The Thomas Book

Owensville’s golden age as a commercial center was the 19th century.  

Highwy marker on Rt.255 WRiver Md

200 years earlier the Owensville site was part of William Richardson's plantation, Watkin’s Hope.  

William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, visited Richardson here in 1682.  

Another plantation Lebanon, south of Owensville's site, was owned by Philip Thomas.   

Philip's great grandson John Thomas married Sarah Murray in 1777.  Sarah's brother William Murray came to visit her and fell in love with her neighborhood.  He purchased nearby Watkins Hope and renamed it "AnteLebanus". 

Meanwhite, John Thomas, a Md State Senator, was, privately, a poet.

Here is part of a poem he wrote as a youth in 1762:

“Written Under a Young Lady’s Picture”

                                                                                                                  

...When Jenny's Picture was seen, the Youth said,

'No Maid on Earth could boast so fair a Face'

... But, when he saw Fair Jenny ...   

Raptured, he cry'd,

'To Nature, Art must yield.'   

Jenny's Picture 1757

In 1808, 3 yrs after John's death, his complete poem was published anonymously by an unnamed "Lady of Maryland", and was soon forgotten.

In 1960, 152 yrs later, the Maryland Lady's book resurfaced, and a search was made for the identities of “Jenny”, “the Youth”, the “Picture”, and the "Lady".

Jenny turned out to be Jane Galloway of Tulip Hill plantation - 12 yrs old in the Picture - 17 at the time of the poem. 

The Picture, an early work by renowned artist Benjamin West, was found at the Pa Historical Society.

The anonymous Youth/poet, was of course John Thomas, neighbor of Tulip Hill. 

The Lady of Maryland was John's sister-in-law, Wm Murray's wife Harriet.

And the Sequel ...?

Lebanon c1900. Burned Oct 27 1915. (SWhall photo)





   

In 1915, the Thomas home

Lebanon burned to the ground. 

In 1980 Kate Chew recalled the fire in her Owensville memoir:

“One night Daddy woke me, and lifting me to the south window, he told me to look, that Lebanon was on fire.  I could see a red light above the trees.  He wanted me to remember it, and I do to this day.  

"Lebanon had been the colonial home of the Thomas family.  Philip Thomas in the 1700's had written a day-by-day account of happenings in the neighborhood, and when anyone wanted to settle a dispute, it was taken to The Thomas Book.  I think the Book was saved."