A Frederick key without ties to baseball

I consulted a former published work by my friend, and history mentor, John Ashbury for topic inspiration this week--"And all our yesterdays, a chronicle of Frederick County, Maryland.”  John’s book, published in 1997, is centered on the premise of tying history to actual dates, a beautiful art form unto itself for us “history geeks.” The author painstakingly spent years combing through thousands of microfilmed, local newspapers in his research effort to produce a daily chronicle—one that calls out important and noteworthy Frederick County-related events and personalities. Best of all, these are tied to all 365 days of the year as the book can be used in the same vein as that novelty mini tear-off calendar you probably received over the holidays….and equally entertaining I promise!

I find myself utilizing John’s book religiously “time and time again,” (please pardon the unintentional pun) and it occupies a place of honor in my vast collection of historical and archival research resources. So when I looked up today’s date of January 13, I found a reference to one of Frederick’s earliest newspaper publications with a very familiar “Frederick” moniker attached to it. John’s book tells us:

 “January 13, 1798—The first issue of “The Key,” was published by Dr. John D. Cary, who named the newspaper in honor of John Ross Key. It lasted but three years.”

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Cover page of the inaugural issue of The Key (January 13, 1798).

Not that other tidbits on this date of “January 13” were lesser in importance (ie: the death of Hood College foundress Margaret S. Hood (1913), the incorporation of Emmitsburg by an Act of the General Assembly (1825), and the retirement of beloved WFMD radio personality Happy Johnny Zufall (1971)), but this passage resonated with me immediately.


The Key, as I have understood, was styled as somewhat of a “poor man’s” Poor Richard’s Almanac, sharing wit and wisdom, political views, and the price of flour, along with serving as a vehicle for local advertisers of course! I have not been successful in finding the relationship between publisher John Cary and the supposed namesake Key family. However, John Ross Key was a leading individual in the community, local Revolutionary War officer and Frederick County court justice.  His son Francis Scott Key was attending to studies at St. John’s College in Annapolis at this time, long before his patriotic “flag-spotting” days.  

Ironically, one month ago, in mid-December, I found myself engrossed in a Frederick history conversation about John Cary and his fabled newspaper.

I had been invited to lunch by an old friend, who not only has family roots reaching back to Frederick’s founders, she also owns a rare, bound volume of The Key amongst her rich collection of Frederick artifacts and memorabilia. It was on this day that I found myself given the opportunity to hold Cary’s 218 year-old newspaper in my own hands and reading the actual antiquated pages with my own eyes. It was quite a thrill as I had just talked about Cary and his publication last fall during a lecture for my Frederick County Explorations class (Frederick Community College’s Institute for Learning in Retirement program).

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Advertisement for a local portrait painter in the first issue of The Key (January 13, 1798).

Unfortunately, there still seems to be a shroud of mystery surrounding the age-old factoid that appears about Cary and The Key in John Ashbury’s book, along with the same scant mention in numerous other Frederick histories and newspaper articles over the last 150 years. So I went “in search of” John Cary with some home-based book and internet research.  I was already armed with knowledge that there was a connection between the Cary family and Frederick’s St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, something I will cover momentarily.

Beatty-Cramer House, built ca. 1732. Owned and maintained by the Frederick County Landmarks Foundation

In looking at John Cary’s ancestry, I was fascinated to find that he was the great-grandson of Frederick County’s most celebrated female pioneer and early landowner, Susanna Asfordby Beatty.  Susanna Beatty came down from Kingston, Ulster County, New York around 1732, an aged widow accompanied by 8 of her 10 adult children and their families. She acquired a few thousand acres of land from Frederick’s founder Daniel Dulany, and owned much of the vicinity south of today’s Walkersville, stretching from the Monocacy River to Mt. Pleasant. You may recognize the family name as it adorns Frederick’s oldest “still-standing” dwelling, the Beatty-Cramer house on MD26 just east of Ceresville at Israel’s Creek.

One of Susanna’s sons was Thomas Beatty, Chief Justice of the 1765 Frederick County Court that gave us the legendary Stamp Act Repudiation of 1765 (recently commemorated locally in honor of its 250th anniversary).  Susanna also gave us William Beatty, John Cary’s maternal grandfather. William would acquire the “home plantation” (today’s Glade Valley Farms) upon his mother’s death in 1745. William’s daughter Mary would be raised here, and would eventually wed an Irish merchant (possibly a printer and/or physician) by the name of John Cary (1717-1777). Our subject, John Dow Cary, would come from this union, and was likely the oldest child among a number of siblings, many of which would eventually head to Ohio around 1830.

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The first Catholic Church in Frederick County, located on East Patrick Street. Father John Williams had constructed a chapel on the second floor.

The elder John Cary had a major role in providing property for the first Catholic Church in Frederick County. He owned several small parcels in Frederick dating back to the 1750’s, but donated lots 97, 98, and 99 in October, 1765 for the measly sum of five shillings, having paid fifty times that amount just a few years prior. The lots were on the north side of East 2nd Street, directly across the street from present St. John the Evangelist Church (not constructed until 1833). A small brick building on the former Cary property, two stories in height, would begin serving the Catholic community under the leadership of Father John Williams. This humble building would continue to do so until Rev. John Dubois would began building his Church of Saint John in the year 1800. 

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Rev. Dubois' Church of St. John, built 1800 on NW corner of East 2nd St. and Chapel Alley.

This impressive structure would be located on the same cluster of former Cary properties on the north side of East Second Street, specifically on the corner lot that aligns today’s aptly named Chapel Alley. In 1834, DuBois’s church would be entombed within the Jesuit Novitiate that stretched nearly the entire block.

Late 19th century view of the Jesuit Novitiate Academy built in 1834 and located on the former Cary lots (north side of East 2nd Street). It would stay in use until 1902, at which point the Jesuit Order relocated to Poughkeepsie, NY.

The younger John Cary is said to have been born in Frederick County and was a physician as well. Like his father, we know with confidence that this John Cary of Frederick Town would serve as a printer/publisher.  He began helping John Winter with his newspaper weekly Rights of Man which had a run from 1794-1800, and was printed in a shop on West Patrick street across from Mrs. Kimboll’s Tavern. He would begin publishing The Key in 1798 and would continue through 1800. It has also been recorded that Cary had a business relationship with Mathias Bartgis, the German immigrant who gave Frederick the Maryland Chronicle, it’s first English language newspaper, originally established in January, 1786.   
 

Special editor's note from the very first issue of The Key (January 13, 1798)

The younger John Cary is said to have been born in Frederick County and was a physician as well. Like his father, we know with confidence that this John Cary of Frederick Town would serve as a printer/publisher.  He began helping John Winter with his newspaper weekly Rights of Man which had a run from 1794-1800, and was printed in a shop on West Patrick street across from Mrs. Kimboll’s Tavern. He would begin publishing The Key in 1798 and would continue through 1800. It has also been recorded that Cary had a business relationship with Mathias Bartgis, the German immigrant who gave Frederick the Maryland Chronicle, it’s first English language newspaper, originally established in January, 1786.
  
I found a reference to John D. Cary in Edward Papenfuse’s “A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature 1635-1789” (Volume 426, Page 202-203). Not a resounding character sketch, but it states that Cary was married and possibly had a son, but names remain unknown. Cary is noted for his participation in the Revolutionary War, serving as a sergeant with the Maryland Militia in 1777, an ensign with the Second Maryland Regiment in 1781 and achieved the rank of 2nd lieutenant in 1781. He resigned his commission in April 1783 and promptly represented Frederick County in the Lower House of Maryland’s General Assembly in 1784 and 1785. His recorded occupations include physician and planter. Papenfuse’s biography points out the fact that John Cary grew significantly in wealth between the time of his first election to his death.

LAND AT FIRST ELECTION: 1 lot in Frederick Town, Frederick County; a house in Baltimore Town, Baltimore County (from his father's will).
SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN LAND BETWEEN FIRST ELECTION AND DEATH: acquired at least 1,665 acres in Maryland and Virginia; he and his brothers deeded their interest in their father's estate in trust to George French and Jacob Young, on Aug. 8, 1791, and then Cary sought relief as an insolvent debtor from the Assembly, which was granted on Dec. 30, 1791.
WEALTH AT DEATH. Had received a warrant for 200 acres of federal land to which he was entitled for his service as a lieutenant in the Continental Army.

John D. Cary ceased publishing in 1800, the same year he received his “bounty lands” for military service. Perhaps he sold them and retired on his profit margin? John P. Thomson would pick up where Cary left off with the introduction of Frederick’s new newspaper in 1802, under the name of The Frederick Town Herald. John Cary died just a few years later on October 12, 1804 in Frederick (as was reported in a Hagerstown newspaper five days later).

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Portion of the 1790 First Federal Census showing John Dow Cary in Frederick-Town.

I have, however, uncovered the “key” to a new irony and hidden connection through researching and writing this blog. It is one between our main subject, John D. Cary, and the man who gave me the impetus for it, author-historian John W. Ashbury. The fact that both men are named John is just the tip of the iceberg.

John W. Ashbury -Journalist, author, historian, mentor, friend

John Cary was an early newspaper man having familial connections to Glade Valley and the Walkersville area, not to mention a father who helped foster religion in our community. On the other hand, John Ashbury has been a lifelong newspaper columnist for several publications which include the Frederick News-Post, Baltimore Sun and the Glade Times and Mountain Mirror, with the latter serving his long-time former home of Walkersville and surrounding Glade Valley. We know that the Cary’s had a religious tie in to Frederick, what about John Ashbury? Well, John came to Frederick in 1952, when his father (Maurice Ashbury) became rector of All Saints Episcopal Church, a structure built in 1855 and located on West Church Street.  Most interesting of all, the property this stately church sits on today was the original Frederick Town Lot #70—first owned by John Cary’s father, John Cary Sr.

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