Beverly Powder House Restoration Complete-- Part 2: Safer Than Keeping Gunpowder in Your House with Walls Four Feet Thick

The Powder House was built in 1809 on land sold to the town by Nathan Dane for $30.  Dane was a Harvard Law School graduate and Beverly lawyer.  He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and helped draft the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.  He was also very involved with the Hartford Convention during the War of 1812.

The Beverly Powder House was built on the then-undeveloped Powder House Hill following an 1805 ordinance that barred residents from keeping more than 25 pounds of gunpowder in their homes or businesses in recognition that the previous powder house was too close to residences and the town center.

Through the mid-nineteenth century, powder houses were built to hold large amounts of gunpowder because it was much safer than having residents store  the gunpowder in their homes.

The Beverly Powder House  is located on Prospect Hill (originally Powder House Hill) and is the second oldest municipal building  in Beverly after City Hall.  The structure is the only octagonal powder house extant in New England, with brick walls that measure four feet thick.

However, it saw its only wartime use during the War of 1812.

--Brock-Perry

Mary Todd Lincoln's Uncle, David Todd-- Part 2: Missouri and a Whig

In 1819, President James Monroe appointed him territorial circuit judge of northern Missouri.    When Boone County, Missouri, separated from Howard County, Todd was one of the citizens who purchased land on which Columbia was laid out in 1818-1819.

When Missouri became a state in 1821, Governor Alexander McNair appointed Todd  state circuit judge, a position he held until 1837.

In the summer of 1840, Mary Todd traveled to Columbia, Missouri, and visited with her uncle, David Todd.  While there, she became good friends with the judge's daughter, Ann.  This was also the year in which Mary became engaged to Abraham Lincoln.

He was an ardent Whig, serving as a delegate to the Whig National Convention that selected William Henry Harrison, Todd's commanding officer during the War of 1812,  for president in 1840.

In 1850, he was practicing law in Boone County and owned real estate valued at $3,500.

--Brock-Perry

Mary Todd Lincoln's Uncle, Judge David Todd-- Part 1: War of 1812 Veteran and Lawyer

From Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, Illinois.

DAVID TODD

Born:  29 March 1786   Fayette County, Ky.

Died:  9 June 1859  Columbia, Missouri

Buried:   Columbia Cemetery, Columbia, Mo.

David Todd was the uncle of Mary Todd Lincoln and brother of Mary's father, Robert Smith Todd.

He attended Transylvania University, served in the military in the War of 1812, read law with Mr. George M. Bibb, earned admission to the Kentucky bar and served in the Kentucky legislature.

In 1817, he and his wife, Eliza, whom he married in 1810, and with whom he had ten children, moved to the frontier town of Franklin in Missouri Territory.

--Brock-Perry

Robert Smith Todd (Mary Lincoln's Father)-- Part 2: Militia and War of 1812

After graduating from Transylvania College, he began studying law, first by apprenticing himself in the office of clerk of Fayette County and then with noted jurist George Bibb, chief justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals (and later U.SD. senator and Secretary of the Treasury in the 1840s.

He was admitted to the bar in  on September 11, 1811, however, he never practiced law and chose instead to go into business.

Even before the War of 1812 began, Robert Todd  was active in a company of the Kentucky militia that eventually  merged into the Lexington Light Artillery of the 5th Kentucky Regiment.  During the winter of 1811-1812, he asked for a commission as an officer from Senator Henry Clay.

--Brock-Perry

Leslie Combs of Kentucky-- Part 1: Politician and Soldier

Another man who was at the 1872 Reunion of War of 1812 veterans in Kentucky was Leslie Combs.  He was 78 at the time.

From Wikipedia.

LESLIE COMBS

November 28, 1793 to August 22, 1881

Was a lawyer and politician from Kentucky.  He served under General William Henry Harrison during the War of 1812 and was captured in 1813.  After his release, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1818.  He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives for many different terms.

--Brock-Perry

Some More on Abel P. Upshur

Abel P. Upshur was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1811.  He was a volunteer in the Virginia State militia in the War of 1812, but saw no action.  Also a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1812-1813.

His father, Liileton Upshur,  was a captain in the U.S. Army in the War of 1812 while commanding a company in the 27th Virginia Militia Regiment which was called to duty.

The destroyer USS Abel P. Upshur (DD-193) was named for him.

--Brock-Perry

Andrew Hunter Holmes-- Part 1: A Lawyer in New Orleans Before the War

From Wiki Tree

A Pennsylvania veteran of the War of 1812.  Younger brother of David Holmes (1769-1832), U.S. Congressman from Virginia, governor of the Mississippi Territory 1809, governor of Mississippi in 1817.  then U.S. senator and later governor again.

Andrew Holmes was a lawyer in New Orleans when the War of 1812 broke out.  he went into the Army and distinguished himself in several battles, especially in the Battle of the Thames where he led an attack that defeated part of a Highland regiment.

He fell leading his wing of Colonel Croghan's force against Mackinac in an unsuccessful attack on 1814.  Holmes was killed in the attack on British Fort George in that action along with several others.

--Brock-Perry