A Weird Coincidence?

[BettyO]

An interesting observation on an 1861 Map of Southern Maryland (Prince Georges County) where one of the Surratt's nearest neighbors is listed as "L. Paine?!?!"

   

   

[RJNorton]

Betty, you uncover the most unusual things! That's quite the coincidence.

[John Fazio]

Betty and Roger:

It may be more than coincidence. Perhaps Mary and/or John put the real estate in Powell's name for some reason, such as preserving it in the event that either or both of them were captured, tried and convicted of treason because of their activities. Recall that Booth put all his assets in his mother's name for that reason.

John

[BettyO]

I doubt that this was so in 1861, John. This particular map was generated in 1861, and Powell was just a young sprout from Live Oak, Florida, joing the Confederate Army at the time. There appears to be a "Paine" family living in the area at the time - very strange indeed!

[L Verge]

I posted earlier that we had found that oddity months ago when a visitor was trying to find an ancestor on the map. We laughed that John Surratt must have remembered his neighbor (which was over a half-mile away) and suggested it later as an alias for Lew!

Actually, Martnet's map of Prince George's was compiled a year before it was even published - so before the war. There was another member of the Paine family that lived farther north of Surrattsville. You'll see it listed on the map also.

[John Fazio]

I doubt that this was so in 1861, John. This particular map was generated in 1861, and Powell was just a young sprout from Live Oak, Florida, joing the Confederate Army at the time. There appears to be a "Paine" family living in the area at the time - very strange indeed!

Betty:

You are absolutely right. I had overlooked the date. No way Powell was in the conspiracy in 1861. No conspiracy at all in that year.

John

[Jim Woodall]

I doubt that this was so in 1861, John. This particular map was generated in 1861, and Powell was just a young sprout from Live Oak, Florida, joing the Confederate Army at the time. There appears to be a "Paine" family living in the area at the time - very strange indeed!

In the 1860 census, 4 listings down the page from John H Surratt is a Lloyd Payne and wife(?) Gorgiana. Lloyd is listed as a Blacksmith.

On the previous page is another family called Payne headed by Andrew at age 56. Andrew is a planter on $2000 worth of property.

[L Verge]

We did check and find Lloyd Paine/Payne listed as a blacksmith, which caused us to wonder if he worked in the Surratts' blacksmith shop, which sat across Piscataway Road from their livery stable. We found no answer, and there is a Huntt family story about Mrs. Surratt using the blacksmith shop in T.B. after the one here closed down after her husband's death in 1862. That would not confirm the listing in the 1860 census as putting Payne here, but it is a possibility.

BTW: A gas station now stands where the Surratts' livery stable was, and a 7-11 is on the blacksmith's corner. We do have a photo of the blacksmith shop when it is literally standing only because the termites are holding hands! Ca. 1920.

[mgambuzza]

An interesting observation on an 1861 Map of Southern Maryland (Prince Georges County) where one of the Surratt's nearest neighbors is listed as "L. Paine?!?!"

Interesting that there is also a town nearby named "Jenkins" which was Mary Surrats Maiden name.

[L Verge]

An interesting observation on an 1861 Map of Southern Maryland (Prince Georges County) where one of the Surratt's nearest neighbors is listed as "L. Paine?!?!"

Interesting that there is also a town nearby named "Jenkins" which was Mary Surrats Maiden name.

The town was about two miles north of Surratt House, and was more an intersection of several colonial and 1800s roads that came together at the farm where Mary's brother's family and her mother resided up through the early-1900s.

Old timers still call that intersection Jenkins Corner. In the mid-1900s, there were more roads added to the intersection, and we began to call it Malfunction Junction. It has now had some overpasses and merges added, so we have discontinued the nicknames.

The Jenkins' farm was actually near a little village called Waterloo - less than a quarter-mile from the Corner. It was one of about five little villages that got swallowed up into one big complex known as Joint Base Andrews (used to be Andrews AFB) during WWII. This is where Mary Jenkins Surratt was born (on what is now a golf course and enlisted housing).

Surratt descendants have told us about a Jenkins' graveyard that was evidently destroyed at that time (base historian denies it). The descendants think that Mary's husband was buried in that family plot since he hated the Catholic church and refused to convert.

I talked with the base historian back in the 1970s, and he had been at the base during the construction years. He told me that they encountered several graveyards and moved every grave that they found to a little Methodist cemetery on base where the village of Meadows had been, unless they could find descendants who wanted the bodies reinterred elsewhere. Since Mary converted her whole family (except the youngest brother) to Catholicism, they are buried in Catholic cemeteries. Whether John Surratt, Sr. ever had a marker is unlikely, given that he left $3500 in debts to his wife when he died in 1862...

[RJNorton]

I doubt that this was so in 1861, John. This particular map was generated in 1861, and Powell was just a young sprout from Live Oak, Florida, joing the Confederate Army at the time. There appears to be a "Paine" family living in the area at the time - very strange indeed!

President Biden is speaking from Live Oak as I write this. There was a lot of hurricane damage in Live Oak.