Philip & Elizabeth Pry c. 1880
Position at Antietam
Civilian farmers (Phillip – Age 44 and Elizabeth – 32 at the battle)
Family and Farm
- Philip and Elizabeth (Cost) Pry (m. 1847)
- Seven children, five at the time of the battle
- Farm – @ 173 acres. valued at $14,000 with another $1,800 in personal property
- The family owned one slave, Georgianna Rollins.
- 1860 farm hand – 22-year-old William Gitmaker
- 1861, Philip purchased more than 160 acres from Samuel Mumma, which he called “lower farm”, for $10,500. Phillip renamed the 166-acre property the “Bunker Hill Farm”. It is believed that Joseph Parks llived on the Bunker Hill Farm with wife and seven children and worked as a farm hand for Phillip Pry at the time of the battle.
- His brother Samuel Pry owned and ran the Hitt Mill.
Historical ownership and Structural Changes
- 1763 Joseph Chapline
- 1769 Joseph Chapline Jr. acquires property after his father’s death
- 1812 Abraham Baker purchases 140 acres of Resurvey of Hill and Dales and Vineyard tracts
- 1812 Philip Pry Sr purchases 126 ¼ acres
- 1823 Philip Sr, dies; wife Susannah manages property until Philip Jr turns 21. House built in 1844
- 1850 Philip and Elizabeth Pry purchased 173 acres from Samuel and Barbara Pry
- 1874 Daniel W. Wyand; changed hand several times.
- 1956 Leo B. and Vila M. Wyand purchased the farm from Victor and Ruth Stine
- 1971 Recreational Properties Associates
- 1974 NPS acquires two acres around house & barn
- 1976 Electrical fire damages much of house
- 2005 – 2026 National Civil War Medicine Museum partnership with NPS
Battle of Antietam
- Union forces start to encamp on the Pry Farm late on September 15th.
- According to family lore, a young captain by the name of George Armstrong Custer knocked on their door.
- Around 5pm on the evening of the 16th General McClellan established a ‘command post’ or ‘field headquarters’ at the Pry house
Aftermath
- An estimated 1,500 injured soldiers were cared for at the Pry farm. Several weeks later, when Dr. Elijah Harris of the U.S. Sanitary Commission came to inspect the hospital, he reported that 250 wounded and sick men were still receiving attention. The Pry farm would remain a hospital for at least two months.
- President Lincoln visited Gen. Israel Richardson in October. Elizabeth Pry served “a fine breakfast” to the guests. According to the Pry’s granddaughter, Lincoln expressed his gratitude by mailing Elizabeth a note of thanks bearing his signature.
- Dr. Biggs made nine visits to the Pry house between October 14–23, administering quinine and turpentine, indicating that fever possibly sickened one or more of the Prys.
- -1875 the QMG’s office discovered they had overpaid Pry $1209.38 for his previous claims. After recalculating, the QMG’s office determined that Pry was entitled to $1000 for wheat. but required the farmer to first return the $1,209.38 overpayment, which Pry had “great difficulty in collecting.” In total, Pry was only awarded $1667.66 — but was forced to return the majority of this money to the government.
- Senator William T. Hamilton wrote of Phillip, “Before the war he was a prosperous man, owning one of the finest farms in the county lying in the vicinity of the battlefield of Antietam. He is now in serious circumstances.”
Postwar
- The Prys moved to Johnson City, TN In 1874. Before the Prys left Maryland for Tennessee, friends and family members presented Elizabeth Pry with a personalized “memory quilt” containing handwritten farewell notes. Thirty-eight members of the Keedysville-Sharpsburg community signed the quilt
- Alfred Pry may had relocated to Illinois when the rest of the family moved to TN.
- Georgianna Rollins remained in the Pry household until the family moved to Tennessee. Georgianna stayed in the Keedysville area, married John Rose, and had ten children, seven of whom lived to adulthood.
Death
Elizabeth passed away in 1886. Philip and daughter Annie returned her remains back to be buried next to family at Fairview Cemetery in Keedysville. Philip died in 1900 at the age of 82, and is buried alongside Elizabeth.
Quotes
Philip Pry said that “wheat in the rick was consumed by the Cavalry of the 12th and 13th Pa Cavy and the Ambulance Corps,” who “encamped and remained near the rick until it was all eaten up [because] Forage was very scarce.”