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NEWS
February 16, 2024
Article Author: Abigail Koontz (This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail June 11, 2023) The name “Bellevue” may bring to mind the infamous Bellevue psychiatric hospital in New York City, which has a history reaching back to an 18th century almshouse. But did you know that Washington County had its own institution named Bellevue Asylum? Built in 1879, the historic Bellevue Asylum was located on the present site of Coffman Nursing Home. Bellevue Asylum stood for 77 years before it was torn down in 1956, and its history is deeply connected to the lives of Washington County residents and the development of healthcare facilities in the United States. To understand Bellevue Asylum’s history, we must return to the year 1800, when Trustees of the Poor for Washington County proposed building a home for the “relief of the poor” in Elizabethtown (now Hagerstown). This building, completed in 1800, was called the Washington County Almshouse. It still stands at 239 N. Locust Street. But attitudes toward the almshouse location caused concern. The almshouse developed a reputation for attracting “tramps” and “idlers,” and town residents requested a more remote location. In 1878, John Nicodemus of Boonsboro gifted farmland to Washington County for a […]
February 12, 2024
Article Author: Abigail Koontz (This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail February, 2024) In 1866, Samuel and Amanda Clark traveled north from Virginia into Maryland with their younger sons. The Clarks, a young Black couple, settled first in the Bakersville area and then in Sharpsburg. They built lives amid the turbulent events of the Reconstruction era in a country still grappling with the atrocities of slavery. The Clarks’ story is integral to understanding the history of Washington County and the Miller House, home of the Washington County Historical Society. By 1870, Samuel and Amanda (Jackson) Clark had settled in Bakersville, just north of Sharpsburg. Samuel, 35, and Amanda, 38, were raising a family that included three young sons — William, 8, Samuel Jr., 5, and Edward, 4. Samuel and Amanda were born in Virginia in the early 1830s; William and Samuel Jr. were also born in Virginia. Edward, their youngest son, was born in Maryland around 1866. It is difficult to determine whether the Clarks had been enslaved before the Civil War ended. Although census records can be inaccurate, Edward’s birth date creates a timeline for the Clarks’ journey to Washington County during a pivotal time in American history, just […]
January 16, 2024
Article Author: Abigail Koontz (This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail January 14, 2024) In the early 1860s, Linda Wert, a student at the Hagerstown Female Seminary, packed up her painting supplies and headed off to paint the Hager Mill, only an eight-minute walk from campus. Wert’s painting, which she later titled “The Old Hager Mill,” now resides in the Washington County Historical Society collection. It represents a young woman’s story, and the history of an institution in Washington County that provided young women with vital education in the 19th century. This month, the painting becomes the first item selected for a new restoration program that invites donors to help preserve the important artifacts in the society’s collection. Malinda “Linda” E. E. Wert (also spelled Wirt) was born on Aug. 2, 1841, in Millersburg, Pa., to Simon and Sarah (Mark) Wert. The Wert family deeply valued education; of the five Wert children, three daughters and one son pursued higher education. The 1860 census recorded Linda Wert’s occupation as “Attending Female Seminary,” indicating she had already begun her education at the seminary, nearly 96 miles from Millersburg. The Hagerstown Female Seminary was a young institution when Linda Wert arrived. Built in […]
January 9, 2018
By Anna Cueto Prior to becoming the curator for the Miller House Museum, I trained at the University of Pittsburgh to become an archivist. It’s one of the top archives programs in the country, and I say this not to completely toot my own horn, but because attending the program taught me some extremely valuable information about handling items like film, photographs, and documents. And I like sharing that information with people, but with one large change: I like to teach people how to archive on a budget. The holidays are a perfect time to think about archiving or preserving your family photographs, movies, and other memories, because often, you already are planning on seeing the people who hold most of the information that you need! So with the holidays in mind, here is a short guide to gathering, organizing, and storing your family photographs like an archivist. The first and most important thing is to evaluate what you have, what you would like to save, and how you are currently storing it. Artifacts are like people – they do not like to be too hot or cold, too wet or too dry, and they really do not like being […]
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