Maryland and the road to independence: Charles Carroll of Carrollton

(Baltimore Sun) Charles Carroll of Carrollton wasn’t in Philadelphia when the Second Continental Congress voted to break from Great Britain on July 2, 1776, nor was he there on July 4 when Thomas Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence was ratified. He wouldn’t get there and add his name to the document’s signers for some weeks, but when it came to the idea that the 13 colonies must free themselves from England, he got there long before many of his fellow Marylanders. Continued

Mary Katherine Goddard

(Maryland Women's Hall of Fame) Mary Katherine Goddard, printer, newspaper publisher, and postmaster, was born in Connecticut on June 16, 1738. She lived in Baltimore, Maryland from 1774 until her death at age seventy-eight, in 1816. ... Mary Katherine proved to be a steady, impersonal newspaper editor and during the Revolution she was usually Baltimore’s only printer. From her press, in January 1777, came the first printed copy of the Declaration of Independence to include the names of the signers. Mary Katherine Goddard was also responsible for issuing several Almanacs, while in Baltimore, which now hold a place in the Maryland Historical Society. ... In 1775, Mary Katherine became postmaster of Baltimore, probably the first woman so appointed in the colonies, and certainly the only one to hold so important a post after the Declaration of Independence. 

Flag Day

(LoC) On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress approved the design of a national flag. Since 1916, when President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation establishing a national Flag Day on June 14, Americans have commemorated the adoption of the Stars and Stripes by celebrating June 14 as Flag Day. Prior to 1916, many localities and a few states had been celebrating the day for years. Continued

Photo: The Birth of Old Glory [detail], Percy Moran, artist, copyright 1917 (Library of Congress).

Second Battle of Winchester

(Wikipedia) The Second Battle of Winchester was fought between June 13 and June 15, 1863 in Frederick County and Winchester, Virginia as part of the Gettysburg Campaign during the American Civil War. As Confederate Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell moved north through the Shenandoah Valley in the direction of Pennsylvania, his corps defeated the Union Army garrison commanded by Major General Robert H. Milroy, capturing Winchester and numerous Union prisoners. Continued

‘The Wire’ Stands Alone

(NYTimes) “The Wire” premiered on HBO on June 2, 2002. In the two decades since, its reputation has only grown, as has its audience. It is one of those series, like the original “Star Trek,” that future generations will refuse to believe struggled with low ratings during its entire run. (Let alone that it was nominated for an absurd two Emmys, and won exactly none.) Continued

Ken Singleton

(Wikipedia) Kenneth Wayne Singleton (born June 10, 1947) is a retired American Major League Baseball outfielder/designated hitter and current television announcer. ... During his ten years in Baltimore, Singleton played the best baseball of his career as the Orioles won two pennants, in 1979 and 1983, and won the 1983 World Series. His batting average of .328 in 1977, good for third in the league, was a career high, and he posted 35 homers and 111 RBIs in 1979, also the best totals of his career in those departments. He retired after the 1984 season. Continued

Photo: Wikipedia

James Buchanan

(Wikipedia) James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was the 15th President of the United States from 1857–1861 and the last to be born in the 18th century. To date he is the only President from the state of Pennsylvania and the only to remain a lifelong bachelor. As President he was a "doughface", a Northerner with Southern sympathies who battled with Stephen A. Douglas for the control of the Democratic Party. A popular and experienced politician when he took office, Buchanan's efforts to maintain peace between the North and the South alienated both sides. As the Southern states declared their secession in the prologue to the American Civil War, Buchanan's opinion was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal; hence he remained inactive. Continued

Photo: by Mathew Brady (Library of Congress).

Battle of Jumonville Glen

(Wikipedia) The Battle of Jumonville Glen, also known as the Jumonville affair, was the opening battle of the French and Indian War fought on May 28, 1754 near what is present-day Uniontown in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. George Washington had been sent to the Ohio Country, an area then under dispute between British and French colonists, as a British emissary in December of 1753, to tell the French, who had been building forts in the area, to leave. French officers politely told Washington they were not obliged to obey his summons, and that they were going to stay, since the letter had not been addressed to their General or Governor in charge. Washington returned to Virginia and informed Governor Robert Dinwiddie that the French refused to leave. Continued

Marietta's forested ruins

"The Musselman - Vesta Furnace was built in 1868 by Henry Musselman and Henry Miller Watts, both from Marietta. It was the last of the eight anthracite-fired hot blast iron furnaces to be built on the river floodplain between Columbia and Marietta and the last complete blast furnace to be constructed in Lancaster County.

... The Lavino Company owned the furnace property until 1949, but production of iron ceased in the 1920's and the furnace was dismantled sometime between 1928 and 1934. The property was eventually acquired by Lancaster County as a part of Chickies Rock County Park." Continued.

Before I got rid of my Maryland accent

United Steelworkers Founded

(Wikipedia) ... Early attempts to organize steelworkers encountered resistance, even violence. An example is the Homestead Strike. In 1889, after a strike at a mill in Homestead, Pennsylvania, the Carnegie Steel Company signed a contract with the workers. Three years later, however, the mill cut wages, triggering another strike. Management sent in 300 Pinkerton detectives to break the strike, resulting in a pitched battle on July 6, 1892, that left 10 dead and many wounded. Eventually, strikebreakers, backed by state militia, broke the strike, eliminating the early union from its mills. The USW was established May 22, 1942, by a convention of representatives from the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers and the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, after almost six years of divisive struggles to create a new union of steelworkers. The drive to create this union included such violent incidents as the infamous Memorial Day, 1937, when Chicago policemen supporting the rival American Federation of Labor (AFL) fired on workers outside a Republic Steel mill and killed 10 men. The founder and first president of the USW, Philip Murray, led the union through its first organizing drives and dangerous first decade, when the workers of USW went on strike several times to win concessions such as the right to bargain collectively with steel companies, higher wages, and paid vacations. Continued

Photos: 1. Bethlehem, PA 2. Steelton, PA 3. Sparrows Point, MD (Falmanac)

Mr. Johns Hopkins

(Wikipedia) Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist who lived most of his life in Baltimore, Maryland. His bequests founded numerous institutions bearing his name, most notably Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins University (including its academic divisions such as Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies). Continued

Fissel Schoolhouse

Glen Rock, Pennsylvania.

John Gunby

(Wikipedia) John Gunby (March 10, 1745 – May 17, 1807) was an American planter and soldier from Somerset County, Maryland whom is considered by many to be "one of the most gallant officers of the Maryland Line under Gen. Smallwood". He entered service volunteering as a minuteman in 1775 and fought for the American cause until the end earning praise as probably the most brilliant soldier whom Maryland contributed to the War of Independence. Continued

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House

The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, sometimes simply referred to as the Battle of Spotsylvania, was the second major battle in Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign of the American Civil War. The battle was fought in the Rapidan-Rappahannock river area of central Virginia, a region where more than 100,000 men on both sides fell between 1862 and 1864. The battle was fought May 8–21, 1864, along a trench line some four miles (6.5 km) long, with the Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee making its second attempt to halt the spring offensive of the Union Army of the Potomac under the command of Lt. Gen. Grant and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade. Taking place less than a week after the bloody, inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness, it pitted 52,000 Confederate soldiers against a Union army numbering 100,000. Continued

Images: Battle of Spottsylvania [sic] by Kurz and Allison. George H. "Maryland" Steuart.