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The Year of Jubilee (1863)

May 1831: John Howard and friend escape from near Taneytown, Frederick County, Maryland

$75 Reward
Ranaway from the subscriber, living near Taneytown, Frederick co. Md. on the 21st of May last, a negro man named John Howard, between 30 and 40 years of age; skin not very dark; about six feet high; tolerably slender; surly countenance; round chin, and shows his teeth very much when laughing; he has a very large scar on one of his legs, between the ankle and knee, occasioned by the cut of a scythe--I think it is on the right leg; he is tolerably fond of whiskey, and has some pretensions to the Shoemaking business.

He went away with a negro who has had one of his hands taken off, belonging to Maj. Jno. McKalub of Taneytown--no doubt they will be in the same neighborhood.

Should any person give information through the medium of a letter, respecting the above negro, and the subscriber be successful in having him taken, he shall receive the above reward, without his name being disclosed if he wishes.

David Kephart.
Pipe Creek, Md.
July 19, 1831.

Source: Anti-Masonic Star and Republican Banner (Gettysburg, PA), 9 August 1831.

Editor's notes: The Kephart Familly operated a mill and distillery on Big Pipe Creek, Carroll County, Maryland. The owner of the one-handed slave was Major John McCaleb, of Taneytown.

Covering the history of African Americans in central Pennsylvania from the colonial era through the Civil War.

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The Year of Jubilee, Volume One: Men of God, Volume Two: Men of Muscle