James H. Redd, and Andrew J. Redd, had accepted a mortgage from Robert and Elizabeth Miller but eventually had to foreclose on them. Fortunately for the Millers there was a family relationship between Elizabeth Miller and the Redd family. In a deed dated 19 June 1844 James H. Redd conveyed an acre of land in Out Lot No. 2 (where the Sheetz parking lot and I-81-south entrance ramp are today) to Elizabeth Miller. It is likely that the foreclosure on the log addition of the Stone House took place in June of 1844 to coincide with the gift of this property to Elizabeth Miller. This portion of Out Lot No. 2 included “a dwelling house and other improvements” for the Millers to use. The price Elizabeth Miller paid for this property was only $1 and the deed goes on to say that “all the property herby conveyed is to pass in absolute right to the children of said Elizabeth Miller.” The reason James H. Redd gave for this generous gift was “his love and affection for his relative Mrs. Elizabeth Miller.” There is no mention of Mr. Robert C. Miller in this deed even though he was still alive at that time.
James H. Redd and Andrew J. Redd were members of a family that traced its roots to a settler who, in 1780, purchased lands east of Stephensburg, just north of Double Church Road. This settler, Andrew Redd (1730-1818) and his wife Elizabeth Hollingsworth Redd (d. 1819) had thirteen children, including seven boys. In 1814 one of those sons named John purchased a house on Lots 42 and 43 at the southern end of Main Street where the entrance to Jones Funeral Home is today. John Redd had married Sarah Bligh on the 2nd of May 1803 in Frederick County. John had at least six children before becoming a widower. Among them where James H. and Andrew J. Redd, both of whom were unmarried in 1844 when the Millers lost the log addition to the Stone House. It is unclear if the Redd bothers ever occupied the log addition to the Stone House after the foreclosure. It is not until around 1850 that we get a better view into the lives of the Redd family.
The 1850 Census lists John Redd as 73 years old living with Elizabeth (age 42), Susan (age 37), and Andrew (age 31). The only member of this household listed with an occupation was Andrew, who was identified as a farmer. The same 1850 Census lists James H. Redd (age 32) as the head of his own household and married to Martha Nisewanger Redd (age 19). We know from another surviving document that James H. Redd had been a partner in the Newtown mercantile firm of Rivers & Co. until the autumn of 1849. Earlier James H. Redd had married Martha Ellen Nisewanger on 26 March 1849 when she was just 18 and he was 31. They then could have lived in the log side of the Stone House though James H. Redd also owned another house on In Lot 41 (next door to his father’s property) that he had acquired in 1847. Martha Redd was the daughter of Abraham Nisewanger, a “waggoner” (wagon driver) who had five other daughters living at home in 1850. Martha’s older sister Margaret had earlier married a local carpenter named Alfred Watson. They had a daughter named Altha who was born on 3 January 1847. Tragically Alfred was killed when he was struck by lightning in July of 1847. Margaret was only 18 at that time and her daughter Altha was only seven months old. The widowed Margaret and orphaned Altha then moved back in with Margaret’s parents by 1850 and were listed in the Census with Abraham Nisewanger’s family.
Martha Nisewanger Redd was also soon to be widowed. In October of 1850 her husband James H. Redd was sick when he made out his will. By the spring of 1851 he had died. In James’ will he gave his “faithful & affectionate wife Martha Redd” the customary third of his estate plus a life estate in the log addition of the Stone House. He also gave his house on In Lot 41 to his son James M. Redd, and “also the House & Lot 48 [the log side of the Stone House] after the decease of his mother.” This son James M. Redd died as in infant and Martha became the sole heir of the log side of the Stone House. These probate records of James H. Redd mention his father-in-law Abraham Nisewanger as one of his creditors and appoints former owner of the Stone House Jacob Mytinger as his executor. James H. Redd’s estate inventory lists bonds owed to him by former business partner Christopher Rivers and other members of the community including family members. His estate was valued at $819.07¼ and did not include the value of the real estate he left to his heirs. By September of 1851 John Redd, the father of James H. and Andrew J. Redd, made out his will and by the 6th of October 1851 he was dead. He listed among his heirs his sons Joseph and Andrew, and Joseph is appointed as his executor. One possible insight into the nature of John Redd’s relationships with his children can be seen in his will. In it he takes $250 from the share of his son John Jr. because (as John Sr. wrote) that son had “been absent from home and from my services while the other children have been nearer and more useful to me.” It is likely that Martha Redd and her infant son (while he was still alive) lived in either the log side of the Stone House, or in the house on Lot 41, until she married again.
Both widowed sisters, Martha Redd and Margaret Watson, soon remarried. Martha married her late husband’s brother Joseph S. Redd in October of 1855 in Frederick, Maryland. In the prenuptial agreement between Martha and Joseph it is acknowledged by Joseph that Martha would retain control over all her property including her ownership interest in the log addition of the Stone House. She named a trustee to ensure that her will would be observed regarding this property. By 1857 Martha and Joseph had moved out to Quincy, Illinois where their daughter Josephine was born in that year. About the same time as Martha married Joseph S. Redd, her sister Margaret Watson married a man named David W. Rosenberger and they moved to Hannibal, Missouri. By 1860 Joseph Redd was working as a clerk in Cumberland, Maryland. He, Martha, and their three-year-old daughter Josephine were living in a hotel there in Cumberland when the census was taken. Family tradition passed down to Stone House Foundation’s founder Mildred Lee Grove maintained that David, Margaret and Altha (who was Miss Grove’s grandmother) moved back to Stephesburg before the beginning of the Civil War and rented the stone side of the Stone House, next to the log side of the house that was owned by Martha Redd. Margaret and David Rosenberger would have paid their rent at that time to Jacob Shryock and the other Shryock family heirs who owned the stone side of the property. In March of 1860 Martha and the other heirs of James H. Redd (including Martha’s husband Joseph S. Redd) sold the log side of the Stone House to Jacob Shryock for $100. Martha and Joseph eventually moved to Aldie, Loudoun County, Virginia. From 1860 to 1867, during the Civil War years Jacob Shryock effectively owned both sides of the house and continued to lease both sides separately to tenants. It is likely that during this brief period when both sides of the property were reunited under the ownership of the Shryock family, the detached kitchen (that sat mostly behind the log side of the property) was demolished. This seems to be born out in the evidence uncovered during the 2016 archeological investigations of the site of that detached kitchen. The removal of that detached kitchen (which straddled the property line between the two sides of the lot) opened the way for the construction of the shed kitchen addition behind the stone side of the property. In 1867 Jacob sold the log side of the property to his brother-in-law Henry A. Dinges, the brother of Jacob’s wife, Mary Elizabeth Dinges Shryock.