Below is an excerpt from Catherine N. Ball’s about the history of the Abner Cloud House, found near Fletcher’s Cove. The Abner Cloud House is one of the oldest existing structures on the C&O Canal.
Catherine N. Ball
Our story begins on 3 Oct 1795, when Jesse Bailey of Georgetown and his wife Mary [Cloud] conveyed 195 ¼ acres of the Whitehaven tract to Abner Cloud Jr. in consideration of 5 shillings.[2] Subsequent land records show that this deed included the site of the present-day Abner Cloud House, the oldest structure on what is now the C&O Canal.
Abner Cloud quickly settled in and began to play his part in the life of the community. In August 1796, Abner Cloud and Jesse Bailey were listed among the subscribers for building an Episcopal church in Georgetown, which eventually became St. John’s Episcopal Church.[3] During this period, Abner Cloud and Jesse Bailey also administered the estate of Abner’s brother Amos, who died in 1793.[4] The following notice appeared in the Centinel of Liberty:
TAKE NOTICE.
WE hereby forewarn all Persons from Hawling the Seine, or interrupting those that we have rented landings to, from hawling their seine on the shore of the late Amos Cloud, deceased, or cutting, carrying off, or burning wood of any kind without the leave of the subscribers. – If we should find any person so trespassing, we will prosecute the same without respect to persons.
JESSE BAILY,
ABNER CLOUD, } Adm’s
February 22d, 1798
It is interesting to note that Abner Cloud’s own estate – as advertised for public auction in February 1813 – included items related to farming and fishing: a large quantity of tobacco in bulk; horses, milch cows, hogs, and a wagon, cart and harness; and “fifteen barrels of fish, between five and six hundred bushels of salt, three seins, three boats and fishing tackling complete …”[5]
By 1799, Abner Cloud was well established and in a position to marry. His Montgomery County license to marry Susannah Smallwood is dated 9 Feb 1799.[6] The 1800 census for Washington County in the District of Columbia, for that part “formerly part of Montgomery MD”, shows Abner Cloud’s household with one free white male under 26, one free white female under 26, one free white female under 10, and seven slaves. Abner Cloud is enumerated next to the household of his brother-in-law, Isaac Peirce.
In June 1801, John Mason wrote to Thomas Jefferson that there were only three respectable men in the neighborhood above Georgetown: among them, Abner Cloud.
Dear Sir George Town 10th. June 1801
Some time agoe in conversation I took the Liberty of suggesting to you, the propriety of placing one or two more Magistrates, than there are now, in the Country part of the Counties of Alexandria & Washington, & now make use of your permission to give in this way the Information I have acquired on that Subject.
In the country part of that Section of Washington County which was formerly Montgomery County and which lies above & round Geo Town for 3 or 4 miles, there is but one Magistrate, appointed under the new System, Mr Belt—it appears to be the general Sentiment that there ought to one more resident in that neighbourhood, it so happens that there exists a Scarsity of respectable Men thereabout that whole Section of Country furnishes but three, Mr Belt who is appointed, Mr Isaac Pearce, & Mr. Abner Cloud, and that all three of those Gentn. are republican’s—so that there is really no choice as to politics Mr Pearce I think would make the best Magistrate, he is a very independant and respectable Farmer, and I am persuaded would give general Satisfaction—
J. Mason[7]
Although Mason recommended Isaac Peirce for the position in question, Abner Cloud received an appointment from the President the following year, as a Lieutenant of Infantry in the First Legion of the newly-formed Militia of the District of Columbia.[8]
A map drawn by Nicholas King in 1802 shows a building and cultivated area labeled “Mr. Claud” just below the road from the Little Falls to Georgetown. Was there also a quarry somewhere nearby? The Commissioners of the City of Washington reported that as of 1 Jan 1801, Abner Cloud had failed to account for $435.00, “Advanced for foundation stone”.[9] But here we must leave the story of the Abner Cloud House and its inhabitants, to be continued another day.
Map of proposed continuation of the Canal at the Little Falls of Potomak to the Navy Yard in the city of Washington, Nicholas King & Benjamin Latrobe; Library of Congress, https://lccn.loc.gov/88690759
[1] The author is a Palisades resident and a member of Colonial Dames of America, Chapter III, which cares for the Abner Cloud House in partnership with the National Park Service.
[2] An abstract of this deed is included in the collections of CDA Chapter III.
[3] “List of Subscribers whose contributions were to be applied to building a Protestant Episcopal Church in Georgetown – Paper dated August, 1796”. In DAR GRC Report s1 v027 [church records] / Colonel John Washington Chapter.
[4] Maryland Chancery Court, September Term 1811, William Patterson vs. the Heirs of Nicholas Way, Abner Cloud, and Amos Cloud: “Amos Cloud died in the year [1793], intestate and without sons leaving his father the said Abner Cloud alive … in the year [1794] the said Abner Cloud also died intestate leaving the following children his heirs at law, to wit Abner Cloud [Junior], Elizabeth the wife of Isaac Pierce Mary the wife of Jesse Baily, Ann the wife of Everard Garey … [etc. etc.]”
[5] Daily National Intelligencer, February 2, 1813.
[6] History of Western Maryland, Vol. 1, J. Thomas Scharf, 1882, p. 663.
[7] “To Thomas Jefferson from John Mason, 10 June 1801,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed March 30, 2020, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-34-02-0245.
[8] Aurora General Advertiser (Philadelphia), July 22, 1802.
[9] American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, 1834, p. 227.