Louis E. McComas noted for remarks at 1871 Decoration Day at Antietam National Battlefield – but noted nowehere in new exhibit space at Antietam National Battlefield

Painting of Judge McComas at District of Columbia Circuit Court.

By the time Louis E. McComas offered introductory remarks for the benefit lecture of United States Marshal Frederick Douglass at the Washington County Courthouse in downtown Hagerstown, Maryland he was widely known in the area for his advocacy of the public remembrance of the Union sacrifice at the Battle of Antietam in nearby Sharpsburg.

A complete review of available records is underway to better understand the evolution of the advocacy of McComas for the preservation of the Antietam battlefield, however a cursory analysis reveals it was both a matter of public policy and personal concern for McComas for more than thirty years that culminated in a visit by President William McKinley to the hallowed ground in 1900.

In early 1871 McComas, a young lawyer with his career in the United States Congress, United States Senate and as a federal judge still years ahead of him, was specifically recognized in a local newspaper for his remarks delivered at a Decoration Day ceremony at Antietam.

Shepherdstown Register. June 10, 1871.

“The address of our young townsman, Mr. McComas, was an appropriate, classical and beautiful production, listened to with much attention and gratification.”

The ceremonies and orators were joined by a collection of local musical groups, including the Moxley Band of Hagerstown, that were praised for their performances.

“Much of the anticipated pleasure of the day was marred by the extreme heat and clouds of choking dust. The Brass bands, Keedysville, the Rohrersvilee, the Sharpsburg and Moxley’s of Hagerstown, discoursed entertaining music, which had the happy effect of making all forget to some extent the torment of sun and dust.”

Several years later the Moxley Band would accompany US Marshal Frederick Douglass and Louis E. McComas through the streets of Hagerstown and perform in front of the county courthouse for a gathering of local citizens and children.

A current survey is underway to more precisely determine the chronology of McComas’ preservation activism and work to preserve the Battle of Antietam, his attendance at annual Decoration Day events, as well as his legislative record as a member of Congress and Senate.

Records indicate McComas is a significant and consequential figure in the preservation history of the present-day Antietam National Battlefield (ANB). Hon. L. E. McComas is deserving of the same recognition today that he was afforded in 1871, we humbly suggest.

In recent years there has been a contemporary movement to seemingly place a ubiquitous associative reference to Douglass – and even Tubman – at every historical park and location in the state of Maryland, even places such as present-day Antietam National Battlefield, whether historically relevant or not. The curators of the new exhibit(s) at ANB do a great disservice to the public – and themselves – with a limited, selective and suggestive history that omits the contributions of Hon. L. E. McComas.

We advance that the current exhibit space at ANB should be revised to include a more complete and inclusive history of its preservation with recognition of Louis E. McComas and his work with local community members, members of Congress — and Frederick Douglass.

They already have Frederick Douglass placed in the exhibit space at ANB but not his friend and political associate Louis E. McComas.

Since you already have Mr. Douglass there – why not include reference to the relationship and friendship of Mr. Douglass with US Senator & US Congressman Louis E. McComas, one of the founding legislators of present day Antietam National Battlefield Park?

Benjamin F. Stewart debates at Paul’s Opera House in Frostburg to benefit Brownsville Methodist Episcopal Church (September 1881)

Benjamin F. Stewart (1856 – 1940) FindAGrave

With an evolving understanding of the peoples and events that shaped the regional ecosystem of Appalachian Maryland following the Civil War we are able to better frame the time and place of the visits of Frederick Douglass to the area.

For a period of five years in the late 1870s and early 1880s the Cumberland-born Benjamin F. Stewart was actively involved within communities of Allegany County and surrounding areas to support Civil Rights, political and religious affairs.

Stewart would eventually move west and settle in Ohio where he continued to be active in civic life, attending Emancipation events into the early 1900s. According to a newspaper clipping on Stewart’s FindAGrave entry, “Benjamin Franklin Stewart and his wife, Mary A. Davidon Stewart bequeathed their properties to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama when they passed. Mary’s sister, Olivia Davidson Booker, was Booker T. Washington’s second wife.”

In reviewing regional newspaper clips for the Appalachian Maryland region in the surrounding years of the visits of Douglass to local communities, Stewart emerges as a figure worthy of further local study. In his early 20s, Stewart distinguished himself as a student, public debater and orator and political activist in Allegany County, Maryland and nearby communities. Records indicate Stewart operated across a tri-state area of Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Appalachian Maryland.

In the late 1870s Stewart attended Howard University in Washington City. During Stewart’s time as a student in Howard’s Theology Department Frederick Douglass served on the Board of Trustees and was a frequent presence on campus.

Although we presently can’t confirm Stewart’s presence / attendance / participation in the ceremonies of the visit of US Marshal Douglass to Cumberland, we speculate if Stewart was in town he would have most likely been involved in the festivities. If Stewart attended and to what extent he may have been involved is presently under further review.

In matriculating to Howard University in Washington City Stewart most likely traveled via rail from Maryland’s Queen City. May Stewart have accompanied Douglass from Washington to Cumberland and/or from Cumberland to Washington? This is within theoretical possibility as Stewart’s reputation as a young activist was already established by the time Douglass visited Cumberland in September 1879. We aim to better confirm details of Stewart’s possible attendance of Cumberland’s Emancipation parade in ’79.

Frostburg Mining Journal. September 24, 1881. p. 3.

What we can presently confirm is that Stewart engaged in local philanthropy, as well as local activism. In the fall of 1881 Stewart participated in a debate at Paul’s Opera House in Frostburg to benefit the local “Brownsville M.E. Church.”

Could the 1882 address Douglass delivered in Frostburg have benefited the John Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church, the Dickerson African Methodist Episcopal Church or another local cause? During the last quarter-century of his life Frederick Douglass delivered lectures to benefit a variety of organizations, associations, churches, schools and relief causes.

The 1882 address Douglass delivered in Frostburg is currently under review to identify a possible recipient of proceeds. To be determined with forthcoming research. 

Renovated Vistor’s Center at Antietam National Battlefield features Frederick Douglass – but no mention of local connections & associations with legislative founder of ANB

On a recent visit to the renovated vistor’s center at Antietam National Battlefield we were pleasantly surprised to see Frederick Douglass prominently featured in the new exhibit space and the book store.

No, Frederick Douglass did not visit the Antietam battlefield or nearby Sharpsburg – that we presently know. However, Frederick Douglass had many local connections, spoke in Washington County and was political associates with a locally-based national legislator responsible for the intial creation of what is today the Antietam National Battlefield unit of the National Park Service.

Why the local connections of Frederick Douglass to Washington County, Union veterans of Western Maryland and his association with Honorable Louis E. McComas is not included and/or represented in the new exhibit space and interpretative resources at Antietam National Battlefield we do not know nor can we tell you.

In the forthcoming Frederick Douglass in Western Maryland / Appalachian Maryland we endeavor to newly and better inform.

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An 1862 excerpted quote from Frederick Douglass is included in the vistor’s center attached book store.

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An 1870s image of Frederick Douglass and excerpt from an 1877 Decoration Day (Memorial Day) speech is prominently featured in exhibit space at the newly renovated Antietam National Battlefield Visitor’s Center. No mention of the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, just a ways down the road in Washington City’s Old Anacostia neighborhood.

“Funeral of a Worthy Colored Man” & “cousin of Fred. Douglass” noted in Baltimore Sun

We were recently asked about the history and activities of extended family members of Frederick (Bailey) Douglass who settled and/or lived in Baltimore City in the years before and after the Civil War.

Although not blood relation nor kinfolk to the Bailey Family of the Eastern Shore we have, in our travels and adventures in local history, had the unique and special opportunity to experience and observe the closeness and deep sense of community within and among members of the Bailey family in modern times. Living Bailey family members, relatives to Frederick (Bailey) Douglass and Anna Murray Douglass, on the Eastern Shore contribute to their communities within the ranks of local schools, local law enforcement and military and various levels of the public service fields and industries. Several members of the Bailey family today have their own businesses (and storefronts on Route 50), keeping alive the entrepreneurial spirit of Betsey Bailey that was admired and chronicled by her grandson.

Similar to the Dews family of Southeast Washington City, the Bailey family of the Eastern Shore is a very proud and close-knit family that counts hundreds upon hundreds of members.

While not a scholar or genealogist of the extended Bailey family we have on occasion come across a reference and/or mention in research of a member of the Bailey family on the Eastern Shore, Baltimore City, Washington City or elsewhere. Several family members remained in contact with Mr. Douglass – their cousin, brother and uncle – throughout their lives.

From our research files we pull an 1883 paragraph from the Baltimore Sun recognizing the passing of a cousin of Frederick (Bailey) Douglass. Ennals / Ennolds Bailey was noted as being a longstanding member of the Sharp Street Methodist Episcopal Church, where a young Frederick Bailey attended as an adolescent and frequently spoke to benefit as an adult.

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“Funeral of a Worthy Colored Man.” Baltimore Sun. September 17, 1883.  

Funeral of a Worthy Colored Man. The funeral of Ennolds Bailey, for many years janitor of the Bryant, Stratton & Sadler Business College, and who died Friday night, took place yesterday afternoon from Sharp Street M. E. Church, of which he was a trustee and one of the oldest members. The attendance was large. Mr. Bailey was in the 74th year of his age, and was a cousin of Fred Douglass. The interment was at the burial grounds of the church.

The 1871 Baltimore City Directory lists “Ennals Bailey” occupied as a “steward” living at 120 Tyson Street. 

Bands from Frederick City, Martinsburg, Parkersburg, Keyser, Uniontown & delegations from Washington City, Baltimore City, Hagerstown, Harpers Ferry & Pittsburgh planned to participate in US Marshal Frederick Douglass visit to Cumberland, Maryland

Storer College Cornet Band, Class of 1908, Harpers Ferry, W. Va. West Virginia & Regional History Center, WVU.

Various reports and estimates indicate upwards of two to three thousand people attended the outdoor address of US Marshal Frederick Douglass at the fairgrounds in Cumberland, Maryland in September 1879. Further descriptions provide additional attendance and participation from local citizens and visitors in the preceding parade through the central streets of Cumberland upon the arrival of US Marshal Douglass at the Queen City Hotel B & O train station. 

A careful examination of available reports indicate leaders in Cumberland arranged with nearby cities and towns to arrange a grand welcoming party and accompanying procession for Marshal Douglass that included the participation of bands, fraternal organizations and delegations from towns in three states and Washington City.

The presence and performance of community-based bands as part of the visits of Frederick Douglass to towns and cities across the country, and throughout Maryland, is one of the many ways local municipalities and communities demonstrated their hospitality to Mr. Douglass.

A rudimentary survey of available source material indicates the formation and activity of several community-based bands throughout areas of Western Maryland following the Civil War. Many of these bands were composed of veterans who had fought in the war. Furthermore, many of the principal towns and cities had their own “colored” cornet or brass band.

In anticipation of the September 1879 visit of Douglass to Cumberland, a local newspaper announced, “A grand street procession, comprising bands from Frederick, Martinsburg, Parkersburg, Keyser, Uniontown and Cumberland; organizations, tableaux, delegations from Washington, Baltimore, Frederick, Hagertown, Harper’s Ferry, Pittsburg, Connellsville, & c., will participate in the exercises on the spacious agricultural fair ground.”

Further research aims to compile a compendium and/or basic listing of regional bands that may have attended the visit of Marshal Douglass to Cumberland’s Emancipation parade and festivities.

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FMJ September 20, 1879. p. 3

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John Robert Clifford, first lawyer admitted to the bar in Allegany County, Maryland & long-time associate of Frederick Douglass

Emporia Daily Republican. (Kansas). April 30, 1892. p. 2.

Although Black Marylanders began serving on petit juries throughout the state in the 1870s, the Maryland Bar did not admit a Black American lawyer until 1885, nearly 30 years after the first documented Black lawyer sought admission.

Frederick Douglass knew many Supreme Court justices, US Attorney Generals, state’s attorneys, county attorneys, local, state and federal judges. As well, Mr. Douglass knew many pioneering and formidable Black lawyers.

Among one of the more notable and consequential Black American lawyers of the late 19th century and early 20th century was John Robert “J. R.” Clifford of West Virginia. While a student at Storer College in Harpers Ferry, Clifford corresponded for John W. Cromwell‘s People’s Advocate and attended the July 1879 speech US Marshal Douglass delivered in Martinsburg in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle.

In 1884 Clifford acquired the Pioneer Press from George Washington Welcome and continued its publication into the first decades of the 20th century. Douglass and Clifford were involved with the establishment of the Manassas Industrial School in 1894, which suffered a tragic fire within weeks of the opening of its home building.

Recognized in recent decades by statewide and national historic organizations, including the legal studies of Thomas W. Rodd and his J. R. Clifford Project, Clifford has become a singular oft-referenced figure.

Clifford was a frequent presence at annual festivals and rallies in areas of Appalachian Maryland, connecting with communities of Black clergy, Black educators, newspapermen and Republican party men on both sides of the Potomac River.

Of note, in the early 1890s the West Virginia-based Clifford became the first Black American lawyer to practice in the courts of Allegany County, Maryland. In Clifford’s first case in Allegany County, a criminal case, his client was rendered a not guilty decision by the jury in a manslaughter case. Clifford was praised in newspaper accounts for his “clear voice” and arguing “impressively” on behalf of his client.

When US Marshal Frederick Douglass visited Cumberland in the fall of 1879 he was joined by prominent local attorneys and jurists from both political parties.

Shall we have time, we will try to dig further into the connections of Clifford, a nephew to Jane Gates of Greene Street on Cumberland’s West Side, and Allegany County, Maryland.

1878 ad for President Rutherford B. Hayes appearance at the Fair of the Agricultural and Mechanical Society of Western Maryland; Lloyd Lowndes, Jr. serving as president of festivities

Frostburg Mining Journal. October 5, 1878. p. 3.

The year before US Marshal Frederick Douglass spoke at the fairgrounds in Cumberland, Maryland the 19th President Rutherford B. Hayes and Rev. Henry Ward Beecher visited the Queen City.

Of note, former US Representative and future governor Lloyd Lowndes, Jr. was a key organizer of President Hayes 1878 visit to the Queen City and was a member of the greeting party for the visit of US Marshal Douglass in 1879.   

Correspondent of Frostburg Mining Journal notes arrival of “stinguished gemman” Hon. Frederick Douglass in Cumberland

Of the visits Frederick Douglass made to Western Maryland his participation in an Emancipation Day event at the fairgrounds in Cumberland in September 1879 was the most widely attended; it is the only address in Appalachian Maryland Douglass is known to have delivered outdoors.

Several reports of the sojourn of United States Marshal Frederick Douglass to Maryland’s Queen City specifically mention increased activity on area railroads from four states in anticipation of the arrival of Marshal Douglass.

Cumberland, serviced directly by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad with a mixed-use station at the Queen City Hotel, was a city Douglass had likely passed through several times to and fro prior and after his confirmed address in travels to areas west, including Wheeling, Cincinnati and Chicago.

The Queen City Hotel station provided a space where political associates, bands, church leaders, school groups, fraternal organizations and community members could greet Marshal Douglass upon arrival.

Increased activity on the rails prompted a travel correspondent of the Frostburg Mining Journal to take note of the community chatter around the visit of the Hon. Frederick Douglass in Cumberland.

Off the desk of “Roundabout” …

Leaving Frostburg Monday morning, Sept 22d, [1879] for a trip to this beautiful valley of the Shenandoah, about the first thing of note that attracted our attention was the arrival of the Hon. Frederick Douglass in Cumberland, but our train being due we saw no more of this ‘stinguished gemman’ but were soon flying eastward down the modern Potomac, or historic Cohongoruton, with all its beautiful and varied scenery.

Louis E. McComas of Appalachian Maryland & Frederick Douglass attend first reception of President Cleveland & First Lady Cleveland

Courtesy White House Historical Association.

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Across decades and geography Frederick Douglass and Louis E. McComas shared the same space in Appalachian Maryland; Minneapolis, Minnesota and the White House. 

In June 1885 newlyweds President Grover Cleveland and First Lady Cleveland held their first formal reception at the Executive Mansion. 

Widely reported and commented on, the Baltimore Sun captured a notable personal interaction between United States Representative Louis E. McComas of Maryland’s 6th Congressional District, representing the entirety of Western Maryland, and the first Democratic President since before the Civil War. 

“When Mr. McComas came along he mentioned that he was from the Deer Park region, whereupon the President quickly replied, ‘It is a beautiful spot, but I did not stop there long enough to gain the privilege of voting for you.’”

Frederick Douglass, at the time serving as Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, and members of his family also attended the levee at the Executive Mansion.

Whereas Douglass’ previous attendance at White House events drew “general attention,” the Sun reported, “the crowd was too much interested in discussing Mrs. Cleveland to notice particularly the presence of the colored recorder of deeds.” 

Did Douglass and McComas exchange head nods, handshakes and/or conversations about local and national politics in Maryland and the United States Congress at the reception?

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SOURCE:

“FROM WASHINGTON: MRS. CLEVELAND’S TRIUMPH HER FIRST RECEPTION SUCCESSFUL MEN AND WOMEN ALIKE DELIGHTED WITH THE NEW MISTRESS OF THE WHITE HOUSE-NOTABLE GUESTS AND SPLENDID COSTUMES.” Baltimore Sun. 1886, Jun 16. p. 1.

Lunch & Learn: Writing the Biography of Frederick Douglass and the Bailey/Douglass Family: Scenes from the Archives [May 9, 2024 @ 1:00PM]

Dr. Greenspan speaking at the Library of Congress.

Lunch & Learn: Writing the Biography of Frederick Douglass and the Bailey/Douglass Family: Scenes from the Archives

Registration not required, but encouraged. Please register for the event here.

This talk will survey selected sources for the writing of a comprehensive, historical biography of Frederick Douglass and the Bailey/Douglass family. It will proceed scenically in the manner of an illustrated historical panorama, matching documentary evidence (chosen mostly from Maryland archives) to central events in the history of one of our country’s most remarkable families from the 1660s to the fall of Richmond in 1865. 

Ezra Greenspan, Edmund and Louise Kahn Chair in the Humanities, Emeritus at Southern Methodist University, is a literary, cultural, and media historian who has written biographies of Walt Whitman, G. P. Putnam, and William Wells Brown. He is currently writing a comprehensive biography of Frederick (Bailey) Douglass and his generic family, whose coverage will run from 1634 into the twentieth century.

ASL interpretation will be available for attendees.

Presented in partnership with The Maryland State Archives and The Maryland Four Centuries Project.

Virtual Meeting Information
To join virtually visit the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Facebook or Youtube stream. 

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Editor’s Note:

Dr. Greenspan is a good man and grandfather. He has canvassed the archival collections, the streets, the creeks, the cemeteries and everything in between. We look forward to his forthcoming publication – as new research on Mr. Douglass is always on time.