Waterford Foundation

history

Noah Haynes Swayne, Lincoln’s First Supreme Court Appointee

Did you know…

President Abraham Lincoln’s first Supreme Court appointee attended school in Waterford?

Noah Haynes Swayne (1804-1884) a Frederick County, Virginia, Quaker, was sent to Jacob Mendenhall’s Academy in Waterford in 1817 because of the school reputation for excellence.

Swayne left Virginia in 1824 for the free state of Ohio because of his deep opposition to slavery. Supreme Court records indicate Swayne’s appointment “satisfied Lincoln’s criteria for appointment: commitment to the Union, slavery opponent, geographically correct.”

Courtesy of the Waterford Foundation Archives and Local history collection.

Learn more about Justice Swayne at Wikipedia:   Noah_Haynes_Swayne

 

Anniversary of the Johnstown Flood

Tomorrow marks the 128th anniversary of the Johnstown Flood. Although Johnstown is 154 miles north of Waterford, the same storm impacted Waterford in washing out the bridge over the Catoctin Creek at the north end of town.

An excerpt from When Waterford and I were Young by John Divine, et al,, describes the bridge as “65 feet long, framed with massive 12 x 14 inch white pine runners and girders…roofed with wood shingles and sheathed the sides with oak weatherboard.”

The Waterford bridge went down during the night of May 30, 1889 “in roiling waters” while the Johnstown dam break occurred around 3pm in the afternoon the next day. Looking at the attached map, the bridge is at the top right on what was called Bridge street at the time.

#johnstownflood  #waterfordva