​A trusted physician fatally shoots a young man in the streets of Adamstown. Well, so much for the Hippocratic Oath. Traditionally, it is thought that the main job of a doctor is to help patients and fellow citizens in any way, or form, possible when called upon. This, of course, is in total opposition to a medical expert intentionally injuring others—hence requiring the assistance of another doctor.
​
For those not familiar with the oath of ethics historically taken by physicians, I decided to review the encyclopedic background of this widely known Greek medical text attributed to namesake Hippocrates (c.460-c.370 B.C.). Hippocrates was a Greek physician and philosopher of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is traditionally referred to as the "Father of Medicine" in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field, such as the use of prognosis and clinical observation, the systematic categorization of diseases, and the (later discredited) formulation of humoral theory. His studies set out the basic ideas of modern-day specialties, including surgery, urology, neurology, acute medicine and orthopedics, and advanced the systematic study of clinical medicine. The cover image of this story is a lithograph of a painting from 1792 by artist Anne-Louis Girodet and titled Hippocrates (c.460-c.377 BC) Refusing the Gifts of Artaxerxes I (d.425 BC).

In its original form, the Hippocratic Oath, “requires a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific ethical standards. The oath is the earliest expression of medical ethics in the Western world, establishing several principles of medical ethics which remain of paramount significance today. These include the principles of medical confidentiality and non-maleficence. As the foundational expression of certain principles that continue to guide and inform medical practice, the ancient text is of more than historic and symbolic value. It is enshrined in the legal statutes of various jurisdictions, such that violations of the oath may carry criminal or other liability beyond the oath's symbolic nature.”

In his diary, Frederick’s Jacob Engelbrecht (1798-1878) wrote a lengthy entry regarding a local doctor on trial in Frederick for murder. This was dated March 15th, 1873 and reads as follows:

“The Thomas trial— The trial of Doctor Jacob D. Thomas (son of Levin Thomas) for the shooting and Killing John Belt at Adamstown on the Baltimore & Ohio R.R. in October 1871 was commenced on Friday of last week March 7, 1873. On Friday the jury panel was exhausted by only getting four and they got the full number only on Saturday afternoon. The trial then commenced on Monday morning & continued until Friday night when lawyers finished pleading. And the jury remained in their room until this (Saturday) afternoon when they brought in their verdict “guilty of murder in the third degree” or “Manslaughter.” The counsel for the state Milton G. Urner States Attorney assisted by William J. Maulsby Junior and George H. Peter of Montgomery County. Counsel for prisoner Frederick I. Nelson and James McSherry. The jurors were Randolph G. Barrick, George H. Rizer, David Columbus Kemp, Francis T. Lakin, Benjamin Ogle, George M. Shaw, William H. Glaze, William G. Cole, Daniel Harshman, Thomas A. Smith of T., Gowan B. Philpot, & Thomas I. Maught.” 

My first impression upon reading this entry centered on the all-star legal lineup of attorneys on both sides in the trial. This is fitting as I would learn that both the “shooting” victim, and alleged “shooting” defendant, were prominent south county residents from established Carrollton Manor families. The victim was the brother of two noted physicians, and the accused murderer was actually a leading doctor of Adamstown. Go figure!

Just over a month later, on April 25th, Jacob Engelbrecht jotted down an addendum to this particular diary passage saying, “Sentenced 2 years in Penitentiary this morning.”

This verdict was confirmed in our cemetery records as I searched for the burial of Dr. Jacob D. Thomas here at Mount Olivet. I would soon learn that an earlier trial held a year prior (March, 1872) at the Frederick County Court House resulted in a hung jury.
​
Interestingly, Engelbrecht noted nothing the previous October when this deadly affair took place in Adamstown. In my quest to learn more about the curious physician buried in Mount Olivet’s Area P/Lot 18, I went to the obvious internet sources of findagrave.com, Ancestry.com and various online newspaper archives to which I have subscriptions. I soon found "connections galore" with these two individuals to Frederick history and former stories of mine.

​The Victim and Defendant
John Lloyd Belt, Jr. could not be found in Mount Olivet, but is instead buried in a family lot in his home church of St. Paul’s Episcopal in Point of Rocks. Here, he is nestled in proximity of his parents, John Lloyd Belt (1819-1889) and Sarah Eleanor (McGill) Belt (1818-1903), and six of nine known siblings. 

John’s youngest brother is buried here in St. Paul's, Dr. Edward Oliver Belt (1861-1906). I would learn that he was a prominent eye, nose and throat doctor of Washington, DC in the late 1800s/early 1900s. He was tragically killed in a train crash with two young sons just outside the nation's capital on his way back home from a trip to Frederick to visit family over the Christmas holiday. 

​An older brother of John L. Belt is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. His name was Dr. Alfred McGill Belt (1847-1918) and he married Ariana Teresa Trail, (1852-1923). We’ve mentioned the former Miss Trail before in this blog as she was a daughter of the builder of Frederick’s Trail House (today’s Keeney-Basford Funeral Home on East Church Street), Col. Charles Edward Trail and wife Ariana (McElfresh) Trail. Col. Trail was a prominent local businessman and one of the 1852 founders of Mount Olivet. Trail’s daughters, Florence and Bertha Trail, were local leaders in the Suffrage movement here in the county in the early 20th century. Getting back to the Belts, Dr. Alfred McGill Belt practiced in Baltimore for many years and would be buried in his wife’s family plot rather than in St. Paul’s Cemetery in Point of Rocks.

​Our shooting victim, John Lloyd Belt, Jr., was born May 28th, 1848 at his family’s property of Rock Hall located just south of Sugarloaf Mountain on the east side of the Monocacy. The magnificent home survives off MD Route 28/Dickerson Road and can be accessed by using Dr. Belt Road, named for our subject’s grandfather, Dr. Alfred Belt (1788-1872). This gentleman (Dr. Belt) married into the Trundle family and, in 1836, moved here from his home of Rock Hill Farm in Loudoun County, VA. Dr. Alfred changed the original name of this property from Mt. Pisgah to Rock Hall.

I had researched this stately home a few years back in a “Story in Stone” titled “R.O.C.K in the U.S.A.” (March of 2022). Mt. Pisgah had origins going back to Gov. Thomas Johnson Jr.’s brother Roger, an early ironmaster associated with the Bloomsbury Forge that once operated in this vicinity. The home was bought from Roger Johnson’s heirs which included a few more noted physicians of the area that would have been known to the fore-mentioned Dr. Jacob D. Thomas, particularly one Dr. William Hilleary Johnson, as both men born in 1827.

I found little information about the life of John L. Belt, Jr. Understandable as he only had 23 years on planet earth. I located him in the 1860 and 1870 census records living in the Buckeystown District with his family. I take it that he enjoyed a good education, and can be found working as a farm laborer in the 1870 US census, likely poised to take over Rock Hall and possibly live the life of "gentleman farmer" as his father had done. This would not be.

Meanwhile, Dr. Jacob Dutrow Thomas was born on January 19th, 1827 in Winchester, VA to father Robert Levin Thomas (1786-1842) and mother Mary E. Duttero (1797-1832). The family appears to have moved to Carrollton Manor and Frederick County, MD, where there were no shortage of Thomas and Dutrow family members populating the vicinity. Jacob later received advance schooling at Virginia’s Marshall College.

​On May 2nd, 1848, Dr. Jacob D. Thomas would marry Anna Mary Wolff of Frederick County. The couple went on to have three known children, daughters Adelaide S. (Thomas) Thomas (1851-1895), Margaret Ellen “Nellie” (Thomas) Padgett (1856-1929), and Flora May (Thomas) Day (1858-1931).

​You will note another property owned by John Lloyd Belt on the west side of the Monocacy on Carrollton Manor. This is marked on the 1873 Titus Atlas sitting roughly a half-mile on the east side of Buckeystown Pike, southeast of the village of Adamstown. I have reason to believe that our subject, John, Jr., could have been residing here at the time of his death.

​The Affray
The brief sentence in our cemetery records says that this shooting incident happened at the B&O Railroad, and I am surmising this would be in the vicinity of the B&O Depot in Adamstown, labeled simply as “depot.” I've seen other accounts where the shooting occurred near Dr. Thomas' home a few hundred yards to the south. I believe the latter to be true, but from court testimony it seems that an argument started by the depot as John L. Belt was accompanying his brother, Dr. Alfred Belt, to the station for a departure on the train. Apparently, a young boy at the depot became sick and Dr. Thomas was summoned to offer aid. Words were exchanged between Belt and Dr. Thomas at this time. 

​Two things arose from trial testimony that could have led to the hostility between the men. Apparently, a young, black farmhand had been hired away from John Belt by Dr. Thomas. At the time of the altercation, Belt is said to have told Dr. Thomas that he was going to take him back and away from Dr. Thomas. The other interesting discovery came during the trial testimony of Belt's brother, Dr. Alfred M. Belt. Dr. Belt said that his brother had interest in attending church with one of Dr. Thomas' daughters one week before the incident. Apparently, Dr. Thomas forbade this "date" to happen. Unfortunately, there was not more clarity on both of these topics. However, eyewitnesses at the train station would say in the trial that they expected an altercation to occur when John Belt later passed by Dr. Thomas down the street (in front of the physician's home).

Articles of the incident with Dr. Jacob Thomas appeared in the local newspapers, as well as the Baltimore Sun and others around the state and region.

I will include here two accounts from the Frederick Examiner newspaper, dated Wednesday, October 4th and Wednesday, October 11th, respectively. The shooting “affray,” as it was titled, occurred on Monday, October 2nd. I’d like to set the scene better with additional insight gained by my friend John Ashbury, as he wrote about this in his 1997 book, And All Our Yesterdays.
​
"On October 2nd, 1871, a three-minute argument on a street in Adamstown led to the death of one of those involved and a conviction of manslaughter charges for the other. Witnesses reported that as John Belt rode toward his home on horseback and leading a second horse, he came upon Dr. Jacob Thomas near Thomas’ home. The two engaged in a conversation for a minute or so before it escalated into an argument over a business transaction. Dr. Thomas, who was elderly, used his walking cane to strike Belt on the shoulder, while he was still mounted. Belt jumped down from his horse and attacked Dr. Thomas. The pair fell to the ground, and Belt was said to have punched Dr. Thomas in the face several times, before Dr. H. B. Gross arrived at the scene and pulled him off the physician."

I still find it ironic that the key witness (and referee) in this whole affair was a fellow physician in Dr. Henry Boteler Gross (1848-1925). He's lucky he did not get shot, himself. Dr. Gross would serve as a doctor in Funkstown in his native Washington County, but would spend most of his career and life in Jefferson, Maryland, where he is buried in Jefferson Reformed. 

Belt had been brought into an Adamstown store located next to the railroad tracks. Apparently, the victim was bothered by the train noise and smoke that billowed into the structure. He would be carefully taken to his home residence at which place he would die six days later.

​In late October, the Frederick Examiner ran an Administrator’s Notice regarding John L. Belt, Jr.’s death as his father served as executor. Meanwhile, "the wheels of justice" began turning, albeit a slow journey. At hand was the State convincing the jury that Dr. Thomas murdered Belt in cold blood. The defense would argue that Dr. Thomas fired in self defense. Dr. Thomas would say under oath that he was too old to take a beating of this kind, and had no choice but to protect himself.

​The trial began in March, 1872, a month after Belt's belongings were sold at auction. I will include some clippings of the coverage of this at the end of the story, but want to go back to John Ashbury’s concise account of multiple trials of this crime.

“Dr. Thomas, who had surrendered immediately after the shooting and was released on bail, was rearrested, and his bail increased. A trial was held during the February 1872 term of the Circuit Court, but the jury became deadlocked, and a mistrial was declared. Thomas’ bail was continued until the September term of the court, when a second trial was postponed due to the illness of one of Thomas’ lawyers. On Friday, March 7, 1873, Dr. Thomas’ trial began again. It took two days to empanel a jury, because so many in the county had already formed an opinion in the case. Testimony didn’t begin until Monday, March 10. Throughout that week the evidence presented was the same as in the first trial a year earlier. This time, however the jury was able to reach a verdict of guilty of manslaughter, despite Dr. Thomas’ claims of self-defense. Newspaper reports at the time indicated that when the jury first retired, the vote was five for first degree murder, three for second degree murder, one for manslaughter, and three for acquittal. On April 23, Judge John A. Lynch sentenced Dr. Thomas to two years in prison, and on April 28, he was taken to the Maryland Penitentiary in Baltimore to serve his sentence.”

​I could find little in the papers regarding Dr. Thomas and time spent in prison and his release after serving his two-year term. This would have been in the spring of 1875. I did however find a brief article from a Carroll County newspaper which showed that Dr. Thomas was pardoned by the Maryland governor after serving just 10 months of his sentence.

​Statements in the case were made that Dr. Thomas' family would be destitute if he was sentenced to prison. Five years after his release, I found him living at home in Adamstown in the 1880 census. I presume Dr. Thomas had his medical license revoked because of the whole Belt affair. I have no idea what he did for money upon his release. Apparently, Dr. Thomas remained heavily involved in his church and politics. He was one of the original trustees of Adamstown’s Trinity Evangelical and Reformed Church which opened in 1868. The last newspaper reference I would see before his death mentioned him as a county magistrate for Adamstown and the Buckeystown area.

In the local paper, I spotted this article that seemed to help the family through the lean times, thanks to Mrs. Thomas' brother.

Dr. Jacob D. Thomas would die on November 22nd, 1894 at the age of 67. This was 23 years and 51 days after the fateful showdown which would take the life of fellow resident John L. Belt, while changing his in the process. His obituary appeared in the Frederick News. He would be buried in Area P/Lot 18 where an infant grandchild had been interred in 1891. Two more grandchildren would follow over the next two years.

​Dr. Thomas's gravestone has an inscription on its face that is a little hard to make out. After closer inspection, I found it to be the opening verse of H. A. Cesar Malan's "It Is Not Death to Die."

"It is not death to die,
To leave this weary road,
And 'mid the brotherhood on high
To be at home with God."

I'm sure John L. Belt may have felt differently.

​Dr. Thomas’ wife Anna Mary would die in 1913, and buried beside him. She lived to be 92 years of age. I guess it was good to have a physician as a husband.​

His daughter Flora and husband Richard R. Day would be buried in this plot in the 1930s, along with three fore-mentioned children, and another in 1950 named James I. Day. Interestingly, this latter grandson of Dr. Thomas would be moved to Arlington National Cemetery on June 4th, 1957. He was a veteran of World War I.

Today, January 7th is my birthday. While the number "7" is my favorite (and lucky) number, January is certainly not my favorite month. It's bitterly cold and starts with the post-holiday season letdown. January often includes a heartbreaking loss by my favorite football team (the Ravens), and I'm riddled with reminiscing and remembrances of happy events of the previous year now gone by.  

Working for a cemetery, I know the importance of birthdays, and the consequence of "deathdays." Anyone who travels through a burial ground will see birth dates of decedents proudly displayed on the faces of gravestones, monuments and plaques.

All this talk of birthdays had me wondering what notable people have said about the anniversary of a person's entry into the world through birth. Here are "7" famous quotes from contemplative authors and writers:

"Old age: A great sense of calm and freedom. When the passions have relaxed their hold, you may have escaped, not from one master but from many."
-Plato

"From our birthday, until we die / Is but the winking of an eye."
-William Butler Yeats​
 
"May you live all the days of your life. No wise man ever wished to be younger."
-Jonathan Swift
 
"Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."
-Mark Twain
 
"Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed."
-Charles Schulz 
 
"The great thing about getting older is you don't lose all the other ages you've been."
-Madeleine L'Engle 
 
"You are only young once, but you can be immature for a lifetime."
-John P. Grier

I, myself, share a birthday with actor Nicholas Cage, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, US Senator Rand Paul and President of the United States, Millard Fillmore (1800-1874). I've known this latter fact since I was 7 years-old, fittingly. In fact, just over two weeks ago, I found myself surprised to be driving through Millard's "birthtown" of Moravia, New York. It is a quaint little village of 3,700 residents and can be found  southwest of Syracuse in the heart of the "Finger Lake" country. For those eager to learn more about President Fillmore, and who wouldn't, he was our 13th president, serving from 1850 to 1853. Millard Fillmore was the last president to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House, and the last to be neither a Democrat nor a Republican. A former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Fillmore was elected vice president in 1848, and succeeded to the presidency when Zachary Taylor died in 1850. He was instrumental in passing the Compromise of 1850, which led to a brief truce in the battle over the expansion of slavery.

My birthday wish is not to travel the Millard Fillmore Historic Trail one day, but that's not saying that it could be the dream of others. Alright, let's get back to our "Story in Stone."

​Since this blog revolves around people buried in Frederick's historic Mount Olivet Cemetery, I decided to seek out a kindred spirit who shares my birthdate. The first individual I came upon was a four-year-old whose birthday is not displayed outwardly on a gravestone, but only in our records. She actually has no grave marker and is buried in a mass grave on Mount Olivet's Area MM.

Meet Ruhamah Chapline, born January 7th, 1743/1744. Her name means mercy and compassion. This child, the daughter of Col. Joseph Chapline and Ruhamah (Williams) Chapline, is buried amongst the 286 people in Area MM's Lot 41. These individuals were originally interred in the All Saints' Protestant Episcopal burial ground that once overlooked Carroll Creek from the south. The property was located on the hill where the present-day amphitheater sits, across the creek from C. Burr Artz Library.

A reference on Ruhamah's memorial page on findagrave.com states that Ruhamah was:
"Re-interred from Old Episcopal graveyard on East All Saints Street in 1913. Stone was transcribed at time of reburial, but buried (along with body)." This was not a rare occurrence as there are likely many gravestones buried below the surface in Mount Olivet's Area MM.

​Our records show that Ruhamah was re-interred in Mount Olivet on December 19th, 1913. The date of her original burial in the All Saints' churchyard was September 6th, 1748—the year Frederick County was created.

Our cemetery record database does not show much in respect to the decedents reburied from All Saints' here in 1913, however we do have a definitive list of interments. Our cemetery superintendent Ron Pearcey has been researching these records over the last few years in an effort to learn more about these individuals. Ruhamah, and a sister Jane who is also buried here, died as children. Ron encountered a great bit of confusion months ago when he found two adult women of the same name (Ruhamah Chapline and Jane Chapline) buried with their parents (Joseph and Ruhamah Chapline) in Sharpsburg, Maryland's Mountain View Cemetery. I had to explain that we had the couple's first daughter named Ruhamah and first daughter named Jane, while later born children of those same names lived into adulthood and are buried in Sharpsburg. While rare these days, the tradition of naming children after older, deceased siblings was commonplace in days of old.

Thanks to a book, Maryland Records, Colonial, Revolutionary, County, and Church, from Original Sources: (Volume I) by Gaius Marcus Brumbaugh, we have a better sense of Ruhamah's family and vital records including those of our subject. Mr. Brumbaugh's book was published January 1915, just over a year after Ruhamah's re-interment here. On page 258, Brumbaugh includes the following records from Frederick's All Saints' Protestant Episcopal Church:
 
Joseph Chapline married Ruhamah daughter of Rev. William Williams, October 22, 1741.
 
Children:
William Williams Chapline b. Aug. 20, 1742.
Ruhamah Chapline, b. Jan 7, 1743/4.
Joseph Chapline [twin], b. Sep. 9, 1746.
Deborah Chapline [twin], b. Sep. 9, 1746.
Jane Chapline, b. Sep 18, 1748. Buried July 19, 1754.
James Chapline, b. Sep. 28, 1750.
Ruhamah Chapline, b. July 12, 1752. Buried Sep. 6, 1748.
Sarah Chapline, b. July 10, 1754.
Jeremiah Chapline, b. June 24, 1756.
Jane Chapline, b. Mar.23, 1758.
Theodosha Chapline, b. Mar. 14, 1760.
 
While I have the chance, I'd like to thank findagrave.com contributor, Michael I. Chapline (47680704), for adding this information to the memorial page created a few years back by our Friends of Mount Olivet group. Michael seems to have the credentials in studying his Chapline family lineage and includes his email of [email protected] on the memorial page as well.

Michael also added the following image to the findagrave site that helped take the confusion out of the Chapline research by Brumbaugh, as an earlier record confused vital dates for the "dueling Ruhamahs." This gives us a definite death date for the Ruhamah Chapline of Mount Olivet, and born January 7th four or five years earlier.

I cannot tell you anything about Ruhamah's brief life on earth. No obituary exists and that is par for the course when it comes to young people of that time. I do know that she was here in our area at Frederick's very beginning, as she was born before Frederick Town's founding by Daniel Dulany in 1745. Had Ruhamah lived into adulthood, I think her life would be considered one of excitement and privilege. Her parents were from prominent early Maryland and Virginia families. As a matter of fact, Ruhamah's father is known as the founder of Sharpsburg, as he built the first house in 1764. 

Thanks again to Michael Chapline for the birthday present of research as he wrote the following sketch of Col. Joseph Chapline (1707-1769), trained as a lawyer and eventually an officer of the French and Indian War in 1757, who founded Sharpsburg on July 9th, 1763. The following biography appears on the findagrave.com memorial page for Ruhamah's father.

"Not far inside the main gate to Mountain View Cemetery in Sharpsburg, Maryland there is a simple monument marking the grave of the town's founder Joseph Chapline, his wife and some of their children.
 
Joseph Chapline was a lawyer, planter, military officer during the French and Indian War, a representative for Frederick County in the Maryland legislature, and a business man. He laid out the town of Sharpsburg in 1763. He and his wife, Ruhama Williams Chapline lived and died near there as did most of their eleven children.
 
Mountain View Cemetery was not the original resting place for Joseph Chapline and his family. In 1893 Joseph's great-great niece, Maria J. Liggett Dare (1843-1904), had the remains of seven Chapline family members moved to Mountain View Cemetery from a family burial ground on the old Chapline farm overlooking the Potomac River west of Sharpsburg. The graves were moved because the burial ground at the farm was not protected by deed, and the owner desired to use the land for a peach orchard.
 
At the base of the monument erected at Mountain View are the initials L.C.L. for Louvisa Chapline Liggett (1809-1896), Maria Dare's mother, who paid for the monument. In the preface of her book, Chaplines of Maryland and Virginia(1902), Maria Dare wrote, 'My mother and I searched the country from Shepherdstown to Hagerstown; tracked through damp grass knee deep to read inscriptions on tombstones in old cemeteries.' "

The History of Sharpsburg by Lee Barron states:

​"By the early 1700s the population was already shifting to the west and there was great interest in settling the land of the great valley beyond the Blue Ridge. So in 1730, William Chapline, then living along the Potomac just south of present day Washington, D.C., moved westward settling on 465 acres just 4 miles upstream from Shepherdstown, Virginia.
 
His son Joseph shortly thereafter received a grant of 2175 acres from Lord Baltimore to establish his own estate. This was to be along the Potomac, 2 miles downstream from his father’s Virginia estate, but on the Maryland side of the river. In 1739 Joseph Chapline began construction of his estate, “Mt. Pleasant”, moving there in 1740. (“Mt. Pleasant” is located in the area of Snyder’s Landing, just one mile from Sharpsburg). After moving to “Mt. Pleasant” Joseph’s fortunes soared, he was a part owner of the Ohio Company, which traded with the Indians manufactured goods for furs, and built a two-story log storehouse at Wills Creek on the Virginia shore. He served as Justice of the Peace, and also as elected representative of Frederick County to the General Assembly in Annapolis."
 
Pioneers of the Monocacy delves further and records that: 

​"From 1739-1747, Joseph Chapline had served as a Justice of the Prince Georges County Court, and from 1749-1751 served in the same capacity in the new Frederick County Court. ​In 1744, Joseph Chapline was appointed to help lay out the road via Richard Touchstone's place near Port Deposit in Cecil County. He registered his1742 marriage in the All Saints parish records as well as the birth dates of his children."

This included our subject, young Ruhamah, named for her mother and born in 1743/1744. It seems quite a hike, especially in those days, to worship in Frederick Town from his home roughly 20 miles away, but this was a heck of a lot closer than St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Annapolis. With the prominence of this family, it is safe to say that little Ruhamah Chapline was among the first interments in the All Saints' burial ground.

A year after her death in 1748, Frederick County would hold its first election in 1749 in which Chapline would be named be named a Delegate to the General Assembly in Annapolis. This would occur again in November 1754 and September 1758.

Pioneers of the Monocacy continues:

​"Between 1750 and 1764, Joseph Chapline took up many tracts of land, but he and Ruhamah made their home along the Potomac River about two miles west of present-day Sharpsburg. This would remain Frederick County up through the mid-1770s. When the French and Indian War broke out Joseph raised and organized troops, financed the war effort, and helped build Ft. Cumberland and Ft. Frederick along the frontier. For his war efforts Joseph Chapline received an additional 11,000 acres of land from Gov. Horatio Sharpe of Maryland and 645 acres from Lord Fairfax of Virginia."

Ruhamah's mother of the same name, Ruhamah Williams (1717-1796), was born in Wales and the daughter of a Presbyterian minister named Rev. William Williams. During the 1750s, Williams became "the resident divine" on Col. Chapline's estate after being expelled from his own church for an unknown offense. Joseph Chapline persuaded his father-in-law to become an Anglican. This gentleman was also a large landowner who had a connection with the Monocacy Valley as far back as 1739 and a 25-acre survey called "Williams Project."

​Pioneers of the Monocacy authors Tracey and Dern claim that this land "lay on the west bank of the Monocacy River near the mouth of fishing Creek and stretched two and a half miles northwesterly. It included a lengthy "shank" connecting two enlarged areas much like an enlarged dumbbell. One end lay in the vicinity of today's Lewistown, the other along the river and Monocacy Manor. This is land east of US 15, stretching south of today's Lewistown to Utica and further south to Devilbiss Bridge."

In 1761, Joseph Chapline  surveyed "Addition to Williams Project," including vacant land surrounding the original parcel. Then, in 1763, he, his wife Ruhamah and their son William Williams Chapline, conveyed 250 acres of this land for 400 pounds to Alexander Ogle of New Castle County (DE)." ​

​Jane Chapline, another daughter of Col. Joseph and wife Ruhamah (Williams) Chapline, was born in 1753 and died on July 19th, 1754. She would be buried in Mount Olivet on the same day as her sister on December 19th, 1913.

Ironically, in our cemetery records, I would find "7" more "Chaplines" buried here. Of course these were later generations and have very nice gravestones. These include Isaac Thomas Chapline (1837-1876) and his wife Laura (Schley) Chapline (1843-1922). Isaac is the great-grandson of Isaac William Chapline (1756-1810), a nephew of Col. Joseph Chapline and the first resident of Steamboat Run, a neighborhood in Shepherdstown. This couple, and a few children (Harry Eugene Chapline, Grace Latimer Chapline), are buried in Area F/Lot 41. I reveled in seeing that another son of this couple, named Thomas Augustus Chapline, married Mary Byerly, daughter of Frederick's early photographer J. Davis Byerly. They are buried in Area G/Lot 239 with son Thomas, Jr.

The Chapline family continues on and people like the fore-mentioned Michael Chapline have helped keep family history alive. He even hosts a great Facebook page on Chapline Family heritage as well. Many other resources abound on the internet, as the Chaplines are a big part of Maryland and Virginia history. And thanks to the efforts of Louvisa Chapline Liggett and Maria J. Liggett Dare, Sharpsburg's founding family rests peacefully in a place of honor at Mountain View Cemetery. Sadly, Ruhamah and Jane Chapline did not get moved to Sharpsburg from Frederick's All Saints' Burial Ground, but are in an equally honorable spot here in Mount Olivet. I hope by Ruhamah's next birthday, that we may have an interpretive panel that lists her name, along with all those interred in the All Saints' mass grave on Area MM. 

Happy Heavenly Birthday Ruhamah!, as they say, and it was an honor researching you and your family on the occasion of my birthday as well.

Many are familiar with Frederick's highly popular "Color on the Creek," an all volunteer inspired and managed water garden located in the Carroll Creek Linear Park which runs through the heart of downtown. Created in 2012, the garden transformed an algae-plagued creek into a place of real beauty with water lily blooms from April through October.

Now that its November, the town creek is transformed into something altogether different. "Sailing Through The Winter Solstice" features a fleet of anchored, miniature boats between Market and Carroll streets. These are carefully, and creatively, decorated for the holidays with colorful lights that make quite a display against the backdrop of buildings and landscaped terraces surrounding the creek. Best of all, the sailing vessels complement additional public art in the vicinity. This adds greatly to the majesty of  a collection of unique water crossings "bridging" Carroll Creek. 

​​It is truly amazing how this special space within Downtown Frederick can capture the allure of Frederick over the annual "seasonal bridges" from spring to summer, summer to fall, and fall to winter. At the same time, Mount Olivet Cemetery is another unique location in Frederick to "bridge the seasons" as well.​

​​In place of water lilies, the emphasis here is placed on the blooming, and later transformation of leaves on trees that stand tall above a sea of monuments and markers. Our historic "garden cemetery" obviously embraces seasonal color changes, but we also have what you could call two "military solstices" each year which have absolutely nothing to do with the sun, but everything to do with patriotism, dedication to duty, and making the ultimate sacrifice.  During Memorial Day, the colors of red, white and blue add substantially to the budding leaves and blossoming spring flowers. Six months later, Veterans Day follows the peak of the annual, autumnal palette.

​​Just a week and a half ago, I found myself strolling through the cemetery and taking photos of gravestones of Revolutionary War "Patriots" buried in Mount Olivet. It was a beautiful day to tackle this task with temperatures in the 60s, and the fall foliage was breathtakingly beautiful. One of the most picturesque areas within our 100 acre-property is on the south side of what we call "Pumphouse Hill." In addition to being the highest elevation in Downtown Frederick, a tree-lined avenue of large, vibrant specimen appears for a good 25 yards. A week prior it was a brilliant yellow, and on this day a tempered orange.

The common denominator is color, be it from the primary family or secondary. Our November 1st turnout of volunteers to plant flags was once again stellar. Starting at 9am, thousands of distributed flags were placed where needed by roughly 1pm. Thanks again to all who helped on another beautiful day, made all the more attractive by sunshine, beautiful temperatures and a gorgeous backdrop of turning leaves—red, orange, and yellow with some overachieving brown and underachieving green leaves still in view. 

Now, here we are just a week and a few days later... and many of our leaves have fallen. However, the flags stand tall over a plethora of vet gravesites ranging from various chapters of our history with participation in the American Revolution, War of 1812, Mexican War, American Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I & II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War and a few from modern wars in the 21st century including the War on Terror and Iraq Wars.

These flags were softly inserted into a green lawn that now is being fast covered by colorful leaves. In coming weeks, the ground will harden while leaves will continue to fall and brown. Our staff will attempt to collect up most of them over the next month, and when they do, the grass underneath will not be nearly as green as before in October. Those bold, little flaglets will withstand imminent windy days and (hopefully) remain in place for our Wreaths Across America event on December 13th. On this day,  sponsored wreaths of dark green will be placed adjacent the red, white and blue "beacons marking the graves of veterans." It's then up to mother nature whether she wants to add a white bed of snow to lay the wreaths on, or whether snow will cover the wreaths in the weeks to follow up through Christmas and New Years.

One of the many gravesites that will continue to participate in this colorful menagerie of fall will be that of the earlier mentioned Harry Johns Haller. I was inspired to look into his "life story" and thought I'd share it, colorful or not, with you on this Veterans Day, 2025.

Born July 22nd, 1858, Harry Johns Haller was the son of Jacob Luther Haller (1826-1874) and Sarah Matilda (Kantner) Haller (1834-1899). Our subject was one of eight children, born in Frederick. The family would relocate south of the city in the area of Araby in upper Urbana District by 1870. Harry would attend local schools and helped with the family farm. Sadly he would lose his father to a freak mill accident when he was only 15 years old. 

Harry would assist his mother and siblings in running the farm as evident by the 1880 census. Likely inspired by his paternal grandfather, Jacob Haller (1794-1873), our subject would eventually decide to join the military. As for Harry's grandfather(Jacob Haller), he is buried here in Mount Olivet and represents one of 108 War of 1812 veterans. The former participant of the "Battle of Baltimore"  was well-known as the purveyor of fine oyster saloons here in town as I've written about him before in this blog.

Harry Johns Haller's military career would start in 1882 when he enlisted on March 20th in the United States Army's 12th Infantry Regiment, and served as a musician--both facts found on his military-themed footstone marker in Mount Olivet's Area R/Lot 26. 

I looked into the history of his military unit and found the following:

"The battalion was reorganized and redesignated as the 12th Infantry Regiment on 7 December 1866. In April 1869, having been ordered to the Presidio of San Francisco, California, the regiment entrained at Omaha, Nebraska, on the Union Pacific Railroad portion of the not yet finished transcontinental railroad; rode to Corinne, Utah; detrained and marched to the Central Pacific railhead; and re-entrained to complete the journey to Sacramento, California. In the 1870s, the regiment took part in three campaigns of the Indian Wars; against the Modoc tribe in California during 1872–1873, against the Bannocks in the Northwest in 1878, and against the Sioux at Pine Ridge, South Dakota from 1890 to 1891. During these campaigns, six soldiers performed acts deemed worthy of the Medal of Honor."

The12th Infantry Regiment's band had a participation in the U.S. Indian Wars that consisted of standard support roles such as morale-boosting concerts and ceremonial functions. During this period, bands were not just for music, they also served as a medical support unit, assisting in field hospitals and as stretcher-bearers during battles and campaigns. 

Unfortunately, I did not learn what instrument (or instruments) Harry Johns Haller played. I also could not locate a photograph of the 12th Infantry Regiment Band, however I did locate a few photos of a "like" military band of the same era. This was the 16th Infantry Regimental Band and these images were captured at Camp Riley, Kansas in the late 1870s. This at least provides a visual of what Haller and his colleagues would have looked like in their dress uniforms.

I learned from military discharge papers that Harry served in the U.S. Army until March 19th, 1887, the expiration date of his 5-year enlistment. It appears that the entirety of his assignment was spent at Madison Barracks in Sackets Harbor, New York. Madison Barracks, located on Lake Ontario (near Watertown, NY) is regarded as the first permanent U.S. military encampment in the North Country and was established here during the War of 1812.

Sackets Harbor was formally established in 1816 as a U.S. Army installation and named "Madison Barracks" for President James Madison. It served as an important U.S. Army garrison and training camp and was permanently occupied by the U.S. Army for 140 years. In 1906, Col. Philip Reade, commander of Madison Barracks, worked with North Country community leaders to locate a new training ground that would eventually become Fort Drum.

A detailed, online regimental history helped me decipher a bit of Haller's time with the 12th Infantry. It appears he joined at the time the regiment came east after dealing with the Sioux and Lakota tribes in the Dakota Territory (later South Dakota).

"None of the companies in the field were engaged in any action, and by December (1881) all had returned to their posts. During the spring and summer of 1882 there was more trouble, which called at various times Company E from Grant, G from McDowell, H from Fort Lowell, K from Huachuca, D from Apache, and F from Whipple. With the exception of Company E, which continued at Camp Price, at the southern end of the San Simon valley until August, none remained long in the field, nor were there any encounters with the hostiles.
 
In September came the welcome order for a new station, first to Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming, but almost at the last moment it was changed to the Department of the East. The companies were concentrated at various places on the railroad, and went east in two detachments, Headquarters, and Companies A, B. C, D, F and G taking station at Madison Barracks, E and K, Fort Niagara, and H and I, Plattsburgh Barracks, all in New York. This change, after so many years on the Pacific coast and in the southwest, was very agreeable. Greater concentration and better facilities for travel allowed more intercourse. The older members of the regiment thus had the opportunity to recall old times, and the younger to become acquainted. Such military exercises as parade and battalion drill, which had been almost unknown since the regiment left Washington, were taken up with zeal, and had almost the charm of novelty.

​Five years were thus spent very pleasantly with but few changes, the most important being as follows: Major Cochran was promoted to lieutenant-colonel 5th Infantry, May 31, 1883, and Captain W. H. Penrose, 3d Infantry, took his place, with station at Fort Niagara. In May, 1884, Fort Ontario at Oswego was regarrisoned by Company H, which was replaced at Plattsburgh by Company C. In November Company I moved from Plattsburgh to Madison Barracks. In July, 1885, Company E was sent from Niagara to Mt. Gregor, N. Y., as guard for General Grant, then lying sick at that place. Upon his death the company formed part of the funeral escort from Mt. Gregor to Albany, thence to New York, taking part in the ceremonies at each place, and returning in August to its post.

In March, 1887, the law limiting the tenure of regimental staff positions to four years resulted in the displacement of a number of officers. This is the time our subject received an honorable discharge noting that he possessed "excellent character." Three months later, an order came for the 12th Infantry Regiment to return west to the Dakota Territory." Harry Johns Haller would remain in New York, however he was now a civilian again.

​Interestingly, Harry's family life would begin a few months earlier than his discharge with his marriage to Frances Winters on December 22nd, 1886. Miss Winters was a native of Hastings, Ontario and I assume that the pair met here in upstate New York, obviously while Harry was still in the service. They would marry in Canada at Frances' home town of Lonsdale, a historic village in Tyendinaga Township, Ontario. Harry and Frances would continue to live in northern New York for the next 40 years before returning to Frederick, likely in the early 1920s.

It appears that the couple first settled in Oswego, New York. Here they witnessed the births of their two children. Georgia Haller (b. October 15th, 1888) and Harry Francis Haller on October 11th, 1894. I found the first census record reflecting the family in 1900, however, Harry Johns Haller was absent. I assume that he could have had a work assignment elsewhere, but I have not been able to locate him.

​That work assignment was most likely with a traveling band as Harry would continue his career as a musician. He played in private bands and his obituary states that these included the Kingsford Band of Oswego, the Remington Band of Ilion, NY, and the Penn Band of Syracuse, NY. From a deep dive on the internet, I found a random transcript of an article (or lecture) entitled "MUSIC AND MUSICIANS IN OSWEGO" and dated April 18th, 1967 by Weldon M. Grose of 182 West 2nd Street Oswego, N. Y. Mr. Grose gave a history of bands dating from the 1800s and shared: 

"In 1888 there is notice of the Oswego City Band being organized with John J. White as director; Edward Cavert, secretary (who was a clarinetist); F. Preston, treasurer. Announcement was made that meetings (or rehearsals) would be every Monday and Friday night in a building at Market and Water Street. And then, in 1890, this same band continued at 83 E. Bridge St. with Joseph Dano, president, James Battomy, secretary-treasurer, and Harry Haller, director."

That's right, Harry was the Oswego City Band's director in 1888! I wouldn't learn anything more about his future involvement with this outfit, however I would gain knowledge on the Kingsford Band he would go to next. Author Weldon Grose said of them:

"In 1878 the famous Kingsford Band was established in Oswego by the very prominent industrialist, Mr. Thomson R. Kingsford. The Kingsford Cornstarch Company founded in 1848 by Thomas Kingsford was Oswego's largest employer at that time, and its products became nationally known and accepted. In this atmosphere of growth and optimism, following the Civil War, Mr. Kingsford established the Kingsford Band by naming Mr. Frank Shilling as musical director. (The Schilling family were all prominent in Oswego's musical affairs.) W. I. Rasmussen was Secretary and Treasurer and Thompson R. Kingsford himself was president of the band.

The family may have re-located to Utica, New York in the early 1900s. By 1910, the Hallers were definitely living southeast of Utica at a small village called German Flatts, just across the Mohawk River from Herkimer, NY. From the census that year, we see that Harry is employed as an assembler at a typewriter company. This wasn't just any typewriter company, this was "the" typewriter company—Remington Typewriter Company, a division of Remington Firearms. It was located in nearby Ilion, NY.

The community began to flourish starting around 1816 when Eliphalet Remington created his first rifle, thereafter developing the Remington Arms manufacturing company. The community was stimulated in growth by the completion in 1825 of the Erie Canal, which completed area trade and connection with products from the Great Lakes region. In 1843 a post office was desired, so the people had to choose a name. Remington refused to be the namesake of the village, and it was eventually named Ilion.

On June 23rd, 1868, a patent was granted to Christopher Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel W. Soule for a "Type-Writer" which was eventually developed into the Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first device that allowed an operator to type substantially faster than a person could write by hand. The patent (U.S. 79,265) was sold for $12,000 to Densmore and Yost, who agreed with E. Remington and Sons (then famous as a manufacturer of sewing machines) to commercialize what was known as the Sholes and Glidden Type-Writer. Remington started production of their first typewriter on March 1st, 1873, in Ilion.

​The Type-Writer introduced the QWERTY keyboard, designed by Sholes, and the success of the follow-up Remington No. 2 of 1878 – the first typewriter to include both upper and lower case letters via a shift key – led to the popularity of the QWERTY layout.  E. Remington and Sons eventually sold their typewriter sector to the Standard Typewriter Manufacturing Company, which merged with the Rand Kardex Corporation in 1927 to form Remington-Rand Incorporated. They continued to be a major manufacturer in the typewriter industry throughout the 20th century. 

There you have it, as I bet you never dreamed of learning about the history of typewriters in this particular "Story in Stone?" Well, the name Remington also would be applied to Ilion's widely known band. In 1905, the Remington Company formed its first band, "The Remington Typewriter Band."

The Remington Band gained greater fame during the World War I era. One source states that following the Armistice on November 11th, 1918, the date of today's annual Veterans Day, the band made a trip to New York City and played in a parade to celebrate America's victory.

So, my two main sources for tracking this gentleman's life were United States census records and the musical bands he participated in. Harry and his family can be found at 203 Second St. in Ilion in 1920. I assume that he was still with the Remington Band. As mentioned earlier, he is said to have participated with the Penn Band of Syracuse which was located only an hour to the west. I couldn't find anything on this group, and theorize that they could have been affiliated with the Penn Traffic Grocery Store chain (incorporated in 1854).  They would move their corporate headquarters to Syracuse.

Around 1916, Georgia Haller married a professor named Herman C. Knandel who taught poultry extension at Pennsylvania State College. Meanwhile, brother Francis graduated from school and worked as an electrician. I thought that he would have served in World War I but saw on his draft certificate that he had been rejected admission to West Point Military Academy due to physical reasons. 

Harry Johns Haller, now in his 60's, would come back to his hometown of Frederick, Maryland after a 40 year absence. Of course he would bring wife Frances with him. They would take up residence in Braddock Heights. We glean a bit more about the family and this move, that likely occurred around 1922, from the obituary of Harry Francis Haller who died at the age of 31 in 1926. ​

Harry Francis Haller would be laid to rest in Mount Olivet's Area R/Lot 26. I found his gravestone interesting in the fact that an inscription on the backside pays homage to his beloved hometown of Ilion, New York. There also exists a unique footstone that reads "Camp Devens, Ayer, Mass." This truly puzzles me! Established in 1917 in Ayer, Massachusetts, Camp Devens was a World War I training and demobilization center that became the permanent Fort Devens in 1931. Today, this is the site of a former Army base that has been redeveloped into a new community named Devens, which includes residential areas, businesses, and a training ground for the military and law enforcement. It is named in honor of Major General Charles Devens Jr.

This now leads me to think that Harry Francis Haller could have participated in basic training for World War I, but did not complete said training.  I can't find anything on his possible service. Did the same physical limitations that kept him out of West Point eventually preclude participation, or did something happen in unfinished "basic training" that led to his declining health, thus precipitating the family to move to Braddock Heights for his heath and wellness reasons? I would learn from his interment card in the Mount Olivet records that he died of dysentery.  We know from history that Army camps were literal breeding grounds for disease.

Again, I am perplexed by the Camp Devens footstone, there is a message in its presence for sure.

From the 1930 Census, it appears that Harry Johns Haller participated in the "famed" Braddock Heights Concert Band, and why on Earth wouldn't he? Braddock Heights was a pretty happening place at this time as a major summer resort community complete with a dancehall, theater, observation tower, swimming pool and amusements. The Hotel Braddock and numerous cottages catered to visitors and served as residences for prominent Fredericktonians and socialites from Washington, D.C. 

Our veteran "Music Man" kept a low profile whilst back in Frederick. Occasional mentions in the newspaper tell of Harry and Frances Haller's trips to see their daughter, and like announcements that Georgia and Professor Knandel were visiting her parents here in Frederick. The Hallers would eventually move off the mountain and onto Frederick's West Patrick Street (106 W. Patrick Street). The Frederick County Courthouse property fronting West Patrick today occupies the footprint of the former home of the Hallers. This would be our subject's last home. It was a long way from all those years spent in proximity to Lake Ontario.

​Harry Johns Haller would die at the age of 83 in February, 1942. He would join son Harry Frances in Mount Olivet's Area R.

Frances (Winters) Haller would leave Frederick to reside with her daughter, now living in Salem, New Jersey. Upon her death in 1955, she too would be buried in the family plot with her husband and son. On the back of the couple's shared gravestone, an epitaph reads: "Sometime, Somewhere, We Shall Meet Again!" A footstone reading "Mother" was also placed in front of her upright gravestone.

Like the leaves, lives are full of color and change. Veterans are clearly draped in red, white in blue as well. Not to be a downer, but also like leaves, we all must fall to the ground one day and return to the earth. The secret is whether there is actually grace in the act....like that of the autumn leaves. In deference to our subject, I decided to check ChatGPT to see if leaves can make music like Harry Johns Haller did throughout his life. The response was this:

"The "music" leaves make can refer to the natural sounds of leaves rustling, or to music created using leaves as instruments or by converting their electrical signals into sound. The rustling sound of leaves is often described as a "susurrus" or "rustling." People have also developed techniques to play musical instruments from leaves and use technology to convert the electrical signals of a plant into audible tones."

​I guess if you can have a "Typewriter Band," you can have musical leaves. If the leaves sound half as good as they look, I'll take it. Thank you Frederick veterans​—one, and all.

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.

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. 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.

​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. ​

​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.

​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. 

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.

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.  

​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.

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. 

​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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

​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. 

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?

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.

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.

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.

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."

​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.

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. 

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.

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.

​A recent trip in early July took me to Augusta, Georgia. Too bad it wasn’t quite August yet, as it would have been a more fitting situation—visiting Augusta in August.

Georgia's second largest city is located on the eastern border of the state, having South Carolina just across the Savannah River. As I said earlier, my visit was in early July at a place where most tourists flock to this city and metro area of around 204,000 during the first full week of April, not even August. Why, you may ask? Well, it’s due to the Masters Golf Tournament, held annually at the Augusta National Golf Club. It is said that nearly 200,000 people come to see the tournament, doubling the population for the duration.

I’m no golfer, and have no business, whatsoever, going to Augusta in April. The reason for my sojourn was to see my stepson, Nick, who is stationed at Fort Gordon military installation. While there in the vicinity, we enjoyed the Augusta Riverwalk, fine Georgia cuisine, and the Augusta Museum of History. We learned that this town claims the “Godfather of Soul,” James Brown as one of their own. As a matter of fact, we saw the statue honoring the legendary performer on Broad Street. We also visited some historic cemeteries, more on that later.

​In advance of my trip, I became interested by the name "Augusta" and decided to do a little research. I soon learned that Augusta is the feminine version of the male moniker August, and is both a given name and surname developed from the Latin, Augustus. Derived from the Latin word augere, meaning "to increase,” Augustus has the meaning of "esteemed" or "venerable" and was a title given to Roman emperors, including one who was exceedingly revered. Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, also known as Octavian, was the founder of the Roman Empire. He served as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult and an era of imperial peace in which the Roman world was largely free of armed conflict.

​I had imagined that Augusta, Georgia was named after Augustus Caesar, but soon learned that I was  incorrect. Georgia's Augusta was established in 1736 and so named in honor of English nobility instead. Specifically, this was Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (1719–1772), the mother of the British monarch George III. We fought the American Revolution against the latter. I was more pleasantly surprised to learn that Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha was married to our town namesake—Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707-1751)! How’s that for a connection between both cities?

There is also an Augusta in Maine, the capital city to boot. In case you were curious, we even have an Augusta, Maryland. It can be found between Weverton and Brownsville in the southeastern corner of neighboring Washington County (along MD 67 and northwest of Brunswick).

I could not find a "Frederick, Georgia," however I’ve known for decades that there is a county in western Georgia that takes its name from one of the founders of Frederick, Maryland. It’s called Schley County. It was created by an act of the Georgia General Assembly on December 22nd, 1857, and named for William Schley, United States Representative and thirty-sixth governor of Georgia. To complete another unique connection, this gentleman was a grandson of Frederick's John Thomas Schley.

​John Thomas Schley is credited with settling these immigrants here in the Monocacy Valley, and helped create this town amidst a “howling wilderness.” He is noted as having been a talented musician and songwriter whose handwritten work can be found in the collection of Heritage Frederick. John Thomas Schley and wife Margaretha von Wintz were parents to several children including Eva Catherine Schley, said to have been the first white European child born in this locality. Another son of John Thomas Schley was John Jacob Schley, born July 12th, 1751. 

John Jacob Schley
John Jacob Schley grew up in Frederick and, in 1770, married Anna Maria Schellman (1754-1828), daughter of other pioneering German settlers to Frederick around 1751. These were John Matthias Schellman (1724-1795) and Maria Margaretha Fout (1732-1795). Anna Maria's father is reported to have built the second house in Frederick and worked as a "joiner," a woodworker who produced finish work for buildings including doors, windows, shutters, fireplace surrounds, and built-in cupboards.

According to historians Sumpter Priddy III and Joan K. Quinn in their article entitled: Crossroads of Culture: Eighteenth-Century Furniture from Western Maryland, John Jacob Schley presumably worked as a joiner. He served a seven-year apprenticeship beginning at the age of fourteen and probably began working independently about 1772. A record shows that in that year, he received 250 board feet of walnut from fellow resident Joseph Doll.  It is possible that Schley trained with his future father-in-law (John M. Schellman) since apprentices often married into the families of their masters.

John Jacob and Anna went on to have several children with one being the forementioned William Schley (1786-1858), namesake of Georgia's Schley County and one-time governor of the state. Other children of this union included: Michael (1774-1776), Anna Margaretha Schley (1779-1780), Anna Maria (1781-1850), John (1784-1847), Frederick A. (1789-1858), and George S. (1791-1851). 

William Jarboe Grove's The History of Carrollton Manor states that John Jacob Schley and brother-in-law John Schellman were active in the American Revolution effort and jointly loaned $1000 to the cause. In an old newspaper from 1768, I saw mention that John Jacob Schley was a manager for the lottery to build the Frederick Market House. This fabulous structure once stood on North Market Street where Brewer's Alley restaurant is today.

I was curious as to where John Jacob Schley resided while here in town. My research assistant Marilyn Veek did a deep dive and found that in 1753, Thomas Schley bought 4 full lots from Daniel Dulany, including lot 35 located on the east side of Market Street in the first block south of Patrick Street.
 
In 1775, John Thomas Schley sold a 36x60 ft part of lot 35 on the southeast corner of Market and Patrick (then called First Street) to his son John Jacob Schley. The parcel had a dwelling house on it. John Thomas sold additional lots on that block to other sons John Thomas Schley, Jr. and George Jacob Schley. John Thomas Schley, Jr. sold his lot to John Jacob in 1779. This was the 34x60 ft lot just south of John Jacob's lot. John Jacob also owned other property in Frederick, including a lot further south on South Market Street, as well as lots 38 and 39 on East Patrick Street.
 
John Jacob Schley sold parts of his corner lot to Woodward Evitt and to Jacob Schellman. The deed to Evitt mentions the property running along "Saint Patrick Street." In 1791, John Jacob Schley sold "Schley corner stores" to John Schley. That year he conveyed his remaining property to Jacob Gombare (Gomber)  to be sold to pay his debts.

In the winter of 1793, a few years after the death of his father, John Jacob Schley moved his family to Louisville, Georgia in today's Bacon County. Louisville was originally the county seat of Jefferson County and is situated southwest of Augusta on the Ogeechee River. It served as Georgia's third capital from 1796 to 1807. It was specifically founded as a permanent state capital and its design was based on the squares of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

While here, two more children were added to the family: Catherine Schellman (1795-1877) and Philip T. (1798-1862).  Not a great deal can be learned by the family's time in Louisville, where John Jacob would die in the fall of 1829. Unfortunately, his gravesite is not known. I do however know where his wife Anna Maria (Schellman) Schley would be buried. More on that in a minute.

​Let's address the descendants of our couple of John Jacob and Anna Maria (Schellman) Schley who brought the Schley name to Georgia. Michael Schley died early in life and his date of death and burial spot are unknown. Daughter Anna Maria Schley married a rich planter on the coast below Savannah—Major Maxwell. Catherine Schley married Dr. Daniel Hook, a preacher and physician who was twice elected mayor of Augusta, Georgia. Her obituary appeared in the local paper in March 1895, and I thought she would have been laid to rest in Augusta's Magnolia Cemetery. No Schleys were here. Anna Maria (Schley) Hook's grave is apparently in a small, family cemetery in Atlanta. 

​I would travel to Magnolia Cemetery anyway, to "poke" around and even found a few interesting Marylanders. In this burial ground, created in 1818 and originally called City Cemetery, I located the "Old Line" Maryland names of Belt, Beall and Randall. As a matter of fact, the Belt decedent (Charles Inman Belt) gravestone has the Maryland flag on its face in the form of the Calvert and Crossland coat of arms. Another "Augustus," in the form of Fontenoy Augustus Beall (1836-1879) was stumbled upon, but I didn't get the chance to search his lineage quite yet. The greatest find of the visit was locating the final resting place of James Ryder Randall  (1839-1908), a native Baltimorean and American journalist and poet. He is best remembered as the author of "Maryland, My Maryland," our former state son. His biography states:

"After abandoning his studies at Georgetown University, he traveled to South America and the West Indies. Upon his return to the United States he taught English literature at Poydras College in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. It was during this time that he penned "Maryland, My Maryland." Tuberculosis prevented him from enlisting in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. However, he was able to serve with the Confederate States Navy in Wilmington, North Carolina. Though a Marylander by birth, he wrote the poem "Maryland, My Maryland" while living in Augusta, Georgia. He considered himself a Georgian by adoption. After the Civil War, Randall became a newspaper editor and a correspondent in Washington, D.C., for The Augusta Chronicle. He continued to write poems, although none achieved the popularity of "Maryland, My Maryland."

​Where were the Schleys, you ask? Well, I had done my homework long before going on the trip, to tell the truth. They were in the Schley Family Cemetery. I would travel south of the City of Augusta to the suburbs and an area known as Richmond Hill. ​The graves of Anna Maria (Schley) Maxwell and brothers William and John can be found buried within yards of their mother in a sleepy little family burying ground located between downtown Augusta and Fort Gordon. And yes, I made it my mission to visit while I was there last month, how could I not?!

Anna Maria Schellmann Schley died on the 13th of November, 1843 in Augusta at the age of 90 years old. She had been a widow for the last 14 years and lived with her son. The Frederick native was laid to rest in the Schley Family Cemetery near the estate home of her son, William,  the 36th Governor of Georgia.

​John Schley, son of John Jacob Schley and Anna Maria Schellmann, was born on the 25th day of August 1784. He studied law in Augusta and was admitted to the bar, soon becoming one of the foremost lawyers of the state. On the 22nd of May 1807, John Schley married Miss Mary Ann Montfort, daughter of John and Mary Cowles (Brodnax) Montfort of Augusta. John and Mary had had a large family of children, consisting of seven sons and three daughters with some also buried here in the Schley Cemetery in proximity of their parents and grandmother.
 
From 1841 until 1845, now Judge John Schley, presided over the bench of the middle circuit of Georgia. He would become known for his "fair and judicious decisions." Judge Schley "departed this life" on the 26th day of May 1847 at his home due to heart failure. 

As mentioned, Richmond Hill was the name of the greater property that this cemetery sits on, but today has been divied into several parcels. It was once owned by William Schley who holds a special place in Georgia history as a leading politician and businessman.

​Born in Frederick on December 10th, 1786, this gentleman served as both a U.S. Congressman and Georgia Governor. After moving to Georgia as a boy, he was educated at the Louisville Academy, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1812. Schley practiced law in Augusta and served briefly as a Private in the 9th Regiment, Georgia State Militia during the War of 1812.

William Schley was a Superior Court Judge of the Georgia Middle District (1825 to 1828). He also was a member of the Georgia State House of Representatives in 1830. In 1833, Schley was elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses, serving until 1835. In 1835, he was elected as a Union Democrat, the 36th Governor of Georgia, serving until 1837. During his term, Gov. Schley pushed for the treatment of smallpox vaccinations, endorsed navigational developments, and lobbied for the establishment of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. He advocated for educational resources for the deaf, for improvements in the insane asylum, and managed to suppress a second Creek (Indian) rebellion.

William and brother Judge John Schley were pioneers in connection with the building of the first railroads and cotton mills in Georgia, and the charter of the Central Railway of Georgia was granted by Gov. Schley within his term of office. ​

​After leaving office, William Schley retired from politics and became the owner of a cotton and woolen manufacturing company. A high-level Mason, he also served as president of the board of trustees of the Medical College of Georgia until his death on November 20th, 1858 at the age of 71. He was personally responsible for laying out this cemetery on the grounds of his plantation home of Richmond Hill.

That leaves two sons of John Jacob Schley and Anna Maria Schellman to still talk about. One was a Georgia native, the other was another Frederick, Maryland native. Each would end their lives where they began. Let's talk about Philip Thomas Schley first. 

​Although not a Fredericktonian, his name certainly is. As loyal readers of this blog know, Frederick's first legitimate physician was a man named Dr. Philip Thomas from Chestertown, MD on the Eastern Shore. Thomas became the son-in-law of John Hanson, and he, too, served as an important Revolutionary War patriot. Additionally Mount Philip Road, west of Frederick, takes the medical man's name. As for Philip Thomas Schley, he was the youngest son of John Jacob Schley and the former Anna Maria Schellmann, born in Louisville on August 24th, 1798. Like brothers John and William, he completed his education in Louisville and Augusta, becoming a lawyer and soldier.
 
On June 27th 1822, Philip married Ann E. Fleming who died shortly after on September 10th. Widowed at 23, Philip, would next marry a woman named Frances Vivian Brookings and go on to have eight children. In 1834, at the request of his brother, Gov. William Schley, Philip came to Columbus (GA) to command the Muscogee Blues, a militia company active in the Indian Wars. Here is where Captain Schley would make his home and raise his family. After wife Frances died, Philip moved to Savannah and lived out his remaining days, departing this life on the 31st day of August 1862 just 7 days after his 64th birthday. Philip was first buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah, but later moved to Linwood Cemetery and re-interred beside his wife Frances.

As they say, we saved the best for last, at least as far as the historian of Mount Olivet Cemetery is concerned! This was Frederick A. Schley, who is resting in peace right here in Frederick's historic and beautiful "Garden Cemetery." And to make one more fascinating connection, our subject's middle initial of "A." could only be one thing. Yes, you guessed it—Augustus. That's right, Frederick Augustus, what are the odds?!

Page 1112 of John Thomas Scharf's History of Western Maryland includes an ample biographical sketch of Frederick Augustus Schley. I would learn from our cemetery records that his full name was Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg Schley.  I'd like to share his biography here for your reading pleasure:
​
"One of the most brilliant intellects that the bar of Western Maryland has ever boasted was that of Frederick A. Schley. Mr. Schley was the fourth son of John Jacob Schley, and was born at Frederick, Md., on the 14th of May, 1789, and died there on the 5th of February, 1858. His grandfather, Thomas Schley, the progenitor of the Schleys of Western Maryland and Georgia, was born in the Palatinate, in Germany, in 1712, came to America in 1745, and selected the site of Frederick City as his permanent home. 

One of Thomas Schley's sons, John Jacob Schley, married Ann Maria Shelman, and there were born to them while they lived in Frederick Michael, John, Ann Maria, William, Frederick Augustus, and George. About 1793, John Jacob Schley removed from Frederick to Louisville, Ga., where were born Philip Thomas and Catharine Schley. 

Talk about your "man-crush," as the author certainly made his feelings known about Frederick Augustus Schley. I think you get the gist that this individual was a gifted member of Frederick's past, and we were lucky to "keep him," so to speak. I first ran across this particular Schley family member in context of the War of 1812, and not his legal career. Frederick A. Schley held the rank of 1st Lieutenant and Quartermaster on August 25th, 1814 under Lt. Col. Stemble of the 3rd Regiment of the Maryland Militia. He was one of 108 former veterans of 1812 in Mount Olivet we honored with a plaque back in 2014, the bicentennial celebration of the war.

On the personal side, Frederick A. Schley married twice. His first marriage was April 27th, 1812 to Eliza Ashbury McCannon (1794-1816). Two known children are Col. George Schley (1813-1890) and Col. James McCannon Schley (1815-1883). Both grew up to be lawyers like their father and are buried in Hagerstown and Cumberland respectively.

Five years after losing Eliza, Frederick A. Schley wed Francina Cheston "Frances" Lynn (1797-1828) on January 11th, 1821. She was a daughter of Capt. David Lynn, from a very colorful family of western Maryland history and builder of "Rose Hill" in Cumberland. A young daughter of Frederick A. and Frances, by the name of Fanny Lynn Schley (?-1828), is buried next to her mother here in Mount Olivet in a plot purchased by the family in Area G/Lot 43. First wife, Eliza, is buried here too. 

​Frederick A. Schley would marry a third, and final, time on June 15th, 1843. This was to Barbara Bowie Hall (1823-1851). Four children would come from this union including Roger Taney Schley, Thomas Hall Schley, Eliza M. Schley and Buchanan Schley (1848-1916) who was born 18 months before his mother's death in 1851, and he would primarily be raised by his older stepbrother, Col. George Schley. He too would become a prominent lawyer after studying under Col. George,  and dabbled in Maryland politics as well later in life. He is buried in Hagerstown's Rose Hill Cemetery with sibling Col. George Schley.

​Concerning Frederick Augustus Schley and acquired property and homes throughout his life, Marilyn reported her task as being complicated by the fact that Frederick A. acted as trustee in many equity court cases —and despite that experience, he died intestate! He owned quite a few different properties. One could assume that he originally lived in the first property he bought in 1812, at what is now 37 North Market (but not the current building). He sold that property in 1842.
 
In 1837, Frederick A. Schley bought the Court Square property, now known as 101 Council Street. The property had been owned by builder John Brien, although the deed indicates that Schley was already occupying the property at the time of purchase. After his death, the property was sold to James Cooper, a fellow lawyer, politician and later, Civil War general. At this same time, Schley bought the east half of lot 119, which runs between 2nd and 3rd Streets west of the Presbyterian Church. He sold the south half of this lot to the Presbyterian Church in 1846, at which time he was using the north half as his garden. That north half is now 118 and 120 West Third Street.
 
In 1839, Frederick A. Schley bought more of John Brien's property, including Springfield Manor and other tracts (totaling over 700 acres). You may know Springfield Manor as a popular wedding venue located west of Lewistown along US15. It was originally built in the early 1800s by Col. James Johnson, the first furnace-master at Catoctin Furnace, just up the road.

​​In 1854, Frederick A. Schley  arranged with, then furnace owner, Peregrine Fitzhugh to build a dam and reservoir on Fitzhugh's nearby property in an effort to convey water from a spring down to the Springfield Manor house and outbuildings. The deed formalizing that arrangement said that Springfield was the farm on which his son, the late Frederick A Schley Jr., had resided for several years.
 
Other properties that Frederick A. Schley owned included the following:
 
*In 1817, bought the lot on the east side of Court Street, where the old jail and scale house stood. He sold this property to Richard Potts in 1821. Also in 1817, he bought part of lot 52 on the south side of Church Street.
 
*In 1820, he and William Schley bought property from the estate of Baltzer Fout that included 50 acres of Mill Lot, 54 acres of Grape Field, and 20 acres of Arcadia (contiguous to each other). Arcadia Manor house still stands along MD85/Buckeystown Pike just south of Marcies Choice Lane.
 
*In 1831, bought a house on 1/4 of lot 40, fronting 30 feet on the south side of Church Street.
 
*In 1833, bought part of lot 63 on the SW corner of Market and Church Street on the east side of the German Presbyterian Church. He sold this property to David Schley and Thomas Haller in 1847.
 
*In 1835, bought 9 acres part of Long Acre on the west side of the road from Frederick to the paper mill.
 
*In 1839 and 1845, bought several lots in Lewistown, including a half-interest in the town mill. 

A curious surname appears on a large gravestone found along the eastern driveway of the cemetery that parallels Stadium Drive to its west. This grave is in Area OO/Lot 136. I first took notice of it when I wrote a story about a gentleman named Charles Edwin “Casey” Jones who is buried in an adjacent lot. I knew I’d get back to the decedents resting here, William and Altie Suck, in the future when I had the chance to research their story.

​​William was the oldest of six children. The 1880 census shows that William’s father (Augustus Suck) was a miller and farmer. It appears that the Suck family eventually moved across the Ohio River to Ravenswood in Jackson County, West Virginia, where our subject continued performing farm-work.

​On January 1st, 1893, he married Altie Elizabeth West of Silverton, also in Jackson County. The couple can be found in Ravenswood in the 1900 US Census with their first-born son George Earnest Suck (b. 1897).

In 1910, the Suck family could be found living in Fort Smith, Sebastian County, Arkansas, at which place William was working as a foreman at a quarry and the census states that he was a steam shovel operator. His employer was likely the Fort Smith Marble Company.

​The Suck home property was at what is now 4703 and 4705 Mussetter Road, just north of the railroad tracks in Ijamsville. The house, formerly home of Ijamsville’s former general store operator at 4703 Mussetter, is described in a Maryland Historical Trust survey for the Ijamsville District as follows:
 
​The two-story frame building has been considerably altered, but the massing of the house reveals its 19th century origin. The exterior is covered with vinyl siding and a one-story porch is on the south elevation. The bay arrangement is irregular, reflecting the present use of the building as an apartment house. On the 1873 town plan, the building is identified as owned by J.T. Williams, one of the partners in the Sellman and Williams store (demolished) which stood to the west of the house near the road. The building's date is unclear because of its alterations, but at least part of the structure may date from about 1850-1860.

The photo above appears in an 1898 publication entitled Maryland Geological Survey (Volume Two). The caption reads as follows: Slate Quarry, Ijamsville, Frederick County. William Bullock Clark (MD State Geologist at the time) wrote the following passage that accompanied this photograph:
 
At the present time no slate is quarried at Ijamsville although this locality has been known as a source of slate for nearly if not quite a hundred years. Parrish, in his brief history of the slate trade in America, states that quarries near Frederick were opened about 1812. This may be a reference to the small openings at Linganore but it seems more in harmony with local traditions to infer that the quarries about Ijamsville were in mind.
 
When Isaac Tyson, Jr. (State Agricultural Chemist from 1858-1862) prepared his report, there were two slate quarries in operation. One was situated just west of the railroad station beside the tracks and the other was about a half mile south of the town. They were evidently quite small for they had not reached the best material. Little work was done during the time of the Civil War and the more prominent quarry shown in Plate XXIV Fig 2 (above photo) was permanently abandoned about 1870 when the pit commenced to undermine the roadbed of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The smaller opening lying south of the town never attained any considerable importance although efforts were made as late as 1892 to bring the product of this quarry into the market. The method of working followed was that of the Germans who mine rather than quarry their slate. A shaft was sunk to a depth of about sixty feet but the enterprise was not successful.
 
The slates from Ijamsville formerly brought nearly as good prices as those from Harford county but at the present time they are almost unsaleable. This is not due to the poor or unstable character of the stone so much as it is to the relatively poor workmanship displayed in recent years and the popular demand for a slate which will ring when tapped with a finger or pencil. Because of the hard and compact character of the better siliceous slates from Pennsylvania and the northern states it has become customary to regard all dull or soft slates as untrustworthy. In many instances this view is correct but in the case of the Ijamsville slates it is not warranted by the facts. The slates from this locality show microscopically that they are well crystallized and that they do not owe their softness to a partial change from a shale to a slate but to an admixture of the relatively stable and soft mineral talc, which is usually wanting in the better-known slates. If the stone were unstable the blue-black color would change upon exposure. This it does not do since roofs on which the slates have been exposed to the atmosphere for fully fifty years do not indicate any change in color as a result of this exposure. In spite of their permanency in color and their strength the slates have yet to prove themselves a basis for a profitable industry.
 
I read in the Maryland Heritage Trust survey that a number of early Ijamsville homes boasted slate roofs. Regardless, I found it interesting that the article mentioned the German style of “mining” slate. Was this a contributing factor for bringing the German Suck family to our area?
 
Our friend, William Suck of Bohemian heritage, didn’t get to enjoy many years of life in Maryland, “the Land of Pleasant Living.” There is also a specific reason why I have given an intricate geology lesson as it pertains to Ijamsville.  Our final plot twist involves a cause and effect relationship between both statements above.  For many people living in this time period, 1918 was understandably a terrible year with the height of American involvement, and casualties related to World War I. This year also saw the Spanish Influenza pandemic which is said to have infected one-third of the world's population with an estimated number of deaths at 50 million worldwide and 675,000 here in the United States.
 
Our subject and his family made it through unscathed, George participated in World War I and no one got the flu from what I have been able to glean. However, one can definitively say that the year 1919 really “sucked” for our subject. To be exact, the day of June 16th would be more than “rocky” for the entire Suck family, leaving them with a crushing blow, both literally, and figuratively.

Following William’s tragic death, Altie Suck began spending her winters in Melbourne, Florida with son John. The family continued residing in Ijamsville. George would move to Wolfsville in northern Frederick County and Charles would relocate to Tulsa, Oklahoma by 1930 and at the time of his mother’s death could be found in Burbank, California, residing with his wife’s grandfather, working as a welder and having changed the spelling of his last name to Sook. Another son,  Harry R. Suck (b. 1911), appears in the 1920 census, but nowhere else. He is thought to have predeceased his mother because he is not mentioned in her obit.

Altie would survive her husband by nearly twenty years. She died while visiting son George in winter of 1938. She would be laid to rest next to William in Area OO/Lot 136.

​The family property was advertised for sale in October 1938, but learned that this would convey to brother John. He lived in Ijamsville until his death on December 7th, 1960. Although there is no stone, our records show that John is buried next to his parents in the Suck lot within Area OO. I found that George died in 1956 and is buried in Baltimore National Cemetery. His widow, Caroline Kolb Suck, is buried in Mount Olivet, just a few yards away from her former in-laws in Area OO/Lot 128.

Interestingly, George's son, George Earnest (1939-2012), actually changed his name to George Earnest West, taking the maiden name of his patenal grandmother, Altie (West) Suck. He is buried to the immediate left of his grandparents (William and Altie) in Area OO's Lot 136. Rest in peace Suck family.

John Fulton Reynolds, born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on September 20th, 1820, was a career United States Army officer and one of the Union's most-respected, senior commanders. Reynolds would soon play a key role in committing  his men, and the entirety of the Army of the Potomac, to the Battle of Gettysburg. As a result, he would be killed at the start of the battle on July 1st, 1863.

Gen. Reynolds would spend his final days in Frederick County including the nearby Middletown Valley, Frederick City and northern Frederick County. This took place as the Union Army amassed in our area in pursuit of Lee and his Confederate Army after the Rebels had crossed the Potomac near Williamsport and into Maryland in mid-June, 1863.

There is a story that Reynolds visited with cousins here in Frederick before making his ill-fated journey to Gettysburg. Could any of these Reynolds relatives be buried in Mount Olivet? I was recently reminded of Gen. Reynolds and his time in Frederick as I made a Memorial Day weekend visit to Reynold's hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I stayed at a hotel called the Cork Factory, a shining example of adaptive reuse, located virtually across the street from Lancaster Cemetery, eternal resting place of Gen. John F. Reynolds and his family. While there, I certainly made a point of visiting the general's gravesite and impressive monument, decorated accordingly for Memorial Day.

The Reynolds' family plot in Lancaster Cemetery contains a number of immediate family members, most importantly, his parents, John Reynolds and Lydia (Moore) Reynolds. The couple married in 1813 and went on to have 12 children, 8 of whom reached adulthood.

Of the Reynolds' grown children, four were males including our subject Maj. Gen. John Fulton Reynolds (1820-1863). All served in the American Civil War and can be found within the family burial plot with their parents. Two older brothers were Samuel Moore Reynolds (1814-1888) and William Reynolds (1815-1879). Samuel was assigned to the US Volunteers Paymaster Department at the rank of major shortly after he enlisted and mustered in federal service in 1863. William was a member of the US Navy and served as an officer during the war. A younger brother of Gen. John F. Reynolds by two years, James Lefevre Reynolds (1822-1880), served as quartermaster-general for Pennsylvania during the Civil War, having been appointed by the governor, Andrew C. Curtin.

This cluster of sibling names would aid me in finding both an uncle, and two great-uncles, of Gen. John F. Reynolds in Mount Olivet. I also found a few first and second cousins as well. To put things in proper context, I must give a brief genealogy lesson on Gen. Reynolds' paternal line:

John's great grandfather was William Reynolds (1720-1788). This gentleman was originally from Ballymoney in County Tyrone, Ireland. He married a woman named Wilmot Jewell (1725-1809) in Cornwall England in 1744. They would have a son named William Jewell Reynolds (1744-1801), the general's grandfather. William Jewell Reynolds and at least two brothers, John "Old Jackey" Reynolds (1852-1822) and Hugh Reynolds (1754-1804), would come to America in the 1760s. They likely arrived in Philadelphia and made their way to Lancaster County. William Jewell Reynolds would marry Catharine Ferree Lefevre of Paradise, PA, granddaughter of one of the earliest pioneering settlers of the area named Isaac Lefevre, a French Huguenot. Paradise is a small village about 11 miles east of Lancaster, and both of the general's grandparents are buried here.

As for William Jewell Reynolds, Jr.'s brothers, John Reynolds and Hugh Reynolds, these gentlemen made their way to Frederick and were members of the local Presbyterian Church congregation. Their deaths precede the opening of Mount Olivet in 1854, but they would be brought to our cemetery in 1887 as part of a mass removal project of the old Presbyterian burial ground, once located on the southwest corner of North Bentz Street and Dill Avenue. The bodies from that graveyard can be found on the northwest end of Area NN in Mount Olivet. Today, you can find the large ledger stone of Hugh Reynolds in the center of the grave cluster, and the slate gravestone of John Reynolds positioned against the back row and against the chain-link fence.  ​

These decedents represent great uncles and second cousins of Gettysburg's fallen hero Gen. John F. Reynolds. I did not find much info on any of these gentlemen. However, there is another family plot in Mount Olivet that has Reynolds' relatives that Gen. John F. Reynolds would have been more familiar with during his abbreviated lifetime. It is in Area D/Lot 16 towards the front of Mount Olivet, not far from the Key Memorial Chapel. This is the family plot of Gen. Reynolds' paternal uncle, Samuel Lefevre Reynolds (1779-1814). Samuel was the son of William Jewel Reynolds and brother of the general's father, John Reynolds, owner of the family plot in Lancaster.

A single, four-sided, monument marks the final resting place of Samuel Lefevre Reynolds and wife Eleanor  Reynolds (1781-1855), married in Lancaster in 1804. Four unmarried daughters are buried here as well and include: Mary Catharine Reynolds (b. @1807-1870); Sarah Jane Reynolds (1810-1862); Margaret Lefevre Reynolds (d. 1839) and Lydia Eleanor Reynolds (death date unknown).

I learned from a daughter's obituary that Samuel L. Reynolds was an esquire. The family originally lived in Lancaster but had moved to Frederick sometime before Samuel's death at age 34 in February, 1813, although his gravestone says 1814. Mennonite Church records from Lancaster County show that at least three daughters were born in Pennsylvania.

Widow Eleanor Reynolds remained in Frederick and is listed as head of household in the 1830, 1840 and 1850 census records. From an article found in an 1831 edition of the Frederick Town Herald, I surmise that Mrs. Reynolds' daughter, Mary Catharine, was an educator with ties to one of the earliest schooling opportunities for girls in Frederick's history. She is listed as a member of the endeavor's managerial board. This venture began in 1829 and was known as the Protestant Female Free School. Nine years later, another newspaper article would praise Miss Reynolds' efforts, along with those of a woman named Mrs. Elizabeth H. Bayley (1807-1863) of Frederick, whose endeavors would lead to success in partnership with Hiram Winchester's Frederick Female Seminary.

​​John Fulton Reynolds
Now that the family is introduced, the stage is set for me to relay that story involving Gen. John F. Reynolds visiting a surviving member of the Samuel L. Reynolds' family. This was the soldier's first cousin, Mary Catharine Reynolds, more commonly referred to as Catharine Reynolds. She lived in the first block of Frederick's West Second Street and the event in question occurred just three days prior to Gen. Reynolds' untimely death.  However, I think I owe you a biography on Gen. Reynolds, himself first to give proper context. This one comes from a website entitled CivilWarTalk.com:

​"The son of John and Lydia Reynolds, John Fulton Reynolds was born at Lancaster, PA on September 20, 1820. Initially educated in nearby Lititz, he later attended the Lancaster County Academy. Electing to pursue a military career like his older brother William who had entered the US Navy, Reynolds sought an appointment to West Point. Working with family a family friend, Senator James Buchanan, he was able to obtain admission and reported to the academy in 1837. An average student, Reynolds graduated in 1841 ranked twenty-sixth in a class of fifty.

​Returning to the Army of the Potomac, Reynolds assumed command of the Pennsylvania Reserves as McCall had also been captured. In this role, he took part in the Second Battle of Manassas at the end of the month. Late in the battle, he aided in making a stand on Henry House Hill which assisted in covering the army's retreat from the battlefield.

As Lee moved north to invade Maryland, Reynolds was detached from the army at the request of Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtain. Ordered to his home state, the governor tasked him with organizing and leading the state militia should Lee cross the Mason-Dixon Line. Reynolds' assignment proved unpopular with McClellan and other senior Union leaders as it deprived the army of one of its best field commanders. As a result, he missed the Battles of South Mountain and Antietam where the division was led by fellow Pennsylvanian Brigadier General George G. Meade. Returning to the army in late September, Reynolds received command of I Corps as its leader, Major General Joseph Hooker, had been wounded at Antietam. That December, he led the corps at the Battle of Fredericksburg where his men achieved the only Union success of the day. Penetrating the Confederate lines, troops, led by Meade, opened a gap but a confusion of orders prevented the opportunity from being exploited.

Now it's finally time for that story I've been promising, a meeting between cousins. We used to have a Civil War Trails interpretive marker on Market Street that mentioned the incident on June 28th, 1863. It has since been replaced by another marker nearby.

Civil War researcher, historian and author Rev. John W. Schildt includes this story in his 1978 book Roads to Gettysburg, revised and republished in 2003. I struggled to find a "Catharine Reynolds" in Mount Olivet, but pieced it all together with Reynolds family genealogical work and the discovery of Mary C. Reynolds in our cemetery records with the "C" standing for "Catharine." All I can tell you about her is that she was an unmarried woman of about 56 years old at the time Union troops poured into Frederick in late June, 1863. Catharine appears to be head of household and was in the process of selling her home and adjoining lot at auction from advertisements in the local newspaper that I found. For one reason or another, the sale did not go through at this time, or was seriously delayed.​

As mentioned, Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds commanded the I Corps of the Army of the Potomac, and would have added leadership duties in the Gettysburg Campaign. His First Corps had been serving in the Middletown Valley as the left flank of the Union Army on June 27th. Reynolds would rendezvous with his new commander (Gen. Meade) in Frederick on Sunday, June 28th at Prospect Hall. This would not be the only person he would have a special meeting with on this particular day. His cousin, Catharine Reynolds, would be the other. 

Late in the afternoon, a distinguished-looking man rode from Prospect Hall through the streets of Frederick, dismounting near the intersection of Second and North Market streets. Cousin Catherine Reynolds lived at what is today 7 West Second Street. Her home was a two-story L-shaped structure. She had been expecting him to make a visit. The following narrative comes from a letter written by Ms. Reynolds (to one of the general's sisters) talking of the visit made by her famous cousin. 

"I have been thinking of writing to you for the past three days to tell you how much I enjoyed Cousin John's brief visit. Judging of your feelings by my own, the most trivial circumstance of so dearly beloved a brother will be of interest to you. We have been in such a state of excitement and confusion since our capture and recapture that I do not remember what I wrote Ellie but I think I gave her particulars of the street skirmishes, etc. When we heard the Army of the Potomac was really coming my first and constant thought was, Now I shall see Cousin J.

All day Saturday the Cavalry was passing up Market St. and I enquired of several of the soldiers who stopped to eat the bread and butter the ladies were sending out to them...if General Reynolds would be through. All who seemed to know anything about him said that he had gone with the infantry by way of Jefferson...so I gave up hope of seeing him for the time, although I had really been so confident that he was coming as to prepare a nice dinner. Saturday night we were kept awake by the noisy wagon trains and such a Sunday I never spent. There was scarcely any possibility of crossing the street for the countless multitudes who were pouring through. Quite unable to read for the noise and wearied after with looking, about 3 P.M. I undressed to try to get a nap. A few minutes after Clara came up and said General Reynolds was downstairs. It really seemed in my hurry as if I never should get ready to go down. I told Ann to set a table for lunch. Cousin looked very well, said he had returned from Jefferson the night before and would have come around then but thought it was too late (but I had a room ready for him and wish so much he had come). He seemed to enjoy the...meal of cold roast beef, yellow pickle and cherry pie, said he had eaten nothing that morning being engaged in finding an encampment for his men...promised to return to late tea after he had been to see his new Commander in Chief for orders and spoke as though they expected to be here for some time...We waited for him until 1/2 past 9 o'clock. Meanwhile Ann and I gave supper to 17 soldiers who came in at different times asking to buy bread as all the shops had sold out and they had nothing all day. It was truly a pleasure to supply their wants. One very intelligent old man said he had not eaten a  meal at a table for 15 months...and would not forget how kind the ladies of Frederick were to them, so different from the Virginia ladies who used to throw stones at them. Another heard the church bells ringing and said, that sounded like home, we've had no Sunday for a year. Ann's gallon of coffee seemed quite to rest and relieve them. I forgot to mention that three members of Cousin's staff who accompanied him, remained mounted while he stayed and I sent them a plate of sandwiches which no doubt amused our Secesh neighbors, but no matter.

​Cousin did not return to supper, not have I seen him since. Early next morning he left with his corps..."

​"Riding into Gettysburg on June 30th, Brigadier General John Buford realized that the high ground south of the town would be key in a battle fought in the area. Aware that any combat involving his division would be a delaying action, he dismounted and posted his cavalry troopers on the low ridges north and northwest of town with the goal of buying time for the army to come up and occupy the heights. Attacked the next morning by Confederate forces in the opening phases of the Battle of Gettysburg, he alerted Gen. Reynolds and asked him to bring up support. Moving towards Gettysburg with I and XI Corps, Reynolds informed Meade that he would defend "inch by inch, and if driven into the town I will barricade the streets and hold him back as long as possible." 

Arriving on the battlefield, Reynolds met with Buford and advanced his lead brigade to relieve the hard-pressed cavalry. As he directed troops into the fighting near Herbst Woods, Reynolds was shot in the neck or head. Falling from his horse, he was killed instantly. With Reynolds' death, command of I Corps passed to Major General Abner Doubleday. Though overwhelmed later in the day, I and XI Corps succeeded in buying time for Meade to arrive with the bulk of the army. As the fighting raged, Reynolds' body was taken from the field, first to Taneytown, MD and then back to Lancaster where he was buried on July 4th. A blow to the Army of the Potomac, Reynolds' death cost Meade one of the army's best commanders. Adored by his men, one of the general aides commented, "I do not think the love of any commander was ever felt more deeply or sincerely than his." Reynolds was also described by another officer as “a superb looking man…and sat on his horse like a Centaur, tall, straight and graceful, the ideal soldier.”

John Fulton Reynolds is remembered at the Gettysburg National Military Park by an impressive equestrian statue near the spot he fell 162 years ago. Other reminders can be found here and back in his hometown of Lancaster where he was laid to rest in the Reynolds family plot at Lancaster Cemetery.

The Battle of Gettysburg raged for three days. Gen. Meade pursued Gen. Robert E. Lee's retreat through Maryland as he was delayed crossing the Potomac River for days due to impressive rain showers making it impossible to cross. In the end, the majority of Frederick's Union supporting citizens were thankful to Gen. Meade and the Northern soldiers. However, President Lincoln was upset that he had lost one of his brightest military leaders in Reynolds, and was severely disappointed that Meade had allowed Gen. Lee to eventually escape back into Virginia to fight another day...more like 21 months.

We have no idea exactly when, or how, Catharine received the news of Gen. Reynolds' death. She would eventually sell her home, and many belongings at auction the following year before taking up residence with Mr. William Dean and family. It appears that she soon went back into teaching, opening a select school for girls in 1865.

Mary Catharine Reynolds would die February 17th, 1870. She was the last of her immediate family to be buried in the small lot in Mount Olivet's Area D with its single monument. I'm sure she thought of "Cousin J" each of the last six years of her own life on July 1st, the anniversary of his death. I'm sure she appreciated the fact that she saw him one last time on June 28th, 1863, but longed for the opportunity for more time and the chance to feed him dessert and tea as she had planned later that day, or the next.

Perhaps the cousins met once again, far from Frederick, but more importantly, further from the ugly scenes of battle.

I recently taught a class entitled Frederick & the Wild West. I introduced students to a number of former Frederick residents who re-settled in the "western part" of the country, something that changed drastically over the years with expansion into the interior in the late 1700s and 1800s. Frederick County itself was on the western frontier at the time of its founding in 1748.

For the last 280 years, Frederick has boasted several ties to this important story through past residents as settlers and/or playing subtle roles in national events. I also discussed visits to Frederick by legendary "Wild West" icons like Chief Black Hawk, Santa Anna, George Armstrong Custer and Buffalo Bill Cody to name a few. On the flipside, are you familiar with any of these homegrown products that made names for themselves "in the west" such as Pvt. John Collins, James Lewis Johnson, Simon and Titus Cronise, Joseph Walling, Capt. George Late Tyler and James H. Dean? If not, enter their names in the search engine in the header as I've likely written about them in this blog.

One more to tell you about is a man named Luther M. Schaeffer, a pharmacist and published author, who wrote of his journey west to California, Mexico and South America in 1849—a century after Frederick County’s founding. Mr. Schaeffer will be the subject of this week’s “Story in Stone.”

Luther M. Schaeffer was a humble pharmacist who operated a drug store on Frederick's famed "Square Corner" in the mid-19th century. He was a "learned man" as they say, not surprising because he was the son of a popular, local clergyman. Years earlier, our subject had taken his try at "Manifest Destiny" some 16 years prior to newspaperman Horace Greeley's famed plea "Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country."

There's nothing finer for a researcher and biographer than a first-person narrative. I would have never known about the adventure taken by this Mount Olivet inhabitant had it not been for a visit to eBay one day about four years ago. A search for Frederick, MD yielded an auction item for the vintage, small, hard-cover book entitled: Sketches of Travels in South America, Mexico and California. The book was published in 1860, yet included a personalized inscription in pencil dated “Jan 21st, 1874, Frederick, Md.” 

This inscription inside the cover page was the sole purpose for it appearing under my search for "Frederick, MD" because I certainly wasn’t looking for anything pertaining to South America, Mexico or California at the time. The seller was in Stone Mountain, Georgia and told me the book had spent a good part of its existence in a library, but one not known.

The author of this book is the fore-mentioned L. M. Schaeffer, a man I was not familiar with at all. When I stumbled upon this auction, I immediately decided to perform two searches to learn more about this book, centering on the author and a possible connection to Frederick. I hoped the inscription wasn’t simply written by a former owner of the book with no further relation to the author or content.
​
I first needed to learn the author’s full name and his/her whereabouts in both life and death. I decided to start my search in Frederick and soon located my potential “author of interest” in census records within Ancestry.com. I soon deciphered the “L.M.” standing for Luther Melancthon and discovered that he was a Frederick native and past resident. Best of all, I found Mr. Schaeffer here in Mount Olivet, resting in peace, of course. 

One can find Luther Melancthon Schaeffer's gravestone in Mount Olivet's Area F/Lot 64. Unfortunately his monument faces to the east on the side of the cemetery's "Pump House Hill" which boasts the highest elevation in downtown Frederick. Poetic irony would have had him facing towards the West, of course, but I can't have everything work my way for these stories now, can I?

The number of the moment is "21." Born September 26th, 1821 in Frederick, Luther Schaeffer was one of six children belonging to Rev. David Frederick Schaeffer (1787-1837) of Evangelical Lutheran Church and the minister's wife, Elizabeth Krebs (1794-1837). The boy's christening on October 21st, less than a month later, is mentioned in the famed diary of Jacob Engelbrecht. Rev. Schaeffer was ordained by the Pennsylvania Ministerium in 1812, although he had received his license to preach earlier in 1808. On July 17th of that same year (1808), Schaeffer became pastor of Frederick, Maryland’s Evangelical Lutheran congregation. Five days after his arrival, he would celebrate his 21st birthday.

Just over six years later, Rev. Schaeffer received high praise from the citizenry for his leadership and patriotism during the War of 1812. Diarist Jacob Engelbrecht wrote the following journal entry many years later:

“War of 1812. The following is the Muster Roll (copy) of Captain John Brengle’s Company of Volunteers, which Company was raised in four hours, by marching through the streets of Frederick, August 25, 1814, (the day after the Battle of Bladensburg, on which day we received the news) headed by Captain Brengle & by the side, with them, rode the Reverend David F. Schaeffer, encouraging the men to volunteer…”
​
Somewhat like Paul Revere, Rev. David Frederick Schaeffer helped warn the "masses" that “the British were coming” and more so urged residents to aid in repulsing this threat to America’s independence. Capt. John Brengle, a large farm-owner from just east of town, was a seasoned militia veteran and upon hearing the threat to the capital became intent on raising additional men. Rev. Schaeffer is said to have ridden alongside the company for three miles on their departure out of town that same day of August 25th as they headed south on the Georgetown Pike (today's MD route 355). He delivered a parting address and offered a prayer with the soldiers all kneeling. 

Our subjects' parents are buried a short distance away on the south side of Pump House Hill, and other siblings can be found in Mount Olivet as well. These bodies were moved here in 1902 from a vault once located in the second Evangelical Lutheran Church Graveyard once located in the vicinity of today's Everedy Square off East Church Street extended.

Without official documentation, it can be surmised that Luther M. Schaeffer was no stranger to education as he most certainly received above average schooling from his father and the church in his formative years. His childhood home would have been the rectory house of the church, itself. I found a reference that pointed to a Luther M. Schaeffer attending preparatory school in the 1830s (class of 1834) at Pennsylvania College located in Gettysburg. This is today's Gettysburg College, of which Luther's father was a founding member.

I surprisingly found Luther M. Schaeffer in the 1840 Census living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's Cedar Ward. He was likely very familiar with the City of Brotherly Love as his mother was from here.

In the years I've been writing this blog, I am sometimes fortunate to find or obtain a photograph or portrait of my subject. Other times, I may locate a newspaper article or advertisement with the individual's name included. Other times, I consider myself lucky to find a diary quote, or recorded correspondence in family records or newspaper accounts. In the case of Luther M. Schaeffer, I have both a book written in his own hand, and a love letter to his future wife. I don't know what Luther looked like, but I have gotten a true sense of this smart, sentimental and caring man through his own words.

I found the above gem of a letter online. A gentleman named Griff has the following website entitled Spared & Shared 2. Here is the link:  https://sparedandshared2.wordpress.com/
The premise of the Spared & Shared 2 website is to host a blog repository of old letters found at auction for the benefit of family historians and researchers. Griff has transcribed hundreds of letters in his collection including this one by our subject. I am indebted to Griff and thank him for helping us understand just a little bit more about L. M. Schaeffer through his letter to Ann Rebecca.

Unfortunately, I can tell you little more about L.M. Schaeffer's life as a young man aside from attending medical/pharmaceutical school in Philadelphia. An advertisement in the Baltimore Sun of 1848 points to the fact that our subject was operating a variety store in Baltimore at #62 Baltimore Street near the intersection with Gay Street. I'm not sure if he returned to Frederick by the end of the decade, but I do know that he caught "gold fever" in 1849. Meanwhile, the love of his life waited patiently for him in Frederick.

The author writes the following in his preface:

"While pursuing a journey to and from California, some years since, and during my sojourn there, I kept a daily record of ‘‘what I saw and did.’’ It was a source of great interest and pleasure to me, especially as it was written and continued at the desire of the dear and valued friend to whom this book is dedicated. And being a stranger, wandering among strangers, often deprived of all congenial society, it became my chief delight to note down my impressions of the countries I visited. Of course, my recollections of events and occurrences are stronger and more vivid than they would otherwise have been, and since my return many questions having been asked by acquaintances relative to a miner's life &c., frequent reference to my journal has been made. One of the editors of a religious paper, who had often listened to my reminiscences of a life among the miners, solicited me to contribute articles for his paper, which appeared under the signature of Quartz: and were continued until I had communicated the principal incidents of my three years absence. These articles, it gives me pleasure to say, were favorably received, and I have been frequently requested to publish them in book form. They are now offered to the public, with diffidence and some little hesitancy—and while they may possess no literary merit, still a full and correct history of events which came under my own observation, will, it is hoped, compensate for other deficiencies. L. M. S. Frederick, Md., 1860."

More Engelbrecht quotes from 1849:

“For California - This morning the members of the "Baltimore & Frederick Mining Company” of this town, left in the Baltimore cars for Baltimore. They are Messrs. Ai Barney, Elijah T. Zimmerman, David Clingan of
Winchester, Elias Brunner of Jonathan, David E. Miller, Valentine Doub of Joshua, Owen D. Ball, William Wallace Houck#, Doctor James Shorb, Emmitsburg, Francis J. Hoover, Samuel Jarboe, George H. Waesche#,
President, Ai Barney Vice President. They calculate on sailing on Saturday next 21 instant.”
Thursday April 19, 1849 8 o’clock AM

“They sailed on Monday April 23d in the ship Creole, Captain Allen, for the Isthmus of Darien. The other members that went are Repold C. Maund# William F. Mercer, Hy. Powles, William F. Sadtler, William Cariby,
William H. Wasesche, Thomas P. D. Pue, Ephraim Engle, William Job, James P. Waits, George W. Fielmeyer, George A. Ward, John F. Dowell, John A. Davis, Daniel T. Taylor, John Landers, Hy. H. Bechtel, Samuel S.
Bechtel, Frederick Miller, James Murray. Passengers, John A. Freaner, Andrew J. Vaugh, James S. Graham.”
See June 49 # Died # passenger

“California. Mrs. Barney of our town received today a letter from her husband Mr. Ai Barney dated "Ship Creole off Chagres. (Isthmus of Darien) May 16 1849” which is the first letter since they left Baltimore (April
23 1849). The crew are all well & in fine spirits. He had been a little sea-sick but Valentine O. Doub had the sea-sickness rather more than the others.”

Now its time to hear from a 49er himself, in the form of Luther M. Schaeffer. After receiving his passport, Luther made his way to New York City to catch a sailing ship for California.

That was chapter 1 of Luther M. Shaeffer's epic life journey. Three routes were given as options. There was an overland route which our subject passed on. The other two involved passage by water. One involved a voyage around South America, called "Around the Horn," while the other included a destination to Central America and the Isthmus of Panama. The Panama Canal would not be opened until 1914, making travel much easier with a 51-mile trek from Colon on the Gulf of Mexico to Panama City on the Pacific. This was called: "Crossing the Isthmus."

​Our subject opted for the first water route around South America, 18,000 miles in 5-6 months. The journey was long, hard and very dangerous. After preparing for a four to eight month journey, and parting from family and friends, thousands of adventurers set sail. The promises of ships' advertisements were quickly disproved by the realities of life onboard, and gold fever was soon replaced with sea sickness. Many others like Schaeffer would record the challenges, hardships, struggles, and dangers encountered in diaries and letters. These included terrible storms, inadequate food and water, rampant diseases, overcrowding, and shipwrecks. 

Chapters 2 and 3 of his book recount life aboard the ship "Flavius" and a colorful stopover in Brazil, specifically Rio de Janiero from mid-late May, 1849. Back on ship. June 22nd marked the day that Schaeffer and his shipmates passed round Cape Horn, southernmost tip of South America.

​As they headed back northward on their journey, another port of call is mentioned as a stopping point on July 12th—Valparaiso, Chile. While here, he dined at a hotel named The Baltimore House, owned and operated by a former Maryland native. Their next stop would be the final destination of San Francisco.

​Between April 1849 and January 1850, nearly 40,000 individuals arrived in San Francisco by sea, including Luther M. Schaeffer. There they discovered that they were still 150 miles from the closest gold fields, and that most of the easy placer gold had already been picked up. But they had survived, and opportunities were plenty in California.

​​CHAPTER V. --SAN FRANCISCO IN 1849
"After six months' endurance of the good old ship Flavius—after an almost interminable life on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans—after a surfeit of watching the rising and setting sun, the circular horizon, the numerous fishes of the deep, and listening to the roar of the angry waters, the strike of the ship's bells, to the orders of the officers, the stories of passengers and sailors—at last, on Sketches of travels in South America, Mexico and California. By the bright and beautiful morning of September 17th, 1849, we passed the ‘‘Golden Gate,’’ entered the capacious and magnificent bay of San Francisco, and let go the heavy anchors, amid the vociferous cheers of one hundred delighted and grateful passengers. Only those who have been long at sea, can appreciate the happy feelings of persons, who after a long and tedious voyage, are permitted to look out upon land, and can once more tread mother earth.

I succeeded in procuring a standing place in a row boat alongside our vessel, and was soon nearing that land whose rich mineral deposits were disturbing the entire world. ‘‘Keep down there!’’ ‘‘Hold still! Wait until I can fasten my boat.’’ ‘‘Don't you see how fast the tide is running?’’ ‘‘There—you can go.’’ We jumped ashore, and I stood upon the soil of California. So long pent up on board the ship, that when I began to walk, it seemed as though the earth was heaving to and fro, like some gigantic vessel. But this feeling soon passed off, and I pushed ahead, determined to see and hear all I possibly could in San Francisco. People from every part of the habitable globe appeared to be congregated here. Some were hurrying off to the mines—others were bartering their clothes, their saw, plane, hatchet, &c., to raise funds to enable them to reach the auriferous districts. Others, again, were driving a brisk trade in merchandise, or were engaged in hotel keeping, and preparing habitations for the coming winter.  People had no time to stop and talk. Rents were enormous, prices exorbitant, and everybody acted as though they had but a few hours only to attend to a year's business. With the exception of a few old stone and adobe houses, the town seemed to contain nothing but tents and boarded houses, some of which were brought from the States.

​​CHAPTER VI.—OFF FOR THE MINES.
‘‘Jump aboard, men! Don't you see that black cloud rising there? Hurry up—we must cross the bay before the storm overtakes us.’’ We hurried aboard, hoisted the anchor, and away our little schooner cut through the water ‘‘like a thing of life.’’ But the storm overtook us, and the wind blew hard, tossing our little schooner up and down the angry waves. She rocked to and fro, was pitched upon her starboard side, and she cracked and strained as though she would break into a thousand pieces. But we weathered the storm safely, and soon lost sight of San Francisco. We were bound for Stockton, on our way to the southern mines. Our party consisted of fourteen men, each of whom, myself excepted, were accustomed to manual labor, and they feared that I could not endure the  exposure, and lacked the physical strength necessary for a ‘‘miner;’’ but it proved in the end that the ‘‘battle is not always to the strong, nor the race to the swift.’’ About 8 A. M. we lay to; towards daylight a breeze springing up, we up anchor and sailed onward. We passed Benecia, a most lovely location for a town. The numerous and abrupt hills back of the village, gave a pleasing charm to the view, all of which, as far as the eye could reach, were covered with wild oats and barley. There were several United States men-of-war and merchant ships riding at anchor, and it was thought this would become a naval station. As we sailed on we saw two shanties on the shore, which I was told constituted the city of ‘‘New York on the Pacific.’’ At length we entered the mouth of San Joaquin river, a stream so narrow that I could toss from the vessel a pebble on either shore, and so shallow that not only our little craft, but others we passed, were occasionally aground, and had to wait until the tide floated us off. Another night on board, but no sleep for any of the passengers. The myriads of musquitoes that infest the Tule, a plant growing luxuriantly in the marshes along the river, seemed to have all assembled on board our vessel; and as they were exceedingly affectionate, I could hear the passengers continually battling with their musical friends, and I longed for the light of another day.

Morning came, but the heat was so oppressive, that my condition was not much improved. I noticed large numbers of ducks, grouse, cranes, &c., flying about, and many of the passengers wished they had guns at hand, and I even, thought if one of the feathery flock would alight, and let me place the muzzle of the gun within a foot of it, I could pop it over too. We passed the ‘‘lone tree,’’ appropriately so called, for I could see no other tree within a long distance of it.—The ground about here seemed fit for pasturage, and doubtless by this time, through the indomitable energy of the American settlers, yields abundant harvests. The natives are too indolent and trifling to dig a foot of ground. During the afternoon we espied Stockton, but the wind had almost died away, so we made but slow progress, and we tacked, pulled ropes, pitched canvass, and fussed about as though we were on board some large clipper. Every skipper or captain that I ever knew seemed proud of his vessel, no matter what the size or proportions. We finally reached our landing place, and lost no time in getting out our baggage and deserting the little vessel. The town consisted of a few adobe houses and tents; in each of which liquor was dispensed and card playing going on. I observed a few miserable specimens of the native Indians loitering about, and as Stockton was the starting point for all travelers to the mines, there were many adventurers collected together, and each man would anxiously inquire for the best location to visit, the distance, route, &c. &c.

In late November of 1849, Schaeffer would leave Hawkinsville and return to San Francisco for the opportunity to try his luck in the northern mines. The bulk of the chapters to follow, 9-41, discuss his time at the Feather Creek, Deer Valley and Nevada Mines in Nevada City. He colorfully depicts his love for a newfound remote life in the mountains.

In July 1850, our subject decided to leave the Nevada Mountains to take a voyage to the tropics. He would visit Mexico and Acapulco and Vera Cruz. Schaeffer wrapped up his "vacation" from mining with a stop in El Realejo (Nicaragua) and another in Guatemala. He returned to San Francisco in December, only to head back into the interior of the Sierra-Nevada Mountains and take up mining for gold again, but would also partake in searching for silver and quartz. Schaeffer spent 1851 and early 1852 back in the vicinity of Nevada City and nearby Grass Valley.

I think I have given you enough fodder from Schaeffer's book, and have included button below to connect you to a pdf file of the entire 247-page book found on the Library of Congress' website. You can also seek out the original book from several vintage booksellers online.

"The sun still lingered below the eastern horizon, the miners had not yet aroused from their slumbers, when, on the 25th of April, 1852, I stepped out of my humble cabin and looked around the valley where I had dwelt so many months—where I had worked, toiled, hoped and prayed. It was my last morning at the mines, my last look around a spot where I had enjoyed much pleasure, and had formed many agreeable acquaintances. But at length the population gradually awoke from their slumbers, the lurid smoke from the numerous cabins began to ascend, and I gave a last look around the rude cabin that had sheltered me for many a night. I gazed again and again, and still once more, for the last time, upon the trees which I had planted, and with a sincere, heartfelt good bye, raised my bundle, turned away and left my California home forever! I had engaged a seat in an uncovered wagon bound for Sacramento. Bidding a cordial farewell to friends standing around, I jumped to my seat beside the driver, who cracked his whip, and away we drove ‘‘over the hills and far away,’’ and I could scarcely realize the fact that at last, after a long and tedious absence, after days of hoping and toiling, that I was on my way home. "

Luther M. Schaeffer had completed his mining days. After a three-year expedition, he returned to San Francisco by way of "Rough & Ready" and Sacramento and headed back home to Maryland choosing the Isthmus of Panama route. He sailed upon the (later, ill-fated) SS Winfield Scott to Panama City. Once there in Panama he had to take a small boat and a train to get to the Gulf of Mexico. This included a harrowing journey on the Chagres River aboard a small boat Schaeffer called a "dug-out" used to transport him and others through alligator infested waters. Once at Colon, another steamer would transport him the rest of the way back to New York City.

Luther M. Schaeffer landed in New York on June 4th, 1852. He concluded his book in New York and made no mention of when he returned to Frederick. We do know that he was here on February 16th, 1853, because this was the day he married Ann Rebecca Late at Evangelical Lutheran Church. The couple had the following children: George Late Schaeffer (1854-1859), William Luther Schaeffer (1856-?), Ella Virginia Schaeffer (1857-1934), Elizabeth Rebecca Schaeffer (1862-1949) and Nannie Everetta Schaeffer (1866-1933).

Soon after his return to Frederick, L. M. Schaeffer conducted a drugstore at the northeast "corner" of North Market and East Patrick streets. He advertised regularly in the local newspapers and oftentimes had several classified-sized messages in play in the same edition.

In addition to making a name for himself as a leading druggist and businessman in town, Luther was now getting recognition as an author. Book shops in Frederick and elsewhere were selling his penned reminisces about the California Gold Rush and observations on Mexico and South America.​ All this, while the American Civil War was in full effect with the nearby Battles of South Mountain and Antietam just six months away.

Schaeffer and his business would make it through the war. He would eventually relocate, moving to Philadelphia, likely partnering with his brother there in the drugstore business. This was about 1867. However, the "brotherly" venture must not have been that "lovely," or to his liking, as he returned to Frederick a few years later and set up shop in a Market Street storeroom of Mr. John Walters, a junk and salvage man. 

​A search of deeds in the name of Luther M. Schaeffer only shows that he ever owned one property in Frederick, and this was 220 East Church Street, purchased in 1859, He would sell this to his mother-in-law, Maria Late, in 1867, apparently after he had moved to Philadelphia. (Note: The current house at this address dates to the 1880s). Amazingly, there were no leases of business locations for Schaeffer recorded in Frederick deed books.

Did that three-year adventure into the "Wild West" play a factor into Luther M. Schaeffer's health? We will never know. If anything else, he had the remedies to help himself at arms-reach. Regardless, Schaeffer, a bonafide 49er, author and "world traveler" would be laid to rest in Mount Olivet's Area F/Lot 64. His son, George Late Tyler, had been buried here 11 years earlier, dying July 24th, 1859 at age 5 and a half years old. His beloved wife, Ann Rebecca (Late) Schaeffer would not die until January 17th, 1906, over 35 years later.

One of the couples' daughters, Elizabeth Rebecca T. Schaeffer never married and lived to be 86. She was living in San Jose, CA at the time of her death, but her body was brought eastward to be buried in the family plot. I'm assuming the trip her mortal remains endured in the year 1949 between California and Maryland was far more efficient and faster than that experienced by her father a century before.

An ironic newspaper mention found and pertaining to our subject appeared the same day as his obituary in the Frederick Examiner. A new operator introduced themselves at the site of the former drugstore of Luther M. Schaeffer on the Square Corner.

A few months later, a young, former Confederate veteran by the name of Dr. Samuel Franklin Thomas (1842-1907) would lay claim to the re-established business and new location vacated with the sudden death of Luther M. Schaeffer.

Another Memorial Day has come and gone here at Mount Olivet Cemetery. The weather last Monday, May 26th, was quite gorgeous locally as it was for the entire military holiday weekend. On the previous Saturday, the community, under the leadership of Francis Scott Key Post #11 of the American Legion, placed thousands of flags over the graves of veterans residing here. Our number is nearly 5,000.

Although the majority of this post-Memorial Day week has been rainy and dismal, the appearance of these little flaglets throughout the historic burial ground is pretty awe-inspiring. Upon a walk the other day, one particular scene stood out to me among others. Here, I found a military-issue gravestone in Area M, aka "Strangers Row."

This monument is within the former site of a sizable line of Union soldier graves that once stretched from nearby Confederate Row (to the south) and paralleled the adjacent drive on our western perimeter in a northward (and then eastward) direction giving a glimpse of Lincoln Elementary School on the other side of the fence. The old "Union Row" actually extended to the site of the intersection of this lane with our Broadway Street gate road, and contained roughly 264 men of the Union Army who had died in our Frederick hospital center during the Civil War from either sickness or fatal injuries suffered in nearby conflicts. The vast majority of these soldiers were dis-interred from here in 1867, and moved to the new national cemetery that had been laid out in Sharpsburg. 

A few Northern soldiers were left behind in Mount Olivet, likely due to the request of family to keep them here. The marked veteran I saw has the name of James K. P. Brightwell. More on him in a minute. To the left of Brightwell's grave, was a lone flag atop an unmarked grave. I did a double-take thinking, "Why is there a flag placed there?" I then had a hunch of who it was based on research I did back in 2018 on World War I soldiers. My next question: "How did someone know there was a veteran buried there?" More on that in two minutes. 

With inspiration to study these two decedents further, I decided first to look at the newspaper of a century ago to see what was happening in Frederick in conjunction with Memorial Day. Back then,  Memorial Day was observed on May 30th, regardless of the day of the week. In 1925, May 30th fell on a Saturday. Our first official Memorial Day commemoration at Mount Olivet took place 27 years earlier on May 30th, 1888. This 1888 date marked the 20th anniversary of Memorial Day on a national level. Here locally, appropriate exercises were held that morning at several cemeteries across the city and county. Within Mount Olivet, a special ceremony sponsored by the G. A. R. (Grand Army of the Republic) commenced at 3pm. The G.A.R. was the largest of all Union Army veterans' organizations.

Things would be no different at Mount Olivet in the year 1925, but the holiday with roots dating back to Decoration Day had taken on new meaning for generations at hand as Civil War veterans were becoming far fewer, and citizens were still feeling the effects and loss associated with the First World War with the majority of its casualties happening in 1918 as far as the American soldier was concerned. Thinking ahead, 1925 would be a critical birth year for boys who, in time, would be called to serve, and sacrifice their lives for the good of the country in the next major military conflict. This would come 17-20 years later with World War II.

I wanted to share a few of the news articles and advertisements of Memorial Day, 1925 as they appeared in the local Frederick Daily News. The main local, news story of this day of May 30th, 1925, still has Memorial Day implications today, but has nothing to do with the US military or warfare. The front page story heralded the opening of the new dam in northern Frederick County that would assist as a major reservoir. We know this today as Hunting Creek Lake, today a part of the William Houck Area of Cunningham Falls State Park. 

Apparently traffic has always been a problem on Memorial Day as shown by the above article. And what is more fun than reading the "Years Ago Today" segment, and enjoying an evocative cartoon?

​What most impressed me in this particular edition of the Daily News was the newspaper's editorial. This is especially poignant for so many reasons. One being that today we are bombarded with more editorial content than actual news. Editors, reporters, anchors, experts and pundits frame news and the events of the day to match specific narratives. Everything is political, or made so it seems. Now, back in the day, and really up until not that long ago, our life experience, knowledge of the world and critical thinking skills would be called into play while reading about local, state, national and global happenings. The following editorial is purely enlightening. I wish I knew the author.

Seven years ago, we at Mount Olivet launched an auxiliary website to our business site, MountOlivetCemeteryInc.com, and our history site (the one you find yourself reading this blog) MountOlivetHistory.com. I'm talking about MountOlivetVets.com, a site solely dedicated to the veterans buried here in what is considered one of the most distinguished and beautiful burial grounds in the country. As said earlier, Mount Olivet is home to thousands of patriots who bravely served their country under the same flag "so proudly hailed" in 1814 by fellow cemetery resident and Frederick native, Francis Scott Key.
 
For those in the know, the MountOlivetVets.com website is somewhat like a customized version of FindaGrave.com. Our Friends of Mount Olivet members continue to volunteer their time to research and create memorial pages for men and women connected to military service and every conflict our country has been involved in. This is certainly a work in progress as we have only completed the early wars (American Revolution and War of 1812), World War I and the Union soldiers of the American Civil War, as the Confederate soldiers are soon to be published.

​We are working on building our World War II pages at present, and have plenty more veteran pages to follow in connection to service men ans women in the Korean War, Vietnam War and more modern conflicts such as Desert Storm. And yes, we haven't forgotten about our Mexican War, Spanish-American War and all those brave citizens who served under the flag during times of peace. For now, all get a flag on Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Hopefully, if we get full sponsorship for Wreaths Across America, all will receive a memorial wreath on the second Saturday of December. Click here for the sponsorship link to our Friends of Mount Olivet Wreaths Across America page. We also have a FaceBook site I encourage you to check for news and updates.

The two flags shown at the outset of the story in Area M belong to a Civil War vet and a World War I vet as previously established. Both have memorial pages on the MountOlivet Vets website. Let's start with the man who has a monument behind his flag. This is James K. P. Brightwell. 

Our subject is from an English family with deep roots going back to the early days of the Maryland colony. James' third great-grandfather is a man I am familiar with thanks to a documentary I researched over 25 years ago, along with a class I teach on Native Americans, early explorers and fur traders of our region in the 1600s/early 1700s. This man's name was Capt. Richard Brightwell (1642-1698). He arrived in Maryland in 1663 as an indentured servant from his home in Mildenhall, Suffolk, England. He served out his indenture in Prince Georges County under Capt. Thomas Trueman and would become quite prosperous over his lifetime.

On appointment by the provincial government, Capt. Richard Brightwell was a commander of the Prince Georges County Rangers who traveled the early Indian trails of the Monocacy Valley and what is today Upper Montgomery County. In 1697, Brightwell reported to the Maryland General Assembly that "This country was "a howling wilderness, with only Indian paths, Indian camps and wild animals. No white settlers would dare these trails. It was only the traders who worked among the Indians that knew these trails."

Capt. Brightwell's grandson, John Lawson Brightwell, married into the Carmack family and relocated from Upper Marlborough in Prince Georges County to eastern Frederick County by 1790. This man was our subject James K. P. Brightwell's great grandfather.

James Brightwell was born in August, 1845 or 1846, however, this date is up for debate. He was the son of John Robert Brightwell of Libertytown and wife Elizabeth Polly Carr. You will later learn that this, too, may be up for debate. James was one of 9 children and raised in Libertytown despite his mother dying in 1850. Instead of middle initials "K." and "P.," note that the 1850 census above shows James "D." I would also see him later referred to as James "R." and James "B." In the end, literally the end as in his obituary, I would learn that his full name was James Knox Polk Brightwell. Obviously this was an homage to our 11th US president who was in office at the time of James Brightwell's birth.

The 1860 US Census shows James and other siblings living in the home of his oldest sister Rosanna who had married a blacksmith named James Myers. James' father, John, can be found living with another daughter (and sister to James) named Eva Elizabeth Adeline Steele who had married a Mexican War veteran named John Steele.

I presume that James received a basic education in Libertytown and worked as a laborer. That is, up to the American Civil War. Research from our MountOlivetVets.com site shows that James enlisted in the Union Army in Baltimore on October 1st, 1861. He would serve initially as a private in Company E of the 5th Maryland Infantry. Enlistment papers state, at the start of the war, that our subject was a barkeeper by the name of James K. P. Brightfull, and was born in 1845, so our soldier was a man of deception, mystery or confusion.

James Brightwell would be captured by the Rebel Army on June 15th, 1863 as part of the 2nd Battle of Winchester, Virginia. He was paroled weeks later at City Point, VA on July 8th, 1863. At this point he returned to duty.

Brightwell fulfilled his enlistment and was mustered out on December 31st, 1863 at Fort Delaware. However, he re-enlisted the following day and served until September 1st, 1865. He had been promoted to corporal on June 30th, 1865, and mustered out in Fredericksburg, VA.

James returned to Libertytown after the war and lived with his sister and siblings. One of these was older brother Alonzo F. Brightwell (1844-1877) who also served with the Union Army during the Civil War. Alonzo enlisted a month before James in Frederick and served with Company B of the Potomac Home Brigade of the First Maryland Infantry. He would be captured at Harpers Ferry in mid-September 1862 at the Battle of Maryland Heights, and was paroled afterwards. Alonzo spent much time guarding the local lines of the railroad and canal before being mustered out of service at Point of Rocks in February, 1864. He would re-enlist and served with Company B of the 13th Maryland until war's end. Like James, Alonzo was promoted to the rank of corporal and finally mustered out of service in Baltimore in late May, 1865.

James worked as a house painter, and Alonzo worked in the copper mines near New London. Yes, this is how Coppermine Road received its name. 

Alonzo F. Brightwell came to live in Frederick with his wife and children. He is buried in Mount Olivet like James. Alonzo died of consumption in 1887 and is buried in Mount Olivet's Area Q/Lot 196.

James Brightwell married Lucinda Heiser of Warfieldsburg, Carroll County in 1874 in Libertytown. They would first live in the vicinity of New London between Libertytown and New Market in the eastern part of Frederick County.

By 1880, the Brightwells had three of seven known children. Minnie L. (1876-?), Cora V. (1878-1983) and Zeno (1879-1933). Four more would follow in Benjamin K. (1887-?), Franklin Dallis (1887-1958), Leroy (1890-1968) and Cornelia Irene (1893-1976).

I don't know much about the Brightwells' family life, but I do sense some serious health and well-being challenges associated with James, perhaps something caused as a result of his years in the service. I was clued in to this notion by seeing  this news article carried in the Frederick newspaper in 1884.

I presume that James was only at Montevue until 1886/87 based on the births of twin sons Benjamin and Franklin in 1887. A year later, he was involved in a buggy accident in Frederick with relatives. James next appears in the 1890 special Veterans Census living in Frederick. That same year, I found a very intriguing clue into his confusing childhood. Perhaps this has a direct correlation to issues encountered as an adult?​

Was this Rosanna Myers the mother of James K. P. Brightwell, or was she simply his older sister as I had previously believed? Were John and Elizabeth Brightwell our subject's parents or grandparents?  Rosanna appeared as Rosanna Brightwell in the 1850 census and married three years later William Henry Myers. Even though James is not mentioned in Rosanna's obituary in 1900, are we to think that James was the son of Rosanna? Now the questions run deep. Either Rosanna gave birth to James out of wedlock, or perhaps adopted him as her own, or he considered her (Rosanna) his mother since Elizabeth died when he was about 4-5 yearsold. Maybe Rosanna previously married an older  Brightwell son of John and Elizabeth Brightwell and became widowed before 1850?

​An interesting sidenote is that Sheriff Andrew Clay McBride (1860-1910) is buried only about 50 yards from James Brightwell in neighboring Area L/Lot 193. More so, McBride's son, Brigadier General Allan Clay McBride (1885-1944) was a veteran of both World Wars and is buried at our World War II monument in Area E of Mount Olivet. He is one of our highest, if not the highest ranking veteran in Mount Olivet, and in the spirit of Memorial Day is oft remembered for dying in active duty as a Prisoner of War after serving on the staff of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in the Pacific in the Philippines and participating in the infamous Bataan Death March.

James Brightwell was out of the Montevue Hospital by 1898. He and his family relocated to Baltimore and can be found there later that year and two years later in the 1900 US Census. James is recorded as continuing to work as a house painter there in Baltimore City directories from 1898-1902. Lucinda is listed as a seamstress in the 1900 census. 

In 1901, James had been issued a military pension by the government for his service in the Civil War three decades earlier. Sadly, James Brightwell would be re-committed to Frederick's Montevue Hospital once again by 1903. The following article appeared in the Frederick News in September of that same year.

Thankfully, James would eventually leave Montevue and was back living with Lucinda in Frederick on East Patrick Street, and later South Bentz Street. The only mentions for the next 15 years in the newspapers of James Brightwell  are in announcing that he was either visiting relatives (children) in Baltimore, or recovering at home from illness or injury. 

I found an especially uplifting article which appeared in the local newspaper in advance of Memorial Day, 1908. It dealt with James' efforts to mark the grave of a fellow Civil War colleague buried at Mount Olivet. 

​James can be found living apart from Lucinda by 1910. He, instead, is residing with son Zeno and wife Ella Brightwell with their 2 year-old son Leroy in the 1910 Census. They were living at 16 South Bentz Street. Meanwhile, Lucinda and her youngest children can be found living at 426 West Third Street in Frederick.

James Brightwell would not be living in the next census of 1920, having died May 1st, 1919. His obituary was carried in the Frederick paper on May 2nd, 1919, however is hard to read based on the microfilm copy I found. He would be laid to rest in Mount Olivet's Area M/Lot 23.

Obituary transcript:

"James K. Polk Brightwell, a civil war veteran and a well-known citizen died at the home of his son Zeno Brightwell, 16 Bentz Street yesterday evening at 7:30 o'clock after a short illness of kidney trouble 72 years old. He had been in failing health for some time. He was a native of Libertytown and enlisted in the Union Army Company E Fifth Maryland Regiment, Captain Lowery, in 1861 and served throughout the conflict. He was a house painter by trade and was a member of the Lutheran church. His wife died one year ago. Three daughters, Mrs. John Apple, Mrs Charles Shannon and Mrs Lewis Rickerd, Baltimore, and three sons, Zeno, this city and Frank and LeRoy Brightwell, Baltimore. One sister, Mrs. James Ely, this city, a half sister Mrs Kate Scott, Baltimore, and two half brothers, Stephen Myers, Liberty and Walter Myers, Baltimore, all survive. The funeral will take place from his late house Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock. Thomas P. Rice will be the funeral director."

As stated in the obituary, James' wife, Lucinda, had died in 1918. Interestingly, she died exactly one year before her husband on May 1st, 1918. Lucinda Brightwell is not buried in Mount Olivet. Instead she is in an unmarked grave in Dundalk's Oak Hill Cemetery in southeast Baltimore. Her youngest son, Leroy Brightwell (1890-1968), is buried here in this cemetery as well and likely made the arrangements. It is likely that she died at his home in Charm City, located at 432 South Third Street.

Once again we are reminded of the importance of a gravestone. Yes, it only shows a brief amount of information in the form of name, birth and death dates, and either military-based information as is the case of our veterans, or an occasional bible verse for others. These are monuments to lives lived, plain and simple. Think what you will of mortal remains and the soul or spirit of an individual, but the grave marker is a touchstone, both literal and figurative, representing the accomplishments, experiences and occasional mishaps of what the decedent embodied in both life and remembered in death. I'm glad I could learn more about James Brightwell, the man and life behind and beneath this flaglet. Now, what about the flag to the immediate left of his gravestone?

The decedent under this flag was also a local soldier. He was a private in Company M of the 71st Infantry Regiment and his last name was somewhat similar to his cemetery neighbor Mr. Brightwell. His name was James Lewis Lambright, Jr. He went by the name Lewis Lambright.

Born May 15th, 1889, "Lewis" was the son of James Lewis Lambright who died in 1896. Our subject's mother was the former Georgianna M. Heiser of Carroll County and daughter of Daniel and Susan Heisler. Georgianna was an older sister to Lucinda Heiser Brightwell of whom we just talked about. 

Georgianna would remarry in 1897. This was Harry Westerly. The family of five "Lambright" siblings continued living at mother Georgianna's home of 104 West Sixth Street in Frederick.  

The Lambright children attended school in Frederick and Lewis would take up the tonsorial arts becoming a barber. He began working in this profession at age 19 around 1908.

To say that Lewis had a straight and narrow upbringing would not be quite correct. He was no stranger to the local police authorities. At age 15, he was arrested for theft of some oranges from a freight train. It was proven later that he was innocent of the theft, though.
 
At age 25, he and another man, Osborne Six, were "engaged in a fracas" because Six accused Lewis of "too much familiarity with Six’s wife." Both men were arrested by Policeman Johnny Adams who we have chronicled in this blog. Each man was fined, and Lewis was "warned by the magistrate to steer clear of other people’s wives." The next year, Lewis was charged with disorderly conduct by Officer Adams. He was fined $5, but ended up staying in the jail for 15 days since he couldn’t pay the fine. 

​As World War I raged in Europe, Lewis registered for the draft in June, 1917. He was now 28. Sometime later that year or the next, he would marry a West Sixth street neighbor in Annie Wickham. Lewis enlisted in the US Army and was inducted into service on June 26th, 1918. As stated earlier, he was assigned to Company M of the 71st Infantry.

Lewis Lambright was sent to Camp Meade in June of 1918 for basic training. In August 1918, he came home on furlough, but remained at home instead of returning to camp on August 25th as expected. The next night, he attempted suicide by swallowing a bichloride of mercury tablet. His family realized what he had done and called a doctor who pulled him through the suicide attempt.

Lewis refused to go back to Camp Meade. We learn a great deal more thanks to unfortunate events occurring on December 1st, 1918. The following article in the Frederick News tells of his sad demise after staying A.W.O.L. all fall as the headline clearly states. (NOTE: I've transcribed this article below).

Transcription:
"Rather than go back to Camp Meade to face punishment for being absent without leave, Private James Lewis Lambright, West Sixth Street, on Friday afternoon swallowed a quantity of arsenic which caused death on Sunday afternoon. Although information is lacking, it is believed that Lambright swallowed the poison in his room on the second floor while officers were on the first floor urging his wife to produce him for arrest.

​On September 2, Lambright was absent from Camp Meade. At that time he attempted suicide swallowing a quantity of bichloride mercury. The soldier responded to treatment and was sent home to recover. Lambright was absent from Camp Meade since November 2. Members of the police force have known of his presence here but failed to arrest him. On Friday afternoon (Nov. 29), Officer John Adams and Painter called at the Lambright home on West Sixth Street. They were received by Mrs. Lambright who at first refused to permit the officers to talk with her husband. 'You can't take him without a warrant,' she exclaimed. Finally, Lambright appeared and he was persuaded by the officers to accompany them to the city exemption board from where they got in touch with Camp Meade. The officers were instructed to hold the soldier until the arrival of the guard from the camp.

Then shortly after 8 o'clock, Frederick Chief of Police Bruchey received the following telegram: 'Hold Private Lewis Lambright absent without leave. Will send Guard.' "Provost Guard Headquarters"
Half an hour later a telegram was received by the chief of police. 'Lambright is a deserter. Plan for calls of his arrest immediately.' "Lieut. Hammond"
​
Later a telephone message was received by Desk Sergeant John Engelbrecht from Camp Meade requesting the county officials to hold Lambright for a guard which would be sent to Frederick. 

Becomes ill at Jail
On the trip to the county jail, Lambright became violently ill. The two officers suspected that he had taken poison but Lambright denied it. 'Didn't I tell you before September 2nd that I took poison he counterquestioned'. The officers agreed that he had said that his promptness had saved his life.
At the jail Lambright became seriously ill. His wife consulted a physician and he was released by Sheriff Klipp to be taken home for treatment. On Saturday (Nov 30), his condition was critical and on Sunday (Dec 1) afternoon between 12 and 1 o'clock he died. 

He is survived by his wife, his mother Mrs. Harry Esterly, a brother Harry Lambright and one sister Mrs. Ada Cuddy, Harrisburg, PA., half sister Mrs Pearl Adams and a half brother, Charles Zimmerman.
The funeral will take place this Tuesday afternoon at 2 o'clock. Services will be conducted by Dr. G. P. Kidner. Burial will be made in Mt. Olivet Cemetery. Thomas P. Rice is the funeral director."

Such was the life of Lewis Lambright, buried without a grave marker in Mount Olivet's Area M. I would also learn that his father and mother are buried in different sections here at Mount Olivet: James Lewis Lambright, Sr. in Area C/Lot 57 , and Georgianna (Lambright) Esterly in Area T/Lot 144. Both are in unmarked graves as well.​

Darn! I'm two months late for "National Shoe Day" (March 15th), and way too early for "International Shoemakers Day." No worries, I will tell you this week's "Story in Stone" anyway. But, before I do, I'm reminded to share the old idiom:

"Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes."

The admonition to "walk a mile in someone else’s shoes" means before judging someone, you must understand his or her experiences, challenges, thought processes, etc. In effect, it is a reminder to practice empathy. While long credited as a Native American aphorism, replacing the word shoes with moccasins, the saying almost certainly is derived from a Mary T. Lathrap poem published in 1895. The original title of the poem was Judge Softly, later titled Walk a Mile in His Moccasins. There are many variations on the phrase such as walk a mile in his, her or my shoes. A plea for empathy is phrased put yourself in my shoes, as well as put yourself in his or her shoes.

I was reminded of this quote recently by hearing a stand-up routine by Scottish actor and comedian Billy Connolly. His variation on the theme included this joke:
 
"Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that who cares?... He's a mile away and you've got his shoes!"

This week's piece was more inspired by a gravestone in Frederick, Maryland's historic Mount Olivet cemetery, than by foot apparel. I guess you could say that judgment and empathy are also at play based on the subject of who has a grave marker, and who does not. 

Two early gravestones appear in area M, not far from the grave of Gov. Thomas Johnson, Jr. They represent the location of the mortal remains of George Malambre, a cordswainer, and his first wife Rachel. The fact that the monuments pictured above still exist is quite a feat unto itself as these are relicts from the old All Saints' Protestant Episcopal burying ground. "God's Acre," as it was once called, dates back to the founding of Frederick in the 1740s and existed on a bluff overlooking Carroll Creek.

Like the namesake church itself, the burying ground is long gone, emptied of its mortal remains back in 1913. This was part of a planned mass-removal project sponsored by the congregation. They wanted to get out of the cemetery business, and maintenance of the cemetery was difficult as it had become quite unkempt over decades. New burials were primarily going to Mount Olivet upon the latter's opening in 1854. People with the means to do so would have relatives, formerly "residing" at All Saints, moved to a new family plot in Frederick's "Garden Cemetery" south of town. Several lots were purchased at Mount Olivet by the church, itself, in an effort to facilitate the relocation. Today, all that remains of "All Saints" in the vicinity of the old church and former burying ground is a name—neighboring East All Saints Street.

The Malambre stones, among others, once sat atop the hill area where the "Alive at Five" concerts are held today, more specifically the amphitheater on the southern bank of Carroll Creek—a component of our spectacular linear park. Many of the early Fredericktonians buried in the All Saints' Cemetery here came to Mount Olivet with no gravestone, or lost theirs along the way if it was deemed too shabby to adorn Frederick's "Cemetery Beautiful." Those monuments that were broken, or showing visible signs of "wear and tear" were rejected and simply buried along with their decedents.

​There are plenty of unmarked residents to be found in our Area M in company of those who retained their stones. I read recently that it was basically one surviving stone for every five decedents. Several without markers were prominent citizens as well. One such, Dr. John Tyler (1763-1841), is noted as one of the earliest oculists (eye specialists) in the country. As a matter of fact it is said that he became the first American-born man to be recognized as a specialized doctor in this field and was among the first to conduct cataract surgery.

My friend and mentor, John Ashbury, recently wrote (or is in the process of writing) a piece on the good doctor for Frederick Magazine.  As the so-called "coucher of cataracts," he performed delicate work that required a steady hand. It's no wonder why Dr. Tyler "spited" city officials back in 1814 when he quickly constructed a house on an adjacent lot next to his home (and place of business) on West Church Street. This stunt featured the intent and "optics" to thwart a plan by municipal officials to build a "through road" between West Church Street (at Record Street) to West Patrick Street as an extension of Record Street. Ironically, years later, Dr. Tyler's home, next to his "Spite House," would become the rectory for All Saints Church.

In death, Dr. Tyler wasn't fully "spited" by cemetery reinterment efforts. He lost his grave marker, or perhaps never had one, but was thankfully given his own grave space in Area M. At that time, nearly 300 of his All Saints' brethren were not as lucky. These individuals are buried together within a mass grave only yards in front of the steadfast stones of George and Rachel Malambre.

​I will tell a more complete story of both Dr. John Tyler, along with All Saints Cemetery and its removal to Mount Olivet, in future efforts with this blog. One of the key resources for me in understanding the early churchyard on Carroll Creek is a description by writer Emma Gittinger for an article published in the Frederick News on May 28th, 1913. This piece was actually based on a lecture Ms. Gittinger had given at the time to the Frederick Historical Society. It centered on a recent visit she had made in walking through the lonely,  old burial ground shortly before its dismantling. Here is a small snippet of the article with mentions of both the Malambres and Dr. Tyler:

From this article, Ms. Gittinger tells us that Mr. Malambre was a shoemaker, a line of work that also employs the terms of cobbler or cordwainer. One of the world's earliest professions, people skilled in this trade are responsible for making, repairing and restoring footwear. I received a better understanding by reading an online article on a website called Revolutionary War Journal (www.revolutionarywarjournal.com). Author Henry Schenewolf published an article entitled "Cordwainers & Cobblers, Shoemakers in Colonial America" on March 8th, 2016—just a week prior to "National Shoe Day." Mr. Schenewolf shares: 

"The word shoe is derived form the Anglo Saxon ‘scoh,’ meaning any covering for the foot, excepting hosiery.  In ancient times through the nineteenth century, in the Old and New World, the shoemaker garnished a unique class of respect.  They were so regarded for their remarkable intelligence and the large number of literates, poets, and statesmen who had risen from their ranks.
 
Cordwainer was the title given to shoemakers.  Cobblers were those who repaired shoes.  The cobbler had as much as five years less training than a cordwainer.  In most countries, including the American colonies, cobblers were prohibited by proclamation from making shoes.  The first shoemakers, tanners and other tradesmen arrived in Jamestown in 1607; among the colony’s principal founder John Smith’s many talents, was that of shoemaker –  the settlement was partially funded by a thriving English shoe trade.   However the first fully trained member of the cordwainer’s guild to arrive in America was the British shoemaker Christopher Nelme in 1619.  The first cordwainer in New England, Thomas Beard, landed at Plymouth in 1629.  Prior to his arrival and long after, New England settlements continued to purchase leather from Virginia until their own tanners were established."

George Malambre is our person of interest this week. As I noted earlier, Rachel was his first wife. The couple died less than 25 months apart in the mid 1840s and were buried side by side in All Saints' Cemetery. Seventy years later, their bodies were brought here to Mount Olivet to resume their "resting in peace" after a four-block trek to the front gate of our cemetery, combined with a similar sojourn thereafter to the midsection of Mount Olivet and Area M/Lot 42. This occurred on December 19th, 1913 according to our records.

I was disappointed that I did not find a great deal of information on George, but I did piece together plenty about his father, Jacob Malambre, who was also a shoemaker. Our story starts on September 17th, 1793 with the arrival in Philadelphia of Jacob Malambre aboard the ship "Columbia" from Amsterdam. This man was the progenitor of the family here in the United States. He hailed from Germany, likely North Rhine-Westphalia, and was born around the year 1768. I found the surname spelled "Malampre" in early records as well, and I believe this to be a bit of a French connection. Keep in mind that the border of eastern France and western Germany (Alsace-Lorraine region) would change hands often throughout history.

We believe that Jacob Malambre soon after went to work as a shoemaker in Philadelphia. He can be found in the 1800 US Census living in Philadelphia in the city's "Dock Ward" (now known as Society Hill) and his occupation is listed as that of cordwainer. Jacob Malambre had married Margaret Catherine Welsh on May 29th of that same year at Philadelphia's St. Paul's Episcopal Church located in the Chestnut Hill area.

Newspaper advertisements give brief details of Jacob's professional life in the shoemaking trade. From 1804-mid-1810 he can be found in city directories conducting business as a master shoemaker at 515 Front Street (on the waterfront of the Delaware River) and had apprentices and journeymen in his employ. I found Jacob involved in an interesting case in January 1806. This was  a grand inquest held in Philadelphia on behalf of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to explore details of a labor strike on behalf of journeymen shoemakers who had "united" together in an effort to get better pay from master shoemakers like Malambre.

Apparently the city had set prices for varying styles of shoes across the board, but the business owners and master shoemakers found that the rising rate of pay demanded by journeymen workers (needed to handle work volume) was growing, thus there would be the necessity to raise prices of goods at the behest of the customer base. 

​Author Patrick Grubbs in his entry describing the Cordwainers Trial of 1806 within the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia writes:
 
"This trial proved to be not only a contest between journeymen laborers against master shoemakers but also a trial of Federalist versus Jeffersonian ideals. The ultimate decision upheld Federalist notions of protection of property and firmly placed the United States on a course of enhanced industrial manufacturing through the use of wage labor. As such, it also proved to be one of the most significant trials in American labor history.
 
Contention between journeymen shoemakers and their masters grew in the last decade of the eighteenth century, as in-migrating master craftsmen began promoting price competition, proposed higher pay rates, and lowered product quality. Both masters and journeymen fought the practice of underselling (marketing cheap goods), as it not only affected profits, but also wages. However, each side did so independently and with its own interests at stake, which foreshadowed the divergence that would take place between them.

After both sides presented their case, Federalist Judge Moses Levy (1757-1826) used his charge to the jury to extol the ideals of a laissez-faire market and its ability to determine both prices and wages. He denounced the existence of journeymen societies, their use of strikes, and the artificial regulation this put on the market. Lastly, he instructed the jury to understand that a combination of workers, formed into a society in order to raise their wages, was illegal under common law. The next day the jury found the eight journeymen guilty and fined them eight dollars each."

To give an example of going prices for shoes of the day, I found the following price guide of shoes in Philadelphia for 1805: Fancy Tops $4.25, Back Straps $3.75, Longboots $2.75, Cossacks $2.75, Bootees $2.50. The journeyman generally could make $6-7/week, but some could pull $11.25-12/week based on work speed and efficiency. A good workman could produce three pairs of Back-Strap boots/week.

In 1810, Jacob had moved from his second location of business at 113 S. 2nd Street in Philadelphia to 69 Union Street. He would stay here five years before moving to his final known location in the "City of Brotherly Love" of 114 Race Street. It is assumed that sundry apprentices were replaced by children of the couple of Jacob and Margaret Catherine Malambre. Four are known including our subject George who was born in Philadelphia on July 5th, 1804. Others included John (b.1802-1868), Jacob (1806-1850) and a daughter Margaret. It can be assumed that all three boys worked in the family business from a young age.

For one reason or another, Jacob Malambre leaves Philadelphia somewhere around 1816. I found references to "unpicked up" letters for him in Lancaster, and a business directory listing for Jacob Malambre in Baltimore for 1817-1818. The Baltimore location seems to be in the Towson Area. He could have been a journeyman himself in those other places. Regardless, Jacob Malambre, Sr. would come to good old Frederick, Maryland. 

The earliest advertisement I had access to within an early Frederick newspaper implies the location of Jacob Malambre's shoemaking business as being at a site directly opposite the National Pike Mile-marker #45 at the corner of East Patrick Street and today's Maxwell Alley. The marker is gone, destroyed by a wayward motorist some years ago, as it sat in front of  the former site of Frederick's first house, built by John Thomas Schley in the 1740s. This would eventually become Niedhardts Bakery and more recently the Blue Ridge News Agency and currently Venus on the Half Shell, a vintage clothing store. At this later location, my old friend Jennifer Stillrich can still set you up with shoe apparel from yester-year! That would make Malambre's shoemaking shop location 200 East Patrick on the south side of the street and along an alley that leads back to C. Burr Artz Library.

Outside of advertisements for the business, not much more can be gleaned from Jacob Malambre's operation here in town. He did move to another location in the summer of 1819. This was several blocks to the west on Patrick Street adjacent the bridge over Carroll Creek. Interestingly, this vicinity, called Bentztown was later inhabited by two lasting Frederick legends. Diarist Jacob Engelbrecht possibly lived and worked (as a tailor) here in this very dwelling. Across the street, Barbara Fritchie would make her home with husband John Fritchie, a glovemaker. Again, this would be sometime later. 

Jacob Malambre appeared in the 1820 US Census, but died a year later on October 4th, 1821. Mention of his death was carried in the local newspaper, but also can be found in the Baltimore and Philadelphia newspapers as well.

Jacob Engelbrecht chronicled the event with the following entry into his diary on the afternoon of the cordswainer's death:

"Died this day, in the 52nd year of his age Mr. Jacob Malambre (shoemaker) a resident of this town for the last five years. He will be buried on the Lutheran graveyard tomorrow."

It seems odd that Jacob made this remark as I supposed this couple to be of the Episcopal faith because they were married in the Episcopal Church, and it seems son George "kept the faith" as he was originally buried in an Episcopal burying ground. Regardless, Jacob Malambre's gravestone and gravesite cannot be found in Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery on East Church Street. The church has done an awesome job in preserving burial records, but I failed to find any entry in their extensive database. 

Meanwhile, oldest son John Malambre stepped up to take over his father's business. It can be assumed that George Malambre, now age 17, assisted his older brother. Sister Margaret Malambre had married Jacob Ortner on November 6th, 1820. John Malambre would marry a local girl two years later on May 13th, 1823. His bride was Catherine Getzendanner.

Less than a year later, John moves locations to the former home of Mrs. Alice Wright, who I found among the first advertising the sale of ice cream in Frederick in the year 1818 at this location. I believe that this was on the north side of the first block of West Patrick Street, just west of the former Frederick County National Bank building. This move would open the opportunity for Jacob Engelbrecht to purchase the Malambre's former location on the creek of which he would expand in scope.

By the summer of 1826, it appears John would take on a new occupation. Jacob Engelbrecht's records on July 26th of that year:

"John Malambre is appointed toll-gate keeper at the Monocacy Bridge Gate viz John Reitzell resigned. He enters on his duty of office tomorrow."

The thought is that John may have operated the business with brother George until summer of 1828 when Jacob Malambre takes command of the family business started by his father three decades earlier.

Margaret Catherine Malambre appears living alone in Frederick on West Patrick Street. John Malambre would eventually go to Carroll County and open up a cordswainer business there. He would die in 1868 and is buried with his wife (Mary) at Sam's Creek Cemetery in Clemsonville. Brother Jacob Malambre, Jr. had married Ellen Gawthrop in 1826. He would run the shop on West Patrick temporarily, eventually leaving for Hagerstown. Shortly thereafter Jacob, Jr. and Ellen would leave Maryland altogether and take their family to Dayton, Ohio. His son George W. Malambre would serve in local and state government and made quite a name for himself there from what I've read. Jacob Malambre, Jr.  would die here in Frederick while making a visit of friends in 1850. 

George and Rachel appear to be living together in Towson in the 1830 US Census.  After returning to Frederick in the 1830s, the couple had two sons together: George Mayes Malambre (b. 1838) and John L. Malambre (b. 1848). George Malambre conducted his shoemaking business on North Market Street between East Second and East Thirds streets. 

George had the assistance of apprentices. The following are two documents found at the Frederick County Courthouse that lay out agreements for these young apprentices. The first is from 1838 and a young indenturer named William Ely. This consists of three pages. The second agreement is from 1837 and records the promissory relationship between George Malambre and the Frederick County Orphans Court in which he took responsibility for training Henry A. Jones and Elizabeth A. M. Jones in the trade of shoemaking.

On February 2nd, 1839, the Frederick Town Herald announced George Malambre's appointment as leather inspector, a state appointment of the governor, for Frederick County. As for a home residence, it appears that George was living at what is now 213-215 North Market Street in November, 1840. He touted this new location in the following newspaper ad from 1841.

Unfortunately, George's wife Rachel Malambre would die on February 17th, 1843, just a few weeks shy of her 34th birthday. As we stated earlier, she would be buried in the All Saints' Church Graveyard between East All Saints Street and Carroll Creek. ​

George Malambre would remarry in late spring 1844, April 29th to be exact. His bride would be Emeline Mayes of Towson born around 1821. This was George's sister-in-law, a sibling of former wife Rachel. This was not necessarily uncommon at the time when wives died relatively young with children to raise. The new couple of George and Emeline would have a son together the following year and named him James Edgar Malambre.

​The union was short-lived. July 5th, 1845 would be the day George Malambre died. Not much time spent with his second wife Emeline, and not much time spent with his infant son James—mere months. Unfortunately, we have no record of George' cause of death. He was only 40. George would be laid to rest next to first wife Rachel, Emeline's sister, in the All Saints' burying ground. The gravestone below would soon appear over his grave at that vicinity.

My assistant Marilyn Veek found documents associated with George's estate that may be of interest. If anything else, it is interesting to see detailed lists of his personal property at the time of death.

Emeline went back to Baltimore County to live with her parents. The 10-acre farm was located on York Road a few miles north of Towson. All three Malambre boys went with her to be raised in the home of their common grandparents. None appear to have pursued careers in shoemaking.

George Mayes Malambre died on October 11th, 1861 in Towson. His obituary appearing in the Frederick paper in late October was extremely dramatic, but no cause of death was mentioned. Likewise, no place of burial was listed.

It was the worst of times, and it was the best of times for our subject George's second son John L. Malambre. He suffered a bad vehicular accident in 1866, but struck lead in the early 1880s.

Emeline Malambre died on May 20th, 1867. Son James Edgar would assume the property of his mother located above Townson and sold it in 1870. Two years later, he married Mollie A. Graham of Carroll County.

Two pieces of aged marble in the form of gravestones can surely tell quite a story if you do the work and research. Although we still don't know much about the cordwainer Jacob Malambre's son George, and wife Rachel, we can appreciate the importance of their respective time on Earth and relationships to a family business and family members as well: parents, siblings and offspring. I could not find gravesites of George's parents, second wife and three sons "to boot" as they say.

American spiritual teacher, Yoga guru, psychologist and teach Ram Dass (1931-2019) taught workshops on conscious aging and dying around the United States. He left us with an original quote which seems to "tie up" our story here about this family with cordwaining talent galore:

"Death is absolutely safe. It's like taking off a tight shoe."

 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.
​
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."
​
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.
​
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:
​
“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.
​
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!

A "Philly Soul," that was my takeaway after being lured over to take a closer look at seeing a unique name on a small gravestone. This occurred while on a recent walk through one of the "oldest" areas within Mount Olivet's 100-acre cemetery. More on my geographical reference to the "City of Brotherly Love" in a moment. I will share that the decedent died 15 years before our famous burial ground opened its gates in 1854.  This wasn't his first "place of rest," as he had been "removed" from elsewhere. His name —Phineas Watson.
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For starters, how many times do you stumble across the name Phineas, other then when reading the Bible, deciphering the initials of "the greatest showman in history," or watching the Disney Channel? I'm sure many of you readers have no idea what I'm talking about. First off, we'll go "old school" as the name Phineas (or Phinehas) has been around for centuries. It is of Hebrew origin boasting an impressive lineage of leaders, lawyers and esteemed artists. Ancestry.com says the name is derived from the word "Pinchas," which translates to "oracle" and "serpent's mouth." The attribution links the name to the great nephew of Moses and something called the  Baal Peor episode in the Bible. It's not the nicest story at face value as it involves "Pinchas" (aka Phineas) killing a hedonist couple  with a spear while they were in bed. In doing so, however, he zealously avenged God's name.

According to website TheTorah.com, "Pinchas" is portrayed as a hero in the Torah and Second Temple sources for killing Zimri and his Midianite lover, Cozbi. In the Bible's Numbers 25, the Israelites, stopping at the village of Shittim, are seduced by Moabite women (from the Moab kingdom east of the Dead Sea) into serving their gods, specifically Baal Peor. God is angered by this and instructs Moses to punish the transgressors. At the same time, God sends a plague into the Israelite camp. Before Moses and his appointees take action, an Israelite man brings a Midianite woman into the camp, apparently to be "intimate" with her. Pinchas sees this and immediately takes action:

"Num 25:7 When Pinchas, son of Elazar son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he arose from the assembly and took a spear in his hand, 25:8 and followed the Israelite into the chamber and stabbed both of them, the Israelite and the woman, through her belly. Then the plague against the Israelites was checked."

With a flare for the dramatic, we can now explain "the Greatest Showman." This Connecticut native and businessman was responsible for giving us "the Greatest Show on Earth" in the form of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. That's right, P. T. Barnum's full name is Phineas Taylor Barnum. He lived from 1810-1891.

And now for a softer, more modern, reference to the name Phineas in the form of the lovable Phineas Flynn, one-half of the popular Disney Channel cartoon Phineas and Ferb. He was a main character on the show which ran over four seasons between 2007-2015. I know it well because my son and I watched the program regularly — however, its been a while since I last saw it as my son grew up and is currently away in his freshman year in college. The series' premise follows stepbrothers Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher during summer vacation. 

Phineas is buried within Mount Olivet's Area NN/Lot 124. He is with other decedents moved here in April, 1907 from their original burial spot of Evangelical Lutheran Church's second burial ground. This was at the intersection of East Church Street Extended and East Street in the location later to be known as Everedy Square.

​I found a record on Ancestry.com that corroborated information in our cemetery database pertaining to Phineas being married. His wife, Catharine Watson, was also re-interred here in Mount Olivet and Area NN back in 1907. However, she is not buried beside her husband, but instead is  located in the row in front of Phineas in Lot 125. Since all these graves in surrounding lots are removals (from other burying grounds), they are packed in very tightly with most stones touching one another. Born October 25th, 1777, also in Philadelphia, Catharine died on April 21st, 1855. She was originally buried side by side with Phineas in the the Old Evangelical Lutheran Graveyard on the east side of Frederick City.

This would be a very challenging story, with little obvious information to sift through. I found that I had to look closely at scarce references to friends, relatives and acquaintances in order to try to understand the life of Phineas Watson. My assistant and I also had to do a deep dive on alternative sources such as property transactions found in land records within the state and county records.

​Marilyn Veek searched the Frederick County Register of Wills, Frederick County Orphans Court, and came up with a last will and testament for Phineas, and another from Catharine. In Phineas' document, made in October, 1836, we learn that Phineas and Catharine had no direct heirs living in the form of children (as far as we know). Phineas' executors were well-known Frederick citizens John P. Thomson, John Baltzell, and Henry Doyle. I've written past stories on the first two, having no difficulty whatsoever in learning about their respective past lives before winding up in Mount Olivet. 

Phineas bequeathed all his holdings to his "dearly beloved wife Catharine Watson during her life." He made provisions to give his belongings to a sibling and her children after the death of his wife. 

The fine, upright stone of marble states that Ann was the wife of Lacon Lambe and lived from 1770 to March 17th, 1844. The couple married on November 19th, 1803. Ann Lambe's husband is also buried here, and lived until 1861 to the ripe old age of 91. He can be found with his adult child's (Mary Ann Whitely) family in Somerset, PA at the time of his death. Lacon was a native of Bath, England and, before immigrating to the United States, worked in conjunction with his father as a grocer specializing in the sale of teas, sugars, spices and coffees.

Phineas also mentions the potential sale of stocks with dividends going to benefit the children of William Hunt of Washington, DC, and another individual, Tabitha Appleby (wife of Washington Appleby) and resident of Montgomery County, MD. I guess we can call our subject "Philanthropic Phineas" in addition to "Philadelphia Phineas." Regardless, what a kind "Philly Soul."

From looking at documents like the will and other land records, we uncovered the following land dealings in Frederick County:

December 3rd, 1835: Phineas Watson bought from George and Ann Cole the eastern half of lot 286, which we believe to be located at today's 221 East Church Street. The house here now dates only to around 1900, but the earliest owner was Frederick Kinckley, a carpenter.

November 9, 1837: Phineas and Catherine sell half of lot 286 to Henry Lare and Thomas O'Neill. After Phineas' death, Catharine held mortgages for Daniel Martin and William Laley (a gravestone mason) at different times but didn't own any property herself.

Catharine Watson also calls out three women to give varying sums of money too. These echo children mentioned nearly twenty years earlier by Phineas and include Lydia E. Hunt (daughter of deceased Washington, DC bookbinder William Hunt), Harriet Burdett of Howard County, Harriet's daughter Achsah Elizabeth Burdett, and Ann Maria Appleby (daughter of Washington and Tabitha Appleby).

As for Lydia E. Hunt, I believe she may well be a cousin through Phineas' mother. Focus immediately shifted to her father's origins. Marilyn conducted a familysearch.com search and found a family tree of William Hunt which  showed that Ann (Watson) Lambe, like her husband (Lacon), was born in England to parents Richard Watson and Catharine Hunt, but gives no source. This is a bit confusing because Ann (Watson), supposedly born in 1770, is two years younger than Phineas. My premise for the onset has been that of Phineas Watson being born in 1768...in Philadelphia!

My assistant went on to find that William Hunt (1783-1829), the bookbinder, is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Washington, DC. He looks to be a first cousin of Phineas (on his mother's side) and gives rise to the Watson estate gift going to William's daughter, Lydia Hunt, who married David Todd on May 23rd, 1843. The couple would move to Greensburg, Westmoreland, PA.  
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In the case of Miss Appleby, we connected the dots to Phineas' mention of a Tabitha (Mockbee) Appleby in his will. It was stated that a husband was Washington Appleby who I soon found to be from a pretty colorful, and "rough and tumble" family living in Montgomery County back in the early 19th century. Mr. Appleby, like his brothers, father and grandfather appear in county records quite often for the wrong reasons, and usually in front of a magistrate. The family was destitute. The Maryland Gazette carries a mention of the state giving "relief" to Washington in 1830.

​I found that Tabitha and Washington Appelby married in 1827 and had at least one daughter together, Ann Maria, whom Catharine writes that she (herself) "acted the part of a mother" by raising the young child until an affliction prohibited her (Catharine) from doing so. At this time, Ann Maria went to live with her aunt, the forementioned Harriet Burdett. I'm assuming Tabitha died or had a debilitating illness herself which caused the Watson's interest in the young child's welfare. 

I  would later learn that Harriet (Appleby) Burdett (1797-1880) is buried in the Stackhouse Family Cemetery in Poplar Springs, Howard County. However, I don't know what became of Ann Maria Appleby. Reading this information makes me think that Mrs. Watson perhaps played some greater role in educating or working with poor and orphaned girls over her lifetime. Or, maybe she just had a big heart in seeing the plight of these youngsters in poverty situations, be they related to her, or not. 

We may not have figured out much on our mystery couple, but we had a few "persons of interest" that may show us the light. So, it's time to go back in time to see if I could glean anything further about Phineas or Catharine and why they came to Frederick. My favorite find  in research was a photocopy of an entry for the marriage of Phineas Watson and Catharina Heyl in the combined church ledger records of St. Michael's and Zion Lutheran Church in Philadelphia on December 4th, 1802. This at least connects Phineas' gravestone epitaph to Philadelphia in wedlock, as I'm still hopeful that is where his birth occurred.

If we trust the logic used in deciphering the fascinating connection to William and Lydia Hunt in both Phineas' and Catherine's wills, combined with the info on Phineas' sister Ann Watson, then we can speculate that our subject's parents are Richard Watson and Catharine Hunt. As for the parents of Catharine (Heyl) Watson, I found a baptismal record that could be hers. It shows a Catharine Heel, daughter of Revolutionary War soldier Phillip Heel (1739-1810), and wife Catharine Zeiglerine. Could this be Phineas' Catharine Watson in Mount Olivet's Area NN?

​The best I could muster in scanning the 1790 and 1800 US Census records for the City of Philadelphia were instances of Philip Heyl (1739-1810), a baker by profession, living on the east side of Water Street. On this same street, I found a John Watson in the 1790 and 1800 census records but the name (obviously) and age doesn't quite work out right for this to be Phineas' father.

A little more pecking around led me to find a Richard Watson who had died back in April 1775 on the eve of the American Revolution. This man was a talented craftsman and affiliated with another named James Reynolds who is noted for his intricate woodwork in connection to furniture (particularly chairs and side tables) and particularly framing for paintings and portraits at the time.  I found a fascinating passage from www.Chipstone.org, the website of the Chipstone Foundation, a Wisconsin-based foundation dedicated to promoting American decorative arts scholarship:

"Like most craftsmen of his stature, Reynold’s took apprentices and almost certainly employed journeymen. He also appears to have been associated with Richard Watson, a London carver who immigrated to Philadelphia before 1774, when the latter’s name appeared on the Provincial Tax List. Reynolds witnessed Watson’s will, probated on April 27, 1775. William Macpherson Hornor alluded to a business connection between the two men in his Blue Book: Philadelphia Furniture (1935). Although he did not cite his source, Hornor noted that Watson made “1 Pair Mahoganey brackets” and “1 Pair Paint’d Do.”[17]

The #17 at the end of the passage refers to the exact bibliographic source: 
http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/philadelphia/taxlist/northward1774.txt>. Will of Richard Watson, probated April 27, 1775, Philadelphia Wills, 1775, no. 115, p. 134, City Hall, Philadelphia. William Macpherson Hornor, Blue Book: Philadelphia Furniture, William Penn to George Washington (Philadelphia: by the author, 1935), p. 284.

Was Richard Watson, the noted carver and gilder of Philadelphia in the 1770s, and direct from London, the father of Phineas Watson? Its certainly not far-fetched to think this man could have been in Philadelphia by 1768, the year of Phineas' birth. 

I saw a brief summary of witnesses of Richard Watson's will of 1775, and these included James Reynolds and Richard's wife named Elizabeth (who served as executrix) and his father named George. In this case, what became of Phineas after the death of his father? We can assume he was raised by his mother into adulthood, or perhaps it was a relative or family friend. Maybe he was orphaned? Regardless, it would certainly make for a soft spot in the heart for other children experiencing the same situation with the loss of a parent(s).

This doesn't resolve the issue of Ann Watson's supposed 1770 birth in England, but that could have been an erroneous birthdate, or the statement that she was born in England could have been wrong. That family tree had a name of Catharine for Ann Watson's mother as well. That's certainly not Elizabeth, but could there be an error here as well? Anyway, I am excited that there is a chance here for discovering Phineas' father, and perhaps a clue to unlock Phineas profession if he learned the carving talents of Richard.

Marilyn dug up these land transactions (selling lots) involving Phineas, done shortly after his marriage to Catharine. 

May 22nd, 1805: Phineas Watson to Jno Meer - west side of "Seventh and Delaware Street"  between High and Chestnut Streets  - 17 feet wide and 81 feet westward, bound on the south and west sides by other land of Phineas Watson.

May 17th, 1806: Phineas Watson to Simon Gratz -- west side of Seventh Street from the River Delaware between High and Chestnut Streets - being part of the larger lot that Phineas bought from the High Sheriff on July 6th, 1800 deed D 185

Aug 14th, 1805:  Phineas Watson to Jno Meer  - description seems the same as EF 19/537

Again, it's just interesting that these properties are located near to the forementioned Phillip Heyl and John Watson. Water Street is located along the Delaware River. 

This leads us to believe that this was the probable time of departure from Philadelphia, and the couples' move to western Maryland around 1806.  However, it would not be Frederick right away. I found only two census records for our subjects.  We find them in the 1810 US Census living in Washington County. However, study of land records show the following transactions involving Phineas in the vicinity of Elizabethtown (later renamed Hagerstown). The earliest coming in 1807.

June 1st, 1807: Phineas Watson bought from Michael Hager a 92 3/4 acre tract of land that included part of Hager's Delight, part of Cellar's Resurvey, part of Cellar's Establishment, part of Pleasant Garden, part of Friendship Ended, part of Hagers Fancy, and part of Fertile Meadow. He sold this property to George Lyday on March 31, 1810.

April 10th, 1810: Phineas Watson bought from Michael Rudicill 10 1/2 acres along the road from Elizabeth Town to Green Castle. He sold this land to Frederick Wolfersperger on April 11th, 1812. 

By 1820, the Watsons are residing in the Goshen District of Montgomery County according to the US Census. This is near Clarksburg, and yes, we found land transactions by Phineas here as well.

January 13th, 1813: Phineas Watson bought from Zachariah Waters, trustee for the sale of the estate of Godfrey Waters, 64 3/4 acres part of Warfield's Vineyard

May 19th, 1817: Phineas Watson bought from Otho Willson 3/8 acre part of Moneysworth along the "great road" in the town of Clarksburgh

February 14th, 1823: Phineas Watson paid $43 for the household goods and furniture of Thomas Marman

February 7th, 1823: Phineas Watson bought from Alexander Winsor 28 square perches of part of Moneysworth and part of Woodport

July 15th, 1831: Phineas Watson sold to Elisha Lewis all of the above property

The household of 1820 shows Phineas and Catharine, but also a female child under 10 and an older female over 45. Who was this mystery child? Likely a youngster taken in for benevolent purposes by the "Godly" couple. Here, too, in this census, we get our only glimpse at Phineas in regards to an occupation as the census says he is engaged in agriculture. 

In scouring the census, I found nearby neighbors in this Clarksburg vicinity to the Watsons. These included the earlier mentioned Washington Appleby and the Harriett Burdett family. I could not find the Watsons in the 1830 Census of Montgomery County. The chronology seems to indicate that this is where they would reside before moving into Frederick City by the mid 1830s. We base this presumption  on the land transactions by Phineas shown earlier. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything more on Phineas regarding his last four years of life in Frederick. All we know is that he and Catharine were members of Evangelical; Lutheran Church.

That leads us to the death of Mr. Watson. This occurred on October 20th, 1839. The burial ledger of Evangelical Lutheran states that his death came on suddenly and as a result of apoplexy-heart disease. Diarist Jacob Engelbrecht made an entry a day later in his celebrated diary saying:

"Died last night in the 71st year of his age Mr. Phineas Watson of our town. Buried on the Lutheran Graveyard. A note was later added that "He was born in Philadelphia July 4, 1768." 

Everyone in town must have been fascinated by the assumed fact that Mr. Watson was very proud of being born in Philly, perhaps his life's greatest highlight? All I can say is "Go Phillies, Sixers, Flyers....and E-A-G-L-E-S!"

That's the end of the road for me in seeking out more sources on the internet. Without direct heirs, it's as if it was the end of a legacy for Phineas Watson as well. All that remains is that gravestone here at Mount Olivet to prove he once walked the Earth. His wife certainly kept his memory alive for another 16 years until her death on April 20th, 1855. Catharine would be buried the next day.

So that is all I can tell you about this "Philly Soul" —a man named Phineas who was proud of the fact that he was born in Philadelphia. He may have been the son of a talented 18th century immigrant craftsman from London, and may have possessed some of those talents himself. Phineas, I wish I could have learned more about you and your wife Catharine. I hope it was a good life, and don't worry, I will never forget this meandering research quest each and every time I pass by your graves in that interesting cemetery area of NN.

In going through cemetery burial records, my talented research assistants Donna Lacagnina and Marilyn Veek discovered that we had the same individual entered twice in our records under different names. We apparently had a lady named Mary "Polly" Conrad  in an unknown/unmarked burial here at Mount Olivet. We also have a woman named Mary "Polly" Grosch (1783-1841) with a known burial space of Area NN/Lot 128.  Donna and Marilyn made this discovery by going through FindaGrave.com memorial pages and found that both "Marys" were assigned to the same grave lot (NN/Lot 128), and grave space. The accompanying photo of the gravestone (on FindaGrave.com) on this location for Mary Grosch substantiates the presence for the Mary Grosch burial and entry. However, the Mary "Polly" Conrad entry left plenty of questions with no such stone to be found as this was an unmarked grave as assumed.

Donna and Marilyn are with the Friends of Mount Olivet membership group, and next consulted our cemetery database which would show that both "Marys" (Mary "Polly" Grosch and Mary "Polly" Conrad) not only shared the same birth and death years, but were born and died on the same days as well. This is when Donna and Marilyn began to look closer, assuming an error had occurred in duplicative data entry here at Mount Olivet. 
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​Our database entries did not add a great deal of vital and family info outside of a full birthdate of December 7th, 1783 and death date of August 29th, 1841. Both entries also included the same name for both Marys' mother. This was Hannah Conrad. However, both entries would also point to each other in a very interesting set of statements in the optional "Remarks" section at the bottom of each entry page.  Mary "Polly" Grosch's page reads:

"See Mary "Polly" Conrad buried in NN-128-10. Removal from Old Lutheran Graveyard, Frederick, Md. Mary was a free Mulatto woman who was raised and worked for the Grosch family. As a result, she went sometimes by the name of Mary "Polly" Grosch. However, her real name was Mary "Polly" Conrad."

This was extremely interesting to learn, especially in regard to Mary "Polly" being referred to as a "free Mulatto woman." On top of that, she possesses one of the largest memorials in this particular cemetery area.  Her gravestone is what we call a "ledger," or "tablet," memorial or marker. Again, she is referred to on the stone simply as Mary Grosch with a death date of August 29th, 1841, dying in the 57th year of her age.       

A ledger stone is an inscribed stone slab usually laid into the floor of a church to commemorate or mark the place of the burial of an important deceased person. Think of accounting ledgers, and ledger paper and notepads—long and narrow.
 
​Ledger stones may also be found as slabs forming the tops of chest tombs. An inscription is usually incised into the stone within a ledger line running around the edge of the stone in the same manner a ledger book contains stacked rows of recorded information and numbers. Such inscription may continue within the central area of the stone, which may be decorated with relief-sculpted or incised coats of arms, or other appropriate decorative items such as skulls, hourglasses, etc. Stones with inset brasses first appeared in the 13th century.

Traditionally, these memorials are found in Colonial-era burying grounds, and generally reserved for the upper class. The Grosch family of Frederick was certainly prominent, but it is fascinating to see a stone of this size on the grave of a "person of color," no less a single woman of color. She certainly must have carried clout in the community and her greater family. If anything else, the simple inscription on the face of this particular ledger stone states that Mary "Polly" Grosch was a "Faithful member of the Lutheran Church."

​Exactly eight years ago this month, I penned a multi-part "Story in Stone," in which  I explained my attempt in searching for the earliest Frederick residents of color to be buried in Frederick’s Mount Olivet Cemetery. The rural cemetery opened in 1854 and specifically catered to Frederick’s white community, an unspoken and understood practice not only here and the Deep South, but in many places in the North as well. Separate burying grounds, or separate sections within established graveyards, had been set up by churches or beneficial societies for the black populace. This was no different with how churches had evolved, marking a color divide with religion (ie: the Methodist Episcopal Church vs the African Methodist Episcopal Church). The same was true here in Frederick as well. From before the time of the Civil War up through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, many cemeteries would remain segregated with “unwritten” and, in some cases, “written” rules to back the claim.
 
Mount Olivet is the largest cemetery in Frederick County. Today, it operates without discrimination in burying people regardless of color, creed, religion, sex and national origin. At the same time, Fairview Cemetery, located on East Church Street extended/Gas House Pike continues a proud tradition of service as the predominant “black cemetery” of town. This is simply a historic and cultural precept.

My fascination with Mary "Polly" Grosch, or Conrad, was one of breaking the color barrier in death. She was described as being Mulatto, or mixed race (black and white). First off, here was a woman that was a Free Black living (and dying) in Frederick at a time long before the Emancipation Proclamation and the American Civil War. She died in 1841 at the age of 57. The question remains: Was she a former slave? If so, when was she manumitted, and by whom? As a matter of fact, were her parents (or just one of them) slaves? Who was Hannah Conrad?

Second, it is interesting to learn of Mary "Polly," a woman of color, being originally buried in Frederick's second Evangelical Lutheran burying ground. The Lutherans had two such downtown graveyards in Frederick. The first was located on East Church Street behind the church edifice. You can still see ancient gravestones there today, but a traditional expanse, or field, of stones is not what you will find. The Schaeffer Center, the congregation's early Sunday School, eventually displaced many a gravestone and likewise decedents, when it was built in 1892. It fronts East Second Street, on the north end of the Lutheran church property. Many of these stones can be found propped up along the vintage Sunday School structure.

A second Lutheran burying ground would open down the street on the southeast corner of East Church Street extended and East Street. This is where the Lerner Collection (formerly Frederick Coin Exchange) and Talbots are located today within Everedy Square. I think this is most likely the place of Mary "Polly's" original burial, because this ground and its decedents were moved to Mount Olivet in 1907 to Area NN.

Area NN is an interesting one here in Mount Olivet. It’s shape is somewhat triangular as it sits against the western boundary of the cemetery, not far from the Barbara Fritchie and Thomas Johnson gravesites.  The section often raises curiosity among visitors as the stones within are somewhat positioned very closely together—almost too close together, but there is a reason. Most of the people interred here today, came from other burial grounds that once graced downtown Frederick.
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Many of these gravestones have death dates that predate Mount Olivet’s opening in 1854, and there are several examples written in German. The Colonial architecture is clearly evident and the rationale for these stones placed so close together lies in the fact that these comprise church group reburials dictated by the trustees of local congregations. Three different churches bought the bulk of the lots on NN — the Presbyterian, Evangelical Lutheran and Methodist Episcopal. These churches once had their own designated burying grounds downtown, but elected to transfer bodies via mass removal to Mount Olivet, allowing for re-use or resale of the former graveyard properties.

This was certainly not an uncommon practice for the time, and in the case of Area NN, most of this reburial activity occurred in 1907-1908. This option was designed to take the congregations out of the graveyard business, and maintenance thereof, deferring the job to an entity that solely was suited to handle the assignment. 
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As for the makeup of the property, the Methodists are to the left, Lutherans in the middle (see tall obelisk monument in middle) and Presbyterians to the right. 

Marilyn brought the situation of both Mary "Pollys" to my attention, and we started searching for more information on this singular woman with two names. Our intent was threefold: 1.)To correct our cemetery database with duplicative listings for the same woman; 2.)To correct any Find-a-Grave.com information on Mary Polly's memorial page, as we had made one a few years prior under the Friends of Mount Olivet management; and 3.)To learn anything we could about Mary "Polly," and discover how she may connect with the early prominent Grosch family of Evangelical Lutheran Church and Frederick Town.

Our first endeavors included a consultation with Jacob Engelbrecht's heralded diary, and then a search to see what was on Ancestry.com for this woman. For those not familiar with Engelbrecht, he was an early resident of town, a tailor by trade, who kept a diary from 1819 until his death in 1878. He worked as a tailor and lived out most of his life on West Patrick Street next to Carroll Creek and across the street from legendary neighbor Barbara Fritchie.

Jacob Engelbrecht was a fellow parishioner of Mary "Polly" in Evangelical Lutheran Church, and as usual, his diary did not disappoint. We found the following entry dated August 29th, 1841:

"Died this afternoon in the year of her age, Miss Mary Grosch, granddaughter, or rather niece I should say, of old Mrs. Kimboll, Buried on the Lutheran graveyard."

I was quite familiar with the early Grosch family and their connection to the church, not to mentian Mrs. Catharine (Grosch) Kimboll (also spelled Kimball), a notable early businesswoman of Frederick Town. She ran a tavern on West Patrick Street from 1797-1828 that hosted many early statesmen such as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. It was called "The Sign of the Golden Fleece." This structure, located near the northeast corner of West Patrick and Court streets ,would eventually become Talbott's Tavern and later the City Hotel—Frederick's prime lodging spot throughout the century, eventually yielding to the Francis Scott Key Hotel that would be built on the original footprint.

Mrs. Kimboll was the former Catharine Grosch, daughter of an early German settler in town named Johann Conrad Grosch (1712-1794). Mr. Grosch is commonly known as "Conrad Grosch" and was one of the first members of Frederick's Evangelical Lutheran congregation, as he came to the area a short time after the town's founding in 1745.  Grosch was a great benefactor and one of the first builders of the original large ediface of the church on East Church Street, begun in 1752.

I recalled that Mr. Grosch was also an early slave owner. This wasn't uncommon, as I recall years ago being surprsed to learn that some of our early German settlers of Frederick owned slaves. Michael Roemer (1715-1800) was another leading member of this congregation, and his slave Adam Cooms (aka Combs and Coomes) is buried on the Evangelical Lutheran Church property in an unmarked grave.

Old local histories state that Cooms (c.1739-1824) helped build the Lutheran Church, and was the only Black man to be a regular (confirmed) member of the church at the time of his death. He was also the first Black individual buried in the Lutheran Graveyard in the year 1824. 

​Michael Roemer (aka Raymer) is buried on the church grounds downtown, as is Johann Conrad Grosch. Roemer's gravestone is still here, however there is not one for Conrad Grosch or his wife Maria Sofia (Gutenberger) Grosch (1717-1785). I found it odd that our Mary "Polly's" gravestone was featured on the latter's FindaGrave memorial page. Two other Grosch family members are here in unmarked graves in son Adam Grosch (1754-1785) and a mystery lady named Salome Grosch (1721-1794) according to church records. Perhaps she was Conrad's sister or cousin?

Conrad Grosch was born May 18th, 1712 in Eichloch in "Rheingrafischen Hernschaft" (now Rommersheim, in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany). He married (Maria Sophia Gutenberger) in 1737 in her hometown of Woellstein, Alzey. The couple came to America in 1748, the same year Frederick County was created out of Prince Georges County.

On the journey across the Atlantic, Conrad and Maria Sophia would bring one son and two daughters— one of which was Catharine (Grosch) Kimboll. Once here, they expanded their family to include four sons and four daughters: Maria Dorothea Grosch (1739-1810) married Col. William Beatty; Peter Grosch (1741-1796); Catharine Margaret Grosch (1745-1831); Henry Grosch (1749-1749); Johann Michael Grosh (1749-1777); Christina Grosch (1752-1808) married Matthias Buckey; Anna Barbara Grosch (1752-1828); married Col. Elie Marion Williams); Adam Grosch (1754-1785). Catharine married William Kimboll, a saddler by profession, in the early 1760s. The couple had at least one daughter, Maria Barbara in 1763, but William seems to vanish from the records by the late 1790s.

With this information, coupled with our records saying that Mary "Polly's" mother was a Hannah Conrad, how could Catharine be our subject's grandmother? I acutely picked up on the interesting connection with the name Conrad however, as this was Catharine's father's first name of course. This led me to two online databases of baptisms for Evangelical Lutheran Church. The first can be found on Evangelical Lutheran Church's website, twinspires.org, in the preservation section. The second comes from late Genealogist Bob Fout's website, bobfoutgenealogy.com, under FELC Baptisms 1780-1785.

Note the individual "Polly," baptized on December 21st, 1783. This is two weeks after her birth on December 7th. She is our Mary, as her mother is Hannah, and there is a direct connection to the Grosch family. I think the mystery is partially solved! Conrad is not a last name of her mother, and sponsor, Hannah. Rather, Hannah is listed simply as Conrad Grosch's negro woman, without a last name. Blame the error on the vintage ELC Baptismal Ledger not having wider columns to write this information. I think we can say with surety that Hannah was a slave of Conrad Grosch.

I decided to peck around in both of these databases a bit more and eventually found the following entry from June 11th, 1775. It is a baptism for a child named Jacob, the son of negroes Henry and Hannah. Conrad Grosch and wife Sophia are the sponsors. Could Jacob's mother be the same Hannah who gave birth to Polly eight years later in December, 1783?

Again, we see Conrad Grosch in the picture. However, what happened to Henry over that eight year span. Was he Polly's father? Or was it someone else?

I finally consulted a hardback volume entitled A History of Evangelical Lutheran Church. The majority of the book contains a history of the church written in 1938 by a Gettysburg Seminarian named Dr. Abdel Ross Wentz. The book was published, compiled and brought up to date by Amos John Traver in 1988. I looked for anything I could find on Mary "Polly," and Mrs. Kimboll, as there were several references to Conrad Grosch as you can imagine as he was also one of the earliest church elders. On page 185, I found the following passage that gave me great satisfaction in discovering:

"A question of order was raised in 1811 when (Rev. David Frederick) Schaeffer catechised a mulatto girl and then proposed to confirm her. The action of the council was that 'a majority of the church council resolved that Mr. Schaeffer should confirm Mrs. Kimbold's (sp) Mullate Girl and should let her come to the communion as the last one in the church or as Mr. Schaeffer thinks best.' The record does not state , but knowing Schaeffer's interest in the blacks and all needy souls we may conclude that the girl was confirmed and was admitted to the communion table after all others had been communed. And knowing his tact and prudence we may conclude that she was seated, not in the main auditorium on the left-hand side where the other women sat, but in the gallery at the back of the church. This custum with reference to negroes continued in the church until the issues of the Civil War were raised, and it was renewed towards the close of the century."

Mary "Polly" was about 27 years old at this point. Could this be Mrs. Kimboll's "mulatto girl?" I would think that if an exception be made for a person of color to be confirmed in Frederick's early Lutheran Church, it would certainly be a person with a connection to church builder and former leader, Conrad Grosch who had died in 1794. Secondly, I'm now thinking that Polly's confirmation name was likely "Mary." This would explain the duality of names, and would be appropriate for a number of reasons, especially since her baptismal sponsor was Mary Sophia Grosch. Perhaps there are confirmation records that need perusing to prove this fact? And don't forget the inscription on Mary "Polly" Grosch's ledger stone as being "a faithful member of the Lutheran Church." This was a highly important accomplishment for a person of color, just as Adam Cooms would make the history books as the slave who helped build Evangelical Lutheran's first church in Frederick Town. My friend Marcia Hahn was kind enough to find the Church Minutes from January 1811 in which the church council discussed the issue of Ms. Grolsch potential confirmation. Unfortunately those records are written in German in the 1811 Evangelical Church Minutes Book,  but I submit them below anyway. (If you know German, please kindly translate this record and feel free to add the passage in the comments at the end of the story.)

Twenty-three persons were confirmed in Frederick's Evangelical Lutheran Church and here is the original list of those individuals from Church records. Note that Polly Grosch was last to be listed in the 23rd position on this document (​ELC Vol III pg 319).

In my research, I did find this interesting biographical piece on the state's Maryland Historical Archives website regarding Catharine Kimboll's brother, John Michael Grosch. This son of Conrad and Mary Sophia Grosch died in 1777 while serving in the American Revolution at the Battle of Germantown (PA). Note the section toward the bottom listing the decedent's nieces. Here lies the puzzling mention of a female named "Mary" with no other supporting documentation. Why is she just out there like an island? Apparently she is a daughter of one of Michael's siblings, but which one? Likely one with a last name of Grosch which leaves Peter or Adam.

Anyway, searches for anything on a Conrad Grosch granddaughter named Mary turned up fruitless. The only thing I could find was Mary (Charlton) Grosch, wife of Peter Grosch, and an aunt of Francis Scott Key to boot.

Catherine Kimboll died at age 86 on May 18th, 1831. She was the last of her immediate family. Jacob Engelbrecht made note of her death in his journal and commented that she was buried in the Lutheran Graveyard. This most likely was the churchyard. ​Mary "Polly" Grosch would live another decade before her death in 1841. I almost forgot to check Evangelical Lutheran Church's Death Register for Mary "Polly's" death entry. To my delight, I would find "two for the price of one" to complete my research.

Wow! Now, how could these two ladies die so close together, and, fittingly, why is there no burial information for Mary, but there is information of her removal? Because these two ladies are the same person. Polly died of dropsy, also known as Edema. This is fluid retention, swelling caused by excess fluid buildup in the body's tissues. Mary "Polly" was 57 years of age at the time of her death.

I was not certain who made the plans for Mary "Polly's" burial. She would never marry, or have children. Did she have siblings or anyone else? Perhaps a Grosch cousin? Catharine's daughter Maria (Morris) had died in 1834 and is buried in South Carolina, so we can rule her out, unless it was one of her daughters of which she had a few. Jacob Engelbrecht refers to these ladies as a Mrs. Dugas and a Mrs. Shaw but they lived elsewhere. I presume that it may have been the Evangelical Lutheran congregation, itself, or a clergyman. This Black trailblazer certainly deserved an honorable memorial, especially considering how generous she was to the Church and Missionary Society with those donations at the time of her death. That was a good amount of money back in those days.

​Thanks to a late, final discovery by Marilyn, we would learn a bit more about our mysterious  Mary "Polly" in the form of a will in the Frederick County Courthouse records. This was written on July 29th, 1841, exactly one month before her death. Therein we find that Mary "Polly" had formidable wealth—even enough to purchase her own ledger gravestone! The first orders she gives to her executors Edward and John A. Mantz revolve around her own burial:

​"First, and principally, I commit my soul into the hands of Almighty God, and my body to the Earth to be decently buried at the discretion of my Executers hereinafter named, and after my debts and charges are paid. 2nd, I devise and bequeath forty dollars for a tombstone to be placed over my grave." 

EPIOLOGUE
Since the story's completion, my assistant Marilyn Veek was inspired to search for a manumission record for Mary "Polly" Grosch, and also one for her mother Hannah. She  was successful in finding Mary "Polly's" manumission thus confirming that she was a slave. More valuable information shows that Hannah was a slave of William Kimboll at least as early as 1765, 18 years before Mary "Polly's" birth in 1783.

The manumission of Polly (aka Mary) by Catherine Kimboll occurred on July 26th, 1810 by Frederick County Courthouse deed WR 37 647 (attached). Mary has "served her since her infancy."

Conrad Grosh's Last Will and Testament makes no mention of enslaved persons, however the 1795 inventory of his estate includes "1 Mulatto slave girl named Poll." Mary “Polly” would have been 11 years old at this time. 

​​According to his will, Conrad Grosh’s real and personal estate was to be sold. Marilyn was unable to find a deed by which Catherine Kimboll obtained Mary “Polly,” though presumably it was from Grosh's estate. However, there is a 1792 deed in which Peter Mantz sold a negro woman named Peggy Fisher to Elie Williams in trust for Catherine. Mr. Williams was Catharine's brother-in-law, as well as an executor for her father.

​Marilyn also uncovered a complicated set of deeds involving the mortgaging and sale of the negro woman Hannah. We can assume that this slave was Mary “Polly” Grosch’s biological mother. On August 28th, 1765, William Kimboll mortgaged Hannah "and her increase" to Christopher Edelen (Frederick County Courthouse Deed J 1288). On February 26th, 1766, William Kimboll mortgages to William Beatty and Peter Grosh various household goods and also a negro woman named Hannah (Frederick County Courthouse Deed K 397).  

​On March 15th, 1766, William Kimboll paid off his debts to Edelen and to Beatty & Grosh (2 deeds at K 415). He then immediately sells Hannah to John Beatty (Frederick County Courthouse Deed K 416).

​I often stop, and truly take in the human statues I see in our cemetery. Most often these are females, and come in the form of angels, "women in mourning state" and young cherubs. Recently, I spotted a young figure of a girl who looked quite angelic, but I don't know if she was actually depicting one of the heavenly variety as I didn't spy any wings. She is holding what looks to be a small bunch  of flower petals in her left hand, and appears to be in the process of dropping a petal (or petals) with her right hand —and on this very grave. I’m not sure of the exact significance of this act, but angels are often known to spread blessings.

I soon asked myself whether this funerary ornamentation was intended to be a representation of the young nine-year-old decedent in this grave space, or that of a like-aged chum showing affection and/or pity for young Rebecca M. Zacharias (August 25th, 1891-December 16th, 1899)?

I then thought about whether this marble art piece has a relationship to flower girls, you know, the ones utilized at weddings. Their role is to spread flowers or petals ahead of the bride, or hand them out to the guests. 

I decided to review the duty behind flower girls at weddings. Of course, job number one is to be incredibly cute and actually steal a bit of attention away from the marital couple. The flower girl is responsible for throwing flower petals on the ground as she walks down the aisle before the bride. The origin of the tradition is believed to have stemmed from symbolizing a leading of the bride from childhood to adulthood, and soon-to- be motherhood. It’s for this reason that the flower girl is also usually dressed in white, representing innocence, similarly to the color worn by most brides.
 
Rose petals are said to symbolize fertility and the couple's hope for children.  The tradition apparently began in Ancient Rome, where the flower girl serviced the bride and groom by carrying wheat and herbs. This was to bless them with prosperity and fertility. I also read that the tradition may have originated from superstition, with the flower girl throwing petals to ward off evil spirits. During the Renaissance, flower girls carried strands of garlic based on the belief that garlic repelled bad luck, along with vampires too as we all know.

In the Elizabethan era, wedding guests would scatter flower petals from the bride's home to the church. Flower girls followed musicians in the wedding procession, “carrying a gilded rosemary branch and a silver bride's cup adorned with ribbons.” The cup was usually filled with flower petals or rosemary leaves, as an alternative to a basket. Other alternatives included a small bunch of rosemary sprigs used as a sweet posy or a small floral bouquet, incorporating sprigs of fresh rosemary.

The Victorian flower girl most resembles the modern ones we all know. Victorian-era (1837-1901) flower girls were traditionally dressed in white, perhaps with a sash of colored satin or silk. Her dress, usually made of muslin, was intentionally simple to allow future use. The Victorian flower girl carried an ornate basket of fresh blooms or sometimes a floral hoop, its shape echoing that of the wedding ring and symbolizing that "love has no end."

Well, that's the story behind wedding flower girls, dropping petals at the happiest of life's occasions. So what then does this statuary monument here in Mount Olivet's Area R represent? ​The Victorians regularly used symbols for funerary art. The angel was a symbol of spirituality & the hand pointing downward traditionally symbolized “sudden death” or “mortality." Petals plucked from a whole flower is like a person leaving the whole of humanity —a journey traveled alone to heaven.
 
In researching further, I found the legend of St Dorothy. On her way to death, she was mocked by Theophilus of Adana in Luke's Gospel of the Bible. He asked for proof of the heavenly garden she was going to. After Dorothy's death, an angel visited him with a basket containing flowers and fruit in the middle of winter. This would correlate to our angel or girl on this particular memorial in the act of bringing proof that the deceased is in heaven.
 
The floral bouquets in the hands of angels can be found in some instances as spreading floral petals over hallowed ground. I think the bouquets are comprised of “roses” (symbol for love) and “forget-me-not” (symbol for remembrance). Sometimes the opposite is true as angels can also be shown as picking flowers, signifying the harvest of souls for heaven. 

We've talked before in this blog about the iconography of flowers in cemeteries. Here's a link to a story from seven years back. Interestingly, the cover image (of the story) was taken in this very, family lot of the Zacharias family. I had zeroed in on an old flower pot on the bookend side of Rebecca M. Zacharias' parents/grandparents large family marker. This is in Area R/Lot 81. 

So that's all I can tell you about this unique statuary monument. Naturally, I was equally curious to learn more about the young child under the monument—a poor soul who died at nine years of age, long before having the opportunity to walk down a church aisle while following a flower girl. 

I didn't expect to find much on little Rebecca Mealey Zacharias whose life spanned less than a decade. As I reported earlier, she was born on August 25th, 1891.  By dying in late December, 1899, she would never be enumerated in a US Census. Rebecca was the daughter of Horace C. Zacharias and Tempie Elizabeth Wilcoxon. She had one sibling, a sister named Hilda A. who was born in 1897.

Shown below are Rebecca's interment card from the Mount Olivet records, along with her obituary announcement and a report on her funeral from the Frederick News.

The obvious overarching title which is clearly legible is the word "Sleeping," a wholly Victorian notion toward death as this was the period when expressions such as "Resting in Peace" and "In Golden Slumber" came into existence in cemeteries and would soften the Puritanical attitude towards death as ambivalent and containing both terror at the possibility of eternal damnation and hope for deliverance.

Below "Sleeping" are three separate epitaphs, two of which come from the Bible. The first line is from Psalms 31:1 and reads, "In thee O Lord do I put my trust." The second, "Budded on earth to bloom in heaven," is especially poignant and speaks to the fact of a life cut short before its prime. The final epitaph comes from Colossians 3:3,  "Your life is hid with Christ in God."

In my scanning of local newspapers for anything more on Rebecca, I would find two memorials published during the year after her death (1900). These were submitted to the Frederick News by family members, and fittingly include references to both angels and flowers.

The larger Zacharias cemetery plot here in Mount Olivet's Area R is quite impressive. The family monument is located a few feet south of Rebecca's "flower girl" and is by far the largest in the area. The central family monument has the Masonic compass emblem on its face on its eastern side. On the opposite, west side, a monogram of J. F. Z. exists. Three generations of family are here in the form of Rebecca and her sister, her parents and her grandparents.

​Let's talk about Rebecca's parents, Horace Clinton Zacharias and Tempie Elizabeth Wilcoxon. Horace was born in Frederick on March 10th, 1867, the only child of John Flavius Zacharias (1842-1868) and wife Ann Rebecca (Miller) Zacharias (1839-1908). Horace's father, John Flavius Zacharias died the year after Horace's birth. I found John Flavius in the 1860 US Census living on the farm of his father, Christian Zacharias (1802-1875), a farmer of Emmitsburg District in northern Frederick County.

Thanks to a publication entitled The Annals of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (published in 1905), I learned about the family progenitor who immigrated to America from Germany. This was Matthias Zacharias (1757-1825) who eventually settled in Stony Branch Valley, roughly three miles  southeast of Emmitsburg. He called his property "Single Delight." His son, also named Matthias Zacharias (1757-1825), was a Revolutionary War veteran who has a great story in connection with his old countrymen, the Hessian soldiers. These men were Horace C. Zacharias' Great-Great Grandfather and Great-Grandfather.

While researching this story, I discovered that my old friend, Michael Hillman, has included a great research of the Zacharias family and their properties on his Emmitsburg.net website. Click the link to read more, however we are going to focus on Horace Clinton Zacharias at this point as he was the man who erected the fine monument for Rebecca, and the large granite Zacharias stone in memory of his parents as his father's monogram adorns the western face with outlier markers for them, as he would also have for him and his wife, Tempie. I've been told that this monument is made from a very high grade granite, and likely cost a great deal at the time of purchase.

Surprisingly, Horace C. Zacharias does not have a biography in Williams' History of Frederick County. I had to piece together his life from reading newspaper articles. His obituary in 1946 was accompanied by a photo, so I could finally put a face with a name.

According to Horace Zacharias' obituary, the family lived at 100 East Third Street, in a house that he built in 1895. The earlier house on the property was owned by John W. Miller, his maternal grandfather. Horace John Miller was a butcher and Horace and his widowed mother were living with Miller in the 1870 census after his father's death. 

The family situation was the same for Horace a decade later as his Aunt Elizabeth Miller assumed the home after his grandparents' deaths in 1876 and 1877 respectively. He received an education in local schools.

On the very next day, the Frederick News printed a Frederick Business Index in the May 17th edition of their publication. I learned that Horace was doing more than just the "Occasional Club" activities as he was working in a business that perfectly befits his first name. He was proprietor of a livery business on today's Maxwell Alley between East Second and East Third streets. This was basically his back yard.

For those unfamiliar with the profession, a livery in the late1800s was an establishment that rented out horses for riding, or for pulling buggies or wagons. It also boarded horses for those who did not own a stable. For a price, the livery would feed, groom, and exercise a boarded horse, and also keep its stall clean. The livery provided feed and bedding. Horace would give his business the name Champion Livery.

I went on to find several articles over the next decade that praised Horace's business, and the way in which he conducted it. He would often be mentioned as bringing residents to special outings throughout the county, with frequent destinations being White Rock on Catoctin Mountain in the Yellow Springs area north of town, and Sugarloaf Mountain to the southeast of Frederick City. Articles talk of his bandwagon, busses and beautiful stock horses. Along the way, Horace would find a wife in Tempie Elizabeth Wilcoxon (b. May 3, 1867), daughter of Frederick lumberyard owner John A. Wilcoxon (1807-1883). 

As Horace's business was "off and running," or better yet, "trotting along," he kept himself active with volunteer work with his church, and within Frederick's Columbia Lodge. At Evangelical Lutheran Church, he became manager of the Sunday School, and would later be responsible for dedicating a memorial window to his mother, Ann Rebecca Zacharias, upon her death in 1908. He would become a Worshipful Master of the local Freemasonry chapter and was instrumental in the building and opening of the chapter's new home on West Church Street in 1902.

Around this same time, we see Horace C. Zacharias changing gears professionally. He would sell his Champion Livery business in 1901 to a man named George Edward Myers. Mr. Myers would operate this business until 1909 and a picture survives of his granddaughter Lizzie (Mary Elizabeth Stewart Myers) holding two horses outside the stable location on Maxwell Alley. This photograph appears in Gorsline, Cannon & Whitmore's Pictorial History of Frederick (1995) and is part of Heritage Frederick's rich collection.

In the 1910 census, Horace C. Zacharias gives his profession as that of a "Stock Dealer." I found a number of articles showing him in the purchase and sale of business stocks, and also in local real estate. Properties would come to include 37 and 39 East Third Street, along with 42 and 44 East Third Street. In addition, he acquired land east of Frederick on the southside of the Old Baltimore Turnpike (Rt 240) near the old Emmons C. Sanner Farm near Quinn Orchard Road. In the 1920s, Horace returned to his roots and dealt in livestock.

However, one of Zacharias' most savvy dealings would include purchasing property between Carroll Creek and today's Citizens Way, along the east side of Court Street. This occurred in 1900, and was later co-owned with a gentleman named James Burke. Nearly four decades later it would become the site of Frederick's first large scale supermarket. 

Horace C. Zacharias died on January 23rd, 1946. He had a great career as a local businessman. His death made front-page news and his funeral was well-attended. The only thing that was missing was the opportunity to see his daughter Rebecca fully blossom into adulthood. He would be laid to rest by her side on the family plot on January 26th.

Horace C. Zacharias' wife Tempie would live nine years before her death on February 2nd, 1955. Her mortal remains would be placed next to her husband and within a few short yards of her beloved daughter, Rebecca. 

I loved that Mrs. Zacharias' funeral announcement described the event as having "a profusion of flowers,"  so fitting as I will now always associate this funeral plot with flowers. Unlike Rebecca, the Zacharias' other daughter, Hilda Ann (Zacharias) Opel, would live a life eleven times as long as her deceased older sister. Hilda lived from 1897 to 1997 and is buried with her husband Charles A. Opel directly behind our "flower girl" —​Rebecca M. Zacharias.

*****************************************************************************************************************Would you like to learn more Frederick history from author Chris Haugh?

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Learn more about this course and others presented by Chris Haugh/History Shark Productions. Legends of Frederick will feature four weeks of illustrated presentations exploring the life and times of Gov. Thomas Johnson, Jr., Francis Scott Key, Barbara Fritchie and diarist Jacob Engelbrecht. Tuesday nights in March. Cost $79 for entire 4-part (10 hour) class, or ala carte options for each "legend" at $25. Click the button below to learn more/register or visit HistorySharkProductions.com!

Last month, I came across the surname Grable in conjunction with our cemetery. In particular, I was looking for information on two sisters who were local dressmakers. They were buried here in June, 1895 after having been disinterred from Frederick’s Methodist Episcopal Church Graveyard, once located on the southeast corner of East 4th Street and Middle Alley (today’s Maxwell Alley).
​
The mortal remains of Jane Grable (1784-1854) and Sevilla Grable (1800-1853) are located in our Area NN, and I believed that they connect back to a German immigrant named Nicholas Samuel Grable (1695-1774), and his son John Grable (1722-1801) residing here in the county from the late 1700s. Information was scarce on these Grables, but I found a number of others in Mount Olivet under a variation of the name—Grabill.

Of the 15 decedents buried here with that spelling, I zeroed in on the earliest born and found William H. Grabill (1833-1897) and wife Maria Louisa (Hamilton). The next "earliest" were Jacob S. Grabill (1852-1905) and wife Emily (Kintz), and George Frank Grabill (1854-1942) and wife Ida M. (Barrick). To build suspense, I will share here that one of these three gentlemen died earlier than he should have due to a musical instrument. More on that in a moment.

All three of these "Grabills"  were related via Moses Ulysses Grabill, Jr. (1796-1861), the second of a succession of three Moses Grabills, farmers who would make their homes near Woodsboro. Moses Grabill, Jr. married Sarah Wolf in 1817. This man is not in Mount Olivet, but he, his wife, and parents are listed on a memorial located among other graves outside  St. John's Reformed Church in Woodsboro.

Moses Grabill, Jr. was a native of New Holland, (Lancaster County) Pennsylvania who fathered 15 known children including the forementioned William H. Grabill. 

George Frank Grabill has a striking tombstone dominated by text and located in Mount Olivet's Area S/Lot 127, about 20 yards north of our World War I Memorial Gazebo. He married into the Barrick family, one of the most prominent families in the Woodsboro District and purveyors of the storied stone quarry that has been in operation since 1874. A carpenter by trade, George Frank Grabill's obituary states that he was the second oldest male resident of Walkersville at the time of his death. That's an interesting accomplishment I guess!

​​Finally, that leaves me to tell you about Jacob S. Grabill. He particularly caught my attention when I originally researched his name in our cemetery interment database last month. The remark line of his entry reads as follows:
​
"Resided at 307 E. 3rd St., Frederick, MD. Died from injury from handling a piano."