#52 Ancestors 2024 Week 6 Earning a Living: Frank Scrivener Sr. Moving Away from the Farm

My Scrivener ancestors were farmers in Anne Arundel County MD for almost two hundred years, starting in the early 1700's.  My great-grandfather, Frank Phillip Scrivener Sr., broke that tradition by moving to Baltimore and following a career as an accountant.

Frank was the fifth of the ten children of William Boswell Scrivener and Sally Jane Kent Barber (about whom I have previously written), born at the family farm, Rose Valley, on January 4, 1865. The photo at the left, probably the oldest family photo that I have, shows Frank and his father about 1873.  I'm guessing Frank is about 7 or 8. 

Frank must have been a very bright child because his father decided to send him on for further education after he had completed the local grammar school. As far as I am aware, none of the other children received that benefit. There was no high school in Anne Arundel County at the time, so Frank attended Glenwood Institute in Howard County, near Ellicott City, founded in the 1860's by Lycurgus G. Mathews with the intention of preparing young men for a military academy or Johns Hopkins University.  

Frank's father may have seen an ad like this one that led him to choose Glenwood and pay the handsome sum of $192 a year for his son's education.  Frank graduated in 1881, receiving the gold medal for mathematics that year. 

His talent in math probably helped him land a job as a clerk in Baltimore.  The 1885 city directory shows Frank boarding at 42 W. Mulberry Street. In 1887, he was listed as a bookkeeper, still living on Mulberry Street. The photo at the left shows Frank at about the time he moved to Baltimore, a very handsome man, if I do say so myself. 

In 1895, Frank's father died after a fall from a horse. Frank and his brother Will oversaw the sale of much of their father's land and farm equipment. The Scrivener sons bought the home farm and their mother continued to live there until her death in 1911. The two youngest sons, Jonathan and Kent, joined Frank in Baltimore where they worked as salesmen. Their brothers William and Fred worked the farm back in Anne Arundel County. The sale of the farm in 1936 brought an end to the Scriveners' farming career. 

In the meantime, though, Frank became involved in a little side venture called the West End Theatre and Amusement Company, incorporated in 1894 with the goal of providing high-class entertainment to the citizens of Baltimore, as these articles indicate:

Sadly, the theatre venture was very short-lived.  By 1895, the outfit was bankrupt and had to sell off their property and furnishings.  I don't know how much my great-grandfather was actually involved in the theatre activities.  I suspect he was an investor only and seemed to have misjudged the viability of this venture. Nevertheless, I was totally surprised to discover this hidden aspect of my great-grandfather. 

At some point around this time, Frank met his future wife, Louise Gwynn, the daughter of Captain Andrew Jackson Gwynn and Marie Louise Keene.  Although the family was originally from Maryland, the Gwynns had moved to Spartanburg SC after the Civil War.  But they sent their daughter to Mt. St. Agnes in Baltimore for her education. Perhaps Frank and Louise met at the theatre?  

In any case, however they met, they were married at Louise's sister's home in Upper Marlboro in 1899 with their brother, Rev. Andrew Keene Gwynn, officiating.  Their only child, my grandfather, Frank Philip Scrivener Jr., was born in 1900. That's him on the right with his mother outside their home on Lafayette St. Notice the classic white marble steps. I have written more elsewhere about Baltimore as the Scriveners knew it and their experience with the Great Fire of 1904. 

Having married a devout Catholic, Frank converted from Anglican to Catholic, baptized in 1905 at St. Ann's Church in Baltimore.  

Except for his brief venture into the entertainment business, Frank Scrivener Sr. spent his entire career working as an accountant for the Joseph Gottschalk Company, a well-known importer and distiller of fine liquors, with its own distillery on Saratoga Street, specializing in Maryland rye. Frank worked there until his retirement in 1928. My parents remembered hearing that Grandfather Scrivener had lost money on some of his stocks in the Crash of 1929, and that he invested in a shoe-shine machine that had the unfortunate habit of sometimes catching a person's whole foot in the machine. Perhaps another instance of misjudging his investments? However, he didn't lose everything in the crash as his will still left property and bonds to his wife and son. 

Louise and Frank's son, Frank Jr., attended Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and joined the Navy upon his graduation in 1918.   The photo at the right shows Frank Sr. and Jr. about 1920 with their spiffy Model T. Frank Sr. Later favored Chryslers. Although Frank Sr. did not drive, he was very interested in cars and took care to see that the car was well maintained for his wife’s use.

Frank Jr. married in 1924 and had six children with his wife, Elizabeth Dent. The senior Scriveners moved to Upper Marlboro after Frank's retirement in order to be near Louise's sister, Effie Gwynn Bowie. The six Scrivener grandchildren were frequent visitors to their grandparents, often spending summers in Upper Marlboro and even attending school there. I'm guessing this was probably an attempt to help out with expenses during the Depression.  (Although, according to the family stories, these visits were not always willing ones as their grandmother was quite strict and demanding about their behavior and was not a very good cook!)  

On the other hand, they remembered their Grandfather Scrivener as a kind and gentle man who always had a treat for them--some candy, a nickel, a small toy.  Crippled with arthritis, he apparently spent a great deal of time in his rocker on the front porch. 

As a side note, one of the hidden benefits of these visits was that my Dad met my Mom in Upper Marlboro.  Their families both attended the local Catholic church--St. Mary's--and the Scrivener kids liked to hang out with the Summers kids.  Bonus: Mrs. Summers, my future grandmother, was a great cook, and the Scrivener kids got very good at wangling an invitation to dinner after church. Mom and Dad married at St. Mary's in 1947 as had both of their parents before them. 

Frank Scrivener Sr. died in Upper Marlboro in May 1939 of a heart attack at the age of 74.  In his funeral, held at St. Mary's, Frank was eulogized as "a constant edification to the children of the parish by his reverence when he was in church."  The priest noted that Frank walked very slowly, (He used a cane due to his arthritis.) but always had a cheery word for anyone who spoke to him and was patient and uncomplaining about his suffering. "We will miss his ready smile and twinkling eyes that never lost their brightness." (Great-Grandmother kept detailed notes about the funeral sermon, which I still have.)

He is buried in New Cathedral Cemetery in Baltimore along with his wife Louise Gwynn. 

Of the five sons of William and Sally Scrivener, only Frank had a son himself and kept that Scrivener line from dying out/daughtering out.  Fortunately, there are now dozens of Scrivener grandsons and great-grandsons so the name is safe for the foreseeable future.