Rich Hill Photos

[MattP]

Added now is a cut away and a new information sign showing an abbreviated history of the home.



Closer:



Familiar Faces!!



Enjoy.

[Thomas Kearney]

Thanks for the heads up Matt.

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Laurie for sending these photos of Rich Hill's successful open house yesterday. Laurie writes, "There is still a lot of work to be done, but it is already in better shape than when the Friends and the Charles County government began work a little over a year ago." There were 188 visitors!

I checked Dave's Twitter page and there are more photos there.

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Laurie for sending a photo of the new roof at Rich Hill. The restoration process continues! Rich Hill was the home of Samuel Cox, where Booth and Herold knocked for shelter on the early morning of April 16, 1865.

[Gene C]

I didn't know they had red metal roofs back in the 1800's.

[L Verge]

(04-11-2018 03:06 PM)Gene C Wrote:  I didn't know they had red metal roofs back in the 1800's.

Your restoration roofing history for the day, courtesy of an NPS site:

Metal: Metal roofing in America is principally a 19th-century phenomenon. Before then the only metals commonly used were lead and copper. For example, a lead roof covered "Rosewell," one of the grandest mansions in 18th century Virginia. But more often, lead was used for protective flashing. Lead, as well as copper, covered roof surfaces where wood, tile, or slate shingles were inappropriate because of the roof's pitch or shape.

Copper with standing seams covered some of the more notable early American roofs including that of Christ Church (1727–1744) in Philadelphia. Flat-seamed copper was used on many domes and cupolas. The copper sheets were imported from England until the end of the 18th century when facilities for rolling sheet metal were developed in America.

Sheet iron was first known to have been manufactured here by the Revolutionary War financier, Robert Morris, who had a rolling mill near Trenton, New Jersey. At his mill Morris produced the roof of his own Philadelphia mansion, which he started in 1794. The architect Benjamin H. Latrobe used sheet iron to replace the roof on Princeton's "Nassau Hall," which had been gutted by fire in 1802.

The method for corrugating iron was originally patented in England in 1829. Corrugating stiffened the sheets, and allowed greater span over a lighter framework, as well as reduced installation time and labor. In 1834 the American architect William Strickland proposed corrugated iron to cover his design for the market place in Philadelphia.

Galvanizing with zinc to protect the base metal from rust was developed in France in 1837. By the 1850s the material was used on post offices and customhouses, as well as on train sheds and factories. In 1857 one of the first metal roofs in the South was installed on the U.S. Mint in New Orleans. The Mint was thereby "fireproofed" with a 20-gauge galvanized, corrugated iron roof on iron trusses.

Tin shingles embossed with decorative design.
Tin shingles, commonly embossed to imitate wod or tile, or with a decorative design, were popular as an inexpensive, textured roofing material. Photo: NPS files.

Tin-plate iron, commonly called "tin roofing," was used extensively in Canada in the 18th century, but it was not as common in the United States until later. Thomas Jefferson was an early advocate of tin roofing, and he installed a standing-seam tin roof on "Monticello" (ca. 1770–1802). The Arch Street Meetinghouse (1804) in Philadelphia had tin shingles laid in a herringbone pattern on a "piazza" roof.

However, once rolling mills were established in this country, the low cost, light weight, and low maintenance of tin plate made it the most common roofing material. Embossed tin shingles, whose surfaces created interesting patterns, were popular throughout the country in the late 19th century. Tin roofs were kept well-painted, usually red; or, as the architect A. J. Davis suggested, in a color to imitate the green patina of copper.

Terne plate differed from tin plate in that the iron was dipped in an alloy of lead and tin, giving it a duller finish. Historic, as well as modern, documentation often confuses the two, so much that it is difficult to determine how often actual "terne" was used.

Zinc came into use in the 1820s, at the same time tin plate was becoming popular. Although a less expensive substitute for lead, its advantages were controversial, and it was never widely used in this country.

Note that the red color is achieved via paint, not manufactured into the material. If you have ever gone to sleep during a gentle rain on a tin roof, you know how wonderfully relaxing it can be.

[RJNorton]

Thank you to Laurie for sending this information about the red roof.

Cathy Thompson wrote to Laurie:

"Just a bit more detail on the roof replacement project. There were at least four layers of roofing material that were removed, leaving the historic sheathing intact. Those layers removed were two rows of cedar shakes, tin, and then an overlayment of plywood and asphalt. We removed a lot of weight from the roof which will takes a great deal of pressure off the frame and allow us to move forward with structural repairs. Plus we eliminated further water damage since the existing roof was failing. The color selection was based on the 1884 description provided by George Alfred Townsend which I've attached. It describes the property at the time of Booth's arrival as green shutters and dark red roofs."

Here is a part of what Townsend wrote with the key section in red:

"...made his acquaintance during that fall or
winter on his first visit to the country, and
some of Dr. Mudd’s relatives admit that he
knew Booth well, and probably was in the
abduction scheme. The calculation of the
conspirators was that the pursuers would
have no opportunity to change horses on the
way, while the captors would have fresh
horses every few miles and drive them to the
top of their speed, and all they required was
to get to the Potomac River, seven hours
distant, a very little in advance. The distance
was from thirty-six to thirty-eight miles, and
the river could be passed in half an hour or lit-
tle more with the boat all ready. Jones thinks
that this scheme never was given up, until
suddenly information came that Booth had
killed the President instead of capturing him,
and was supposed to be in that region of
country. Jones had never seen Booth, and
had scarcely any knowledge of him.

When J ones went to Richmond, just before
the assassination, it was to collect his stipend,
which he had confidingly allowed to accumu-
late until it amounted to almost twenty-three
hundred dollars, presumably for three years’
work. He reached Richmond Friday, and
called on Charles Caywood, the same who
kept the signal camp in the swampy woods
back of Grimes’s house. The chief signal offi-
cer said he would pay five hundred dollars on
Saturday, but if Jones would wait till Tues-
day the whole amount would be paid him.
Jones waited. Sunday night Petersburg fell,
and on Monday Richmond was evacuated, so
the Confederacy expired without paying him
a cent. Moreover, he had invested three thou-
sand dollars in Confederate bonds earlier in the
war, paying for them sixty-five cents on the
dollar, and keeping them till they were mere
brown paper in his hands.

Jones heard of the murder of Lincoln on
Saturday afternoon, April 15th, at or near his
own farm of Huckleberry. Two Federal offi-
cers or cavalrymen came by on horseback,
and one of them said to Jones, “ Is that
your boat a piece above here ? ” “ Yes,” said
Jones. “Then you had better take good care
of it, because there are dangerous people
around here who might take it to cross the
river.” “That is just what I am thinking
about,” said Jones, “ and I have had it pulled
up to let my black man go fishing for the
shad which are now running.” The two
horsemen conferred together a minute or
two, and one of them said :

“ Have you heard the news from Washing-
ton ? ” “ No.” “ Our President has been

murdered.” “ Indeed ! ” said Jones, with a
melancholy face, as if he had no friend left
in the world. “Yes,” said the horseman;



“ President Lincoln was killed last night, and
we are looking out for the men, who, we think,
escaped this way.”

On Sunday morning, the 16th of April,
about nine o’clock, a young white man came
from Samuel Cox’s to Jones’s second farm,
called Huckleberry, which has been already
described as about two and a half miles back
from the old river residence, which Jones
had been forced to give up when it appeared
probable that the Confederate cause was lost.
The Huckleberry farm consisted of about
five hundred acres, and had on it a one-
story and garret house, with a low-pitched
roof, end chimneys, and door in the middle.
There was a stable north of the house, and a
bam south of it, and it was only three-quar-
ters of a mile from the house to the river,
which here runs to the north to make the
indentation called Port Tobacco Creek or
river. Although Jones, therefore, had moved
some distance from his former house, he was
yet very near tide-water. The new farm was
much retired, was not on the public road, and
consisted of clearings amidst rain-washed
hills with deep gullies, almost impenetrable
short pines, and some swamp and forest tim-
ber. Henry Woodland, the black servant,
who was then about twenty-seven years old,
was still Jones’s chief assistant, and was kept
alternately farming and fishing.

The young man who came from Cox’s was
told, if stopped on the road, to say that he was
going to Jones’s to ask if he could let Cox have
some seed com, which in that climate is planted
early in April. He told Jones that Colonel Cox
wished him to come immediately to his house,
about three miles to the north. The young man
mysteriously intimated that there were very
remarkable visitors at Cox’s the night before.
Accustomed to obey the summons of his old
friend, Jones mounted his horse and went to
Cox’s. The prosperous foster-brother lived
in a large two-story house, with handsome
piazzas front and rear, and a tall, windowless
roof with double chimneys at both ends;
and to the right of the house, which faced
west, was a long one-story extension, used by
Cox for his bedroom. The house is on a
slight elevation, and has both an outer and
inner yard, to both of which are gates. With
its trellis- work and vines, fruit and shade
trees, green shutters and dark red roofs,
Cox’s property, called Rich Hill, made an
agreeable contrast to the somber short pines
which, at no great distance, seemed to cover
the plain almost as thickly as wheat straws in
the grain field.

Taking Jones aside, Cox related that on
the previous night the assassin of President
Lincoln had come to his house in company..."

[RJNorton]

Thanks to Steve for sending this article. It is an account of a woman who claimed to be a former slave of Samuel Cox and was there when Booth and Herold arrived. The account was in an 1892 Brooklyn Daily Eagle article.

[Steve]

Reference for post above:

Page 19 of the 31 January 1892 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

[L Verge]

(07-31-2018 03:17 PM)Steve Wrote:  Reference for post above:

Page 19 of the 31 January 1892 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Either Mary Swann (probably the servant) or the reporter got a lot of the facts wrong. Things haven't changed much over the years.

The fugitives did not ride non-stop for 24 hours. Charles County is in Maryland, not Virginia. The railroad was years away from coming to Charles County, and Cox's Station wasn't named until the railroad came. Jones was not an employee of Cox (rather his foster brother), and he didn't row the men across the river.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, however, I do think Jones may have worked for a while after the war at the Navy Yard. Rick Smith is my expert on Jones. Also, the report is correct that Mary Swann fared very well with the Cox family after her statements, and she did receive land from them.

[RJNorton]

Thanks to Laurie for sending these photos of the new signage at Rich Hill.