Dwain Cover McDonald's and Yvonne Lucille Petersteiner's Family Tree
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JOHN YOUNG

1757 – 1838

2

GRANDFATHER JOHN

As every child invents his own fairy godmother in his heart, I created my grand father; consequently, no boy ever had a finer one.  No grandsire was ever quite so ambitious, quite so generous, quite so courageous, or quite so admired as mine.

Grandfather was a tiller of the soil and a planter of trees and green fields.  He worked hard all of his life and taught his children to do the same.  He fathered eleven and raised nine of them to maturity, while keeping an open house for homeless cousins and friends; all of this was accomplished with high-spirited confidence and unflinching courage.

When Grandfather John was a youth, side-whiskers and a clean-shaven chin were coming into vogue.  Hair was spruced and trimmed.  However, his dad, and those of the older generation were still clinging to their longer hair and full beards.  His picture reveals a man with deep-set piercing eyes and plentiful dark brows.  His hair appears to be dark to graying, his build slender, .and his features prominent.  I wish father had talked about him more.  What I know has been gleaned from records of the past.

If John and his father, Nathan, were both "of Maryland" as the census report indicates, grandfather was born into the newest state in the union.  Maryland became the seventh state April 28, 1788, just eighty days before his birth.  His natal day was also during the month of the country's twelfth Independence Day.

As a new state in a new country, Maryland still had her problems to resolve.  John's childhood was spent in an atmosphere of heated bord­er disputes with Virginia and discussions about navigation rights in Chesapeake Bay and on the Potomac.  There were also bitter arguments concerning western lands which hadn't been turned over to the government.

However, these were mainly worries for his Father, Nathan, as youth usually aren't anxious about such trifles.

John's uneasiness came later when he was about twenty-four, and trade and seaman problems were precluding war.  Perhaps he and the pretty nineteen year old, Margaret Kercheval, would have married at that time, but with the war of 1812 commencing, they waited until she was nearly twenty-one, and he was just a month from his twenty-sixth birthday.  When they were married, the war was not over yet.  I don't know where their honeymoon cottage was situated, but I'm sure that whether they made their new home in Maryland, or across the Potomac, in Virginia, they were not able to absent them-selves from the trauma of the "bombs bursting in air".

Francis Scott Key, who wrote the words to the "Star Spangled Banner", was born in 1779 in Frederick (now Caroll) County, Maryland and, was just nine years older than grandfather.  Key wrote the National Anthem at Fort McHenry, Maryland.  The British bombard­ment of Baltimore harbor took place just three months after John and Margaret's wedding day.  At that time, the British had occupied Wash­ington D.C. and burned the capitol building before they were driven out of the United States by Yankee troops.¹²

Barely four years before Grandfather John was born, General Washington went to Maryland State House to resign his commission as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.  It's hard for me to realize that grandfather was that old.  But I'm so glad I've studied history enough that I can picture him in his setting.  Otherwise, I would never have become acquainted with him.

If grandfather and his June bride had not moved to Martinsburg, Virginia before the war ended, they did so shortly afterwards, as their first child was born two months after hostilities had ceased.  The family Bible states that Nathan Coburn, and all ten of John's other children were born in that rather small farming community where John's father had gone to preach.

Even in the little apple-growing town of Martinsburg, with the war a thing of the past, there were still threats to peace and tranquility.  Many problems plagued the residents.  This is revealed by a glance at any of their old newspapers.

One real worry was the constant threat of destruction of their property by fire.  With no fire insurance, and fires for cooking and heating, as well as candles for lights, it was an ever-present danger.  A voluntary fire department had been organized in the town, but they were not equipped to save a home.  They merely tried to keep the blaze from spreading.  The people in the country had no means of protection at all.  Their only help came from concerned neighbors who rushed to their aid and formed bucket brigades.  Most home owners kept an emergency bucket of water hanging on a nail outside their house.  During this period, every family was involved in fire fighting.  A typical fire is described in the "Martinsburg Gazette":

On Thursday last, the merchant Mill belonging to Capt. Levi Henshaw of this county was entirely destroyed by fire.  Fire was discovered at about three 0' clock in the morning bursting from the northwest gable end of the mill-but how it took fire is as yet a mystery, as we have been informed there had been no fire in the mill since the afternoon previous.  There was in the mill about 30 bbls. of flour, between 3 or 400 bushels of oats and 50 bu. of corn; total loss about $600.00.  The wind rose about day break and drove the brands and fragments in the direction of Mr. Henshaw's barn, stack yard, etc...one stack took fire but was soon extinguished.  Had the wind rose when the fire was at its height it must have destroyed Mr. Henshaw’s barn, stacks, and dwelling house.¹³

Other crises which grandfather experienced, or read about in his home-town paper, included, disease, premature death, social problems, & criminal punishment.  The early attempts to maintain law and order seem unusually harsh when viewed by our modern day standards.  Samuel Kercheval, one of grandmother's relatives, tells the following story:

One mile no. of Martinsburg in Berkeley Co. the court held its sessions in what we called the 'Red House.  I can well remember the dark and menacing outline of the stocks and whipping post when I was a boy.  It stood directly opposite the court house door and more than once have I witnessed the writhings and contortions of human flesh, both of whites & blacks, under the lash of the jailor, as I passed to & from old James Anderson's school house.  The pillory as a punishment, was established in Eng. as early as the reign of Henry I, and only abolished in June, 1837, a few years subsequent to its abolition in this state (Virginia) .¹⁴

In those early days, Martinsburg was still on the borders of civilization, and was the "vast untrodden American Wilderness" to the west.  But, Margaret and John felt at home because they were close to family members# Margaret's father, Benjamin Kercheval, was from Jefferson County, Virginia, and her mother, Elizabeth Fulton, had relatives in Charles town.  One of the main gathering places in the nearby town was Fulton's Tavern.  In those days, taverns sold groceries, dry goods and many other items.

Family members have claimed relationship with Robert Fulton, of steamboat fame, but I know of no proof for the supposition.  Robert Fulton, the inventor, was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, just a few miles north of the Maryland border, and was twenty-eight years of age when Margaret was born.  He would have been close to Great Grandmother Elizabeth Fulton's age.

I have often wondered where grandfather and grandmother stood on the controversial issues of their day.  Their religious loyalties give me some clues.  John's father was affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church and' societies were being organized in Martinsburg and throughout Berkeley County as early as 1789.  I have been told that members of these groups were a rather individualistic lot and that their "congregations were assembled by blowing a tin horn, as they were bitterly opposed to ringing church bells.”  Historians also state that these church members sometimes got in trouble because of their strong opposition to slavery.  Heated discussions over this subject raged for many years.  Samuel Kercheval was bothered by the harsh treatment some slaves received as his following account of an incident implies:

My residence was in a neighborhood where slaves & convicts were numerous, and .where tortures inflicted upon them had become the occurrence of almost every day, so that they were viewed with indifference by the whole population of the neigh­borhood as a matter of course.  I had not been long in my habitation before I witnessed a scene which I shall never forget.  A convict servant, accused of some trivial offense, was doomed to the whip, tied with -his arms extended (sic.) upwards to the limb of a tree, and a bundle of hickories thrown down before him, which he was ordered to look at, & told that they should all be worn out on him, and a great many more, if he did not make a confession of the crime alleged against him..  The operation then began by tucking up the shirt over his head, so as to leave his back and shoulders naked.  The master then took two of the hickories in his hand, and by forward and backward strokes, each of which sounded like a wagon whip, applied with the utmost rapidity and with his whole muscular strength, in a few seconds lacerated the shoulders of the poor miserable sufferer with not less than fifty scourges, so that the whole of his shoulders had the appearance of a mass of blood.  He then made a confession of his fault, one not worth naming; but this did not save him from further torture.  He put his master I to the trouble of whipping him and he must have a little more.’  His trousers were then unbuttoned and suffered to fall down about his feet; two new hickories were selected from the bundle, and so applied, that in a short time his posteriors, like his shoulders, exhibited nothing but laceration and blood.  A consultation was then held between the master and the bystand­ers, who had been coolly looking on, in which it was humanely concluded, 'that he had got enough.’  A basin of brine and a cloth were ordered to be brought, with which his stripes were washed, or salted as they called it.  During this operation, the suffering wretch writhed and groaned as if in the agonies of death.  He was then untied and told to go home, and mistress would tell him what to do.¹⁵

Maryland and Virginia, like their neighboring colonies, had copied the in-laws from England, and there had been "pitiless savagery in English justice.”  And, it carried over into the personal acts of the people.  According to William Hand Browne, who studied Maryland's original court records in the 1800s and recorded what he found, “The people of tidewater Maryland, high and low were singularly gentle."  Perhaps this was because the original settlers of Maryland were people who had had trouble with English law.  The state was considered a "haven for convicts". However, many of these outcasts, called criminals, "were persons implicated in the various Jacobite plots, whose only crime was their loyalty to the house of Stuart.¹⁶   A Dr. Andrews, who traced, in detail, the story of Maryland, observed that the unfavorable criticism which has been directed towards Maryland's 'con­victs" and indentured servants carries no "weight at face value in modern terms".  He states that, "If the story that William Shakespeare was a poacher be authentic, (the bard) himself might have been deported as a common 'convict', or, in the generalities of that day, listed as a 'dissolute' person."  He warns that it is possible to get a false picture from a true statement, and concludes that, "the redemptioners were made up of all kinds of people, "gentle folk as well as plain.”  ¹⁷ Marylanders who moved to Virginia were appalled at the inhuman treatment they witnessed.  And, many were beginning to take a stand against slavery.  Marylanders and Virginians were divided within their own states and brother was contending against brother.  I'm not sure where Nathan and John's sympathies lay, but I am sure that their period in history was not a time for neutrals.  The young country was fighting for its life.  There was also a contrasting feeling of unity pervading the atmosphere, as new countrymen were hopeful and looking to their leaders for answers.  Their communities were going through a period of growth and progress.

In 1832, when Grandfather John was forty-four years old and had seven children, new businesses were opening up in Martinsburg.  Snodgrass' Tavern had just been enlarged to include a new store.  I am sure he was interested in bargains, and probably read the following ad which appeared in the Gazette:

NEW STORE

(At Snodgrass Tavern)

Having just returned from the cities of Philadelphia and Baltimore with a large and splendid assortment of spring and summer goods, consisting in part of Dry Goods, Groceries, Queens, (glazed earthenware of a creamy color) Earthen and Hardware.  The public are invited to call and examine his stock having purchased them very low, he is prepared to give Bargains to all who may please to give him a call, as the stock is en­tirely new and purchased since the great fall of goods.  All those in pursuit of cheap Goods will find it to their advantage to come and examine for themselves.

       Back Creek, May 17, 1832

       N.B. Mackerall and Herring for sale by the barrel.

About that time there were many new businesses booming in the small Virginia town.  There was a Brass Foundry, Saddle and Harness Maker, Gun and Locksmith, Blacksmith, White washer, Chair maker , Millinery and Mantua Maker.¹⁸

In 1847, when grandfather was fifty-nine years old, all valuables in the home were taxed, as well as all individuals who were able to work.  Those who were taxed were called tithables and were referred to as "hands".  The items they were required to pay on were: hands, rents of houses and lots, slaves, houses, gold watches, silver watches, metallic clocks, wooden clocks, carriages, "piannoes", (pianos) silver plate and physician and attorney services.  For that year they collected the following amounts in Berkeley County:

 2994            Tithables at 50 cts. Each. . . . . . .  . . . . .  $1397.00

 1044            Slaves at 16 cts. Each . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     167.00

 4124            Horses, Mules etc. at 5cts . . . . . . . . . . .      206.05

     80           Gold Watches at 50cts  . . . . . . . . . . . . .       40.00

   312           Silver Watches at 12 ^1/2  cts . . . . . . . . . .       39.00

   347           Metallic Clocks at 12 ^1/2 cts  . . . . . . . . . .        43.37^1/2

   568           Wooden Clocks at 6^1/2 cts  . . . . . . . . . . .       33.50

$7128.          on interest received ^3/4 per cent. . . . . . . .        53.46

10400           Value of carriages etc.^3/4 per cent . . . . . .        78.00

  1078           Value of Silver Plate at ¼ per cent . . . . .           8.00^1/2

     22           Piannoes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      28.81

     18           Attorneys and Physicians at . . . .. . .$2.50        45.00¹⁹

Pianos must have been quite a luxury if there were only twenty-two in the whole county of Berkeley.

On October 4, 1849, Grandmother Margaret, who had been grandfather’s sweetheart and wife for better than thirty-five years, passed away when she was only fifty-six years of age.  She had seen most of her children married, but three were still left at home.  There were many to mourn at her passing, but perhaps none was as grief-stricken as grandfather who was sixty-one years old and would soon be all alone.  Grandmother was buried by her two babies in an old cemetery in Martinsburg, and grand­father lived on for seventeen years.  I imagine it was hard for him to see others continuing their daily activities with their greatest concern centered around nothing more earth-shaking than the price of butter.  But, life went on.

It is interesting to compare the prices grandfather paid for food with today's grocery lists.  Grandfather probably raised most of the food for his family's table, but if he looked in the newspaper six months after grandmother's death, he would have found the fol­lowing Martinsburg market advertisement:

THE VIRGINIA REPUBLICAN, April 17, 1850

Bacon (hams). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    $ 0.10   a   $0.12½

Bacon (shoulders) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       0.00   a    0.08

Sid  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      0.00   a     0.07

Beef  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      0.06   a     0.08

Mutton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      0.06   a     0.08

Veal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      0.06   a     0.08

Pork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      0.00   a     0.06

Butter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      0.25   a    0.00

Lard  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     0.08   a     0.10

Eggs   (per dozen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     0.10   a     0.00

Potatoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .     1.00    a    1.00²⁰

In 1850, when grandfather was trying to adjust to getting along without grandmother, the Virginia land records state that he bought some property in the "Northern Neck Area".  Apparently, the Cumberland Gap had opened up in the fifties and settlers were taking advantage of land grants.  During that same year, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroads had made the connecting link between Washington D.C. and what is now West Virginia.  But, even with the new means of transportation, most families did their moving in wagons.

Waterways had also improved during that period, and some travelers used the steamboat to carry themselves and their goods.  However, backwoods areas remained iso­lated even into the nineteen hundreds.

Grandfather had some challenging times even before grandmother's death.  Cousin, Ida Dawes, said that "he put his name on a note to secure a "friend" and lost all of his property.  Ida's mother, Eliza told her that because of Grandfather's large-hearted and open-handed nature he was left holding the bag.  He even lost the furnishings from their home, along with nick-nacks and "silverware".  Apparently, such a tragedy was a common occurrence in his day.²¹

When I think of grandfather and grandmother, it is with a feeling of awe and great admiration.  Just having the courage to be the parents of eleven children during that challenging period of time speaks volumes of faith, fortitude and valor.  But what a blessing the children were as they gave Grandfather John a reason for continuing on after he lost his beloved wife.  Margaret may have only been fifty-five when she was taken ill.  She apparently died of dysentery which is related to cholera.  The disease causes extreme dehydration and changes in body chemistry which result in shock and are often accompanied by fever and delirium.

In the mid eighteen hundreds, many victims only lasted three or four days.  Grandmother apparently lingered on for a month.

The following information was obtained from the West Virginia Department of Culture and History, Charleston, W.V. 25305:

Dear Mrs. Staker:

The 1850 Berkeley County Mortality Schedules give the following information concerning Margaret Young:

Age: 55 years

Birthplace: Maryland

Died: Oct. 1849

Cause of death:

Dysentery Number of days ill: 4 weeks.

     Sincerely,

                                           Doris Hunt (Mrs.)

                                           Librarian Assistant

In Grandfather John's declining years, he spent some time with his descendants.  He was living in Greensburg, Indiana, with his son, John when he died.  In the very last verse of the Old Testament, (Malachi 4:6) we are told that not only will our hearts be turned to our fathers, but their hearts will be turned to us.  I feel that my grandfather, who died before I was born, is my friend, and that he loves me as I love him.

REFERENCES

¹² The World Book Encyclopedia.

¹³ M.H. Gardiner and A.H. Gardiner, p. 107.

¹⁴ Alers, p. 159.

¹⁵ Alers, p. 202.

¹⁶ William Hand Browne, Maryland -- The History of a:. Palatinate.

Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1884, p. 175.

¹⁷ Matthew Page Andrews, History of Maryland: Province and State.

Garden City, N. Y: Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1929, p. 213.

¹⁸ M.H. Gardiner and A.H. Gardiner, pp. 104-105.

¹⁹ Ibid, pp. 116-117.

^2O The Virginia Republican, April 17, 1850.

²¹ Dawes, Ida, Letter to Norm Young Ericksen Walton.  April 19, 1944.

   Letter in possession of author.

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