Society Of Carroll

A hand-carved wooden doll created by a slave is among the hundreds of cherished toys on display in "Childhood Playthings," an exhibit at the Historical Society of Carroll County in Westminster. "Childhood Playthings," which continues through spring at the Shriver-Weybright Exhibition Gallery, features hundreds of dolls and toys that have been donated to the society since it was formed in 1939. Items range from a French bisque doll from the late 1860s to a Pinocchio figure that was created when the Disney movie was released in 1940.

A simple game of rolling marbles into the correct "stall" - also known as a slot in a cardboard box - had participants giggling on the morning of Feb. 18. The youth, ranging in age from 3 to 6 years, were enjoying learning about games of yesteryear as part of the ongoing series, "Past Times for Children," at the Historical Society of Carroll County. This is the first year for the program, which was created by volunteer Wendy Raith as a way to attract more people - particularly youngsters and parents - to the museum.

A hundred years ago, Carroll County farmers would have concluded the harvest season with a combination corn-husking marathon and barn dance -- all under one roof that sheltered the farm animals and a banquet table full of homemade fare.Modernization and suburbia have rendered those old-fashioned dances obsolete, but the Historical Society of Carroll County re-created the festivity Saturday. The society replaced its black-tie ball with a red-bandanna barn dance to honor the county's agricultural history.

Fire training center is topic of meeting The county commissioners and Carroll County Volunteer Emergency Services Association will sponsor a meeting on the proposed fire training center in Linwood at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Union Bridge fire hall, 8 W. Locust St. Residents are encouraged to offer suggestions to help the training center complement the community. The fire training center is expected to be built on McKinstry's Mill Road on 40 acres of land donated by Lehigh Cement Co. All Linwood area residents are encouraged to attend.

The Historical Society of Carroll County has appointed a Philadelphia historian and administrator as its executive director, replacing Jay Graybeal, who is taking another post with the society. The society's board of trustees chose Michael J. Lane, executive director of the Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks since 1995, after a seven-month search. Lane previously served as director of the Glensheen Mansion, a historical site on the campus of University of Minnesota at Duluth.

Paper preservation to be topic of lunch at historical society The Historical Society of Carroll County will hold its monthly box lunch talk at noon Tuesday at Church of the Ascension, 23 N. Court St., Westminster. Catherine Baty, the society's curator of collections, will discuss paper preservation - why paper deteriorates and how to handle and preserve paper artifacts and documents. Participants should take a lunch. Beverage and dessert will be provided. Admission is $2 for nonmembers; free for historical society members.

M. Elizabeth MacGill, a retired English teacher and former president of the Humane Society of Carroll County Inc., died Saturday of a stroke at Westminster Nursing and Convalescent Center, where she had lived since March 1994. She was 91.Miss MacGill taught English at Garrison and Pimlico junior high schools and other Baltimore area schools. She retired in the late 1960s. Before she moved to the nursing home, Miss MacGill lived in a Westminster farm house. Miss MacGill had blue eyes and a passion for that color.

The Executive Board of the Choral Arts Society of Carroll County metrecently to re-organize.The following officers were named: Julia Hitchcock, president; Paul Maxey, vice president; Barbara Lambert, secretary; John Knox, treasurer.Other board members are: Dorothy Carpenter, Nancy Edwards, Maryellen Richter, Dorothy Saunders, Peggy Stackhouse, Jim Young, EstaleDaniel (accompanist), and Clarence Moyers (immediate past-president).Guest conductor for the spring concert at 3 p.m. May 5 in Baker Chapel at Western Maryland College will be Patricia Sparti, director of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Choral Society and Chamber Orchestra.

The Historical Society of Carroll County will receive one of five state awards in Annapolis next month for outstanding work in historical preservation.The society will be cited by the Maryland Historical Trust for authenticity in restoring the Sherman-Fisher-Shellman House in Westminster and for the accompanying research into the history of architecture in Maryland.The house, built in 1807, is the society's flagship house museum. The project to restore it began in 1983 with money raised through the state, businesses and individuals.

50 Years Ago* Music night was held at the weekly meeting of the Kiwanis Club. Lowell S. Ensor, chairman of the music committee, was in charge of the program. A quartet composed of Paul F. Kuhns, Paul C. Bonsack, Miles S. Reifsnider and Ralph G. Hoffman, sang several selections. -- Democratic Advocate, July 30, 1943.75 Years Ago* On Monday, 15 persons from this section were called to Westminster and fined $5.95 each for failure to have their automobile lights turned on the evening of July 1. These persons were among our most law-abiding citizens and the circumstances . . . were rather peculiar.

Esther L. Shriver, who loved home economics and history, died Thursday of heart failure at Carroll Hospital Center. The Union Mills resident was 77. She was born Esther Schracengost in Rural Valley, Pa. She received a bachelor's degree in home economics from Pennsylvania State University in 1950 and was a member of the Delta Zeta Sorority. While in college, she met her future husband, James M. Shriver Jr. They married March 2, 1951, at St. Mary's Chapel in Westminster. Mrs. Shriver first taught home economics to high school students in Pennsylvania, but she soon moved to Maryland and began teaching at Westminster High School, where she worked for about three years.

Dishes, crystal, furniture and the earliest of photographs passed down through generations of Carroll County families are giving visitors to a Westminster exhibit insights into 19th-century life. The Historical Society of Carroll County is showing "Cherished Possessions: Artifacts from Carroll County's Early Families, 1780-1900" to demonstrate how the county evolved, how commerce and agriculture thrived and how residents went about their daily lives. The society, which includes about 850 households, has chosen 50 pieces - some never before displayed - from the more than 40,000 objects in its collection.

The Historical Society of Carroll County has chosen for its new executive director a woman who board members say has an impressive resume with experience in marketing, communications and advertising. Timatha S. "Timmi" Pierce, who runs a horse farm in Finksburg, will assume leadership of the 66-year-old society tomorrow. "I am looking forward with great anticipation to the job," Pierce said. "At 65, I am almost as old as the society, but I promise to bring a lot of oomph to it." Her priorities will center on development, communication and preservation of the society's buildings, a cluster of historically significant structures in downtown Westminster.

Casey, a 2-year-old German shepherd, waited in a kennel at the Humane Society of Carroll County as an employee prepared to take her to visit with a potential adoptive family. Casey scampered out of the kennel and followed the employee to another room, passing sheets of plastic hanging on the other side of the hall that block the wing where half of the dog kennels are being renovated. She is one of several dogs - along with a large white goose - inhabiting a limited number of kennels during the renovation project.

Casey, a 2-year-old German shepherd, waited in a kennel at the Humane Society of Carroll County as an employee prepared to take her to visit with a potential adoptive family. Casey scampered out of the kennel and followed the employee to another room, passing sheets of plastic hanging on the other side of the hall that block the wing where half of the dog kennels are being renovated. She is one of several dogs - along with a large white goose - inhabiting a limited number of kennels during the renovation project.

Renovations to a century-old schoolhouse in Sykesville could begin before winter weather further damages the building.Town officials would like to restore the one-room building, once the only school for African-American students in South Carroll, and make it into museum."

Resting in the middle of a large room is a large silver cup, once belonging to Robert W. Walden, former owner of Bolling Brook Farm north of Uniontown. It was the last trophy his racehorse won. In another room in a corner rests a marble bust by artist William Rinehart.By tomorrow, both of these objects, with more than 200 others, will be in their places in the Historical Society of Carroll County's new Shriver-Weybright Exhibition Gallery.The new exhibition, "Doorway to the Past," opens to members tomorrow and to the public Nov. 20.According to the society's director, Jay Graybeal, the exhibit attempts to tell a story about the way Carroll county residents lived in years past.