Phantom Photography

Spent a week in Charleston, South Carolina. Beautiful area full of wonderful architecture and history. Wondering who all has been and captured some great photos? Please share if you have, I’d love to see your pictures! Here are just a couple of churches I fell in love with.

Hobbs c1850 ~
Libertytown, Maryland

To understand this property and the others I’ll be posting on, you'll need to understand the family. The Hobbs were an extremely successful family, helping to colonize Anne Arundel and Frederick county, Maryland. The Hobbs were associated with some of the most elite social and political networks of there day. The family intermarried with the Dorsey, Gaither, Hammond, Smith and Rodericks as well as others.

William Hobbs Jr.- (1793-1876), wife Susan Dorsey (1804-1861) and his family. The Hobbs family seemed to be a very prominent family, helping to colonize Anne Arundel and Howard County, Maryland. William Hobbs Jr. was born in Frederick County, Maryland by William Hobbs Sr. (1746-1829) and Henrietta Dorsey (1766-1798). William Hobbs Sr. was known as "King Billy, king of the convicts", because he bought so many convicts that were brought over and sold from England. These convicts were sold for a term of years. William Hobbs Sr. bought numbers of them, including a number of “redemptioners.“ allowing him to secure his school master, shoemaker, blacksmith, tailor, fuller, wheelwright, carpenter, scrivener, etc.

William Hobbs Jr. alone, is responsible for purchasing/owning thousands of acres, he also owned copper mills, sawmills and Hobbs Tavern alongside his sons Roderick Dorsey Hobbs (1830-1894), Ulysses Hobbs (1832-1910) and Edward Hobbs (1838-1936). He had other children, some of which died young and others, like Warner Hobbs (1824-1887) became a doctor, choosing to not work alongside his father regarding farming.

William Hobbses Grandfather, Capt Samuel Hobbs Sr (1710-1751) alongside many other family members, contributed to the American Revolution as well as the Confederacy.

The main tracks of land in which William Hobbs Jr. resided are three farms clustered together 3 miles outside of Libertytown, Maryland. Known as Spring Garden, Oakland and Black Castle. Black Castle housed a slave cemetery on the grounds, sadly the grave markers were bare. The property I am showing you today, is Spring Garden. You should know that Spring Garden and Oakland are still in the same families possession.

Spring Garden is the most simple of the three properties, most likely built in the 1850's. Basic house built of wood construction with German siding. Though her appearance looks more plain due to the asbestos siding. Spring Garden was turned into a tenant farm by the family for many years starting in the early 1900's. Sadly after the last tenants the house sat empty.

I will be posting more on the Hobbs.

Schindler to Leatherman ~ c1847
Harmony-Middletown Maryland

David Schindler (1809-1856) and Anna Catherine Michael (1809-1909) of Middletown, Maryland would marry in 1840, by 1847 they had a beautiful stone house built on there homestead, named Shindler’s Content. Before construction would begin on there land they constructed a hewn cabin for immediate living quarters. Anna Catherine was married before David, having a daughter named Melissa. Melissa was born June 13, 1838, in Erie County, Ohio. Two months after her birth, her father died. Her mother Anna moved back to her family home in Middletown, Maryland, taking Melissa with her. They lived with her great-grandfather for a bit before her mother married David Schindler, who raised Melissa as his own. David and Anna would have seven children of there own including, Hamilton, Jonathan, Mary, Theodore, Margaret, Maggie and Isaiah. Sadly David Schindler would pass away in 1856, at the young age of 47. Hamilton, Anna’s oldest son takes over the farm with his wife, to help take care of his mother. They reside in the house until 1869, when Hamilton and his wife sell the homestead to George Leatherman.

The namesake of Shindler’s Content is mainly known today as the Leatherman Farm. This homestead has resided amongst the Leatherman family now for 152 years.

George Leatherman (1827-1907) and his wife, Rebecca Elizabeth Johnson (1827-1908), who were married December 16, 1847. The 1860 Census records that George Leatherman’s farm was worth more than $8,500 and his personal estate more than $4,000—some $360,000 in today’s dollars. At that time, the family had six children, the oldest of whom, Mary (b. 1848) was enumerated as deaf and mute. George and Rebecca’s new home would require an addition, which was added onto the rear of the house, to accommodate there 13 children in total.

Although George Leatherman was listed in several Union draft registers of the Jackson District, it’s likely that George Leatherman, who was in his 30s during the war, would have opposed serving. He was a devoted member of the Brethren, a pacifist German Baptist sect also known as the Dunkards, was elected to the clergy of the Grossnickle Meeting House in 1865, and would become a church elder in 1880.

“On 12 January, 1861, at the Myersville schoolhouse, Leatherman led of a large group of Jackson District Unconditional Union voters to draft a resolution of support for the United States government against the Secessionists, including this item: “Resolved. That all persons who wage war against the United States Government for the purpose of destroying the Constitution and the Union made sacred by the blood of our Revolutionary fathers, be regarded as dangerous men, and as enemies directly and indirectly to our common country.” The entire resolution was published by the Frederick Examiner on 16 January and carried Leatherman’s name in large letters as the primary signer.”

George and Rebecca‘s son, John Leatherman’s first hand account being on the Homestead during the Civil War-

https://www.google.com/amp/s/dyingcharlotte.com/2019/01/13/john-leathermans-civil-war-memories/amp/

Found this place cruising through Virginia a couple years ago.

Who else is a fan of staircases?!? This gem is almost 200 years old!

Wherever you go, Whatever you do,
I will be right here waiting for you...