Elisha Gates and Anchovie Hills

    Over the last week, I have been in contact with a few people who work for the Prince George's County Department of Parks and Recreation.  Their responsibilities included the many museums in the county as well as local history and archeology.  With their help I think that I have narrowed down the area where the Gates family lived.  
     Without researching original deeds and families, it would appear that an early settler from Scotland, Alexander Magruder, owned a significant amount of land in the vicinity of of the intersection Croom Road and Magruders Ferry Road.  Part of his land was the original tract called Anchovie Hills.  Some of this land was passed to children or subdivided and sold. Eventually Peter Gates purchased over one hundred acres.  He and his son added to this over the years until Elisha, Peter's grandson, sold several hundred acres between 1817 and 1827.  
     Our helpful Prince George's County archeologist suggests the stream, called Aquasco Branch in one of the deeds, is most likely a branch of Black Swamp Creek.  In addition to this our friendly archeologist suggested a land ownership map that I had not seen.  If we compare a few names on that map with other known families in the area then Elisha's land should have been about where I have placed the yellow house on the map below. 
     





In this old map¹ you can locate several names that were in the deeds for land that was bought or sold by the Gates' family.  Elisha sold land in 1817 to James H Gibbons.  Peter Gates purchased land from the Sasscer(Saucer) family in 1760.  I have been in contact with another researcher this week and we suspect that Christina Gates' mother's maiden name is Gwynn. (We have not proven that yet, but I am optimistic.)

















    Recently, when searching for 'Anchovy Hills' I had spelled it the way it appeared in the newest deed I had found.  Based on information I received from Prince George's County, I learned that the original spelling, 'Anchovie Hills' was the preferred spelling.  I found that there is an Anchovie Hills Wildlife Sanctuary. 

Here is a link to another researcher's blog on Anchovie Hills.

Anchovie Hills - Magruders Tobacco Landing

And a youtube video.




1. Hopkins, G.M.,  Atlas of Fifteen Miles Around Washington Including the County of Prince George Maryland, Philadelphia, 1878 http://jhir.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/33000

An Answer To My Prayer (Email)?

     For years I have been trying to find out where Elisha Gates lived in Prince George's County, Maryland.  As yesterday's blog entry stated I was trying to find Aquasco Creek since a land deed stated that part of Anchovy Hills lay along this creek/stream.  I sent out two emails, one to the Prince George's County Historical Society and the other to the Prince George's Park Department.  My email was a request for any information about Aquasco or Anchovy Hills.  I sent one to the Park Department because the department included several historical parks and museums.  
     This morning I heard back from Mary Haley-Amen, the Facility Director of the Marietta and Patuxent Rural Life Museums and Natural and Historical Resources Division (NHRD) Historic Resources Manager.  Her email asked that i contact her directly as she had "quite a lot of information on Anchovy Hills".  She sent alone a few pictures of a house that would have been on the property that Elisha Gates owned.  I will pass along anything I learn and I will share the pictures if the pictures are in the public domain or if I can get permission to share them.  Based upon the preliminary information that Mary Haley-Amen sent me it appears that Anchovy Hills is about five miles north of Aquasco on yesterday's map.  
    Here is a link to the museums in the area. Patuxent Rural Life Museums 

Where is Aquasco Creek?

     A deed¹ which transfers land to the Gates family in Prince George's County mentions Aquasco Creek. Since I have been trying to determine the location of the tract of land called Anchovy Hills, Aquasco Creek may be the ticket.  So where is Aquasco Creek.

Detail from Prince George's County Court (Land Records) JRM 1, p. 84

     As shown on Google Maps², there is a location in Maryland called Aquasco.  It lies at the intersection of Maryland Route 381, Aquasco Road, and Maryland Route 233, Dr. Bowen Road in rural Prince George's County.  There are plenty of creeks in the region.  Which one is Aquasco Creek?     

Using  USGS Geographic Names Information System GNIS There are 5 uses of the name Aquasco.  Unfortunately, none of them are creeks or streams.  

     Maps that I have found from the nineteenth century do no show Aquasco Creek.  The place now called Aquasco was called Woodville at that time.  None of the later deeds or maps show Anchovy Hills or Aquasco Creek.  Unfortunately names of locations do change.
    I have written to the historical society so maybe someone there will know.

Martenet's Map of Prince George's County, Maryland³

1. Maryland State Archives  http://mdlandrec.net   Prince George's County Court (Land Records) JRM 1, p. 84-5, MSA_CE65_30. Date viewed 05/02/2014. 


2. Google Maps Engine, Google Imagery 2013 Digital Globe, State of Ohio / OSIP, U.S. Geological Survey, USDA Farm Service Agency.

3.  Martenet, Simon J.. "Martenet's Map of Prince George's County, Maryland." . Library of Congress, 1 Jan. 1861. Web. 4 May 2014. <http://www.loc.gov/item/2002624036/>.

The Gates' Farm

     The Gates' farm was along the waters of Froman's Creek near Coxs Creek.  Elisha probably purchased this land with the proceeds from the sale of the Anchovie Hills Plantation in Prince George's County, Maryland.  The 1850 Census shows the farm valued at $10,000 which was considerably more than other farms in the area.  In 1855 Elisha and Christina gave 153 acres of land to their sons, John and William.  Elisha Gates died during the Civil War but Christina Gates lived until 1869.  William had married Elizabeth Mattingly in 1849.  John did not marry until much later in life.  
     My Aunt Jane, who met some of the Gates family, told about an episode involving Elizabeth Mattingly Gates.  During the Civil War, Union soldiers came through taking all the meat from the farm.  They eyed the nice wool blankets longingly saying, "Wish we were further south, then we'd take these".  Elizabeth Mattingly Gates sat in front of the dresser where their money was hidden but they didn't ask her to move. 

Gates' Family Home near Coxs Creek, Kentucky - May 1905
 from left: Russell Gates; Mattie Gates; Metta Gates Spaulding; Elizabeth Mattingly Gates (wife of W^m Gates)

By comparing this old map¹ with the Google map you can see that the Gates' Farm is close to where Samuels Road (509) turns south.   Zooming makes Froman's Creek visible.  St. Gregory Cemetery is located a little west and south along Mobley Mill Road. (Coxs Creek is also known as Cox Creek or Cox's Creek)

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1. An Atlas of Nelson & Spencer Counties, Kentucky. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: D. J. Lake & Co., 1882.

Elisha - Maryland to Kentucky and Back Again and Again

     How many times did Elisha travel between Maryland and Kentucky?   From records that exist he may have traveled at least three times.  
     Although no birth or baptism record has been found, Elisha's tombstone shows a birth in 1789, most likely in Maryland.  The earliest orphan guardianship record¹ uncovered dates to 1802 in Prince George's County, Maryland with Joshua Mudd as guardian.  By 1804 some of his records seem to be originating in Kentucky with Elisha under the care of Thomas Cambron.  So that might indicate that he traveled once to Kentucky by the time he was about 12 or 13 years old.  
     There is also evidence that he made a trip from Maryland in 1812.  The biography of John Joseph Montgomery²,  states that when John Joseph Montgomery's grandfather "Thomas Montgomery was twenty-one, he joined his cousin, Elisha Gates, in the trek over the 'Old Indian Road'  through Pennsylvania's Cumberland Gap, southwest to Kentucky."  This might have been his second trip.
    After the War of 1812, we know that Elisha traveled back to Maryland because he sold Anchovy Hills Plantation and got married in April 1817³ in Prince George's County.  And 1818 Nelson County records show he purchased some sheep from an estate and paid taxes on land in Kentucky.
     So if our interpretation of these records is correct he made at three roundtrips between Maryland and Kentucky.  Each one-way trip is about 640 miles by today's roads.  They probably averaged less than twenty miles per day but at that rate each one way trip was over 32 days.  On his last known trip he traveled with his new bride, Christina. 
     And don't forget in 1813 he traveled north to Canada to participate in the Battle of the Thames.  Elisha did his share of traveling.



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1.  "Maryland, Probate Estate and Guardianship Files, 1796-1940," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XXFC-PPB : accessed 28 July 2013), Elisha Gates, 01 Jan 1800

2.  Spearman, Arthur Dunning John Joseph Montgomery 1858-1911 Father of Basic Flying University of Santa Clara, 1967

3.  Prince George's County (Maryland). Clerk of the Circuit Court, Marriage licenses, 1777-1880,  Film #14305  Family History Library,  Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1949