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NEWS AND NOTES FROM The Prince George's County Historical Society Vol. XIII, no.11 November1985 November Meeting Rescheduled: Images of Old Prince George's County The November meeting of the Prince George's County Historical Society‑‑originally planned for Mount Airy‑‑has been rescheduled for Saturday, November 9, at Riversdale. Delays in the work at Mount Airy will prevent an opening by that time. We have been invited back sometime after the first of the year. "Images of Old Prince George's County" will be the topic of the November 9 meeting at Riversdale. Society vice president Alan Virta will show slides of scenes in Prince George's County from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A number of these photos were published last year in his book, Prince George's County: A Pictorial History, but many were not. This will be an informal presentation, and recollections of those who remember the scenes depicted will be invited. The meeting on November 9 will begin at 2 p.m. Riversdale, the Calvert mansion, is located at 4811 Riverdale Road in Riverdale. As always, guests are welcome, and refreshments will be served. Again, please take note: the meeting has been rescheduled for November 9 at Riversdale. Election of officers and Change in dues structure Society officers for 1986 will be elected at the meeting on November 9. The nominating committee will present a slate for consideration by the membership. Members will also be asked to approve a new dues structure. The Board of Directors is proposing a basic individual membership of $10.00, couples $15.00, and students $5.00. Dinner at Mount Airy, December 4 The restored Calvert home Mount Airy, southwest of Upper Marlboro, will be the scene of a gala dinner on Wednesday evening, December 4, to benefit the programs of the Prince George's Historic and Cultural Trust. Tickets are $35.00 per person. For information and reservations call Joyce McDonald at 779‑5825. Christmas Party, At Montpelier The Society's annual Christmas Party at Montpelier will be held this year on Saturday, December 21. There will be no regular meeting of the Society that month. On the following day, Sunday, December 22, the Society will open their new home, Marietta, for Christmas tours. Details on both events will follow in next month's newsletter. Christmas Candlelight Dinner at Montpelier The popular Christmas Candlelight Dinner at Montpelier, sponsored by the Friends of Montpelier, will be held this year on Sunday, December 15. Ticket prices are $30.00 per person. The dinner sells out quickly; early reservations are a must. Phone Helen Hass at 776‑7636. Zoning Around Marietta: Rezoning‑Granted on October 14 Despite a recommendation of denial by the Zoning Hearing Examiner and the People's Zoning Counsel, the County Council approved the rezoning of a large tract of land adjacent to Marietta. Previously zoned residential, the tract has now been rezoned commercial. Plans for the land, located on the northwest corner of the new Glenn Dale Boulevard and Annapolis Road, are for a shopping center. The Board of Directors of the Society opposed the rezoning application as inconsistent with the already adopted Glenn Dale master plan, but that view did not prevail with the Council. Voting against rezoning (i.e. for maintaining the residential zoning) were Council members Bell and Castaldi. In favor of rezoning were Council members Ammonett, Casula, Cicoria, Herl, Mills, and Wilson. Mrs. Pemberton was absent. In other Zoning Actions‑‑the Zoning Hearing Examiner recommended the denial of two other rezoning requests in the vicinity of Marietta on October 14, but these cases too may receive final consideration by the Council. Those tracts are on the southwest corner of Glenn Dale Boulevard and Annapolis Road (across Annapolis Road from the above) and the‑southeastern corner of Glenn Dale Boulevard and Bell Station Road (across the new road from Marietta). Again, these are requests for rezoning from the residential to commercial zones. The Board of Directors expresses its thanks to the many members of the Society who wrote to the Zoning Hearing Examiner in support of its position on these rezoning requests. New Phone Number; New Members The Society's phone has been relocated to Marietta. The new number is 464‑0590. An answering machine is on when no one is there. The mailing address remains Box 14, Riverdale, 20737. Several new members have joined recently; their names will be published next month. Rescheduled Meeting‑‑Saturday, November 9 at Riversdale, 2 p.m. The Weems Line on the Patuxent For almost a century, steamboats of the Weems Line plied the waters of the Patuxent River, calling at the landings in St. Mary's, Charles, Calvert, Anne Arundel, and Prince George's counties. The steamboats carried freight and passengers between Baltimore and the Patuxent ports; perhaps their most important cargo was the tobacco of Southern Maryland. In 1908 the Baltimore Sun published a series of articles entitled "History of the Steamboat on the Chesapeake." We publish below extracts from that series pertaining to the Weems Line and its Patuxent River trade. The Weems Line, Founded in 1817 The history of the Weems Steamboat Line is practically a history of the Weems (or Wemyss) family of Maryland, and if ever a family followed a maritime calling by inheritance it is this one. The line was founded 96 years ago by Capt. George Weems, and continued uninterruptedly in the possession and under the personal management of the family until October, 1904, when the fleet, with its rights and privileges, was purchased by the Maryland, Delaware and Virginia Railway Company, which also purchased the Queen Anne's Railroad and the Chester River Steamboat Line. The Weems family is of Scotch descent, and when Bruce made his first experiment with a Scottish Navy Sir Michael of Weymss was its admiral. Williamina, David and James Weymss were brought to America early in the last century by their maternal uncle, William Locke. Williamina Weymss married William Moore, of Moore Hall, Pa., secretary to William Penn, while David Weymss settled in Maryland and was the father of Parson Mason Locke Weymss and of David Weems, the last of whom became the father of Capt. George Weems, founder of the Weems Line. Parson Weymss was George Washington's pastor and first biographer, and to him the kindergartner of today is indebted for the uplifting story of the hatchet and the cherry tree, the inspiring lettuce bed nature study and other moral and instructive anecdotes concerning the Father of His Country. David Weems, son of David Weymss, emigrant from Scotland, married Margaret Harrison, whose sister, Mme Hoxton, was the last mistress of Brooke Manor. Ann Weems, sister of David Weems, married Horatio Ridout, of White Hall. David Weems, brother of old Parson Weems, lived on his estate, Marshall Seat, at Tracey's Landing [Anne Arundel County], across from what is now Fair Haven. Before the possibility of propelling boats by steam power was understood David Weems had his slaves construct at Marshall Seat a sailing vessell, upon which he crossed the ocean to England, returning thence laden with many rare and beautiful treasures, and towing in the wake of his vessel a great mahogany log, which he had found adrift in mid ocean and from which he afterward had carved a mahogany table, which is still in possession of his descendants. He also brought to Maryland a silver flagon for ale or cider, which is included among the family heirlooms. Small wonder, then, that Captain George Weems, son of David Weems, inherited a love of adventure and the sea. When quite young he went to the East Indies with Capt. James Norman. The latter died in the tropics and George Weems was put in full command of the ship and brought it back to Baltimore. He subsequently visited every quarter of the globe. During the War of 1812 he fitted a sloop in the privateering service, was taken prisoner and his cargo of flour was confiscated. In the year 1817, ten years after Robert Fulton had, in 1807, succeeded in propelling a boat upon the Hudson river by steam power, the Weems Steamboat Line was established by George Weems, who chartered the steamer Surprise to run between Baltimore, the Patuxent river and landings upon the Chesapeake bay shore. Captain Weems commanded the boat and the Surprise continued to run until 1821, when the steamboat Eagle was secured. This boat, like the Surprise, was built in Philadelphia, Pa., and came around to Baltimore by sea, it being the second steamboat that ventured out into the ocean. Judged by modern ideas, the Eagle was a tiny craft. She ,boasted but 261 tons and was scarcely larger than the seagoing tug of the present day. Her length was 130 feet, with a width of 22 feet, and she carried a mast forward with sails, which were spread when the winds were fair, to increase her speed. Her average speed, then considered phenomenal, was about five miles an hour. Most of the freight room was filled up with wood, which was her only fuel. There was no upper deck, but in warm weather an awning was stretched over the quarter deck. There was no pilot house and the ladies' cabin was fitted with berths and located in the stern of the boat. Between the ladies' cabin and the engine was the dining room, around which were berths, in which the men slept when meals were not in progress. Both the Surprise and the Eagle, as has been said, were built in Philadelphia, Pa. The arrival of these boats was an event in the history of Baltimore and great concourses of people assembled regularly upon the wharves to witness the existing episode of landing their passengers. When these steamers were built it was not known that the engines were reversible. There were no bells to communicate with the engineer and orders had to be shouted from commander to engine room for the manipulation of the craft. Instead of slipping, as the modern boat does, like a noiseless swan to her moorings, the engines of these early boats had to be stopped a long distance from the wharf which the steamer was designed to reach. The chances of miscalculating speed or distance made the work of landing a critical and often dangerous feat. Occasionally the steamer crashed into the pier with violent force. on such occasions Capt. George Weems would stand on the bow and warn people to get out of the way if they valued their lives as collision between boat and wharf was inevitable. It was by accident that it was learned that the paddles of the steamer had a backward as well as a forward motion, and after that the landing of the steamers became a far less perilous if more commonplace occurence. Capt. George Weems was born at Marshall Seat, May 23, 1784, and living in the vicinity all his life, was quick to realize the wonderful opportunity for development of trade along the Chesapeake bay and in Virginia. Before steamboats were introduced as a commercial element in the bay trade, the carrying of passengers and produce between Baltimore and points on the bay was chiefly by means of sailing packets, small schooners and bay craft whose progress from point to point was controlled by wind and tide. The trips were necessarily irregular, because they were affected by the seasons of the year and the changes of the weather. The advent of the steamboat caused a revolution in commerce with waterside points ‑and stimulated traffic in every direction. The pioneer Weems steamers plied at different periods to Frenchtown, Herring Bay, Annapolis, Chestertown and other points, and touched at landings in Calvert and Anne Arundel counties [on the Bay] and on the Patuxent river [including landings in Prince George's County]. In later years the Weems boats were official carriers of the United States mails, but long before they became Government agents the captains and clerks were the voluntary letter carriers for innumerable patrons of the steamboat line, who, through the courtesy of the company, were thus enabled to transmit letters to waterside points far more quickly than by the regular coast riders. The staunch little Eagle continued to run her useful commercial career until wrecked by the explosion of her boiler off North Point while returning, on April 19, 1824, from Annapolis to Baltimore. Captain Weems and all his crew were more or loss injured. The explosion set the vessel on fire, but with the aid of the passengers and crew the fire was extinguished. Captain Weems' son, Thomas Weems, a lad of about 13 years, was blown from the cabin through the skylight without injury. Capt. George Weems was severely scalded. The Eagle was a wreck. The passengers and crew were taken off by the Union Line steamboat Constitution which happened to be in the vicinity. By this accident Captain Weems not only lost almost everything he possessed, but was himself so seriously hurt that for a long time he was confined to his room, unable to attend to any business. This catastrophe also caused the death of one of the passengers of the Eagle, District Attorney Henry M. Murray, and the injury of several deckhands. Mr. Murray lingered until April 28, when he died. This was the first fatal steamboat explosion on the Chesapeake bay, and Mr. Murray was the only passenger ever killed during the entire time the Weems Line continued in existence.... In 1827 [Captain Weems] organized a company which built the Patuxent. This steamer was at that time regarded as a floating palace.... The Patuxent was the first steamer of the Weems line that claimed the proud distinction of being "made in Baltimore," and it was the subsequent policy of the owners to have their boats built especially for their own service at Baltimore shipyards. Capt. George Weems died in 1853, but long before his death had given up the entire management of his boats to his four sons. These were Mason Locke Weems (named for his great uncle, Old Parson Weems), Mason Theodore Weems, George Weems, and Gustavus Weems.... In 1874 Mr. Henry Williams, of Baltimore, then State Senator from Calvert County, became manager of the Weems Line of steamers, succeeding his father‑in‑law, Capt. Mason Locke Weems [the last surviving son of Capt. George Weems], who had died that year. Shortly afterward the heirs of Capt. Mason Locke Weems‑‑Mrs. Georgiana (Weems) Williams, wife of Mr. Henry Williams, and Mrs. Matilda (Weems) Forbes‑‑purchased the interest of the other heirs of Capt. George Weems, and became the sole owners of the Weems Steamboat Line. This is doubtless the only case in history where two women were the sole owners of an enormous nautical enterprise .... At the date of the transfer of the line to the Maryland, Delaware and Virginia Railroad Company [in 1904], the Weems Line employed about 600 men and possessed a fleet of ten vessels. These were the Lancaster, Richmond, St. Mary, Essex, Westmoreland, Calvert, Anne Arundel, Potomac, Middlesex, Northumberland. As will be noted, the vessels took their names from the counties of Maryland and Virginia. [Elsewhere the article noted that the line at that time "carried practically all the products of the counties on the banks of the three chief rivers of the western shore of the bay, namely, the Patuxent, Potomac and Rappahannock, and of all the bay shore from Pair Haven to Drum Point."] The Weems steamers were recognized everywhere by the distinctive symbol of a red ball painted upon their smoke‑stacks. Their owner's flag, which always fluttered at the masthead, had a blue field adorned with a red ball.... Baltimore Sun, Jan. 26 and Feb. 2, 1908 An old Weems Line broadside in the possession of the Calvert Marine Museum, Solomons, indicates that in 1868 Weems steamers ventured up the Patuxent River as far north as Hill's Landing, near Upper Marlboro. Earlier in the century they had gone even further upriver. One branch of the Weems family, related to the steamshipping Weems', lived in Prince George's County. Dr. James Weems purchased the ancient house Billingsley in 1740, and it was held by the family until 1841. The old brick hone (built in the 1690s) overlooks the Patuxent River, William Locke Weems of Billingsley was a justice of the County Court throughout the Revolutionary era. Philip Weems, along with William Beanes and former Gov. Robert Bowie, was taken by the British from Upper Marlboro during their retreat to their ships after the sacking of Washington in 1814. Weems and Bowie were released, but Dr. Beanes was taken to Baltimore‑‑his release was the object of Francis Scott Key's famous mission in September 1814. Prince George's County Historical Society at Marietta, Glenn Dale John Giannetti, President Alan Virta, Editor 
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