In my last Blog Post I left off with the members of my Armistead family in North Carolina preparing to enter the 19th Century. This line of the Armisteads had been in North America, since early in the 1630's. That means they had been here for nearly two centuries and were about to enter the third. My Armistead family first arrived in Virginia and later moved south to North Carolina. I am sure they were wondering what the 1800s would hold in store for them.
However, before I let the Armisteads "Step into the Nineteenth Century" I am going to bring us up to date on some of the history of the time. If you have read any of my other posts you know that I love the history part just like I love the genealogy part. We know that the last decade of the 18th Century was an exciting time that would establish this country and how it's government would work. After all, by 1790 it was only 14 years from the "Declaration of Independence" and the country's first president was still in his first term.
A new state, Vermont, was added to the United States in 1791 and two more states, Kentucky and Tennessee, were added in 1792 and 1796 respectively. The addition of Kentucky as a new state made it the first state west of the Appalachian Mountains. Daniel Boone, the famous explorer and trailblazer, was busy working to open up new pathways to the west. He is probably the one most remembered for opening the Wilderness Trail through the Cumberland Gap. The Cumberland Mountains are a long ridge of mountains located within the Appalachian Mountains and the Cumberland Gap opens up at a point near the junction of the present states of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. (1)
Title: Daniel Boone escorting settlers through the Cumberland Gap
Artist: George Caleb Bingham (1811–1879)
Description: Daniel (1734-1820) and his wife Rebecca travelling westwards to Kentucky;
Date: 1851-1852
Medium: oil on canvas
Current location: Washington University in St. Louis, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
St. Louis, USA
Source/Photographer: The Bridgeman Art Library, Object 29102
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23197838
Description: Wilderness Road
Source: Library of Congress
Uploader: User:Nikater
Date: 2 Mar 2007
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In 1791 the steamboat was patented in the United States by John Fitch, in 1792 the US Post Office was established, the New York Stock Exchange was established, and construction of the U.S. Executive Mansion was started. The "Executive Mansion" would not be called the "White House" until 1818. It took a long time to build things back then, I guess, because the first president to actually occupy this new home, built for the purpose of housing our president while in office, was John Adams. Adams was able to finally move in during 1800, even though it was not completely finished. He was defeated for re-election and so was only able to live there a few months. Thomas Jefferson would be the first president to live in the "Executive Mansion" during his full term. George Washington struggled somewhat with the decision to stand for another term as president or go home to Virginia. At last he decided, once again, that his country needed him and he was elected to serve a second term in 1792. (2)
Description: Daguerreotype of the south front of the White House. (Earliest known Photograph.)
Date: 1846
Source: This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3c12293.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information.
Author: John Plumbe (1809–1857)
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In 1793 George Washington laid the cornerstone for the Capitol building in Washington D.C., in 1794 Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin, and in 1795 the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, began operating as the first state university in the U.S. In 1796 John Adams was elected president of the United States and replaced Washington in 1797. (3)
Description: John Adams
Painter: Gilbert Stuart, c. 1800-1815, oil on canvas.
Current location: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA.
Source/Photographer: http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg60a/gg60a-42933.html
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Thomas Jefferson was elected president in 1800 and took office in 1801. In the election of 1800 Thomas Jefferson and the current president, John Adams, carried on a bitter campaign to see if Adams would be re-elected or if Jefferson would prevail and become the new president. Historians point to this election as the election that started the two political party system. Many people felt, at the time, like this process was so bitter and so many things were hanging in the balance, that it had our young republic on the brink of collapse. Historians also believe that the election of 1800 was a turning point in American history. There were many factors that came into play, such as a tie vote in the Electoral College and behind the scenes wrangling to get one Elector to change his vote. If I have peaked your interest, you might want to read a very interesting account of this election in John Ferling's book, Adams vs. Jefferson, The Tumultuous Election of 1800. (4)
Description: Official Presidential portrait of Thomas Jefferson
Date: 1800
Source: http://www.whitehouseresearch.org/assetbank-whha/action/viewHome
Author: Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860)
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Description: Portrait of James Madison.
Medium: oil on canvas
Date: 1816
Source: The White House Historical Association. The painting is in the White House collection
Author: John Vanderlyn (1775–1852)
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason: This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or less. You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States.
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President Madison was elected to a second term in 1812 and at the same time naval battles were raging on the high seas. In 1814 Washington, D.C. was occupied by the British and the White House was burned. Britain's army then proceeded on to Baltimore, where the British planned to launch their next assault. The port of Baltimore and Fort McHenry would be the next attack point and they believed a victory there would enable them to then control the area and attack other areas as they pleased. The British commanders were about to receive a huge shock! (7)
In June of 1813 Major George Armistead arrived to take command of Fort McHenry. One of the very first things he did was to order a flag for the fort. He wanted the flag to be "...so large that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance." (8) He ordered the flag to measure 30 feet by 42 feet. The flag was made by Mary Pickersgill, with some assistance by her daughter Caroline. (9)
Description: Flag that floated over Fort McHenry in 1814.
Date: 1873
Source: George Henry Preble
By George Henry Preble - Frank A. O'Connell; Wilbur F. Coyle (1914). National Star-Spangled Banner Centennial, Baltimore, Maryland, September 6 to 13, 1914. Baltimore: National Star-Spangled Banner Centennial Commission. p. 66., Public Domain,
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Preparations were made in and around the fort by Major Armistead and others to meet the assault by the British. On Sep 13, 1814, the British navy began a bombardment of Fort McHenry and the surrounding area that lasted an agonizing 25 hours and included 1500 shells fired at the fort by the British. Armistead and his men were greatly tested by the bombardment but they returned nearly as many shells as they received. With the dawning of the morning of Sep 14th, the huge American flag that Armistead had ordered to be made back in June of 1813, could be seen from miles away, still flying proudly over Fort McHenry. Fortunately, the British cannons were not particularly accurate and were not able to destroy the fort as they had hoped. It is hard to imagine withstanding that kind of fury being rained down on you. The sound, the smell in the air, the suffocating dust and debris thrown up by the exploding shells. And then there is the fear that each shell might be the one that hits right next to you. (10)
Description: The caption reads "A VIEW of the BOMBARDMENT of Fort McHenry, near Baltimore, by the British fleet.
Date: 29 July 2005 (original upload date)
Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia
Author: Original uploader was Dr.frog at en.wikipedia
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Later, after the battle had concluded, and Major Armistead had been promoted to Lt. Colonel, he made his reports to his superiors, as was required. I included a quote from Colonel Armistead's report below where he gives a short description of the bombardment:
"The bombardment continued on the part of the enemy until 7 o'clock on Wednesday morning, when it ceased; and about 9, their ships got under weigh, and stood down the river. During the bombardment, which lasted 25 hours (with two light intermissions) from the best calculation I can make, from 15 to 1800 shells were thrown by the enemy. A few of these fell short. A large proportion burst over us, throwing their fragments among us, and threatening destruction. Many passed over, and 400 fell within the works. Two of the buildings are materially injured, the others but slightly."
"I am happy to inform you (wonderful as may appear) that our loss amounts to four men killed, and 24 wounded. The latter will all recover."....."Were I to name individuals who signalized themselves, it would be doing injustice to others. Suffice to say, that every officer and soldier under my command did their duty to my entire satisfaction."
"I have the honor to be &c.
George Armistead, Lt. Colonel, U.S. Army" (11)
At this point the British knew they could not win with a long and costly siege on the port and withdrew. Armistead was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel for his part in this heroic and extremely important defense of Fort McHenry. In fact it turned out that the battle at Baltimore and Fort McHenry was not only a major battle, but was instrumental in turning the tide of the war for the Americans. An outcome that the British certainly were not expecting. (12)
There was a another very significant and unexpected consequence of this battle. I've written about it before on my blog. At the time of the battle at Fort McHenry, a man by the name of Francis Scott Key was being detained on a British war ship. He had gone out to attempt to obtain the release of a friend being held by the British. The British would not release Key's ship to return home due to their impending attack on Fort McHenry. Key was forced to witness the British bombardment of Fort McHenry from the ship. On the morning of Sept. 14, 1814, after the bombardment of the fort, Key could see the fort's huge flag of the United States flying proudly over the fort and was inspired to write a poem titled "The Defense of Fort McHenry". Later the poem was set to music and eventually became our national anthem. The flag, referred to as the "Armistead Flag", that provided Francis Scott Key's inspiration is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution. (13)
"The Armistead Flag" or "The Star Spangled Banner Flag" as it is exhibited today at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/star-spangled-banner
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalmuseumofamericanhistory/sets/72157623910310943/
If you are interested in more detailed information about this flag, Colonel Armistead, and his family, you should get these two books. They are both a short read and I think you will find them very interesting: "Guardian of the Star-Spangled Banner, Lt. Colonel George Armistead and The Fort McHenry Flag", by Scott Sumpter Sheads, and "The Star-Spangled Banner, The Flag that inspired the National Anthem", by Lonn Taylor.
I know that Colonel George Armistead can be claimed by many, many people as a relative and that my relation to him is as a somewhat distant cousin, but it doesn't stop me from being very proud that I can claim the defender of Fort McHenry as one of my kinfolk.
Description: Painting of Lt. Colonel George Armistead.
Artist: Hall, H. B., Artist (NARA record: 3123749) - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain, Under the following terms:Attribution-You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonalbe manner, but not in any way that suggests the license endorses you or your use. Noncommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.Share Alike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
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On Dec. 24, 1814, a peace treaty was signed at Ghent which ended the war of 1812. An end to the fighting did not come, however, until a battle in Louisiana was fought. Unaware of the peace treaty, over 5,000 British troops attacked Major General Andrew Jackson and his American soldiers on Jan 8, 1815. Jackson delivered a crushing defeat to the British at what is known as the Battle of New Orleans. The British suffered over 2000 casualties, the US forces suffered only 71. With the end of the war, the United States would finally take its rightful and significant place among the nations of the world. (14)
Title The Battle of New Orleans.
Date: January 1815. Copy of engraving by H. B. Hall after W. Momberger., ca. 1900 - 1982
Author: Hall, H. B., Artist (NARA record: 3123749)
Record creator Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Chief Signal Officer. (09/18/1947 - 02/28/1964)
Current location National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
Still Picture Records Section, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S)
Record ID: This media is available in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration, cataloged under the ARC Identifier (National Archives Identifier) 531091.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required.
Record Group 111: Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, 1860 - 1985 (National Archives Identifier: 440)· Series: Signal Corps Photographs of American Military Activity, compiled 1754 - 1954 (National Archives Identifier: 530707)· NAIL Control Number: NWDNS-111-SC-96970· 111-SC-96970
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Title: Portrait of James Monroe
Artist: Samuel Morse (1791–1872)
Date: circa 1819
Medium: oil on canvas
Current location: White House
Notes: White House copy of the 1819 painting Kloss, William, et al. Art in the White House: A Nation's Pride. Washington, D.C.: The White House Historical Association, 2008:
Licensing: This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason: This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or less. You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States.
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By John Vanderlyn (1775–1852) - The White House Historical Association. the painting is in the White House collection[1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1761716
From 1810 to the end of 1819, the U.S. admitted 5 new states, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, and Alabama, bringing the total to 22. Population of the United States rose from 5,308,483 in 1800 and 7,239,881 in 1810 to 9,638,453 in 1820. The state of New York had the largest population with 1,372,812. In 1820 Missouri applied for statehood and the fight over slavery heated up the rhetoric in Congress to the boiling point. The Missouri Compromise was finally worked out to allow the entry of Missouri as a slave state with the admission of Maine as a free state. This brought the total number of states to 24 and kept the free and slave state balance in check at 12 each, but it only kicked the problem a little further down the road and settled nothing. The bitter debate in Congress and in the country was only an indication of things to come in the next few decades, as the United States would find itself sliding toward a civil war. You can read more about the Missouri Compromise online or maybe you still remember it from high school history. (16)
Description: Map of the states and territories of the United States as it was from 1822 to 1824. On March 30 1822, the two Floridas were organized as Florida Territory. On November 15 1824, Arkansas Territory shrank, the western portion becoming unorganized.
Author: Made by User:Golbez.
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Now, let's go back to North Carolina and see what is going on with the Armistead family. In my last post I listed William and Sarah Armistead's seven children still living in 1800 and for clarity I will list them again here. John, Eliza (married to David Turner), Robert, Mary (married to David Wright), Sarah Guyther, (I don't know her husband's first name.) Sarah Guyther died in Dec. of 1800. Stark, and Priscilla (She was still in the house with their mother Sarah), and William's wife Sarah Armistead (my great-great-great-great-grandmother) were still living. Anne Armistead, (Jordan's widow) was also alive and listed in the 1800 Census with her two children in Washington County, N.C.
This first decade of the 1800s was a continuation of what the Armisteads had been doing. They were engaged in farming, commerce, and fisheries. Many pages of documents show that they were still struggling to get the wills of William Armistead, Sr., William Armistead, Jr., and Anthony Armistead settled. As mentioned, Sarah (the daughter) died in 1800 and then Robert died in 1806. Robert left a wife and children who joined all the others in seeking a piece of various estates. Also, passing away in this decade was Penelope Daly Armistead. This is William Jordan Armistead's two year old little sister who died in 1801.
By looking at the 1810 Census we can see how the family was changing as they started the next decade. Sarah Armistead is listed with Priscilla (age 27) still at home, probably helping to take care of her mother. John Armistead, along with his wife Sarah, are listed, David and Elizabeth (Armistead) Turner, Ann Cochran (Stewart) Armistead, along with her son, William Jordan Armistead, (Ann did not remarry after Jordan's death), Stark Armistead (now married with several children), Mary (Stewart) Armistead (her husband, Robert Armistead died in 1806), and David and Mary (Armistead) Wright are all present in the 1810 Census. Only the mother, two sons, and three daughters remain of the original family.
Over all my Armistead relatives did not fare well from 1811 to 1819. Sarah Armistead (my 4X great-grandmother) died in 1818 and her son John followed her in death that same year. Mary (Armistead) Wright died in 1817, which left only Elizabeth (Armistead) Turner, Stark Armistead, and Priscilla (Armistead) Thorpe of the original family members. Elizabeth lived until 1822 and Stark Armistead lived until 1835. Stark was a very successful businessman and plantation owner. No doubt he was aided some by being the last surviving son and he probably got a really good inheritance. I have not found a date of death for Priscilla, the youngest, but I know she lived into the 1830's.
In 1815 my great-great-grandfather, William Jordan Armistead, enrolled in the University of North Carolina. I found his name in a book called Catalogue of the Members of the Dialectic Society Instituted in the University of North Carolina June 3, 1795, Together with Historical Sketches. His name was entered as joining the society in 1815 and it stated that this date meant that he had most likely started to school that year as well. The Dialectic Society was a "Debating Society" started at the University in 1795 after recognizing the "need of a society for training in speaking and writing". (17) This society evolved into the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies or Di Phi as they are generally known today. This organization is the oldest student organization at the University of North Carolina. (18) Take a look below at the outline of courses they studied in the1830's, probably similar to what it was in 1815.
Freshman Class:
First Session: 1. Sallust the whole, 2. Ancient Geography, Worcester's Elements., 3. Arithmetic revised, 4. Graeca Majora, Cyropaedia, 5. Algebra, 6. English Grammar.
Second Session: 7. Virgil, Georgies. 8. Cicero's seven Orations., 9. Graeca Majora., Anabasis, Herodotus, Thucydides, Elian, Polyaenus. 10. algebra completed., 11. English Grammar.
Sophomore Class"
First Session: 13. Graeca Majora. 13. Horace. Odes, and one book of Satires. 14. Caldwell's Geometry, six books, and the ninth. 15. Exercises in Making Latin
Second Session: 16. Horace. Gould's Editio Expurgated. 17. Homer's Illiad, 4 books. 18. Cicero's Orations continued. 19. Geometry, completed. 20. Plane and Spherical Trigonometry, with practical examples. 21. Modern Geography, revised.
Junior Sophisters.
First Session: 22. Logarithms. 23. Day's Mensuration, Navigation, and surveying. 24. Mechanical Philosophy. 25 Philips' Conic Sections. 26. Cicero de Senectute et Amicitia. 27. Rhetorick. 28. Exercises in Latin construction.
Second Session: 29. Fluxions. 30. Mechanical Philosophy. 31. Chronology. 32. Graica Majora, second volume. 33. Rhetoric, continued. 34. Exercises in Latin construction.
Senior Sophisters.
First Session" 35. Chemistry and mineralogy. 36. Mental Physiology. 37. Logick. 38. Astronomy. 39. Graica Majora, second volume. 40. Horace's Art of Poetry. 41. Exercises in Latin construction.
Second Session: 42. Chemistry and Geology. 43. Moral Philosophy. 44. Political Economy. 45 Astronomy. 46. Tacitus, or selections from Cicero's philosophical works. 47. Graica Majora, second volume. 48. Exercises in Latin and Greek construction.
Composition and declamation taught through the whole Collegiate course. (19)
I do not know if William Jordan Armistead graduated from UNC, but I do know that on the 20th of Jan. 1820 William married Mary Elizabeth Edwards Baker. It would be interesting to know how the young couple met, but unfortunately I don't know anything about that. Mary Elizabeth was from Martin County, N.C. She was the daughter of Dr. Simmons Jones Baker a successful and well known doctor and property owner. Was this a marriage of two people that met and fell in love or was this one of the popular "arranged" marriages between two wealthy families.
Dr. Baker might have done business with the Armistead family on a retail basis by purchasing goods from the Armisteads. Maybe the simple fact that the two families, Baker and Armistead, were successful and possibly well known families living within a few miles of each other, (Martin County borders Bertie on the south) made it inevitable the two families would know each other and that the natural order would be for the families to end up having children that would intermarry between the two families.
Actually, after looking at all the records I have, I can say that I am quite sure William Jordan Armistead knew who Dr Baker was. In 1812 Dr. Baker was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina (and William Jordan Armistead, as mentioned above, was enrolled there in 1815). (20) From 1814 to 1818 Baker was elected first for two years as a member of the House of Commons for North Carolina and then three years as senator. (21) He also served as a director on the board of a bank. Dr Simmons Jones Baker owned at least 50 slaves in 1810 and 81 in 1820, according to the census records. Seems kind of brutal to estimate wealth this way but the fact is this gives us a good guess at how big his plantation operations were.
The 1820 Census shows William Jordan and Mary Eliza (Baker) Armistead living in Washington County, North Carolina, newly weds of only a few months. The couple is listed as owning 10 slaves, which most likely had been inherited by William or given to Mary Eliza by her father upon her marriage or maybe a combination of both. They had a fairly modest plantation in comparison to William's uncle, Stark Armistead, who had 62 slaves or Dr Baker as I mentioned above. However, in comparison to the general population, they started their marriage in very good condition.
Source Citation: 1820 U S Census; Census Place: Washington, North Carolina; Page: 415; NARA Roll: M33_80; Image: 386
Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1820 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
Original data: Fourth Census of the United States, 1820. (NARA microfilm publication M33, 142 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Description: This database details those persons enumerated in the 1820 United States Federal Census, the Fourth Census of the United States. In addition, the names of those listed on the population schedule are linked to the actual images of the 1820 Federal Census. Enumerators of the 1820 census were asked to include the following categories in the census: name of head of household, number of free white males and females, number of other free persons except Indians, number of slaves, town or district and county of residence.
So I think this is a good place to take a break. In my next post I will pick up with William Jordan and Mary Eliza Armistead as they start out their lives together as a married couple. Many children, a big move south, other relocations, etc., will all come along over the next few decades. I am so excited to see what lies ahead, aren't you?
References:
1) http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1790.html
2) http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1790.html
3) http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1790.html
4) http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1800.html , Ferling, John, Adams vs. Jefferson, The Tumultuous Election of 1800, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, New York, 2004, Cover pg.
5) http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1800.html
6) http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1810.html
7) http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1810.html
8) Shead, Scott Sumpter, Guardian of the Star-Spangled Banner, Toomey Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 1999, pg. 8.
9) Ibid., pg. 10.
10) Ibid., pg. 9, 10.
11) Ibid., pg. 16, 17.
12) Ibid., pg. 17.
13) Ibid., pg. 42,43.
14) http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1810.html
15) http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1810.html
16) http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1820.html
17) Catalogue of the Members of the Dialectic Society. (pg.59) Ancestry.com. U.S., School Catalogs, 1765-1935 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.
Educational Institutions. American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts.
The Digitized Content is licensed from the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) and may not be reproduced, transferred or commercially or otherwise exploited, in whole or in part, outside the terms and conditions of this service without the express written consent of AAS. All rights reserved.
http://interactive.ancestry.com/2203/32761_1020704762_1652-00064?pid=3696185&backurl=
18)https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dialectic_and_Philanthropic_Societies&printable=yes
19) Catalogue of the Trustees, Faculty and Students, of the University of North Carolina: For 1833-1834. (pg. 11, 12.) Ancestry.com. U.S., College Student Lists, 1763-1924 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. College Student Lists. Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society. The Digitized Content is licensed from the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) and may not be reproduced, transferred or commercially or otherwise exploited, in whole or in part, outside the terms and conditions of this service without the express written consent of AAS. All rights reserved.
http://interactive.ancestry.com/2207/32217_622204_0463-00002?pid=358886&backurl=
20) Ibid., pg. 2.
21) Wheeler, John Hill, Historical Sketches of North Carolina From 1584 to 1851, Regional Publishing Company, Baltimore, MD. 1974, pg 253. .http://interactive.ancestry.com/48630/SketchesNCII-000626-251?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.com%2fsearch%2fdb.aspx%3fdbid%3d48630%26path%3d&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnBrowsing#?imageId=SketchesNCII-000628-253
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