Witnesses to History

The phrase "witness to history" refers to individuals who have firsthand knowledge or experience related to significant historical events. They provide testimony or insights that help to document and interpret these events, often in educational or historical contexts. This term is commonly used in discussions about historical events (such as wars, accidents, weather disasters, sporting events) where individuals who were present or affected by these events share their experiences to educate others about the past.

Take it from me, as it's very helpful to have definitive facts and personal testimony when conducting research and explaining historical events and genealogical relationships. Here in a cemetery with over 41,000 former citizens interred, it is safe to say that we have plenty of "witnesses to history" in relation to pivotal events in the life of Frederick, the state of Maryland, and the nation. With this particular "Story in Stone," I'd like to introduce you to two of these special individuals. You've likely never heard of Anne Cockey and Harriet Yoner, but I'd bet that you may be aware of the events each of these women witnessed.

​On the global scale, we had one particular incident take place here in our region that truly made a household name out of Frederick, Maryland, and arguably "created" our most famous resident in town history—Barbara Fritchie. The event is documented to have occurred on Wednesday, September 10th, 1862 in the midst of the American Civil War. Five days earlier, Marylanders had seen a major Southern/Confederate army cross the Potomac River into their state. 

​While Gen. Stonewall Jackson traversed upriver at Nolands Ferry, the main body of the army under Gen. Robert E. Lee would cross at Conradt’s Ferry (later renamed Whites Ferry) in the early morning hours of September 5th. To show their sympathy for the locals, Lee’s men sang a song written by James Ryder Randall, a southern sympathizing expatriate of Maryland, as they marched on shore. Entitled “Maryland, My Maryland,” and set to the tune of “O Tannenbaum,” this would go on to become the state song in 1939, but was relinquished as such in 2021.

Rebels crossing the Potomac near White's Ferry (Sept. 4-5, 1862)

The Rebel cavalry under the command of Gen. J.E.B. (James Ewell Brown) Stuart followed the rear of the army on the afternoon of the 5th as it closed in on Poolesville in neighboring Montgomery County. Here, Stuart and his men skirmished with Union cavalry and captured a great portion of them. Gen. Lee had set his sights on Frederick City as the first major “Northern town” to bring his army. On the army’s twenty-mile trek toward Frederick, the southerners generally received a warm reception from the residents of Carrollton Manor. Meanwhile, from his home/tailoring shop on West Patrick Street, Frederick's legendary diarist Jacob Engelbrecht would write:

“This morning our town is in a Small Commotion-the report is that Stonewall Jackson has crossed the Potomac at Nolands Ferry(12 or 14 miles of this place) with 12,000 men– time will show.”

Time would definitely show as thousands of Confederate soldiers would begin pouring into Frederick in the days that followed. This prompted Engelbrecht to pen the following on September 6th:

“Tremendous excitement-Jackson is coming!” Last night the report is that Jackson’s Army were at Benjamin Moffat’s farm 3 miles below Buckeystown on their way to Frederick. The provost marshal received a telegraph dispatch, that, in the event of the enemies approaching, to destroy the government stores. Accordingly about 10 clock pm they commenced burning beds and cots that were stored at “Kemp Hall,” corner of Market and Church Street. And burnt them in Church Street from the parsonage to the first seminary…. At the barracks they burnt some stores also. At the depot they burnt tents, cots, beds, guns(muskets).” 

---

Gen. Robert E. Lee talks to Gen. Stonewall Jackson (right)

Gen. Stonewall Jackson's reputation was well known across the northern states, so much so that it has been said that parents would tell misbehaving children to "You better watch out, or Gen. Jackson is going to get you."​ He was certainly more famous than Gen. Robert E. Lee at this early point in the war.

As Lee and Jackson headed towards Frederick City, Gen. J.E.B. Stuart and his men would make their way to Urbana, so as to shield the bulk of the army that would be positioned to the north of them in accordance with the major transportation route of the Frederick-Georgetown Pike, today's Maryland route 355. The enemy (the Union Army under Gen. George McClellan) was anticipated to come in pursuit out of Washington, DC from the south. 
​
Jackson, Lee and other members of the Confederate high command camped in, and around, Frederick for the following days in hopes to get support and new recruits from Maryland. Their mission was to help reinstate democracy to the state after a tyrannical president in Abraham Lincoln would not allow many Marylanders to exercise their rights fully in choosing whether to break away from the Union for a myriad of reasons.

The Rebels soon learned that these Marylanders were not the ones that they were promised, or were looking for, as most citizens of Frederick City were Union leaning and closed their doors and windows to a force they viewed more as invaders than liberators. The personification of this sentiment lies in the legend of aforementioned Barbara Fritchie, a 95 year-old who lived on West Patrick Street on the east side of Carroll Creek—the town's primary water source.

Barbara Fritchie (1767-1862)

​Meanwhile down the Georgetown Pike, Gen. J.E.B. Stuart would engage our other "eyewitness to history" in creating an event held dear to  Urbana residents for the last century and a half. Stuart and his Confederate cavalrymen were keeping watch over the crossroads village. Rebel troopers patrolled the northern portion of the main road to the Union capital city, from the Monocacy River crossing clear down into Hyattstown, along with the road east toward Monrovia and Kemptown (Fingerboard Road/Maryland route 80). While here, a special happening in Civil War lore occurred. This was known as "the Sabers and Roses Ball" and took place at a structure known as Landon House which still stands today at the intersection of Maryland routes 355 and 80. ​

Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart (1833-1864)

​The following passage, written by Laurence Freiheit of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia,
can be found online within the amazing website "Antietam on the Web" (antietam.aotw.org):

"During this (Maryland) campaign, Stuart was true to form with his penchant for frolic and female attention. He was "fond of show and with much personal vanity, craving admiration in the parlor as well as on the field, with a taste for music and poetry and song, desiring as much the admiration of handsome women... with full appreciation of his "own well-won eminence" is how one of Jackson's staff described him.

One of his most memorable and notorious escapades occurred on the evening of 8 September near his headquarters at Urbana, Maryland. Stuart and his Prussian aide, Major Heros von Borcke, planned the ball to be held at an abandoned female academy to thank a local family, the Cockeys, for their hospitality, and to entertain an attractive, favorite female kinswomen of theirs known as the "the New York Rebel." Stuart supplied music using Brigadier General William Barksdale's 18th Mississippi band and decorated the hall with their Mississippi regiments' battle flags. Enlisted men and junior officers were employed in cleaning the hall and inviting guests while von Borcke supplied the hand-written invitations and supervised the decorations adding bouquets of roses.

While the ball progressed splendidly, a few miles away towards Hyattstown, the 1st New York Cavalry decided on a reconnaissance resulting in pushing back some of (Wade) Hampton's videttes. News of this skirmish was brought to Stuart at the ball; Stuart and his staff mounted and rode to the scene accompanied by (John) Pelham's horse artillery and soon drove off the outgunned New Yorkers. Stuart and his victorious troopers then returned to the ball and recommenced the festivities only to be interrupted by Confederate casualties being taken upstairs above the ballroom. Stuart and his officers lost many of their comely ladies-turned-surgeons as they treated the enlisted wounded. The ball then continued to dawn. Stuart and his staff spent the following day in needful relaxation. He would travel up to Frederick to visit army "headquarters, where he flirted with Miss Catherine Markell and her friends." "Stuart was ready to see and talk to every good-looking woman" during his visits to Lee's army headquarters in Best's Grove near Frederick.
 
Stuart's actions in camp in Maryland were similar to those encountered in his various Virginia headquarters but one must question his judgment in continuing to pursue such merriment in unfriendly country in the face of the Army of the Potomac advancing towards him. One of his headquarters staff officers called the sojourn at Urbana "delightful" since "[t]here was nothing to do but await the advance of the great army preparing around Washington" and enjoy "the society of the charming girls around us to the utmost." The staff officer does go on to state that the horses remained saddled day and night and that the staff slept with their clothes and spurs on, so Stuart at least looked to be ready to dash off at any moment to attend his duties. Clearly, Stuart's mood of jollity and lack of serious concern about the enemy prevailed and infected his staff." 

So, who was this "New York Rebel" mentioned in the passage? Well, she is said to have been a relative of the Cockeys visiting from New York during the summer of 1862. She would apparently earn the moniker of "the New York Rebel" by Gen. Stuart based on her Southern sympathies. I found a genealogy.com query from 1999 searching for more information on this lady who was known to still be alive in 1884 when she visited Baltimore. The query writer adds that she was still unmarried in 1884.

I will be honest in saying that this  New York connection is new to me as I thought the apple of Stuart's eye in  this oft romanticized historical event was a local member of the Cockey family. I first saw this woman's name and likeness while waiting in line at my bank nearly 35 years ago! I was at the Rosemont Avenue branch of the long-gone Frederick County National Bank. On one of the walls was a beautiful, framed print by artist Dale Gallon of Gettysburg.

---

​This work was entitled "Sabers and Roses" and contained the following caption beneath: ​
​​
"Urbana, MD, September 8, 1862 – After saying goodbye to Anne Cockey at a ball in Urbana, MD, on Sept. 8, 1862, J.E.B. Stuart and his men attack and drive off nearby Yankee raiders."

Last year, I put together a Civil War walking tour of Mount Olivet Cemetery. I got to thinking about Anne Cockey as I have stumbled upon a number of decedents here with this surname. I decided to "dig" a little deeper into the story to learn, if, by chance, any of our Cockeys had a link to the famed woman featured in Dale Gallon's masterpiece depiction of the chivalric ball held by Gen. Stuart on September 8th, 1862.

Anne Cockey
We certainly do have a number of Cockey family members buried within Mount Olivet. As many may already be aware, the surname gave rise to the town of Cockeysville in Baltimore County. At the turn of the 19th century, the Cockey family were prominent landowners and influential figures in Baltimore County. Thomas Cockey (1676–1737) is said to have settled in the Limestone Valley region in 1725 at Taylor's Hall (an area now just north of Padonia Road and east of I-83). Cockeysville's founding is usually credited to Joshua Frederick Cockey (1765–1821), who in 1810 opened a hotel and tavern at a central junction on the Baltimore and York-Town Turnpike (York Road), a major toll road chartered in 1787 that served as the primary route for horse-drawn wagons and stagecoaches moving between the port of Baltimore and points north into Pennsylvania. Cockey's hotel became a stopping point for travelers, teamsters, and farmers, and a small commercial center soon grew up around it.

Original Cockey family home in Cockeysville, MD located on York Road

​Cockeysville was also the scene of some Civil War activity. Confederate soldiers pushed into the Baltimore area, intending to cut off the city and Washington from the north. On July 10th, 1864, Confederate cavalry under Frederick's own Gen. Bradley T. Johnson entered Cockeysville, destroying telegraph lines and track along the Northern Central Railway. They also burned the first bridge over the Gunpowder Falls, just beyond nearby Ashland. 

Frederick native turned Confederate officer, Brig. Gen. Bradley Tyler Johnson of the 1st Maryland Regt., C.S.A.

Back to our "Mount Olivet Cockeys," I found two groupings: one on Area E/Lot 157 on the east side of the historic section of Mount Olivet, and the other, on the western side of the cemetery near (fittingly) Confederate Row on Area G/Lot 128. After doing some sleuthing with our cemetery database, I learned that we had the founder of Cockeysville's 3rd great-grandson buried in Area E. This is John Cockey (1772-1848), son of Timonium's Capt. John Cockey (1723-1805). He apparently owned many properties along the Monocacy River and in Urbana and was the husband of Elizabeth (Zantzinger) Cockey (1771-1827). I found images of all three of these individuals on FindaGrave.com, as they are actually in the collection of the Smithsonian.

Capt. John Cockey (1723-1805)

John Cockey (1772-1808)

Elizabeth (Zantzinger) Cockey (1771-1827)

Gravestone of William Cockey (1784-1862) in Urbana's Zion Church Cemetery.

I soon learned that John's brother, William Cockey (1784-1862), lived in Urbana as well. He is buried in Urbana's Zion Church cemetery, along with wife Catherine Y. (Graff) Cockey (1786-1850). Interestingly, the Cockey brothers would each have sons named Sebastian Graff Cockey. Both are buried in Mount Olivet and indirectly play a role in "the Saber and Roses Ball" story of September, 1862. 

During the Civil War period, Sebastian Graff Cockey (1801-1864), son of John Cockey, was a lawyer and lived at Bloomfields plantation, located north of Frederick City not far from Homewood Retirement Community. He was divorced from all indications, had no children, and died unexpectedly while visiting relatives in Connecticut. His body was returned to Frederick for burial and he is in the plot with his parents in Area E.  

Grave of Sebastian Graff Cockey (1801-1864)

Frederick Examiner (May 4, 1864)

​This man's first cousin, the other Sebastian Graff Cockey (1811-1888), son of William Cockey, was the owner of the forementioned burial lot on Area G/Lot 128. He is buried with wife Elizabeth (Sprigg) Cockey (1817-1890) and several children. This Sebastian Graff Cockey was appointed postmaster of Urbana (1848 & 1853), served as a Frederick County  judge, and served as register of wills (1871). I can say with certainty that this Sebastian G. Cockey and family were the ones who befriended J.E.B. Stuart in Urbana in September, 1862. However, there is still a tie to the other Sebastian north of Frederick.

Family grave plot of Sebastian G. Cockey (of William) in Mount Olivet's Area G/Lot 128

Gravestone of Elizabeth (Sprigg) Cockey (1817-1890)

Gravestone of Sebastian G. Cockey (1811-1888)

Sebastian G. Cockey bought an 8,400 square foot tract in Urbana from Henry Nixdorff on September 23rd, 1845. His home would front the Urbana Pike just west of the intersection with Fingerboard Road.  Next door to this structure is the Landon House, at the time known as the Shirley Female Institute under the direction of Rev. R.G. Phillips. It would later became the Landon Military Institute. Mr. Cockey built and ran a general store ("Cockey's Cash Store") on his property, to the immediate north of his home. The endeavor operated until 1927, when it was rebuilt in rusticated concrete block with cast concrete quoins, and continued to operate as a general store serving the local community until 1958. Since that date, the building has served a variety of commercial uses. 

The site of the former S. G. Cockey general store and home on Urbana Pike

Urbana plan from the 1858 Bond Atlas showing property of S.G. Cockey

Various views of the former Cockey home and general store on Urbana Pike in the 1930s

​Mr. Cockey was a Southern sympathizer, said to have been arrested near Williamsport early in the war. This may have influenced General J. E. B. Stuart's choice of the Cockey grounds for his encampment in September 1862. It is reported that Stuart enjoyed the hospitality of the Cockeys. One evening Stuart, with his officers and some ladies of the village, walked through the empty rooms of the abandoned military academy next door. 

​I scoured Sebastian and Elizabeth Cockey's offspring and found the following children here in our Mount Olivet  plot: Sebastian Sprigg Cockey (1837-1892); Catherine "Kate" Graff (Cockey) Lester (1839-1908); William Paul Cockey (1858-1921) who died in St. Paul, MN; Mary Ellen Cockey (1854-1868) and Belle Stuart (Cockey) Corning (1862-1883). The site also contained three young children of Sebastian's daughter, Elizabeth Davis "Belle" Richardson (Cockey) Haverstick, and also Sebastian's sister, Mrs. Caroline C. (Cockey) Beall (1819-1887).

I also looked for New York connections as it was said that: "Visiting the Cockey family at that time was a relative from the North who became a friend of Stuart's, whom he called "the New York Rebel." Belle Stuart (Cockey) Corning is an ironic name featuring the Confederate general's surname and the fact that she married a man named Jasper Corning of New York City. However, she was born in 1862, not old enough to be our "New York Rebel." I could not find her exact birth date, but my theory is that she was born after Stuart's visit to earn that middle name. At least that's what I hope!

​There was one other person in this funerary plot of Sebastian Graff Cockey of Urbana, and she would turn out to be my person of interest. Her name-- Anne Dorsey Worthington (Cockey) Brosius. This "Anne Cockey" was born May 15th, 1846 and died March 29th, 1930. She married John William Brosius and a note in our records says that she died at the Church Home Infirmary of Baltimore. Our database also says that she was known more commonly by the nickname of "Nannie" and this appears on her gravestone.

1860 Census showing Sebastian Graff Cockey and family in Urbana despite the enumerator spelling the surname incorrectly.

Anne Cockey would have been only 16 years old at the time of Gen J.E.B. Stuart's visit to Urbana in September, 1862, but hey, they did things a little different back in those days. If anything else, all we know is that she  danced with the Rebel soldiers, and perhaps Gen. Stuart according to legend. The Confederates prided themselves on manner and chivalry in the company of ladies.

I wanted to learn anything of the family after the September, 1862 events and found only two things. In 1864, S.G. Cockey bought 40 acres located on both sides of the road from Urbana to New Market (today's route 80/Fingerboard Road). He sold 30 acres of it in 1874 to John Linthicum. This is located in the vicinity of Urbana Middle School today. In 1869, Mr. Cockey bought (from John Musser) 18 acres of what is now the Evergreen Point area between MD routes 355 and 85, within view from our cemetery. The property passed by inheritance to his wife Elizabeth, then to his son Sebastian Sprigg Cockey. The latter sold it in 1892.

S. G. Cockey and family would live on the actual Evergreen Point, immediately south of downtown Frederick and Mount Olivet, in the 1870s and 1880s

Secondly, I learned that Mr. Cockey was arrested again for alleged spying on behalf of the Confederate States of America. This was in August, 1864, just a month after the Battle of Monocacy.

Baltimore American & Commercial Adv. (Aug 16, 1864)

I found Anne Cockey living with her parents in the subsequent census records of 1870 and 1880. Another record located on Ancestry.com showed that she married John W. Brosius, a native of Buckeystown, in the fall of 1887. This was Brosius' second marriage as he first married Ann Catharine Tehan, a daughter of John Tehan, architect and builder of St. John the Evangelist Church and many other Frederick buildings.

Marriage license mention in the Sept. 21, 1887 of the Frederick News

The new couple moved to Baltimore and can be found living there on East North Avenue over the next several decades. Mr. Brosius was a book-keeper at a Baltimore bank and the couple would not have any children.

1910 US Census showing John and Nannie Brosius living at 1820 E. North Avenue in Baltimore

1820 E. North Ave is pictured far left near Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church to the far right.

The known belle of "the Sabers & Roses Ball" painting lost her husband in 1922. She would live another eight years until her death in late March of 1930. Nannie Cockey's body would be brought back to Frederick and the family plot in Mount Olivet for burial. I was curious that her husband was not here, but found him buried in Frederick's St. John's Catholic Cemetery.

Frederick News (June, 1922)

Frederick Post (March 31, 1930)

Anne "Nannie" Worthington (Cockey) Brosius is buried amidst a backdrop of Rebel graves in Mount Olivet's Confederate Row. Just to the right (and out of sight in the photograph below) is the grave of Glenn H. Worthington (1858-1934), another young person during the Civil War who eye-witnessed Confederate soldiers in the midst of battle from the vantage point of a boarded-up basement window of his family farm during the Battle of Monocacy. 

A view of Nannie (Cockey) Brosius' grave within Area G/Lot 128 of Mount Olivet Cemetery

​One more footnote on the Landon House, site of "the Sabers and Roses Ball." A little over a week after the ball, on September 16th, Union troops used the recently vacated building as a resting place during their pursuit of the Confederates.  After the war, Landon was bought by Col. Luke Tiernan Brien, a chief of staff to J.E.B. Stuart during the war.

As for the "New York Rebel" moniker, I was feeling "cockey" and decided to go down that "rabbit hole" now that I had a better grasp on the "greater" family. The only facts I knew for sure were: 1.) this individual was a cousin to the S. G. Cockey family of Urbana; and 2.) this young female was from New York.
​
This is the main reason I introduced the other Sebastian Graff Cockey (1801-1864), son of John Cockey, into our convoluted story. I found an obituary from fall, 1862 in the local Frederick newspaper announcing the death of this man's nephew, Dr. Lemuel Hurlbut Cockey (1837-1862). The young man died at his uncle's residence while on a visit here from his home in Rye, New York. He was the son of Sebastian's brother John Hanson Thomas Cockey (1809-1891). Dr. Lemuel Hurlbut Cockey is buried in Mount Olivet, next to his uncle in the John Cockey family plot of Area E/Lot157. John Cockey, of course would be the young physician's grandfather. 

Frederick Examiner (Nov 12, 1862)

Grave of Dr. L. Hurlbut Cockey in Area G

Why is this important? Well, if Sebastian Graff Cockey, Esq. of Bloomfield would host a visiting nephew from New York here in Frederick during the fall of 1862 against the backdrop of the American Civil War, why wouldn't he also host his niece as well—Hurlbut's sister, perhaps?

1860 US Census showing John Hanson Thomas Cockey family living in Rye, New York

Note that Hurlbut had a sister named Ellen Cockey. Born Eleanor Graff Cockey on July 19th, 1840 in Winchester, Connecticut, "Ellen" Cockey would have been 22 years-old and a prime candidate for dancing with soldiers had she been visiting Frederick County, Maryland during the late summer of 1862. I mean an act of the sort could certainly earn a young lady the sobriquet of "the New York Rebel," don't you think?

I couldn't find a great deal of information on Ellen Graff Cockey outside of her marriage to James Montgomery Bowman in 1864. She relocated (from New York) with her husband, a fire insurance inspector, to Central Pennsylvania and the town of Muncy in Lycoming County. Muncy is roughly 16 miles east of Williamsport, PA. Ellen had two sons and a daughter before dying at the tender age of 33 on October 4th, 1873. She is buried in Muncy Cemetery and a cradle grave marks her final resting place.

1870 US Census showing Ellen (Cockey) Bowman and family living in Muncy, PA

Grave of Eleanor "Ellen" G. (Cockey) Bowman (1840-1873) in Muncy Cemetery (Muncy, PA)

Back to the Maryland Campaign of September, 1862, the Union Army pursued the Confederates who had camped themselves in, and around, Frederick.  The Yankees came by way of Washington DC. Rebel Gen. Robert E. Lee eventually decided to move westward towards the Catoctin and South mountains, ultimately using them as both a challenge, obstacle and shield between his army and its opponent.

American Battlefield Trust map of the Maryland Campaign showing troop movements throughout September, 1862

On July 9th, the day after "the Sabers and Roses Ball," Lee had his army concentrated in Frederick and gives orders to send Gen. Stonewall Jackson to Harpers Ferry and Gen. James Longstreet to Hagerstown. Generals Lafayette McLaws and D.H. Hill will be sent to protect the army's rear guard and hold the gaps of South Mountain (Turner's, Fox's and Crampton's). In this action, the early morning hours of Wednesday, September 10th would begin the spectacle of Fredericktonians witnessing the entirety of Lee's Army funnel onto the National Pike (today’s Patrick Street) in order to head west out of town. The lengthy Confederate columns of evacuating soldiers would pass by the doors of neighbors Barbara Fritchie and Jacob Engelbrecht, as the two lived directly across from each other.

Confederates in the streets of Frederick on September 10th, 1862

Harriet Yoner
Apparently, as Rebels passed the home of Barbara Fritchie on West Patrick along Carroll Creek, the 95-year-old was defiantly waving a Union flag out an upper-story dormer window.  Gen. Jackson would soon come onto the scene, and the rest is history. Or is it? This account has been refuted by numerous historians, including myself, for well over 160 years.

This patriotic taunting was not eye-witnessed by her neighbor, Jacob Engelbrecht, and I have searched desperately for a fellow resident or newspaper reporter account. I have not found any viable evidence for this event. I have read accounts, however, about a genuine flag-waving woman on this very same day. Her name was Mary Quantrill and she lived two blocks to the west on West Patrick Street.

As for Dame Fritchie, abolitionist poet John Greenleaf Whittier and top-selling novelist Emma "E.D.E.N." Southworth vividly witnessed this event in their respective minds only, and gave us the famed poem a year later, appearing in the October, 1862 edition of Atlantic Monthly magazine. A myriad of artists would try their hand at bringing the story to life through their illustrations.

For those not familiar with Whittier's poem, here it is for your reading pleasure: 

Barbara died in December (1862), just three months after the alleged event took place, or did it? Stonewall Jackson also died before the poem was written, and never had the chance to refute it. Some Rebel soldiers claimed they saw this flag-waving occur, however, they likely mistook Mary Quantrill as Barbara. There are Union soldiers who claimed to see an elderly Barbara Fritchie holding a flag outside her door while cheering them in their pursuit of the Rebels. This happened, but was certainly not quite the same as waving a flag amidst being fired upon by the enemy.

I feel that only one human being, outside of old Barbara, herself, would know exactly what happened on September 10th, 1862 in Frederick at that house along the town creek. The witness to history, or simply a non-event, was a woman named Harriet Yoner. She was Barbara's housemate on that fateful day. ​

Barbara Fritchie, although 14 years older than her spouse, had been widowed for quite some time, having lost her husband John Fritchie, a glovemaker by trade, in 1849. Shortly thereafter, her niece, Harriet, would take up residence with her. I'm assuming that Harriet performed necessary roles of caretaking for her elderly aunt. Frederick resident and Fritchie friend, Henry M. Nixdorff, wrote a biography entitled Life of Whittier's Heroine Barbara Fritchie. This was first published in 1897 with subsequent printings. In this, the author writes:

"Mrs. Fritchie had never been blessed with children. Miss Yoner, a relative, lived with her for a number of years and was a great comfort, especially when she became somewhat enfeebled by age."

Ironically, it was Nixdorff's father who sold property to S. G. Cockey in Urbana, but I digress. Harriet Yoner (1797-1874), was a daughter of Barbara's sister Margaret (Hauer) Stover (1772-1857). This made her Barbara's niece. She was born in 1797, five years after her mother was married in 1792 to John Stover (1764-1825). Like her aunt, Harriet Yoner would have attended Frederick's German Reformed Church. Not much else is known about her outside of having been said to be widowed as well, and living most of her earlier life in Baltimore. I question the "widowed" aspect as I could not locate a marriage record and have seen most references to her as "Miss Yoner." But how could she be Miss Yoner if her parents were named Stover? I, unfortunately found nothing more than newspaper mentions of unpicked up mail at the Baltimore post office in 1825. 

Below are the only census records showing Harriet Yoner. She is living with Aunt Barbara in each as expected. It appears that both ladies lied about their age in the 1850 census.

1850 US Census showing Barbara and Harriet living in Frederick

Not only are names a mess here in the 1860 Census showing Barbara and Harriet, but amazingly our subject is still 40 years old as she should be about 62/63.

A great grandniece of Barbara, Miss Eleanor Abbott, gave the following account of the Barbara Fritchie tale in a 1926 interview with the Washington Evening Star newspaper:

“On the 10th the soldiers who had been encamped to the north re-entered Frederick and marched down North Market street and out West Patrick street past the home of Mrs. Frietchie. No one knew what happened when the soldiers went past the house until some time afterward. Miss Harriet Yoner, a cousin of Barbara Frietchie, was living with her at the time as her companion. Upon coming from the back of the house after the soldiers had passed, Miss Yoner found Mrs. Frietchie quite nervous and excited, but she would not explain except to say: “They tried to take my flag, but a man would not let them, and he was a gentleman.“

I have found that two things can happen over time: stories can be embellished, and stories can be proven true. I really wish we had Miss (or Mrs.) Yoner on hand to corroborate the correct version. The following passage comes from a magazine article entitled: The Historical Basis of Whittier's "Barbara Frietchie" and was written by George O. Seilheimer in the late 1887's "Battles & Leaders of the Civil War." The author mentions the mother of the lady who gave the forementioned 1926 version of the story:
 
"THAT Barbara Frietchie lived is not denied. That she died at the advanced age of 96 years and is buried in the burial-ground of the German Reformed Church in Frederick is also true.

There is only one account of Stonewall Jackson's entry into Frederick, and that was written by a Union army surgeon who was in charge of the hospital there at the time. "Jackson I did not get a look at to recognize him," the doctor wrote on the 21st of September, "though I must have seen him, as I witnessed the passage of all the troops through the town." Not a word about Barbara Frietchie and this incident. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, too, was in Frederick soon afterward, on his way to find his son, reported mortally wounded at Antietam. Such a story, had it been true, could scarcely have failed to reach his ears, and be would undoubtedly have told it in his delightful chapter of war reminiscences, "My Hunt for the Captain," had he heard it. Barbara Frietchie had a flag, and it is now in the possession of Mrs. Handschue and her daughter, Mrs. Abbott, of Frederick. Mrs. Handschue was the niece and adopted daughter of Mrs. Frietchie, and the flag came to her as part of her inheritance, a cup out of which General Washington drank tea when he spent a night in Frederick in 1791 being among the Frietchie heirlooms. This flag which Mrs. Handschue and her daughter so religiously preserve is torn, but the banner was not rent with seam and gash from a rifle-blast; it is torn---only this and nothing more. That Mrs. Frietchie did not wave the flag at Jackson's men Mrs. Handschue positively affirms. The flag-waving act was done, however, by Mrs. Mary S. Quantrell, another Frederick woman; but Jackson took no notice of it, and as Mrs. Quantrell was not fortunate enough to find a poet to celebrate her deed she never became famous.
 
Colonel Henry Kyd Douglas, who was with General Jackson every minute of his stay in Frederick, declares in an article in "The Century " for June, 1886, that Jackson never saw Barbara Frietchie, and that Barbara never saw Jackson. This story is borne out by Mrs. Frietchie's relatives.
 
As already said, Barbara Frietchie had a flag and she waved it, not on the 6th to Jackson's men, but on the 12th to Burnside's. Here is the story as told by Mrs. Abbott, Mrs. Handschue's daughter:
 
"Jackson and his men had been in Frederick and bad left a short time before. We were glad that the rebels had gone and that our troops came. My mother and I lived almost opposite aunt's place. She and my mothers cousin, Harriet Yoner, lived together. Mother said I should go and see aunt and tell her not to be frightened. You know that aunt was then almost ninety-six years old. When I reached aunt's place she knew as much as I did about matters, and cousin Harriet was with her. They were on the front porch, and aunt was leaning on the cane she always carried. When the troops marched along aunt waved her hand, and cheer after cheer went up from the men as they saw her. Some even ran into the yard, 'God bless you, old lady, Let me take you by the hand,' 'May you live long, you dear old soul,' cried one after the other, as they rushed into the yard. Aunt being rather feeble, and in order to save her as much as we could, cousin Harriet Yoner said. 'Aunt ought to have a flag to wave.' The flag was hidden in the family Bible, and cousin Harriet got it and gave it to aunt. Then she waved the flag to the men and they cheered her as they went by. She was very patriotic and the troops all knew of her. The day before General Reno was killed he came to see aunt and had a talk with her."

This is an old Baltimore Sun photograph taken by William Klender of a re-enactment of the Barbara Fritchie flag-waving incident taken July 11th, 1947. The woman to the right was Mrs. Catharine Johnson portraying Harriet Yoner. Barbara Fritchie was portrayed by Mrs. Mary E. Kelly.

The manner in which the Frietchie legend originated was very simple. A Frederick lady visited Washington some time after the invasion in hopes of finding the open sympathy and valor of Barbara Frietchie. The story was told again and again, and it was never lost in the telling. Mr. Whittier received his first knowledge of it from Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth, the novelist, who is a resident of Washington. When Mrs. Southworth wrote to Mr. Whittier concerning Barbara, she enclosed a newspaper slip reciting the circumstances of Barbara Frietchie's action when Lee entered Frederick.

When Mr. Whittier wrote the poem he followed as closely as possible the account sent him at the time. He has a cane made from the timber of Barbara's house,---a present from Dr. Steiner, a member of the Senate of Maryland. The flag with which Barbara Frietchie gave a hearty welcome to Burnside's troops has but thirty-four stars, is small, of silk, and attached to a staff probably a yard in length.
 
Barbara Frietchie was born at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her maiden name was Hauer. She was born December 3d, 1766, her parents being Nicholas and Catharine Hauer. She went to Frederick in early life, where she married John C. Frietchie, a glover, in 1806. She died December 18th, 1862, Mr. Frietchie having died in 1849. In 1868 the waters of Carroll Creek rose to such a height that they nearly wrecked the old home of the heroine of Whittier's poem."

Looking west on West Patrick Street after the Great Flood of 1868

​Well, those flood waters of 1868 would spell the demise of the Fritchie house as it would cause it to be demolished in 1869. Mrs. Yoner was still alive but had been living elsewhere in town after the old Fritchie house was sold to a Mr. George Eissler in 1865 by Dame Fritchie's executor.

In researching Harriet Yoner, I was delighted to see that she continued her role of caregiver after her aunt's death. I found records of her serving as a nurse for the United States Army of the Potomac. Yoner's service would have taken place right here in town, the same as many other local ladies who helped care for men of both armies in what was then known as Union General Hospital #1. I found records showing that her employ stretched from September, 1864 through July, 1865, at which time she had been discharged from duty.

Records of nursing service during the Civil War by Harriet Yoner

The former General Hospital #1 was located on the grounds of today's Maryland School for the Deaf on S. Market St. in Frederick

And speaking of "demises," I had to smile when I saw the "header" of Harriet's obituary from May of 1874. She died on May 1st, was buried in the Reformed cemetery of town and was eventually re-interred in Mount Olivet within the Henry Hanshew family lot of Area E/Lot 102. 

Frederick Examiner (May 6, 1874)

The grave of Harriet Yoner is situated to the immediate right of her supposed mother, Margaret (Hauer) Stover, sister of Barbara Fritchie. Margaret passed in 1855 but was originally buried in the German Reformed burying ground on North Bentz Street. Her remains and gravestone would be moved here in June, 1913, shortly after the same had been done with Barbara. Interestingly, Margaret (Hauer) Stover's daughter, Catharine Susan (Stover) Hanshew (1801-1892) is buried in this lot along with husband Henry Hanshew who served as a War of 1812 soldier.

Wait a minute, wouldn't that make Catharine (Stover) Hanshew and Harriet (Stover) Yoner sisters? If so, why did Julia (Hanshew) Abbott tell her daughter (Miss Eleanor Abbott) that Harriet was a cousin of her own mother? This is what Eleanor conveyed in the story to author George O. Seilheimer. As a matter of fact, Eleanor Abbott said that Catharine (Stover) Hanshew "was the niece and adopted daughter of Mrs. Frietchie," 

​I am disappointed that I cannot figure out the identity of Harriet's husband, if indeed there was one. I had hoped that a gravestone located just a few yards directly  in front of hers would provide me with the answer as it has the name Yoner carved upon its face. 

This is the gravestone of a couple consisting of Samuel Yoner (1766-1819) and wife, Ann Maria Yoner (1773-1832). I would learn that this couple lived in Baltimore and had been married in 1796 by the famed Rev. Philip William Otterbein. Samuel was the son of a Daniel Yoner (originally spelled Joner) of Dover, Pennsylvania near York, and worked as a currier. The Yoners lived on Hanover Street in Baltimore in 1805, and six years later, Samuel was insolvent and his properties and belongings were sold at a sheriff's sale. 

​A brief newspaper article about this union would tell me that these were distinct relatives of Harriet, me thinking they could possibly be her in-laws, the parents of a mystery husband, Mr. Yoner. I would be puzzled once more by finding out Mrs. Ann Maria Yoner's maiden name.

Federal Gazette & Baltimore Daily Adv (June 25, 1796)

Baltimore American & Commercial Adv. (March 29, 1832)

Mrs. Samuel Yoner was the former Polly Stover, also known as Miss Ann Maria Stover.  This woman is a Stover relative, likely through Harriet's assumed father John Stover, the man who married Margaret Hauer. Maybe Ann Maria was an aunt to Harriet as well as her mother-in-law, being John Stover's sister and mystery husband Yoner's mother if I am correct here?

However, now that I think about it, I would venture to say that Ann Maria (Stover) Yoner was Harriet's  birth mother, and our subject (Harriet) was never married, hence keeping the Yoner maiden name. This would open the door for her to have been raised/adopted by her aunt (through marriage) in Margaret (Hauer) Stover here in Frederick. Maybe the situation could have been a result of Samuel Yoner's insolvency when Harriet was in her youth? Family members often raise children of another sibling for a variety of reasons. And sometimes these things are kept secret, or simply never talked about..

​Regardless, this would also explain why so many family trees only mention Catherine (Stover) Hanshew as the only daughter of Margaret (Hauer) Stover. Oh, so many unknowns with this Barbara Fritchie clan!!!

If only we had Harriet here to tell us the truth, as an eyewitness not only to the Fritchie flag waving incident, but to clear up her family history as well. I'm certainly thankful for witnesses to Frederick, state and national history.