The Widow and the Judge

             Joseph Weir, a merchant in Owensville, died without a will in 1846, leaving his widow Elizabeth with four children under the age of 10.  

       The Chancery Court of Maryland ordered the Weir house sold at auction to pay Joseph’s debts.  One-third of the proceeds would go to the Widow as her dower.

But Elizabeth Weir had her own ideas.  Instead of one-third of the cash, she wanted one-third of the house.  Her children were schooling next door at the Methodist Parsonage.  Her village neighborhood was the social and commercial hub of the region.  She wanted to stay in this good place.

She petitioned the Judge, suggesting that her house could be a duplex:

  “My dwelling house is a desirable place of residence for myself and my children whom I have to educate.  I therefore pray that an assignment may be made to me of such portions of the dwelling and outhouses as may be considered equivalent to one third of the accommodation and one third of the lot.”  Sep.1847.

The Judge was convinced.  He called for a Property Plat to designate Elizabeth’s portion.  An auction would take place after three weeks’ notice in the newspaper.

On March 7 1849, on the steps of the Annapolis Court House, the Weir property was auctioned “subject to Elizabeth’s use of one room and the kitchen on the first floor and one room on the second floor, plus one-third of the Lot.”   

Elizabeth’s neighbor, John Hopkins,  purchased the property for $600. 

By 1860 Elizabeth's son Richard, a house painter, was able to buy back the house for his mother.  

     In 1864 Elizabeth sold the house to James & Charlotte Cheston who updated it with Gothic windows on the 3rd floor, gingerbread trim at the roof lines, floor-length bay windows in the parlor, and decorative porch posts.  

      The Weir House became Owensville’s Victorian Painted Lady.

CHANCERY COURT PAPERS #6560-4 1849   

 

Weir / Cheston House c1900

1863 - "Dearest Mother, farewell...

   ... It may be forever, but if I fall - I fall a free man.  Say goodbye to all Friends.” 

  

So wrote Captain William Murray of Owensville, in a letter from Baltimore, as his Confederate Brigade started toward Gettysburg.  

Capt William Murray

  On the third day of fighting, July 3, Captain Murray was killed while leading an attack on Culp’s Hill.  His brother Private Alexander Murray was wounded trying to come to his aid.  With two brothers fallen, the third brother, Private Clapham Murray took charge of the Murray Brigade in the losing hours of the battle.

Several weeks later their sister, 31-year-old Elizabeth, drove a wagon 100 miles from Owensville to Gettysburg to retrieve William’s remains.  There was no one else to undertake this task for her mother.  Her brothers were at war.  Her father was dead.  

Elizabeth Murray

To enter the battlefield where 38,000 men had recently fallen... brave brave Elizabeth! 

Christ Church Cemetery, Owensville
William Murray's stone

The Ride of Watkins Richardson - 1863

During the Civil War

   Owensville families sent sons to fight for both the Union and the Confederacy.  When a Confederate soldier was brought home for burial, Union troops from Annapolis often came to the funeral, uninvited, hoping to capture a Confederate comrade paying respects. 

  So it was in July 1863 when Elizabeth Murray brought home the body of her brother from Gettysburg, Confederate Capt William Murray.  

His friend, Confederate soldier Watkins Richardson, showed up for the funeral.

Peake Farmhouse
(photo- M.Carroll 1978)

  Yankee soldiers from Camp Parole came riding into Owensville just as Watkins was leaving the church.

He saw them and wheeled his horse at the crossroads, galloping down Blacksmith Hill toward the Peake Farm.

  Teenage twins Sallie and Betty Peake heard the commotion from upstairs.  Crowding to the window, they shouted "Go Jeff Davis!" as Watkins raced past.  

  When the Yanks came through, the girls sang loudly out the window:

 "John Brown’s body lies a-moulder-ing in the grave!”   

  Watkins escaped. But the disgruntled Yanks soon returned and stole one of the Peakes' horses.  

Sallie Peake c1870

   Oh, wasn’t there some hollering that evening when the girls’ father William Peake learned of the loss!

“My grandmother, she took her whipping without a whimper, but her sister Betty cried and begged for mercy. 
What a sissy!”  exclaimed  Elizabeth Peake Havens, 

91-year-old granddaughter of Sallie Peake.