The Cecil Whig., 1875-08-21
BOHEMIA MANOR.
FrOna tie MiddLeto1nn Trnnscrint.

From tile Middletoacn Transcript
In an article headed "Scraps of Local
History" by correspondent of the Balti-
more american, copied in the Delaware
Gazette of July 1st are several mistakes
which it is in my power to correct, being
lineal descendant of Augustine Herman,
and having in my possession family chart;
and withal, being on the Manor born.
Bohemia Manor was grant not from the
King, but from Cecilus Calvert, Lord Bal
timore, (of noble memory, "out of the
great love we bear the said Augustine Her.
man." He had no part Or parcel in the
revolution; his tombstone, which l visited
last Summer with my cousin, bears date of
1861. Before Herman settled Bohemia
Manor, named for his own native place in
GermalT;, he held property in New York,
then called New Amssdam. Amssserdam.
I have now in my possession :Ssawlng'
made by himself, of the infant colony. A.
that time a pathless wilderness lay between
New York and Maryland, and twas many
years ere he returned to reclaim his pos
sessions in New York-when he did so, it
was on the back of a favorite white horse.
He found his land occupied by 'squatters,"
as they were termed in that day, who mob
bed him and imprisoned him in their Round
House, which was built with high steps for
better protection from the Indians. Her.
man refused to ascend these steps, unless
permitted to take his horse. His captors
laughed scornfully, and told him to ride up
if he could, little dreaming of what both
horse and rider were capable. The bravo
Bohemian, nothing daunted, mounted the
noble animal and ascended the steps to the
astonishment of the bystanders. They
then secured him, as they thought, for the
night, but he soon found means to escape,
by leaping his horse through forced open
ing, swan the North river, rode all night
guided by the stars and continued his
flight until he reached the shore opposite
New Castle, where he swan his horse
across the Delaware, as he had all streams
that intercepted his path. When at last
on the bank on the Delaware side the noble
steed dropped dead, the blood gushing from
his mouth and nostrils.
l have visited the spot where tradition
says he crossed, and where there is an old
graveyard. There temporarily was buried
the gallant horse, afterward removed by
Herman's order and inferred in the old
family graveyard on the banks of the Bo-
hemia river. Herman had a painting made
of himself and horse, as they appeared
after they had crossed the Delaware, copy
of which have seen; the blood streaming
from the mouth and nostrils of the brave
swimmer of this second Hellespont, STAIN
ing the lace ruffies at the wrists of his
heroic master, as he stood beside him
grasping the bride rein, are wildly but
naturally depicted by the artist. Two
copies of this picture are extant, the origi-
nal being also destroyed when the old man.
sion was burned.
One is in the possession of my cousins,
in Maryland, the other is owned by nv
brother in Philadelphia. In my childhood,
well remember hearing the old family SER
wants firmly assert the belief that cole
Massa Herman still rode the white horse"
the dominant spirit among the ghostly
spectres that haunted the old Manor grave
yard.
There never was a monument at New
Castle that l have heard of. Many years
since the whole history was published in
al; l., h.
Drawyer's Church, the land on which it
stood being donated by Herman.
The large Herman estate descended to
the eldest son, under the old English law
of entails; until failing male heirs, my
grandmother became to be heiress by an ac-
cident to an only brother, who was thrown
from his horse and killed the very day he
attained his majority.
'Tis no long story to tell here in detail,
but my grandmother, Mary Endsor, was
granddaughter of Ephraim Augustine Her.
man, in heir, son of Casparus and grand
son of Augustine, the male line failed
Mary Endsor married Captain Edward Old
ham, gallant young officer then in Lees
Legion, Maryland Line, and a member of
that heroic band, which, according to the
historian Headley, stood like "ctadel of
fire. at the battle of Camden, where all
but these brave Continentals had fled
Captain Oldham died in '9S; the entail was
broken by his widow my fathers mother,
a pious woman who believed it wrong, and
her children approved her decision.
l visited my cousins last Summer; in
their possession are still many acres Of our
ancestral domains.
Having a passion for old things, people
and places, examined pile of old Bibles
with family records in them; also, pack
age of musty papers, among them the orig
nal grant with the signature of Cecilius,
Lord Baltimore, and Augustine Herman.
The name has been handed down in our
family for generations. l had cousin,
md have a brother and son, now bearing
The name of one, who, we have every rea-
son to believe, was gallant and accom-
olished gentleman. N. J. OF.
Nsao Castle county, July 30th, 1875.
EB-As to the classic and the scientific
quarrel, The Philadelphia Telegraph speaks
hus: "Any kind of study is good mental
discipline if it is pursued with thorough
less, and what most of our colleges need
S not Greek and Latin, but well-qualified
90 cbers who lnnu 1bat fborourbpacs 10