#52 Ancestors 2023 Week 1 I'd Like to Meet: My 2X great grandmother, Sallie Barber Scrivener

I have two photographs of my paternal 2X-great-grandmother, Sallie Barber Scrivener.  Both of them show her as a wizened little old lady.  

In the photo at the left, which I date at about 1905, Sallie is shown at her home in Anne Arundel County with three of her five sons and three of her five daughters and three of her six grandchildren. 

I have always been sorry that I know so little about Sallie and have no pictures of her as a younger woman or child. I know the basic facts about her life: birth, marriage, death, but really nothing of her as a person. I wish I had been able to meet her and know her better. She shouldn't be remembered as just a wizened little old lady.  She had a life.

Sallie was born 25 November 1835 at her father's plantation, Silverstone, in Calvert County MD, very close to the border with Anne Arundel County. Sarah Jane Kent Barber was the second child and oldest daughter of Jonathan Yates Barber (named for his grandfather, Major Jonathan Yates of the Revolutionary War) and Mary Wheeler Kent. She had three brothers and three sisters. Her three sisters were more than ten years younger than Sally, the youngest being born after she had married and left the house, so she probably was not very close to them. As the oldest daughter, I imagine she was expected to take on a lot of responsibility for helping to run the household. I wonder how she felt about that? Was she a tomboy who would rather hang out with her brothers? Did she have a favorite doll? Did she enjoy gardening?  Did she like to ride horses?  Was she a born organizer? 

Jonathan Yates Barber

Sallie's life at Silverstone was probably a comfortable one.  Her father was a well-to-do slave owner with large land holdings. Her mother was politically well-connected, being the daughter of State Senator Daniel Kent and the niece of Governor Joseph Kent. Were there parties?  Did Sallie like to dance? Did she like music? Did Sallie have any interest in politics? 

Her older brother, Philip Daniel Barber (1833-1882) was a physician practicing in Calvert County. He was educated at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. He married Sarah Priscilla Allnutt in 1875 and had six children with her, although only one lived to adulthood. 

Her brother Jonathan Yates Kent Barber (1840-1893) was a farmer in Calvert County. He married Jane Garner in 1867 and had three children with her, one of whom lived to adulthood. 

Her brother, Thomas Kent Barber (1841-1924) was also a physician, practicing in Baltimore County. He graduated from the University of Maryland in 1865 and married Harriet Geneva (MNU) shortly after. They had two daughters. 

Her sister, Mary E. Barber (1845-1922), married Dr. John Sparrow Smith in 1884.  The couple was childless. 

Her sister, Margaretta Kent Barber (1850-1924) remained unmarried, living with her widowed sister Mary in Chesapeake Beach. 

Her youngest sister, Lydia Chaplen Billingsley Barber (1858-1936), married farmer John G. Mattox in 1895. 

Education had some value in the Barber family since two of the sons went to college.  What was Sallie's education like?  Could she read and write?  Did she like to read?  If so, what were her favorites? Did she ever wish she could go to college? Or would she have been shocked at the idea?

Sallie married William Boswell Scrivener, an Anne Arundel County farmer, in 1856 at her father's plantation when she was 21 years old, and William was 28. William had purchased Holly Hill, a well-known estate dating back to the 1600's, in anticipation of the marriage.  Sallie and William called the place Rose Valley and raised ten children there. Was Sallie a good cook?  Did she have a special recipe? 

Rose Valley/Holly Hill

Like the Barbers, William and Sallie attended All Saints Church in nearby Sunderland, Calvert County.  In 1867, their four oldest children were baptized at the family home with their Barber grandparents as sponsors. 

Sally and William rode out the Civil War at Rose Valley, although William never served in either army during the conflict. (The surgeon who examined Union draftees, being a Southern sympathizer, routinely excused men from service, including William and his brothers Samuel and James. Many of those who weren't excused from service were listed as "skedaddled South.") 

The 1860 Census shows William as the owner of 17 slaves ranging in age from six months to 50 years old. His real estate was valued at $25,500 and his personal estate at $11,000. Besides his wife and 2 children, William also had a farm manager and his family living with him in 1860. 

Anne Arundel County, like much of Southern Maryland, definitely had Confederate sympathies.  As soon as the southern states seceded, President Lincoln ordered federal troops into Maryland, and for most of the Civil War, Anne Arundel County was under military occupation.  (Lincoln, by the way, got exactly 3 votes from Anne Arundel County in the election of 1860, and I'm quite sure William was not one of them.) 

By 1870, the couple had seven children, and the Census values William's real estate at $10,000 and his personal estate at $3000, the loss in value undoubtedly due to the emancipation of his slaves. In an 1876 tax assessment, William's 460-acre property was valued at $9200, with the buildings valued at an additional $2000.  He was also taxed for $20 worth of silver, 6 horses, 21 cattle, 3 mules, 29 sheep, 24 hogs, and 1 carriage and buggy.  So, the family was still fairly well-off.

Both of Sallie's parents died in 1877 and were buried at All Saints Church, Sunderland. 

The 1880 census shows William and Sallie living with ten children at their farm, ranging in age from 3 to 22. Four of the children--Sallie, Leila, Kate and Fred--were shown as attending school. William was the trustee for a primary school in the neighborhood, and the children seemed to have gotten an education up to the 8th grade, judging by their later census records. That must have been a lively household. What kind of entertainments did the family have when they weren't busy with farm chores and homework?  

William Boswell Scrivener

Sallie was widowed in 1895 at the age of 60 when William Boswell Scrivener died after a fall from his horse. He was buried at All Saints Church in Sunderland, a few miles from his home in Friendship. How did Sallie cope? 

The inventory of William's estate indicates a modest lifestyle with simple furnishings. A coal stove and two wood stoves provided heat, and oil lamps provided light. A washing machine with a wringer was used for laundry. 

I wonder if Sallie had some special memento or family heirloom that she treasured. Were there any other family photographs is what I would really like to know and where did they go? Did that portrait of her father hang in the house? I have always wondered how it got passed down. 

In 1896, three of William's properties were put up for sale so that his estate could be distributed: 250 acres lying directly on Herring Bay, described as "the best farm in the state for club or sporting purposes," including two tenant houses and a granary; a 45-acre property, half of which was covered in timber; and his home farm consisting of 150 acres plus a large brick dwelling, stables and other outbuildings. 

The home farm at Rose Valley was purchased by the family and remained in the family until it was sold in 1937.

Sallie and William had ten children, five sons and five daughters. Like her parents, Sallie favored using family names (Wheeler, Kent, Barber, Boswell, Yates) for their children, connecting them to their heritage. Though I wonder if girl's names like Kate Estelle and Lillian Eliza were borrowed from some romantic novel.  I haven't seen those names in the family earlier.

Mary Wheeler Kent Scrivener (1857-1942) never married and lived with her mother and various of her siblings until her death.

William Boswell Scrivener Jr. (1858-1928) never married and worked on the family farm until his death. 

Sarah Jane Barber Scrivener (1862-1945) married George Bourne Gantt in 1897 and had two children with him: Sally and George. 

Leila Mary Scrivener (1864-1942) married Howe Somervell Allnutt in 1891 and had two sons with him: Howe Somervell Jr. and John James. 

Frank P. Scrivener Sr.

Frank Phillip Scrivener (1865-1936), my great-grandfather, worked as an accountant for the Gottshalk company in Baltimore. He married Louise Gwynn Scrivener in 1899 and had one son: Frank Phillip Scrivener Jr. Frank attended Glenwood Academy and seemed to be the only one of his siblings who went beyond an 8th-grade education. I speculate that his name, by the way, was also based on family--Francis Scrivener and Phillip Barber, his great-grandfathers. 

Kate Estelle Scrivener (1866-1918) married Harry Weems Wilkinson in 1905.  They had one child who died in infancy.

Lillian Eliza Scrivener (1869-1948) married Sgt. Robert Franklin Garner in 1900.  They had one daughter, Eleanor. 

Jonathan Y. Scrivener

Frederick William Scrivener (1870-1959) married Annie Elizabeth Vaughn in 1903.  They had one daughter, Camilla, who died in infancy. Fred managed the family farm. 

Jonathan Yates Kent Scrivener (1874-1957) married Jean Francis Mackintosh in 1902 and was later divorced, which I am sure was a scandal at the time.  This is the only one of my great-aunts/uncles that I ever knew personally, and I remember him visiting our family as an old man. (Although he was younger than I am now, so I should be more careful about who I am calling old!) He worked as a travelling salesman. 

William Kent Scrivener (1877-1941) known as Kent to distinguish him from William Jr. above, never married. He lived in Baltimore and worked as a travelling salesman. 

Sallie Barber Scrivener died in Baltimore at the home of her daughter Leila Allnutt 4 September 1911 at the age of 75.  Her death certificate indicates that she died from atherosclerosis, exacerbated by debility from a fall. She was buried besides her husband and several of her children at All Saints.

I so wish that Sallie had left a diary or letters or that her children had passed on more information about their mother's personality.  I would love to know how she felt about the events that shaped her life. She lived through a major war that upended her life. She raised ten children.  I am sure that she had feelings and insights about the events and people around her that I will never get to know, and that is a loss I feel keenly. 

This is one of the reasons that I try so hard to pass along family stories and whatever details I have about my ancestors so that they are not just known by the bare facts of their existence but have some personality in the imaginations of their descendants. 

In a previous blog, I have tried to give some context to Sallie and William Scrivener by showing the events that happened in their lifetimes. 

#52 Ancestors 2023 Week 44 Spirits: My saintly great grandfather Charlemagne

 My grandmother had hanging on her wall a genealogy chart that showed the family's descent from the Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne or Charles the Great. While I cannot personally vouch for the accuracy of this entire line, I have seen a fair amount of documentation about Charlemagne's descendants, and I think this is probably true. If so, that would make him my 39X-great grandfather. 

Now what most people don't know about Charlemagne is that in addition to being Emperor, warrior, etc. he was also declared a saint of the Catholic Church, or at least beatified, which is a step on the way to sainthood. So that makes me the descendant of an almost-saint!  Pretty cool, huh? Now, since he was declared a saint by one of the Catholic Church's sketchier popes, some people don't regard this as valid, but, hey, I'm going to go with it. 

Charles, born in 747, was the son of Pepin the Short, and was named for his grandfather, Charles the Hammer (really into those nicknames!)  As a young man, he joined his father in many battles that helped to create the Frankish empire, Germanic tribes who lived in the lower Rhine area at the edge of the Roman Empire. On his father's death in 768, he became the King of the Franks, at first ruling jointly with his brother Carloman (strained relationship there).  But at age 24, Charles became the sole ruler of the Franks.

Charlemagne (apparently even during his lifetime, he was referred to as Charles the Great) continued his father's policy of protection of the papacy and became its staunchest defender, removing the Lombards from power in Northern Italy and leading an incursion into Moorish Spain. (You can see how this would have endeared him to the popes.) He also campaigned against the Saxons, Christianizing them (on penalty of death).  Charlemagne's sword (La Joyeuse or The Joyful) attained near mythic status, and it is alleged to be the sword used in the coronation of French kings. (It is currently on display at the Louvre in Paris.)

Convert or Die!

Abul Abbas

Charlemagne has been called "the Father of Europe" as he united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Roman Empire and also pulled in places that had never been part of the Roman Empire. He established his capital at Aachen (now Aix-La-Chappelle) in western Germany. He even had contact with the Caliph of Baghdad, Harun al-Rashid, who gifted him with an elephant named Abul-Abbas. 

He reached the height of his power in 800 when he was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day in Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, after having rescued Leo from the Romans who were trying to rip out his eyes and tongue. That Holy Roman Emperor title was a somewhat controversial move that was fiercely resented by the Empress Irene of Constantinople who also coveted that title. Much warfare ensued.

Leo crowns the Holy Roman Emperor

Charlemagne died in 814 after contracting an infectious lung disease. He was buried in the Cathedral at Aachen. This was one of the laments on his death:

From the lands where the sun rises to western shores, people are crying and wailing ... the Franks, the Romans, all Christians, are stung with mourning and great worry ... the young and old, glorious nobles, all lament the loss of their Caesar ... the world laments the death of Charles ... O Christ, you who govern the heavenly host, grant a peaceful place to Charles in your kingdom. Alas for miserable me.

Charlemagne's Casket

Charlemagne married at least four times and had eighteen children with his ten wives/concubines. (I assume the popes were willing to overlook the concubine part in light of his protecting the papacy and all.) His longest marriage was to another future saint, Blessed Hildegarde of Alemania (my 39X-great grandmother). She died in 783 and his buried at Metz, where her tomb has become a place of pilgrimage.

Hildegarde and Charlemagne had nine children in their 12 years of marriage. Of his four sons who lived to adulthood, only the youngest, Louis the Pious, lived to succeed him.  Charlemagne’s son Pepin of Italy is my 38x-great grandfather. Charlemagne's Carolingian dynasty is the direct ancestor of many of the royal houses of Europe. In fact, by one account, practically everyone with Western European ancestry that goes back to the 9th century has a connection to Charlemagne. Talk about influence!

In addition to his military prowess, Charlemagne also reformed the economic system, introducing a new monetary standard and standardized ways of accounting for income and expenses. 

He was also a great lover of learning and education and ordered that his children and grandchildren be well educated. He greatly increased the number of monastic schools and book copying centers. (Remember that books were created by painstaking hand copying.) During the "Carolingian Renaissance," there was a great flowering of scholarship, literature, art, and architecture. The emperor often had books read to him during meals and created a royal library that included not only books on Christian faith but also works on history, music, art, and law. Additionally, he developed a standardized form of writing known as Carolingian miniscule that became the basis for modern European printed alphabets.

Carolingian Miniscule

As Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne also instituted reforms of the church including strengthening the church's power structure, improving clergy's skill and moral quality, standardizing liturgical practices, and rooting out paganism. 

One Catholic site refers to Charlemagne as the "King who fought off the Dark." "There is no denying that Charlemagne's rule was like a beacon shining out of the dark ages lighting the way to the great triumphs of the thirteenth century." OK.  Perhaps a little overblown. 

Charlemagne's legacy also lives on in the legends of King Arthur since their 12th-century author based them largely on the exploits of Charlemagne. 

So, about that sainthood thing.  Charlemagne was revered as a saint in the Holy Roman Empire even shortly after his death as a cult sprang up around him. The Apostolic See does not recognize his invalid canonization by Antipope Paschall III in 1165. (All of Paschall's ordinances were later annulled by the Third Lateran Council.) However, his beatification by Pope Benedict XIV in the 18th century has been acknowledged and is celebrated on January 28.  

Thus, it looks like I am descended from two Blesseds: Charlemagne and Hildegarde. Their descendants include many fascinating characters including Louis the Pious, Charles the Bald, Louis the Stammerer, Phillip the Amorous, Charles the Fat, (You just have to love those nicknames! Shuddering to think what nickname my descendants might give me.) William the Conqueror, Mary Queen of Scots, Queen Elizabeth II and a full-fledged saint, Louis IX of France.   

My connection (through Charlemagne's son Pepin of Italy) comes down to my 8X-great grandparents Howell Powell and Elizabeth Gorsuch who crossed the ocean from Great Britain to Virginia in the 1660's and later moved to Talbot County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. 

It will be quite a challenge to go back and fill in all those other generations back to Blessed Charlemagne, but it will be an interesting tour through the nobility of Europe. 

#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 50 Traditions: Gingerbread Houses

 One of the first things I bought when I found out I was going to be a grandmother was a plastic form for building "gingerbread" houses.  I had visions of decorating this model with my grandchildren and I knew I would never make it with real gingerbread.  For me, plastic was the way to go and it would be there for use at any holiday.  So we would not be limited to Christmas.  It could an Easter house, a Fourth of July house, whatever we wanted. 

Of course, I had to wait (rather impatiently) for a few years until the child was actually old enough to stand on a chair and manipulate the decorations. 

As it happened, we built more Thanksgiving houses than anything else, but that plastic house has seen a lot of decorations over the years. 

Our first venture was when my oldest grandchild was three.  I spread icing all over the frame and Henry decorated it with candy corn and other small goodies. A fair amount of icing and decorations got eaten in the process, but everyone seemed happy with the result, as Henry's proud smile attests.

The next year, I had the rare treat of having both grandchildren for a gingerbread decorating afternoon. (My second grandchild lived in Florida and I did not always see her for the holidays.)  Both Henry and Anna seemed to enjoy their artistic efforts and we progressed to using a combination of candies and foam stickers for decorations plus some marshmallow trees.

We did also venture into other holidays, like this Halloween House.

The next two Thanksgivings, Henry got to work solo and experimented with different styles of arranging decorations and some non-traditional color schemes. And he was very proud to see his work as the centerpiece of our large family gathering for the holidays. 

But by the next year, Henry's younger sister was old enough to join the fun and make her own mark on the Thanksgiving creation. Henry and Harper each got one side of the house to decorate, although Harper seemed more interested in how much icing she could scrape into her mouth. 

Henry started to develop an elaborate story line around his decorations that involved the turkey running around the house in order to escape his fate as dinner for the pilgrims. 

That year Henry also got to design a Fourth of July house. (that still involved a lot of sampling the icing.)

As they got older, the grandchildren took over more of the design, insisting on spreading the icing and creating original works of art like Henry's turkey below. 

During the pandemic, my sisters and I collaborated to create some holiday fun for our grandchildren by doing gingerbread house building in an open garage, using a variety of gingerbread house kits.  We could get together in small groups at different tables in a protected environment that was still outdoors.  We thought it was a pretty good compromise. 

And we even had a contest for the adults, so Grammie finally got to build a gingerbread house of her own.

Over the years, I have never regretted buying that plastic "gingerbread" house and have enjoyed the many hours of fun it gave me sharing time with my grandchildren.