#52 Ancestors Week 8: Heirloom: Grandma Summers' Wine Glasses

#52 Ancestors Week 8: Grandma Summers' Heirloom Wine Glasses

When I got married in 1971, my grandmother, Theresa Evalina Sasscer Summers, gave me some wine glasses which had been handed down in the family for several generations.  It is a gift I still cherish to this day and that I hope one day to pass along to my grandchildren.

The first set of glasses came from the Summers family.

 My grandmother (God bless her sense of family history) also included a note with the wine glasses to tell me where they came from.  

So, I know that these glasses belonged to my great-grandmother Regina Ann Hill, for whom, I am named. (See more about her in my blog from 6 June 2018.)  Perhaps that is why Ma Summers chose to give these glasses to me.  John Kostka Summers and Regina Ann Hill were married in 1878.  If these glasses were a wedding gift, they would be approaching 150 years old.  And they are almost certainly more than 100 years old.

The second set of glasses came from the Sasscer family, my grandmother's parents.

Again, my grandmother thoughtfully provided a note with some history of the glasses.

Dama mentioned in this note was my grandmother's mother, Theresa Evalina Wallis Sasscer. (See more about her in my blog from January 2018.) They were in the Sasscer family sometime before 1894 when Eva married Thomas Reverdy Sasscer.  So, again, they are well over 100 years old.

I enjoy a glass of wine every once in a while using my grandmother's wine glasses.  When I do,  I raise a toast to my grandmothers who cherished these.

#52 Ancesters Week 24: Father's Day

#52 Ancestors Week 24 Father's Day: William Boswell Scrivener

William Boswell Scrivener, my 2X great-grandfather, was one of five sons, twelve children of John Scrivener and Eliza Smith Boswell of Anne Arundel County MD.  William and his wife Sally Jane Barber had ten children, including five sons.  Now what make this so unusual is that despite all those Scrivener boys in two generations, this line of the family almost daughtered out.  My grandfather, Frank Phillip Scrivener Sr., was the sole surviving male of the line when he was born in 1900.

John Scrivener, the oldest son of Francis Scrivener, was born about 1780 in Anne Arundel County MD.  He served in the War of 1812, defending the Chesapeake Bay from British invaders.  In 1817, he married Eliza Smith Boswell, the daughter of Henry Boswell, in Prince George's County MD.   John and Eliza, as noted above, had twelve children:

John Henry (1819-1863) married Mary Sparrow and had one son, John Sparrow Scrivener, who died without issue in 1859.
Sarah Jane (1823-1904) married John Howe Somervell and had three sons and a daughter.
Samuel Wesley (1824-1904)  married Elizabeth Chew and had a daughter Elizabeth and a son Samuel.  Both children died in 1864.
Elizabeth Ann (1827-1907) married Luther Owen Sullivan of Virginia and had three sons and three daughters.
William Boswell (1828-1895) married Sally Barber and had five sons and five daughters.  More below.
Elizabeth Sydney (1829-1863) married George Washington Welch and had four sons and three daughters.
Francis George (1832-1853) never married.
James Edward (1834-ca. 1880) married Kate Garner and had five sons, all of whom died without male issue.  (One daughter among the five.)
Mary Priscilla (1835-1884) married Stephen Lee Bird and had four daughters and one son.
Maria Louisa twin  (1838-1875) married John Poultney Hanson and had one son and one daughter.
Emily Augusta twin (1838-1902) married Charles Porter Culver and had three daughters.
Rose Matilda (1843-1899)  married William Corwin Burgy and had a son and three daughters.

So, in this generation, only William had sons who lived to marry and have sons of their own to carry on the Scrivener name.

William and Sally had ten children:

Mary Wheeler Kent (1857-1942)  never married.
William Boswell Jr. (1859-1928) never married.
Sarah Jane Barber (1862-1945) married George Bourne Gantt and had a son and a daughter.
Leila Mary (1864-1941) married Howe Somervell Allnutt and had two sons.
Frank Phillip (1865-1939) married Louise Gwynn and had one son, Frank Phillip Jr.
Kate Estelle (1865-1918) married Harry Weems Wilkerson, no issue.
Lillian (1869-1948) married Robert Franklin Garner and had one daughter.
Frederick William (1870-1959) married Annie Vaughn and had one daughter who died as an infant.
Jonathan Yates (1876-1957) married Jean Macintosh, no issue.
Kent (1877-1941) never married.

So, again in this generation, only one Scrivener son to carry on the name.  Fortunately for the name, Frank Scrivener was prolific. This picture shows William Boswell Scrivener and Frank about 1870.

Frank Phillip Scrivener Jr. married Ida Elizabeth Dent in 1924 and had five sons and a daughter with her, including my, father Frank Phillip III.  My father had three sons and between them they had 13 sons, who have, in their turn produced another dozen sons and still counting.

I think this line of the Scrivener name is safe for a good while to come.  The picture below shows the Scrivener clan in 1986. Elizabeth Dent Scrivener is seated with her five sons seated next to her. I am seated on the ground in front of my father with my son James next to me.

#52 Ancesters Week 13: The Old Homestead

#52 Ancestors Week 13: The Old Homestead

Perhaps the most famous home associated with the Scrivener Family is Holly Hill in the Friendship area of southern Anne Arundel County.  The Scriveners called their home Rose Valley, but the house had a long history before the Scriveners acquired it.

Originally constructed in about 1698, Holly Hill or Holland's Hill was a two-room, one-and-a-half story frame dwelling probably built by Richard Harrison (a wealthy Quaker planter) for his son, Samuel.  An addition was made in 1713 and about 1730, the whole structure was encased in brick and another addition made.  It is one of the few extant examples of the Medieval Transitional style of architecture. Inside, original floors and paneling are still visible as well as an early 18th century mural that shows the house and grounds.

The house remained in the Harrison family until the 1850's, when William Boswell Scrivener bought it for his bride, Sarah Jane Barber.  William and Sarah raised their family of five sons and five daughters at Rose Valley.  After William's death in 1895, his son Frederick managed the house and farm.  The photo below shows Sarah with three sons and three daughters at Rose Valley about 1905.  My great-grandfather, Frank Phillip Scrivener, is standing behind his mother. The other man in the hat is Frederick Scrivener and his brother Kent is standing next to him.

The picture below is another group of the Scrivener siblings at Rose Valley.  Not sure of the date.  My great-grandfather, Frank Scrivener is standing on the left, with his wife, Louise Gwynn, next to him. Fred and his wife Annie are seated in front.

In the late 1930's Fred and his wife, Annie, feeling the effects of the Depression, sold the house to Captain and Mrs. Hugh LeClair who did extensive renovations.  The photo below shows Rose Valley about 1935.

Holly Hill was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

The Library of Congress houses an excellent collection of photographs of Holly Hill made for the Historic American Buildings survey in 1937 which highlights some of the unique architectural features of the home.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.md0412.photos?st=gallery.

#52Ancestors Week 25 Same Name: Anne Hill

#52 Ancestors Week 25 Same Name: Anne Hill

I am named after my great-great grandmother, Regina Anne Hill.  Actually, I always hated my name, Anne Hill, the Hill part anyway, growing up.  It got me the nickname HillBilly, which I really hated.

However, later in life, when I was more interested in family history, I was rather pleased to be named after an ancestor, not to mention it was my mother's name also--Anne, not Hill.

So, Mary Regina Anne Hill was the daughter of Captain Alexander Penn Hill and Mary Elizabeth Childs.  She was born 2 February 1858 in the Nottingham District of Prince George's County MD, the sixth of nine children, a large and very Catholic family.  She grew up at Moss Side, the property her father had inherited from his father, Joseph Benedict Hill.

Sarah Elizabeth Hill (1846-1935) married Thomas Sprigg Blandford.

Samuel Childs Hill (1848-1928) married Mary Elizabeth Bowie.

Joseph Benedict Hill (1850-c. 1930) married Mary Hill.

Peter Henry Hill (1852-1893) married Nora Mary Young.

Mary Hester Hill (1854-1904)

Alexander Penn Hill Jr. (1860-1915) married Mary Catherine Munro

Emily Riddle Hill (1862-1959) married George Washington Young

Robert E. Lee Hill (1863-1934)

On 28 October 1878, Regina married John Kostka Summers, the oldest son of John Francis Summers and Eliza Ann Gwynn, neighbors of the Hills in Prince George's County.

Regina Anne Hill and John Kostka Summers had 15 children, of which my grandfather, Paul Francis, was the 12th.  The children included a set of twins, Joseph Mary and Mary Joseph.

John Kostka Summers Jr.  (1880-1943) married Benedicta Gannon.
John Lamar Summers (1879-1899)  drowned in the Patuxent River
Marie Emily Louise Summers (1882-1898)
Alexander Hill Summers (1883-1918)
Joseph Mary Summers (1885-1963)
Mary Joseph Summers (1885-1965) Sister Mary Ange
Eliza Mary Summers (1888-1980) married William August Dorr
Regina Agnes Summers (1889-1968) married Edward Payson Springer Jr.
Gretchen Summers (1891-1953) married Joseph Summerfield Perry
Mildred Elizabeth Summers (1892-1980) married Bernard Kummer
Dorothy Lucile Summers (1894-1945)  married James Heath Dodge
Paul Francis Summers (1895-1970) married Theresa Evalina Sasscer
Olin Jerome Summers (1897-1898)
Emily Ruth Summers (1899-1996) married Charles Henry Adams McPherson
Michael Jerome Summers (1902-1967)

The picture below shows the Summers family about 1910 at their home in Westwood, Prince George's County MD.  My grandfather Paul is in the center of the photo between his parents.

The picture below shows John Kostka Summers and Mary Regina Anne Hill celebrating their golden wedding anniversary in 1928.  My mother, Anne, is sitting on the ground in front of her grandfather, age about 3 years old. My grandfather Paul Summers is standing behind Sr. Ange holding his son on his shoulder.

Regina Anne Hill Summers died at her home 6 June 1932 and is buried in St. Peter's Cemetery in Waldorf MD.  Her husband, John Koskta Summers died 2 March 1941 and is also buried in St. Peter's.

I know very little about my namesake, but I do have an inheritance from her, a set of wine glasses that belonged to Anne gifted to me by her daughter-in-law, my grandmother.  I wrote about them here. 

#52Ancestors Week 7 Romance: Zaida Dent Wright

#52 Ancestors Week 7 Romance: Zaida Dent Wright

Of all the people I have researched for my genealogy, Zaida (Ida) Dent Wright probably had the most adventurous and exciting life.

Zaida was the daughter of Hinton P. Wright, my 3X great-uncle, an Atlanta attorney,  and Marie Louise Robinson, daughter of a wealthy plantation owner. The excitement started even before Zaida was born when 20-year-old Hinton Wright killed Marie Robinson's brother, Edwin, in a duel (illegal) outside the local church in Newnan GA in 1869. Somehow the death was ruled accidental and Hinton escaped without serious damage. The couple then eloped and married against her parents' wishes.   Zaida was born in Atlanta GA in 1871, followed by a brother, Albert Spaulding Wright, in 1873.

Hinton Wright, the son of a prominent judge, William Felix Wright, seemed to have a promising career and was highly regarded in Atlanta's legal community. However, his career went downhill with accusations of bribery and Hinton became a drunkard and lost his position in the community.

Marie finally divorced him and took a job as a writer with the Sunny South, a literary magazine.  She eventually became a travelling correspondent for the New York World, where she became a celebrated writer, renowned for her travels in Central and South America.   Her 1890 illustrated book on Mexico was especially famous.  She represented The World at The World's Fair and the Paris Exhibition.  In 1893, accompanied by her son and daughter, she returned to Mexico for a comprehensive study of the country.

Because of Marie's travels, her daughter was well educated, a graduate of Vassar and spoke several languages.  She was also considered quite a beauty.  She accompanied her mother on a trip to Salvador in 1894, where she won the heart of General Antonio Ezetta,

the brother of Salvador's president and later the newly elected president.  Atlanta was abuzz with the news of their engagement and the fabulous upcoming wedding.  The Atlanta Constitution burbled effusively about the gowns, the jewels, and the general social brilliance of the affair which would take place in St. Patrick's Cathedral with the Cardinal officiating.

But alas!  It was not to be.  Antonio's brother decreed that he should marry none but a native Salvadoran or live in exile.  The engagement was broken, the fabulous jewels returned.  The General died in Panama in 1897, still unmarried.

Ida went on to marry a Boston doctor, Walter Ernest Seymour in 1897.  That marriage ended in divorce.  She married a second time in 1906 to actor Aubrey Beattie, a native of Nova Scotia, by whom she had one son, Albert Aubrey Beattie.

In the meantime, in the last years of his life, Ida's father, Hinton Wright found religion and ended his life as a preacher denouncing the evils of drink.  He married a second time in 1888 to May Bowen and had a daughter Lucille with her.  He died at a revival meeting in Marietta GA in 1892.

Ida's brother Albert died in El Paso TX in 1894.  Her mother died in Sullivan County NY in 1914.

Aubrey Beattie achieved some success as an actor appearing on stages throughout the United States and even made a few films in the early part of the century.  Ida died in a boarding house in Brooklyn NY in 1937.  Her husband Aubrey died in the King's County Hospital in Brooklyn in 1944, his stage and film career largely forgotten.  Both are buried in Kensico Cemetery in Westchester County NY in a plot paid for by the Actor's Fund.

So a life that seemed full of adventurous possibilities ended rather quietly in Brooklyn.

#52Ancestors Week 5: Census--John Marshall Dent

#52Ancestors Week 5: Census

A census entry led me to a trip to Georgia.

Just about all my direct ancestors were born in Maryland going back to the 1700's.  So, when I was researching my grandmother's family and found a census entry indicating that my great-grandfather, John Marshall Dent Jr., was born in Georgia, at first I thought it was a mistake since his family was from St. Mary's County MD for many generations back.  How did he get born in Georgia?

His father, John Marshall Dent Sr., born in St. Mary's County MD in 1844, left Maryland for Virginia at the start of the Civil War and served in the 1st Maryland Cavalry.  He retained the title of Colonel for the remainder of his life.  After the war, Dent went to Georgia where his Dent cousin, William Barton Wade Dent, had settled in Newnan GA.  JM Dent Jr. practiced law and also edited the local paper, The Newnan Herald, from 1874 to 1877.

In 1873, JM Dent married Ida Elizabeth Wright, the daughter of Judge William Felix Wright and Elizabeth Caroline Dent (a daughter of the aforementioned WBW Dent.)  In 1874, my great-grandfather, JM Dent Jr. was born in Newnan.  A second son, William Francis Dent, was born there in 1875.  In 1877, JM Dent Sr. left Georgia and returned to St. Mary's County MD where he and Ida had eight more children.  Ida Wright Dent died in St. Mary's County in 1925.  JM Dent Sr. died there in 1929.

All of this was interesting enough to me that I decided to take a trip to Georgia to see Newnan for myself.

I visited the Newnan Herald where the staff very kindly helped me do a search of the microfilmed papers from the era when I thought JM Dent had been the editor.  We discovered his farewell editorial from 1877 as well as announcement of JM's marriage in 1873.

#52Ancestors Week 4 Invitation to Dinner: Lois Gongo Evans Vernon

#52Ancestors: Week 4

While I have many family members who seem to be interesting characters and would probably be interesting dinner guests, one person from the family tree that I would really love to meet is Lois Gongo.  Lois, the daughter of Anthony Gongo and Faith (Wilson?), was born around 1660, probably in Anne Arundel County MD.  Lois is not a direct ancestor of mine; she is something like the mother--in-law of my 8th great-uncle. (Lois's granddaughter married into the Scrivener family, which is what brought her to my attention.) What makes Lois so interesting to me is that she was apparently a feminist long before feminism became a thing.

Lois married first Lewis Evans, a Welshman like her father, about 1674.  Lois and Lewis had four daughters: Catherine, Elizabeth, Sarah and Ann Evans. 

Catherine married first John Clark and second William Thornbury and died about 1768 in Anne Arundel County MD.
Elizabeth married first Francis Anktill and second Moses Faudry. She died about 1762 in Anne Arundel County MD.
Sarah married Samuel Griffith, with whom she had eight children.
Ann married Benjamin Battee and had two daughters with him.

After Lewis's death about 1690, Lois married secondly Christopher Vernon, a fairly well-to-do landowner from an old British family in Hertfordshire, who had emigrated to Anne Arundel County MD.  Lois and Christopher had five children: Ephraim, William, Lois, Thomas and Ann Vernon, recorded in the records of St. James Parish, Anne Arundel County MD.

Christopher Vernon died in England in 1724 and here is where the story gets really interesting.  Christopher was apparently a very unhappy man.  He left a will in England, which does not mention his wife and children.  He leaves his estate to aunts, nieces, nephews and other relatives.

Curious, yes?  However, back in MD, there is an earlier handwritten will, apparently never recorded that explains the will in England.  In the earlier document, Christopher castigates Lois as "stubborn and brutish" and  claims he was never really married to her since she absolutely refused to say the words "honor and obey"  when she married Christopher. (Imagine that in 1691!)  Further, he claims that Lois tried to poison him.  Likewise, he is furious that his daughter Ann married against his wishes.  And the document is full of complaints about his other family members.

The one person he seems like is his step-daughter Elizabeth Evans Anktill, beside whom he wishes to be buried and whom he wishes to be his executrix.  Christopher then apparently left for England where he proceeded to give away all his property in England so that Lois could never get her hands on it. Elizabeth did attempt to probate the earlier will, but the courts threw it out because the later English will was already on file.

Lois seems to have made out all right in the long run.  She had property from her first husband, Lewis Evans.  She made over property to her son Thomas Vernon in 1738 and died in Anne Arundel County in 1739.

So, Lois is definitely someone I would like to have a conversation with to get her side of the story.

#52Ancestors Week3: Longevity Theresa Evalina Wallis

#52Ancestors

This week's challenge focuses on longevity.  The longest-lived of my direct ancestors was my maternal great-grandmother, Theresa Evalina Wallis Sasscer.   She was born in Kent County MD on 28 December 1874 and died 25 March 1964 in Owings Mills, Baltimore County MD at the age of 90. (I should note, however, that my own mother is still going strong at 93, so I think she will eventually hold the longevity record!)

Eva Wallis was born the same year as poet Robert Frost, industrialist John D. Rockefeller, and magician Harry Houdini.  She grew up in the rural Eastern Shore of Maryland, close to where Harriett Tubman helped the Underground Railroad move slaves to freedom. Ulysses S. Grant was president, following the death of Millard Fillmore.  James Black Groom from Cecil County was the Governor of Maryland. The Wallises came from Quaker roots and were not slave holders.

Eva Wallis was the 8th of the 13 children of Francis Adolphus Wallis and Mary Georgianna Willson. She was a school teacher and met her husband, Thomas Reverdy Sasscer, when she was teaching at a small one-room school in Prince George's County and boarded with Mr. Sasscer, a farmer whose home was across the road from the school.  (Not to worry about any impropriety there because Reverdy's unmarried sister, Mary Loretto Sasscer, was living with her brother as his housekeeper.) Reverdy Sasscer, the son of John William Sasscer and Julia Ann Gibbons of Prince George's County MD,  was some 20 years older than his bride when they married in December 1894 at Sacred Heart Church in Chestertown, Kent County MD.  This picture shows Eva in her wedding outfit. According to the newspaper account of the wedding, it was a gown of tan henrietta cloth with gloves and hat to match.

By the time of her marriage in 1894, Maryland was moving away from its rural roots and becoming more industrialized, although Prince George's County, where Eva raised her family was still mostly farmland, supplying wheat, corn, potatoes, fruits and vegetables for the nation's capital.  Tobacco fields still covered significant areas of the county.

Reverdy and Eva had four children:  Francis Wallis (1895), Eunice Loretto (1897), Theresa Evalina, my grandmother, (1898), and Clarence DeSales (1900).   The Sasscers grew up on a tobacco farm at Breezy Hill and attended the one-room school across the road, where, incidentally, Clarence later met his wife, Madge, who was the teacher there.

Thomas Reverdy Sasscer died in 1920 at the age of 68, so Eva spent the last 44 years of her life as a widow, running the farm with her sons and happily enjoying her brood of 16 grandchildren. It was my mother, Anne, who gave Eva the name by which she was known in the family--Dama--Anne's attempt to say "Grandma."  In her later years, Dama often spent the winters in Florida and my mother, who was her oldest grandchild,  remembers trips to Florida with her grandmother as a teenager.  Dama was very proud of her family heritage and was a member of the DAR and other patriotic societies.  

My memories of my great-grandmother center around the annual family Christmas parties that were always held at Dama's home, Breezy Hill.  It was there that I would see my numerous aunts and uncles, great-aunts and great uncles and dozens of cousins.  I remember her as a very elegant woman. The picture below shows her in 1951 with two of her great-grandchildren at a Christmas party. 

At the time of Eva's death in 1964, J. Millard Tawes, an Eastern Shore native, was governor of Maryland and Lyndon Johnson was initiating the Great Society, amid increasing calls for more minority rights. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge had opened up Eva's native Eastern Shore to greater tourism and Ocean City became a boom town.  The Beatles made their famous appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 

Both Theresa Evalina Wallis Sasscer and Thomas Reverdy Sasscer are buried in Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County MD, along with many of their ancestors and descendants. 

#52Ancestors Week 2: Favorite Photo The Romance of Frank Scrivener and Lib Dent

It's so hard to choose a favorite photo from among all the family photos I have accumulated over the years, but I think I would have to go with this charming picture of my grandparents, Frank Scrivener and Elizabeth (Lib) Dent. Of course, I only knew them when they were much older, so I have always loved this fascinating glimpse of their youth.

The picture is not dated, but I think it was taken shortly before their marriage in 1924.  The clothes certainly seem to fit that time period.  My grandmother definitely has the flapper look going.  (And isn't she gorgeous?) Frank seems to be going for the Great Gatsby look.  Look at that natty bow tie!  I am not sure where the picture was taken, but perhaps it was in St. Mary's County at Lib's family home.  It does seem to be a rural rather than an urban location judging by the porch and flowers in the background.

Frank was the only child of Frank Scrivener and Louise Gwynn (see #52Ancestors Week 1), born in Baltimore in August 1900.  He attended Loyola College High School, where he played baseball, and enlisted in the Navy in WWI.  He was stationed at Great Lakes Naval Air Station, where he acquired quite a reputation as a quarterback on the football team.  Family legend has it that he even played a game against the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame while he was at Great Lakes.  After his discharge, he got a job with the Maryland State Roads Commission, where he worked for the rest of this life.

Lib was the daughter of John Marshall Dent and Mary Peterson Turner, born in Oakley, St. Mary's County MD in 1902, the third of their four children. She was born Ida Elizabeth Dent (named after her grandmother)  but she never liked the name Ida and never used it.  Lib attended St. Mary's Female Seminary in St. Mary's County and taught school in Prince George's County MD after her graduation.  Here she met Frank, who travelled around the state inspecting roads as part of his job.  Apparently Frank would often hang around the school where Lib was teaching, whistling outside her classroom window, and would sometimes delight her students by telling them that class was dismissed.  (No word on how the principal felt about this!)

Lib and Frank were married at St. Mary's Church in Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County MD on June 20, 1924, coincidentally just a few months after my maternal grandparents, Paul Summers and Evalina Sasscer, were married at the same church in April 1924. Twenty-three years later, my parents were married at the same church.

Lib and Frank had six children: Frank, Bill, Jack, Reds, Keene, and Bob, and raised them in Baltimore and St. Mary's County through the Great Depression.  Frank was fortunate to have a state job that enabled him to support his family.

The picture above suggests a loving and romantic relationship between Lib and Frank and from everything I know about them, that remained true throughout their lives.  I inherited one of the many loving notes that Lib wrote to her husband over the course of their long marriage.

Frank died in 1980 and Lib in 1987.  They are buried in New Cathedral Cemetery in Baltimore, next to Frank's parents. 

#52Ancestors Week 1: My Start in Genealogy

#52Ancestors
Week 1: Start

I have decided to work on the 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks challenge.  The prompt for this first week is "Start," so I have decided to write about what got me started doing genealogy.

It was my grandfather, Frank Scrivener. Sometime in the late 70's, he cleaned out his basement and came up with a box of family history materials from his mother, Louise Gywnn Scrivener.  He asked me if I would like to have them and I said yes.  From then on, I was hooked on genealogy.

My great-grandmother, Louise Gwynn, was really into family history.  She was a Regent of the DAR and belonged to several genealogy-based societies like the Pilgrims of St. Mary's, which she helped to found.  She had done a lot of research including many visits to the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis.  The box that my grandfather gave me included several notebooks full of her genealogy research.  But perhaps more importantly, Louise Gwynn was a saver.  The box also contained her scrapbooks where she had carefully pasted stories of her family members, marriages, deaths, graduations, you name it.  Even now, 50 years later, I still go back every now and then and look over the scrapbooks and I often find some detail that I previously overlooked or did not previously realize the significance.

Now, some of my great-grandmother's conclusions about family history were incorrect.  It took me many years of my own research at the Archives to find more accurate information, but I would not have started down that path if Louise Gwynn had not been there first.

Now a little about Louise Gwynn.  Louise Carmelite Keene Gwynn was born in Brooklyn NY in 1872 and died in Baltimore MD in 1946, although most of her early life was spent in Spartanburg SC where the Gwynns settled after the Civil War.  She was the third child, second daughter, of Captain Andrew Jackson Gwynn (wounded at Gettysburg) and Marie Louise Keene, both native Marylanders. She had three younger brothers and a younger sister.  I never met her as she died before I was born, but my parents and aunts and uncles say she was quite a force to be reckoned with.  According to them, I resemble her somewhat in temperament. :-)

The lavalier she is wearing in this picture is a family heirloom, worn by several generations of Scrivener brides (including me) at their weddings. 

She attended Mt. St. Agnes College in Baltimore and throughout her life she was a fierce advocate for women's education.  Louise Gwynn married Frank Phillip Scrivener Sr. in 1899 at her sister's residence in Prince George's County MD.  Her brother, Msgr. Andrew Keene Gwynn, officiated.   Louise and Frank settled in Baltimore where Frank worked as an accountant.  They had one son, Frank Phillip Scrivener Jr. born in 1900.  He attended the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and enlisted in the Navy during WWI. 

Louise was always involved in one civic project or another, charitable work and even politics.  After women got the right to vote, Louise was one of the first women to run for office, a seat on the Democratic State Central Committee.

When Frank retired, the couple moved to Upper Marlborough in Prince George's County near Louise's sister Effie.  Louise ran a small lending library from her home.  Her six grandchildren, including my father, often spent the summers with their grandparents, and this actually led to my father meeting my mother whose family attended the same church.

So, thank you, Louise Gwynn, for many, many happy hours of genealogy research.