MYERSVILLE-WOLFSVILLE AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY - Myersville-Wolfsville Area Historical Society Research Blog

Be There Soon

1/7/2021

A postcard to Mrs. D. Edgar Bittle (Floy Miller Biser Bittle) of Myersville, mailed from Frederick on 28 December, 1925. Owned by Ann Longmore-Etheridge.

"Will be out Wednesday afternoon, either on the 1:50 or 3:50 [trolley], am not sure which one. Hope you have had a nice Christmas. Tell the kids, 'Hello'. Will see you later. Lovingly, Madelene."

The Bittles lived at 401 Main Street, Myersville. The family was headed by David Edgar Bittle (1889-1952), son of Myersville merchant and banker George Waters Bittle and his wife Mary Elizabeth Routzahn Bittle. Bittle married Floy Miller Biser Bittle (1888-1964), who was the daughter of Charles Calvin Biser and Carrie May Miller Biser of Middletown. The "kids" mentioned in the postcard were Hilda Mae Bittle Hauver and Kyle Waters Bittle, the couple's children.

In 1925, the Bittle home was new and well-appointed. It was apparently built after fire damage to the previous house on the site in January 1919, when buildings and homes in the immediate area caught light in a substantial conflagration.

Many members of the Bittle clan are buried in St. Paul's Lutheran Church Cemetery, Main Street, Myersville, in a large and striking plot.

Photo courtesy Find A Grave.

A Postcard to Artist Olga

12/16/2020

By Ann Longmore-Etheridge

This postcard of adorable dogs making a spectacular mess was sent to Olga Stottlemyer of Wolfsville, posted on 15 July, 1907. It was from her cousin Sadie, who mailed it in in Myersville, and reads: "Dear Cousin, Found all well at home, but I have a bad cold, could barely speak above a whisper since Wed. -?-, Tom Brown is not any better, seems to be getting weaker. Lovingly, Sadie. Mother thinks Knight Errant is fine. Have not read the news yet."

Olga Delvita Stottlemyer (pictured second from left, below), born on 15 February, 1880, in Wolfsville, was the daughter of farmer Henry F. C. Stottlemyer (1842-1927), son of Daniel James and Joanna Recher Stottlemyer, and Martha Ellen Brown (1847-1930), daughter of William B. and Elizabeth Fox Brown of Foxville. The Stottlemyers' farmhouse, to which this postcard was delivered, still stands at 12719 Stottlemyer Road, Wolfsville (pictured below in about 1992).

Olga took a degree in art at Hood College, Frederick. On the 1910 Census, she lived with her parents and sister. She stated her occupation as a landscape painter. In 1926, Olga, who was living with her brother Worth Brown Stottlemyer, was listed in the Waynesboro, Pennsylvania city directory as an artist. Art was extrememly important to both Olga and her brother Worth, a real estate agent, who bequeathed a collection that included works by Rembrandt, James Whistler, Thomas Moran, and many members of the Hudson River School to his son Quayton, who, in turn, gifted it to the Juiniata College of Art in Huntington, Pennsylvania. For a time, all of his collection resided in the farmhouse in Wolfsville.

Knowing that Olga was an artist, it is likely that Sadie chose a postcard featuring a painting, which is titled "The Art Lesson," by an unknown artist. Additionally, Sadie mentions "Knight Errant" in the message. This may refer to The Queen's Knight Errant: A Story of the Days of Sirs Walter Ralegh, a popular fiction novel by Beatrice Marshall that was published in the United States by E. P. Dutton in 1905.

In January, 1910, Olga and her sister Irma were both severely injured when their hysterical horse "ran off, overturned the buggy and threw the young ladies out," reported the Baltimore Sun. "Miss Olga sustained a broken leg and was made unconscious. She was carried to the office of Dr. M. D. Kefauver, who gave surgical aid." In 1927, the Frederick News of 11 July noted that she had sustained another critical injury from a fall whilst wallpapering.

On the 1930 Census, Olga was still with her mother and her brother Claude at the Wolfsville farm, and by 1940, she lived alone with Claude after her mother's passing. Olga died, never having married, at Valley View Nursing Home in Middletown in March 1964 and was buried in Green Hill Cemetery, Waynesboro.

The identity of cousin Sadie and Tom Brown remains a mystery for the moment, although Brown was almost certainly a cousin on Olga's mother's side of the family. If you can shed any light on these two people, please let us know.

Photo courtesy G. K. Brown.

According to a blog post by Juniata College, "From 1952 until 1985, the large trove of artworks [collected by Worth Stottlemyer] were stored in a rural farmhouse in Wolfsville, Md., where pieces were hung throughout the house and stored in trunks, drawers and other areas."

"Moonlit Harbor Watercolor," by Olga Stottlemyer, was sold at a fine art auction on 1 January, 2012.

October 21st, 2020

10/21/2020

Mailing Miss Daisy

This postcard was sent to Daisy S. R. Gladhill on 26 October, 1907, from Poolsville. There is no message and the sender is unknown. Of Daisy herself, she was born in 1882 to Daniel and Magdalena Kinna Gladhill of near Myersville. She married McClure Hamilton Haupt before 1914 when she gave birth to his daughter, Mary Elizabeth Haupt.

Daisy's great-nephew J. C. Gladhill recalls, "My Great Aunt Daisy was a real character and we were great buddies at the end of her life. She was my grandfather’s sister, born in Harmony. She was a teacher and was married to a teacher, Professor McClure Haupt. They kept their marriage secret for a long time because married women could not be teachers.

"When she became pregnant she had to stop teaching. For many years she became a well known antiques dealer. Carlotta Hays used to say she got some of her finest things from Aunt Daisy. Aunt Daisy passed her knowledge on to Carlotta and Carlotta shared her knowledge with me. Aunt Daisy started to suffer with arthritis in her 80s. Her doctor told her to take up bowling so on her 100th birthday she was on the Washington, D.C., news program bowling. I still have a box of her trophies in the attic. In her 80s, she also took a trip on Pan Am Airlines around the world. I have her certificate. I wasn’t very impressed about that feat when she told me but now that I’m this age and realize it takes me three days to recover just flying to Europe, I have wonderment about her journey. She was also an avid gardener and continued that into her 90s.

"One of her dearest friends in her later years was Nan Rehnquist, wife of the Chief Justice. Aunt Daisy Died when she was 101. She gave me the daguerreotype of her father, Daniel (1819-1888), that he had given to her and she carried it her whole life. She told me the story about her crawling into their Fessler Clock, it fell over and the glass shattered, she was crying when her father lifted her up and said, 'Don’t cry Daisy the clock can be fixed.'

"I still have collections that she gave to me including her dolls bed made by her father for her and lots of fond memories."

George and Vallie Eldridge of Myersville

5/22/2020

George Clement Eldridge (1866-1931), of Myersville, and Vallie G. Landis (1872-1954), of Beaver Creek, Washington County, Maryland, were married at the bride's home in Washington County, Maryland, on November 02, 1892. Witnesses were John H. Eldridge (brother of the groom) and Willia Landis (sister of the bride). The minister was Minister-Walter S. Hoye.

George was a well known retired farmer of Myersville, who, according to his obituary, "died at his home Wednesday morning at 4 o'clock after a long illness of complications, aged 65 years, three months, 27 days. He was a son of the late Andrew Cole and Caroline Harp Eldridge and has been a life-long resident of Jackson district. He is survived by his widow Vallie Landis Eldridge; one daughter, Miss Rhoda Caroline Eldridge; and three sons, George Sterling Eldridge and Reno Landis Eldridge, Myersville; Dr. Arthur Clement Eldridge, Sparrows Point. Funeral Friday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock from the late home, with services conducted by Rev. Berry Plummer, Hagerstown. Interment Mount Zion United Methodist Church Cemetery, Myersville, Frederick County, Maryland, USA, Bittle Bros., funeral directors. Source: Frederick Post, Thursday, September 17, 1931.

Photo and information courtesy Julie Eldridge Carbaugh.

Carlotta Hays: An Ellerton Girl Chronicles Life During World War I and the 1918 Flu Pandemic

4/8/2020

Carlotta Hays in in the family garden on October 14, 1918. In her Diary, Carlotta noted that this was taken shortly before her father arrived home with Spanish Flu. Photo courtesy Nancy Hendricks.

by Judy Zeck

A version of this article first appeared in the Middletown Valley Citizen.

There are some years in history with more than their share of momentous events. In 1918, nations around the globe were in the midst what was then called the "war to end all wars." At the same time, a deadly pandemic was sweeping the world. The two fed off each other, with the movement of troops contributing to the rapid spread of the disease. The pandemic lasted one deadly year from January 1918 to January 1919. Scientists still study the virus to understand why it was so contagious and so often fatal. It reportedly infected 600 million people worldwide, from remote Pacific islands to deepest arctic regions, killing an estimated 50 million.

The Middletown Valley was not immune from the impact of the war, and it was certainly not immune from the influenza pandemic. The local effects of these two momentous events can be traced through the diary of a 14-year-old girl named Carlotta A. Hays.

Kellsie A. Gaver of Ellerton: The Legacy of a Middletown Valley Craft

1/23/2020

The workshop of Kellsie Alvey Gaver on Bittle Road near Ellerton.

By Jody Brumage, Historian and Curator of South Mountain Heritage Society

Until mass-produced furniture became widely available and popular in the late-nineteenth century, many families in the Middletown Valley furnished their homes with chairs, tables, beds, cupboards, and other pieces that they either constructed themselves or commissioned through their local cabinetmaker. The trade of cabinetmaking came to the colonies with European settlers in the seventeenth century. Possessing the skills of joining, carving, and turning among others, cabinetmakers built furniture to the specifications of their customers. Throughout the nineteenth century, cabinetmakers were as common to small towns as blacksmiths, millers, and storekeepers, but only the names of a few have stood the test of time and maintain recognition today among those who collect and preserve furniture made in the Middletown Valley. Many of these cabinetmakers lived and worked in the upper valley around the villages of Myersville and Wolfsville.

Left: Mary Ethel Virginia Gaver Morningstar, eldest sister of Kellsie Gaver, sitting in a caned-back rocking chair made by her younger brother. (Image used with permission of Lisa Heatherly Montgomery)

James Wesley Morgan established a furniture factory northwest of Wolfsville in Brandenburg Hollow in 1883 where he built chairs, tables, and cabinets. The site of his establishment is now the Wolfsville Ruritan Club. Calvin Tressler Kinna Gladhill and his wife, Lola Wiles Gladhill of Harmony, established the valley’s premier furniture store in 1915 in Middletown, employing local cabinetmakers in addition to carrying fine furniture imported from catalog companies. Beginning in the 1850s, the Stottlemyers of Wolfsville, perhaps the most well-known of valley cabinetmakers, produced furniture which has come to define the Middletown Valley style. The work of Frederick Stottlemyer and his son, Christopher Columbus Stottlemyer remains highly sought-after nearly a century after their business ceased operation in 1921.

One of the last families engaged in this traditional cabinetmaking trade in the upper valley were the Gavers of Ellerton. Gaver-made furniture is rare given the short period of time in which it was produced. From the early-1930s until 1942, Kellsie Gaver produced cupboards, chairs, bedsteads, and other furniture in his workshop located on his parent’s farm on Bittle Road in Ellerton along Catoctin Creek.

A sewing rocker, made by Kellsie Alvey Gaver. (Owned by Jody Brumage)

Sarah Hoover Weddle: Lost to a “Criminal Operation”

1/9/2020

Dayton (Ohio) Herald, 25 February, 1903: “Mrs. Amy Snyder, 52, the wife of Aaron Snyder, an expressman, of 223 South Montgomery Street, was arrested Tuesday afternoon by Sergeant Fair and assistants, on suspicion of having performed a criminal operation on Miss May Smith, 19, of Xenia, which resulted in her death.”

Louisville (Kentucky) Courier-Journal, 26 March, 1903: “Miss Stella H. Stork, a pretty young woman whose home was at Huntingburg, Ind. … died at the private hospital of Dr. Sarah Murphy, 1018 West Chesnut Street, Tuesday afternoon. While peritonitis was the direct cause of death, this was brought on by a criminal operation….. George Lemp, a Southern Railway conductor, who came to Louisville with the girl last week, was arrested … but denied he had any knowledge of the girl’s condition.”

Scranton (Pennsylvania) Tribune, 27 March, 1903: “The sudden death of Mrs. Martha E. Rosengrant, widow of the late William Rosengrant, was the occasion of an inquest by Coroner Tibbins…. Mrs. Rosengrant was found dead in her bed at her home on Foundry Street on Wednesday morning…. The verdict of the jury was that Martha Rosengrant came to her death from a criminal operation performed upon her by someone to the jury unknown.”

Frederick (Maryland) News, 30 April, 1903: “The people of Myersville and vicinity are excited by the discovery of what appears to be evidence that the death of Mrs. Sarah E. Weddle, which occurred April 14, was due to a criminal operation. Mrs. Weddle was sick for about two weeks before her death.”

When she died during the quickening Spring of 1903, widow Sarah Weddle left five young children as orphans. The lingering evidence shows she was one of the uncounted thousands of Victorian and Edwardian women who, when they fell pregnant, turned to “female pills”—herbal abortifacients advertised openly albeit with coded language—or to “criminal operations,” as illegal abortions were termed in the press.

This article continues at Your Dying Charlotte.

When the Apple Falls Far From the Tree: Part Three

9/2/2019

During the months before the jury trial of George H. Koogle, merchant George Waters Biddle fully recovered. According to the Baltimore Sun, the gunshot wound to his thigh had nearly proven fatal but the newspaper did not elaborate whether it was from the onset of sepsis or another cause.

Perhaps tellingly, further robberies in Myersville were not reported by the press in the last quarter of that year. This did not mean the little town saw no excitement. On Election Day, 8 November, as President Teddy Roosevelt was reelected, “Some dynamite was exploded [in Myersville] and the shock shattered glass in the Flook, Gaver, Leatherman Bank and in the residence of Mr. George W. Wachtel,” the Hagerstown Daily Mail stated.

A little more than a week later, work was freshly completed on the electric railway between Myersville and Hagerstown. “The railroad runs the full length of the main street of Myersville, the track being laid in the center of the street. The poles and wires are all up and work cars have been running into Myersville from Hagerstown since Tuesday,” reported the Frederick News on 18 November.

This march of progress nearly trampled Myersville resident Martin Wachtel, who made “a narrow escape from being killed by electricity while the wires for the new road were being stretched,” the News noted. A wire fell across the street and Wachtel tried to lead a wagon across it, believing it not live. “When the horses stepped upon the wire, they were violently thrown to the ground. Mr. Wachtel … was also severely shocked. The horses were unhitched from the wagon and assisted to their feet when the one horse accidentally touched the wire a second and third time and was thrown each time. The horses were uninjured, excepting a few burns.”

Continue reading at historian Ann Longmore-Etheridge's blog, Your Dying Charlotte.

Better Late Than Never: Appreciating Ira Moser

9/2/2019

By Judy Zeck

Ira Clifford Moser was the author of the History of Myersville, Frederick County, Maryland, including Biographical Sketches of its Representative Men, published in 1905 by the Myersville Monitor newspaper. The book was later reprinted in 1971 with an updated history of Myersville written by Thomas Rose and Charles Martin and published by the Myersville Volunteer Fire Company.

(Left: Ira Moser seated on a daybed, taken in 1908 according to the calendar on the wall.)

Anyone interested in the history of the Myersville area owes Moser a debt of gratitude for the 1905 history. It is considered a handbook by those who want to understand Myersville at the time of its incorporation in 1904, just as the trolley was coming to town and as the town became the hub of the surrounding farming community. The book has been quoted in other publications about Frederick County and Maryland towns. Those of us now living deeply appreciate that Ira Moser took the time to write wrote about life in the town he was raised in, but it can be gleaned from newspaper reports of the time that Ira Moser, was not always appreciated by his contemporaries.

When an Apple Falls Far From the Tree: Part Two

4/28/2019

Amazingly—almost miraculously—on 8 August, just four days after the shooting, George Waters Bittle was able to give testimony to Justice of the Peace Christian H. Eckstein whilst propped up in a chair in the bedroom of his Main Street home. Also present during the testimony was State’s Attorney for Frederick County Arthur D. Willard (1872-1959), the counsels for the defense, the accused, Captain Jacob Koogle, Dr. Ralph Browning, Rev. Otto E. Bregenzer (abt. 1877-1920) of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, and Mrs. Bittle, the former Mary Elizabeth Routzahn (1865-1936.)

Bittle told Willard and Eckstein that on the night of the attempted burglary, “He had seen the burglar around his place early in the evening [and] though he recognized his walk,” the Frederick News noted. “The party wore a dark slouch hat, dark coat, and trousers. He did not see the face of the man at the door sufficiently well to say it was George Koogle, but he could say from what he had seen of Koogle earlier in the evening and what he could say of the man at the door he thought it was George Koogle, although he was sorry to say so.” The dolorous look Bittle may have given Captain Koogle as he spoke can well be imagined.

Bittle, like his fellow citizens, likely saw Koogle as somewhat of a superhero. For example, the merchant would surely have heard this wartime anecdote from Myersville veteran Daniel Mowen, Koogle’s brother-in-law, who included it in a series of articles he wrote for the newspaper, The Globe: “At the assault of Petersburg, on the 17th of June, 1864, and while the Seventh [Maryland Regiment] was in line, Jacob Koogle, first sergeant of company, saw a shell bounding toward them. He called to the men to ‘look out!’ Watching its course, he attempted to step out of its way when it lodged against his breast. Its force being about spent, he threw it off with his arm without injury to himself and, as it didn’t explode, it injured no one else.” This was before the affair of stealing of the Confederate colors and returning with the secessionist banner and a uniform full of bullet holes. Those twin events could make anyone wonder whether Koogle was divinely blessed.

Continue reading at historian Ann Longmore-Etheridge's blog, Your Dying Charlotte.