Drunkards are as rare as the eclipses of the sun.

Owensville came to life in the early 1800’s when Isaac Owens established a store at a crossroads near the West River of the Chesapeake Bay.

       

1860 Martenet Tax Map of Owensville

By the 1850’s, the crossroads had become a small metropolis, with two general stores, a wheel-wright shop, a harness shop, a blacksmith, a tailor, a cobbler, a post office, two churches, a parsonage, elementary school, Masonic lodge, and The West River Classical Institute of higher learning .

The W River Institute had day and boarding students. 

Its catalog described Owensville as a place of great morality where “the visits of the inebriate are as rare as the eclipses of the sun.”

The Institute closed in 1860, 

and Christ Church began using the building as a Parish Hall for community suppers, minstrel shows, piano recitals, and Christmas entertainments. 

Sunday Schoolers used the grounds for Easter egg hunts and games of London Bridge and Blind Man’s Buff.

The building was finally torn down in 1923.  

"For awhile the tall gray building 

was missed, 

and then forgotten." 

(Kate Chew)

West River Classical Institute 1851

A Confederate Pony

     In 1838 young Dr James Murray built a house in Owensville and opened a medical practice. His great uncle, Dr William Murray, had recently retired, leaving the village without a doctor.

Js Murray's first house (photo taken 1893)

   Tragically, in 1840, James' pregnant wife fell down the stairs to the basement and died.

  Dr William's wife Harriet described the incident in a letter:

  “Death has made his appearance lately in our neighborhood in most afflicting form...  A young Physician settled himself within a half mile of us; and in November married a lovely girl... They appeared to be at the summit of human happiness, he succeeding within his business; and she to all appearance in the vigour of health;  in which state she retired for the night.  

  “About three o’clock she complained of not being well...  five o’clock she was seized with spasms... She was a corpse at the hour of eleven.  She was six month of pregnancy.  Poor dear girl!  Her husband is the picture of despair.”

  James Murray, after 2 years, remarried and built a new house all on one floor, with no basement stairs.

Js Murray's second house "Arden", built 1842  (Hiatt photo-1974)

   

  Another few years went by,

then the outbreak of the

Civil War.  

James moved his family

to Warrenton Va and

joined the Confederate 

Army as a surgeon.

    As was common during the War, the soldiers and deserters from both Armies ransacked the countryside.  

All the Murray livestock were eventually stolen, except for one pony which belonged to the children.  They smeared it with grease and claimed it had a skin disease.  
It was saved! 

In 1876 “...disaster struck”

 - Sam Chew,  storekeeper & storyteller

                 “I was born in 1874, nine years after the Great War, and when I became nineteen my father told me to go to the Store and go to work.  I never disputed my father.  He was the best man I ever knew. 

“I had read Blackstone’s ‘Short History of the English People’... 

I had read the immense volumes of  ‘The Congressional Directory 1860 to 1866’...  

I had read the burning speeches of Daniel Voorhees, Thomas Benton, and Jefferson Davis... 

“But the Village Store was where I learned the history of the West River country in which I was born.

  

Owensville Store and Post Office c1900

“It was a finishing school...  

a gathering place.

“Here could be found the justice of the peace, the carpenter, the blacksmith, the farmer, the bricklayer, the gentleman, the veteran, and the doctor.” 

The doctor around the time of the Civil War was Dr Estep Hall.

“One morning [in 1876] Dr Hall was driving to Annapolis behind a pair of spirited horses when disaster struck.  As they were descending the hill to the South River, the team became frightened and were soon beyond control of the driver.  The team galloped toward the bridge and collided with the railing throwing Dr Hall out violently, his head striking the abutment. He lived only 24 hours.  His attending physician was Dr Morris Cheston who had but recently graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.”    

In 1881 Dr Morris Cheston bought Dr Hall's house in Owensville.  He became the fifth doctor to live there. 

Dr Morris Cheston, wife Sally, and 4 children. 1893

Dr Cheston's Last Call

In 1881 Dr Morris Cheston moved into the corner house at the Owensville crossroads. 

“After breakfast each morning he would come over to the store to supply himself with Virgin Smoking Tobacco from Marburg's factory in Baltimore.  It was the brightest tobacco on the market.  He rolled his own cigarettes which he smoked incessantly.  When he came into the sick room he carried the fragrant odor of tobacco with him.

“He was the typical country doctor who mastered circumstances and delved into surgery.  He removed a cancer from the breast of one patient, and performed an emergency hernia operation on another with no light save that which came from the feeble glimmer of an oil lamp.  These operations were successful and the patients outlived him by many years.

"Kind and lovable, he was never known to turn his back on any patient, no matter how humble, poor, or unfortunate.

                           Dr Cheston's House c1900.  Door to the doctor's office is at right.

Dr Morris Cheston b1850 d1898

“The last professional call Dr Cheston made was on old Alec Pratt, a destitute ex-slave who, in the last days of his illness, sent for ‘Dr Morris’ who came willingly although hardly able to sit in his buggy.” 

                         - Recollections of Sam Chew, Storekeeper 1893-1937

“Every explosion seemed to go through my heart”

-  Harriet Murray, 1814.  

In the year 1800, Dr William Murray and his wife Harriet settled on 685 acres in Owensville.  They built a farmhouse, a stable, a corn house, and named their new home Woodstock.  Their lives were routinely occupied with raising four children, praying, socializing with friends and relatives, and caring for the sick of the neighborhood. 

Woodstock Farm c.1900

Suddenly their quiet lives were shattered!  The War of 1812 had arrived in Maryland.  

British forces sailed up the Patuxent River to within 10 miles of Owensville, then turned west toward Washington.  En route to the capital, on Aug 24, they soundly defeated the American troops deployed against them at Bladensburg Md.  

Burning of Washington 1814 (Wikipedia photo)

 On Sept 11 1814 Harriet wrote of her ordeal to a friend:

 

Harriet Murray c1788

“...my beloved [son] William was severely wounded in the Battle of Bladensburg.  A bullet passed into his side... and another through his ankle, and the third broke his leg in a most dreadful and serious manner, in which state he was taken prisoner, and from Wednesday until Friday lay without the assistance of a surgeon, or any dressings to his wounds.  It is almost miraculous that thro’ all this he is now in a fair way to recover and the Doctor told us his leg will be saved... I cannot describe to you the horror which took possession of my mind on the day of the Battle. We were within the sound of the guns, and every explosion seemed literally to go thro’ my heart.”