Lafayette's 1824 Visit

In early 1824, it was announced that the beloved French hero of the Revolutionary War, the Marquis de Lafayette, was returning to make a grand tour of America. The French aristocrat and military officer was a key ally to the American colonists during the War for Independence. He participated at numerous battles of the conflict including Brandywine, Gloucester, Barren Hill, Rhode Island, Monmouth, Green Spring and the decisive finale at Yorktown. Lafayette also spent time at Valley Forge, and served a trusted confidante of George Washington. His commitment to the cause of liberty and instrumental role in securing French support for the American Revolution engraved his name in the American history books. However, he would also play an important role in the local Frederick history book as well.

Gilbert du Motier Marquis de Lafayette (portrait of 1791)

​Beginning in 1824, the Frenchman would travel more than 6,000 miles and visit 24 states over a 13-month span. My late friend, Theresa Mathias Michel (1926-2024), shared her thoughts on the subject in my 1995 documentary entitled Frederick Town. Here is a transcript of what she had to say on the special visitor who came to Frederick exactly 200 years ago:

“Lafayette did make this marvelous, triumphant tour of the United States fifty years after the Revolution. He was an elderly gentleman at the time. I think it’s a miracle that he managed to travel. It must have been uncomfortable and must have been very hard on him, but he persevered. He was feted and honored in a way that no one has probably been before or since.”

Theresa "Treta" (Mathias) Michel with historian/writer John Ashbury (at left) and author Chris Haugh (right) in 2023

​Mrs. Michel’s interest in Lafayette’s visit was particularly understandable since her life-long home in Frederick’s Courthouse Square was within the center of an exciting scene in late December, 1824. The mirror townhome next door, known for the last century as the Ross House, played host to the special French dignitary. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Michel’s daughter, Tee, has been busy most of this past year in heading up the committee for planning/executing anniversary events relating to Lafayette’s 1824 stay in Frederick. This is equally personal for her because she grew up at 103 Council Street and currently owns, and resides within, the Ross House at 105 Council Street.

​Lafayette’s visit would not have occurred had it not been for the man who built these homes on Council Street in the early nineteenth century. He made his mark on Frederick in various ways and is buried in Mount Olivet. This gentleman was Col. John McPherson.
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Col. McPherson led efforts to extend a courteous invitation to Gen. Lafayette. This would lead to our town being added to the general’s busy tour itinerary. You could say that he created history for us, but he also had a direct impact on the lives of Theresa Mathias Michel, daughter Tee and Mrs. Michel’s brother, Sen. Charles “Mac” Mathias through building the majestic townhomes that grace Council Street.

Antique silhouette rendering of Col. John McPherson (McPherson is depicted on the left of his horse and in front of the Council Street mansions)

Col. John McPherson (1760-1829)

Grave of Col. John McPherson in Mount Olivet's Area E/Lot 53

​The McPhersons
Col. John McPherson, Sr. was one of the largest landowners in western Maryland, and operated the largest iron factory in the region. A Pennsylvania native, John McPherson was born in 1760. He served in the Pennsylvania militia, being promoted at the age of 21 to lieutenant toward the end of the Revolutionary War in 1781. Col. McPherson was sent to Frederick to provide rations for British prisoners but by then, the war was nearly over. The trip, however, proved fruitful for McPherson, who ended up moving to Frederick in 1781. Until his death in 1829, John McPherson was a leading citizen and prominent figure in town.

McPherson was a member of the Common Council and served for many years as a county representative in the legislature. He entered the iron manufacturing business and became co-owner of the profitable Antietam Iron Works. Col. McPherson’s partner was John Brien, his son-in-law. Brien would later purchase, operate, and upgrade the Catoctin Furnace, started by “Rev War” patriot and Maryland’s first governor, Thomas Johnson, Jr.
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At auction, McPherson and Brien bought the Council Street lots where the old county jail had originally stood. In 1817, the two men built two large mansions for themselves on the prime real estate adjacent the courthouse which is today’s Frederick City Hall.

A view down Council Street showing the Ross and Mathias mansions at 105 and 103 respectively

​Mrs. Michel went on to say of the Council Street townhomes:
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“The houses were very substantial, certainly for their time, for any time, and they were built as though they were manor houses in the country rather than in-town houses. In fact, they had stables, they had slave quarters, they had an icehouse which still exists in the house next door owned by the Ross family. I suspect there was an icehouse on this property which has been lost. There were coachmen houses and the gardens extended across Second Street for certainly another block in the beginning. Sometime between the first and second quarters of the 19th century, those gardens were obliterated, and houses built on that land. They were very much more than townhouses. They were mini estates.”

The senior McPherson had a son, John McPherson, Jr., born in Frederick in 1796. On December 23rd, 1823, the younger McPherson married Fanny Russell Johnson, granddaughter of the fore-mentioned Thomas Johnson, Jr. Like his father, Mr. McPherson played a prominent role in public affairs and was a successful businessman. He was manager of the Central National Bank and involved in the family iron business. The younger McPherson also would become a captain and colonel of the Frederick Light Horse Cavalry. He too would play a leading role in the planning for Lafayette’s visit.

John McPherson and Fanny (Johnson) McPherson grave monument in Mount Olivet's Area E/Lot 26

​Col. John McPherson, Sr. is credited with extending the invitation on behalf of the committee he chaired, made up of the most prominent figures in the city and county. McPherson would travel to Baltimore to deliver the invitation to Lafayette “in-person” in 1824.

Supposedly it was President James Monroe who issued the formal invitation to the illustrious Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette to tour the 24 states of the Union. Our fifth president hoped that the former general, the last living of the Revolutionary War generals, might instill the “Spirit of 1776” into the younger generation of Americans. In the process, this was the federal period equivalent of Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour,” with the excitement generated, and the event celebrated the enduring bond between France and the United States.

In September (1824), the general arrived in Baltimore. He soon accepted the invite to visit Frederick, but no exact date could be given at that time. Meanwhile, the second official Cattle Show and Fair of the Frederick County Agricultural Society had already been considered for late October 1824. Col. McPherson was vice president of this organization which would decades later be responsible for giving us the Great Frederick Fair. Plans for a fall, 1824 Frederick County Cattle Show and Fair were cancelled when the Maryland Cattle Show was postponed to late November to accommodate the visit from the “Nation’s Guest” as Marquis de Lafayette would soon be labeled. The general would attend the Maryland show and receive membership in the Maryland Agricultural Society. He personally handed out premiums at the rescheduled state event. 

Gen. Lafayette was also made a Maryland citizen by a special act of legislature, and held a unique “French connection” to Frederick as he had guided many county troops in battle during the American Revolution. While these events were happening elsewhere in the state, a local committee under ocular specialist Dr. John Tyler, builder of the Tyler-Spite House on West Church Street, planned arrangements for the general’s eventual visit to town. His arrival would come in late December, a few weeks after addressing Congress at the US Capitol.

Gen. Lafayette by Dutch-French painter Ary Scheffer. This portrait has hung continuously in the House of Representatives since Jan 20, 1825

​On Christmas Day, the Frederick Town Herald newspaper shared news that Frederick would be visited the following Wednesday by the “Nation’s Guest.” Yuletide decorations were quickly replaced with French and American flags, and triumphal arches were built at the entrances to town to welcome the aging hero.

​Gen. Lafayette and his party arrived at the Monocacy Bridge (Old Jug Bridge) east of town on the morning of December 29th, where they were met by Frederick’s mayor, George Baer, along with members of Congress, various other officials and several military troops. Lafayette, himself would comment:
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“I am highly gratified, gentlemen to meet you in your happy valley, where agriculture and manufacturing industry, practiced by a rapidly increased population are the reward of your patriotic and domestic virtue. Receive my best thanks for your kind welcome, for your affecting references, to past time, for your affectionate wishes, and permit me to hasten to the revolutionary companions whom you have had the much valued attention to bring with you.”

The general and his entourage then entered several fancy carriages pulled by elaborately harnessed teams of horses. The procession of carriages, militia, and citizens “on foot” headed to Frederick, whose streets were decorated with the fore-mentioned arches, one at Market and Patrick Streets and the other at Market and Fifth Streets. Between the arches, artillery, riflemen and infantry lined the streets. Every resident came to watch the historic event as estimates say that thousands of people lined the parade route through town. The 67-year-old Lafayette would soon be the toast of the town with parties, dinners and a grand ball thrown in his honor.

The Lafayette procession scenes captured in this story come from a mural found in the Ross Mansion and painted by artist Virginia McLaughlin

​At the courthouse, the second built structure for the purpose in our county’s history, attorney William Ross III (1772-1852) welcomed Lafayette’s procession and a Hagerstown company of riflemen saluted the general. Mayor Baer and Mr. Ross’ graves, like so many other planners of activities and participants of this great event, can be found in Mount Olivet. Ross' monument is in close proximity to the McPherson family plots in Area E, and his heirs through Charles Worthington Ross would eventually gain ownership of the home at 105 Council Street giving it a new name due to the subsequent generations of Ross family members to live there.

George Baer, Jr. (1764-1834), former US Congressman and Frederick mayor

George Baer, Jr. ledger grave in Area MM/Lot 82

William Ross III (1772-1852)

Ross monument in Area E/Lot 21

​Gen. Lafayette had a very short walk to his next destination in the form of Col. McPherson’s mansion on Council Street, place of his lodgings. A huge dinner-banquet was held that night in Joseph Talbott’s Tavern on West Patrick Street as a special illumination of town commenced. Two-hundred individuals attended after buying tickets for $4/each. Highlights included 13 toasts being made by a “who’s who” of Frederick’s past, and a presentation of an honorary apron by the local Masons. The Columbia Lodge No. 58 still has this priceless artifact in their museum collection to this day.

This is not the apron in Columbia Lodge No. 58 but a Masonic apron given to George Washington by Lafayette

​Published in 1910, Williams’ History of Maryland has a detailed description of Lafayette’s time in Frederick, saying of the December 29th welcome banquet:

“Gen. Lafayette dined heartily and enjoyed especially the game, eating corn pone and possum and drinking old rye whiskey and sherry. Before the speeches began a number of songs were sung. William C. (Campbell) Russell sang the Star Spangled Banner and the Marsellaise hymn, the whole company joining the chorus. On learning that the author of the Star Spangled Banner was a native of Frederick and was living in Georgetown, the General declared that he would go to see him. Other songs were sung by Andrew McRobie, Lewis W. Glenn, Benjamin Rutherford and others.”

Grave of William Campbell Russell (17?-1847) in Mount Olivet's Area E/Lot 131. He had good singing chops honed by his profession as an auctioneer

Final resting place of Benjamin Rutherford (1787-1838) in Area L/Lot 140

Engelbrecht (1797-1878)

​“Our whole town is in an uproar – all about Lafayette. There were from 6 to 8,000 people in town yesterday and last night there was a general illumination and celebration.”
-Jacob Englebrecht, December 30th, 1824

The next morning, the general was greeted at Talbott’s Tavern by citizens, desiring to be introduced, between 10am and noon. Among these was Frederick’s diarist, himself.

“He is now receiving the citizens & strangers at Talbotts. Among the rest by the bye, I was one who was introduced to him by Colonel Ritchie. This afternoon he will receive the ladies at Colonel McPherson’s & tonight he will attend a ball at Talbott’s.”
-Jacob Engelbrecht  

The “Colonel Ritchie” that Jacob Engelbrecht mentions is Col. John Ritchie. Born in 1757, Ritchie was a Revolutionary War veteran and prominent local businessman who once owned a large dwelling and the property on the northeast corner of the Square Corner (Market and Patrick streets). The colonel died on November 11th, 1826 and was buried in the former All Saints Protestant Episcopal cemetery that once existed along Carroll Creek near the site of today’s linear park amphitheater area. Col. Ross is buried in Mount Olivet’s Area G/Lot 174.

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Grave of Col. John Ritchie (1757-1826)

​December 30th witnessed the greatest ball in Frederick’s history as it was held in one of the upper floors of the McPherson home. More than 200 people attended, with guests traveling from Virginia, Pennsylvania and every part of Maryland. A passage in TJC Williams’ History of Frederick County states:

"This ball was perhaps the most famous that ever took place in Frederick County. The Misses Creble, two fashionable milliners and mantua makers, it was declared in the newspapers at the time, were busy day and night for weeks making ball dresses for their customers. They had some French flowers which had been presented to them and which they cultivated with great care, preserving by some chemical process their beauty and fragrance. These were worked into headdresses. The costumes were of the gayest yet of the most republican character, the music was soul inspiring, the dancing was good, and refreshments seem to have been ample... all the delicacies that the palate could crave or the appetite enjoy, were served at intervals in great profusion."

After reading this, I immediately became interested in the mention of “the Misses Creble” in that illustrative passage. I was unfamiliar with the surname and postulated that this could be a typo or bastardizing of the name, so I immediately began searching Mount Olivet’s interment database. I found no Crebles as mentioned, but soon theorized that the name could be the locally found name of Grable/Grabill. I was met with instant success and found two women of this name buried in a very old section of Mount Olivet known as Area NN. 

Mount Olivet's Area NN

​Here we have remains of individuals who died before our cemetery opened in 1854. The decedents in Area NN were moved in 1907 to this location from three former downtown burying grounds including the Evangelical Lutheran Burial Ground (formerly found where Everedy Square is now). Another churchyard of note and re-located here was the Presbyterian burying ground once located at the southwest corner of Dill and North Bentz streets. These bodies were moved here in the late 1800s. Finally, a third portion of NN, to the south of the other two, contains the mortal remains of the Grable sisters Jane and Savilla. They were buried here in June, 1895 and had 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).

Information was very scarce on the Grables, but, as mentioned, I found two potential ladies in our cemetery database as people of interest. I don't know what there relationship is, but hoping it is that of sisters. Jane was born on February 11th, 1784 and died on January 28th, 1854, roughly five months before Mount Olivet Cemetery opened. On Ancestry.com, I found a Maryland christening record from June 1783 for a Jane Grable in Baltimore, however her birthdate is shown as February 10th, 1783. This individual, who could be the later Frederick dressmaker in question, was the daughter of Jacob and Martha Grable. Sevilla was born around 1800 and would die at age 53 on June 1st, 1853. As far as early Grables in Frederick, I found a German immigrant named Nicholas Samuel Grable (1695-1774), and his son John Grable (1722-1801) residing here from the late 1700s.

Area NN/Lot 123 features graves from Frederick's old Methodist Burying Ground on E 4th St. The two Grable graves bookend the front row pictured here.

Grave of Sevilla Grable (1799-1853)

Grave of Jane Grable (1784-1854)

​Well, so much for that rabbit hole as I did not get far at all. So, let’s get back to Lafayette. After two days of events and entertainment, the French hero and his small party left Frederick the morning of December 31st. His next stop would be Washington, DC as he traveled southward on the Georgetown Pike towards the nation’s capital within a horse-drawn carriage.

A portrait of the US Capitol in 1824

​Of his visit to Frederick, Lafayette had this to say:

“The local tranquility which has blessed your delightful valley did not prevent its inhabitants taking a spirited part in the revolutionary and in the last war [War of 1812] and becoming fully entitled to all the advantages of Republican freedom. I thank… the good people of Frederick for the gratifying sentiments you have been pleased so kindly to express and for your honorable and affectionate welcome. I rejoice with you on the great improvements in this city and county and beg you all to accept my most grateful respect and patriotic wishes.”

Local historian Jake Wynn wrote the following for the Visit Frederick website:

“The significance of Lafayette's visit to Frederick extended beyond the ceremonial. It served as a reminder of the international bonds that had been crucial to America's birth. Lafayette's journey through the United States, with Frederick being a key stop, underscored the enduring friendships that had been formed in the crucible of war. It also highlighted the role of communities like Frederick in the broader narrative of American independence and identity.”

Gen. Lafayette’s visit 200 years ago was another exciting chapter in the history book of Frederick. It’s fascinating to think that this world celebrity walked our streets and stayed in a home that is still standing proud on Council Street. This event was commemorated in the fall of 2024, with a special visit from Lafayette again in late December. The events were done to perfection thanks to the aforementioned Tee Michel and months of planning by local groups such as Visit Frederick, Heritage Frederick, Rose Hill Manor, the Maryland Room of Frederick County Public Libraries, Lawrence Everhart Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution and our two Daughters of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (Frederick and Carrollton Manor).

General Lafayette arrives in Frederick. Portrayed by Mark Schneider of Colonial Williamsburg, the iconic French hero once again was a guest of the Ross Home on Council Street (photo taken Dec 27, 2024)

Ross House mural of Lafayette's 1824 visit showing Frederick County Courthouse and Council Street mansions

​​On that departure from town on the morning of December 31st, 1824, Lafayette passed a swath of farmland immediately south of town that would become our cemetery thirty years later. Not to mention the parcel fronting the Old Georgetown Pike would become the final resting place of another patriotic individual of renowned celebrity, Francis Scott Key, the man who wrote that patriotic song sung by William C. Russell at the fabulous dinner at Talbott’s Tavern on December 28th (1824). Mount Olivet Cemetery is home to many of the leading citizens that planned the general's visit, and countless townspeople who met Lafayette and participated in the grand revelry. May they all  rest in peace here in Frederick’s Second City.

Lafayette would not depart the country for his home back in France until September of 1825. Interestingly, there must have been a local couple by the name of Norris who especially got caught up in the whimsey of the "Nation's Guest" and his glorious tour. You see I found a decedent in Mount Olivet's Area H, Lot 381 who was born in 1826, within nine months of the end of Lafayette's tour of the states.  Ladies and gentlemen, meet Lafayette Norris!

Grave of Lafayette Norris in Area H/Lot 381

Frederick News (June 19, 1896)

Through census and obituary records, I learned that Lafayette Norris was a plasterer by trade. Talk about French connections, this is somewhat ironic, since the quarries of France's Montmartre have provided a fine grade of gypsum for coating walls in the form of Plaster of Paris. Secondly, I would also find the following entry in Jacob Engelbrecht's diary which proves that Lafayette Norris embodied the Revolutionary Spirit of 1776 and possibly the French Revolution as well!

"The Independent & Junior Hose companies had a Battle Royale on Saturday night August 14, 1858 -when brick bats & stones were thrown. Lafayette Norris, George Lambert, Luther A. Nickel & several others were injured - a row after a false alarm of fire."
-Jacob Engelbrecht (August 16, 1858)

"Vive la France"......."Vive la Lafayette!"

More on Lafayette's 1824 Tour of America