#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 12 Popular: Elliot Estill Dent, Popular Ball Player

Elliot Estill Dent, my 2X great-uncle, was the eighth of ten children of John Marshall Dent and Ida Elizabeth Wright.  He was born in Oakley, St. Mary's County MD 8 December 1887.  According to the local St. Mary's Beacon, Elliott was very popular with his peers, loved parties and was often  responsible for putting together dances, outings and festivities for the young  people around Oakley. Like many of the men in the Dent family, he attended Charlotte Hall Military Academy, graduating in 1905.  While there, the 6'1" Eddie, as he was nicknamed, earned a reputation as a talented pitcher for the Charlotte Hall Sluggers. (That is Eddie in the middle of the back row with Charlotte Hall on the front of his shirt.)

By 1907, Eddie was playing for the Southern Railway team in the Capital City League and then moved on to the Walbrook Athletic Club in Baltimore, where he caught the eye of the Carolina League and made his professional debut with the Winston-Salem Twins in 1909. He pitched in 31 games, going 18-11 before his contract was bought by the Brooklyn Superbas (later Dodgers) on July 28. According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, in his first outing with the Superbas, the 21-year-old "failed to discover the weaknesses of the [Philadelphia] Quaker batters" and lost his first major league game 7-2.  Nevertheless, the paper opined,

"Dent is a tall chap, with plenty of strength and a delivery similar to that of George Bell, but he lacks the speed and control of Brooklyn's star twirler.  This may come with more experience, however, and the new recruit may in time become a great twirler."  

A couple of weeks later, however, the right-hander with the powerful curve ball was able to dazzle the arch-rival Giants with a 10 to 1 victory and as the Eagle put it "is now aces in this neck of the woods. "  He started five games in the Majors that year, beginning on August 31, and went 2-4 with a 4.29 ERA. 

In 1910 Dent started the season with the New Haven Prairie Hens of the Class B Connecticut State League.  He went 17-15 in 38 appearances that season, and began the 1911 season there as well.  He went 21-14 for the re-named Murlins before the Dodgers called him back up.  In five games for Brooklyn he went 2-1 with a 3.69 ERA.  The next season, he made only one appearance, on April 11, allowing four runs on four hits in one inning of work with one strikeout.  He was sent down during the season to the Newark Indians of the AA International League and never returned to the Majors. 

In 1913 Dent joined the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association and had his best season as a pitcher, going 14-4 in 28 appearances.  In 1914 he went 15-12 in 35 games.  He played briefly for the Venice/Vernon Tigers and the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League at the start of the 1915 season, but finished the year back in Atlanta. (with thanks to http://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Eddie_Dent for this analysis of his career)

Elliott enlisted with the Nineteenth Field Artillery in 1917 and served in France during WWI, promoted to Captain by the end of the war. The Atlanta community remembered him fondly as the local newspapers published several stories about him and his reports from the front.

After the war, he married Eleanor Semmes Freeman in St. Mary's County in 1920.  They had two sons: Elliott Jr. and Robert. The family moved to Birmingham AL in 1936, where Elliott pursued a career as the district manager for Equitable Life Insurance.  He was an active member of the community, serving in the Kiwanis and heading up fund drives for the Red Cross.

Elliott Estill Dent died in Birmingham AL in November 1974 at the age of 86. Just goes to show, you never know adventures might be hidden behind a seemingly quiet life as an insurance salesman.

#52 Ancestors Week 13 Nearly Forgotten: Harriette Weems Doud, Nearly Forgotten Shakespearian Actress

While following up on a collateral branch of the Weems family, not directly connected to me, I discovered a hidden treasure in the family tree, a nearly forgotten Shakespearean actress. Harriette Weems, a distant (4th) cousin of mine, was the daughter of Octavius Tennyson Weems and his first wife, Jane (Jennie) Hoffman. She was born in Charlottesville VA 13 October 1865, just as the Civil War was drawing to a close. Her father, a merchant, had served in the Confederate Army as a sergeant in the 26th Infantry Regiment of Virginia. Her mother died shortly after she was born and her father remarried in 1868. By 1880, the family had moved to New York City, where Tennyson Weems worked for the family business, the Weems Steamship Line.

Sarah Bernhardt

In 19th-century New York, as elsewhere, theater-going was a wildly popular entertainment.  Stars such as Sarah Bernhardt and Edwin Booth were idolized.  Although actors had a somewhat doubtful reputation in the early 19th-century, by mid-century, acting was considered a more socially respectable profession. Living in the heart of one of the great theater cities in the world, it is highly likely that Harriette attended performances and perhaps even saw Madam Sarah on one of her many United States tours.

In any case, Harriette decided to try her luck at acting and made her first stage appearance in 1889 with Creston Clarke, a nephew of the famous actor, Edwin Booth (and also of his infamous brother, John Wilkes Booth), who carried on the family's stage tradition. She earned praise even very early in her career:

Creston  Clarke

Of his [Creston Clarke's] support Miss Harriette Weems is decidedly his mainstay and a delightful little actress she is.  After each act last night Mr. Clarke and Miss Weems were emphatically called before the curtain as a reward for the fine work they did. (Norfolk Landmark.  10 October 1889)

Besides Clarke, Harriette appeared during her career with many of the most famous actors of her day: Louis James, Thomas W. Keene, and Walker Whiteside, taking on most of the female roles in the Shakespearian canon.

By 1891, she was part of a touring company with her husband, John Doud, a popular romantic leading man and himself part of a stage family that included his brother Oliver Doud and his uncle Oliver Doud Byron and Byron's wife Kate Crehan Byron.

By 1894, the company was referred to as the Harriette Weems Company and Harriette got the star billing as the company toured through Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas performing Othello, The Lady of the Lyons (a melodrama), The Cricket on the Hearth, and Katherine and Petruchio.  The life of a touring actress was hard, requiring great physical stamina.  Besides the grueling performance schedule, the actors had to endure hours of travel by stagecoach and river boat, as well as makeshift lodgings.

However, Harriette, "the fair daughter of the South," seemed to thrive on the acting life and achieved great popularity. The Baltimore Sun raved about her:

Walker Whiteside as Hamlet 1890

"Harriette Weems is one of the cleverest actresses the South has ever produced. Although young in years, she has held the highest positions and received the most favorable criticisms of the press throughout the country. She has been leading lady with Messrs. Thomas W. Keene, Louis James, Walker Whiteside and Creston Clarke, essaying all the leading Shakespearean roles. She is one of the very few actresses now before the public that can play a leading Shakespearean role one night and essay a part like Dot, in the 'Cricket on the Hearth' the next. Her versatility Is wonderful. So fresh and sweet and winsome a little woman is she, with her lithe, girlish form, sweet, expressive face, and melodious voice, she is certainly a treat to look upon." 

Harriette and John Doud divorced about 1899 and Harriette continued touring with Robert Downing's company. Later,  in the 1920's, she was part of a repertory company in White Plains NY.  After retiring from the stage, she continued her career as a teacher giving lectures and school performances under the auspices of the NY Board of Education and radio star, doing dramatic readings of Shakespeare and other classic drama on WNYC. On one occasion, she gave a spirited defense of her ancestor Parson Mason Loch Weems and the famous story of Washington and the cherry tree:

Remember the story of George Washington and the cherry tree! Well,' a direct descendant of the Parson Weems who wrote that little yarn,  Harriette Weems, spoke eloquently of Washington as man and President at WNYC last night. She launched a bitter attack against historians who denounce the narrative as fiction. "Whether it's true or not does not matter. Miss Weems said. "What does matter is that its influence is for the truth." (NY Daily News, 22 February 1928.)

Harriette Weems Doud died at St. Luke's Hospital in New York on January 5, 1937, after a brief illness.  Her ashes were buried at Maplewood Cemetery in her hometown of Charlottesville VA.

Harriette Weems

#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 11 Luck: Frank Scrivener's Lucky Break

My Dad, Frank Phillip Scrivener III, was a member of what is called "the greatest generation." Born in 1925, the oldest son of Frank Scrivener Jr. and Elizabeth Dent, he grew up in Baltimore.  He attended Newman Prep School in New Jersey (thanks to his grandmother) and Calvert Hall in Baltimore.  "Hank," as he was then nicknamed, was a gifted athlete, captaining the tennis team and also playing basketball, as his yearbook noted.  He had plans to enter college.

But, like so many of his peers, his college plans had to be set aside for military service in World War II.  He got in one year at Loyola College in Baltimore before enlisting in July 1943. It was only by a "lucky break" (literally) that he missed fighting in the infamous Battle of the Bulge.

After enlistment, Dad was sent to Ft. Hood TX for basic training and then to Baylor University for advanced training in engineering. He was attached to the 99th Infantry Division, 34th Signal Company.

His division was set to deploy in late 1944, headed for England and later France and Belgium.  The night before shipping out, Frank decided to get in one more round of hoops before leaving.  During the game, he fell and broke his ankle and thus was unable to deploy with the rest of the men.  So, he missed the largest and bloodiest battle of WWII. The 99th Division, outnumbered by the Germans about 5 to 1, lost about 20 percent of its strength there due to death and injury.

Of course, my mother (his girlfriend at the time) did not know that Frank was in a stateside hospital.   He wrote to her, but could not reveal his location, so naturally, she was worried when she saw the news about the devastating battles in Europe.

Eventually, Dad was sent to Europe in February 1945.  He served in Italy as a cryptologic technician, encoding and decoding messages.    (And playing a little tennis in his off hours.)  He was honorably discharged at Ft. Meade MD in March 1946 as a Technician fifth grade.

After leaving the service, Dad married his sweetheart, Anne Summers, and went back to Loyola on the GI Bill graduating in 1949.  In his spare time, he captained the tennis team and showed off his beautiful baby girl--me--to his fellow Greyhounds.  (Back row, 2nd from the right in the picture below.)  So, I guess I would have to say that Dad's lucky break was also mine, because without it, there's a good chance I wouldn't be here.

My mother attributes Dad's lucky break to the St. Christopher medal which he carried with him throughout his war service. Whether it was St. Christopher or some other heavenly guardian, or my mother's prayers, someone was certainly looking out for Dad.

#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 10 Strong Woman: Louise Gwynn Scrivener Suffragette

In this 100th anniversary of women's suffrage, it seems a good time to celebrate the efforts of my great-grandmother, Louise Carmelite Keene Gwynn, as an advocate for women.  Louise, called "Lulie" or "Lulu" as a young woman, was born in Brooklyn NY 27 February 1872, the daughter of Captain Andrew Jackson Gwynn, a Confederate veteran, and Marie Louise Keene, both native Marylanders.  Her grandfather, Benjamin Gaither Keene, served as member of the Maryland House of  Delegates.

Although she was born in Brooklyn, Lulie grew up in Spartanburg SC where her parents ultimately settled after the Civil War, along with her five brothers and sisters. The family was deeply Catholic.

Mount St. Agnes

Lulie, along with her older sister Effie Gwynn,  attended Mount St. Agnes College in Baltimore (founded in 1890 by the Sisters of Mercy.) Following her graduation, Lulie became a fierce advocate of Catholic education and women's education.  She served as president of the Mount Saint Agnes Alumnae in the early 1900's.  (The 1901 Reunion program notes that she gave a vocal solo and a toast to "Woman's Place in the World of Song." )

She later (1915) founded the Maryland chapter of the International Federation of Catholic Alumnae and was its first governor. In 1919, she was awarded a medal for leading her chapter in the Liberty Loan campaign during WWI.  At the same meeting, she urged her members to work in support of the vote for women:

 "Let us then, as women of Maryland, face the problems of the future squarely....Let us prepare ourselves to take up the right of suffrage, wisely using it to promote legislation for the good of humanity. " (Baltimore Sun, 22 June 1919)

Great-grandmother took up the challenge soon after women received the right to vote.  She became one of the first women in Maryland to run for elective office, campaigning for the Democratic State Central Committee, the governing body of Maryland's Democratic Party.

Mrs. B.J. Byrne, Mrs. Samuel K. Thomas, and Louise Gwynn Scrivener

In July 1921, the Democratic Women's Club of Baltimore nominated 12 women to run for the Committee, marking the first time that a political organization of women had "definitely taken action toward making a fight to get women into office" (Baltimore Sun, 30 July 1921).  On 11 August 1921, Louise was one of three women from the Second Legislative District who filed for candidacy with the supervisor of elections.


The Women's Club put a tremendous effort into the election, sending out more than 9000 mailers and knocking on doors of voters to encourage participation.  In addition, Louise was in charge of the "automobile brigade" to round up voters and bring them to the polls. Of the three women, two of them (Louise and Mrs. Byrne) won election in September's primary.  (This being a party office, candidates only had to run in the Democratic primary.)

When election day came in November, Louise was again working hard to get women voters to the polls, running the "automobile brigade" that would ferry women voters to and from the polls.  Their aim was to get every last registered woman to vote.

I never knew my great-grandmother; she died before I was born.  But judging from the copies that I have of various speeches she made and the comments of my parents and uncles and aunts who did know her, she was a force to be reckoned with.  I have no doubt that if Louise Gwynn Scrivener told someone to get in the car and go vote, that person got in the car and voted.

She was fierce in defending her opinions and worked tirelessly on many civic projects in Baltimore and throughout the state.  She served on a number of Gubernatorial Commissions such as the Commission for the reorganization of State Departments (1922), the Commission for the Bicentennial of George Washington's Birthday (1924) and the Maryland Tercentenary Commission (1929).

As a Regent of the DAR, founder of the Pilgrims of St. Mary's, and member of the Colonial Dames, Daughters of the Confederacy and other hereditary societies, Louise was devoted to local and family history.  I was lucky enough to inherit her voluminous scrapbook as well as the bulk of her notes and that led me to a lifelong interest in genealogy and Maryland history.

#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 9 Disaster: The Scriveners and the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904

Frank Philip Scrivener and Louise Carmelite Gwynn (my great-grandparents) were married in Prince George's County MD in 1899 and then took up residence in Baltimore at 105 E. Lafayette Avenue.  Frank worked as a bookkeeper for the Gottschalk Company.  Their only child, Frank Philip Jr. was born in Baltimore in August 1900.

When the Great Baltimore Fire started on Sunday morning, February 7, 1904, Frank was a sturdy 4-year-old and like most of the city, the
Scriveners were probably looking forward to a quiet afternoon at home.  The fire started at the Hurst Building, located at Hopkins Place and Liberty Street, fortunately not in the area where the Scriveners lived.

At first, the fire fighters at Engine Company 15 thought it was a small fire in the basement of the building that could be fairly easily contained. But the fire rolled across the ceiling to the elevator shaft, setting off an explosion that blew off the roof and shot embers through the broken windows of nearby buildings. By noon, the fire chief had summoned all of Baltimore's Fire Companies and sent out a call for help from surrounding areas.  The wind blew the fire toward the Court House and City Hall, destroying everything in its path.

By 1:30, fire companies from Washington had arrived, only to discover that their hose couplings did not fit Baltimore's fire hydrants causing problems in getting sufficient water to battle the blaze. This issue was repeated with many other responding companies and was one of the factors that led to a standardization of fire equipment.

Meanwhile, the smoke and noise of the fire engines attracted a horrified crowd watching the destruction of dozens of blocks of the city. Militia had to be called in to keep the crowds under control. Spectators crowded the roof of the newly constructed Belvedere Hotel, 11 blocks north of the fire. I'm sure my great-grandparents could hear and see the chaos, but with a young child, they probably did not rush out to witness it.  In fact, they were likely making plans on how to escape should the fire come their way.  The electric street cars were no longer running, but the B&O railroad station was outside the fire zone and brought in carloads of fire fighters, reporters, and business men with buildings in Baltimore, as well as the simply curious spectators.

As night fell in Baltimore, the glow from the fire could be seen up to a hundred miles from the city. The streets were clogged with wheel barrows and handcarts as residents struggled to get at least some of their possessions out of the path of the fire. The financial district and the harbor area were pretty much decimated although City Hall was miraculously spared. I'm sure that the Scriveners, devout Catholics that they were, joined thousands of others in heartfelt prayers for their safety and the salvation of the city.  As the fire threatened the Little Italy section of Baltimore, the parishioners of St. Leo's gathered on the east bank of Jones Falls and prayed to St. Anthony to deliver them.  They vowed that if their homes and beloved church were spared, they would hold a yearly festival in his honor.  The fire shifted and the festival is still held every year in thanksgiving.

The Baltimore Sun (whose building was destroyed in the fire and was forced to print its papers out of town and ship them in by train)  reported that the fire was officially contained by 5 PM on Monday, February 8. More than 1500 buildings were completely leveled and another 1000 severely damaged, about a $100 million loss to the city. Fortunately very few deaths were recorded from the fire.

Within a few years, Baltimore had rebuilt, widened the streets, and celebrated in 1906 with a grand parade of 1400 fire fighters proudly marching past newly constructed buildings. I'm sure that the Scriveners were there among the cheering crowds.

Although my grandfather was very young during the Great Fire, it must have made an impression on him.  As an adult, he helped to found the first volunteer fire department in St. Mary's County in Leonardtown in 1928, one of ten charter members of the company. I'm sure he was inspired by the memories of the Great Fire of Baltimore.

[Digital Maryland has a very nice interactive map that shows the spread of the fire.
https://www.digitalmaryland.org/fire/ ]

#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 7 Favorite Discovery: Great Uncle Gib Wright

I knew about my 3X great-grandfather, William Felix Wright, a lawyer and judge from Atlanta, quite some time ago.  Although he was born in Georgia and lived there his entire life, he happened to die while on a visit to his daughter, Ida Elizabeth Dent, in Maryland in 1887, and thus he turned up fairly early in my family history research.  After his death, his wife Elizabeth Caroline Dent, stayed in Maryland with her daughter and died there in 1914.

However, I never had much luck tracing the Wright line and further back than William.  I suspected that he might be the son of 60-year-old Littleberry Wright, who showed up in the 1860 Census of Newnan GA living next door to William and his family, but I had no evidence for this other than proximity.

Until I found a serendipitous reference to William one day when I was browsing through newspapers.com.  The Atlanta Constitution did a little article in 1898 about "kinsmen on the Georgia bench,"  listing judges who had fathers, sons, or brothers also serving in the judiciary.  It turned out that William had a brother who was also a judge: Gilbert J. Wright.  Who knew?  Certainly not me.  This Gilbert had never shown up in my research.

And fortunately for me, Gilbert was quite well-known in Georgia, far better known than his brother William.  Gilbert Jefferson Wright, or Gib, as he was known, was famous for his exploits as a general in the Confederate Army.  There were numerous articles about Gib and one of them named his parents, Littleberry Wright and Henrietta Austin.  Bingo. My 4X-great-grandparents.  A decades-long brick wall leaped over.

And bonus, Gib was also an interesting character in his own right.

Born in Gwinnett County GA 18 February 1825, about a year after William, Gib grew to a towering height of 6' 4". According to his biography in Men of Mark in Georgia, in his youth, he fell into bad habits and during one of his drinking bouts, was so unfortunate as to kill one of his comrades.  This led to a notable trial and his ultimate acquittal of the charge.  Gib was one of the first to volunteer for the war with Mexico in 1846, where he sustained a wound that gave him a stiff neck and a slightly peculiar stance for the rest of his life.

Returning to Georgia after the war, he studied law, set up practice in Albany GA, and in 1850, married Dorothy Chandler, the daughter of Thomas Henry Chandler and Mary Belle Jackson. They had no children.

At the outbreak of the war between the states, Gib organized the Albany Hussars, part of Cobb's Legion.  He participated in more than 100 engagements during the war and ultimately rose to the rank of Brigadier General. There are many accounts of his eccentricities, such as this story about his actions at Gettysburg:

On entering a small town, a panic-stricken courier rushed up to him saying, "General, the Yankees are coming down this road! "  To which Gib replied: "Tell 'em I'm travelling this road myself and if they don't get out of the way, it will be hell to pay." In a few minutes, he met the Federals, charged them instantly, and despite the fact that he was outnumbered, he routed them and captured a great many Union prisoners. (The Anderson Intelligencer, Anderson Court House SC, 14 February 1900.)

After the war, Wright returned to Georgia and the practice of law, was several times elected mayor of Albany and eventually appointed to the bench in 1875.

As a judge, he continued to forge a unique path, as this story illustrates:

"The redoubtable Col. Gilbert J. Wright, mayor of Albany, and judge of the Circuit Court, 1875-80. "Old Gib," as he was known to the cavalrymen of the Army of Northern Virginia, was a man of undisputed courage, successor of Gen. P. M. B. Young as colonel of Cobb's Legion. Once when he was presiding on the bench, two men, a white man and a Negro, were tried on the same day, for the same offence, by the same jury. The jury found the white man innocent: later that day they declared the Negro guilty. Said Judge Wright: "Stand up, Moses. You have been convicted of being a nigger. I put the lightest fine on you the law permits, one dollar, and I pay it myself." (Atlanta Constitution, 25 April 1962.)

Gilbert Jefferson Wright died in Monroe County GA 3 June 1895 and is buried in the Forsyth City Cemetery.

So, the discovery of my 3X-great-uncle, Gilbert Jefferson Wright, not only led me back another generation in my family history, but also uncovered a genuinely interesting branch of the family tree.

#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 6 Same Name: The Four Frank Philip Scriveners

For almost 150 years, there has been a Frank Philip Scrivener in Maryland.

Frank I 1896

Frank Philip Scrivener I was the son of William Boswell Scrivener and Sarah Jane Kent Barber.  He was born in 1864 at the family home, Rose Valley, (AKA Holly Hill) near Friendship in Anne Arundel County MD.  I don't know for certain how the Scriveners decided on that name, but if I had to guess, I'd say he was named for his great-grandfathers--Francis Scrivener and Luke Philip Barber (although as far as I know, no one ever referred to him as Francis; it was always Frank).

Since Anne Arundel County had no public high school until 1896, Frank attended Glenwood Academy in Howard County after he had completed the local public schools.  He went on to work as an accountant in Baltimore for the George H. Foster Company and then as a bookkeeper for the Joseph Gottschalk Company until his retirement in 1928.

In 1899, Frank married Louise Carmelite Gwynn, the daughter of Andrew Jackson Gwynn and Marie Louise Keene.  Louise and Frank made their home on Lafayette Avenue in Baltimore until Frank's retirement when they moved to Prince George's County, where Louise's sister, Effie Gwynn Bowie, also lived.  Frank's grandchildren remember him as a quiet gray-haired man who walked with a cane due to his arthritis.  He would often spend the afternoon rocking on the front porch of his home.  He delighted in giving the children small treats when they came to visit.

After a number of years as a semi-invalid, Frank Scrivener died in Upper Marlboro in May 1839 at the age of 78.




At his funeral, the pastor of St. Mary's Church eulogized him as "a constant edification to the children of the parish by his reverence.... He was always ready with a cheery word to anyone who spoke to him and generous supporter of everything that was for the good of his church.  … We will miss his ready smile and twinkling eyes that never lost their sparkle. "

Frank and Louise had one child: Frank Philip Scrivener Jr (my grandfather) in August 1900.

  Frank Jr. grew up in Baltimore and attended Baltimore Polytechnic High School. At 5'11" and 170 pounds, he enlisted in the Navy at the start of WWI.  He served at the Great Lakes Naval Air Station until 1922, where he played football in addition to his military duties.  According to family legend, he even played once against the Notre Dame football squad (before the Four Horsemen became famous).

After leaving the Navy, he returned to Baltimore where he began a 46-year career with the Maryland State Roads Commission, rising to the position of Chief Engineer for Maintenance and Operations in 1964.  Although he never earned a college degree, he continued his education through adult programs at Loyola College, became a registered professional engineer and served as president of the Maryland Engineers Association.

Frank and Lib 1924

Travelling around the state to district offices of the State Roads Commission, Frank met a young school teacher in Prince George's County whom he started courting. In 1924, Frank Jr. married Elizabeth (Lib) Dent, the daughter of John Marshall Dent and Mary Peterson Turner of St. Mary's County MD. Frank and Lib had five sons and a daughter, the oldest son  (my father, born in 1925) carrying on the namesake tradition as Frank Philip Scrivener III.

The Scriveners lived in St. Mary's County until the early 30's when they purchased a home in Baltimore.  Fortunately, Frank's state job kept them from some of the dire financial consequences of the Great Depression, especially as the boys grew older and could take on odd jobs like making deliveries after school.

Frank III 1929

My grandfather would always treat his grandchildren to ice cream when they came to visit, and he was a beloved customer of the local shop.  That love of ice cream continues to this day as a Scrivener tradition.

Frank Philip Scrivener Jr. died in Baltimore in 1980 at the age of 80, leaving a family that included 25 grandchildren.


Thanks to the generosity of his grandmother,  Frank III attended Newman Preparatory School in New Jersey, where the 12-year-old was one of the horrified witnesses to the spectacular crash of the Hindenburg in 1937.  At Newman, Frank learned to play tennis, a lifelong avocation that filled his home with trophies recognizing his talent at the sport. He graduated from Calvert Hall High School in Baltimore in 1943, where he captained the tennis team among other activities. Immediately after graduation, he joined the Army and served in Italy during WWII (where he also managed to play tennis.)

Frank and Anne 

Returning to Maryland after the war, in 1947 he married Anne Summers, the oldest daughter of Paul Summers and Evalina Sasscer, whom he had met during his many visits to his Scrivener grandparents in Upper Marlboro.  They were married at the same church where both of their parents had married: St. Mary's in Upper Marlboro.

Anne and Frank lived in Baltimore while Frank continued his education at Loyola College under the GI Bill. (And yes, was captain of the tennis team.)  Their first child (me) was born in 1948.  Their first son, Frank Philip Scrivener IV, was born in Baltimore in 1957.

Frank III worked for E. Stewart Mitchell Asphalt for several years before moving to Anne Arundel County in 1954, where he helped to found Reliable Asphalt.  He served as Vice-President of Reliable until his retirement in 1990.  He was president of the Maryland Asphalt Association and a member of the Board of the National Asphalt Pavement Association. He continued to play tennis and was nationally ranked as a senior.

Frank Philip Scrivener III died at Washington Hospital Center in 1990, only a few months after his retirement.

Frank (Phil) IV

Frank Philip Scrivener IV (my brother), who goes by Phil rather than Frank, attended Mt. St. Joseph High School in Baltimore and Towson University.  He has run his own landscaping and construction business and recently retired from the Department of Public Works in Annapolis.  He does not have children, so, so far there is no Frank Philip Scrivener V.

I have not given up hope, though.  I have 30 nieces and nephews and more than 40 great-nieces and nephews.  Surely one of them will decide to continue the long tradition and name a son Frank Philip Scrivener V.