Story of the Month

I despise only knowing part of “the story.” I grumble at television “cliff-hangers” and movies that are released in two or three parts. I stay-up late reading through the excitement of books and sit in my car in my driveway when I get home from work so I can hear more of my audio book.  As a monthly contributor to Frederick Magazine, I write an article called Uncovered, my goal for the article is 250-300 words and I always go over. I feel like a story worth telling, is worth telling completely so while in the end, you might only read 300 words, several hundred more get left on my desk, dutifully stashed in object files and databases to be shared in the future.

If you’ve read the article over the last two years you might have noticed that I like to make the article a sort of “Thank-You” to those who have recently donated something to our collections.  It’s a small way for me to honor their gift and show them that Heritage Frederick is proud to be the keeper of their family heritage not just for today but into the future as well.

One of the most enjoyable parts of my job is sleuthing out what personal stories might be attached to an item in the collection. Whether it is a cannonball, a portrait, a child’s shoe, a hat or a tea cup, what brings each item we display to life for our visitors is an interesting backstory and our ability to solidly connect a particular location or person in Frederick County to each item. This is a glimpse into what that process looks like for me.

Genealogy is usually my jumping off point.  When an object is donated I need to confirm the information that comes along with it, the what (is it), the who (did it belong to), the where (was it made) and the when (was it made). Sometimes the story has gotten lost or altered as the item is handed down through the generations, and before I write an article or a gallery label I need to make sure that what came in as “my grandfather’s top hat” isn’t really more likely to have been the donor’s great great grandfather’s hat.  The dates have to line up so that it’s reasonable to believe that the item and the person existed at the same time and a family tree helps me do that.  If the item’s donor is a relative, sometimes I will start with them to create a family tree.

 In this case, because the woman pictured and her husband were such notable residents, I started the family tree with them. I use Ancestry.com because I have many years of experience on it and have come to understand what sources should and should not be trusted on that site.  To begin, I visited findagrave.com, another online resource that I have many years of experience using, to search for the couple’s graves and get the exact years of their births and deaths.  I build the tree out going back in time to find the couple’s parents, grandparents and so on.  Whenever possible, taking each branch of the family back to their immigrant ancestor, the first person on that line to arrive in America.  I find that knowing what culture, traditions and values might have followed these families into our corner of Maryland from their home countries sometimes flavors their lives and decisions once they are here and sometimes for many generations, therefore it’s important in creating a complete picture of who the little girl in this portrait would someday be.

I arrived at Heritage Frederick two years ago this month and fairly quickly realized that at this point in my research, finding their ancestors, there was a further step I could take.  I realized that this little girl, who’s heritage I now knew was English on her father’s side and Dutch, Irish, and Scottish, as well as English on her mother’s side, most certainly had many living relatives.  I could extend the family tree forward to the present, connecting not only the donor of the painting but all her other current living descendants as well.  These names, as well as addresses when I am able to find them, have been instrumental in contacting family members to let them know when their family’s heirlooms will be exhibited.  When necessary it has also been a valuable resource for exhibition planning, to contact those descendants to see if they have any more information or other artifacts that relate to the ancestors represented in our collections.

The information collected while building a family tree lets me know what places the family lived and traveled to, what occupations the men of the household had, how many children there were in the family, as well as triumphs of business and tragedies of health or accident.  It reveals newspaper articles about weddings, parties, meetings and events that these people attended and their obituaries, sometimes revealing a little about their personality, their values, their hobbies and about the people they left behind.  If I’m very lucky, this research reveals a photograph of the person or an image of their home and very often, a photo of their grave.

After collecting all the information that the girl in our portrait’s family records have to offer.  I then turn to the object itself.  In this case we have a painted portrait, under glass neither signed nor dated.  To find out more and to also assess the condition of the painting, I unframe the work.  The backing board, a thin rough sheet of wood tells me that it is quite old as it is hand hewn, the nails that once held it in place are a combination of handwrought nails and furniture tacks.  Once out of the frame I find that the portrait is painted on an oval piece of artist board but is not signed.  That it is not painted on canvas may help me identify the artist, as some would have preferred to use only canvas.  It also tells me a little bit about the economics of the girl’s family and perhaps of the artist as well in that a painting on board is less grand both in size and expense and more portable.  The painting is very well done, the small girl’s slick dark hair and the intricate embroidered pattern on her white dress are expertly rendered.  I have now collected all the information I need to take my next step.

To recap and reveal what I have found to this point: the portrait is of a young girl born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1858. Her parents descended from early settlers who came from the British Isles and Holland and the couple, born in Frederick County, MD, and Berkeley County, WV, traveled together to Indiana looking for opportunity and to start their family.  The girl in the portrait lived in Indianapolis until her marriage in 1883 so we can infer that the portrait was painted in Indianapolis.  She appears to be between 3 and 7 years old.  I make this judgment on her age, by looking at the length and style of her hair, still short, ear length, parted in the middle and combed flat ending in curls around her face. Her hair hasn’t been growing in for long and if pushed, I would say she is much more likely to be only 3 or 4 years old. Also the style of her clothing, a white, short-sleeved, cotton or linen with delicate floral embroidery across the front, is something commonly worn by toddlers and young children during this period. Knowing all I can about the life of the people our objects represent would only be giving our visitors half of each object’s story.  When I look at a doll owned by Julia Roelkey Myers or moveable printing type used at the turn of the 19th century by the Frederick News Post I also want the story of the maker, manufacturer, creator or artist that produced these items (in these cases J D Kestner Doll Company of Germany and the E. J. Hamilton Holly Wood Type Company in Two Rivers, Wisconsin).

While we do not currently have plans to include this portrait of a young girl in an exhibit, this research was done as part of the normal intake process that each donation goes through when it is added to the collection of Heritage Frederick.  All the details of this portrait will be revealed in my Uncovered article in the July 2024 issue of Frederick Magazine.

June 4, 2024 by Amy Hunt, Heritage Frederick Curator

Since 1973, Historic Preservation Month has been observed during the month of May. Preservation Month highlights the importance of saving our built environment and celebrates the role preservation plays in local economies and the continuation of cultural heritage.

One of Frederick’s early preservation activists was Marshall Lingan Etchison (1894-1960). Marshall came of age in a Frederick that saw rapid growth and change as a result of industrial innovation. With the development of new technology, Frederick’s industrialists established dairies, canneries, garment factories, and other manufacturing enterprises, which fueled the growth of Frederick beyond its eighteenth century boundaries. This economic activity also encouraged the “modernization” of the city’s downtown commercial district. 

Etchison was a lifelong student of history and an avid researcher and collector. He appraised local estates and led the Historical Society of Frederick County (now Heritage Frederick) to curate a collection of local artifacts and archives. In 1945, in the midst of Frederick’s bicentennial celebration, the Historical Society opened its first museum in the restored Steiner House under Marshall’s leadership. After his death in 1960, he directed his family to donate much of his own collection of Frederick County material culture and his personal papers to the Historical Society.

Among these papers now preserved in Heritage Frederick’s archives are hand-written drafts of letters and editorials Marshall wrote in support of preserving Frederick’s historic architecture. In 1926 as the city pressed forward with the demolition of the historic Zentz Mill to clear the way for the development of Baker Park, Marshall wrote an impassioned plea to consider what the city was jeopardizing in its continued destruction of local landmarks.

Written while he was traveling in Italy, Marshall commented that saving old buildings was imperative to maintaining “that elusive thing called atmosphere; a real background and preservation of things ancient and beautiful: things that have real meaning and upon which our modern civilization is based; things made by vanished hands not for monetary reward, but to exist through future generations, as a monument through all times.”

The editorial notes several local landmarks that had been destroyed besides the mill, including the original Saint John’s Literary Institution building on East Second Street and the Old Stone Tavern on West Patrick Street. Interestingly, some of the fabric of the old tavern was repurposed for the reconstruction of the Barbara Fritchie House, including portions of its stairway and floors. 

A decade after his pleas for Frederick to balance its modernization with the preservation of its past, Marshall Etchison again committed his feelings to paper when plans for construction of the C. Burr Artz Library called for the demolition of the Frederick Academy. Built in the 1790s, the Academy was a three-story brick building that stood on the corner of Council and Record Streets facing the Court Square. While initial plans for the library project entailed saving part of the Academy, it was eventually demolished to make way for an entirely new structure.

Marshall countered the argument that the building was too old and deteriorated to be remodeled for the purposes of the new library, instead suggesting that the historical nature of the Academy would be an asset to this new public institution for learning. Moreover, Marshall suggested that preservation efforts should focus on saving Frederick’s Court Square, of which the Academy was an essential part.

“Court Square is almost the last spot of ancient beauty left to us in Frederick. It is the great admiration of all outside architects and antiquarian visitors and its atmosphere should be zealously guarded by us, as a heritage to pass on to future generations.” Interestingly, Marshall contextualized his thoughts in the contemporaneous efforts to preserve places with significant links to the United States’ colonial past such as Williamsburg, Virginia; Annapolis, Maryland; and New Castle, Delaware.

Apart from speaking out on the matter, Marshall Etchison committed his time and attention to documenting historic sites that were disappearing around him. Among his papers are sketches he made of the landscape and structures on the site of the old All Saints Episcopal Graveyard and the original Asbury United Methodist Church on East All Saints Street. His sketches include depictions of grave vaults that remained intact on the site as well as notes about people interred in the graveyard. He also sketched the “Old Hill Church,” the early-nineteenth century brick building where Asbury United Methodist Church was founded and worshiped until their present church on West All Saints Street was completed in 1921.

Near the end of his life, Marshall’s knowledge and belief in the importance of preserving Frederick’s history was sought out by a local committee formed in 1952 to begin documenting the surviving historic architecture in the city. This committee surveyed 976 structures in the city. The work of this committee continued after Marshall’s death in 1960 and laid the groundwork for the creation of Frederick’s historic district, which was established in 1968.

May 3, 2024 By Jody Brumage, Heritage Frederick Archivist

Heritage Frederick’s Research Center is temporarily closing this month to allow masons from Gruber Latimer Restoration to remove loose mortar and repoint the stone and brick foundation walls of our historic headquarters at 24 East Church Street. This crucial preservation work is possible thanks to a grant from the Delaplaine Foundation.

The foundation walls supporting the museum are two hundred years old. Architectural remains offer clues to the historical uses of the basement space. Portions of whitewash remaining on the walls reveal the outline of the back stairway that once descended to the basement. This stairway provided direct access to all four levels of the building and was likely used by enslaved servants as they completed daily domestic jobs in the household. Houses built in the same time period as 24 East Church Street typically had cellars or basements for storing food, kitchens, and spaces for storing fuel sources for heating the structure. Surviving documents and archaeological evidence indicate that coal was in use on the property as early as 1854, and part of the basement likely held a bunker for coal storage.

From 1882 until 1956 when the building served as Loats Female Orphan Home, the basement continued to house equipment for heating while the long room in the center (beneath the main hallway) was used by the girls for indoor exercise and roller skating. After the closure of the orphan home and the transformation of the house into the Historical Society of Frederick County, the basement continued to be used for children’s activities where antique toys were exhibited. 

By the 1990s, the Historical Society’s library and archives, housed on the second floor and in the attic, were overflowing with manuscripts, photographs, maps, and books. The weight of these collections became a problem, placing too much stress on the wood floors up of the upper stories of the building. The Society looked to the large basement space as an opportunity for alleviating this problem while simultaneously expanding the capacity of the archives and research collections. The project was spearheaded by longtime volunteer and Historical Society President Bill Willmann. Work spaces, a library, a reading room for researchers, and collections storage facilities were designed into the basement space. At that time, extensive repairs were made to the foundation walls, including the replacement of over 1,200 bricks. The organization also installed new HVAC units to maintain consistent temperature and humidity levels for the preservation of archival resources. On September 28, 1993, the renovated basement and new Frederick County Research Center opened its doors to the public.

Thirty years later, Heritage Frederick remains committed to the preservation of the building our organization has called home for the past sixty-five years. Once masonry restoration is completed, we plan to reopen the research center in mid-April.

March 6, 2024, By Jody Brumage, Heritage Frederick Archivist

The holiday season has been marked with special displays and decorations throughout downtown Frederick for much of the city’s history. 

Some of the earliest mentions of holiday decorations in Frederick are found in Jacob Engelbrecht’s diary. In December 1864, he wrote that “at the United States Hospital sick and wounded had a real Christmas dinner. Plenty of turkeys, geese, and chickens. All the Barracks were rigged out with evergreens, flags, etc., all in first rate style.” Frederick’s newspapers of the late-nineteenth century record Christmas trees and holiday decorations in the churches and display windows of stores along Market and Patrick Streets. As early as 1892, a large Christmas tree occupied the Morse Fountain at North Market and West Seventh Streets. Later municipal leaders displayed Christmas trees at the Clarke Fountain in front of the Frederick County Courthouse (now Frederick City Hall).

Christmas decorations in Saint John’s Catholic Church (left) and the store windows of Dutrow’s Confectionary on North Market Street (right) in the late-nineteenth century.

The advent of electricity ushered in a new generation of dazzling light displays during the holidays in downtown. In 1934, The News celebrated four strings of multicolored, electric lights strung over the Square Corner. Within a few years, these displays grew to include lighted garlands with illuminated bells and wreaths suspended over the Square Corner and along Market and Patrick Streets in the heart of Frederick’s commercial district. Photographs from the time period capture the glow of these light displays amid the brightly-illuminated signs on many downtown businesses. These displays also provided a festive backdrop for annual parades with Santa Claus, which drew families from across Frederick County. The energy crisis and decline in patronage at downtown businesses significantly curtailed Holiday light displays in the 1970s.

(Clockwise from top left) Electric Christmas lights over North Market Street, the Square Corner, and West Patrick Street, and Santa Claus in a 1956 parade on North Market Street.

The revitalization of downtown Frederick presented a new opportunity to create beautiful holiday light displays on the numerous trees planted along Market and Patrick Streets during the 1980s. The City of Frederick began stringing lights in the trees, with support of local business owners and residents, in the early-1990s. This tradition continues today under the auspices of the Downtown Frederick Partnership.

More recently, a beloved addition to Downtown Frederick’s holiday traditions is “Sailing through the Winter Solstice.” In 2016, Peter Kremers and Kyle Thomas crafted a miniature Coast Guard ship decorated with lights, which they displayed in the Carroll Creek Park. The display was a tribute to Kremer’s son who was serving a deployment in Iraq. The event quickly grew and attracted more floating displays, which were formalized into an annual event that raises money for local charitable causes. This year, the eighth annual “Sailing through the Winter Solstice” includes twenty-eight boats, which are on display until March 2024.

December 4, 2023 by Jody Brumage, Heritage Frederick Archivist

One of my favorite quilts in Heritage Frederick’s collection is this triple Irish chain pattern quilt with an unique appliqued oak leaf and acorn border. Although the object is over 160 years old, it is in amazing condition. The material is not faded, yellowed, stained, or deteriorating. The whites and colors are crisp and the hand-stitching and quilting are expert level and very intricate. The quilt also has an amazing story, which is always my favorite aspect of any artifact. This story is about a young woman named Eliza Ann Webb who came to Frederick County just before the outbreak of the Civil War.

The Libertytown Seminary building, from the Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress

As political tensions escalated across the nation in advance of the 1860 presidential election, Eliza decided to return home to New York. The Webb family’s hometown of Cazenovia was considered to be the abolitionist headquarters of the country, in part because it hosted the Fugitive Slave Law Convention in August of 1850. Once back home, Eliza began trying to replicate the red and green quilt she had seen Ann Kinzer making. Her diary tells us that she also received letters from a Mr. Milton Urner, whom she met and fell in love with during her stay in Liberty, but the relationship soon ended. Eliza, along with her younger sister Mary, continued to teach in Cazenovia throughout the Civil War. At the end of the 1860s, Eliza became the second wife of Mills P. Pharis, a salt manufacturer from Geddes, New York, whose first wife died following the birth of their third son. Eliza and Mills had one child, a daughter named Mary Pharis, born in 1871.

At some point after Ann Kinzer completed her own quilt, she sent it as a gift to Eliza. The quilt’s sustained beauty and perfect condition make plain the gift remained a treasured memory for generations of a time and place – and person. Ann’s quilt and its replica, made by Eliza, were passed down together through the family to Eliza’s granddaughter, Katherine Salisbury Hazen, who donated the Johnsville quilt to Heritage Frederick in 1973.

November 9, 2023 by Amy Hunt, Heritage Frederick Curator