the manner in which Washington Hitch comes to own the land and the house shown in the photo is a bit convoluted. To get there, we have to dive back another couple of generations and leave the Hitch family proper for a bit.
Washington Hitch was the son of Samuel Hitch (1784-1858) and Henrietta Brown (c1800-183x). Henrietta Hitch died young, sometime in the 1830s, the nearest this compiler can ascertain from the records, and she went by a variety of names including Henny, Ritty, Meritty and McRitty with the latter three seemingly pet names given to her by her grandfather George Brown (1743/5-1803). She was the daughter of George's son, David Brown (1763/5-183x). When George Brown died before Apr 29 1803, he left a will that mentioned, among others in the family, his toddler granddaughter and she figured prominently therein. His will was written Jun 17 1802 and probated in Worcester Co., MD on Apr 29 1803 where he bequeaths:
- To wife Nanny, 50a of land where on I live called "Haths Venture" (Heaths Venture) at the upper end of the tract for her widowhood and at her death, this to go to granddaughter named McRitty Brown and if she dies without heirs of her body, this to go to George Tull Brown.
- Also to my granddaughter OMcRitty Brown, part of "Buck Harbor" tract lying at the upper end of my plantation and the remaining part of that tract to my grandson George Tull Brown.
- Also to grandaughter McRitta Brown one horse colt about 6 weeks old
- To wife Nanny Brown 1/3rd of all my personal estate during her widowhood.
- To son David all the remaining part of my lands and estate not already mentioned and he to be executor. Witnesses were John Cathell, Samuel Tull and William Wilson (WoW-JBR6:61).
Clearly we see Henrietta Brown was a favorite of her grandfather George and received a quite prominent inheritance so, now let's decipher the land and how it gets to be owned by Washington Hitch who would become McRitty Brown's grandson. McRitty Brown went on to marry Samuel Hitch on Oct 24 1820 and they had children, the previously mentioned Washington H. Hitch and Handy Irving Hitch (1823-1901). Samuel and McRitty Hitch had no other known children and she passed away sometime during the 1830s. Handy Hitch shows up in the household of his father Samuel when the 1850 census was taken but Washington Hitch, having married Matilda Denston in 1848, was in his own household with his new family.
Even though Washington is not convincingly known as the son of Samuel and McRitty Hitch from the census records data, we can definitely confirm it from a Chancery Court case in Worcester County in 1854 where, on Feb 8 1854, the estate of David A. Brown (George T. Brown, executor) was contested in Worcester County Chancery Court by Elizabeth Carey. In this record, it states that David A. Brown died intestate on Jan 1 1853 without paying Carey $33 owed to her. It details Brown's heirs including Handy Irving Hitch and Henry Washington Hitch, children of Henrietta Hitch deceased sister "of the whole blood" (of David A. Brown). Each Hitch son received $32.62 and 1/16. This was one-half each of their mother's share that went to them as heirs since she was deceased. (WoCC-5:331/44) David A. Brown was McRitty Hitch's brother as confirmed by the record.
For more information on the land McRitty (Brown) Hitch had inherited, we return to George Brown's will where it states the land tracts were 50 acres of "Heaths Venture" and part of "Buck Harbor" at the upper part of his plantation were to go to his granddaughter. Where are these tracts located? To find out, we go to the old Somerset land patent records and George Brown.
George Brown who left the land to granddaughter McRitty was the son of George Brown Sr. (c1717-1788) and Sarah Denston (c1724-1796) who were this compiler's 6x great grandparents. George Sr. was the son of another George Brown (c1690-c1720) and Ann Wilson (c1698-?). Ann (Wilson) Brown remarried after the elder George's death in c1720 to William Heath (c1670-1735) who plays a role in this investigation as well. It was he who had the 100 acre land tract "Heaths Venture" surveyed for him in 1729 in what was old Somerset County but would become Worcester in 1742 (So Cert. 1132). Later, George Brown Sr., the previously mentioned son of George and Ann (Wilson) Brown Heath, on Apr 9 1765, bought "Heaths Venture" from William/Mary Heath and Wilson/Rachel Heath of Somerset (WoLR-F:333) and this is how that tract comes to be owned by the Brown family.
George Sr. also patented some of the surrounding lands to build up quite a bit of real estate in the area. One such tract was "Browns Luck" surveyed Dec 5 1774 for 296a, a resurvey of "Heaths Venture" which was originally 100 acres but 196 acres of vacant lands were added (Wo Cert. 0242). This is where it gets a bit confusing because the tract "Buck Harbor" was also a resurvey of "Heaths Venture" surveyed for David Brown in 1791 adding 93 acres of vacant land to make the total tract 193 acres. The nearest this researcher can tell is that the tracts "Heaths Venture" and "Buck Harbor," and even "Browns Luck," were contiguous and overlapping tracts that were known quite well by the Brown family. But, while the external boundaries of the tracts are known, the internal divisions between the family members is harder to ascertain from the extant deed records.
When George Sr. died in 1788, he devises via last will and testament, "To son George Brown, 50a part of land called "Heaths Venture" to be laid off for him at the end of the tract whereon he now lives" (WoW-1783/90:148-50). This is the 50 acre part of "Heaths Venture" that gets willed to McRitty Brown Hitch in 1803. The "Buck Harbor" portion of that bequest was 24 acres of land contiguous to "Heaths Venture," making McRitty's real estate inheritance a total of 74 acres. The entirety of this land discussion is summarized in the figure below. The "Heaths Venture" tract is outlined in red, "Buck Harbor" in green and "Browns Luck" in blue. The location of the house in my photograph is shown as a red star near the intersection of McGrath and Stevens Roads.
After McRitty Hitch passed away intestate in the 1830s, this land automatically transferred to her husband, Samuel Hitch, who by that time had two young boys, the Washington Henry and Handy Irving Hitch aforementioned. During those years, we know that the family continued to live on the old tract of land that Samuel had inherited from his father Benjamin Hitch in 1814 called "Mount Pleasant." It is located at the opposite end of McGrath Road and about a mile south from its intersection with Meadow Bridge Road (adjacent to and north of the old Zion Church cemetery). There was probably no dwelling at that time on the portions of "Heaths Venture" and "Buck Harbor" that Samuel owned via his wife.
So, to try and narrow down on a possible date for when the house pictured was built, we again turn to the land records. In 1858, Samuel Hitch was aging and he made arrangements to transfer his property to his sons before he died. On Apr 22 1858, two land transactions took place involving Samuel Hitch and his sons. First, Handy Irving Hitch paid $500 to Samuel Hitch for 50 acres of "land called Mount Pleasant situated and lying in Worcester County adjoining land of Matilda Pusey, Isaiah Pollitt, Harvey Vincent and William Hitch" (WoLR-WET1:181). At the same time, Samuel, Handy and Sarah E. Hitch (note: Sarah was Handy's wife, Sarah Taylor who he had married in 1856) were paid $500 by Henry W. Hitch for "a tract of land called "Old Buck Harbour" situated and lying in Worcester County and adjoining the land of William McGrath, Thomas Owens and Thomas Brown thence ____ to the three-forked maple containing 74 acres more or less" (WoLR-WET1:174-5).
Here we see that Handy Hitch ends up with the old Hitch "Mount Pleasant" tract and Washington gets the old piece of Brown property made up of 74 acres that his mother had inherited. This researcher was initially stumped as to why the younger son Handy inherited the older family tract and the older son Washington got the other land when usually the elder would have seemingly kept the old family land. The answer I believe is twofold: (1) the Brown tract was larger - 74 acres versus 50 acres for the legacy Hitch land - so the elder son got the larger estate and, (2) Washington Hitch had married in 1848 and moved into a household of is owned as indicated by the 1850 census.
The second point above is important to this investigation in that it is likely that Washington Hitch built a house for his new bride Margaret Matilda Denston around the time they were married on Mar 13 1848 and, it was built on the secondary land Samuel Hitch owned (the old Brown tract) that he provided for his son Washington to use. Then, by the time Samuel Hitch transfers his property in 1858, the new house on the old Brown tract where the Washington Hitch family lived was naturally deeded to that son officially in the land records since he had already lived there for the previous ten years. By then, Washington and Matilda Hitch had built a family that included four (4) children: Samuel Henry Hitch (1848-1924), Henrietta Hitch (1850-1884/99), Mary M. Hitch (1852-1884/99) and Levin Thomas Hitch (1856-1942). Samuel H. Hitch was this compiler's great-great grandfather and, also note, that Washington Hitch pays tribute to his mother who died when he was a small boy by naming one of his daughters Henrietta.
We have therefore come to a strong conclusion that the old house that I photographed in 1971 was probably built in 1848-1850 by Washington Hitch. The house was razed in about 1972 so we do not have the benefit of being able to explore it and its architecture to see if that would completely verify my conclusion. However, the photo itself of the modest dwelling seems to fit the style of and average home from the mid-19th century and my proof herein is extremely compelling. This may be as close as one gets to definitive proof of the house's origin. Now, if I just could find that old graveyard that I know exists on that piece of property! I hope you enjoyed this blog post and stay tuned for the next one!
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