#52Ancestors 2023 Week 39 Surprise: How Grammie Learned about her first Grandchild

 My son Matthew married his wife Heather in October 2010. Of course, I always had my secret hopes that there would be grandchildren!  However, I did my best to keep my mouth shut on the subject. Nobody needs their mother/mother-in-law to suggest how they should make such a decision. 

In 2011, I was working in Boston at the time, but I came back to Maryland to celebrate the Easter holiday with my family. As it happened, my April birthday fell very close to Easter that year.  Matt and Heather called me out to the porch of my Mom's house to give me a birthday present.  

They handed me a small, wrapped package.  When I opened it, I found a photo album.  Then I noticed the tag on the front of the album: "A grandparent's world is filled with love."

I gasped when the significance struck me.  I opened the album and on the first page was the very first picture of Baby Agee, a sonogram taken April 7, 2011.  Then I started to cry.

I was so excited to know that I would be a grandmother.  I hugged Matt and Heather.  Then I ran into the kitchen to show off my wonderful birthday surprise to the rest of the family.

Henry arrived in November of that year, the beginning of my great adventure as Grammie. 

#52 Ancestors 2024 Week 3 Favorite Photo: Grammie's Heirloom Photo

 

This photo op took place in 2014 when my grandchildren were all under the age of three. It remains one of my favorites, my first picture with all four of my grandchildren. 

As everyone who knows me is aware, I have four grandchildren, all, in my completely unbiased opinion, totally adorable. Two of them were born within a few months of each other in 2011 and 2012, one in Maryland and one in Florida.  The other two were born within a few months of each other in 2014, again, one in Maryland and one in Florida. 

So, I did not have many opportunities to see all four of them together at the same time, and when the Florida family came to visit in Maryland, I was determined to take advantage of the opportunity to get a photo with all four of my grandchildren.

Not an easy task to get four children under the age of three to hold still long enough, look at the camera, and not cry! 

At least I could hold the two lap babies, although sometimes it was a struggle to keep them on my lap. They were wigglers. With sufficient antics from their parents, they would eventually look at the camera, although Emily seemed much more fascinated with something in the far-right corner of the room. 

But the older two (aged not quite two and two-and-a-half) required considerably more coaxing by way of snacks, bribes, and praise to get their participation. 

Finally, three down. 

Anna reluctantly agreed only if she could sit in her Mommy's lap. 

So, here is the heirloom picture at last with Emily, Harper, Henry and Anna all together for the first time.  I hope they appreciate this someday!  It definitely holds a treasured place in Grammie's scrapbook. 

#52 Ancestors 2023 Week 51 Cousins: The DC Scriveners

The Scriveners in Maryland started out in Anne Arundel County, but gradually spread out to the surrounding areas in Calvert, Howard, Montgomery, and Prince George's counties as well as Baltimore City and Washington DC.  In this blog, I'd like to look at the Scrivener cousins in the District of Columbia. 

A capitol district was authorized in 1790, using land donated by Maryland and Virginia and designed by Pierre L’Enfant in four quadrants centered on the Capitol. The new District of Columbia included the new city of Washington, named of course for the first president, as well as the existing cities of Georgetown and Alexandria. 

One of the first Scriveners to appear in the District of Columbia was John Scrivener, born in 1769 in Anne Arundel County.  He married his cousin Mary Ann (Polly) Scrivener in Loudon County VA (right next to Polly’s home in Montgomery County) in 1802 when John was 33 and Polly 26, so kind of a late marriage.  Polly was the daughter of John Scrivener and Elizabeth Purnell of Montgomery County.  I have not been able to confirm the parents of Polly's husband, John, but I have hypothesized that he is the son of Lewis Scrivener of Anne Arundel County. Fortunately, Polly's Bible has been preserved in the Montgomery County Historical Society, so we do know some information about her family. 

John Scrivener served as a private in Captain McKee's company of the DC militia during the War of 1812.  You may recall from your history classes that DC did not fare well in that war, with the British burning the Capitol and all. The fledgling DC militia was quickly overwhelmed. Nevertheless, some years later, Polly was able to apply for bounty land near Dubuque IA based on her husband's service (which she promptly sold). 

John and Polly had five sons and a daughter, all born in Montgomery County, although the family later moved to Georgetown DC, where John died in 1818, leaving a will. 

Polly Scrivener outlived her husband by 40 years, making a living doing embroidery and fancy needlework for the ladies of Washington, as shown in this ad from 1854. 

She died at the home of her son-in-law, Councilman Grafton Powell, in Georgetown in 1858, apparently suffering a heart attack from the excitement of a family wedding.  At least she was surrounded by loved ones when she died. 

She is buried in Congressional Cemetery near her daughter.  

1. Rev. John Soule (Sewall) Scrivener born about 1802.  John was a minister of the Methodist church and there are accounts in the local paper of him marrying prisoners at the jail. In his later years, he apparently also worked as a messenger in the office of the Secretary of the Department of the Interior until he was displaced by a "foreign" (Irish) Roman Catholic, to the disgust of the Daily American Organ in 1854. Rev. Scrivener married Maria Ramsey Cecil in 1823 and had six sons and three daughters with her. Rev. Scrivener died in Washington in 1871 leaving several properties in the District to his children and grandchildren. He is buried in Glenwood Cemetery along with his wife and several of his children. 

2. Samuel Scrivener, born 1804.  The city directory in 1827 and 1830 shows Samuel as a shoemaker. He married Amelia Hinton in Washington DC in 1823.  Samuel and Amelia had two sons and two daughters who survived to adulthood. The family moved to Mobile AL sometime after 1830, and Samuel died there in 1844. He is buried in Magnolia Cemetery along with his wife, his son, Christopher Columbus Scrivener and a number of infants. 

3. Thomas Scrivener, born 1808. At age 16, after his father's death, he was apprenticed to a hatter. Later census records show him working as a watchman and operating a grocery store on Capitol Hill.  He married Elizabeth Ann Waller in 1830 and had three sons and four daughters with her.  He died in 1891 at age 82 of heart failure.  He is buried in Glenwood Cemetery along with his wife. 

4. Margaret Ann Scrivener, born 1810. She married Grafton N. Powell, a city councilman, in 1827 and had four sons and two daughters with him.  She died in the District in 1861 and is buried in Congressional Cemetery near her mother. 

5. James Scrivener, born 1813. He was a tailor in Washington DC.  He married Elizabeth Ann Huddleston in Montgomery County MD in 1834 and had five sons with her. He died in Washington in 1862 and is buried in Glenwood Cemetery. 

6. William Henry Scrivener, born 1814.  He married Eleanor Craven in 1836 and died in Washington sometime before 1850.  There were apparently no children from this marriage.  Eleanor married William King after William Scrivener's death. 

#52 Ancestors 2023 Week 45 War and Peace: Col. Alexander Somervell

 My 6X great grandfather, Colonel Alexander Somervell, made a mark on his community both in war and in peace. 

Alexander Somervell was born in Christ Church Parish, Port Republic, Calvert County MD in 1734, the son of the immigrant, Dr. James Somervell  (about whom I have previously written) and Sarah Howe Somervell, the youngest of their four children. 

MD State House

Somervell was an ensign in the county militia by 1757 and later served in the Continental Army as a
colonel. The legislature rewarded him in 1765 for his service in the French and Indian War. He served as the High Sheriff of Calvert County from 1769 to 1772.  He was a member of the Maryland Assembly in 1774 and served in the Continental Congress in 1775.

In 1762, Alexander inherited land in Calvert County and a warehouse from his brother John, so he was probably engaged in farming and some kind of merchant activity.

Col. Somervell was also active in his Christ Church parish at Port Republic, helping to build a new church on the site in 1772, a building which is still in use today. 

On the south wall of the present edifice is a tablet to the memory of Col. Alexander Somervell, the builder of the church. The name of Somervell, spelled in different ways, is found in many of the private burial grounds of the county, and it represents a family known for its attachment to the traditions of the Episcopal Church. The inscription is: In memory of Col. Alexander Somerville and Rebecca his wife Decessus 1783 AEtatis 49 Decessa 1812 AEtatis 72.

Alexander Somervell married Rebecca Dawkins, the daughter of William Dawkins and Dorcas Mackall, in December 1759 at Christ Church.  Alexander and Rebecca had two sons and two daughters:

Thomas Somervell 1760 (no further information)

Dr. William Dawkins Somervell (my 5X great Grandfather) 1763-1816; he married Elizabeth Wilson Ireland in 1795 in Calvert County and had four daughters and two sons with her, including my 4x great grandfather, Alexander Somervell. 

Rebecca Somervell 1765-1837; she married James Duke in 1786 in Calvert County and had four sons and three daughters with him. 

Sarah Somervell 1770; she married Joseph Leonard and moved to Kentucky, where she died sometime after the 1850 Census. 

Col. Alexander Somervell died in Calvert County in 1783, leaving a considerable estate: 490 acres of land in Calvert County plus a lot and warehouse in St. Leonard's Creek town. His personal property was more than L1000 including 27 slaves. 

Rebecca Dawkins Somervell died in Calvert County MD in November 1812. 

#52 Ancestors 2023 Week 35 Disaster: Student Radical Disaster Fighter

I graduated from college--Duquesne University, Pittsburgh PA--in May 1970, a time that seemed fraught with student outrage about the disastrous state of the world. You might not think it to look at my sweet graduation picture, but I was a leader in expressing that outrage, using the vehicle of the student newspaper.  Somewhere in the archives there's a photo of me burning my press pass at one protest or another. If disaster was coming, I wasn't going to go down without a fight. 

 Anyway, that graduation ceremony marked a high point in my life as a student activist as I was chosen to represent the student body and give a speech during commencement. 

As Associate Editor of the student newspaper, the Duke, I had many opportunities to express my opinions about such burning issues as the follies of the University administration, the necessity of lowering the voting age to 18, and environmental damage to the planet.  One of my articles celebrates the very first Earth Day in April 1970.  It's a piece I would still support, though maybe 50 years later, I wouldn't take quite the same snarky tone. 

Of course, while environmental concerns were important then and now, the overriding concern of students in 1970 was ending the disastrous war in Vietnam.  I wrote a number of pieces in the Duke about events on campus protesting the war and even travelled to Washington DC to cover a huge protest march. 

But, just a few days before graduation, an event occurred that galvanized the opposition and probably did spell the beginning of the end for that particular folly (even though it took an additional five years before the final withdrawal from Vietnam).  Four students were shot and killed by National Guardsmen during a protest at Kent State University in Ohio and another nine were wounded. Outrage was instantaneous. It was the prototypical shot heard round the world and significantly dampened remaining public support for the war. Of course, it fired up the nation's campuses even more. 

The iconic photo below seemed to capture the horror of the situation and led to the Duquesne administration's unprecedented agreement to allow a student speaker during the graduation ceremony. 

Honestly, I don't remember exactly how I came to be chosen for this job, but it must have been pretty last minute since the Kent State shooting was only a day or so before the ceremony. I don't think I volunteered myself, but I guess I had a reputation because of my Duke writings.  In any case, I was tapped, and Fr. McAnulty introduced me as the first speaker at commencement, looking out over a sea of my fellow graduates, most of whom wore white armbands over their robes as a testament to their revulsion at the Kent State tragedy and the war in general. 

My parents were also in the audience, and I have never found out what they thought about my effort. They didn't comment. If I had to guess, they were probably wondering where they had gone wrong in raising their daughter. What happened to our nice Catholic girl? 

Sadly, I did not have the foresight to save a copy of my speech, or if I did, it has gotten lost in the years since.  I remember that I opened with a description of protestors being shot, not the ones at Kent State, but the American colonists shot by a British soldier during the Boston Massacre of 1770, which set off a revolution.  I wanted to make a point that we should be equally shocked by this massacre and the one in Ohio, perhaps even more so since the latter was Americans killing Americans, and perhaps take equally revolutionary action.  

The Pittsburgh Post, which covered my speech, said it was considered "moderate" in some quarters, but judging by the quote they included, I don't think I was intending to be moderate, calling students "lucky" to be cannon fodder for America's imperialist ambitions.  I always was a fan of irony as a rhetorical strategy, and I certainly wasn't above some exaggeration for rhetorical effect along the way. Besides, I was 22 years old and filled with righteous indignation! Why go for moderate? 

Pittsburgh Post, 12 May 1970

Over the years since my graduation, my rhetorical strategies have probably gotten better, although I can still slip into that snarky mode pretty easily, and I may have become a little more tolerant of moderation. I have taken up and fought for a number of causes, campaigned for various political candidates, attended and instituted a few protests, and generally tried to stand up for values that were important to me and stand against what seemed unjust to me (won a few, lost a few). At least, I can look back over the last 50 years or so, beginning with my student days, and see a fairly consistent pattern of trying to stand up for what I believe. I hope I've managed to make my world a little bit better through my efforts. 

#52 Ancestors 2023 Week 30 In the News: Cousin Henry Harrison Atwater and the Lincoln Assassination

 Henry Harrison Atwater, a distant cousin, was on duty at the Washington Navy Yard on the night of April 15, 1865 and his telegraph line conveyed the news of the search for Abraham Lincoln's assassin. He had a front row seat for one of the biggest events of his lifetime.

Atwater, the son of Ambrose Atwater and Sally Drew, was born in Burlington VT in 1840. As a teenager, he studied telegraphy and in 1856 accepted a position with the Erie Railroad dispatching trains by telegraph. 

In 1860, he moved to Brooklyn, where he met his wife, Mary Farmer McCafferty, whom he married in 1863.  He vividly remembered the election of Abraham Lincoln, the firing on Fort Sumpter, and the call for volunteers, of which his brother-in-law, Augustus McCafferty (about whom I have previously written) was one of the first. 

Learning that the government was short of telegraph operators, Atwater volunteered and was assigned to the Washington Navy Yard, the headquarters of the Potomac flotilla. During his time in Washington, he and his wife had the opportunity to meet President Lincoln in person. Although he said he had heard "many reports about the plain looks and decidedly awkward appearance" of the president, in the end, he professed himself much impressed with "the pleasing, kindly face and courteous manner . . . which won our hearts at once."  

He saw Lincoln again when the president visited the Navy Yard for a demonstration of rockets used for signaling. 

Atwater was on duty at the Navy Yard on the fateful night of the assassination, and it was he who conveyed the news of the attempt on Lincoln's life to the Commodore of the Navy Yard, having received the message from the War Department. 

During the next days, Atwater's wire was kept humming with messages regarding the capture of the assassin and his accomplices. Some 12 days later, Booth was shot and his body was brought to the Navy Yard where Atwater witnessed it being put aboard the ironclad USS Montauk. 

At the close of the Civil War, Atwater returned to Brooklyn NY where he and Mary raised their three daughters and a son: Charlotte (1865), Florence (1872), Edith (1873) and Henry Jr. (1879). 

Atwater worked for the Western Union Telegraph Company until his retirement. He was a past Master and life member of the Star of Cuba Masonic Lodge. 

He died in Brooklyn in 1921 and is buried in Mount Hebron Cemetery in New Jersey along with his wife, children, and grandchildren. 

#52 Ancestors 2023 Week 28: Random: Cousin Rev. Charles Winterfield Baldwin

Historic Baldwin Hall

Many people are familiar with Anne Arundel County’s Historic Baldwin Hall (1861) located on General's Highway, but not everyone knows about the man for whom it is named, Rev. Charles Winterfield Baldwin.  So, I would like to help correct that lack. A distant cousin of mine, he was a remarkable man, and his story deserves to be told.

Charles Winterfield Baldwin was born 23 March 1840, the tenth of eleven children of Judge William Henry Baldwin and Jane Maria Woodward, the grandson of Captain Henry Baldwin who served in the Revolutionary War. He and his siblings grew up at the family home, Bunker Hill, in Anne Arundel County, near the site of the present Baldwin Hall. 

Bunker Hill

Charles Winterfield Baldwin entered Yale University in 1859 as a junior, graduating in 1861.  While at Yale, he was also secretary of the Yale baseball team. (Go, Bulldogs!)  After graduation, he studied law in Baltimore for two years, but ultimately decided to enter the ministry, studying at Yale Divinity School and Union Theological Seminary.  In 1866, he began his ministry as a junior pastor on the Severn Circuit, which included the Cross Roads Church, now Baldwin Memorial United Methodist Church. By 1897, he was the presiding elder of the West Baltimore District of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was superintendent of the Baltimore City Mission until 1910. He retired from the ministry in 1916, but frequently returned to the pulpit, often recalling the "old-time Methodist experience" which he hoped would revive. 

Rev. Baldwin grew up in the years just before the Civil War. His family owned slaves. But,  as adherents to John Wesley’s Methodism, they were encouraged to reflect on the morality of slaveholding, which led to the slaves being emancipated before the war and given land to help them start life as free people. 

Rev. Baldwin was committed to a life that respected the value of all human beings and worked tirelessly throughout his life to create opportunities for women and black people to succeed, especially in the area of education.

In 1884, he was an incorporator of The Women’s College of Baltimore, now Goucher College, and served as a trustee. He also helped to found American University, an institution that educated men and women, black and white, for careers in public service, serving at one time as its Chancellor. Starting in 1899, he served 24 years as a trustee of Morgan State College, now Morgan State University, in Baltimore.

Rev. Baldwin married Annie Campbell Hopkins in 1868 and had a daughter Marie with her.  After Annie’s death, he married Anna Thomas in 1876.  There were no children from his second marriage. 

In the years before his death, Rev. Baldwin lost his sight but had the newspaper read to him every day. He died in Baltimore in 1938 at the age of 98, the last surviving member of his graduating class at Yale, having served 70 years in the Methodist ministry. 

He is buried in the cemetery at Baldwin Memorial United Methodist Church in Millersville MD, just down the road from the house where he was born and across the street from the 1861 hall that bears his name.

 The Cora Anderson Dulaney Library next to Historic Baldwin Hall has a large collection of Rev. Baldwin's letters and papers.