This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/SFk.2ACIB/1300.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1 Message Board Post: This the third page of a six page letter submitted as a claim to the estate of Andrew V House . Continued: Streams could be condemed for furnaces, provided they were not in use for milling purposes. When it was desired to establish this furnace near the mouth of the Antietam, the parties tried to purchase the land of Mr House, the value of which was considerably unhanced by reason of his fine mill, probably the best in that region. But he refused to sell. The question, after, in the country at this time was a miller to shut down the mill or shut off the water when he went dinner. The lawyer of the party desiring to construct the furnace had the jury hidden in the woods, watched his opportunity and when the miller went to dinner brought forth his jury and by the writ of AD QUOD DAMNUM had the stream condemned, because it was not in use for milling purposes????? This outrageous trick made the old man furious, and no wonder. Who the parties were that established the furnace, I do not know. I understand that a man by the name of "Brown" built it.. It afterwards came into the hands of a man by the name of Brien, who called it the Harriett Furnace. Brien was Irish ( I presume Scotch-Irish) and a young Scotchman or Scotch-Irishman named McPherson became his clerk and married his daughter, the firm becoming BRIEN (pronounced Brinn) and Mc Pherson. THE HARRIET FURNACE!!! I remember, well this legend of the old-fashioned ten-plate stoves in use when I was a boy. Of course there were few persons in this country in those days who understood the mining and manufacture of iron.. A qualified person was sent for and CHARLES CLINTON came over from England to take charge of matters. The manufacture of stoves, kitchen utinsels, etc and last of nails was added. Chas Clinton, married a daughter of House and their daughter, Susan Clinton, afterwards became the wife of Daniel Cameron who came from Scotland in 1774 and was in the Revolutionary Army. They were my grandparents. My father, John Cameron, was one of eight children, born in Shephardstown, VA. Old Mr House was never satisfied and eventually moved to Kentucky, settling on the Kentucky River near Harrisburg, I think. Persons of the name of House, signed a petition to the Legislature of VA, before Kentucky was a state, and some of the land was given to Clarke(of Lewis and Clarke) for his western service and also to Tennessee. But you know more than I as to this. ( end of page 3) My father was born in 1796. When he was a boy (say 14) and about 1810, the members of the A.V. House family, whom I mentioned came east to see about this Antietam Estate. They came to Shepardstown VA.: visited my grandmother, and my father accompanied them to view the land. They found the metes and bounds, trees, rocks, streams just as their father and grandfather had described them. The ninety-nine years for which the land had been condemned had not yet expired. There was still sixteen years more for the completion for the term. Where was the record???? Washington County, had not then been cut off from Frederick, so they went to Frederick City, but could not find it. Then to Annopolis, but it was not there. Then to Baltimore with like result. Thirty years afterwards (say about 1840) the record was found in Marlborough (Upper, I think) Prince George's Country, fourteen years after the 99" had elasped, but the property had not been in undisputed possession for twenty years. But suddenly that book of records mysteriously disappeared and was never recovered. Make your own inferences??? This is the story as told to me by my father. How large the estate was, I never heard. Chestnut timber was used as fuel. Sixteen thousand acres were needed for this purpose. Each year the timber was cut from a thousand acres and as chestnut grows again from the stumps, the supply was inexhaustible, being renewed in sixteen years. The battlefield and other land covered more that this House Estate. The House ever owned any part of the battlefield of Fredericksburg is, I think, a pure invention. Now to sum up briefly, Andrew Valentine House(Haus) came to this country, as it appears, from Palatinates or eastern side of the Rhine, on the first quarter of the 18th century. His wife was French, a member of a Hugenot family, who escaped from France just after the revocation of the Edit of Nates at the close of the 17th Century. Time and place of marriage unknown to me. He purchased land on the Antietam near its mouth in what was Prince George's Country (now Washington Co. MD). It may have been bought from the Chaplin family, who owned a large amount of land in that part of the county. His purchase was the more ( end of page four) valuable on account of the water-power, which had led to the erection of a mill near the mouth of the Antietam. About 1725 parties desired to establish an iron furnace ( know today as a foundry) and when he declined to sell his property, a jury was hidden in the woods and while the miller was at dinner and the mill closed, the property was condemned for ninety-nine years, for a furnace, by the old writ of ad quod damnum, because the stream was not in use for milling purposes. Robbed by this fraud he subsequently removed to Kentucky and settled on the Kentucky River near Harrodsburg. His descendents were scattered in the adjoining states and a daughter of Charles Clinton, who came from England to take charge of the furnace and married his daughter, was married to Daniel Cameron of Shepardstown, MD. He left a large family but the name has died out in that state. About 1810 three of A V House's family came east to make inquiries about the property. My father that a! bout 14 (If 1810 was the correct date) visited the land and found all the metes and bounds as their father and grandfather had described them. The term of 99 years had still about 16 years to run. The search for the record was made at the various county seats, but the quest was fruitless. Thirty years afterwards and a few years before the property had remained in undisputed possession for twenty-one years, the record was found at Upper Marlborough, the county seat of Prine George's County, which formerly covered the whole western part of Maryland bordering on the Potomac. Measures were then begun to recover the property when the book containing the record mysteriously disappeared and has not been seen since, so far as I have heard. If the condemnation took place in 1725 as I have conjectured from the fact that my father as a boy (say 14) went with his relatives to view the land, then the one hundred and twenty-one years ( 99 plus 21) had expired in 1845. Their visit must have been about 1810, or if he were sixteen, then at 1812, at the latest, for it could not have been after the War of 1812-14 broke out. I have heard 1845 mentioned as the date of the expiration and in view of all the facts I have mentioned, there cannot be a variation of more than about (end of page 5) two years one way or the other from 1845 (1843 to 87). How large the estate was is unknown. Who first had the furnace I do not know. Brien had it early and then Brien and McPherson. Whence the 16,000 acres of chesnut timber land, I know not. I think his Frederick battlefield land a myth for I do not believe he came from the German settlement on the Rapidan or Germania Ford. With respect, Yours truly, signed--- HENRY CLAY CAMERON ( Aug 17, 1899)