25 – Fine clear day – Wind N.W. Did not go to Town to day, but rode over to the Meadows, being busy ploughing for Oats and had 8 bushels of Clover Seed Sown this day on Rye & Wheat, the Ground being in fine order ~Mrs. T. & Children return’d from Town, having been at Mrs. Wirgmans 6 days –
From the journal of Captain Henry Thompson, March 25, 1814. Courtesy the Friends of Clifton.
24 – Weather rather more pleasant but still cold – Wind N.W. Went to Town return’d to Dinner – Planted Hedge in front of the House of Thorns procur’d last Spring, also planted Potatoes in young Orchards –
From the journal of Captain Henry Thompson, March 24, 1814. Courtesy the Friends of Clifton.
23rd March – Snow covers the Ground again this morning but was soon dissolv’d – Cold cloudy day – Wind N.W. Went to Town, din’d at S. Steretts with a party of 12 Gentlemen ~
From the journal of Captain Henry Thompson, March 23, 1814. Courtesy the Friends of Clifton.
On March 23, 1814, four months after the death of Phillip William Otterbein, Francis Asbury spoke before the members of the Baltimore Conference. Otterbein’s biographer Augustus Waldo Drury later recalled that Asbury spoke “by request of the conference and certainly at the hearty desire of the stricken congregation” when he delivered a heartfelt memorial in a packed church on Conway Street.
Asbury recorded his personal reflections in his journal that evening:
“By request, I discoursed on the character of the angel of the church of Philadelphia, in allusion to William Otterbein, the holy, the great Otterbein, whose funeral discourse it was intended to be. Solemnity marked the silent meeting in the German church, where were assembled the members of our conference and many of the clergy of the city. Forty years have I known the retiring modesty of this man of God, towering majestic above his fellows, in learning, wisdom, and grace, yet seeking to be known only to God and the people of God.”
Among the many people who had been touched by Otterbein’s religious leadership, present that day was Bishop Christian Newcomer who recorded the scene in his own diary:
“Heard Asbury’s funeral discourse on the late William Otterbein. The church was much too small to contain all who came, among them being Methodists, United Brethren, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians. Bishop McKendree closed the service.”
The memorial must have offered a unique poignancy for Newcomer. He had first met Otterbein on June 3, 1800 at the home of Peter Kemp located a few miles west of Frederick. On October 2, 1813, just weeks before his death, Otterbein laid his hands on Newcomer and made him (along with two others) the first ordained ministers in the United Brethren Church. Otterbein’s remarks to Newcomer before the ceremony that fall highlight the same modesty recalled by Francis Asbury and the knowledge that he was nearing the end of his own life:
“I have always considered myself too unworthy to perform this solemn injunction of the Apostle, but now I perceive the necessity of doing so, before I shall be removed.”
March 23rd
Latitude 28, 22. Longitude 53, 55, captured the British schooner Lark from Halifax to Barbadoes, ordered in.
From the journal of the Chasseur, excerpted in Baltimore American, June 2, 1814. Maryland Historical Society.
22 – Ground covered with Snow this morning but disappear’d by 12 O’Clock, went to Town, return’d to Dinner – Wind very high at N.W. & cold, Mrs. T. & Children in Town~
From the journal of Captain Henry Thompson, March 22, 1814. Courtesy the Friends of Clifton.
On March 22, 1814, the Mammoth set sail for Havana on a maiden voyage with commander Samuel Franklin and a large crew of 100 seamen. Built by Thomas Kemp in 1813 for $40,000, the Mammoth was the largest privateer schooner built in Baltimore at the time, weighing 376 tons and measuring 112′ by 28’3″ by 13’4″. When ship was commissioned on March 7, the ship’s owners included John Gooding, Samuel Smith, James Williams, and James A. Buchanan.
With special thanks to volunteer Dennis Lilly and the Maryland Historical Society, we are excited to follow the first two voyages of the Mammoth from March through late October. The ship’s log acquired by the Maryland Historical Society in 2009 is likely a period copy of the original as the pages are clearly written and there are no water stains or other evidence of hard use from a long sea voyage.
Over the next few months, you can stay tuned for more daily updates on the lives of the Baltimore seamen on board the Mammoth but if you don’t mind the spoilers we have a quick preview of the events that lie ahead for this schooner.
Armed with 10 cannons, the Mammoth sailed to Havana where she unloaded her cargo then cruised the Caribbean, teaming up with two other privateers, to burn and harass the substantial English trade. In late spring, the Mammoth sailed north and put into Portsmouth on May 27 and stayed until June 23, 1814. The Mammoth’s second cruise began with a foray of burning English fishing vessels off the Grand Banks, where her attack on an armed English brig (probably the Sinclair) was repulsed. On October 10, 1814 she engaged in a long cannonade against an English transport, the Champion, which resulted in her capture. Mammoth transferred her cargo, and then returned the shot-up vessel to her commander. Franklin then sailed the Mammoth to Ireland, where she cruised, burning a number of captured vessels. She arrived back in Portland on November 15, 1814.
This post is adapted from the Maryland Historical Society Finding aid to The Schooner Mammoth Logs, 1814 and The Schooner Independencia del Sud, November, 1817 – January, 1822 MS 3082.
21st – Cold hazy morning, Wind East – Went to Town return’d to Diner – Commenced Snowing at 2 O’Clock and continued without intermission all the afernoon & very cold~
From the journal of Captain Henry Thompson, March 21, 1814. Courtesy the Friends of Clifton.
On March 21, 1814, Dr. James Smyth and Dr. Colin Mackenzie, managers of the Maryland Hospital, received an 25 year extension on their lease from the City of Baltimore. The extension included new conditions that required the institution to construct a new four-story brick building with two three-story wings funded by loans from the state and a new lottery.
The history of public hospitals in Baltimore began in 1794 when local residents established a “temporary retreat for the Strangers and Sea-faring people.” The Baltimore Committee of Health acquired the property during the yellow fever epidemic of 1798 (an outbreak that killed over 5,000 people from Baltimore to Boston) and maintained the hospital with public funds until 1808 when the institution was first leased to Smythe and Mackenzie. Under its new private management, Baltimore covered the costs for public patients at a fixed rate and controlled the management of the hospital through an appointed board of five visitors.
Known variously as the Public Hospital, the City Hospital and the Maryland Hospital for the Insane, this institution moved in 1852 to Catonsville where it survives as the Spring Grove Hospital Center. Learn more about the history of Spring Grove in this detailed history of the institution.