The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-05-01
Demolition Ofthe Home of Barbara Fritchie

| The last remnant of the old house where
| Barbara Fritchie lived and toiled has been
removed and laborers are now employed
in digging some ten feet below the original
foundation, as if to root out the spot of
! earth upon which it stood. A few days
more and the tourist, the patriot, and the
poet will have pointed to them the muddy
waters of Carroll Creek as where once stood
I the wierd old home of the faithful defender
. of her country's flag.
! 1t seems to have been the determination
of our city authorities to erase from the
memory of man that the g Fritchie woman
ever lived, and guided by this desire, the
first step was to destroy the house i'll which
she had lived, and where to Stonewall Jack
son
"Shoot if you must, this old grey head
But spare your country's flag, she said, -
and to the accomplishment of this object
they turned all the genius and ability with
which nature has SO literally gifted Them
, They first passed an ordinance to widen and
seraighten Carroll Greek; they then decided
that the Fritchie house was in the line of
the proposed improvement, and then agreed
to ''wipe the damned spot out"
s'Barbara Fritchie's work is DER
The rebel rides his raids no more
Yet the rebel spirit was predominant, and
to crafty the hatred of the house rendered
immortal by the pen of the poet, they have
in straightening the creek, absolutely made
which they aimed. Sagacious men! know
| they not that ''the blood of the martyrs is
the seed of the church?' The name of
Barbara Fritcllie long shall live after that
of those who, dressed in Il little brief au-
lhority," shall have passed away forever
The tuneful Nine have it in care, and po-
etry and song shall watt it down to future
ages, and men shall say that Whittier wrote
when Barbara lived.
Now that the long loved picturesque lit
tie house has gone forever, an air of TO
nance and of mystery is thrown around it
and it's history which could never have
|
to the view, and as over the old site the
sluggish waters of the creek flow towards
the sea, they will yet whisper the name of
Barbara to free and loyal people. Pho
topraphs have been taken of it, and the
pencils of artists will present it as pictured
to the eye of genius, and their conceptions
will vet adorn the palace and the cottage,
wherever breathes that patriotic love of
country of which Barbara Frtche is the
embodiment, and her house the standpoint.
On the desk before me I have two photo
graphs, ono of the good old woman, the
other of the strange old-fashioned house.
That of the house is now doubly dear to
to ME, and in a few years will be priceless.
The firm yet gentle features Of the old lady
look ON me kindly as | write, and seom to
smile as make the proposition that a mon
ument on which shall be recorded her pa
triotism and heroism shall be erected in this
city to her memory. On the pedestal might
be inscribed
Cup rose Barbara Fritchie then,
Bowed with her four score years and ten,
Bravest of all in Frederick-town,
She took up the flag the men hauled down,
In her attic window the staff she set
To show that one heart was loyal yet
Thus did the Romans of their matrons.-
Let some one more able than | take up this
subject, and the necessary money can be
quickly raised, if not here, in those parts
of the country, where honor and patriotism
are still held in reverence, and the love for
the old flag still burns warm and true.
Frederick Examiner.