THE Friendship OF THE Friend Family Association OF AMERICA Visit Our Website at www.friendfamilyassociation.com NEWS Cumberland Gathering Special Edition P.O. Box 96 Friendsville, Maryland 21531 March 2016 Gathering of Friends 2016 (40th Anniversary) Tentative Gathering Agenda (Subject To Change) Thursday June 23 Headquarters will be open for the afternoon for those wishing to stop in Friendsville, MD Seminar registration desk will be open at 1:00 p.m. Thursday at the Ramada Inn or 9:00 Friday. Meals are on your own for the day. Friday June 24 Schedule is open to allow time to visit Cumberland sites, including but not limited to the Allegany County Museum. 2:30: Guided tour of Canal Place in Cumberland, MD and going aboard a canal boat replica. Meals for the day are on your own. Friday evening 7:00, at the Ramada, National Park Ranger will speak regarding Cumberland being the early transportation hub, followed by an Ice Cream Social. Saturday, June 25 At the Ramada. Opening. Show and Share (please bring something of interest to present to the group), Lunch Bus tour to Old Town, MD (formerly Opessa Town) and the Paw Paw Tunnel 1:00-4:00 p.m. Seating on the bus limited to about first 40 paid registrations. Group photograph Dinner Evening program Sunday June 26 A brief service, biennial meeting of the FFAA, election of three Board Members, Adjournment. Closing at Noon.
RAMADA CUMBERLAND DOWNTOWN Gathering Location RAMADA CUMBERLAND DOWNTOWN 100 South George Street, Cumberland, Maryland, 21502 Phone: 1-301-724-8800 Check in: After 3:00 PM Check out: Before 12:00 PM The Friend Family Association has received a special group rate of$ 94.00 dollars (plus tax). We have reserved a block of rooms under the name of the Friend Family Association of America and it is important you mention that you re reservation is part of this organization to receive the special rate. The block of rooms will be held until May 23, 2016. After that date, FFAA attendees can make reservations but won t get the $94.00 rate. Since the block of rooms set aside will be released, making reservations at that hotel may not be possible. About the Ramada Cumberland Downtown (Description from the hotel) Pet-Friendly, Full-Service Hotel with Free Hot Breakfast and Event Facilities in Historic Downtown Tucked in charming downtown Cumberland and surrounded by the rolling green hills of the Appalachians, our Ramada Cumberland Downtown hotel is your place for a productive and relaxing stay in western Maryland. Celebrate a milestone or host a conference in our flexible meeting space, with the help of onsite catering and staff event planners. Relax in the evenings at Harrigan's, our on-site bar and lounge, or work out in the fitness center. Enjoy free cooked-to-order breakfast each morning, and during peak occupancy we also offer a buffet to help speed you along your day. Our free Wi-Fi Internet with 24-Hour support keeps you connected throughout the entire property, in meeting spaces and in guest rooms. A coffee/tea maker, microwave, refrigerator and flat-screen TV comes standard in every guest room. LOCAL ATTRACTIONS Camp, swim or rent a motorboat at Rocky Gap State Park, only 8 miles from our Cumberland hotel. Walk the towpath of the historic C and O Canal, just a quarter of a mile from our hotel at the Western Maryland Railway Station. CSX Transportation, Hunter Douglas, AES Power Plant and FEMA are all within 8 miles of our hotel. DINING OPTIONS Try the crab pizza at the Baltimore Street Grill or, walk over to Curtis Famous Weiners, which are both a few blocks from the hotel. The brunch is fresh and delicious at Cafe Mark, also a short walk from our hotel. For a sweet frozen treat walk over to Queen City Creamery, which is just around the block. BUSINESS AND EVENT FACILITIES Five meeting spaces of varying sizes, including banquet facilities, have a combined capacity of 400, and we have staff planners to make everything go smoothly. Our business center offers computer access as well as copy, fax, print and shipping services. The Friendship News Page 2
RAMADA CUMBERLAND DOWNTOWN (Continued) The Main Entrance Guest Room The Hotel Lobby The Friendship News Page 3
Canal Place (Guided Tour and Canal Boat) Cumberland Basin, end of Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, looking at Guard Lock #8 which opened into the Potomac River/Wills Creek. Bridge is Highway 68 / US 220 / US 40. Brick building beyond bridge is Canal Place / Western Maryland railroad station. The canal boat replica The Cumberland at Canal Place, Cumberland MD. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal basin is in the background. The Friendship News Page 4
Tour Bus Sights (Old Town, formerly Opessa) Michael Cresap House Michael Cresap was the son of the celebrated pioneer Colonel Thomas Cresap (c. 1702 c.1790). He spent part of his adult years in the Ohio Country as a trader and land developer. He led several raids against Indians whom he believed were hostile to white settlement. The war leader Logan (c. 1723? 1780), of the Mingo Indians, accused Cresap of murdering his family. In fact, the killings were almost certainly perpetrated by Daniel Greathouse, yet Cresap was immortalized in Logan's speech quoted in Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia (1785) as the murderer of Logan's family. As a result of the murders, Logan waged war on the settlements along the Ohio and in western Pennsylvania, killing, perhaps, nearly thirty men, women and children. Lord John Murray Dunmore, the British Royal Governor of Virginia, raised an army and appointed Cresap to the rank of captain. The decisive battle of Dunmore's War was the Battle of Point Pleasant (10 October 1774) in Virginia (now West Virginia). Here Dunmore's forces defeated a band of Shawnee Indians led by Cornstalk. After Lord Dunmore's War, Cresap returned to Maryland and subsequently raised a company of riflemen for the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He died from illness in New York City while in the service of the army; he is interred there in Trinity Church Cemetery. Continued on page 6 The Friendship News Page 5
Tour Bus Sights (Old Town, formerly Opessa) Continued from page 5 Colonel Thomas Cresap (c.1702 c.1790) was an English-born pioneering settler and trader in the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania. He is something of a founding father from the dark side in American Colonial history, both reviled and admired. Cresap served Lord Baltimore as an agent in the 'Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary dispute' that became known as Cresap's War south of what became Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. Later, together with the Native American chief Nemacolin, Cresap improved a Native American path to the Ohio Valley, and ultimately settled and became a large landowner near Cumberland, Maryland where he became involved in further disputes near- Brownsville, Pennsylvania including in the French and Indian War and Lord Dunmore's War. Cresap was born in Skipton, Yorkshire, England, and emigrated across the Atlantic Ocean to the Maryland colony when 15 years old. In 1723 he gave his occupation as that of a carpenter. He initially settled at the mouth of the Susquehanna River on the Chesapeake, on the lower end of a floodplain called the Conejohela Valley, and built boats. In 1725 Cresap married Hannah Johnson, whose father, Thomas Johnson, had surveyed Mount Johnson Island, at Peach Bottom Ferry. Cresap moved farther west to within two miles (3 km) of present-day Cumberland, Maryland, where he again embarked in the Indian trade. This area, the Cumberland Narrows mountain pass led into the Monongahela River valley. During the 1740s, colonials were petitioning the crown to obtain lands of the so-called Ohio Country across the Allegheny Mountains from the Indians. The Cumberland narrows is one of only five navigable routes over the Appalachian Mountains barrier range. Cresap founded what is now Oldtown, Maryland by building a trading post at the foot of the Amerindian trail over Wills Mountain (renamed Haystack now near Cresaptown). The colonials wanted the crown to open these possessions for settlement, and give them out under charter in the same old way, through the crown's minister. Cresap also sent traders over the pass and explored personally in Amerindian lands along the Monongahela upriver of Redstone Old Forts. Although Maryland's land grant ended at the crest of the Appalachian mountains, both Pennsylvania and Virginia claimed their land grants continued westward, so the land claimed by Cresap and his traders west of the Appalachians ultimately became part of upper West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. Cresap fought a number of skirmishes with the Indians and stood his ground, assisted by his wife and later his sons. When the French and their allies attempted to seize the territory west of the Allegheny Mountains from the English, Cresap and his sons at their own expense raised two companies of volunteer soldiers. During the French and Indian War, Cresap raised a company of Rangers. Cresap, in his later years, was a large landholder. He became totally blind a few years before his death. He married a second time, to Margaret Milburn, when he was eighty years of age. He died in c.1790 at his home in Allegany County, Maryland, aged eighty-eight. The Friendship News Page 6
Tour Bus Sights (The Paw Paw Tunnel) The Paw Paw Tunnel The Paw Paw Tunnel is a 3,118-foot (950 m) long canal tunnel on thechesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O) in Allegany County, Maryland. Located near Paw Paw, West Virginia, it was built to bypass the Paw Paw Bends, a 6-mile (9.7 km) stretch of the Potomac River containing five horseshoeshaped bends. The town, the bends, and the tunnel take their name from the pawpaw trees that grow prolifically along nearby ridges. At Paw Paw, the canal engineers had a quandary with no easy solutions: follow the river, with its cliffs which would have required crossing over to West Virginia, damming the river to make a slackwater and hacking out from the cliffs on the Maryland side, or making a tunnel. The newly appointed engineer, Charles B. Fisk, managed to convince the board of directors of the tunnel, and the tunnel plan was approved in February 1836, with an expected completion date of July 1838. Lee Montgomery, a Methodist minister who had experience from building the canal tunnel for the Union Canal ] was awarded the contract on March 15, 1836. Construction on the tunnel began in 1836. In 1848, a subcontract was let to McCulloch and Day to finish the tunnel. The tunnel was opened for traffic (and essentially completed) in 1850, but the brick liner was not finished until after the tunnel The Friendship News Page 7
A Few Other Sights To See on Your Own The Western Maryland Scenic Railroad Headquarters of George Washington in its Riverside Park location The Friendship News Page 8
Meals and Entertainment on Your Own The Downtown Cumberland Historic District, also referred to as the Downtown Cumberland Mall, is the main shopping and dining district for the city of Cumberland, Maryland. Stroll historic and picturesque Downtown Cumberland and you ll discover a spectrum of restaurants, sidewalk cafes, antique stores, boutiques, art galleries, arts, history and entertainment. It s a one stop shop full of live performances, visual arts. Notable buildings include City Hall, the Bell Tower, Public Safety Building, B'er Chayim Temple, Second National Bank, Third National Bank, Fort Cumberland Hotel,Embassy Theatre and Rosenbaum's Department Store. The Friendship News Page 9
EXECUTIVE BOARD ELECTIONS We will be voting for three open positions on the Executive Board (one for president). Below are the biographies for the two ending board positions: Biographical Sketch: Ronald (Ronn) Friend My grandfather, Smith McClelland Friend, often referred to our Sang Run, Maryland clan as criss-cross and crossing Friends due to the many crossings of our family lines. One such crossing occurred when he married Adelia Alice Friend, his third cousin. He was a Sang Run Friend, she a Friendsville Friend. I knew from the framed family tree that hung in our family room displaying my father Ralph s lineage, that my 5th great grandfather was Nicolas Friend, whose son John Friend, Sr. was my 4th great grandfather. But most amazing for me was the fact that three of John Sr. s sons were my 3rd great grandfathers (John Jr., Joseph, and Charles). In some fashion my father continued this blending of family lines when he married my mother Susan Whorton, whose stepmother Mary Friend Whorton was his first cousin once removed. Over the years I have come to appreciate this wonderful crisscrossing of family lines as well as the crisscrossing of my ancestors as they moved westward to Ohio, Missouri and Illinois -- and places in between and beyond. How great it is to carry the Friend surname and to explore the many crossings of that name! This past summer I had the wonderful opportunity to serve as a volunteer at the Friend Family Museum and Library in Friendsville and work alongside some very special dedicated and innovative folk who also volunteered their time and talents to keep the library/museum open. I eagerly anticipate being at the library/museum again this summer! Since August 2015, I have served on the FFAA Board of Directors, being appointed to fill a vacancy. I look forward to continuing to serve on the FFAA Board and to explore ways with Board members and the FFAA membership to expand research opportunities at the FFAA library, including the digitization of genealogical records and working with organizations and higher education institutions in the area to line up interns and volunteers to help with the work of the library/museum. I am also willing to assist in exploring grant opportunities to further the work of our organization. I was raised on a small family farm in Sang Run, Maryland, where I now have my retirement home. I am a retired educator, having been a classroom teacher, a school principal, and district administrator before serving in administrative and leadership positions with the Maryland State Department of Education and the United States Department of Education. For five years I was a member of an international rural development team in Mexico with the Methodist Board of Global Ministries where I worked with Mexican federal and state officials to establish early childhood centers and adult Spanish literacy classes. I hold a doctorate in social and philosophical foundations of education from the University of Southern California. Biographical Sketch: Jeff Custer I have been a member of the Friend Family Association since 1987 (member # 564) and at the last Gathering (2014) was asked by the board to complete an open position. I have also been working on the newsletter for a number of years and started a larger digital newsletter in conjunction with the printed newsletter in 2012, hoping to decrease the cost that is incurred with the printed version. Also developed and maintained the FFAA s current website for almost ten years (updated in 2014) as well as the monthly e-communique, created a FaceBook page and am currently developing a YouTube channel for the FFAA. Additionally, I have assisted with technology at our headquarters. The Friendship News Page 10
2016 Friend Gathering RAMADA CUMBERLAND DOWNTOWN 100 South George Street, Cumberland, Maryland, 21502 Phone: 1-301-724-8800 Check in: After 3:00 PM Check out: Before 12:00 PM All hotel reservations must be held with a major credit card or advance deposit when guests register with the hotel no later than May 15,2016 Cost of lodging is the sole responsibility of attendees. The Inn provides its guests with a continental breakfast at the Inn ***Mention you are with the FFAA Gathering to receive group rate*** Registration Fees For the Gathering Members $70.00 Non-members $75.00 Early bird registrations before May 15, 2016 Members $65 - Non-members $70.00 "Pre-Registration insures your meals for Saturday. On sight registrations will not be guaranteed meals. FFAA Staff will be available for registrations at the door Thursday June 23, at 1:00 pm. and Friday, June 24 at 9:00 all day. Please stop by for your program and other Gathering information. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * (cut) NAME: ADDRESS: PHONE: AMOUNT REMITTED NUMBER OF PEOPLE ATTENDING: Will you be attending the bus tour on Saturday, June 25? Seats are only available for the first 40 people, after which transportation is on your own. Please Circle Your Choice: YES NO HOW MANY PEOPLE Make checks payable to FFAA and mail to: Pat Thompson, 5910 Lawrence Ct. Adamstown, MD 21710 For online registration and payment using PayPal visit our website Gathering page at: http://www.friendfamilyassociation.com/gathering/ The Friendship News Page 11
Thursday June 23, 2016 Headquarters will be open for the afternoon for those wishing to stop in Friendsville. Friend Family Association of America 261 Maple St, Friendsville, MD 21531 (301) 746-4690 The Friendship News is the official publication of the Friend Family Association of America, published semi-annually, in May and November. Complimentary copies are sent to libraries and genealogical organizations upon request. Members may submit historical records, news items and queries; published as space allows. The Friend Family Association of America P. O. Box 96, Friendsville, MD 21531 Email: president@friendfamilyassociation.com Internet: www.friendfamilyassociation.com The Friend Family Association of America, Inc., a tax exempt publicly supported organization under Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, engaged in the collection, recording, preserving and sharing of historical and genealogical data. Membership is open to all persons regardless of name, race, creed or place of origin. Two classes of membership are available: Individual Regular member, $25.00 per year; Individual Life member $250.00. FRIEND FAMILY ASSOC. OF AMERICA P.O. BOX 96 FRIENDSVILLE, MD 21531