Lilypons and Lily Pons
Given the fact that the Lilypons, Md., Post Office was created to handle the increased mail-order demand from Three Springs Fisheries, a Frederick County, Md., business that sold goldfish and water lilies, you might think Lilypons is a misspelling of Lily Ponds. Yes, it is a misspelling. Not of lily ponds, but of Lily Pons, a 1930s opera singer. Three Springs Fisheries George Thomas started his business in 1917 as a roadside stand in Buckeystown, Md., that sold the vegetables and goldfish he grew on his farm. “He had a keen eye for finding some type of venture where he might be successful,” Charles Thomas said of his grandfather. While customers may have bought his vegetables, they showed more interest in the goldfish bred in his goldfish hatchery, Three Springs Fisheries. Business grew quickly, and the little town post office where his Read more…
Frederick baseball showed some hustle in the Blue Ridge League
On Thursday morning, May 27, 1915, H.A. Albaugh showed his love of baseball in two ways. He drove 42 miles over stone and hard-packed dirt roads from his home in Westminster to Frederick in order to see the Frederick Hustlers make their professional baseball debut. The drive took him about two hours and before leaving home, he made a bet with a friend that Frederick would win its opening day game. If the Hustlers lost, Albaugh promised that he would walk home. It was a daring bet. The Hustlers were playing the Martinsburg Champs who had been the league champs in the defunct Tri-City League the previous year. Albaugh and Frederick City had chosen their champion, though, and the Hustlers didn’t disappoint. Professional Baseball Comes to Frederick Though baseball came to Frederick County near Read more…
Giving History a Hand…and Arm
History can be funny, fascinating, inspiring and sometimes just plain yucky. The National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, MD, received a forearm as an anonymous donation this year. It is a human foremarm that still has the right hand and skin attached. It is said to have been found by a farmer in Sharpsburg, MD, about two weeks after the 1862 Battle of Antietam. It had been displayed for decades at a private museum. It was shown in a glass-topped, pine case with a card that read, “Human arm found on the Antietam Battlefield,” according to the Associated Press report. When the museum’s owner died in 2001, the museum’s contents were sold at auction. Museum officials are hoping to verify that it is a relic of the battle, though they have little hope of figuring out which soldier’s arm Read more…
Piecing together the past
Researchers are excavating a slave village on the site of the Monocacy Battlefield in Frederick County, Maryland. The village wasn’t there at the time of the battle. It dates back to the turn end of the 18th Century and the beginning of the 19th Century. The plantation called L’Hermitage was a 748-acre plantation owned by a French-Catholic family that fled St. Dominique during a slave revolt. The family owned 90 slaves that lived in a collection of cabins on the plantation. The site was first discovered in 2003, but excavation couldn’t begin until this summer when a Department of Interior grant allowed six students to be hired to help with the work. Surface-penetrating radar was used to get a look at the area to find where the remnants of the village were buried 4 to 16 feet below the surface. Read more…
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