American Chestnut Land Trust

a land conservancy

  • Home
  • About
    • What We Do
    • Staff and Board
    • Mission and History
    • Reports, Publications and Slides
    • ACLT Blog
    • Latest Newsletter
    • Newsletter Search Page
    • ACLT Press Kit
    • Contact Us
  • Climate Change
  • Land & Maps
    • Trails and Trailheads
    • Double Oak Farm
    • The Land
    • Watershed Ecology
    • Parkers Creek Heritage Trail
      • Holly Hill History
      • Holly Hill Log Barn
      • Preserving the Holly Hill Log Barn
      • Indigenous People in the Vicinity of Parkers Creek
    • Cultural History
  • Support ACLT
    • Ways to Support ACLT
    • ACLT Merchandise
    • General Donation
    • Join/Renew Membership
    • Friends Forever – Planned Giving
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Volunteer
    • Volunteer Hours
    • Calendar of Events
    • Guided Canoe Trips
    • Conserve Your Land
    • Watershed Friends Groups
      • Friends of Hunting Creek
      • Friends of St. Leonard Creek
      • Friends of Mill Creek
  • Join/Renew
  • Donate
Home / Archives for crm

William H. and Suddie Commodore: A Parkers Creek Family

February 3, 2023 By crm

This blog was written by Kirsti Uunila and Carl Fleischhauer and depended upon Shelby Cowan’s research at the National Archives.  An early version of this draft benefited from advice from the ACLT board members Darlene Harrod and Shirley Knight.

ACLT’s Parkers Creek Heritage Trail project has assembled information about several African American families in the Parkers Creek area. One example is the family led by William H. (1861-1938) and Suddie Commodore (1871-1951). Her name is sometimes spelled Sudie or Saddie in records; her maiden name may have been Boom, also spelled Boome. As the map in this blog indicates, their land flanked Parkers Creek and, in part, occupied the northwestern segment of what is today called Warriors Rest.  Research continues and new findings may lead us to adjust the account that follows.

William H. Commodore was almost certainly the grandson of an enslaved couple and the nephew of a Civil War soldier.  As late as the 1930s (and perhaps a bit beyond), the Commodores owned about 220 acres of land, most of which is now owned by the ACLT or the State of Maryland DNR.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the Commodores acquired at least five or six properties in south of Parkers Creek. This map prepared by Art Cochran shows four of those properties, containing a total of 171 ¾ acres. “WHC” stands for William H. Commodore. 1, 2, 3, and 4 indicate sequence of purchases, followed by year of purchase.

William H. Commodore and his family mastered a range of interests and skills beyond the farming that was no doubt their main source of income. Census data for 1940 names two of William and Suddie’s sons, John and Willis, and identifies their occupations as “Laborer” and “Fishing Nets.”  The latter is almost certainly a reference to their employment at Frank Richardson’s pound net operation at the mouth of Parkers Creek, a short walk from the Commodore home. 

An earlier newspaper item hints at an earlier connection to local fisheries.  The July 22, 1911, issue of the Calvert Gazette, carries William H. Commodore’s advertisement of a $25 reward for “information that will lead to identification of the party who cut my gasoline launch loose from her anchorage at Parker’s Creek and set it adrift in the bay Saturday night.” It is impossible to be certain from this notice, but the amount of the reward and the terminology “gasoline launch” suggest that this may have been a workboat for use in commercial fishing.

The occasional synergy between farming and Richardson’s pound net operation is expressed by a reminiscence from another fishing crew member.  In a 1999 interview, Bill Tettimer told about going to the Richardson’s fishing shanty and net yard during an exceptional snow storm in the winter of 1941.  “We went up there to mend twine,” Tettimer said, and “we was stuck in there for a week, and that Saturday night, we had to have three–the oxen–the Commodore boys, there was eight of ’em, had two oxen to get us out of that Parkers Creek. . . oxen pulling them two automobiles. . . Commodores owned the oxen.”

William H. and Suddie Commodore’s former home, September 1995. We believe that the segment to the right, with symmetrical window placement and a central door, is the older portion, and that the segment to the left, which has a cellar, is a newer addition. All photographs by Carl Fleischhauer.
William H. and Suddie Commodore’s former home, September 1995. It stands on high ground to maximize cool breezes in summer.
Shed (at center), grape arbor (foreground) and large apple tree (behind shed) at William H. and Suddie Commodore’s former home, September 1995.
House, shed, and apple tree (at far left) from behind, November 1998.

We cannot be fully certain of the connection, but the records of the 23rd Regiment of the U.S. Colored Infantry include service records for a man named William Commodore of Calvert County, who enlisted in February 1864 at age 21 and is listed as missing in action in July of that year. Images of the documents are shown below. We believe this to have been William H. Commodore’s uncle and one of his namesakes. We have not identified the Civil War soldier’s brother who would have been William H. Commodore’s father.

Documents from the service record for an earlier William Commodore who enlisted in the USCT in 1864.  We believe this to have been the uncle of the William H. Commodore, the subject of this blog. Click to enlarge.

In addition to the U.S. Colored Infantry records, we base our account on two other forms of documentation: (1) pension records associated with the Civil War military service, and (2) an enumeration in the 1880 federal census.

The pension records chronicle an application process that lasted for more than twenty years. The earliest documents date from 1867, when a William Commodore appeared before a Justice of the Peace and testified that his son, William, died in action at Petersburg, Virginia on July 30, 1864, leaving no wife or children. A later census record tells us that this elder William Commodore was born in about 1820; his wife Ellen was born in about 1816.  We believe that he was the grandfather of the William H. Commodore who is the main subject of this blog.

This document shows that Ellen Commodore appeared before a Justice of the Peace in 1892 to begin the application for a pension as the mother of William Commodore who was killed in the Civil War. Two Port Republic residents, Carl Weisman and W.S. Dawkins were her witnesses. The image is one of 30 pages in the pension record for William Commodore. From the National Archives.

In 1892, as the pension case continued, three friends from the Parkers Creek neighborhood submitted affidavits. They were Alonzo Bell; Jeremiah Boots, identified as “Jerry” in other, unrelated documents; and George Boots. Jeremiah Boots stated, “I know that Wm Commodore, husband of Ellen Commodore is dead. He died in December 1881. I know this from the fact that I was at his funeral. I think he left about thirty-five acres of land which he left to his children at his death.” Boots also stated, “I knew William Commodore, son of Ellen Commodore, he died or was killed in the service of the United States. He was never married and left no widow or children. He was a son of Ellen Commodore. She has no means of support except what she can do herself and what anyone may give her.” George Boots also testified that William Commodore left no wife or children. The outcome of the case was that Ellen Commodore was awarded a pension and she collected $12 monthly between 1892 and her death on March 22, 1897.

William Commodore’s 1867 testimony includes information that is somewhat incidental to the pension claim, but critically important to the family’s history. Commodore testified that he and Ellen Commodore “were slaves of the same master and live on the same plantation as man and wife, and have so lived since the date of their marriage in the year 1823.” (The marriage date of 1823 is inconsistent with the couple’s ages in the census and was likely written in error.) Two White residents who knew the family supported the testimony: Samuel B. Wilson, given the title Captain, and Dr. Benjamin Owen Hance, who lived on land called Angelica, not far from Plum Point on Wilson Road. Although we have not yet identified the enslaver, we conclude that William and Ellen Commodore and presumably their children including William, the soldier, and perhaps two of their grandchildren were all enslaved on the same property by the same man or woman.

The second item that adds to our knowledge of the family and its circumstances is the 1880 census enumeration of the William and Ellen Commodore household. This listing identifies five of the couple’s grandchildren who were counted with them: William, age 19, whom we believe to be the William H. Commodore central to the Parkers Creek story; Mary, 18; Major, 14; Harriet, 11; and Robert, age 8. Emma Anderson, age 19, also lived in the household as a boarder and was a schoolteacher. The 1880 census makes no mention of the in-between generation, meaning the parents of the five grandchildren. Since William and Mary were born before the end of the Civil War, in 1861 and 1862 respectively, it is possible that they had also been enslaved with their grandparents and, perhaps, their parents.

As part of ACLT’s Parkers Creek Heritage Trail project, a booklet entitled, “The African American Community of Parkers Creek, circa 1800-1960”, has been compiled. It is a work in progress and is available on our website here: bit.ly/PrkCrkCommBook

Please email Carl Fleisshauer or Kirsti Uunila if you have things to add or spot mistakes. We hope to produce an expanded version after we finish the oral history interview project next year.  We will keep track of your contact information and let you know when the expanded version is available.

Share

Filed Under: Uncategorized

BeaverCON 2022: A Dam Good Time

August 30, 2022 By crm

By Clara Brill-Carlat, Assistant Land Manager

 

Earlier this summer, I had the opportunity to attend BeaverCON, a three-day conference all about beavers that was held in Baltimore County. While its name evokes images of Comic-Con, there were no people in beaver costumes running through the hallways at BeaverCON (at least until the last day, when a mascot named Castor made a brief appearance). Instead, there were experts from the East and West Coasts and even from Europe who presented on beaver dam analogs (BDAs), flow devices, beaver relocation, fish passage, and much more. Many of my fellow conference attendees were experts in their own right and had attended BeaverCON in 2020 as well, while I first learned about the conference this fall when I started to research BDAs and their many ecological benefits. Read more from an article I wrote about BDAs for ACLT’s Spring Newsletter here. (See pg. 3)

I quickly made my newcomer status known at BeaverCON when I tried to strike up a conversation with a young graduate student who, like me, had received a scholarship to attend the conference. “What are you studying in grad school?” I asked. She gave me a quizzical, almost pitying look and said, “Beavers.”

During the first two and a half days of the conference, I attended presentations about stream restoration projects, human conflict and coexistence with beavers, mapping beaver habitat, and even the history of beavers in North American literature. One of the most engaging talks was by Emily Fairfax, a researcher at California State University Channel Islands, who studies how beaver complexes protect land during wildfires. She presented striking satellite images of landscapes in the Western U.S. before and after fires; the images showed that areas with active beaver populations burned much less than areas without beavers. Her most recent research has focused on megafires, which are becoming increasingly common due to climate change. Megafires cover much larger areas than typical wildfires (over 100,000 acres), often spread extremely fast, and burn landscapes so severely that ecosystems struggle to recover. While people are often unable to control these fast-spreading megafires, Fairfax found that beavers are still able to significantly reduce the acreage that gets severely burned.

Watch the presentation here: https://youtu.be/wa1B4ijrgcc

Another particularly memorable presentation was by NOAA Fisheries biologist Chris Jordan, who dispelled some common misconceptions about streams. Humans have spent countless time and money transforming streams into conveyance systems that efficiently transport water from one place to the next while rarely overflowing their banks. However, a truly healthy stream is inefficient (to the human eye), meandering, and messy. We might imagine that a stream channel lined with old, tall trees is the epitome of ecological health, but counterintuitively, the presence of such trees can indicate that the stream has been prevented from flooding its banks. When it comes to trying to reverse the damage done to streams, Jordan explained, we are our own worst enemy. He spoke about how regulations designed to protect infrastructure from flooding and to protect streams from environmental degradation have created unintended barriers against nature-based restoration projects. For example, although building BDAs is a relatively low-tech way to reconnect a stream with its floodplain by raising the water level of the stream, regulations meant to prevent flooding make the implementation challenging. Having researched the permitting process for building BDAs at ACLT, this part of Jordan’s presentation certainly rang true. Luckily, as I would soon see, large-scale BDA projects are possible and are becoming more popular here on the East Coast. 

Watch the presentation here: https://youtu.be/6h005lBptLE

A beaver dam analog under construction at the Carroll Branch restoration site in April. The BDA is made of sticks woven between cedar posts, with silt fence material on top (photo courtesy of Ecotone).
Two beaver dam analogs at the Carroll Branch restoration site in July. BDAs can be built close together, like natural beaver dams sometimes are, to increase their resilience during storms (photo courtesy of Ecotone).
Two beaver dam analogs at the Carroll Branch restoration site in July. BDAs can be built close together, like natural beaver dams sometimes are, to increase their resilience during storms (photo courtesy of Ecotone).
A beaver dam analog made with large logs at the Carroll Branch site, shown in July (photo courtesy of Ecotone).

After the official end of BeaverCON, I joined an impromptu tour of a stream restoration site composed of BDAs and log jam structures. Ecotone, an ecological restoration company based in Maryland, had designed the project on the Carroll Branch in Baltimore County. The tour was led by Scott McGill (a co-founder of BeaverCON and the CEO of Ecotone) and was made possible by the persistent begging of some of my fellow conference attendees. 

This was the highlight of BeaverCON for me since we were able to walk right up to each of the structures, which had only been put in place about eight weeks before, and pester McGill with questions. I was struck by how the restoration was both a science and an art. The project had clearly been thoroughly planned, down to each impeccably sharpened cedar post that formed the backbone of the BDAs. At the same time, the materials used (sticks, logs, mud, vines, and netting) and the spacing between the structures varied such that no two dams were exactly the same. Most of the structures were BDAs, meaning that they spanned the entire channel, but a few were constructed log jams that only took up part of the stream. Since all the structures were so new, we could see that they were beginning to slow down the water but had not ponded it yet, and Ecotone was in the process of extending some of them farther onto the banks because the stream was cutting around them. McGill explained that adaptive management is critical for nature-based restoration projects like this one and that Ecotone had a five-year grant to continue managing the restoration.

After the three days of the conference were up, I returned to ACLT with a lot to chew on. Although I felt like a kit (the term for a baby beaver) compared to all the experts, restoration professionals, and beaver-researching grad students in the room, I learned more about beavers in those three days than I have in most of the rest of my life. I know the knowledge and connections I gained at BeaverCON will be helpful as we continue to explore the possibility of beaver dam analogs here at ACLT.

Share

Filed Under: Ecological Features, Front Page, Uncategorized

Little Lending Library Now Open at Double Oak Barn

July 27, 2022 By crm

ACLT’s New Little Lending Library Now Open at Double Oak Barn

We are pleased to announce that ACLT’s long-time supporter and super talented-carpenter, Tay Vaughan, has built us a new Little Lending Library for the barns at both trailheads. The south side library will be installed soon, but the first one is now installed and fully stocked on the barn porch at Double Oak Farm. The books are primarily intended for children. Please feel free to take a couple and bring back a couple of yours to share. We are looking for books having anything to do with nature, the earth, climate, etc. If the library is full, please do not leave your books – just bring them back at another time. 

The renovations/updates being done on the D.O. porch are part of a group project by graduates of this year’s Master Naturalist class. We think you will enjoy the work they have done! They have added and organized the artifacts found along the trails, added informative posters, and plenty of new chairs to welcome you! There’s more to come, include an exhibit on climate change, so visit often!

North Side Lending Library
New Little Lending Library stocked with kids' books.
Little Lending Library pre-installation
Little Lending Library pre-installation
First Batch of Kids' Books
First batch of kids' books for the Little Lending Library
Clover Young
Lots of kids' books to choose from
Owen Young Reading to Clover
Comfy rocking chair is welcoming to readers of all ages.
Sisters Choosing Books
Books are for kids of all ages and all related to nature.
Kailani Young
Kailani found the perfect nature book
D.O. Farm Porch-BEFORE
D.O. Farm Porch-BEFORE
D.O. Farm Porch-BEFORE (left side)
D.O. Farm Porch-BEFORE (left side)
D.O. Farm Porch-BEFORE (right side)
D.O. Farm Porch-BEFORE (right side)
Tables & Chairs-D-O Porch
New chairs & freshly stained table at D.O. Farm porch
D.O. Farm Porch-AFTER
D.O. Farm Porch-AFTER
D.O. Farm Porch-AFTER
D.O. Farm Porch-AFTER (but before library was installed)

;

 

Share

Filed Under: Front Page, Uncategorized

Blue Magic – Indigo Buntings

July 25, 2022 By crm

By Judy Ferris, Master Naturalist & Guest Blogger

Who would think that this dazzling blue bird would go largely unnoticed?  Meet the Indigo Bunting!  They are one of the most common birds in the eastern United States.  Though they are abundant in Calvert County, we seldom stop to admire these charming blue gems.  Members of the Cardinal family, Indigo Buntings are small birds.  They are just five inches long, and weigh about the same as a pencil.  Indigo Buntings are only solid blue bird in the eastern United States. 

Female Indigo Buntings are drab brown in color as befits a Mom who raises several broods of chicks in the underbrush just a few feet above the ground.  Male Indigo Buntings are brilliant blue both above and below.  In reality, however, that bright blue is merely an illusion.  There is no blue pigment in bird feathers.  All blue color is created by unique structures within each individual feather (Sibley 2020).  A male Indigo Bunting’s feathers are actually black!  Those structures within the feather, however, diffract the light, scattering all but the blue.  Thus we see the bird’s color shifting from black to turquoise to brilliant blue depending on the light and our viewing angle (Prum et al 1998).  Magic feathers!  If you catch it right, the blue color is stunning.

Male Indigo Bunting
Female Indigo Bunting - Photo by Michael Janke (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Male Indigo Bunting doing what it does best; belting out its song and showing off that amazing blue plumage! Photo by Jen Goellnitz (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Indigo Buntings are migratory songbirds.  They arrive in Maryland in early May.  As soon as they arrive, they set right to work establishing territories, finding a mate, creating a nest, and starting that first brood of eggs.  Sounds exhausting doesn’t it?   Like many human couples, buntings establish a division of labor.  With their scintillating color and an irrepressible urge to sing, males take charge of establishing and defending territory.  Indigo Buntings prefer edge habitats where woodlands meet grasslands.  There, the males perch in an elevated location to show-off their gorgeous color as their song rings out across a field. They sing seemingly non-stop from sun up to sunset  to  proclaim that this territory is MINE MINE MINE!  Meanwhile, the female keeps a low profile.  She builds the nest alone and incubates the eggs.  The nest is an elaborate cup-like structure  of leaves and coarse grasses built in shrubbery about 3 feet above the ground.  It may be lined with soft grass or deer hair and is tidily bound with spider webs.  

Most bunting pairs raise two broods of 3 to 4 chicks per summer.  The male may feed newly fledged chicks while the female incubates the second brood (Kaufman 2001).  When it comes to feeding the chicks, insects – packed with protein and fat – are by far the best baby food for young birds.  Eventually, berries and seeds are introduced into their diet as well.  

As the days grow shorter in autumn and the second or third brood of chicks is fledged, those hormones kick in again.  Mom and Dad Indigo Bunting feel the urge to fatten up and move south to their wintering grounds.  In late September, they leave for destinations in south Florida, the Caribbean, Central America, or northern South America to spend the winter. 

Indigo Buntings have been the subject of considerable study with regard to migration.  Early studies in the 1960’s performed in planetariums indicate that Indigo Buntings use stars to navigate (Emlen 1967).  Though going around the Gulf of Mexico is always an option, the majority of Indigo Buntings choose to make the risky Gulf of Mexico crossing.  After breeding season,  adult Indigo Buntings tend to be lean, weighing in at about 13 grams.  Adding an additional 5 grams of fat will allow them to fly at an average speed of 20 miles per hour for 688 miles.  The average length of a Gulf crossing is about 600 miles. Thus if all goes well, the birds can make a non-stop flight (Johnston 1965).

Indigo Bunting Range Map - The Cornell Lab

Arriving at their winter destinations, Indigo Buntings, especially the males, toss their summertime personas in the dumpster.  They adopt an entirely different life-style for the winter!  The male is no longer the party boy in the bright blue suit doing karaoke at the top of a bush.  In autumn his brilliant plumage becomes brown, almost indistinguishable from the female.  Perhaps this is the bird equivalent of wearing shorts, T-shirts, and flip flops.   Instead of living as a solitary pair or family, buntings often hang out with other buntings in a group during the winter.  Even their diet changes dramatically.  Instead of eating insects, both males and females hunt for grass seeds.  In short, they live a quiet, low-profile life at or near ground level. 

This male Indigo Bunting (wintering in south Florida) shows signs of that splendid blue plumage.

As spring approaches, however, hormones once again kick in.  The compulsion to move north increases urgently with each passing day.  A late winter molt bursts open that long-hidden summer wardrobe and the male Indigo Bunting is once again cloaked in magic feathers of dazzling blue.   It’s time to head north!  

How to Find Indigo Buntings

Take time in the next few weeks to admire one of these blue beauties before they fall silent and prepare for migration.  We’re looking for a brilliant blue bird that sings from sun up to sun set.  How do we go about finding it?  

  • First find suitable habitat;  locations where grassy meadows meet woodlands are ideal.  At ACLT, try the North entrance and park near the ACLT office.  Walk toward the barn and you will see a fence surrounding a garden.  Both Indigo Buntings and Bluebirds are often seen atop this fence.

  • Next, use your ears!  Indigo Buntings have a distinctive song.  It sounds like an enthusiastic Fire! Fire! Where? Where? Here! Here!  Click on the link from Cornell’s excellent “All About Birds” website.  The second song from the top, recorded in Maine, is the one that I hear most often here in Maryland.  At this time of year, however, you may hear all kinds of variations as young birds begin to practice singing.  
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Indigo_Bunting/sounds

Try using Cornell’s free Merlin Bird ID app on your phone.  It enables you to ID birds by sound.  

  • Once you hear the bird, you’ll have an idea of where to look for it.  Male Indigo Buntings are show-offs.  Look for them atop  a bush, a fence post, a power line, or a low tree.  You may even hear a rival Indigo Bunting singing from its territory on the opposite side of the field!  If you have a pair of binoculars, you will be treated to a symphony in blue!

  Happy hunting!

Share

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Why Are ACLT’s Meadows Brown?

July 13, 2022 By crm

By Clara Brill-Carlat, Chesapeake Conservation Corps Intern

This is the time of year when ACLT’s woods and meadows are full of life: trees are a vibrant green, pawpaw fruits are beginning to appear, and grass is growing faster than it can be mowed. If you’ve recently hiked on the South Side trails or the North Side’s Griffin Meadow Trail, however, you’ve probably noticed that the nearby meadows look decidedly subdued. The large meadow on the South Side and the narrow meadow inside the Griffin Meadow Trail were both sprayed with herbicide on June 24th to control infestations of Chinese lespedeza, an invasive plant. Lespedeza outcompetes native plants, is not a food source for Maryland’s wildlife, and is difficult to eradicate because it stores many seeds in the soil.

Click here for more information about lespedeza.

Scroll through the photos below to see the progression of the work thus far.

Chinese Lespedeza
#1 - March 29, 2022 - Controlled Burn
The Maryland Forest Service completing a controlled burn on ACLT’s South Side meadow.
#2 - March 30, 2022 - Post Burn
South Side meadow the day after the controlled burn.
#3 - March 30, 2022 - Post-Burn
A small patch of the South Side meadow that was burned prior to the MD Forest Service’s controlled burn quickly regrew and stood out in the scorched meadow.
#4 - May 31st - Pre-Herbicide
South Side Meadow two months after controlled burn but before application of herbicide. Photo Credit: Al Scroggs ACLT's Hiking Challenge Group.
#5 - July 6, 2022 - Post Herbicide
The South Side meadow approximately two weeks after the herbicide application.
Previous
Next

As emphasized in the Five Year Plan, one of ACLT’s land management goals is to establish permanent meadows at the North and South Side trailheads by actively managing for native meadow vegetation. Controlling the spread of lespedeza is key to maintaining healthy meadows that can support pollinators and other wildlife. 

The spraying of the South Side meadow followed a controlled burn that the Maryland Forest Service conducted this past March. (The narrow meadow by the Griffin Meadow Trail was burned and sprayed in 2021 before being sprayed again this June.) The burn spurred the germination of lespedeza seeds in the soil, which caused more lespedeza to grow just in time to get hit with herbicide. The burn also depleted the supply of lespedeza seeds left in the soil for future years. From March to June, the South Side meadow transformed from a charred wasteland to a lush field full of grasses and lespedeza, all of which grew rapidly after the burn. The recent herbicide spraying has reduced both the South Side and North Side meadows to visually unappealing swaths of dead grass. However, while the meadows look brown and unhealthy now, repeated combinations of controlled burns and herbicide applications will help native vegetation flourish without being overtaken by lespedeza.

ACLT’s objective is to create and maintain meadows consisting primarily of native plants where pollinators and wildlife can flourish.

Click here to read ACLT’s blog post about the 2021 controlled burns.

Questions? Comments? Email us at aclt@acltweb.org or call (410) 414-3400.

Share

Filed Under: Uncategorized

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 12
  • Next Page »

© 2023 American Chestnut Land Trust. All rights reserved. CFC #53731.