History
The occupation of the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farmstead can be broken down into several occupational periods based on ownership: Click a button below to read about the farm under each owner.
  • David M. Claland/Conrad Hagmeyer (1752-1753)
    The initial tract of land was originally surveyed for David M. Claland. He had begun the process of acquiring land by making an application to the Provincial Land Office, which issued a warrant to the surveyor for 84 acres on February 10, 1752. Warrantees assigned names to their tracts before the survey took place and these names persisted through centuries of land transfers. A survey was made setting down the metes and bounds of “Claland’s Contrivance” on February 26, 1752. A scaled drawing accompanied the surveyor’s measurements. The completed certificate of survey was returned to the Land Office where it was examined and approved on May 19, 1753. The warrant for 84 acres had resulted in a survey of 90 acres. The Governor of Maryland issued a patent, the final step in acquiring title to the land. Instead of taking out the patent himself, Claland assigned his rights to Conrad Hagmayer on July 9, 1753. The patent for the 90–acre Claland’s Contrivance was issued to Conrad Hagmayer the same day. On September 26, 1753, Hagmayer sold the entire 90 acres to Jacob Brumbaugh for £64. At the time that Jacob Brumbaugh purchased the property the land was undeveloped.
  • Jacob Brumbaugh (1753–1799)
    Jacob Brumbaugh arrived in Philadelphia aboard the Nancy in 1750. He was about 22 years old and single. He was remembered for being a large man with a strong constitution and defective hearing, traits passed down to some of his descendants. Jacob Brumbaugh married Mary Elizabeth Angle on January 28, 1760. She was the daughter of Henry Angle, a settler in the Welsh Run section of Cumberland County, which lies about 10 miles northwest of the Brumbaugh farm. Henry Angle and his daughter were converts to the German Baptist Brethren faith. It is unclear when Jacob himself became a member of the Brethren, but most histories give his wife credit for his conversion. Jacob and Mary Brumbaugh had six boys and one girl born between 1765 and 1783. This included Jacob Jr. (1715-1716), Mary (1767-?), John (1768-1820), Daniel (1722-1824), David (1776-1842), Henry (1777-1854), and George (1783-1837). In April 1763 Jacob Brumbaugh had Claland’s Contrivance resurveyed with the addition of vacant land to the north and south of the original 90–acre farmstead. The resulting patent for “The Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance” was 505 acres that stretched northward to his "Broomback’s Lott" tract. Only five months after adding 420 acres to his original "Claland’s Contrivance" farm tract, Jacob had a new survey made that combined his "Ill Will" and "Broomback’s Lott" tracts with surrounding vacant land. The resulting 260–acre tract was patented as “Timber Bottom,” a tract that extended to the so-called Temporary Line that divided Maryland and Pennsylvania. The surveyor noted that 2 1/2 acres of "Timber Bottom" had been cleared and fenced. In 1765 Jacob patented his last tract in Washington County. “The Chance” was only 23 acres but it filled in a gap on his farm. In the 12 years since his first land acquisition, his Maryland farm had grown to 788 acres.
  • Mary Brumbaugh the Widow of Jacob (1799–1803)
    Jacob Brumbaugh died on April 10, 1799. He was buried in the family cemetery, located on the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farm. Jacob did not leave a will, instead trusting to the laws of descent and his family’s judgment to divide his substantial landholdings. His widow and eldest son, Jacob Jr., became the administrators of his estate on May 4, 1799. As his eldest son Jacob had his own farm, the estate was managed by his widow Mary until 1803 when Mary released her dower rights in Jacob’s real estate for a payment of £35. This smoothed the way for a division of the land to finally take place.
  • Henry Brumbaugh (1806–1846)
    On October 23, 1806, Jacob Jr., the executor of his father’s will, divided up the estate. Henry got the largest portion of the land including the original house (Feature 6 foundation), which stood in the same spot as the later brick house built by Samuel Kendle. He paid $1,000 for 235 1/2 acres of the Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance tract and an adjoining 4 1/2 acre tract. To give Henry a clear title, his siblings released their rights, for which he had to pay another £500 ($2,220). Other parts of Jacob Brumbaugh’s farm were sold out of the family, mostly to neighboring landowners. In 1768, Henry had married 16-year old Margaret Rench. Margaret was the daughter of Andrew Rench, a Swiss gentleman with a large farm near Hagerstown. The couple had eight children: Mary Elizabeth (1799-1832), Casandra (1804-1871), Otho (1807-1880), Andrew (1809-1859), Upton (1812-1838), Elvina (1815-1832), George (1818-1858), and Calvin (1820-1858). Daniel Brumbaugh was the only other son to take up residence on the former Jacob Brumbaugh farm. Daniel purchased 80 acres of land out of the Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance, Spriggs Paradise, and Chance tracts. He paid £880 ($3,907.20) for the farm. Daniel’s son, Samuel David, inherited that farm in 1824.
  • Andrew Brumbaugh (1846–1859)
    On September 1, 1846, Andrew Brumbaugh married Susan Lynch and on that same day his father Henry sold him his entire farm for $12,330. The farm Andrew purchased had been gradually enlarged by his father from the original 235 1/2 acres in 1806 to 274 acres by 1841. Part of the purchase price was reckoned to include the dollar amount that Andrew would inherit as his share of his father’s estate ($8,831). When Henry died, Andrew would owe the remaining $3,499 of the purchase price to the estate. To secure this payment, Andrew gave a mortgage to his father for $3,499 on the same day as the property transfer. The farm’s transfer of ownership included certain reservations, however. Henry made sure he and his family retained the privilege of being buried in the family plot. More importantly, Henry reserved the use of the room he was currently occupying “in the main building of said premises, with the room above and one half of the large room upstairs, with the privilege of passing in and out of the passage, for himself and his wife, during their natural lives.” Andrew had five children with Susan Lynch: Margaret Permelia (1847-1879), Upton S. (1849-1914), Alice (1850-1852), Sallie (1852-1883), and Henry Clinton (1854-1862). Andrew Brumbaugh died intestate in 1859 leaving several minor children under the care of his widow Susan.
  • Susan Brumbaugh/Clair (1859–1873)
    Andrew Brumbaugh died on February 17, 1859, at the age of 49. His wife, Susan, was 33 and the mother of four surviving children—Margaret (11), Upton (9), Sallie (8), and Henry (4). As Andrew did not leave a will, the Washington County Orphan’s Court appointed Susan and William T. Hamilton as the administrators of his estate. Susan Lynch Brumbaugh married Jacob W. Clair (also spelled Clare) on February 13, 1862. They were both about 36 years old. Jacob was a minister of the Evangelical Church and a former carpenter, who had grown up in York County, Pennsylvania. According to Orphans’ Court records, Susan Clair continued to be the official tenant of the Andrew Brumbaugh farm, even after her marriage. However, according to census and court records, her husband Jacob appears to have taken over management of the farm. The family delayed partitioning Andrew Brumbaugh’s real estate until youngest daughter Sallie turned 21 at the end of 1873. While other portions of the estate went to other family members, Upton and Sallie, both single, received 162 3/4 acres of land as equal partners. Their portion included the homestead and the farm’s main outbuildings.
  • Sallie Schindel (1873–1895)
    Sallie Brumbaugh married Norman E. Schindel on February 18, 1874. Norman had been born on the Schindel family farm two miles west of Hagerstown. He attended nearby Mercersburg College, but always pursued farming as his profession. In January 1880, Norman E. Schindel paid $4,338 to purchase his brother-in-law Upton’s share of the Andrew Brumbaugh home, which had been split between his wife and her brother in the settlement of her father's estate in 1873. To complete the transfer of title, Susan Clair sold her dower rights in the property to Norman for $1,083. Susan retained the right to use the Brumbaugh burial ground on the farm. She specified that the plot, which was then enclosed by a stone fence, was for the use of her family and the children of Andrew Brumbaugh. She was granted a right of way through the farm. The deed also prevented the Brumbaugh family burial ground from being used for any other purpose. Norman and Sallie immediately took out a $5,000 mortgage on the farm. The following year, Sallie loaned $5,000 to her husband who secured the debt with his spousal interest in the Brumbaugh farm.
  • Samuel M. Kendle (1895–1924)
    In 1895 Norman Schindel sold the 162 1/2-acre former Andrew Brumbaugh farm to Samuel M. Kendle for $9,140.62. The farm had lost a good deal of value since being purchased by Norman. Samuel built a new home on the same spot as the old log building that had stood for “more than 100 years” on the Andrew Brumbaugh farm. He spent about $4,000 on the new house and other farm improvements. By 1920 Samuel Kendle was 60 years old and retired from farming. Only Samuel and wife Mollie’s youngest daughter, Ruth, 18, still lived at home. Caring for the farmhouse and surrounding acres did not suit the Kendles any longer. They sold off the farm in 1924 but retained a small corner lot on the Middleburg Turnpike (Route 11) opposite Showalter Road on which they built an 8–room brick house.
  • Luther Grove, Sr. (1924–1950)
    On April 1, 1924, after 12 years of marriage, Luther and Katie Grove were able to purchase a place of their own. The bought Samuel M. Kendle’s 160–acre farm for $22,000. On the same day, they sliced off a 21–acre parcel from the farm’s southeast corner and sold it to Jacob H. Risser for $3,243 and proceeded to move into the Kendle farm.
  • Luther Grove, Jr. (1950–1997)
    In 1950, Luther and Katie, who were in their late sixties, rented the farm to their son, Luther Grove, Jr. The farm had been in Luther Grove’s hands for more than a quarter century but he still referred to it as the “Milford Kendall [sic] farm.” Luther sold off his “full line of farming implements and machinery sufficient to farm 150 acres” at a public sale. Included in the sale were six horses. In 1959, Luther Sr. conveyed the title to the farm to his son and daughter-in-law, Leona, for “natural love and affection.” Luther Grove Jr. farmed the property from 1950 to 1967.
  • Board of County Commissioners of Washington County, MD (1997–Present)
    In 1997 Luther and Leona granted the Board of County Commissioners a deed of easement for a parcel of land in the northwest corner of the farm on U.S. Route 11, an acquisition made for a runway protection zone. The following year the Groves donated the entire farm tract to the Jacob Engle Foundation, a non-profit investment and lending organization associated with the Brethren in Christ Church. The Foundation sold the farm to the Board of County Commissioners of Washington County, Maryland, the current owners, for $840,000 in 1999.

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History
The occupation of the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farmstead can be broken down into several occupational periods based on ownership: Click a button below to read about the farm under each owner.
  • The initial tract of land was originally surveyed for David M. Claland. He had begun the process of acquiring land by making an application to the Provincial Land Office, which issued a warrant to the surveyor for 84 acres on February 10, 1752. Warrantees assigned names to their tracts before the survey took place and these names persisted through centuries of land transfers. A survey was made setting down the metes and bounds of “Claland’s Contrivance” on February 26, 1752. A scaled drawing accompanied the surveyor’s measurements. The completed certificate of survey was returned to the Land Office where it was examined and approved on May 19, 1753. The warrant for 84 acres had resulted in a survey of 90 acres. The Governor of Maryland issued a patent, the final step in acquiring title to the land. Instead of taking out the patent himself, Claland assigned his rights to Conrad Hagmayer on July 9, 1753. The patent for the 90–acre Claland’s Contrivance was issued to Conrad Hagmayer the same day. On September 26, 1753, Hagmayer sold the entire 90 acres to Jacob Brumbaugh for £64. At the time that Jacob Brumbaugh purchased the property the land was undeveloped.
    Approximate boundary of Claland’s Contrivance; the site of the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farmstead complex is outlined in red.
  • Jacob Brumbaugh arrived in Philadelphia aboard the Nancy in 1750. He was about 22 years old and single. He was remembered for being a large man with a strong constitution and defective hearing, traits passed down to some of his descendants. Jacob Brumbaugh married Mary Elizabeth Angle on January 28, 1760. She was the daughter of Henry Angle, a settler in the Welsh Run section of Cumberland County, which lies about 10 miles northwest of the Brumbaugh farm. Henry Angle and his daughter were converts to the German Baptist Brethren faith. It is unclear when Jacob himself became a member of the Brethren, but most histories give his wife credit for his conversion. Jacob and Mary Brumbaugh had six boys and one girl born between 1765 and 1783. This included Jacob Jr. (1715-1716), Mary (1767-?), John (1768-1820), Daniel (1722-1824), David (1776-1842), Henry (1777-1854), and George (1783-1837). In April 1763 Jacob Brumbaugh had Claland’s Contrivance resurveyed with the addition of vacant land to the north and south of the original 90–acre farmstead. The resulting patent for “The Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance” was 505 acres that stretched northward to his "Broomback’s Lott" tract. Only five months after adding 420 acres to his original "Claland’s Contrivance" farm tract, Jacob had a new survey made that combined his "Ill Will" and "Broomback’s Lott" tracts with surrounding vacant land. The resulting 260–acre tract was patented as “Timber Bottom,” a tract that extended to the so-called Temporary Line that divided Maryland and Pennsylvania. The surveyor noted that 2 1/2 acres of "Timber Bottom" had been cleared and fenced. In 1765 Jacob patented his last tract in Washington County. “The Chance” was only 23 acres but it filled in a gap on his farm. In the 12 years since his first land acquisition, his Maryland farm had grown to 788 acres.
    Brumbaugh’s land holdings as of 1765. The site of the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farmstead complex is outlined in red. Dry Spring is another land patent that Jacob acquired, though when he came into possession is not well established. At this point in time the first incarnation of the farmstead (Feature 6 foundation) had been built.
  • Jacob Brumbaugh died on April 10, 1799. He was buried in the family cemetery, located on the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farm. Jacob did not leave a will, instead trusting to the laws of descent and his family’s judgment to divide his substantial landholdings. His widow and eldest son, Jacob Jr., became the administrators of his estate on May 4, 1799. As his eldest son Jacob had his own farm, the estate was managed by his widow Mary until 1803 when Mary released her dower rights in Jacob’s real estate for a payment of £35. This smoothed the way for a division of the land to finally take place.
  • On October 23, 1806, Jacob Jr., the executor of his father’s will, divided up the estate. Henry got the largest portion of the land including the original house (Feature 6 foundation), which stood in the same spot as the later brick house built by Samuel Kendle. He paid $1,000 for 235 1/2 acres of the Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance tract and an adjoining 4 1/2 acre tract. To give Henry a clear title, his siblings released their rights, for which he had to pay another £500 ($2,220). Other parts of Jacob Brumbaugh’s farm were sold out of the family, mostly to neighboring landowners. In 1768, Henry had married 16-year old Margaret Rench. Margaret was the daughter of Andrew Rench, a Swiss gentleman with a large farm near Hagerstown. The couple had eight children: Mary Elizabeth (1799-1832), Casandra (1804-1871), Otho (1807-1880), Andrew (1809-1859), Upton (1812-1838), Elvina (1815-1832), George (1818-1858), and Calvin (1820-1858). Daniel Brumbaugh was the only other son to take up residence on the former Jacob Brumbaugh farm. Daniel purchased 80 acres of land out of the Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance, Spriggs Paradise, and Chance tracts. He paid £880 ($3,907.20) for the farm. Daniel’s son, Samuel David, inherited that farm in 1824.
    Portions of the original Jacob Brumbaugh land as divided after his death. Jacob’s grandson Henry acquired the farmstead complex, outlined here in red.
  • On September 1, 1846, Andrew Brumbaugh married Susan Lynch and on that same day his father Henry sold him his entire farm for $12,330. The farm Andrew purchased had been gradually enlarged by his father from the original 235 1/2 acres in 1806 to 274 acres by 1841. Part of the purchase price was reckoned to include the dollar amount that Andrew would inherit as his share of his father’s estate ($8,831). When Henry died, Andrew would owe the remaining $3,499 of the purchase price to the estate. To secure this payment, Andrew gave a mortgage to his father for $3,499 on the same day as the property transfer. The farm’s transfer of ownership included certain reservations, however. Henry made sure he and his family retained the privilege of being buried in the family plot. More importantly, Henry reserved the use of the room he was currently occupying “in the main building of said premises, with the room above and one half of the large room upstairs, with the privilege of passing in and out of the passage, for himself and his wife, during their natural lives.” Andrew had five children with Susan Lynch: Margaret Permelia (1847-1879), Upton S. (1849-1914), Alice (1850-1852), Sallie (1852-1883), and Henry Clinton (1854-1862). Andrew Brumbaugh died intestate in 1859 leaving several minor children under the care of his widow Susan.
    Andrew Brumbaugh’s property, including the farmstead (outlined in red), after he enlarged his father Henry’s holdings. (The house location depicted on the above map is not accurate; the house was not situated in the center of the property, it was further to the north as shown in red.)
  • Andrew Brumbaugh died on February 17, 1859, at the age of 49. His wife, Susan, was 33 and the mother of four surviving children—Margaret (11), Upton (9), Sallie (8), and Henry (4). As Andrew did not leave a will, the Washington County Orphan’s Court appointed Susan and William T. Hamilton as the administrators of his estate. Susan Lynch Brumbaugh married Jacob W. Clair (also spelled Clare) on February 13, 1862. They were both about 36 years old. Jacob was a minister of the Evangelical Church and a former carpenter, who had grown up in York County, Pennsylvania. According to Orphans’ Court records, Susan Clair continued to be the official tenant of the Andrew Brumbaugh farm, even after her marriage. However, according to census and court records, her husband Jacob appears to have taken over management of the farm. The family delayed partitioning Andrew Brumbaugh’s real estate until youngest daughter Sallie turned 21 at the end of 1873. While other portions of the estate went to other family members, Upton and Sallie, both single, received 162 3/4 acres of land as equal partners. Their portion included the homestead and the farm’s main outbuildings.
  • Sallie Brumbaugh married Norman E. Schindel on February 18, 1874. Norman had been born on the Schindel family farm two miles west of Hagerstown. He attended nearby Mercersburg College, but always pursued farming as his profession. In January 1880, Norman E. Schindel paid $4,338 to purchase his brother-in-law Upton’s share of the Andrew Brumbaugh home, which had been split between his wife and her brother in the settlement of her father's estate in 1873. To complete the transfer of title, Susan Clair sold her dower rights in the property to Norman for $1,083. Susan retained the right to use the Brumbaugh burial ground on the farm. She specified that the plot, which was then enclosed by a stone fence, was for the use of her family and the children of Andrew Brumbaugh. She was granted a right of way through the farm. The deed also prevented the Brumbaugh family burial ground from being used for any other purpose. Norman and Sallie immediately took out a $5,000 mortgage on the farm. The following year, Sallie loaned $5,000 to her husband who secured the debt with his spousal interest in the Brumbaugh farm.
    Yellow outline shows the Brumbaugh family farm as inherited jointly by Upton and Sallie Brumbaugh upon the administration of their father's estate in 1873. The farm boundary is shown on an 1877 county map, three years before the Schindels (Sallie and her husband Norman) purchased Upton Brumbaugh’s share and became sole owners. The farmstead is outlined in red.
  • In 1895 Norman Schindel sold the 162 1/2-acre former Andrew Brumbaugh farm to Samuel M. Kendle for $9,140.62. The farm had lost a good deal of value since being purchased by Norman. Samuel built a new home on the same spot as the old log building that had stood for “more than 100 years” on the Andrew Brumbaugh farm. He spent about $4,000 on the new house and other farm improvements. By 1920 Samuel Kendle was 60 years old and retired from farming. Only Samuel and wife Mollie’s youngest daughter, Ruth, 18, still lived at home. Caring for the farmhouse and surrounding acres did not suit the Kendles any longer. They sold off the farm in 1924 but retained a small corner lot on the Middleburg Turnpike (Route 11) opposite Showalter Road on which they built an 8–room brick house.
  • On April 1, 1924, after 12 years of marriage, Luther and Katie Grove were able to purchase a place of their own. The bought Samuel M. Kendle’s 160–acre farm for $22,000. On the same day, they sliced off a 21–acre parcel from the farm’s southeast corner and sold it to Jacob H. Risser for $3,243 and proceeded to move into the Kendle farm.
    Luther Grove’s property, with the farmstead outlined in red.
  • In 1950, Luther and Katie, who were in their late sixties, rented the farm to their son, Luther Grove, Jr. The farm had been in Luther Grove’s hands for more than a quarter century but he still referred to it as the “Milford Kendall [sic] farm.” Luther sold off his “full line of farming implements and machinery sufficient to farm 150 acres” at a public sale. Included in the sale were six horses. In 1959, Luther Sr. conveyed the title to the farm to his son and daughter-in-law, Leona, for “natural love and affection.” Luther Grove Jr. farmed the property from 1950 to 1967.
  • In 1997 Luther and Leona granted the Board of County Commissioners a deed of easement for a parcel of land in the northwest corner of the farm on U.S. Route 11, an acquisition made for a runway protection zone. The following year the Groves donated the entire farm tract to the Jacob Engle Foundation, a non-profit investment and lending organization associated with the Brethren in Christ Church. The Foundation sold the farm to the Board of County Commissioners of Washington County, Maryland, the current owners, for $840,000 in 1999.
History
The occupation of the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farmstead can be broken down into several occupational periods based on ownership: Click a button below to read about the farm under each owner.
  • The initial tract of land was originally surveyed for David M. Claland. He had begun the process of acquiring land by making an application to the Provincial Land Office, which issued a warrant to the surveyor for 84 acres on February 10, 1752. Warrantees assigned names to their tracts before the survey took place and these names persisted through centuries of land transfers. A survey was made setting down the metes and bounds of “Claland’s Contrivance” on February 26, 1752. A scaled drawing accompanied the surveyor’s measurements. The completed certificate of survey was returned to the Land Office where it was examined and approved on May 19, 1753. The warrant for 84 acres had resulted in a survey of 90 acres. The Governor of Maryland issued a patent, the final step in acquiring title to the land. Instead of taking out the patent himself, Claland assigned his rights to Conrad Hagmayer on July 9, 1753. The patent for the 90–acre Claland’s Contrivance was issued to Conrad Hagmayer the same day. On September 26, 1753, Hagmayer sold the entire 90 acres to Jacob Brumbaugh for £64. At the time that Jacob Brumbaugh purchased the property the land was undeveloped.
    Approximate boundary of Claland’s Contrivance; the site of the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farmstead complex is outlined in red.
  • Jacob Brumbaugh arrived in Philadelphia aboard the Nancy in 1750. He was about 22 years old and single. He was remembered for being a large man with a strong constitution and defective hearing, traits passed down to some of his descendants. Jacob Brumbaugh married Mary Elizabeth Angle on January 28, 1760. She was the daughter of Henry Angle, a settler in the Welsh Run section of Cumberland County, which lies about 10 miles northwest of the Brumbaugh farm. Henry Angle and his daughter were converts to the German Baptist Brethren faith. It is unclear when Jacob himself became a member of the Brethren, but most histories give his wife credit for his conversion. Jacob and Mary Brumbaugh had six boys and one girl born between 1765 and 1783. This included Jacob Jr. (1715-1716), Mary (1767-?), John (1768-1820), Daniel (1722-1824), David (1776-1842), Henry (1777-1854), and George (1783-1837). In April 1763 Jacob Brumbaugh had Claland’s Contrivance resurveyed with the addition of vacant land to the north and south of the original 90–acre farmstead. The resulting patent for “The Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance” was 505 acres that stretched northward to his "Broomback’s Lott" tract. Only five months after adding 420 acres to his original "Claland’s Contrivance" farm tract, Jacob had a new survey made that combined his "Ill Will" and "Broomback’s Lott" tracts with surrounding vacant land. The resulting 260–acre tract was patented as “Timber Bottom,” a tract that extended to the so-called Temporary Line that divided Maryland and Pennsylvania. The surveyor noted that 2 1/2 acres of "Timber Bottom" had been cleared and fenced. In 1765 Jacob patented his last tract in Washington County. “The Chance” was only 23 acres but it filled in a gap on his farm. In the 12 years since his first land acquisition, his Maryland farm had grown to 788 acres.
    Brumbaugh’s land holdings as of 1765. The site of the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farmstead complex is outlined in red. Dry Spring is another land patent that Jacob acquired, though when he came into possession is not well established. At this point in time the first incarnation of the farmstead (Feature 6 foundation) had been built.
  • Jacob Brumbaugh died on April 10, 1799. He was buried in the family cemetery, located on the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farm. Jacob did not leave a will, instead trusting to the laws of descent and his family’s judgment to divide his substantial landholdings. His widow and eldest son, Jacob Jr., became the administrators of his estate on May 4, 1799. As his eldest son Jacob had his own farm, the estate was managed by his widow Mary until 1803 when Mary released her dower rights in Jacob’s real estate for a payment of £35. This smoothed the way for a division of the land to finally take place.
  • On October 23, 1806, Jacob Jr., the executor of his father’s will, divided up the estate. Henry got the largest portion of the land including the original house (Feature 6 foundation), which stood in the same spot as the later brick house built by Samuel Kendle. He paid $1,000 for 235 1/2 acres of the Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance tract and an adjoining 4 1/2 acre tract. To give Henry a clear title, his siblings released their rights, for which he had to pay another £500 ($2,220). Other parts of Jacob Brumbaugh’s farm were sold out of the family, mostly to neighboring landowners. In 1768, Henry had married 16-year old Margaret Rench. Margaret was the daughter of Andrew Rench, a Swiss gentleman with a large farm near Hagerstown. The couple had eight children: Mary Elizabeth (1799-1832), Casandra (1804-1871), Otho (1807-1880), Andrew (1809-1859), Upton (1812-1838), Elvina (1815-1832), George (1818-1858), and Calvin (1820-1858). Daniel Brumbaugh was the only other son to take up residence on the former Jacob Brumbaugh farm. Daniel purchased 80 acres of land out of the Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance, Spriggs Paradise, and Chance tracts. He paid £880 ($3,907.20) for the farm. Daniel’s son, Samuel David, inherited that farm in 1824.
    Portions of the original Jacob Brumbaugh land as divided after his death. Jacob’s grandson Henry acquired the farmstead complex, outlined here in red.
  • On September 1, 1846, Andrew Brumbaugh married Susan Lynch and on that same day his father Henry sold him his entire farm for $12,330. The farm Andrew purchased had been gradually enlarged by his father from the original 235 1/2 acres in 1806 to 274 acres by 1841. Part of the purchase price was reckoned to include the dollar amount that Andrew would inherit as his share of his father’s estate ($8,831). When Henry died, Andrew would owe the remaining $3,499 of the purchase price to the estate. To secure this payment, Andrew gave a mortgage to his father for $3,499 on the same day as the property transfer. The farm’s transfer of ownership included certain reservations, however. Henry made sure he and his family retained the privilege of being buried in the family plot. More importantly, Henry reserved the use of the room he was currently occupying “in the main building of said premises, with the room above and one half of the large room upstairs, with the privilege of passing in and out of the passage, for himself and his wife, during their natural lives.” Andrew had five children with Susan Lynch: Margaret Permelia (1847-1879), Upton S. (1849-1914), Alice (1850-1852), Sallie (1852-1883), and Henry Clinton (1854-1862). Andrew Brumbaugh died intestate in 1859 leaving several minor children under the care of his widow Susan.
    Andrew Brumbaugh’s property, including the farmstead (outlined in red), after he enlarged his father Henry’s holdings. (The house location depicted on the above map is not accurate; the house was not situated in the center of the property, it was further to the north as shown in red.)
  • Andrew Brumbaugh died on February 17, 1859, at the age of 49. His wife, Susan, was 33 and the mother of four surviving children—Margaret (11), Upton (9), Sallie (8), and Henry (4). As Andrew did not leave a will, the Washington County Orphan’s Court appointed Susan and William T. Hamilton as the administrators of his estate. Susan Lynch Brumbaugh married Jacob W. Clair (also spelled Clare) on February 13, 1862. They were both about 36 years old. Jacob was a minister of the Evangelical Church and a former carpenter, who had grown up in York County, Pennsylvania. According to Orphans’ Court records, Susan Clair continued to be the official tenant of the Andrew Brumbaugh farm, even after her marriage. However, according to census and court records, her husband Jacob appears to have taken over management of the farm. The family delayed partitioning Andrew Brumbaugh’s real estate until youngest daughter Sallie turned 21 at the end of 1873. While other portions of the estate went to other family members, Upton and Sallie, both single, received 162 3/4 acres of land as equal partners. Their portion included the homestead and the farm’s main outbuildings.
  • Sallie Brumbaugh married Norman E. Schindel on February 18, 1874. Norman had been born on the Schindel family farm two miles west of Hagerstown. He attended nearby Mercersburg College, but always pursued farming as his profession. In January 1880, Norman E. Schindel paid $4,338 to purchase his brother-in-law Upton’s share of the Andrew Brumbaugh home, which had been split between his wife and her brother in the settlement of her father's estate in 1873. To complete the transfer of title, Susan Clair sold her dower rights in the property to Norman for $1,083. Susan retained the right to use the Brumbaugh burial ground on the farm. She specified that the plot, which was then enclosed by a stone fence, was for the use of her family and the children of Andrew Brumbaugh. She was granted a right of way through the farm. The deed also prevented the Brumbaugh family burial ground from being used for any other purpose. Norman and Sallie immediately took out a $5,000 mortgage on the farm. The following year, Sallie loaned $5,000 to her husband who secured the debt with his spousal interest in the Brumbaugh farm.
    Yellow outline shows the Brumbaugh family farm as inherited jointly by Upton and Sallie Brumbaugh upon the administration of their father's estate in 1873. The farm boundary is shown on an 1877 county map, three years before the Schindels (Sallie and her husband Norman) purchased Upton Brumbaugh’s share and became sole owners. The farmstead is outlined in red.
  • In 1895 Norman Schindel sold the 162 1/2-acre former Andrew Brumbaugh farm to Samuel M. Kendle for $9,140.62. The farm had lost a good deal of value since being purchased by Norman. Samuel built a new home on the same spot as the old log building that had stood for “more than 100 years” on the Andrew Brumbaugh farm. He spent about $4,000 on the new house and other farm improvements. By 1920 Samuel Kendle was 60 years old and retired from farming. Only Samuel and wife Mollie’s youngest daughter, Ruth, 18, still lived at home. Caring for the farmhouse and surrounding acres did not suit the Kendles any longer. They sold off the farm in 1924 but retained a small corner lot on the Middleburg Turnpike (Route 11) opposite Showalter Road on which they built an 8–room brick house.
  • On April 1, 1924, after 12 years of marriage, Luther and Katie Grove were able to purchase a place of their own. The bought Samuel M. Kendle’s 160–acre farm for $22,000. On the same day, they sliced off a 21–acre parcel from the farm’s southeast corner and sold it to Jacob H. Risser for $3,243 and proceeded to move into the Kendle farm.
    Luther Grove’s property, with the farmstead outlined in red.
  • In 1950, Luther and Katie, who were in their late sixties, rented the farm to their son, Luther Grove, Jr. The farm had been in Luther Grove’s hands for more than a quarter century but he still referred to it as the “Milford Kendall [sic] farm.” Luther sold off his “full line of farming implements and machinery sufficient to farm 150 acres” at a public sale. Included in the sale were six horses. In 1959, Luther Sr. conveyed the title to the farm to his son and daughter-in-law, Leona, for “natural love and affection.” Luther Grove Jr. farmed the property from 1950 to 1967.
  • In 1997 Luther and Leona granted the Board of County Commissioners a deed of easement for a parcel of land in the northwest corner of the farm on U.S. Route 11, an acquisition made for a runway protection zone. The following year the Groves donated the entire farm tract to the Jacob Engle Foundation, a non-profit investment and lending organization associated with the Brethren in Christ Church. The Foundation sold the farm to the Board of County Commissioners of Washington County, Maryland, the current owners, for $840,000 in 1999.
History
The occupation of the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farmstead can be broken down into several occupational periods based on ownership: Click a button below to read about the farm under each owner.
  • The initial tract of land was originally surveyed for David M. Claland. He had begun the process of acquiring land by making an application to the Provincial Land Office, which issued a warrant to the surveyor for 84 acres on February 10, 1752. Warrantees assigned names to their tracts before the survey took place and these names persisted through centuries of land transfers. A survey was made setting down the metes and bounds of “Claland’s Contrivance” on February 26, 1752. A scaled drawing accompanied the surveyor’s measurements. The completed certificate of survey was returned to the Land Office where it was examined and approved on May 19, 1753. The warrant for 84 acres had resulted in a survey of 90 acres. The Governor of Maryland issued a patent, the final step in acquiring title to the land. Instead of taking out the patent himself, Claland assigned his rights to Conrad Hagmayer on July 9, 1753. The patent for the 90–acre Claland’s Contrivance was issued to Conrad Hagmayer the same day. On September 26, 1753, Hagmayer sold the entire 90 acres to Jacob Brumbaugh for £64. At the time that Jacob Brumbaugh purchased the property the land was undeveloped.
    Approximate boundary of Claland’s Contrivance; the site of the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farmstead complex is outlined in red.
  • Jacob Brumbaugh arrived in Philadelphia aboard the Nancy in 1750. He was about 22 years old and single. He was remembered for being a large man with a strong constitution and defective hearing, traits passed down to some of his descendants. Jacob Brumbaugh married Mary Elizabeth Angle on January 28, 1760. She was the daughter of Henry Angle, a settler in the Welsh Run section of Cumberland County, which lies about 10 miles northwest of the Brumbaugh farm. Henry Angle and his daughter were converts to the German Baptist Brethren faith. It is unclear when Jacob himself became a member of the Brethren, but most histories give his wife credit for his conversion. Jacob and Mary Brumbaugh had six boys and one girl born between 1765 and 1783. This included Jacob Jr. (1715-1716), Mary (1767-?), John (1768-1820), Daniel (1722-1824), David (1776-1842), Henry (1777-1854), and George (1783-1837). In April 1763 Jacob Brumbaugh had Claland’s Contrivance resurveyed with the addition of vacant land to the north and south of the original 90–acre farmstead. The resulting patent for “The Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance” was 505 acres that stretched northward to his "Broomback’s Lott" tract. Only five months after adding 420 acres to his original "Claland’s Contrivance" farm tract, Jacob had a new survey made that combined his "Ill Will" and "Broomback’s Lott" tracts with surrounding vacant land. The resulting 260–acre tract was patented as “Timber Bottom,” a tract that extended to the so-called Temporary Line that divided Maryland and Pennsylvania. The surveyor noted that 2 1/2 acres of "Timber Bottom" had been cleared and fenced. In 1765 Jacob patented his last tract in Washington County. “The Chance” was only 23 acres but it filled in a gap on his farm. In the 12 years since his first land acquisition, his Maryland farm had grown to 788 acres.
    Brumbaugh’s land holdings as of 1765. The site of the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farmstead complex is outlined in red. Dry Spring is another land patent that Jacob acquired, though when he came into possession is not well established. At this point in time the first incarnation of the farmstead (Feature 6 foundation) had been built.
  • Jacob Brumbaugh died on April 10, 1799. He was buried in the family cemetery, located on the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farm. Jacob did not leave a will, instead trusting to the laws of descent and his family’s judgment to divide his substantial landholdings. His widow and eldest son, Jacob Jr., became the administrators of his estate on May 4, 1799. As his eldest son Jacob had his own farm, the estate was managed by his widow Mary until 1803 when Mary released her dower rights in Jacob’s real estate for a payment of £35. This smoothed the way for a division of the land to finally take place.
  • On October 23, 1806, Jacob Jr., the executor of his father’s will, divided up the estate. Henry got the largest portion of the land including the original house (Feature 6 foundation), which stood in the same spot as the later brick house built by Samuel Kendle. He paid $1,000 for 235 1/2 acres of the Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance tract and an adjoining 4 1/2 acre tract. To give Henry a clear title, his siblings released their rights, for which he had to pay another £500 ($2,220). Other parts of Jacob Brumbaugh’s farm were sold out of the family, mostly to neighboring landowners. In 1768, Henry had married 16-year old Margaret Rench. Margaret was the daughter of Andrew Rench, a Swiss gentleman with a large farm near Hagerstown. The couple had eight children: Mary Elizabeth (1799-1832), Casandra (1804-1871), Otho (1807-1880), Andrew (1809-1859), Upton (1812-1838), Elvina (1815-1832), George (1818-1858), and Calvin (1820-1858). Daniel Brumbaugh was the only other son to take up residence on the former Jacob Brumbaugh farm. Daniel purchased 80 acres of land out of the Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance, Spriggs Paradise, and Chance tracts. He paid £880 ($3,907.20) for the farm. Daniel’s son, Samuel David, inherited that farm in 1824.
    Portions of the original Jacob Brumbaugh land as divided after his death. Jacob’s grandson Henry acquired the farmstead complex, outlined here in red.
  • On September 1, 1846, Andrew Brumbaugh married Susan Lynch and on that same day his father Henry sold him his entire farm for $12,330. The farm Andrew purchased had been gradually enlarged by his father from the original 235 1/2 acres in 1806 to 274 acres by 1841. Part of the purchase price was reckoned to include the dollar amount that Andrew would inherit as his share of his father’s estate ($8,831). When Henry died, Andrew would owe the remaining $3,499 of the purchase price to the estate. To secure this payment, Andrew gave a mortgage to his father for $3,499 on the same day as the property transfer. The farm’s transfer of ownership included certain reservations, however. Henry made sure he and his family retained the privilege of being buried in the family plot. More importantly, Henry reserved the use of the room he was currently occupying “in the main building of said premises, with the room above and one half of the large room upstairs, with the privilege of passing in and out of the passage, for himself and his wife, during their natural lives.” Andrew had five children with Susan Lynch: Margaret Permelia (1847-1879), Upton S. (1849-1914), Alice (1850-1852), Sallie (1852-1883), and Henry Clinton (1854-1862). Andrew Brumbaugh died intestate in 1859 leaving several minor children under the care of his widow Susan.
    Andrew Brumbaugh’s property, including the farmstead (outlined in red), after he enlarged his father Henry’s holdings. (The house location depicted on the above map is not accurate; the house was not situated in the center of the property, it was further to the north as shown in red.)
  • Andrew Brumbaugh died on February 17, 1859, at the age of 49. His wife, Susan, was 33 and the mother of four surviving children—Margaret (11), Upton (9), Sallie (8), and Henry (4). As Andrew did not leave a will, the Washington County Orphan’s Court appointed Susan and William T. Hamilton as the administrators of his estate. Susan Lynch Brumbaugh married Jacob W. Clair (also spelled Clare) on February 13, 1862. They were both about 36 years old. Jacob was a minister of the Evangelical Church and a former carpenter, who had grown up in York County, Pennsylvania. According to Orphans’ Court records, Susan Clair continued to be the official tenant of the Andrew Brumbaugh farm, even after her marriage. However, according to census and court records, her husband Jacob appears to have taken over management of the farm. The family delayed partitioning Andrew Brumbaugh’s real estate until youngest daughter Sallie turned 21 at the end of 1873. While other portions of the estate went to other family members, Upton and Sallie, both single, received 162 3/4 acres of land as equal partners. Their portion included the homestead and the farm’s main outbuildings.
  • Sallie Brumbaugh married Norman E. Schindel on February 18, 1874. Norman had been born on the Schindel family farm two miles west of Hagerstown. He attended nearby Mercersburg College, but always pursued farming as his profession. In January 1880, Norman E. Schindel paid $4,338 to purchase his brother-in-law Upton’s share of the Andrew Brumbaugh home, which had been split between his wife and her brother in the settlement of her father's estate in 1873. To complete the transfer of title, Susan Clair sold her dower rights in the property to Norman for $1,083. Susan retained the right to use the Brumbaugh burial ground on the farm. She specified that the plot, which was then enclosed by a stone fence, was for the use of her family and the children of Andrew Brumbaugh. She was granted a right of way through the farm. The deed also prevented the Brumbaugh family burial ground from being used for any other purpose. Norman and Sallie immediately took out a $5,000 mortgage on the farm. The following year, Sallie loaned $5,000 to her husband who secured the debt with his spousal interest in the Brumbaugh farm.
    Yellow outline shows the Brumbaugh family farm as inherited jointly by Upton and Sallie Brumbaugh upon the administration of their father's estate in 1873. The farm boundary is shown on an 1877 county map, three years before the Schindels (Sallie and her husband Norman) purchased Upton Brumbaugh’s share and became sole owners. The farmstead is outlined in red.
  • In 1895 Norman Schindel sold the 162 1/2-acre former Andrew Brumbaugh farm to Samuel M. Kendle for $9,140.62. The farm had lost a good deal of value since being purchased by Norman. Samuel built a new home on the same spot as the old log building that had stood for “more than 100 years” on the Andrew Brumbaugh farm. He spent about $4,000 on the new house and other farm improvements. By 1920 Samuel Kendle was 60 years old and retired from farming. Only Samuel and wife Mollie’s youngest daughter, Ruth, 18, still lived at home. Caring for the farmhouse and surrounding acres did not suit the Kendles any longer. They sold off the farm in 1924 but retained a small corner lot on the Middleburg Turnpike (Route 11) opposite Showalter Road on which they built an 8–room brick house.
  • On April 1, 1924, after 12 years of marriage, Luther and Katie Grove were able to purchase a place of their own. The bought Samuel M. Kendle’s 160–acre farm for $22,000. On the same day, they sliced off a 21–acre parcel from the farm’s southeast corner and sold it to Jacob H. Risser for $3,243 and proceeded to move into the Kendle farm.
    Luther Grove’s property, with the farmstead outlined in red.
  • In 1950, Luther and Katie, who were in their late sixties, rented the farm to their son, Luther Grove, Jr. The farm had been in Luther Grove’s hands for more than a quarter century but he still referred to it as the “Milford Kendall [sic] farm.” Luther sold off his “full line of farming implements and machinery sufficient to farm 150 acres” at a public sale. Included in the sale were six horses. In 1959, Luther Sr. conveyed the title to the farm to his son and daughter-in-law, Leona, for “natural love and affection.” Luther Grove Jr. farmed the property from 1950 to 1967.
  • In 1997 Luther and Leona granted the Board of County Commissioners a deed of easement for a parcel of land in the northwest corner of the farm on U.S. Route 11, an acquisition made for a runway protection zone. The following year the Groves donated the entire farm tract to the Jacob Engle Foundation, a non-profit investment and lending organization associated with the Brethren in Christ Church. The Foundation sold the farm to the Board of County Commissioners of Washington County, Maryland, the current owners, for $840,000 in 1999.
History
The occupation of the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farmstead can be broken down into several occupational periods based on ownership: Click a button below to read about the farm under each owner.
  • The initial tract of land was originally surveyed for David M. Claland. He had begun the process of acquiring land by making an application to the Provincial Land Office, which issued a warrant to the surveyor for 84 acres on February 10, 1752. Warrantees assigned names to their tracts before the survey took place and these names persisted through centuries of land transfers. A survey was made setting down the metes and bounds of “Claland’s Contrivance” on February 26, 1752. A scaled drawing accompanied the surveyor’s measurements. The completed certificate of survey was returned to the Land Office where it was examined and approved on May 19, 1753. The warrant for 84 acres had resulted in a survey of 90 acres. The Governor of Maryland issued a patent, the final step in acquiring title to the land. Instead of taking out the patent himself, Claland assigned his rights to Conrad Hagmayer on July 9, 1753. The patent for the 90–acre Claland’s Contrivance was issued to Conrad Hagmayer the same day. On September 26, 1753, Hagmayer sold the entire 90 acres to Jacob Brumbaugh for £64. At the time that Jacob Brumbaugh purchased the property the land was undeveloped.
    Approximate boundary of Claland’s Contrivance; the site of the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farmstead complex is outlined in red.
  • Jacob Brumbaugh arrived in Philadelphia aboard the Nancy in 1750. He was about 22 years old and single. He was remembered for being a large man with a strong constitution and defective hearing, traits passed down to some of his descendants. Jacob Brumbaugh married Mary Elizabeth Angle on January 28, 1760. She was the daughter of Henry Angle, a settler in the Welsh Run section of Cumberland County, which lies about 10 miles northwest of the Brumbaugh farm. Henry Angle and his daughter were converts to the German Baptist Brethren faith. It is unclear when Jacob himself became a member of the Brethren, but most histories give his wife credit for his conversion. Jacob and Mary Brumbaugh had six boys and one girl born between 1765 and 1783. This included Jacob Jr. (1715-1716), Mary (1767-?), John (1768-1820), Daniel (1722-1824), David (1776-1842), Henry (1777-1854), and George (1783-1837). In April 1763 Jacob Brumbaugh had Claland’s Contrivance resurveyed with the addition of vacant land to the north and south of the original 90–acre farmstead. The resulting patent for “The Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance” was 505 acres that stretched northward to his "Broomback’s Lott" tract. Only five months after adding 420 acres to his original "Claland’s Contrivance" farm tract, Jacob had a new survey made that combined his "Ill Will" and "Broomback’s Lott" tracts with surrounding vacant land. The resulting 260–acre tract was patented as “Timber Bottom,” a tract that extended to the so-called Temporary Line that divided Maryland and Pennsylvania. The surveyor noted that 2 1/2 acres of "Timber Bottom" had been cleared and fenced. In 1765 Jacob patented his last tract in Washington County. “The Chance” was only 23 acres but it filled in a gap on his farm. In the 12 years since his first land acquisition, his Maryland farm had grown to 788 acres.
    Brumbaugh’s land holdings as of 1765. The site of the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farmstead complex is outlined in red. Dry Spring is another land patent that Jacob acquired, though when he came into possession is not well established. At this point in time the first incarnation of the farmstead (Feature 6 foundation) had been built.
  • Jacob Brumbaugh died on April 10, 1799. He was buried in the family cemetery, located on the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farm. Jacob did not leave a will, instead trusting to the laws of descent and his family’s judgment to divide his substantial landholdings. His widow and eldest son, Jacob Jr., became the administrators of his estate on May 4, 1799. As his eldest son Jacob had his own farm, the estate was managed by his widow Mary until 1803 when Mary released her dower rights in Jacob’s real estate for a payment of £35. This smoothed the way for a division of the land to finally take place.
  • On October 23, 1806, Jacob Jr., the executor of his father’s will, divided up the estate. Henry got the largest portion of the land including the original house (Feature 6 foundation), which stood in the same spot as the later brick house built by Samuel Kendle. He paid $1,000 for 235 1/2 acres of the Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance tract and an adjoining 4 1/2 acre tract. To give Henry a clear title, his siblings released their rights, for which he had to pay another £500 ($2,220). Other parts of Jacob Brumbaugh’s farm were sold out of the family, mostly to neighboring landowners. In 1768, Henry had married 16-year old Margaret Rench. Margaret was the daughter of Andrew Rench, a Swiss gentleman with a large farm near Hagerstown. The couple had eight children: Mary Elizabeth (1799-1832), Casandra (1804-1871), Otho (1807-1880), Andrew (1809-1859), Upton (1812-1838), Elvina (1815-1832), George (1818-1858), and Calvin (1820-1858). Daniel Brumbaugh was the only other son to take up residence on the former Jacob Brumbaugh farm. Daniel purchased 80 acres of land out of the Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance, Spriggs Paradise, and Chance tracts. He paid £880 ($3,907.20) for the farm. Daniel’s son, Samuel David, inherited that farm in 1824.
    Portions of the original Jacob Brumbaugh land as divided after his death. Jacob’s grandson Henry acquired the farmstead complex, outlined here in red.
  • On September 1, 1846, Andrew Brumbaugh married Susan Lynch and on that same day his father Henry sold him his entire farm for $12,330. The farm Andrew purchased had been gradually enlarged by his father from the original 235 1/2 acres in 1806 to 274 acres by 1841. Part of the purchase price was reckoned to include the dollar amount that Andrew would inherit as his share of his father’s estate ($8,831). When Henry died, Andrew would owe the remaining $3,499 of the purchase price to the estate. To secure this payment, Andrew gave a mortgage to his father for $3,499 on the same day as the property transfer. The farm’s transfer of ownership included certain reservations, however. Henry made sure he and his family retained the privilege of being buried in the family plot. More importantly, Henry reserved the use of the room he was currently occupying “in the main building of said premises, with the room above and one half of the large room upstairs, with the privilege of passing in and out of the passage, for himself and his wife, during their natural lives.” Andrew had five children with Susan Lynch: Margaret Permelia (1847-1879), Upton S. (1849-1914), Alice (1850-1852), Sallie (1852-1883), and Henry Clinton (1854-1862). Andrew Brumbaugh died intestate in 1859 leaving several minor children under the care of his widow Susan.
    Andrew Brumbaugh’s property, including the farmstead (outlined in red), after he enlarged his father Henry’s holdings. (The house location depicted on the above map is not accurate; the house was not situated in the center of the property, it was further to the north as shown in red.)
  • Andrew Brumbaugh died on February 17, 1859, at the age of 49. His wife, Susan, was 33 and the mother of four surviving children—Margaret (11), Upton (9), Sallie (8), and Henry (4). As Andrew did not leave a will, the Washington County Orphan’s Court appointed Susan and William T. Hamilton as the administrators of his estate. Susan Lynch Brumbaugh married Jacob W. Clair (also spelled Clare) on February 13, 1862. They were both about 36 years old. Jacob was a minister of the Evangelical Church and a former carpenter, who had grown up in York County, Pennsylvania. According to Orphans’ Court records, Susan Clair continued to be the official tenant of the Andrew Brumbaugh farm, even after her marriage. However, according to census and court records, her husband Jacob appears to have taken over management of the farm. The family delayed partitioning Andrew Brumbaugh’s real estate until youngest daughter Sallie turned 21 at the end of 1873. While other portions of the estate went to other family members, Upton and Sallie, both single, received 162 3/4 acres of land as equal partners. Their portion included the homestead and the farm’s main outbuildings.
  • Sallie Brumbaugh married Norman E. Schindel on February 18, 1874. Norman had been born on the Schindel family farm two miles west of Hagerstown. He attended nearby Mercersburg College, but always pursued farming as his profession. In January 1880, Norman E. Schindel paid $4,338 to purchase his brother-in-law Upton’s share of the Andrew Brumbaugh home, which had been split between his wife and her brother in the settlement of her father's estate in 1873. To complete the transfer of title, Susan Clair sold her dower rights in the property to Norman for $1,083. Susan retained the right to use the Brumbaugh burial ground on the farm. She specified that the plot, which was then enclosed by a stone fence, was for the use of her family and the children of Andrew Brumbaugh. She was granted a right of way through the farm. The deed also prevented the Brumbaugh family burial ground from being used for any other purpose. Norman and Sallie immediately took out a $5,000 mortgage on the farm. The following year, Sallie loaned $5,000 to her husband who secured the debt with his spousal interest in the Brumbaugh farm.
    Yellow outline shows the Brumbaugh family farm as inherited jointly by Upton and Sallie Brumbaugh upon the administration of their father's estate in 1873. The farm boundary is shown on an 1877 county map, three years before the Schindels (Sallie and her husband Norman) purchased Upton Brumbaugh’s share and became sole owners. The farmstead is outlined in red.
  • In 1895 Norman Schindel sold the 162 1/2-acre former Andrew Brumbaugh farm to Samuel M. Kendle for $9,140.62. The farm had lost a good deal of value since being purchased by Norman. Samuel built a new home on the same spot as the old log building that had stood for “more than 100 years” on the Andrew Brumbaugh farm. He spent about $4,000 on the new house and other farm improvements. By 1920 Samuel Kendle was 60 years old and retired from farming. Only Samuel and wife Mollie’s youngest daughter, Ruth, 18, still lived at home. Caring for the farmhouse and surrounding acres did not suit the Kendles any longer. They sold off the farm in 1924 but retained a small corner lot on the Middleburg Turnpike (Route 11) opposite Showalter Road on which they built an 8–room brick house.
  • On April 1, 1924, after 12 years of marriage, Luther and Katie Grove were able to purchase a place of their own. The bought Samuel M. Kendle’s 160–acre farm for $22,000. On the same day, they sliced off a 21–acre parcel from the farm’s southeast corner and sold it to Jacob H. Risser for $3,243 and proceeded to move into the Kendle farm.
    Luther Grove’s property, with the farmstead outlined in red.
  • In 1950, Luther and Katie, who were in their late sixties, rented the farm to their son, Luther Grove, Jr. The farm had been in Luther Grove’s hands for more than a quarter century but he still referred to it as the “Milford Kendall [sic] farm.” Luther sold off his “full line of farming implements and machinery sufficient to farm 150 acres” at a public sale. Included in the sale were six horses. In 1959, Luther Sr. conveyed the title to the farm to his son and daughter-in-law, Leona, for “natural love and affection.” Luther Grove Jr. farmed the property from 1950 to 1967.
  • In 1997 Luther and Leona granted the Board of County Commissioners a deed of easement for a parcel of land in the northwest corner of the farm on U.S. Route 11, an acquisition made for a runway protection zone. The following year the Groves donated the entire farm tract to the Jacob Engle Foundation, a non-profit investment and lending organization associated with the Brethren in Christ Church. The Foundation sold the farm to the Board of County Commissioners of Washington County, Maryland, the current owners, for $840,000 in 1999.
History
The occupation of the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farmstead can be broken down into several occupational periods based on ownership: Click a button below to read about the farm under each owner.
  • The initial tract of land was originally surveyed for David M. Claland. He had begun the process of acquiring land by making an application to the Provincial Land Office, which issued a warrant to the surveyor for 84 acres on February 10, 1752. Warrantees assigned names to their tracts before the survey took place and these names persisted through centuries of land transfers. A survey was made setting down the metes and bounds of “Claland’s Contrivance” on February 26, 1752. A scaled drawing accompanied the surveyor’s measurements. The completed certificate of survey was returned to the Land Office where it was examined and approved on May 19, 1753. The warrant for 84 acres had resulted in a survey of 90 acres. The Governor of Maryland issued a patent, the final step in acquiring title to the land. Instead of taking out the patent himself, Claland assigned his rights to Conrad Hagmayer on July 9, 1753. The patent for the 90–acre Claland’s Contrivance was issued to Conrad Hagmayer the same day. On September 26, 1753, Hagmayer sold the entire 90 acres to Jacob Brumbaugh for £64. At the time that Jacob Brumbaugh purchased the property the land was undeveloped.
    Approximate boundary of Claland’s Contrivance; the site of the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farmstead complex is outlined in red.
  • Jacob Brumbaugh arrived in Philadelphia aboard the Nancy in 1750. He was about 22 years old and single. He was remembered for being a large man with a strong constitution and defective hearing, traits passed down to some of his descendants. Jacob Brumbaugh married Mary Elizabeth Angle on January 28, 1760. She was the daughter of Henry Angle, a settler in the Welsh Run section of Cumberland County, which lies about 10 miles northwest of the Brumbaugh farm. Henry Angle and his daughter were converts to the German Baptist Brethren faith. It is unclear when Jacob himself became a member of the Brethren, but most histories give his wife credit for his conversion. Jacob and Mary Brumbaugh had six boys and one girl born between 1765 and 1783. This included Jacob Jr. (1715-1716), Mary (1767-?), John (1768-1820), Daniel (1722-1824), David (1776-1842), Henry (1777-1854), and George (1783-1837). In April 1763 Jacob Brumbaugh had Claland’s Contrivance resurveyed with the addition of vacant land to the north and south of the original 90–acre farmstead. The resulting patent for “The Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance” was 505 acres that stretched northward to his "Broomback’s Lott" tract. Only five months after adding 420 acres to his original "Claland’s Contrivance" farm tract, Jacob had a new survey made that combined his "Ill Will" and "Broomback’s Lott" tracts with surrounding vacant land. The resulting 260–acre tract was patented as “Timber Bottom,” a tract that extended to the so-called Temporary Line that divided Maryland and Pennsylvania. The surveyor noted that 2 1/2 acres of "Timber Bottom" had been cleared and fenced. In 1765 Jacob patented his last tract in Washington County. “The Chance” was only 23 acres but it filled in a gap on his farm. In the 12 years since his first land acquisition, his Maryland farm had grown to 788 acres.
    Brumbaugh’s land holdings as of 1765. The site of the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farmstead complex is outlined in red. Dry Spring is another land patent that Jacob acquired, though when he came into possession is not well established. At this point in time the first incarnation of the farmstead (Feature 6 foundation) had been built.
  • Jacob Brumbaugh died on April 10, 1799. He was buried in the family cemetery, located on the Brumbaugh-Kendle-Grove Farm. Jacob did not leave a will, instead trusting to the laws of descent and his family’s judgment to divide his substantial landholdings. His widow and eldest son, Jacob Jr., became the administrators of his estate on May 4, 1799. As his eldest son Jacob had his own farm, the estate was managed by his widow Mary until 1803 when Mary released her dower rights in Jacob’s real estate for a payment of £35. This smoothed the way for a division of the land to finally take place.
  • On October 23, 1806, Jacob Jr., the executor of his father’s will, divided up the estate. Henry got the largest portion of the land including the original house (Feature 6 foundation), which stood in the same spot as the later brick house built by Samuel Kendle. He paid $1,000 for 235 1/2 acres of the Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance tract and an adjoining 4 1/2 acre tract. To give Henry a clear title, his siblings released their rights, for which he had to pay another £500 ($2,220). Other parts of Jacob Brumbaugh’s farm were sold out of the family, mostly to neighboring landowners. In 1768, Henry had married 16-year old Margaret Rench. Margaret was the daughter of Andrew Rench, a Swiss gentleman with a large farm near Hagerstown. The couple had eight children: Mary Elizabeth (1799-1832), Casandra (1804-1871), Otho (1807-1880), Andrew (1809-1859), Upton (1812-1838), Elvina (1815-1832), George (1818-1858), and Calvin (1820-1858). Daniel Brumbaugh was the only other son to take up residence on the former Jacob Brumbaugh farm. Daniel purchased 80 acres of land out of the Resurvey of Claland’s Contrivance, Spriggs Paradise, and Chance tracts. He paid £880 ($3,907.20) for the farm. Daniel’s son, Samuel David, inherited that farm in 1824.
    Portions of the original Jacob Brumbaugh land as divided after his death. Jacob’s grandson Henry acquired the farmstead complex, outlined here in red.
  • On September 1, 1846, Andrew Brumbaugh married Susan Lynch and on that same day his father Henry sold him his entire farm for $12,330. The farm Andrew purchased had been gradually enlarged by his father from the original 235 1/2 acres in 1806 to 274 acres by 1841. Part of the purchase price was reckoned to include the dollar amount that Andrew would inherit as his share of his father’s estate ($8,831). When Henry died, Andrew would owe the remaining $3,499 of the purchase price to the estate. To secure this payment, Andrew gave a mortgage to his father for $3,499 on the same day as the property transfer. The farm’s transfer of ownership included certain reservations, however. Henry made sure he and his family retained the privilege of being buried in the family plot. More importantly, Henry reserved the use of the room he was currently occupying “in the main building of said premises, with the room above and one half of the large room upstairs, with the privilege of passing in and out of the passage, for himself and his wife, during their natural lives.” Andrew had five children with Susan Lynch: Margaret Permelia (1847-1879), Upton S. (1849-1914), Alice (1850-1852), Sallie (1852-1883), and Henry Clinton (1854-1862). Andrew Brumbaugh died intestate in 1859 leaving several minor children under the care of his widow Susan.
    Andrew Brumbaugh’s property, including the farmstead (outlined in red), after he enlarged his father Henry’s holdings. (The house location depicted on the above map is not accurate; the house was not situated in the center of the property, it was further to the north as shown in red.)
  • Andrew Brumbaugh died on February 17, 1859, at the age of 49. His wife, Susan, was 33 and the mother of four surviving children—Margaret (11), Upton (9), Sallie (8), and Henry (4). As Andrew did not leave a will, the Washington County Orphan’s Court appointed Susan and William T. Hamilton as the administrators of his estate. Susan Lynch Brumbaugh married Jacob W. Clair (also spelled Clare) on February 13, 1862. They were both about 36 years old. Jacob was a minister of the Evangelical Church and a former carpenter, who had grown up in York County, Pennsylvania. According to Orphans’ Court records, Susan Clair continued to be the official tenant of the Andrew Brumbaugh farm, even after her marriage. However, according to census and court records, her husband Jacob appears to have taken over management of the farm. The family delayed partitioning Andrew Brumbaugh’s real estate until youngest daughter Sallie turned 21 at the end of 1873. While other portions of the estate went to other family members, Upton and Sallie, both single, received 162 3/4 acres of land as equal partners. Their portion included the homestead and the farm’s main outbuildings.
  • Sallie Brumbaugh married Norman E. Schindel on February 18, 1874. Norman had been born on the Schindel family farm two miles west of Hagerstown. He attended nearby Mercersburg College, but always pursued farming as his profession. In January 1880, Norman E. Schindel paid $4,338 to purchase his brother-in-law Upton’s share of the Andrew Brumbaugh home, which had been split between his wife and her brother in the settlement of her father's estate in 1873. To complete the transfer of title, Susan Clair sold her dower rights in the property to Norman for $1,083. Susan retained the right to use the Brumbaugh burial ground on the farm. She specified that the plot, which was then enclosed by a stone fence, was for the use of her family and the children of Andrew Brumbaugh. She was granted a right of way through the farm. The deed also prevented the Brumbaugh family burial ground from being used for any other purpose. Norman and Sallie immediately took out a $5,000 mortgage on the farm. The following year, Sallie loaned $5,000 to her husband who secured the debt with his spousal interest in the Brumbaugh farm.
    Yellow outline shows the Brumbaugh family farm as inherited jointly by Upton and Sallie Brumbaugh upon the administration of their father's estate in 1873. The farm boundary is shown on an 1877 county map, three years before the Schindels (Sallie and her husband Norman) purchased Upton Brumbaugh’s share and became sole owners. The farmstead is outlined in red.
  • In 1895 Norman Schindel sold the 162 1/2-acre former Andrew Brumbaugh farm to Samuel M. Kendle for $9,140.62. The farm had lost a good deal of value since being purchased by Norman. Samuel built a new home on the same spot as the old log building that had stood for “more than 100 years” on the Andrew Brumbaugh farm. He spent about $4,000 on the new house and other farm improvements. By 1920 Samuel Kendle was 60 years old and retired from farming. Only Samuel and wife Mollie’s youngest daughter, Ruth, 18, still lived at home. Caring for the farmhouse and surrounding acres did not suit the Kendles any longer. They sold off the farm in 1924 but retained a small corner lot on the Middleburg Turnpike (Route 11) opposite Showalter Road on which they built an 8–room brick house.
  • On April 1, 1924, after 12 years of marriage, Luther and Katie Grove were able to purchase a place of their own. The bought Samuel M. Kendle’s 160–acre farm for $22,000. On the same day, they sliced off a 21–acre parcel from the farm’s southeast corner and sold it to Jacob H. Risser for $3,243 and proceeded to move into the Kendle farm.
    Luther Grove’s property, with the farmstead outlined in red.
  • In 1950, Luther and Katie, who were in their late sixties, rented the farm to their son, Luther Grove, Jr. The farm had been in Luther Grove’s hands for more than a quarter century but he still referred to it as the “Milford Kendall [sic] farm.” Luther sold off his “full line of farming implements and machinery sufficient to farm 150 acres” at a public sale. Included in the sale were six horses. In 1959, Luther Sr. conveyed the title to the farm to his son and daughter-in-law, Leona, for “natural love and affection.” Luther Grove Jr. farmed the property from 1950 to 1967.
  • In 1997 Luther and Leona granted the Board of County Commissioners a deed of easement for a parcel of land in the northwest corner of the farm on U.S. Route 11, an acquisition made for a runway protection zone. The following year the Groves donated the entire farm tract to the Jacob Engle Foundation, a non-profit investment and lending organization associated with the Brethren in Christ Church. The Foundation sold the farm to the Board of County Commissioners of Washington County, Maryland, the current owners, for $840,000 in 1999.