The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 202

Quiet Quaker From The South Had The Strangest Name On Record And Every Word Of it Was True By George Sivetnam Press mff Writer STRANGE bits of history often lurk in the wording of routine documents tax lists, census reports, land deed records and similar unexpected places. For instance, Mrs. Betty Ilaupt of Somerset has a land patent given 190 years ago to Henry Hill by John Penn Junior and John Penn, heirs of William, and proprietors of the colony. But those aren't the important names. The sleeper in the parchment, which someone gave to Dr.

Earl Haupt in payment of a bill, is the name of another land owner in the description of the property. The line runs the lands of Toscape Death Now the Pittsylvania Country has had many strange aliases in its history, and some startling ones, like that of John McNally who played pro football as Johnny Blood. But it would be hard to find one with more of a jolt than Toscape Death. That is exactly what it was intended to do jolt the hearer. It was the daring expedient of a fugitive with a price of 500 pounds on his head, dead or alive.

With that kind of money running in those days of few people and scarce cash, it was hard to choose an alias that somebody wouldn't quickly see through. But one man did it by choosing such a startling name that people would be thrown off guard. The name was disarming because it fairly shrieked that its bearer was a wanted man. It frankly announced the fact that he was using it in the words of the day "to (e)scape death." And it worked in much the same way as that of the double-dealer who said: "I will deceive them both -by telling the truth." Toscape Death was the name used by Hermon Husband, a freedom-fighter who was a member of the assemblies of North Carolina and Pennsylvania, who was sentenced to death by two governments, and finally died with his boots off, and out of jail. Hermon Husband (both names are spelled in various ways, but the best evidence is for this way) was born in East Nottingham, on Oct.

3, 1724. He was brought up in the Episcopal Church, but later became a Presbyterian, and afterward joined the Society of Friends. By 1751 he had married, lost his wife, and gone to North Carolina, leaving behind a son William, who grew up in Baltimore. Some four years later he took up land near Corbinton (now Hillsborough) N. but in 1759 was back in Maryland for more than a year probably to arrange for the publication of his first booklet, "Some Remarks on Religion," which was issued in 1761.

In 1762 he married Mary Rugh, who was not a Quaker, and two years later he was kicked out of meeting "for aiding one under discipline," he said, but perhaps partly for marrying an outsider. The Friends may also have disapproved his becoming a leader in the Regulator movement, which was opposed to British rule and taxes. His second wife lived only a short time, and in 1766 he married Emy (probably for Emma) Allen, who bore him several children. In 1768 his opposition to the government caused him to be jailed on a charge of inciting a riot, but he was acquitted after it was testified he took no part in the outburst. Husband was elected to the North Carolina Assembly in 1769 and again the following year, but was kicked out after publishing a defense of the Regulators.

In 1771 he published another book on the subject, "A Fan For Fanning." But time was running out for him, even though he refused to take part in the Battle of Alamance because of his Quaker principles, riding away before the first shot was fired. Gov. William Tryon outlawed him (which gave anyone the right to kill him on sight) and laid waste his fine plantation. Husband barely escaped the Governor's wrath and fled north through Virginia, taking the name which plainly told his story, if anyone had stopped to think about it. He first sought refuge with his family in Cecil County, Maryland, but found that area too dangerous, and fled to the wilderness.

That was how it happened that on June 5, 1771 he came riding his horse, Tom, into the area that had been for less than three months Bedford County, and is now Somerset. Even in that distant area, in a Quaker colony, he dared not use his true name, nor ride westward through Bedford or Cumberland. Instead he kept to the frontier, and came up through Brothers Valley, which was almost completely German. Find Cabin He had heard that his boyhood friend, Isaac Cox, was hunting and trapping in the area north of there, and hoped to find safety with him, if anywhere. Coming over a mountain ridge, tired, hungry and lonely, he spotted a group of dead trees, and rode towards them, rightly guessing that they might mark a cabin site.

There was nobody home, and when a storm threatened he broke in, finding food and a place to sleep. When the owner returned next day it wasn't Cox, but one William Sparks. He welcomed the visitor and told him where he could find his friend, whose hunting cabin was not far away. Cox was surprised to see Husband, but couldn't bring himself to use the phony name; so they agreed that he would refer to his friend only as "the Quaker." Many people on the frontier were fugitives, and nobody cared too much about names. Toscape Death still held to Hermon Husband's principles, and wouldn't carry a gun, even to hunt.

But he had brought along a supply of powder, lead and tobacco, which was better than money in trading with his fellow settlers. He built a cabin and bought out the "tomahawk rights" (value of work done) on the lands of both Sparks and Cox before the summer ended. In August he ventured into Bedford, but not by the Forbes Road, instead following mudh the present course of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. He sent word to his family in Maryland where he could get messages. And on this and other occasions when he applied for land warrants, he used a little embroidery to make his alias even more convincing.

He applied under the name of "Toscape Death Junr." Early in the spring Sparks, who had taken up another piece of land, went to Bedford to get married, borrowing old Tom for the trip. He returned with letters stating that Mrs. Husband and her children had come to Maryland, and were living near Hagerstown. Soon after her husband's escape she had borne him a third son. Husband risked another trip to Bedford in May to send word that he would go for his family in the late fall.

Grateful to Isaac Cox, he asked that the new son be named Isaac Toscape. Still Cautious Although Gov. Tryon had been transferred to New York, and Husband's North Carolina estates had not been confiscated, he made no attempt to go back there. And when he went to get his family in late October, he still didn't risk going through Cumberland, following a trail through present-day Hancock probably the way he had first come. After the arrival of his family, Husband seems not to have made much of a secret of his identity in his home community, although when he made the first assessment in 1772, it listed his lands as owned by Toscape Death which indeed they were.

His right name is signed to the assessment, but all his land dealings until after the Revolution were made in the name of Toscape Death, Will Husband (his son) or Samuel Gilpin, a Maryland friend. He was elected to the state Assembly as Hermon Husband in 1778 and 1790, and a Bedford county commissioner in 1786. Attorney A. M. Matthews of Somerset, who has done much research on his career, has turned up a record in 1788 where in securing a patent on his lands he cited a warrant to Toscape Death "who by deed dated the 25th day of January 1788 conveyed the same to the said Herman Husbands (sic) in fee." By this time Husband had become quite rich, the 1781 assessment showing him as holding 4000 acres in what was to become Somerset county.

But when the Whisky Rebellion boiled up in the 1790s, Husband always against taxes took a leading part. Men aged fast on the frontier, and he was getting senile, much concerned with an idea that the Somerset area was described in the Bible. No one took him seriously except the courts, which sentenced him to death for his part in the revolt. But he wasn't destined to die on the gallows, and the great Dr. Benjamin Rush and others got President George Washington to grant Husband a pardon.

He look sick about that time, and died on his way home in June 1795. For many years some of his descendants, most of whom kept moving west, used Toscape as a middle name for their children. But the first one, Isaac, didn't like it, because his friends nicknamed him "Tuppy." As soon as he became a man he dropped that historic part of his name. Paj 4 Th Pittsburgh Press, Sunday, November 6, 1966.