History-based (self)business offering public presentation, interpretive services (research, writing, project management) & personal historian/family legacy
History-based self business based in Frederick, Maryland and serving both the local and greater Maryland and Delaware area. Offering public presentation services (creative-development, teaching, public lecture, guide service) interpretive production services (consulting, research, writing and project/event management) and personal historian/family legacy services (consulting, personal storytelling and documentation through written form and on-camera interview, genealogy research)
Part 2 of a two-part blog on the origins of the Great Frederick Fair. Not a Hemp's sandwich or apple dumpling, but it's the best I can do for you:)
Author's Note: This is part 2 of a multi-part history covering the early history of the Great Frederick Fair. Part 1 can be found in the September 2016 archives to the right.
Part 1 of a "two-part" blog I wrote a few years back on the Great Frederick Fair's history in the 19th century. Look for part 2 as well as two related stories in my "Stories in Stone" blog for Mount Olivet Cemetery.
This week marks the 154th edition of the Great Frederick Fair, the largest and greatest county fair in the State of Maryland. The Frederick Fair has quite a storied history, but one I found lacking...
The Voting Trail
It's an understatement to say that this year's presidential election is one of the most important in our country's history. So many important issues are on the table as we seem to be quite divided as...
Both my sons had their first-ever opportunity to play baseball on Frederick's McCurdy Field last night. The experience conjured up memories of a story I wrote exactly four years ago about Hall of Famer Connie Mack and the Philadelphia Athletics who used the field for spring training during World War II.
Since my last article, I have had the good fortune of attending two professional baseball games—one minor league game here in Frederick, and a major league matchup in Philadelphia. Both contests...
It's certainly been a while since writing/posting a blog piece for the HSP site. This weekend marks the 131st anniversary of the worst disaster by dam failure in American history, and greatest single-day civilian loss of life in the US before September 11, 2001.
“Being at the wrong place at the wrong time,” an expression we hear quite often when a hapless victim encounters a tragic event that many times leads to serious injury or, worse yet, death. My...
Commute Home...No Big Dill!
Of late, my commute home from Mount Olivet Cemetery to the Rosedale/Villa Estates neighborhood on the northwest side of Frederick has been as quiet as can be. Hey, I’m not complaining, and never...
If you love rocks, half as much as I do....
Sign up to spend the day with me (Monday, April 6th), there will be plenty to see!
https://ilratfcc.com/portfolio/monsters-of-rock-geology-mobile-workshop/
Monsters of Rock Geology Mobile Workshop 1 session • 6 hours REGISTER Make sure you join us for this exciting Learning on Location opportunity as we set out on an exploration of Frederick County’s …
Next week, I will tell you everything you need to know about TJ with this class for FCC ILR!
https://ilratfcc.com/portfolio/the-life-times-and-death-of-thomas-johnson-jr-new/
https://ilratfcc.com/portfolio/the-frederick-town-history-series-the-1800s/
Image: North Market Street, Frederick MD, c. 1911. Provided by Chris Haugh. Frederick Town History Series – The 1800s3 sessions • 4.5 hours REGISTER Based on the award-winning documentary ser…
"Last call for Mr. Haugh....speaking on the history of Frederick, of course!"
https://ilratfcc.com/portfolio/the-frederick-town-history-series-the-1700s/
Mount Olivet's Chris Haugh will be featured on WFMD's "Frederick's Forum," hosted by Darren Wigfield. The program airs live today (Saturday, Dec. 22) from 12-2pm, and Chris will be talking about Frederick history, the "Stories in Stone" blog series and historic preservation efforts involving the cemetery.
Centennial Commemoration of World War I next weekend and I'm all over it with a class/tour for Frederick Community College's ILR Program in addition to activities at Mt. Olivet Cemetery!
https://ilratfcc.com/portfolio/new-world-war-i-and-frederick/
New! World War I and Frederick 1 session, 5 hours REGISTER November 11, 2018 will mark the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, the official end of World War I. Learn more about Freder…
The United Way of Frederick County just wrapped up their annual Unity Campaign yesterday, and the incomparable "Day of Action" event will take place next week on October 5th! Last spring, I had the privilege of researching, writing and publishing an institutional history on this local non-profit organization celebrating its 80th anniversary in our community. The 4-part blog series lives on the History Shark Productions website archives, but click below to read and acquaint yourself with this fascinating organization and the men and women of our community (past and present) who have made it so successful.
http://www.historysharkproductions.com/living-united-for-80-years-part-i-a-community-chest/living-united-for-80-years-part-i-a-community-chest
1938-1958
I had forgotten about this little "pot of gold" or "boulder of blarney" based on the reader's opinion. Special thanks to Mr. John Wayne Droneburg who sparked my memory by kindly re-posting earlier today on the FANTASTIC "You're Probably From Frederick, MD, If You Remember..." FB site. Happy St. Patrick's to all!
http://www.historysharkproductions.com/blog-hsp-history/local-ties-to-the-emerald-isle
With St. Patrick’s Day upon us once again, I challenged myself to think of obvious, yet non-obvious, places in Frederick County that have been distinctly "Irish" since Frederick’s earliest...
This seems enlightening! Special thanks goes to my mentors in this particular subject discipline, the late Mr. Spencer Geasey and wife Nancy.
http://luckettsruritan.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/HistoryEvent_Flyer_Alt_FINAL.pdf
A well-themed piece of Frederick history for this particular day...
http://www.mountolivetcemeteryinc.com/stories-in-stone-blog/fredericks-election-day-murder-of-1883
“Election Day” is upon us once again. Most of the country’s voters will head to the ballot box on Tuesday, November 7th. Why is this day chosen for that of “election day” you may ask? Well,...
Hi all, next Friday (Nov. 10), I (Chris Haugh) will be leading a Civil War tour of related sites and stories in Frederick City and County for Frederick Community College's ILR Program (Institute for Learning in Retirement). Only a handful of spots still remain available on this full-day motor coach excursion. For more info:
https://ilratfcc.com/portfolio/new-frederick-county-and-the-civil-war-tour/
NEW! Frederick County and the Civil War Tour 1 session, 7 hours You won’t want to miss the opportunity to take a full-day history field trip through some of the area’s prime sites for American Civ…
I'm teaching a few more courses for Frederick Community College's "Institute for Learning in Retirement" this month. A 3-week course on Thurmont, Maryland history starts next Tuesday, Nov. 7th (3-4:30pm) and runs for 3 consecutive weeks. I will be showing/discussing my 2014 film documentary "Almost Blue Mountain City." It's not too late to sign-up! For more info, click below...
https://ilratfcc.com/portfolio/new-almost-blue-mountain-city-the-history-of-thurmont-md/
Here's a sample of the documentary:
https://vimeo.com/122133124
My latest article for Mount Olivet Cemetery's "Stories in Stone," and features a Catoctin Furnace/Thurmont area tie-in😀
I borrow the title of this week’s article from a popular guided night hike that occurs this time of year up at the historic Catoctin Iron Furnace and surrounding village. Located just below...
Part 2 of my early history of the Great Frederick Fair in the 19th century!
http://www.historysharkproductions.com/blog-hsp-history/early-roots-of-the-great-frederick-fair-pt2
Another great article by my friend Jake Wynn, program coordinator of the National Museum of CW Medicine! This one focuses on actions at Crampton's Gap (Burkittsville) during the Battle of South Mountain in Sept. 1862. This is of particular interest to me because my GGG Grandfather (John Greenwood) fought in this engagement as a member of Co. D of the 96th Pennsylvania Regiment. The anecdotes presented in Jake's story shed light on what my ancestor once experienced here in what would one day become my home county.
Soldiers from a company in the 96th Pennsylvania describe their experiences in the Battle of South Mountain in September 1862.
Because it's that time again, here's the first installment of a two-part story I posted last year on the early origins of our Great Frederick Fair!
http://www.historysharkproductions.com/blog-hsp-history/early-roots-of-the-great-frederick-fair-pt1
This week marks the 154th edition of the Great Frederick Fair, the largest and greatest county fair in the State of Maryland. The Frederick Fair has quite a storied history, but one I found lacking...
My latest "Stories in Stone" entry from Frederick's Mount Olivet Cemetery site:
http://www.mountolivetcemeteryinc.com/stories-in-stone-blog/captain-ordemans-anchor
The beach is the perfect vacation spot for many of us. There are many factors at its core, having virtually nothing to do with additional recreational perks such as boardwalks, seafood, water slides,...
Last week, we featured a story about unlucky sheep herder named Granville Zacharias. This week, we chronicle Granville's father, a highly revered, and much beloved Frederick minister.
“It is a most instructive and refreshing exercise to sit down and gather around us all the biography of a period–all the journals–all the contemporaneous spiritual history of it, to bring all...
I began this "Stories in Stone" article having no idea that John P. Thomson (1776-1855), founder of the Frederick-Town Herald, had some outstanding family members. His father was a one-time principal of the Newark Academy, the precursor to the University of Delaware (my alma-mater). Thomson's grandfather was the Secretary of the Continental Congress!
http://www.mountolivetcemeteryinc.com/stories-in-stone-blog/heralding-the-8th-of-july
The town of New Castle, Delaware was bubbling over with nervous excitement in early July, 1776. Three weeks earlier on June 15th, the Assembly of the Lower Counties of Pennsylvania met here in the...
The Sad Case of Miss Hooper
The word “misjudge” is defined as having formed a wrong opinion or conclusion about someone, thing or action. It happens all the time, sometimes a person is given a false estimation simply by...
Mount Olivet's "Stories in Stone" this week features a nod to tv show Three's Company and a diatribe on the dangers of misjudgments with the tale of a young lady whose life (and death) was turned upside down because of misinformation.
http://www.mountolivetcemeteryinc.com/stories-in-stone-blog/the-sad-case-of-miss-hooper
The word “misjudge” is defined as having formed a wrong opinion or conclusion about someone, thing or action. It happens all the time, sometimes a person is given a false estimation simply by...
Two World War II participants from Frederick lost their lives on the same day, but one year apart. Both would be brought back home and are forever memorialized at Mount Olivet Cemetery. Learn more with this edition of "Stories in Stone."
http://www.mountolivetcemeteryinc.com/stories-in-stone-blog/may-28th-a-memorial-day-for-frederick
“The flame of love shall burn into our hearts the memory of our noble dead.” These are words written upon the World War II Memorial, located within Mount Olivet Cemetery’s Section EE. The...
"Stories in Stone" introduces you to a woman whose father-in-law served as a prisoner in the Hessian Barracks, her husband drilled there during the War of 1812, and she herself lived here for a period in the mid 19th century.
http://www.mountolivetcemeteryinc.com/stories-in-stone-blog/a-hessian-connection
This week’s subject is Matilda Shawbaker. In the early 1920’s up to her death in 1924, she held the distinction of being the oldest woman in Frederick County, and “oldest-living war widow.”...
I will be teaching a 3-part class for Frederick Community College's ILR (Institute for Learning in Retirement) Program starting next Friday, May 5th (plus the 12th and 19th). Sign up and I reckon' I'll see you there!
https://ilratfcc.com/portfolio/fredericks-connections-to-the-old-wild-west/
NEW! Frederick’s Connections to the Old “Wild West” 3 sessions, 4.5 hours At the time of its creation in 1745, Frederick Town was on the western frontier of Maryland and American European settlemen…
This week's "Stories in Stone" chronicles a family that brought a unique, yet highly needed, manufacturing skill to town. In time they would be "showered" with success!
“ As happy as a pig in mud ” is an age-old idiom still used today. Along similar lines, another popular, pork-related phrase is “He is in hog heaven!” or “She went hog wild!” In all...
A clever name play for this week's Easter-themed "Stories in Stone." Happy Easter to one and all!
http://www.mountolivetcemeteryinc.com/stories-in-stone-blog/happy-oster-tag
Resurrection Sunday is Christianity’s most important day. Whether called Pascha in Greek (and Latin) or Easter, as its most commonly known in the western world, this is a festival and holiday...
With the opening of baseball season, it seems only fitting to feature a Frederick baseball great who spent his lifetime around the game.
Mount Olivet Cemetery has true connections to "America's Pastime," baseball. Of course, the historic burial ground is the final resting place of Francis Scott Key—the guy who gave us “The...
With the opening of baseball season, it seems only fitting to feature a Frederick baseball great that spent his lifetime around the game.
Mount Olivet Cemetery has true connections to "America's Pastime," baseball. Of course, the historic burial ground is the final resting place of Francis Scott Key—the guy who gave us “The...
Frederick, MD
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