AUTHOR'S NOTE: The following "Story in Stone" was researched and written by Hood College senior Genesis Kapp as part of her internship with us here at Mount Olivet Cemetery (spring semester 2025).

Having the great honor of placing flowers on the grave of a person you do not know, or have never met, is quite amazing. This individual died 27 years before I was even born. She wasn't a relative, or family friend. I hadn't even heard her full name until a few months ago. That  name is Henrietta Rosenstock.

I know it may sound insane, but I feel as if I now know this person. Not directly, as most people would think, but through intensive research over several weeks, including interviewing a few people in our local community that did know her. More than anything, I feel a connection to this woman through my college experience.  I am a senior at Hood College and will be graduating next month. Henrietta was vested in my school and the education of my classmates, along with those before me, and those that will come after.

It's April 18th, a vibrant, spring day. It also happens to be the death date of my subject. If she were still living, she would be 128 years old. Having an internship at Mount Olivet Cemetery this semester, I learned that Henrietta's grave site has been the recipient of a gorgeous bouquet of flowers on this date, each year since she passed in 1975. Her loving husband, Sam, had set up this endowment with the cemetery at that time.

​When learning of my desire to write this "Story in Stone" about Henrietta, the cemetery superintendent, Ron Pearcey, and my internship coordinator, Chris Haugh, entrusted me with the task of placing these flowers on this important day.

​In the following short blog here, I'd like to introduce you to Henrietta, if you didn't know anything about her already. She was a great woman, the kind that Hood College hopes to produce in alumnae of the institution. The school mission reads: "Through an integration of the liberal arts and the professions, Hood College provides an education that empowers students to use their hearts, minds and hands to meet personal, professional and global challenges and to lead purposeful lives of responsibility, leadership, service and civic engagement." Although she never attended this institution as a student, Henrietta embodied this mantra throughout her life.

​Henrietta Spaget Kaufman was born May 7th, 1896 in Tarboro, Edgecombe County, North Carolina.  This small community near Rocky Mount was founded in 1760 by British colonists. Henrietta came from Polish-Jewish immigrant grandparents, and her family started a small, but booming dry goods business in Tarboro. This childhood experience helped give her a firm business knowledge, along with a sense of community service for later in life. She would assist her husband with a successful career in running fruit and vegetable canning-establishments here in Frederick, Thurmont and Florida. 
 
Henrietta was the daughter of Michael D. Kaufman (1870-1932) and Pearl Morris (1871-1963). Her father was a native of Norfolk, Virginia, the son of retail clothing merchant Jacob Kaufman (1845-1912) from Poland, and Henrietta Spaget (1847-1889) of Prussia. Our subject's mother (Pearl) met Michael in  Tarboro in the early 1890s presumably, and married in 1894. Their first born child died in infancy, followed by Henrietta who would be born next in 1896. Two additional children would grow the family in the form of Henry Morris Kaufman (1897-1975) and Michael David Kaufman, Jr. (1907-2007). Michael Kaufman would own a clothing store in Tarboro as well. One of his ads from 1903 proclaimed that he had just returned from New York with new merchandise. Indeed, Jewish-owned stores were often perceived as being more cosmopolitan and having more fashionable merchandise.

​The Find-a-Grave memorial page on Find-a-Grave.com gives an interesting biography of Henrietta's grandfather Morris and how he came to America, and Tarboro:
 
"Henry Morris was born in England, the eldest son of 5 children born to Jewish immigrants Aaron W. Morris (1818-1887, born Poland) and wife Sarah (c.1817-1893, b. Germany). The family immigrated to America, where Aaron Morris established himself as a clothier in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess Co, NY. By 1870, the family had removed to Richmond, VA and re-established a store there, where a thriving Jewish community was established.
 
In 1869, 29-year old Henry married 18-year old Sarah Lichtenstein (1851-1929) of Richmond, daughter of Polish-Prussian Jewish immigrant, Simon Lichtenstein & his German wife, Rebecca Schultz. (Sarah Liechtenstein was older sister to David Lichtenstein (who married Hannah Zander) and also removed to Tarboro where he rose to great prominence and success.)
 
Within the year, Henry & Sarah, along with his younger brother William Meyer Morris, had removed to Tarboro, NC and established MORRIS BROS. STORE on the 400 block of Main Street, selling ready-to-wear clothing and shoes. The brothers later partnered with brother-in-law, David Lichtenstein, and had stores in Tarboro, Greenville, and Washington."

​​The Kaufman family lived in the Warwick Apartments and Mr. Kaufman was working as a clerk at the Old Dominion Paper Company in 1915-1916. Henrietta's name appears in the Ledger-Star newspaper of June 14th, 1916 as part of the graduating class of Matthew Fontaine Maury High School in Norfolk In 1916. She appears to have gotten her certificate in Commercial Arts. ​​Later that same year of 1916, the Kaufmans would move from Norfolk, VA to Norfolk County, Massachusetts. Their specific destination was Brookline, Massachusetts, a southwest suburb of Boston.​

According to later Brookline City Directories, the Kaufman family took up residence at 26 Claflin Road. A brief mention in a Boston area newspaper of the time points to the possibility that Henrietta worked as a saleslady in a local dress shop. Regardless, it would be a turbulent time for the country as troubles had been brewing in Europe since 1914. In April, 1917, the United States officially joined our allies in "the Great War" against Germany, also known as World War I. In July, 1918, Henrietta would enlist in the military. Perhaps the naval influence of Norfolk, Virginia stayed with our subject and provided the inspiration to serve her country. She enlisted on July 23rd in the US Navy and initially held the rank of yeoman (f), but eventually served as one of only eight women chief petty officers during the first World War.
 
The Yeoman Corps of women in World War I primarily held secretarial and administrative duties. A Chief Petty Officer would expand on these duties, and recipients of this rank were held responsible for training  junior officers and leading yeoman divisions and other petty officers.

I had the opportunity to interview Jenny Morgan, a great niece of Henrietta who lives here in Frederick County. Jenny's grandfather was Henrietta's youngest brother, Michael Kaufman, Jr. Of her Aunt Henrietta, Jenny said:

"She was a determined woman all of her life. After her military duty, she went to New York City and went to work on Wall Street as a secretary/market analysist. Brother Michael would eventually work as a stock broker in New York beginning in the 1930s, and would go on to have a seat on the New York Stock Exchange."

It is not known how Henrietta received her job but it has been conjectured that perhaps a relative or family friend may have assisted her in gaining this job on Wall Street since it was very uncommon to see women working for the stock market during this time. It could also have come as a result from a contact from her US Naval days as well. This was an amazing opportunity for Henrietta, one that would have implications for the rest of her life.

​During this time in New York is when it is thought that Henrietta Kaufman met her future husband, possibly around 1926-1927. His name was Samuel Rosenstock, a Baltimore native who had been living in Frederick with relatives for many years. It has been found that "Sam" had worked in the stock market business as a "runner" for a Baltimore bank investment company, but the time of this employment is not exactly known. 

Sam Rosenstock has a "storied" history as well that Chris (Haugh) plans to write as another one of these "Stories in Stone" in the near future. Sam came to Frederick to live with his uncles who operated a canning plant here. This is where Sam got his earliest employment and training for the future in an industry that brought him great wealth over his lifetime. 

Perhaps Henrietta and Sam simply met while Sam was visiting New York City for business or pleasure purposes. Records on Ancestry.com show that Mr. Rosenstock made a few trips to Europe at this time, leaving out of New York. Maybe he could have met her at this time or upon revisiting Wall Street as his short career as a runner more likely would have occurred a decade earlier.

Whatever the case may be, Henrietta married Sam in early 1928, and Sam brought his bride back to Frederick to help him run his canning empire. 

​After the couple married, they eventually returned to Frederick as Mr. Rosenstock owned canning establishments in Frederick and Thurmont. He was a mover and shaker in the community through civic work as well and quickly got Henrietta involved in this arena, along with his business endeavors. In the 1930s, Henrietta served as Recording Secretary for the Frederick City Hospital Board of Directors. 

In 1932, Henrietta's father died. Her parents had been living Raleigh, North Carolina since 1929. This death precipitated in Pearl Morris moving to Frederick to live with Henrietta and Sam at the fine home called "Rosehaven" they had built along the Old National Pike (MD144) on the eastern side of Jug Bridge. The large parcel of land on the east side of the Monocacy River is still referred to by some as the old Rosenstock Farm and stretched northward to once include today's Clustered Spires Golf Course. This is the vicinity of today's Spring Ridge, and the Rosenstock's large home has been recently revealed from tree cover, for all to see, thanks to construction of a housing development.

Sam sold his Frederick plant to the Jenkins Brothers in 1946, along with his other operations. He had accomplished what he set out to do  in this industry and, now in retirement, he and Henrietta could dedicate their lives to philanthropy and community service. Both of them were very ambitious and wanted to make Frederick a better place than they found it. Two such groups that Henrietta was active in were the Kiwanis Club of Frederick and the Salvation Army's Women's Auxilary. 
 
One of the more surprising activities that the couple became involved in was assisting different churches in Frederick County. One such was a proposed Baptist Church Center in Walkersville in which they pledged money for a chapel building.

​​Growing up, Henrietta's family were devout members of the Jewish faith and traditions. Interestingly, upon reaching Frederick, she would eventually become a member of the Catholic Church. Talking to her niece, I found out more about this,. Although Henrietta, herself, still identified as Jewish, she would convert to Catholicism and the teachings of the Catholic Church. She continued to practice in this faith tradition for the rest of her life, and many others in her family would follow her lead, including Sylvia (Kaufman) Cable, Henrietta’s niece (Jenny Morgan's mother).

​The Rosenstocks owned a great deal of property tracts around Frederick. In the 1950s through 1970s, they would sell some of these parcels and donate the money to Hood College—​ the origins of an irrevocable trust and endowment. This was somewhat influenced by Sam's longtime service on the Board of Trustees for the local college, along with having an intimate friendship with President and Mrs. Truxal.

​Henrietta passed in spring,  1975. Looking through obituary-related articles and tributes, all I could find was that she died of "a lengthy illness." Upon the interview with Jenny Morgan, it was revealed that her decline in health was due to liver cancer. 

Henrietta's niece shared that the Rosenstocks cut short their "wintering in Florida" in early1975. They returned  from Palm Beach  shortly after Christmas. Henrietta went into Frederick Memorial Hospital soonafter. A few months later, she would die on April 18th, 1975. From what Jenny was able to share with me, Henrietta and Sam likely knew about her terminal condition for a while, but things took an a more accelerated turn after the couple returned to Frederick. Henrietta's death made front page news in her adopted hometown of Frederick​—a town more beloved by her than Tarboro, Norfolk, Brookline and New York City.

A powerful editorial would appear in the Frederick paper on the day of Henrietta Rosenstock's funeral. It would praise her accomplishments from business to volunteer and philanthropic. She certainly helped make Frederick a better place.

Henrietta would be buried in the Rosenstock family plot (Area EE/Lot1) next to her mother who had passed in June of 1963. As a side note, Pearl Morris Kaufman was the first patient of Vindabona Nursing home of Braddock Heights, which opened as such in 1954.  As can be imagined, Henrietta's funeral was well-attended and officiated over by the archbishop of the Catholic Church of Atlanta, Georgia. The couple had earlier bought plots in Mount Olivet because Sam refused to be buried in a Catholic Church cemetery like St. Johns in downtown Frederick. Mount Olivet was non-denominational, and Sam thought this would be the perfect place for Pearl, and later themselves when their time would come. 

​Sam Rosenstock only had to experience five anniversaries of his beloved wife's death. He would die on March 20th, 1981 at the age of 95. Before he left us, he met with Mount Olivet's superintendent, Ron Pearcey, to set up an endowment to place flowers on Henrietta's grave on her birth and death dates, and also on the major Catholic holidays of Christmas and Easter. I received the chance to place a beautiful assortment of daisies and carnations on April 18th, next to daffodils that had been placed in advance of Easter.

Not only did Henrietta make Frederick a better place as stated a moment ago, but she and her husband certainly made Hood College a better place. As I conclude my collegiate experience here on Hood's Campus, I have a personal attachment to this outstanding woman of Frederick's past whose everlasting legacy will continue to be felt by students just like me into the future. Thank you Henrietta.

Frederick County’s Carrollton Manor stretches from below Frederick City southward to the Potomac River. The western boundary is Catoctin Mountain, and the eastern is Sugarloaf Mountain. This constitutes a bit of an embellishment based on the original 1723 “Carrollton” land patent of 10,000 acres as assigned to namesake Charles Carroll the Settler. He claimed he acquired it from the Tuscarora tribe that had come from North Carolina about the year 1712.
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When it comes to researching and exploring the history of this special region of Frederick County, I look to two prime “Go To” sources: William Jarboe Grove (1854-1937) and Nancy Willman Bodmer. William Jarboe Grove’s History of Carrollton Manor was first published in 1922 and takes a personal  view of former families and “Southern culture” of the area by a lifelong resident. Grove’s father was Manassas J. Grove, founder of the M.J. Grove Lime Company located at Lime Kiln just above Buckeystown.

Nancy Willman Bodmer was born in Aberdeen (MD) and moved to Frederick County in 1972 with her husband Ed. The couple settled in Buckeystown where they raised their family and opened up a pottery and wood stove shop in the center of this village southeast of the county seat. Nancy soon became enamored with the history of her new hometown and set out to research and write numerous publications about Buckeystown and surrounding area. Two of these are Buckey’s Town: A Village Remembered (first published in 1979), and The Past Revisited: Buckeystown and Other Historical Sites (1990). Nancy continues to research, preserve and present the history of the southern Frederick Valley, in addition to exercising her pottery craftmanship. I want to thank Nancy in advance as I will be sharing some important visuals from her books to help illustrate this week's "Story in Stone."
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Two prominent early characters of “the Manor” were Judge Benjamin Amos Cunningham (1798-1891) and his son John A. H. Cunningham (1831-1870). Their names can be found on the pages of both authors’ respective works. Judge Cunningham led quite a life, one that spanned nearly the entirety of the 19th century. He began his career as a merchant, but finished a highly-respected politician and banker. His son died at 38 years of age, but made a name for himself as a local leader in agrarian circles operating one of the largest plantations in the county.

​Benjamin Amos Cunningham’s large funerary monument sits proudly on the northern end of Mount Olivet Cemetery’s Area E. Son John’s gravestone is a few yards to the south in the neighboring lot. Just down the hill, behind their graves, one can view cars traveling on the more recently renamed “Stadium Drive” – the beginning leg of New Design Road, a thoroughfare that bisects the entirety of Carrollton Manor from north to south. The route terminates at Noland's Ferry on the Potomac River and was originally called the "New Designed Road." It dates from the mid-1800s.

William Jarboe Grove, in his History of Carrollton Manor writes:

“The road probably derives its name from the fact that for nine miles (on its southern portion) it was run in a straight line. No barriers of any kind checked its straight course, although then, as now, objections arose. One of the most serious was that in passing through the western edge of the Darnall property, the road cutoff the buildings and Monagoul Spring, which was not only one of the finest springs on the Manor, but its connection with the Tuscarora Indians made it valuable from a historical standpoint. About this time Davis Richardson bought the Darnell farms and the Manor settled the dispute to the satisfaction of Mr. Richardson, who built a fine residence on the east side of the road, where C. Arunah Rogers now lives. The Buckeystown pike runs through the Manor on the east and was originally an Indian trail coming from the lakes down the Susquehanna River through Pennsylvania and Maryland to the mouth of the Monocacy and on down through the Virginias to Florida.”

The New Designed Road was originally built by the Carroll family to help facilitate the movement of goods from Noland’s Ferry (on the Potomac) to Frederick City, however it would not fully open until the mid-1800s. The road project lost its straight line at the former plantation of a man named Richard Cromwell, who served as the last overseer of Carrollton Manor for the Carroll family.

Meanwhile, the Buckeystown Pike, paralleling New Design Road to the east, would constitute part of the original US Route 15 until being supplanted by a new right of way at the eastern foot of Catoctin Mountain in the 1960s. Today, we also know the Buckeystown Pike by its technical name, Maryland Route 85. Just below the old turnpike’s namesake town, this roadway parallels the Monocacy River on the eastern side of "the manor," and passes by the former Buckingham Plantation once inhabited by the fore-mentioned Judge Benjamin Amos Cunningham and his heirs. Today, this is where you can find the Claggett Center and Buckingham Choice Retirement Community.

​Benjamin A. Cunningham
Benjamin Amos Cunningham was born June 20th, 1798 in Baltimore, Maryland, a son of Harford County natives Daniel Cunningham (1763-1832) of Little Falls and wife Mary Ann Amos of Gunpowder Falls (1777-1872). Benjamin’s parents were Quakers and married on October 16th, 1797 at the Little Falls Meeting House near today’s Fallston. 

Benjamin A. Cunningham was raised in Baltimore. An interesting anecdote can be found in his lengthy obituary and refers to the War of 1812. As a young teen, Benjamin assisted in digging entrenchments at Baltimore’s Chinquapin or Hansom Hill to aid the local militia units preparing to battle the invading British.

​This is a great connection to Mount Olivet’s totality of War of 1812 veterans, including our front-gate greeter, Francis Scott Key. Like Key, Benjamin A. Cunningham studied law with intent to have a legal career. 

​Benjamin somehow became acquainted with some of Frederick’s earliest Quakers living on Carrollton Manor in the immediate vicinity of Buckeystown. These included the Davis and Richardson families.  Maybe this is what brought him in 1825 to the sleepy little village south of bustling Frederick. Regardless, the road, literally and figuratively, led him to Buckeystown where he would engage in mercantile pursuits.  We are not exactly sure where Cunningham conducted his early business but he took over the job of village post master from Daniel Buckey in 1826. He would serve in this role until 1840. 

​Benjamin Amos Cunningham would go on to marry one of the twin daughters of a wealthy, large plantation owner in the immediate area of Buckeystown. His name was John Hasselbach and he lived south of the village in between the Pike and the Monocacy below Michael’s Mill. Hasselbach is spelled a number of ways, but I will use the spelling found for Rebecca on her gravestone of "Hosselboch." Benjamin’s bride Rebecca (born 1804) was of German heritage and had also formerly lived in Baltimore before coming to Frederick County with her father and family. Information on this gentleman is tough to come by. I found a probable birth date of 1765 and another of 1757. Either way, both were associated with Philadelphia and he (and possibly his wife who remains unnamed) were Redemptioners who came in the 1780s. This could explain a relationship to nearby Quakers as well.

John Hosselboch purchased his 300-acre farm with its stately mansion in 1811. The earliest recorded history of this property dates to 1730 when the land was patented as Buckingham House and granted to Edward Spriggs, a Colonel in the British Army and well-known pre-Revolutionary War land speculator. Later names on the deed include Ninian Tannehill, Ninian’s son William Tannehill, and finally George Schnertzell before Hosselboch’s ownership. The farmhouse is thought to have been constructed in 1780. Buckingham farm has always been considered one of the show places of “the Manor” on account of its fertile Monocacy bottom land and splendid, scenic views of surrounding mountains. It was also a place that utilized considerable slave labor. At John Hosselboch’s death in 1840, the plantation was supported by 34 black and mulatto house servants and farm laborers.

​Benjamin Amos Cunningham married Rebecca Hosselboch on November 9th, 1829 and the couple went on to have three children together: the fore-mentioned John Amos Hosselboch Cunningham (1831-1870), Mary Rebecca (Cunningham) Hall (1833-1913) and William Armstrong Cunningham (1834-1892). The Cunningham family lived at the Buckingham farm residence with Rebecca’s parents. I’d also like to add that the Hosselboch family were influential in building the first stone Methodist Church in Buckeystown in 1827, of which Benjamin Cunningham would soon become a devout member.

​When John Hosselboch died in 1840, he left the Buckingham House and plantation to his 19-year-old grandson, John Amos Cunningham. At this time, Benjamin sold his business in town, likely in an effort to help his son with the responsibility of running the Hosselbach family farm. I want to return to author William Jarboe Grove for a bit more narration regarding the Hosselboch and Cunningham families from The History of Carrollton Manor. The author states that John Amos Hosselboch Cunningham was a key supporter of the road projects on the manor, and served as one of the original officers of the Buckeystown Turnpike Road Company. The younger Cunningham also had his name changed to honor his maternal grandfather:

“Very active in this road movement was John Amos Hoselbock Cunningham, who married Martha, daughter of James L. Davis. Mr.  Cunningham was a man of leisure with a happy jovial disposition, and a true gentleman of the Southern type, he owned Buckingham, where the Buckingham Industrial School is now located and maintained by the Baker brothers.
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Mr. Cunningham, by a special act of the Legislature, had his name changed to John Amos Hoselboch Cunningham. When the change of Mr. Cunningham's name was under consideration, an amusing incident occurred. One of the members of the Legislature inquired if it was Mr.  Cunningham's wish to take up the whole alphabet. But it was in gratitude for the gift to him by  his grandfather John Amos Hoselboch of the Buckingham farm containing more than three    hundred acres of land, and all the stock, farming implements and household furniture, that Mr. Cunningham had his name changed. Mr. Hoselboch was a very successful farmer, who died and left all this by will to Mr. Cunningham. Mr. Hoselboch had three children: one son and two daughters. He provided well for his daughters, but his son George, who had been very successful, and whom he had already helped financially, was not remembered by his father's will. The daughters were twins. One married Thomas Davis, the owner of Greenfield Mills, and the other married Judge Benjamin Amos Cunningham. A remarkable occurrence was their   death on the same day, and the messengers bearing the news of their deaths met on the road between Buckeystown and Greenfield Mills. They were both buried on the same day in the family burying ground on Buckingham farm."     

Rebecca (Hosselboch) Cunningham died the day after Christmas, 1834 at the tender age of 30. As stated above, her twin sister, Hilleary (Hosselboch) Davis of Greenfield Mills down the pike, died the very same day on December 26th (1834). Both young women would be laid to rest in a small, but special cemetery in which members of the Hosselboch family and two individuals of African-American descent are buried. The Hosselboch headstones are no longer present; but a marker has been placed to remember the two Black individuals who were buried here. This private burial ground is particularly familiar to me as it constitutes the opening scene of my 1997 documentary “Up From the Meadows: A Black History of Frederick County, Maryland.”

This cemetery is on private property, but individuals are welcome to visit it if they first check in at the Claggett Center Welcome Center. (If the welcome center is unstaffed, please call 301-691-8048) where you’ll sign in and get a guest badge. You’ll leave your car here and walk behind the Welcome Center. Follow the signs into the farm fields for 0.5 miles through open fields towards the Hosselboch family cemetery on the top of a small hill. Visit online below: On the Trail of Souls.org

William Jarboe Grove continues with a personal anecdote about the burial ground at Buckingham:
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“Mr. Hoselboch and many others were buried in this old graveyard, which was then enclosed by a post and rail fence. About the year 1870, a substantial brick wall was built by Benjamin Cunningham, a son of John Amos Hoselboch Cunningham. I, as a boy, hauled lime in a cart from my father's lime kiln to put up this wall, and I remember very well how difficult it was for the horse to hold the cart back, as the hill which it was necessary to go down was especially steep. It was the custom then for every farm to have its burial ground, which was usually in the center of the field or some prominent place on the farm. During those days, many of the leading citizens and early frontiersmen were buried in these lots. Nearly all of these old graveyards have been farmed over, very few having been enclosed or protected; and, while this looks like desecrating the graves of these early people, still we have the consolation as my mother always said: "No matter where the body rests, so the soul is safe."

​As I was looking into the personal and professional life of Judge Cunningham, my assistant, Marilyn Veek was studying old land records. In 1834, B. A. Cunningham bought his first property in the area. This included a very familiar structure still located on the southwest corner of the Buckeystown Pike and Manor Church Road. Author/historian Nancy W. Bodmer knows this place intimately because it served as the home of her pottery business for half a century!

In her book, Nancy opines about this structure which she gave the designation of #83 and "The General Store":

"Originally part of the Good Luck tract and later owned by George Buckey, this property was sold to Adam Kramer for $300 in 1823. The land included the present 4 houses to the south. The price would indicate that no houses were present in 1823. The stone for construction was quarried from a rare vein of iron rich stone along the Monocacy River near Michael's Mill. The stone house adjacent to this store was built around the same period. In 1825, Abraham Koontz bought the property which had doubled in price, $600.50. In 1834, Benjamin Amos Cunningham purchased the property for $1400. In a history of the town written by W. G. Baker in 1913, he describes the stone store: 'Seventy years ago Mr.'s Cunningham and Duvall kept the largest or one of the largest stores in Frederick County outside of Frederick City in the building of Arthur McKenna. From the store room, sales were made for miles around. Persons now have no idea of how many goods were sold from this same old store room. Farmers would buy for their families and for their colored people by the wagon loade.' "

Also around this time, my assistant Marilyn learned that Benjamin had bought 16 lots in town from William Norris, the executor for his brother-in-law George Hosselboch. He was involved with a number of other properties, mostly owned jointly with others including Mr. Duvall, Daniel Baker, Arthur DeLashmutt, and Davis Richardson. He would sell off various lots on the southeast part of the village and along the pike between then and 1871. Many fine homes today are located east and south of Buckingham Lane on these former lots once owned by our subject.

​Cunningham's longtime business partner, Grafton Duvall, purchased the General Store property from Benjamin in 1857 for $2000 and would continue as a merchant here. Fours years earlier, Benjamin had bought an old limestone building a few doors up the pike. This was the former Buckey's Tavern, and was sold to Cunningham by Col. Lewis Kemp, son-in-law of George Buckey. Col. Kemp was the first president of the Agricultural Club of Frederick County and the Frederick County Agricultural Society, founded in 1853. Benjamin A. Cunningham would also become a board member of this organization. This same year of 1853 would mark the first exhibition of the Frederick County Agricultural Society. Today we know this event as the Great Frederick Fair.

Mr. Cunningham re-opened a second mercantile establishment in the former Buckey’s Tavern, and it is shown as "Cunningham and Co." on the 1858 Bond Atlas Map. This occurred in 1853.  It has been said that Mr. C. could provide his customers with anything from “needle to anchor.” 

​In early April of 1854, Benjamin's wife Eveline Cunningham died at age 36. It appears that she was originally buried at the Hosselboch burying ground as Mount Olivet was not open for burials until late May of that year. It was also this same year that Cunningham was elected to the state legislature as a delegate. In 1858, Gov. Thomas H. Hicks would appoint Benjamin to serve as Judge of Frederick County's Orphans Court.

​Based on land records, newly-titled Judge Cunningham bought a farm in 1859. That farm is at the location marked S.D. Leib on the 1873 Titus Atlas Map. This is north of Lime Kiln (over the train tracks) and south of Arcadia on the west side of the Buckeystown Pike. Today, Cunningham's former farm is bisected by English Muffin Way and is home to several large warehouse buildings and the local home of Matan Companies.

​Benjamin Amos Cunningham would weather the American Civil War with no issue. He was said to have been a proud Unionist and was elected to serve on the 1864 Union Convention of Maryland. This body rewrote of the state constitution officially put an end to slavery here in the Old Line State.

In January, 1865, Cunningham was elected Secretary of the Frederick Town Savings Institution and appears in their employ in the 1870 US Census. Some records say that Cunningham moved to Frederick in 1865, but if so, he was likely renting.

​​All the while, John Amos Hosselboch Cunningham was making his maternal grandfather proud with his successful management of the Buckingham Plantation. I've read that after freeing his slaves, he would assist many in obtaining land nearby the plantation. Just across from Buckingham, on the other side of the Monocacy River, two Emancipation communities would grow in the form of Flint Hill and Hope Hill. Many of these families of color had former links to the large plantation. Some continued to work here, while others found employment at Buckeystown's cannery, along with the tanyards and nearby lime operations.

​John Amos Hosselboch Cunningham predeceased his father. This occurred on April 20th, 1870. He would be buried the very next day, however this would not be in the small family cemetery at Buckingham. Interestingly, his mortal remains would be laid to rest in Mount Olivet in Area E/Lot 197.

​Earlier that same month, Judge Cunningham had second wife Eveline re-interred in Mount Olivet in an adjoining plot to his sons' Area E/Lot 90. He had already done the same with his first wife, Rebecca (Hosselboch) Cunningham, over a year earlier on January 30th, 1869. This is likely the time when the large obelisk style monument was erected on the plot, however it could have come two years later upon the passing of Judge Cunningham’s mother Ann in 1872.

Our subject retired from his position at the bank in 1875. He can be found living with two daughters, a niece and a house servant in the 1880 census and spent the following decade in Frederick. He bought what is now 227 East 2nd Street in 1880 from trustees for John Jarboe. At the time he owned it, the property included a vacant lot to the east at what is now 229 East 2nd Street. The house now at that location was probably built by his daughter Mary (Cunningham) Hall.

​Judge Benjamin Amos Cunningham died on May 1st 1891 and was noted as one of Frederick’s oldest residents. As mentioned at the onset, his obituary was quite extensive and made front page news here in Frederick. I also found his obituary in the Baltimore, Washington and even Pittsburgh newspapers.

​Judge Cunningham's other son, William Armstrong Cunningham (1834-1892), died within a year of his father. Thus concludes the lives of the male Cunninghams of Carrollton Manor. Also buried on this plot in Mount Olivet are two of the Judge’s daughters: Cecelia Chilton (1844-1902) with husband William, and Ida Caroline Cunningham (1852-1902). John Amos Hosselboch Cunningham’s wife Mattie and three young grandchildren are also here. Another daughter, Alice Louise (Cunningham) Rice (1842-1942), is in nearby Area B/Lot 112 .

​John Amos Hosselboch Cunningham’s heirs sold the Buckingham plantation to a gentleman named Daniel Baker sometime before 1873 as his name is designated on this site on the Titus Map published in 1873. Twenty-five years later in 1898, Daniel, Joseph, and William Baker founded the Buckingham Industrial School for Boys on the property. Based on the European industrial school model, the Baker family endowed and created an institution where poor white boys might have a home and receive a good education. The enrollment averaged 50 Buckingham Boys between the ages of 6 and 18.

​In addition to their industrial education the boys took care of gardening, milking, canning, and tending the orchards. The school closed in 1943-44. In 1950 the property was donated to the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland and renamed Bishop Claggett Center after Thomas John Claggett, first bishop of Maryland. It continues to serve as a conference and retreat center to this day.
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The name Buckingham also lives on with the Buckingham’s Choice continuing care retirement community located next to Claggett Center. A “newly designed path” leads residents on a pleasurable walk through the scenic grounds of the former "Lords of Carrollton Manor" up to the old Hosselboch/Hasselbach Burying Ground.  

In the 1970s, Nabisco did a satirical "take-off" of a song for a catchy advertising campaign, with the lyrics "A Triscuit, A Triscuit, baked only by Nabisco.” The original tune here is called "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," a nursery rhyme first recorded in the late 19th century. The melody to which the nursery rhyme is sung recurs in other nursery rhymes including "It's Raining, It's Pouring," "Rain Rain Go Away" and "Ring around the Rosie".
"A-tisket a-tasket
A green and yellow basket
I wrote a letter to my friend
And on the way I dropped it,
I dropped it, I dropped it,
And on the way I dropped it.
A little boy he picked it up
And put it in his pocket."

The rhyme was further used as the basis for a successful 1938 recording by Ella Fitzgerald, the famous black vocalist who once performed in Frederick at Bernie Winkle's "Hollywood Gardens." This venue was located on West Patrick Street where the Comcast technical headquarters is located.

This little jingle fluttered about in a deep windmill of my mind when recently walking by a gravestone boasting the last name of a decedent couple named Truscott. Here, I found the final resting places of George Truscott (1816-1885) and wife Hannah R. Truscott (1818-1889). The grave monuments in Area D are bold and pearly white, after having been dutifully cleaned a few years back by our Friends of Mount Olivet "Stoners." 

Regular readers of this blog  know that I am now about to do a deep dive on this Truscott family--
Who were they? When did they arrive in Frederick? What did they do for a living? Where did they live? How did they die? What are lasting legacies, if any, in addition to having these gravestones in Mount Olivet?

I will begin with commenting on whether this gravesite truly has anything more to do with Triscuits? And before I go any further, perhaps I should explain what Triscuits are for those who have never partaken in the lovable treats that are "Real. Satisfying. Crackers." that are "Unapologetically Wholesome." At least that's what recent marketing says about them.

Triscuit is a brand name of snack crackers which take the form of baked square whole wheat wafers. Invented in 1900, a patent was granted in 1902 and the Shredded Wheat Company began production the next year in Niagara Falls, New York. The Niagara site was chosen due to its proximity to the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power generating plant which opened in 1895. This was the first major electric-generating site in the United States. The name Triscuit may have come from a combination of the words electricity and biscuit as one early advertisement boasted that the snack crackers were "Baked by electricity," claiming they were "the only food on the market prepared by this 1903 process."

If anything else, hopefully you have learned something here that will allow you to impress friends, family and foe at the next dinner party you attend in which Triscuits are proudly served. I mean you can also bring up the information I will share about the Truscotts as well, but I don't think it will have the same effect in a social setting.

George Truscott was born on September 15th, 1816 in Cornwall, England in a civil parish and small village named St. Stephen-in-Brannel. As a matter of fact, I found a baptismal record for our decedent with the date of October 5th, 1816. This event occurred in the fine church of St. Stephens, by which the village (and parish) takes its name. The Anglican Church here has roots dating back to the year 1261.

One of the most famous past residents of St. Stephen-in-Brannel was named William Truscott (1734-1798). One of 12 children of John and Margaret Truscott, who are buried in the St. Stephen's churchyard,, William would serve as a rear admiral in the Royal Navy in the late 1700s. Many of his sons would follow in his footsteps of naval service. The youngest, named George Truscott, came up with a simple invention that  revolutionized the way water was stored and retrieved on Royal Navy vessels. This is called "the force pump."

According to William R. O'Byrne's Naval Biographical Dictionary published in 1849, Capt. George Truscott was "Inspired by a visit to an ale house, he designed and fitted a ship in 1805 with a relatively simple iron pump attached to a small diameter pipe system that led to the hold. Just like in the ale houses, he attached a flexible leather hose to the end of the pipe and fed it into the water casks. This obviated the need to move the casks to retrieve water. This was a major boon on sailing vessels, because moving casks to retrieve water was time consuming, dangerous, and inevitably impacted the ship’s trim, requiring periodic rearrangement of the ship’s casks and ballast. Truscott's pump eventually led to the use of permanent iron water tanks on sailing vessels, which ultimately resulted in the abandonment of shingle and iron ballast."

Capt. George Truscott was a contemporary of our George Truscott's father and a definite cousin of our subject. I had a bit of a time connecting the exact genealogy because of repetitive first names, but "a Truscott by another name would not be a Truscott." Unfortunately, information on the seafarin' Truscotts is certainly easier to come by than that pertaining to our Frederick members of this Cornish family. With a little luck, I found a handful of journal entries in Jacob Engelbrecht's diary that shed a little light on the life of Frederick's George Truscott. This one was penned on September 16th, 1837:

"Mr. George Truscott, second son of Alexander Truscott, told me today that yesterday he was 21 years old. Consequently was born September 15, 1816. He was born in England but was only 18 months old when his parents came to America. He says he intends to get naturalized to-day."

This was a tremendous find as it told me the exact time our subject came to America. If my math is correct, George Truscott and family arrived here in March, 1818. This was the same year that Frederick Town was incorporated as a city. 

Our cemetery records reveal that George's parents were Alexander "Alex" Truscott and Catherine "Cate" Truscott. Alexander's supposed birth year is thought to be 1787/88 and it can be assumed that he was a lifelong resident of St. Stephen-in-Brannel. I found several Alexander Truscotts in the burial ground there, including the earliest Truscott mentioned a few moments ago. I would soon learn that we had our own here in Mount Olivet. 

George's mother was Catherine Thomas according to a marriage record of St. Stephens that gives a matrimony date for the couple of February 18th, 1808. She too was a native of St. Stephen-in-BranneI. I immediately began searching old US Census Records and found the Truscott family living here in town. From what I can deduce, they lived on the south side of East Church Street near today's Winchester Hall. 

​​ The Truscott household consisted of six members. Two boys under 10 years old, one girl under 10, and another female between 11-20.

In consulting old newspapers, I confirmed Alexander's profession. Interestingly, it had a remote connection to Triscuit crackers.  No, he wasn't a baker or electrician, but his employment centered on water, and, more so, the power of water. Alexander Truscott was a pump-maker. I located the following old advertisement for his services in an 1826 edition of Frederick's Political Intelligencer and Republican Gazette. This also further confirmed that the family lived across from Evangelical Lutheran Church, the site of Winchester Hall's parking lot of today.

Mr. Truscott likely learned the art of pump-making in his hometown in England, as it was known as a mining center producing tin, copper, lead and zinc. There are also rich kaolin clay deposits in St. Stephen-in-Brannel which supported a robust industry for making porcelain chinaware and other ceramics. Water needed to be "pumped" out of mines, of course.

Jacob Engelbrecht also mentions that Alexander Truscott, along with another man named Solomon Albach (likely Albaugh), made, and installed a gate between the houses of John Mantz and Col. George M. Eichelberger in mid July, 1827. The only deed we found for Alexander Truscott was one in which he bought household furniture from a lady named Catharine Loveder. This was also in 1827.

The only other tidbit I could learn about Alexander Truscott was that he was a member of the Independent Hose Company. I'm assuming he was quite an asset based on his "9-5 profession" specializing in pumping water. The following article in an 1831 newspaper lists the transplanted Englishman as being appointed a "ladder man."

​Back to Jacob Engelbrecht's Diary I went, and found nothing more than the mentions of the deaths of both Alexander and wife Catherine.

"Died last night in the year of his age Mr. Alexander Truscot (pump maker), a native of Cornwall, England and a resident of this town about twenty years. Buried on the All Saints Churchyard." 
​-Saturday, April 11, 1840

"Died yesterday in the year of her age Mrs. Catherine Truscott, widow of the late Alexander Truscott. She survived her husband only 5 days. Buried on the Protestant Episcopal Graveyard. She was a native of England."
-Thursday, April 16, 1840

An obituary appeared in a Baltimore paper the following week, listing the deaths of both husband and wife. 

We are very fortunate to have a gravestone for this couple whose deaths predate Mount Olivet, which opened in 1854. The bodies were moved here and placed in Area MM in lots bought by All Saints Episcopal Church for a mass reinterment project in 1913. The couple was placed in Lot 42. Their monument is quite unique as it is basically a wide stone serving as a "double-stone" to list the information of each of George Truscott's parents. Perhaps the death of the couple was a rare blessing, as only one stone had to be created by a local stone-carver.

We've mentioned that George Truscott, son of Alexander and Catherine, was born in St. Stephen-in-Brannel, Cornwall, England in 1816. Who were his siblings that appear on the 1820 and 1830 census records? I searched the St. Stephen-in-Brannel parish records further and found four baptisms linked to Alexander and Catherine. These include: Grace Truscott on April 5th, 1810; Samuel Truscott on April 4th, 1812; Rebecca Truscott on January 16th, 1814; and as reported earlier, George on October 5th, 1816. 

I could not find Grace, Samuel or Rebecca in any further records past the 1820 and 1830 census records. I assume they either married or died by the 1840 census. In 1840, I found George listed as a head of household. He had married earlier in the year. A marriage license dated February 19th, 1840 for George and wife Hannah Rebecca Marman (b. July 29th, 1818) was found. Jacob Engelbrecht documented the nuptials in his diary on March 27th saying:

"Married last evening by the Reverend John L. Pitts, Mr. George Truescott(sp), to Miss Hannah Marman, daughter of the late Thomas Marman of this town."

The 1840 US Census shows George and Hannah, but also a mystery female between 10-15 years old. Perhaps this is a sister of Hannah's? Regardless, I want to add that Hannah also had English roots as her father, Thomas (1785-1835) and mother, Ann, were from the Holborn section of London.

I was familiar with the Marman name in context with a later purveyor of oysters in town named Washington P. Marman (1823-1892). He was a younger brother of Hannah. I also stumbled across two other siblings of Hannah. These included Julian E. Marman, married a week before Hannah to John A. Hudson and Sarah Marman. I learned a bit more about the family due to Jacob Engelbrecht recording Sarah's wedding to Solomon Ranck on July 14th, 1830. Less than a month later, Jacob would write:

"Thomas Marman stabbed his son-in-law Solomon Ranck in the neck. Marman is in jail. It happened last Saturday afternoon 7 instant." 

Welcome to the family Solomon! I would also find that Julian's husband (John) served as a sergeant for the Union Army during the American Civil War. In 1863, while here in Frederick, he would be accidentally shot in the head by a fellow soldier named John W. Bechtol. Luckily, our subject George Truscott did not suffer any major head or neck trauma as far as I could see.
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In 1850, we have a clearer picture of the Truscott family. George and Hannah have two daughters, Sarah Catherine (b. January 9th, 1841) and Hannah Rebecca (b. February 8th, 1842). George's profession is also presented to us and is the same as his father, that of pump-maker.

​In 1851, George bought the home he was living in since 1830. This is what is now 122-124 West All Saints Street. I perked up when I learned that he would sell this to a black woman named Mariah Harper in 1859. I researched Mariah back in 2017 for this "Stories in Stone" blog as she was a former slave that belonged to Frederick's prominent Johnson family. In fact, she is buried in the same family vault as our first elected governor of Maryland, Thomas Johnson, Jr., on Area MM in Mount Olivet. Johnson's great-granddaughter, Ann Grahame Ross, served as Mrs. Harper's executor and would sell this home in 1884.

​In 1853, George Truscott bought the property at what is now 130-136 West All Saints, and sold it in 1863. In 1859, he bought what is now 58 South Market Street, which his heirs sold in 1892. This is now a parking lot across from the United Fire Company Hall, but for many years sported a brick facade that was the subject of preservation efforts. This is where George was living in the 1860 census up through his death a few decades later.

Although I located several records pertaining to this family hailing from England, I found very little about George outside the census records. He went about his business of pump-making and was active in the local Masonic Lodge. Daughter Sarah Catherine Truscott would marry George Washington Van Fossen (1839-1922) on February 13th, 1861. The couple lived on West All Saints Street and Mr. Van Fossen worked as a coach and carriage builder and painter eventually owning his own firm.

Englebrecht's diary gives us one more interesting insight into the life of George Truscott. On May 21st, 1868, George and another townsman named John Hemby left for England. Engelbrecht says:

"(They) Will go by steamer and stop at Southampton in the English Channel."

I'm sure this was a great opportunity for George to see his former hometown and any relatives still living. 

George Truscott would die of laryngitis on June 6th, 1885. The newspaper only carried a short mention of his death in a Saturday edition. Not much more would be gleaned about his life and career in a small report on his funeral in Mount Olivet a few days later.

A much more informative obituary would show up in the Frederick News a year later, heralding the death of George's brother Samuel who had ventured to Columbia, Pennsylvania after departing Frederick in the mid-1830s.

I also learned of another Truscott brother who went further west and changed the spelling of his name. This was Thomas W. Truskett, and he had a seemingly more interesting life in "the Wild West." The following passage comes from a 1918 book entitled: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans (Vol 4). 

"(Thomas William Truskett) His paternal grandfather was a native of England who on coming to the United States located in the State of Maryland and there passed the remainder of his life...

​Thomas W. Truskett the elder, was born in Maryland in 1823, and was reared and educated in his native state, from whence, as a young man, he went to Monroe County, Ohio. There he became a pioneer farmer, married, and established a home, and continued to be engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1859, when he removed to Cooper County, Missouri, again becoming a pioneer.
 
In 1862 he enlisted in the First Regiment, Nebraska Volunteer Infantry, for service during the Civil war, and joined the command of Gen. John Seaton, with which he participated in a number of the most important engagements of the war, including the battles of Shiloh, Helena and Fort Donelson, and the siege of Vicksburg. He was taken prisoner by Shelby's men near Springfield, Missouri, but was shortly thereafter exchanged and rejoined his regiment, with which he fought until the close of the struggle. He established an excellent record for bravery and fidelity, and when honorably discharged and mustered out of the service, at Omaha, Nebraska, returned to his Missouri home.
 
Mr. Truskett continued to be engaged in farming in Cooper, Morgan and Moniteau Counties, Missouri, until 1870, and in that year went to Vernon County, where he made his home and carried on his agricultural activities until 1890. In that year he located in Washington County, Oklahoma, settling on a farm ten miles south of Caney, Kansas, consisting of 100 acres, where he was living at the time of his death, in 1896. He was laid to rest in the cemetery at Caney. Mr. Truskett was a republican and a faithful member of the Christian Church.
 
He was married in 1841, in Ohio, to Miss Elizabeth Williams, who was born September 1, 1820, at Crabapple Orchard, Pennsylvania, and was a schoolmate of the great statesman and politician, James G. Blaine, at one time a candidate for the presidency of the United States."

Back to Frederick and our dear Truscotts. George's faithful wife, Hannah Rebecca (Marman) Truscott, would die on May 3rd, 1889. Daughter Hannah R. Truscott would never marry. She lived out her life in Frederick, but not in the family home on South Market Street as it would be sold by Hannah and sister Sarah in 1892. Hannah is said to have lived at the Home for the Aged on Record Street. This is where she would pass on March 10th, 1921. Both Hannahs (mother and daughter) joined George on the family plot in Mount Olivet. 

By successfully making it through this week's "Story in Stone," in which I took you from Cornwall, England to Frederick, Maryland, please go "pump yourself up" with a delicious, savory snack cracker. You know the one I'm talking about;)

__________________________________________________________Are you up for a history walking tour through Frederick County's amazing "Garden Cemetery?"

This author (Chris Haugh) is leading various themed tours through Mount Olivet in April and May. Topics include:

*Frederick History 101 (1700s & 1800s personalities)

*Frederick History 101 (1900s-Present personalities)

*Frederick in the Civil War

*Mount Olivet and Black History of Frederick

Click button below for more info and a printable schedule of walking tours and local history classes taught in the historic Key Chapel!