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Home / Archives for Uncategorized

William H. and Suddie Commodore: A Parkers Creek Family

February 3, 2024 By Community Relations Manager

Table of Contents

Introduction

William H. Commodore (1860-1938) was an African American farmer, married to Suddie Commodore (1871-1951). In census records and deeds, her name is sometimes spelled Sudie; one probate record indicates that her maiden name was Boom, alternatively spelled Boome. The couple’s 11 children, including twin boys, were born between 1890 and 1912.

Land ownership and neighborhood geography

main-map-web_20241208

William H. and Suddie Commodore owned five tracts of land totaling about 220 deeded acres (about 240 actual):

  1. 1. Acquired 1894: 18 3/4 acres from Thomas A. Hardesty
  2. 2. Acquired 1898: 97 acres from Y.D. Hance
  3. 3. Acquired 1904: 35 acres (as deeded; 56 actual) from Major Commodore
  4. 4. Acquired 1910: 50 acres from Luther Chambers
  5. 5. Acquired 1925: 20 acres from James E. Commodore

The 27-acre tract between properties 3 and 2 was owned by other Black farmers: David Parker from 1871 to 1932 and Woodrow Wallace from 1951 to 1970. Woodrow Wallace is a grandson of William H. and Suddie Commodore. Incidentally, Y.D. Hance (1858-1917), the seller of property 2, is a descendant of the Y.D. Hance buried in the family cemetery now on ACLT land.

Family testimony and archaeological research have identified four former dwellings and one barn site on the land:

  1. A. Site of William H. and Suddie Commodore’s two-story home, destroyed by fire, probably in the 1950s.
  2. B. Site of the barn, now gone, associated with dwelling A.
  3. C. Site of a former dwelling, now gone, described by family as modest, occupied by Commodore son and family.
  4. D. Site of another former dwelling, now gone, also described as modest, occupied by Commodore son and family.
  5. E. Former home of Willis Commodore (1890-1968, William H. and Suddie Commodore’s oldest son), two stories, no longer occupied but still standing.

Site E on the map: former home of Willis Commodore and family. These 1995 photographs include the Commodore-period two-story section at right and an addition at the left added by subsequent owners. A large apple tree stands behind the grape arbor.

The four former home sites are arrayed along a now-abandoned road, shown on the map as a dotted blue line. This road connected the family and their neighbors on Scientists Cliff Road (today’s name) to the homes of relatives and friends in the Parkers Creek community, a place defined by Brown’s Methodist Episcopal Church (after 1968, United Methodist Church) and the Parkers Creek School, a one room school that served Black students from 1869 to 1949. The green dashed lines on the map represent ACLT hiking trails as of 2024.

Site A on the map: location of William H. and Suddie Commodore’s old home, which burned in the 1950s, photographed in 2024. The stone pier is one of four that once supported the sills of the house; the cedar trees, now dead, stood nearby; and the metal box may have been the firebox for a stove.

William H. Commodore's parents

Family tradition has long stated that William H. Commodore was the son of a White man named John R. Beckett, and a Black woman named Eliza Commodore, enslaved in the Beckett household. These parents are so identified on William H. Commodore’s death certificate.

Screenshot

William H. Commodore’s death certificate, 1938.

Beckett family, birth of William H. Commodore, by 1880 lives with grandparents

The Beckett family’s former home site and family cemetery are on a property once known as Locust Grove, located on Selby’s Cliffs about one half mile north of today’s Dares Beach. This land is now part of a subdivision called Chesapeake Heights on the Bay. Locust Grove’s prominent 19th century owner was Captain John Beckett (1791-1850), who had fought in the War of 1812, including battles in Canada. He later served in the Maryland legislature.

Captain Beckett’s son, John R. Beckett, was born in 1841 and, after 1850, lived with his widowed mother. Other records indicate that they had a dwelling in Prince Frederick, perhaps in addition to (or succeeding) the Locust Grove property. We believe that Eliza Commodore, William H. Commodore’s mother, was an enslaved domestic worker in Beckett’s household. She would have been twenty years old and John Beckett nineteen when William H. Commodore was conceived in 1859. John R. Beckett died in 1925 and is buried in the cemetery at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Prince Frederick.

The 1880 census reports that the then-teenaged William H. Commodore was living with his grandparents in enumeration district 33, south of Parkers Creek. The household was headed by William Commodore, age 60, born circa 1820, and his wife Ellen, age 64, born circa 1816. Eliza Commodore’s name does not appear, but the household includes five grandchildren: William, age 19, born circa 1861; Mary, age 18; Harriet, age 11; Mager [Major], age 14; and Robert, age 8.

Civil War legacy: Soldier's death and parents' quest for pension

The records of the 23rd Regiment of the U.S. Colored Infantry document the service of 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 that he was Eliza Commodore’s brother, thus William H. Commodore’s uncle and one of his namesakes.

U.S. Colored Troops service record for William Commodore (1843-1864), who died in action within a year of his enlistment.

William Commodore’s parents sought a pension based on the soldier’s service. After the father’s death, the process was continued by Ellen, his widow. Pension records chronicle a process that lasted for more than twenty years. The earliest documents date from 1867, when father William Commodore appeared before a Justice of the Peace and testified that his son died in action at Petersburg, Virginia, on 30 July 1864, leaving no wife or children. William Commodore, the father, is the head of the household in the 1880 census record summarized in the preceding section.

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.

Left: Document from Ellen Commodore’s appearance before a Justice of the Peace in 1892, launching her quest 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. Part of the 30-page pension record in the collections of the U.S. National Archives.

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.)

We believe that the “same master” mentioned in the preceding deposition refers to the Becketts, with John R. Beckett and his mother Susan Blake Beckett taking over the plantation after Captain John Beckett’s death in 1850. We make this inference based on our knowledge that John R. was the father of the senior William Commodore’s grandson, and that Eliza Commodore was the boy’s mother. We also believe that William Commodore, the Civil War soldier born in about 1843, was probably enslaved in his grandparents’ household, along with his mother and other family members.

It is also the case that two White residents who knew the family supported the pension testimony: Samuel B. Wilson, given the title Captain, who owned land on Parkers Creek and Dr. Benjamin Owen Hance, who lived on land called Angelica, not far from Plum Point on Wilson Road. Both Wilson and Hance landholdings are in the vicinity of Beckett’s Locust Grove, enabling them to be acquainted with enslaved individuals on that property.

Farming the land and other Commodore family occupations

Like most land in the Parkers Creek area, William H. Commodore’s tracts contain a mix of relatively flat ground suitable for agriculture and, for the most part, used to grow tobacco. The tracts also contain steep wooded ravines where timber was cut for farm use and for the market.

Land use on a long ridge that flanks the south side of Parkers Creek, shown on a 1938 Soil Conservation Service aerial photograph with markings added by the author. Tracts 3 and 2, marked in brown, are Commodore properties. In 1938, the intervening land belonged to William H. Commodore’s grandson Woodrow Wallace. Many irregularly shaped open fields are visible on the ridge. The tracts and structures are defined in the information about the map presented at the beginning of this webpage.

William H. Commodore and his family mastered a range of interests and skills beyond the farming that was 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 refers to their employment at Frank Richardson’s pound net operation at the mouth of Parkers Creek, a short walk from Willis and John Commodore’s homes.

 
 
Advertisement for missing power boat.
Calvert Gazette, 22 July 1911.

A newspaper advertisement hints at an earlier connection to local fisheries.  The 22 July 1911 issue of the Calvert Gazette, carries William H. Commodore’s announcement 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.” It is impossible to be certain from this advertisement, 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 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.”

A news clipping from 1896 leads off with an eccentric description of a vessel and its sailors but then alludes to Commodore’s store.

Wesley Garner, who resides near Dare’s Landing on the bay, has come in possession of a handsome little vessel, which was stranded at his place Wednesday morning of last week. Two plainly dressed young men who were aboard immediately left the boat when it was beached. They went to Mr. Garner’s house, were given dinner and before leaving stated that they sailed from Baltimore and were on their way to Washington where they hoped to obtain work at blacksmithing. They walked around to the south side of Parkers creek, stopped a while at William Comodore’s [sic] store, thence retraced their steps and were last seen in that section firing pistols and going towards Plum Point. Calvert Gazette, 18 July 1896.

This offhand mention of William Commodore’s store is the only suggestion we have seen of a mercantile establishment associated with the African American Parkers Creek community.

Burials at Brown's Church

Like many of their relatives and twentieth century Parkers Creek neighbors, William and Suddie Commodore and their family worshiped at Brown’s Methodist Episcopal Church (United Methodist after the 1968 denominational merger).  Although most members of the immediate family members are probably buried in Brown’s cemetery, we have only identified headstones for eight of William and Suddie’s children. We trust that all rest in peace.

 

 

 

Gravestone of Willis F. Commodore, 1890-1968. Photograph by Linda Davis.

Acknowledgements

This is an updated version of the ACLT blog published on 3 February 2023. Historical research and writing by Carl Fleischhauer, with special support by Kirsti Uunila. Archaeological research by Matthew Reeves in 1997, with funding support by the Maryland Historical Trust, now in the Maryland State Department of Planning. Family members who provided information include Cleo Parker and Sam Commodore. Shelby Cowan’s research provided the Commodore pension record from the U.S. National Archives and William H. Commodore’s death certificate from Maryland state records. Land and property research by Art Cochran with mapping executed by Exa Marmee Grubb.

The Parkers Creek Heritage Trail (PCHT) project is supported by funding provided by the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority, part of the Maryland Historical Trust in the Maryland State Department of Planning. The project will explore a wide range of topics, including aspects of African American history in the area. Although a work in progress, you may be interested in a booklet produced by the project entitled, “The African American Community of Parkers Creek, circa 1800-1960,” available here: bit.ly/PrkCrkCommBook. Researchers Kirsti Uunila and Carl Fleischhauer will be happy to receive comments or corrections if you have things to add or spot mistakes in the booklet.

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Tidewater School Students Partner with ACLT to Cultivate Compassion

February 1, 2024 By Community Relations Manager

By R.T. West, Double Oak Farm Volunteer

In 2023, the Tidewater School of Huntingtown, Maryland, partnered with the American Chestnut Land Trust (ACLT) and Calvert County Master Gardeners to raise sweet potatoes for a local food pantry.  Maryland Master Gardeners declared 2023 as “The Year of the Sweet Potato”, and we refer to our year-long program as “Seed-to-Table”.

Ella Riley holds her sweet potato with vines

When the soil warmed up in May, the students came to Double Oak Farm at ACLT and planted nearly 100 slips in a five foot by 80 foot row.

The vines were allowed to grow all summer and the students returned in September to harvest the potatoes.  They harvested over 780 pounds of potatoes, of which 467 pounds were donated to St. John Vianney’s Food Pantry in Prince Frederick.  The largest potato was 8 pounds, 3 ounces.

Ella, Avi, Cameron, Anders, Dane, Brendan, and Sasha in the kitchen making pies

Under the auspices of Amanda Bodden and Ashley Woodside, the Elementary Class students began in February learning all about the sweet potato’s history and uses, as well as how to propagate the plants.  The students, ages six to twelve, started sweet potato slips using quart jars filled with water.  The vines, which grow from the potato “eyes”, are called “slips”.

After harvesting, the sweet potatoes need about a month or more to cure, during which time the starches turn to sugars.  In November, after the potatoes had cured, the students assembled in the Tidewater School kitchen and prepared and cooked 29 pies.

Students harvesting the red, yellow, and white sweet potatoes

The moment of truth came when the students and their parents consumed their year-long effort for dessert during the Classes’ annual potluck luncheon at Trinity United Methodist Church in Prince Frederick.  Delicious!

In 2024,  the class will learn about, plant, harvest, and eat peanuts in the form of peanut butter, peanut brittle, peanut turtles, and roasted peanuts.  

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ACLT is Building a Cathedral of Nature

December 4, 2023 By Community Relations Manager

By Father Peter Daly, ACLT Board Member & Donor Relations Co-Chair

In medieval Europe, local people came together in a remarkable way to create a sacred space, a place for the human spirit to be lifted up. They built the great cathedrals. 

Often it was small towns, like Leon in Spain, then only 7,000 people, that took on a huge, seemingly impossible task, to create giant structures. They did not build for themselves, but for generations to come. They did it because their spirits, their souls needed it. 

In many places, like Notre Dame in Paris, it took hundreds of years and successive generations to create and sustain these sacred places. But they did it. They had a vision and they persisted until it was done. 

Through its preservation of land, ACLT is co-creating a Cathedral of Nature in Southern Maryland. It is a sacred place for the human spirit. A place where human beings of every religion, or no religion, can find rest and refreshment for their spirits. A place where the cry of the eagle can be heard, the beavers’ ingenuity can be admired and the movement of the breeze can be felt on silent walks through towering trees. 

This Cathedral of Nature will be our monument to last for 1,000 years. It will be our gift to the people who come after us. Our task may be difficult, given the pressures of economics and climate change, but if the people of the Middle Ages can build Notre Dame, we can do this. It is our urgent legacy to the future. 

We have a vision of a sacred space, set apart to renew our souls. 
We have a determination to make this happen.
We can do this.
Together we can create a Cathedral of Nature to renew the spirits of generations to come.

Help us build our Cathedral of Nature by visiting www.acltweb.org/support.

 

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ACLT’s Community Cookbook – A Labor of Love

November 28, 2023 By Community Relations Manager

By Darlene Harrod, Board of Directors Member & Cookbook Committee Chair

Pictured L-R: Kathy Klauda, Darlene Harrod, Pat Hofmann, & Shirley Knight. Not pictured: Robyn Truslow

A Fun(d)raising Idea

Having worked on a cookbook fundraising project with members of my church that helped to raise $6,000 in 2010, I believed it would be possible to do a similar project and double the profit to help ACLT reach its goals of promoting preservation throughout Southern Maryland. Robyn Truslow, Chair, ACLT Donor Relations, agreed it would make a good fun(d)raiser and took the idea to the Board of Directors. With their blessing, the Cookbook Committee was formed with Robyn, me, Board member Shirley Knight, along with members Pat Hofmann and Kathy Klauda. ACLT member Angie Shields and Mt. Gethsemane Church member Lingerine Robinson stepped up to proofread and help with typing some of the recipes.

A True "Community" Cookbook

The cookbook, called A Culinary Trail, intentionally focuses on recipes from various cultures and locally sourced ingredients from the Calvert County community … even putting to good use invasive plants and fish! More than 90 people submitted 277 recipes for the following eight categories: Appetizers & Beverages, Soups & Salads, Vegetables & Side Dishes, Main Dishes, Breads & Rolls, Desserts, Cookies & Candy and This & That. 

The cookbook even contains several award-winning chili recipes from ACLT's Chili Cook-offs of yesteryear!

Featured among the unique recipes are: Swiss Chard with Raisins and Almonds, Tangy Yellow Squash Salad, Zucchini (low fat Italian) Sausage Casserole, Japanese Knotweed Quiche, Woodchuck Gumbo, Smothered Muskrat, Baked Invasive Northern Snakehead Fish, Cinnamon Raisin Biscuits and Paw Paw Parfait. 

Special Thanks

As you might imagine, it took many people to produce the cookbook. I thank all who played a role, including the staff at ACLT’s Office. Special thanks to ACLT Charter Member Peter Vogt who wrote an interesting article on Foraging Wild Plant Edibles and to David Farr, Board of Directors President, for writing the Forward. 

I also want to extend special thanks to: Robbie McGaughran for naming the cookbook, Nathan Bowen for the cover photo of Parkers Creek flowing into the Chesapeake Bay, and Rhonda Saunders, RS GRAPHX, Inc. for the press-ready cover design and ads. In addition, we were extremely pleased to have received ads to pay for the cookbooks and related expenses from the following local businesses: Brothers Johnson Deluxe Portable Restrooms and Septic Services; Delaney & Keffler, LLC; Windy Willow Farm; RS GRAPHX, Inc.; LEAP Forward, Inc.; National Society of Black Engineers Jr. Chapter; Chris’ Rentals & Cleaning; Morgan Marie Photography; Jetmore Insurance Group; Gorman & Sons Landscaping and Lawn Services; Kathy Klauda Avon; Edward Jones (Nate Novotny); Reid & Reid Transportation Services; Prime Partners Engineering, LLC; and Chesapeake’s Bounty.

Makes a perfect gift for any occasion!

Get Yours Before It's Too Late

The attractive padded 3-ring binder with a linen-finish laminated cover will make a really memorable gift for all sorts of occasions. Five hundred copies were ordered, and we like that they are selling nicely. But we would love to have them all sold by the end of this year. Then ACLT would revisit re-ordering more copies to increase our profit. For now, ACLT is calling on friends, family members and the Calvert County community to purchase a copy or two of A Culinary Trail to help us continue our preservation and land conservation efforts.

PURCHASE TODAY

Special Opportunity: Use the online form or purchase your copy at ACLT’s Annual Wreath & Greens Sale on Saturday, December 2nd from 11am-1pm at the South Side Trailhead! 

NOTE: To save money, we are unable to ship the cookbooks. They must be picked up from the ACLT Office located at 676 Double Oak Road, Prince Frederick, Md. Office Hours are Monday thru Friday 8am-5pm.

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Slowing the Spread of Phragmites in Parkers Creek

September 19, 2023 By Community Relations Manager

By Grace Mayer, ’22/’23 Chesapeake Conservation Corps Member

Phragmites australis is a common invasive reed that is all-too-familiar to many environmentalists in Maryland. Phragmites was introduced to the region in the 19th century from Europe and Asia by ship and grows in brackish and fresh water. Patches of phragmites can be seen along Parkers Creek, where they provide few benefits to local wildlife and crowd out native vegetation. There have been many efforts to slow the spread of the invasive reed in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and one of the more common methods used to control phragmites is through the use of a glyphosate herbicide.

Phragmites resprouting after being cut

Phragmites spreads quickly through seed dispersal, rhizome and stolon growth, and through rhizome fragments. Stolon (above-ground runners from existing phragmites) and rhizomes (under-ground stems spreading from the roots) can both sprout new plants, meaning that phragmites spreads even if it doesn’t go to seed. Cut fragments of plants can sometimes re-establish after relocation, making it possible for phragmites to spread to new areas on equipment used for control. 

Because of the ease and number of ways in which phragmites can spread, single control methods like cutting or mowing tend to be ineffective. Even if the plants are made unable to produce or spread seeds, the underground and aboveground offshoots can continue to generate new plants. 

Sewing plastic over the sprouting patch after the phragmites were cut

 ACLT has been taking steps to slow the spread of phragmites in the marsh surrounding Parkers Creek for the last several years. Rather than utilizing herbicide which can be expensive and carry certain environmental risks, ACLT has been using a mechanical method of control. ACLT staff and volunteers cut the phragmites at water level using weed whackers and then covered the cut areas with black plastic. The plastic serves to overheat the rhizomes under the water and block sunlight from reaching the plants after the stem has been cut. The plastic is generally left on for about one year, although in some cases it is left on for a second growing season if the phragmites persists under the plastic. 

ACLT has had success with this method in several areas and the level of phragmites control after just one year has been impressive. Additionally, the number of native plants that naturally repopulate the site during the first growing season after the plastic has been removed has been higher than we anticipated. Patches of phragmites, as well as sites previously covered in plastic, are scattered along Parkers Creek and some can be seen from the Parkers Creek Loop trail and on ACLT’s canoe trips.

 

 

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