January 14, 1842
Equity - KEGERICE

Thomas DRAPER and Henry ANKENY  vs  Amos ADAMS, Henry TRITLE & w/ Elizabeth, 
Michael KEGERICE and David KEGERICE - Equity #687 - Jan 6, 1842

The object of this suit is to procure and _______ of the personal estate, and 
a decree for the sale of the real estate of Michael KEGERICE, deceased, 
in order to pay and satisfy the debts due by the said deceased, at the time 
of his death.

The Bill states that Michael KEGERICE,at the time of his death, was indebted 
to Thomas DRAPER in the sum of $159.32 and unto Henry ANKENY as 
trustee for Joshua NEWCOMER, in the sum of $25.54 
- and that said Michael KEGERICE was also indebted to diverse other persons.  

   Michael KEGERICE  d/ 1841, intestate
     d/ Elizabeth  w/o Henry TRITLE - Out of State
     s/ Michael KEGERICE Jr, a minor - Out of State
     s/ David KEGERICE, a minor - Out of State
 
That administration of the personal estate of said deceased, has been granted 
by the Orphan's Court of Washington County unto Amos ADAMS.  
That said personal estate is insufficient to pay the debts due and owing by 
said Michael KEGERICE, deceased, at the time of his death.  
And that said Michael left certain real estate in Washington County, which 
descended to his heirs at law.  And acting by the Petition of said Thomas 
DRAPER and Henry ANKENY, and also by the return of the Sheriff of 
Washington County, to the writ of subpoena issued in this case, that the 
said Henry TRITLE and Elizabeth his wife, the said Michael KEGERICE Jr 
and David KEGERICE are not citizens of the State of Maryland and do not 
reside therein.

It is therefore adjudged and ordered this 6th day of January, 1842, that the 
complainants by causing a copy of this order to be inserted in some newspaper 
published at Hagerstown once in each of three successive weeks before the 
3rd day of February, 1842, give notice to the said absent defendants of the 
object and substance of this bill; and warn them to appear in this Court 
in person or by solicitor, on or before the first day of July, 1842, to answer 
the premises and show cause if any they have, why a decree ought not to 
be passed as prayed - otherwise the bill will be taken as confessed against 
them.  (True copy - test - O.H. WILLIAMS, Clerk - Jan 14, 1842)


Public Sale - Valuable Farm - WELTY 

John D. WELTY, being desirous of removing to the western country, will 
sell at public sale on Wednesday, 16th of February in front of the Court 
House in Hagertown between 10 and 2 o'clock - his valuable farm situated 
in Ringgold's Manor, adjoining the lands of Benjamin FITZHUGH, John 
MALOTT and others, five miles from Hagerstown and four miles from 
Williamsport.  Consists of 117 1/2 acres of first-rate Limestone Land, 
20 acres, are well timbered and the balance in fine state of cultivation.  
Improvements consist of Log House and Barn, elegant Stone Spring House 
and all necessary out buildings; a superior spring of the best and never-
failing water, most elegantly situated with all stock from different parts 
of the farm having free access to the streams.  Also, fine youngorchard 
of fruit trees, apples, peaches, pears, cherrys, plumbs, etc.


Friday, April 4, 1873
Sketch of the Life and Death of George BEARD (communicated)

George BEARD, the subject of this sketch, who died on the 28th day of 
February just passed, was the only son of Andrew BEARD, and was a 
descendant of one of the earliest families that settled in the valley of Maryland.  
Before the red man was fairly ousted from his hunting grounds in this valley, 
Nicholas BEARD, the father of Andrew, emigrated hither. 
He was a native of Germany and first settled in Pennsylvania as most of the 
emigrants from the fatherland did at that time; but afterwards, for the purpose 
of acquiring cheap lands, removed to this locality, the then backwoods of America.  
This place, by common consent, received the name of "Beard's Church" and the 
"Beard's Church Settlement" from the fact that, at an early day, the fathers 
made provision for some sort of a house of worship and pitched upon this locality 
as a site for their church.  Thus "Beard's Church" is a name and a place that 
in all probablilty will descend to the latest posterity.

George BEARD was born, lived and died at or near the old homestead of the 
Beard family.  Here he tilled the soil his father and his father's father tilled 
before him; here he raised his family, where his father and his father's father 
before him raised theirs; and here he is buried in the old graveyard of the church.  
He was the last and only survivor of the name, in whose possession remained 
any portion of the patrimony by descent from the old sire who nearly a century 
and a half before, had located here in the wilderness.  True, there is, in the 
hands of other branches of the family, a certain portion of those lands, but it 
was acquired by purchase.

The first church building of this name has long since passed away.  It was 
merely a blockhouse.  I well recollect when a boy, the house that was pointed 
out to me, standing on the high bluff on the banks of the Antietam, that was 
said to have been built of the logs of the first Beard's Church.  This ancient 
building has long since been demolished. It was in this old church that 
ZULIPHEN and SCHRADER, and the likes of them, held forth, immediately 
succeeding the war of the revolution.  Some of them, it is said, practiced 
exorcism.  It is said that they were of the soldiers that Wilhelm of Hesse 
Cassel had hired to the king of England to fight our forefathers in the 
revolution.  He had made conscripts of many of the students of his university.  
Hence, they were men of parts.

The fathers of those days replaced the old building by a new blockhouse which 
served as the Beard's church for successive generations.  I distinctly recollect 
seeing the date of the building of this house; it was inlaid in the wood (which 
was black walnut) of the old stem-glass pulpit which stood on the northwest 
side of the church.  This date was 1787 and around it were written with a pen 
or pencil the names of the worthies who had been chiefs in building this house 
of worship.  Among those names were Nicholas BEARD, Francis PRETZMAN, 
Philip OSWALD and others.  I can remember the old organ and organ gallery, 
and many other things connected with this second church, which, in time, had 
to give way to more modern improvement.  

The interior of the old church was remodeled; the stem glass pulpit, the old 
organ and gallery - indeed, the entire interior was gutted, and with it those 
ancient relics and records above mentioned disappeared, and the inside 
re-arranged after the newer style of churches.  This state of things, however, 
did not long endure; the material of which the house was built was going to 
decay.  The congregation, some years ago, resolved to take down this house 
too, and replace it with a more substantial brick building.  The material of 
the old house was sold, and from it was built a house, standing to this day 
not very far from the forks of the roads leading to Hagerstown and Funkstown 
and not such a great way from the site of the other old building already mentioned.

Thus, I close my reminiscence of the ancient Beard's Church.  Of the new, 
I have nothing futher to say.

Nicholas BEARD, the grandfather of the subject of this notice, took up and 
patented a large tract of land in this locality on which he and his posterity 
of generations lived.  The patent name for this land was "The Dutch Lass".  
The old surveyors who usually named those lands, were very fruitful in the 
choice of names, generally selecting one from some circumstance or cause 
connected with the peculiar parcel in question; and, I have no doubt, 
"The Dutch Lass" was suggested in this case, because Beard was a German, 
in consequence of which the name was regarded as appropriate.

Old grandfather Beard selected a very oddly shaped piece of land for his 
possessions.  He employed a surveyor to run it out for him, as was the custom 
at that day.  They started out, Beard in advance, and the surveyor following 
after, and whenever they came to a place that did not suit him, he would run 
it out of his parcel, and whenever a place suited, he would run it in.  It 
is said that, when they were running lines in the vicinity where the Western 
Maryland Railroad now cuts through the ridge at WALTZ's, he thought they 
were approaching the mountain (at that time, the country was a wilderness) 
so he turned off short, and made a very sharp point of land at that place, 
which he afterwards corrected, by trading with the owners of the adjoining lands.

Those adjoining lands had been subsequently patented by JOHNSTON and 
CHASE under the name of "Gleanings".  This, likewise, was a significant name 
as it ws intended to include all that was left in the field over which land 
gatherers had been reaping a harvest.

And now we say, in conclusion, in reference to the subject we have been 
considering, thus has passed away another of the ancient landmarks of 
civilization.  What stupendous changes are wrought by time, and what an 
interesting chapter in the chronicles of the past might be written of but a 
single precinct, if the reocrds of families would be more carefully preserved.  
- O.