Story of the Month

Freedom in America began with a Revolution –brave people, willing to put themselves in danger to stand up for the rights of their neighbors and friends – a melting pot of immigrant families from many parts of the World, looking for a better life, hopeful but not yet sure what “being American” would mean.

Peter Mantz was 23 years old in July 1776.  Raised in Frederick, he was one of nine children of German immigrant parents Johann Casper and Anna Christina Heim Mantz who ran a general store on East Patrick Street.

Following the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, two hundred and fifty years ago this month, Maryland patriots at the request of the Continental Congress began organizing the Flying Camp, an active-duty militia of 10,000 men from PA, MD and DE that would be constantly on the move to give support to the Continental Army, wherever needed.  Peter Mantz was selected to lead one of ten local companies. Mantz, with just over 80 men, supported the movements of General George Washington and the Continental Army in defense of New York City as well as their retreat through New Jersey and back across the Delaware River.

Following his Revolutionary service, Mantz went on to be a militia recruiter, a land surveyor and speculator, a tax commissioner, a Maryland legislator and the County Sheriff.  He married and raised 11 children of his own in Frederick. On view as part of Heritage Frederick’s Cultivating Independence: Frederick County in the Revolution exhibition are the Revolutionary war sword of Peter Mantz and a leather wallet that belonged to him later in life. Earlier this year, sisters and Peter Mantz descendants Joan and Bonnie, along with their mother Helen, stopped in to view their own Frederick County History after being identified and contacted by staff.

This article by Amy Hunt, Heritage Frederick Curator, was originally featured in the July 2026 edition of Frederick magazine. To see the original article, click here >>

Few local landmarks have stood witness to more pivotal moments of American history than the Hessian Barracks. Constructed between 1777 and 1781, thousands of British and German prisoners were held at the Barracks during the Revolutionary War. Supplies for the Lewis and Clark Expedition were gathered here in 1804. During the War of 1812, the Barracks housed local militia units and captured British soldiers. The stone Barracks were already 60-years-old when Frederick artist John Johnston Markell painted them in this scene of an 1843 encampment of the Maryland Militia.

In July 1861, 1,000 soldiers of the 1st Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers camped at the Barracks. Confederate forces had fired on United States soldiers at Fort Sumter in South Carolina barely three months earlier. On July 4, 1861, hundreds of Frederick residents gathered alongside the soldiers at the Barracks to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independence and a speech by Col. William P. Maulsby.

A deep sense of anxiety must have pervaded the scene at the Barracks on this unusual Fourth of July. Jacob Engelbrecht noted that unlike the usual raucous Independence Day celebrations of the past, “I saw no person intoxicated…all went off peaceably and quiet.” Less than three weeks later, the Confederate and United States armies clashed in the first full-scale battle of the Civil War at Manassas, Virginia. In the coming years, thousands of soldiers marched through Frederick County, received care in local field hospitals, and ultimately won a victory that achieved the abolition of chattel slavery and an unprecedented expansion of the promises made in the founding document of our nation.

This article by Jody Brumage, Heritage Frederick Archivist and Museum Manager, was originally featured in the July 2026 edition of Frederick magazine. To see the original article, click here >>

Augustus Nicodemus, Sr., established a creamery in Buckeystown in 1887. The introduction of centrifugal separators by manufacturers like Gustaf de Laval expedited the processing of milk and cream, enabling the mechanization of a task that was traditionally done by hand in the home. Frederick County farmers harnessed this technology to make dairy a leading agricultural industry in the county, shipping products to the markets of growing cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, via local railroad networks. 

A.W. Nicodemus and Sons processed milk and cream and produced ice cream in their Buckeystown plant, expanding the business by establishing branch factories in Hyattstown and Urbana as well as Woodstock, Virginia. When this photograph of the Buckeystown plant was taken in 1904, Nicodemus and Sons were processing up to 2,000 gallons of milk and 400 gallons of cream every day and up to 600 gallons of ice cream weekly. 

In 1921, Nicodemus and Sons relocated their operation to Frederick, selling the Buckeystown plant to Chapin-Sacks Manufacturing Company. The new Frederick plant was built on East Patrick Street near Carroll Creek. Two years later, the Nicodemus company constructed 10 bungalow style houses for workers and their families along Pennsylvania Avenue. 

Three generations of Nicodemus family management of the creamery came to a conclusion in 1961 when the business was sold to Karlin, Inc. Today, the site of the Nicodemus creamery continues to serve as a dairy processing facility, now under management of Saputo.

This article by Jody Brumage, Heritage Frederick Archivist and Museum Manager, was originally published in the June 2026 edition of Frederick magazine. To see the original article, click here >>

‘An era ends in Frederick sports’

That Frederick News-Post (FNP) headline rang true when printed on August 26, 1985, but it resonates even more today. The article, written by longtime FNP sports editor Stan Goldberg, marked the end of a significant chapter in Frederick’s sports history: the conclusion of the 1985 Babe Ruth League 16-18-year-old World Series, held at McCurdy Field.

This summer marks 40 years since Frederick last hosted a Babe Ruth World Series. In fact, outside of the Cal Ripken divisions established in the 2000s and hosted at Ripken’s complex in Aberdeen, Maryland, between 2003-2016, no city in the State has hosted a Babe Ruth World Series since that final game in 1985.

Heritage Frederick holds a piece of that local baseball legacy: an original program from the City’s first Babe Ruth League World Series event for 13-year-olds in 1982. You can view the program in its entirety at the end of this blog post.

Between 1982 and 1985, Frederick hosted three Babe Ruth League World Series tournaments, then considered the pinnacle of youth baseball for those age groups in the United States. According to the News-Post article, more than 100,000 fans attended the three events. Teams traveled from as far as California and Washington to compete. St. Bernard of Brooklyn, New York, won the 13-year-old title in 1982, followed by Culver City, California, as the 13-15-year-old champs in 1983, and finally Sarasota, Florida as the 16-18-year-old champions in 1985. As host city, Frederick was granted a team in each event and more than held its own, finishing as high as third place in 1983, which at the time was the highest-ever finish by a host team. Frederick’s final game that year drew 8,000 spectators to see a showdown with a team from Nashville, Tennessee. The 1983 Frederick team featured Doug Smallwood, a rising star from Thomas Johnson High School, who earned tournament MVP honors and later continued his baseball career in the minor leagues.

The Souvenir Program

The souvenir program in Heritage Frederick’s collection sold for just $1 in 1982; it’s a 64-page time capsule wrapped in a glossy red, white, and blue cover, welcoming guests to the Babe Ruth World Series held August 14 through 21 at McCurdy Field. Inside, dark blue ink carries across pages filled with team photos, rosters, tournament brackets, and blank scorecards. Local businesses proudly advertised throughout, more than 60 in all, capturing the unique flavor of early 1980s Frederick.

Alongside familiar tournament essentials are a series of official welcome letters from Babe Ruth League officials, local and state dignitaries, and even a brief greeting from then-President Ronald Reagan. On each team’s page, beneath the team photo, are the team “princesses,” local girls who took part in the pageantry of the event.

The advertisements read like a roll call of early 1980s Frederick. Long-gone businesses, such as The Donut Shoppe, Freez-King, The Farm, Eastalco, Shipley’s Inc., the I-70 Truck Stop, and the Frederick Towne Mall, sit beside enduring local staples, such as Tate Chrysler, Morgan-Keller Inc., Noland, and The Red Horse. Flipping through the program today, one can relive a tournament and rediscover a growing community, as well as its brief moment on the national stage.

Click on the cover of the program below to view a digitized version of this document.

August 7, 2025 by Sheldon Shealer, Heritage Frederick Volunteer

Heritage Frederick’s archives preserve the papers of hundreds of Frederick County families, businesses, and community organizations. Our own institutional records are a part of this vast archive, documenting our story which began in 1892 with the organization of the Historical Society of Frederick County. This institutional archive includes the lists of members, minutes of board of directors’ meetings, and plans for programs and exhibitions. Also to be found are lectures, research papers, and documents relating to the Historical Society’s efforts to understand and preserve our local heritage.

Some of the earliest manuscripts in this collection are a set of papers that belonged to Ann Rebecca Grahame McPherson Ross, one of the charter members of the Historical Society.

History seems to have been a great love of Ann Ross. She became a charter member of two important organizations in Frederick that have preserved invaluable stories of our county’s past. Ann was a charter member of the Frederick Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), which was founded in September 1892. She served as the Chapter’s second Regent from 1894 until her death two years later. Just a few weeks after the formation of the Frederick Chapter of the DAR, another institution was founded to which Ann became a charter member: The Historical Society of Frederick County (now known as Heritage Frederick).

Ann Ross’ contribution to the historical memory of Frederick is significant. In addition to her role in founding two historical organizations, she herself preserved manuscripts and heirlooms from her ancestors, including items related to her great grandfather: Thomas Johnson. Among these manuscripts which now survive in the collection of the Maryland Room of the C. Burr Artz Library are the letter inviting the Marquis de Lafayette to visit Frederick during his 1824/25 farewell tour, and his response. Ross also ensured that the Charles Wilson Peale portrait of Thomas Johnson and his family was preserved. She left instructions in her will that the painting be deposited with the Maryland Historical Society until the completion of the planned public library in Frederick, whereupon it would be returned and displayed in the new library building. The first C. Burr Artz Library was completed on Record Street in 1938 and the Peale portrait was hung over a fireplace in its reading room where it remained for several decades. Today, the Johnson family portrait is on display at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

The papers of Ann Grahame Ross now preserved in Heritage Frederick’s archive reflect her interest in local history. Two of the documents concern a tour of Carrollton Manor conducted by the members of the Historical Society. The documents contain Ann’s research into the history of the Manor House and Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church, as well as the story of the Carroll Family. Another manuscript concerns another trip undertaken by the Historical Society to visit sites in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. This document describes the places in Frederick County that the group visited enroute to and from West Virginia. Ann recorded her memories of Rose Hill, the house built by her great aunt and uncle Col. John Grahame and Ann Jennings Johnson Grahame. The last document in the collection is a lecture given by Ann to the DAR, which discusses historical observances of Independence Day in Frederick County.

March 6, 2025 by Jody Brumage, Heritage Frederick Archivist