C. K. Thomas for President! (...of the Frederick Co. Agricultural Society)

Dear Friends,

With the Great Frederick Fair open for business (Midway all the way, y'all!), I thought it might be fun to look at one of the ways our battlefield families are connected to the fair.

Wait, what? The Monocacy National Battlefield and the Fair? How is that possible?

I'm so glad you asked.

The Frederick County Agricultural Society had been hosting a county agricultural fair off and on for decades prior to the Civil War. The earliest reference I've found to the society was in 1821, when the local newspaper mentioned the organization's constitution had been approved and the candidate for President had declined the position¹. The organization hosted a fair, or "Cattle Show," the following year².

As one might imagine, those festivities stopped during the war, and after the war the society took advantage of the break to reorganize the society. In the fall of 1867, they purchased property as a permanent home for their fair and elected one C. K. Thomas as president.³ Thomas would continue to serve as president of the organization for several years. In 1868, the Society decided to renew their annual fair⁴; Thomas sent a request to William Devries, a former business partner who was serving as president of the Maryland State Agricultural and Mechanical Association, requesting an endorsement of the Frederick County's fair. Mr. Devries complied, posting about it in the Baltimore Sun⁵.

In 1869, the Frederick County Agricultural Society appointed a committee of four to visit none other than President Ulysses S. Grant and request his august presence at the annual fair⁶. The newspaper mentioned the committee used the aid of General Crewel of Frederick County to get an audience with the President; it was during that meeting that the President agreed to attend. Believe it or not, that meeting was held the day before the fair; I can't even imagine the President of the United States having that much flexibility in his calendar today.

Portrait of President Grant by Henry Ulke. 

I was going to describe his reception in town, but perhaps you'd enjoy hearing it in the words of the local newspaper⁷:

FREDERICK, MD., Oct 14--2 p.m. --The train arrived here at 11:30 o'clock a.m., amid ringing of bells and cheering. The Presidential party, in carriages, were escorted by the marshals of the occasion. President Grant was in a four-horse open carriage, accompanied by C. Keefer Thomas, President of the Society, and others. The carriage proceeded to the residence of W. H. Falconer, where the officers of the Society were introduced to the distinguished visitors, and refreshments were served.
          The principal party was then escorted to the fair grounds, where thousands were gathered who rent the air with their cheering. The President bowed his acknowledgements and the party alighted at the committee rooms, when Colonel Maulsby addressed the President, thanking him for his sympathy and patronage of the arts and sciences shown in visiting the fair, and welcoming him in the name of the citizens of Frederick. The President responded, thanking the Secretary for the reception accorded to him, and expressing his pleasure in visiting the city of which he had heard so much, and which had done nobly in the support of the Government.

Would you believe that carriage ride was not the first time C. Keefer Thomas and Ulysses S. Grant had met? It's true. While General Ulysses S. Grant was not present during the battle, he took advantage of an opportunity to see part of the battlefield a month later. On August 5th, he held a war council with his generals at the Thomas House (known at that time as Araby). Of course, the visit gave the Thomas family the opportunity to meet the famous general; in the books Fighting for Time⁸ and The History of Western Maryland⁹, neighbor Glenn Worthington and historian J. Thomas Scarf, respectively, stated that the council was held in an upstairs room of the Thomas House above the library, and then each related a different anecdote about the family entertaining the General at breakfast the following morning.

Obviously, we don't actually know how well they got along, but Thomas seems to have had a talent for recognizing opportunities to make useful connections. He flowed in and out of business partnerships while a merchant in Baltimore¹⁰, and during the war his friendships with leaders of some of the units stationed at his property is well documented. A few years after the war, he used that talent for forming relationships to get involved in various organizations, most notably the aforementioned Frederick County Agricultural Society. While I've found no evidence to suggest Thomas was part of that 4-person committee to request the President's attendance at the fair, is it possible he had influence? I'll leave that to you to decide.

So we're standing on the fair grounds, President Grant had just listened to Col. Maulsby welcome him and was getting ready to say a few words of his own. According to President Grant's papers, his speech went something like the following¹¹:

I have great pleasure in visiting for the first time the City of Frederick, of which I have heard so much during the period of the late rebellion, and which, too, stood up manfully for the maintenance of a whole Union. I expected to visit this city some years ago, but found myself unable to do so; but now that I have found so many friends, and have been so gratified with what I have seen of your fair and enjoyed of your hospitality, I hope at some future time to visit you again.

Anybody else catch that? In his speech he talks about it being the first time he visited Frederick, and yet we know he was at our battlefield in August of 1864. In addition to the two books listed above, both President Grant's and General Sheridan's memoirs specifically mention that the transfer of authority from General Hunter to Sheridan happened at Monocacy Junction (where Hunter's troops were camped along the river banks). The first time I read the President's speech it took me back a step, but I suspect the reason is because, in the last 150 years, the limits of Frederick have expanded so that we consider the properties of the battlefield to be part of Frederick city and not the separate "Monocacy Junction" or "Araby" community that it was during the war. We have no reason to believe that General Grant actually entered the city in 1864; indeed, the local newspaper is astonishingly silent on the entire visit. If he truly held his war council on the 5th in the Thomas House, and then had breakfast with the Thomas family the following morning, it seems likely that he would have spent the night there instead of venturing into town. Certainly anything the Thomas House had to offer would be more comfortable than quarters in camp with the troops.

Either way, getting the President of the United States to attend your fair is quite an accomplishment for any county society, and since it was done while C. K. Thomas was president, he gets part of the credit. That was not the only good news that our battlefield families received at the fair that year. In the list of premiums awarded at the fair¹, C. K. Thomas won about $45 total by winning in 5 different categories, while John T. Best won about $29 in 4 other categories. And Mrs. C. K. Thomas was called out by the local newspaper for donating a chair that was bottomed "handsomely with cane by a totally blind soldier" and recognized for its excellence. I like to think that Mrs. Thomas donated the chair out of support for the country's veterans, but it is perhaps an unfortunate sign of those times that Mrs. Thomas was named for donating the chair but the soldier who did the work was doomed to anonymity.

As for more current events, I haven't entered anything in this year's fair, but I will be there this Thursday in the battlefield's booth to celebrate History Day. (Also to indulge in some carnie food like funnel cake. Here's hoping I don't get confectioner's sugar all over myself.) If you're planning to be there on the same day, please stop by to say hello! I'd love to meet you.

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1 “[At a regular meeting of the Frederick County Agricultural Society]”, The (Frederick, MD) Republican Gazette and General Advertiser, 17 Mar 1821, p 3, col 1, ad 7.^↩
2 “Frederick County Cattle Show and Fair,” The (Frederick, MD) Republican Gazette and General Advertiser, 27 Apr 1822, p3, col 2, ad 4.^↩
3 ”Locals: Frederick County Agricultural Society," article, The (Frederick, MD) Examiner, 22 May 1867, p2, col 2.^↩
4 ”Agricultural Exhibition," article, The (Frederick, MD) Examiner, 17 Jun 1868, p2, col 4.^↩
5 ”Frederick City, MD," article, The (Baltimore) Sun, 14 Oct 1868, p2, col 2. ^↩
6 "Locals: Interview with President Grant," article, The (Frederick, MD) Examiner, 13 Oct 1869, p2, col 4.^↩
7 “Telegrams to the Star, This Afternoon's Dispatches,” article, Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 14 Oct 1869, p 1, column 4, 3rd dispatches.^↩
8 Glenn H. Worthington, Fighting for Time, second revised edition (White Mane Publishing Co., 1985), first edition (Glenn H. Worthington, 1932), p204-07.^↩
9 Scharf, J. Thomas, History of Western Maryland, Vol I-II, online edition (Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com, 2015), 573.^↩
10 There a number of advertisements notifying readers of the formation and dissolution of a number of partnerships, including the following:^↩
      “Notice. T. E. Hambleton…” advertisement, American and Commercial Daily Advertiser (Baltimore, MD), 07 Nov 1849, p 2, col 8, advertisement 14.
      “Partnerships,” advertisement, American and Commercial Daily Advertiser (Baltimore, MD), 02 Jul 1852, p 3, col 3, para 8.
      “Partnerships,” advertisement, American and Commercial Daily Advertiser (Baltimore, MD), 05 Jul 1852, p 2, col 6, advertisement 1.
      “The Copartnership [Devries, Stephens & Thomas],” advertisement, TheSun (Baltimore, MD), 02 Jul 1861, p 2, para 9, col 4.
11 Simon, John Y (ed). The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant,Volume 19: July 1, 1868-October 31, 1869, (Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale and Edwardsville), p. 548; digital images, Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library.^↩
12 “List of Premiums,” article, The (Frederick, MD) Examiner, 20 Oct 1869, p 2, column 5-6.^↩