Footnotes

1. Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds., The Diaries of George Washington, 6 vols. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978), 4:176. In Maryland, the towns below the fall line included Port Deposit on the Susquehanna and Georgetown on the Potomac. In Virginia, they included Fredericksburg on the Rappahannock, Richmond on the James, and Petersburg on the Appamattox. For examples of these period references to western Maryland, see Archives of Maryland, Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 72 vols. (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1908), 28:25–26; and Daniel Dulany to Lord Baltimore, November 24, 1744, as quoted in Aubrey C. Land, The Dulanys of Maryland (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1955), p. 172.

2. Archives of Maryland, Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 28:25–26. Lord Baltimore described this area as “the back lands on the Northern and Western boundaries of our said province not already taken up between the Rivers Potomack and Susqauehana.” Archives of Maryland, Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 46:142–44.

3. Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States taken in the Year 1790, Maryland (Baltimore, Md.: Southern Book Company, 1952), p. 9. J. Thomas Scharf, History of Western Maryland, 2 vols. (1882; reprint ed., Baltimore, Md.: Regional Publishing Company, 1968), 1:36, 396. William Harris Crawford Journals, June 4, 1813, Crawford Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

4. Land, Dulanys of Maryland, p. 172. Between 1748 and 1764, the lot holders in Frederick Town included cabinetmakers, joiners, chairmakers, carpenters, gunmakers, blacksmiths, glassmakers, glasscutters, and other tradesmen (Amy Lee Huffman Reed and Marie LaForge Burns, In and Out of Frederick Town, Colonial Occupations [Frederick: by the authors, 1985], pp. 34–43). William Eddis, Letters from America, Historical and Descriptive: Comprising Occurrences to 1777, Inclusive (London: by the author, 1777), pp. 101–2.

5. Daniel Wunderlich Nead, The Pennsylvania-German in the Settlement of Maryland (1914; reprint ed., Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1975), pp. 54–55. The name “Elizabeth Town” fell from favor during the 1780s, appears only sporadically during the 1790s, and all but disappears by 1800. Eddis, Letters from America, pp. 133–34.

6. Route 11 follows the path of the “Great Wagon Road” from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, into eastern Tennessee.

7. Artisan database, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (hereinafter cited as MESDA), Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

8. For more on Germanic immigrants in Maryland, see Dieter Cunz, The Maryland German, A History (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1948).

9. Archives of Maryland, Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 28:25–26. Thomas C. Williams and Folger McKinsey, History of Frederick County, Maryland, 2 vols. (1910; reprint ed., Baltimore, Md.: Regional Publishing Company, 1967), 1:7. Dwight P. Lanmon, Arlene Palmer Schwind, Ivor Hoel Hume, Robert H. Brill, and Victor F. Hanson, John Frederick Amelung, Early American Glassmaker (Corning, N.Y.: Corning Museum of Glass Press, 1990), p. 22. Baltimore Daily Repository, October 6, 1792, as quoted in H. E. Comstock, Pottery of the Shenandoah Valley Region (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press for MESDA, 1994), p. 11. Eddis, Letters from America, p. 99.

10. Frederick County Court (Land Records) Book G, 1761–1762, p. 351 [MSA C485]. The document was signed in German script. For other related chests, see Monroe Fabian, The Pennsylvania German Painted Chest (New York: Main Street Press, 1978).

11 For information on the Loose and Beachtel families and “White Oak Forest Farm,” see David and Susan Miller, Loose Family Genealogy, unpublished, undated manuscript on file at the Washington County Historical Society, Hagerstown, Maryland.

12. Indenture of Tille Dorff, February 25, 1805, Frederick County Register of Wills (indentures), GMC 1801–1808, p. 466 (MSA C799-1).

13. Easton, Maryland, collector Benjamin Palmer purchased this schrank during the 1960s from dealer Stoll Kemp of New Market in Frederick County. A western Maryland corner cupboard with three fluted pilasters was sold at Sotheby’s, Fine Americana, New York, June 23 and 24, 1994, lot 466.

14. Inlaid diamonds were commonly used between numbers and letters on Pennsylvania German pieces. See, for example, a tall case clock with a movement by Benjamin Morris of New Britain, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in Israel Sack, Inc., American Antiques From the Israel Sack Collection (Alexandria, Va.: Highland House, 1979), vol. 10, p. 1502, no. P4581.

15. A much simpler chest by the same maker is in a private collection. It is inlaid with the initials “SB” and dated “17u81.” It has the same base molding and foot blocking as the chest shown in fig. 7, and very similar feet. The authors thank Edward and Helen Flanagan for this information.

16. For the history of the desk, see MESDA research file S-9745.

17. The authors thank Edward and Helen Flanagan for bringing this chest to their attention. Seventeenth-century arms makers occasionally used colored mastic fillers. The authors thank Wallace Gusler for this comparative information.

18. One or two other chests by this decorator are known; one is in a private collection, and the other is pictured in Gregor Norman-Wilcox, “American Furniture, Noteworthy and Unrecorded,” Antiques 36, no. 5 (December 1939): 283, fig. 3.

19. Charles Edward Doll III, 300 Years of the Doll Family, unpublished manuscript, Mount Clemens, Michigan, p. 4. John J. Snyder, Jr., “Carved Chippendale Case Furniture from Lancaster, Pennsylvania,” Antiques 107, no. 5 (May 1975): 975.

20. Doll, 300 Years of the Doll Family, pp.5–7.

21. Joseph Doll Ledger, 1772–1805, Historical Society of Frederick County, Inc., Frederick, Maryland.

22. Joseph Doll’s ledger contains the following entries for bedsteads: Henry Shover, October 1773, “one pair of bedSteds Painted Green... £1.5”; Francis Mantz, January 10, 1775, “one bedstid . . . 12s”; John Brunner, Jr., July 8, 1775, “one pair of bedStids at 3 dollars . . . £1.2”; John Hummel, March 29, 1777, “one Little bedStid . . . 12s”; Michael Christ, February 1787, “one bedStid with high Posts painted blue with four Scroos . . . £2.7.6. ”Doll’s ledger contains the following entries for cradles: Christian Weaver, November 26, 1774, “one Greadle to Rog his Chylde . . . £1”; John Brunner, Jr., July 8, 1775, “a Creadle . . . 18s.”

23. Joseph Doll’s ledger contains the following entries for tables: Francis Mantz, September 1773, “one Walnut Table with Two Drawers . . . £1.5”; John Brunner, Jr., July 8, 1775, “making a Table at 20 . . . £1”; Caspar Mantz, September 26, 1775, “one Table for his Daughter Caety . . . £1.2.6”; Jacob Stealey, October 11, 1775, “one Table with 2 Drawers and brass hands . . . £1.7.6”; Peeter Brunner, March 18, 1777, “one Walnut Table at Three dollars . . . £1.2.6”; Mathias Zimmer, February 10, 1786, “one Kitchin Table . . . £1.5.0”; John Hoober, February 2, 1775, “one Larch Pobler Table for a workebench with Two Trawers in it with divicions . . . £1.7.”

24. Joseph Doll’s ledger contains the following entries for case furniture: John Brunner, Jr., February 6, 1775, “one Kitchin Cobert . . . 3.15”; Caspar Mantz, September 26, 1775, “one Chest with drawers for ditto [daughter Caety] . . . £3.5”; Peeter Brunner, February 16, 1776, “one Kitchen Dresser with glas and furniture . . . £ 7”; John Kyle, March 7, 1789, “one Corner Cobbert . . . £4.10.”

25. Joseph Doll’s ledger contains the following entries for coffins: John Breidenbach, May 15, 1775, “To one Coffin . . . 10s”; Peeter Brunner, December 8, 1775, “To one Coffin . . . 10s”; Peeter Brunner, February 16, 1776, “To one Coffin for his Son John at 25/ . . . £1.5”; Christian Weaver, November 26, 1776, “One Smol Coffin for his Childe . . . 5s”; Peeter Brunner, March 18, 1777, “To one Coffin for his Father . . . 1.15”; John Brunner, Jr., undated, “one Coffin for his Father . . . £1.10”; Phillip Friegi, January 14, 1788, “One Coffin for M [illegible] Wittman . . . £1.5.” In 1774, Doll charged Thomas Preise 1s 6d for “mending Two Chairs.” On June 16, 1790, Doll charged Henry Cronier 2s 9d for “Making a Sidepeese to his bedStid paint blue.”

26. James Biser Whisker, Daniel David Hartzler, and Steven P. Petrucelli, Maryland Clockmakers (Cranberry, N.J.: Adams Brown, Co., 1996), pp. 30–31. Fessler served his apprenticeship in Lancaster.

27. Ibid., pp. 113, 227, 335, and figs. 15, 16, 245, 246, 226–69.

28. Deed from Jonathan Hager to George Woltz, Frederick County Land Records, bk. 5, 1773–1774, p. 205 The tall clock illustrated in fig. 18 is illustrated and discussed in Pauline Pinkney, “George Woltz, Maryland Cabinetmaker,” Antiques 35, no. 3 (March 1939): 124–25. See also James W. Gibbs, Dixie Clockmakers (Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing Co., 1979), p. 83.

29. Gibbs, Dixie Clockmakers, p. 83. Pinkney attributes a small but fine group of local furniture to Woltz and notes that “he advertised in contemporary papers that he made chairs and spinning wheels.” None of the advertisements abstracted from local newspapers by MESDA refer to the manufacture of chairs or spinning wheels, thus it is likely that Pinkney was mistaken. Furniture historian Gregory R. Weidman also suggested that Woltz may have been a cabinetmaker in Maryland Furniture, 1740–1790: The Collection of the Maryland Historical Society (Baltimore, Md.: Maryland Historical Society, 1984), pp. 130–31.

30. For more on Itnyer, see Whisker, Hartzler, and Petrucelli, Maryland Clockmakers, pp. 46, 170, figs. 124–25.

31. For information on related cases from the Lancaster area, see John J. Snyder, “The Bachman Attributions: A Reconsideration,” Antiques 105, no. 5 (May 1974): 1056–66.

32. Inventory of William Conrad, July 1, 1780, Washington County, Maryland, Inventories No. B, 1785–1803, pp. 99–101. We do not believe that Woltz made the cases for his movements. These cases, which date between 1780 and 1810, were made by a group of artisans working in the Hagerstown area. For examples, see William Voss Elder III, Maryland Queen Anne and Chippendale Furniture (Baltimore, Md.: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1968), p. 100, fig. 69; MESDA research files S-9702 and S-9764 (by the same case maker as the example illustrated in figs. 19–20 of this article); Israel Sack, Inc., American Antiques From the Israel Sack Collection, vol. 5, p. 1169, no. P4030; Maryland Historical Society, acc. 63.19.1; Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, acc. 1980-200. The aforementioned examples are in approximate chronological order.

33. The Grieff clock was owned by antique dealer Andrew Golding of Charleston, South Carolina, in the summer of 1996.

34. Pennsylvania tall clocks often have carved shells on the waist door. Occasionally they have shells used as keystones over the hood door. A Pennsylvania clock case with a shell-carved door descended in the Dorsey family of Frederick County. It is virtually identical to examples with movements signed by Isaac Thomas, a clockmaker and case maker who worked in Willistown in Chester County, Pennsylvania (MESDA research file S-9546). For more on Thomas, see Arthur E. James, Chester County Clocks and Their Makers (1946; reprint ed., Exton, Pa.: Schiffer Publishing Co., 1976), pp. 188–89.

35. The purchaser of Wilson’s desk was probably John Fillson (b. 1747) of East Fallowfield, Pennsylvania. Fillson spent much of his early life on his father’s lands on the Brandywine, but he attended Reverend Samuel Finley’s school in Nottingham, Maryland (Willard Rouse Jillson, Filson’s Kentucky [Louisville, Ky.: John P. Morton and Co., 1929], pp. 139–49). Fillson lived in Frederick County, Maryland, in 1770 (Frederick County Land Records, March 6, 1770, bk. N, 1770–1772, p. 38), then moved back to Pennsylvania and on to Kentucky. A Henry Wilson owned fifty acres in two tracts of land called “Stoney Point” and “Labyrinth” (Donna Valley Russell, “Frederick County Debt Book, 1756–1757,” Western Maryland Genealogy 8, no. 3 [July 1992]: 131). A Henry Wilson also appears in Frederick County in the 1776 census of Maryland (Bettie Stirling Carothers, comp., The 1776 Census of Maryland [Westminster, Md.: Family Line Publications, 1992], p. 72), but no one by that name is listed in the Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States taken in the Year 1790. MESDA acc. file 3985. Barbara Fritchie, a local Civil War heroine and Yankee sympathizer, was the subject of John Greenleaf Whittier’s 1863 poem “Barbara Fritchie.” She and her husband, John, lived in a small brick cottage at 154 West Patrick Street in Frederick.

36. For the history of the Schley family clock, see MESDA research file S-9693. For an illustration, see Whisker, Hartzler and Petrucelli, Maryland Clockmakers, p. 214, figs. 219–20. Frederick Herald, November 2, 1816. Although the Herald reported that Fessler had set up shop “in the house of Mr. John Schley,” family genealogy indicates that “John” Schley was the nickname of George Thomas Schley. John Thomas Schley is commonly referred to in documents as “Thomas” and John Jacob Schley as “Jacob.” Tyre Lee Jennings III, The Schley Family, unpublished manuscript, Houston, Texas, 1990. Joseph Doll Ledger, p. 27.

37. Scharf, History of Western Maryland, 1:485. John Jacob Schley moved to Georgia in the winter of 1793 (Jennings, Schley Family, p. 101). Reed and Burns, In and Out of Frederick Town, pp. 34–36, 40.

38. Joseph Doll Ledger, p. 27. Jennings, Schley Family, p. 101. Reed and Burns, In and Out of Frederick Town, p. 51. Williams and McKinsey, History of Frederick County, 2:1314.

39. An early twentieth-century document indicates that the Fessler clock was purchased at the estate sale of John Jacob Shellman by his daughter, Mrs. George Harris, and that it remained in the care of her daughter until the 1880s. It was then purchased by Dr. Daniel J. Hanes. It subsequently descended to his daughter, Miss Maria W. Hanes.

40. For the history of the cupboard illustrated in fig. 34, see MESDA research file S-9263.

41. For more on the Maynard’s house, see Historic Sites Survey, New Market Region, August 1994, Frederick County Department of Planning and Zoning. A small group of free-standing cupboards and a built-in cupboard from Frederick County, Virginia, are the only other pedimented examples with peaked roofs known to us. Although relatively little work has been done to trace the movement of artisans between the upper Valley of Virginia and western Maryland, several artisans are known to have worked in both areas, including members of the Krebs family, who were both gunmakers and cabinetmakers during the late eighteenth century.

42. Garvan loaned the cupboard to the Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis during the 1930s and 1940s. A founder of the Metropolitan Museum’s American Wing, Halsey was a professor at St. John’s College in Annapolis. The records related to his collecting are preserved in the Archives of American Art, Washington, D.C. For more on Halsey as a collector, see Elizabeth Stillinger, The Antiquers (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1980). The cupboard inscribed “Frederick, Maryland,” was owned by San Francisco antiques dealer Thomas Livingston in 1995.

43. Loudoun County Court Order Book G, 1776–1783, p. 75.

44. For information on the Meeks and Grubbe families, see Danny Morris Fluhart, The Meek Family of Washington County, Virginia (Waldorf, Md.: by the author, n.d.), n.p. The authors thank Roddy Moore for information on the Keyes, Meeks, and Grubble families and the group of furniture from Southwest, Virginia.

45. Whisker, Hartzler, and Petrucelli, Maryland Clockmakers, pp. 102–3.

46. For more on Frederick County Windsor chairs, see Nancy Goyne Evans, American Windsor Chairs (New York: Hudson Hills Press for the Winterthur Museum, 1996), pp. 117–23. John J. Snyder, Jr., “John Shearer, Joiner of Martinsburg,” Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts 5, no. 1 (May 1979): 1–25. Philip Zea and Donald Dunlap, The Dunlap Cabinetmakers: A Tradition in Craftsmanship (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1994), pp. 40–41.

47. A set of Philadelphia area chairs with cabriole legs and trifid feet, originally owned by Benjamin Franklin, have a virtually identical splat, ears, crest, and front rail. These chairs, however, are considerably lighter in construction and have typical Philadelphia blocking inside their seat frames. It is likely that both groups have a common British prototype.

48. George W. Williams, St. Michael’s Charleston, 1751–1951 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1951), p. 175.