Tombstone Transcription Projects

Some days I love the internet. While surfing around for genealogical information, I stumbled upon a terrific resource in the National Tombstone Project. Volunteers transcribe the inscriptions of headstones suffering the ravages of time, sometimes taking photographs and adding information found in the cemetery's records, and share their findings in a national database. Here is the Maryland site, which I used to locate the Beall Family Cemetery off of Bel Pre Road.

Project on Hold

I have decided to suspend this family history project for the time being. When I started typing up the Etchings I was pretty gung-ho about the project. But Grandma's death really knocked the wind out of my sails. Yes, I expected to grieve, but no, I did not anticipate feeling so sad every time I picked up the red binder and tried to type up an essay. Sorry to disappoint. Hopefully I will come back to this with the passage of time. --Barb

Gladys Beall Brigham

Grandma passed away in her sleep this morning. She was 93 years old. Please check back in the next day or so, as I will post information on the funeral arrangements as soon as I have it. Thanks.
--Barb

12/30/08 - Edited to add:

The service for Gladys Brigham will be on Saturday, January 3, 2009, at 11:00 a.m. at the Oakdale Emory United Methodist Church in Olney, Maryland. The funeral service will be preceded by a private family burial at 9:30 a.m. No viewing is planned. There will be a reception in Brigham Hall at the church following the service. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you send a donation to the Oakdale Emory UMC Music Fund. Thank you for all of the kind wishes.

Gladys Brigham is preceded in death by her husband David L. Brigham, her son David A. Brigham, her daughter Frances Ann Brigham, and her sisters Anna and Miriam. She is survived by her sisters Dorothy, Dolores, and Flora, sisters-in-law Marjorie and Helen, daughter Julie and her husband Rich, daughter Pat and her husband Tom, daughter-in-law Liz, grandchildren Paul and his wife Maria, Alison and her husband Scott, Barb and her husband Robb, David, Daniel, Georgi, and Robin, and great-grandchildren Anna, Christina, and Kelly.

The Sandy Spring Museum

I visited the Sandy Spring Museum last week and snapped a few photographs. I remember when the museum first opened in a small brick home in Olney. My father, David A. Brigham, was a charter member and somehow designated as the first person that the security company called every time the wind blew and set off the alarm. Many a late night got dressed and drove up over to reset the security system. It must have been a little like being in the fire department again. Both he and my grandfather lived to see the new facility open. And it is really a testament to the Sandy Spring community. I want to share some of our family's images from the museum and the website. Many of these appear in the book Sandy Spring Legacy, which you can purchase directly from the museum. (I also found used copies listed on Amazon.)

This photograph and text about Reuben Brigham is part of an exhibit at the museum. Reuben and David J. Lewis worked together on the Parcel Post bill.

Sherwood's first tackle football team, fielded in 1944, smiles despite a disastrous initial season. Coached by math teacher Dwight Hurley, left, they are, front row from left: Mike Conner, Jimmy Frenzel, Willard Derrick, Fred Fry, Tom Benson, Calvert Heil, Keith Himebaugh, and Charlie Morris; second row, William Miller, Kyle Cantwell, John Johns, Robert Franklin, Sonny Johns, Louis Bussler, and Arthur Brigham; back row, Dick Kimmel, Pete Black, and David Haviland.

Girls' tennis flourished at youthful Sherwood High of 1910. The players are, front row from left: Polly Janney (Shields), Lydia Chichester (Laird), and Katherine Nichols; second row, Deb Iddings (Willson), Barbara Miller, Irene Kimler (Miller), Helen Barnes, Annie Miller, Edith Shoemaker; third row, Gladys Brooke (Tumbleson), Lydia Tatum, Anna Snowden (Bussler), and Henrietta Waters.

Iced tea for 2,300 is brewed by Gladys Brigham (center) and Anne Gilpin (right) for the forty-third annual Hospital Supper and Bazaar in 1964. Mrs. Gilpin's sister, Mrs. C. Jones from England, observes. Staged by the Woman's Board, the annual supper and bazaar has been a major community event for nearly 80 years.

A childhood recollection of David L. Brigham, born 1916: "I curried the horses, mucked the stalls, milked the cows, slopped the pigs, fed the chickens, loaded the manure spreader, and cleared the barnyard and chicken house." In this photograph David L. Brigham rides up front and younger brother Francis Snowden Brigham shares the hay rake with grandfather Francis Snowden at Ingleside in 1922.

Two teams pull plows at Ingleside, just south of Ashton; the 1855 home stands at right. Gussie Holland works the plow in foreground, while Ingleside farmer Francis Snowden supervises the annual plowing ritual.

The museum website had photographs of David, Arthur, and Francis Brigham but none of their sister Marjorie.

Namesake

My grandfather's full name was David Lewis Brigham. He was named after David John Lewis (1869-1952). The photo of Mr. Lewis to the left is from the Library of Congress. He was born in Nuttals Bank, Pennsylvania, the son of Richard Lloyd Lewis and Catherine Watkins. David J. Lewis began his career as a coal miner, studying to become an attorney in his spare time. He passed the Maryland Bar in 1892 and began practicing in Cumberland. In 1893 he married Florida Bohn. Mr. Lewis served in the Maryland state senate from 1902 to 1904 and then as the U.S. Representative from Maryland's 6th District from 1911 to 1917 and again from 1931 to 1939. He was a Democrat. Although I found no mention in any of the articles I found about him, Mr. Lewis played a major role in establishing domestic parcel post service within the United States on January 1, 1913, during the Taft administration, according to Brigham family lore. Gran tells the story of "the little Welsh coal miner from Cumberland" here.

--Barb

The League

"The League" and "LFRA" are mentioned frequently in these early essays. It appears that the League of Federal Recreation Associations is still in existence, although they do not have a website. I am going to contact them in December to see what I can find out about their history and their current mission. I wonder if they still publish a Recreation Register newspaper?
--Barb