#42 - Trouble Making : Battle of Gettysburg and the Underground Railway in Adams County, PA

Two Stories of Trouble Making

Genealogy is boring. Walking through a field of broken headstones, or looking through old books, or at stained, black & white photos of old people is boring. Unless you knew the people, or know the stories. Personal history can be everything that a movie or play is: funny, tragic, mundane, sweet, horrific and etc.
 In 1987 my mother's sister Mardy (Margaret Tilton) recorded her mother's (double) cousin's reminisces in 1987.  Corrine was the best candidate to interview at the time as she was 10 years older than cousin (Elizabeth, Mardy's mother). Also, Corrine's father (Edwin C Tyson) was nearly 10 years older than Elizabeth's father. Not only that, he (Corrine's father) had been keeper of the family genealogy. 
I came across a transcription of the 1987 interview.
I excerpted two short stories told by Corrine (Tyson Lambert), so you'll read just a gist of the story, and neither is in perfect, fluid sentences.
The first story is of her newly-wed grandmother (Maria Edith Griest, w of Charles John Tyson) and her great uncles. 
The second is of her Maria's parents Cyrus Griest and Mary Ann Cook (Griest) who were Quaker participants in the local Underground Railroad in Adams County, PA (see map below to see how close their area was to Gettysburg).
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Story #1 When Trouble Came To Gettysburg 
Little Brothers Run Off to “Rescue” Their Big Sister from the Battle of Gettysburg

As told by Corrine Tyson Lambert: [Charles J Tyson’s granddaughter]:

“Grandpa (Charles Tyson) had a hand for money… He was always doing something else. He had started with a photographic studio in Gettysburg, he was there until year after the battle.

Charles John Tyson 

And they stayed, Grandpa and Grandma, stayed living and working in Gettysburg until 1869.

Then the photographic business [called Tyson Brothers] went to his apprentice William Tipton.

Around that time, he had moved from Gettysburg up to the [Quaker] Valley. And he bought…he worked for his Father-in-law [Cyrus Griest].”

Corrine: “You see when she (Maria Griest his wife) was married (1863) her two little brothers [Griest brothers] Amos [age 15] and next boy both used to play with her--well, they were worried, because she was married, and she was in Gettysburg. 

And now part of the war was between them and her [they lived north of Gettysburg].

Maria E Griest 1861 bef marrying Chas Tyson

One day they heard somebody say, “I wish we knew whether Maria was safe,” because she had just been married [and living in Gettysburg].

And so these two little boys got up early and started on foot, without telling anybody. 

They went missing. 

They got halfway [to Gettysburg] and there was a barn there (for years I saw this barn). 

It was the one where they had gone, and they slept in the hay mow, and in the morning the farmer found them and sent them home.”

S: “They were headed for the battle of Gettysburg?”

Corrine: “They were headed for the Battle of Gettysburg. They were going to find Grandma, their sister, those two little boys. One of them was Uncle Amos. He was the youngest. And the next, must have been Uncle Cyrus.”

[Their journey would have been well over 10 miles]

Story #2 Quakers Running an Underground Railway Station in north of Gettysburg

As told by descendant Corrine: 

“Cyrus [Griest], whose wife was Mary Ann Cook...

Cyrus Griest h Mary Ann Cook

Mary Ann Cook w Cyrus Griest

My grandma [Maria Griest] was their oldest daughter.

Before Grandma was married, when she was 18--that was when the slaves hid in the caves up on Yellow Hill. 

Yesterday we went up there, and drove in back of that house and up in there.

And I could see where the path is still there that they took to go up there…I knew just about where it was and I could see where the path went up. 

The slaves would hide in the caves and come down at night.”

S: “And you can remember your grandparents talking about that?”

Red = area of Griest's & Wrights' Underground RR Stations Blue=Battle of Gettysburg

Corrine: “I remember my Grandmother [Maria Griest Tyson] told me all about that. And she taught in the schoolhouse which is the second floor of the springhouse and that is still there.”

For more information see this: http://www.menallenfriends.org/

Stories Recorded & transcribed:

Participants: Corrinne Tyson Lambert (D of Edwin Tyson & Mary Hauxhurst) Margaret B. Walmer (M) (granddaughter of Chester Tyson & Bertha Hauxhurst, d Elizabeth Tyson & Chas Tilton), her son Sam Walmer (son of Margaret Tilton Walmer)

Conversation with Corinne Lambert, granddaughter of Charles Tyson & Maria Griest recorded conversation at Hill House (Flora Dale, PA); at the Tyson Family Reunion at Mapleton, near Aspers, Adams  County, PA, May, 1987

#2 - Charles J Tyson Gets Busy with Gettysburg & Other Work

Charles J Tyson abt1885

Charles and Isaac Tyson established the photography studio in Gettysburg in 1859. At some point they hired a young assistant, a William Tipton (who became a close friend of Charles). Charles and Maria Griest (daughter of Cyrus Griest & Mary Ann Cook of Menallen Township) were wed April 1863. (Issac wed her cousin Rachel Griest in Sep 1863). 

 

In an 1884 letter, Charles describes their actions during the battle of Gettysburg: 

In early July Charles and Maria were setting up house as newly-weds but were forced to flee. They threw a trunk together, caught a ride, and left the trunk in care of a family. Then another friend took them away from the battle, as far as Littlestown. (The trunk never resurfaced). 

 

After the battle, the Tyson Brothers and young Tipton loaded a wagon, and photographed the battle area and the remaining soldiers. Note, that their photos do not include the casualties of the battle. War is not part of the Quaker tradition. For the Tysons to photograph the carnage of the battlefield, would elevate war.

They also took many, many photos of soldiers: both Union and Confederates sat for a photo. Many photos which they sold were later imprinted with another photographer's name (common practice). For more information on this, it is well told in the book: Gettysburg: A Journey in Time by William A. Frassanito. Here is a Tyson Bros photo of the Camp Letterman Hospital Tent from the National Archives.

On November 19, they made their way to the ceremony in which President Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery, photographing the crowded road in front of the platform.

 

The tree (a honey locust) was called the Witness Tree, a witness to both the battle and the famous speech, was about 150 feet from the speakers platform. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York now holds this photo).

Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg, PA Tyson Bros

Charles was energetic. 

The local newspaper noted that he “possessed a progressive spirit which he carried into all his undertakings. He was not satisfied with any kind of doing but he liked to excel. It was not in the spirit to have things better than others, but to have them done as well as they could be done."  His influence was always "for better conditions."

 

He took an active interest in everything involving the advantage and benefit of the community. Indeed, Menallen Township and Bendersville have in many ways felt his influence for "better things.” 

 
Eventually the brothers parted--Isaac married Maria's cousin, Rachel Griest in 1863. Sometime around 1866 this couple moved to Philadelphia where he continued in photography. Meanwhile Charles kept his interest in the photography studio but it waxed and waned: he continued buying and selling a share in the studio to their former apprentice William Tipton (Tipton named his first born son Charles Tyson). (But Charles had moved from Gettysburg in 1865).

 

Charles eventually finished with it once and for all when he sold it to Tipton in 1880. 

In 1864, he had purchased 1/3 interest in Springdale Nurseries, Cyrus Griest & Sons (his father-in-law).
In 1865 he moved out of Gettysburg, to Flora Dale, near Menallen Meeting and in 1867 bought the entire interest in Springdale Nurseries. 

 
In 1869 he bought the farm of 167 acres. He bought and renovated a house which was named “Mapleton” in Flora Dale, PA.

New Move!

But orchards were not money-makers. So in 1881 Charles became a charter member of Susquehanna Fertilizer Co of Baltimore, and eventually became President of the plant. 

The fertilizer plant had its financial ups and downs but generated more income than the nursery business.
He had big dreams and big plans: He was an ardent supporter and funder of the building of the Gettysburg & Harrisburg Railroad.  
He built an enormous barn and started a 1000-acre orchard.  He had the first bathtub with running water in Adams County, Pennsylvania. 

When Charles' mother died, his father Edwin Comly Tyson, came to live with Charles and Maria.

Charles was generous with his children. 

To son Chester (my great grandfather) he gave a “house to fill with Tysons" (which they did), and to their daughter Mary Tyson Peters, another house, and their son Edwin (Ned), he gave Mapleton.  
He and Maria built and moved to a house in a place called Guernsey (they called the house Loma Vista).

Mapleton 1890

[The next two posts will have two other men-and a bit of what went on in their lives around the Civil War.]

SOURCES:
1 Photo Charles J Tyson, Collection of ACharity Higgins (NYS)
2 Photo by Tyson Bros of Camp Letterman Hospital Tent (National Archives, USA)
3 Photo by Tyson of Crowd at Dedication o Soldiers National Cemetery [where Lincoln gave Gettysburg Address] (Metropolitan Museum Of Art, NY, NY, USA)
4 Photo of Musselmans Mapleton Barn, newspaper photographer, Gettysburg Times (Gettysburg, PA, USA)
5 Photo of Mapleton House, Collection of Margaret B Walmer (Aspers PA)