Raising Teens in the Victorian Age

Baltimore's City Directory lists the John J. Burgan family as living in Homestead in 1885. The address is vague, but would continue to be a bit more specific until they are firmly listed as living at 426 Madison Avenue in 1890. Dad was listed as a grocer and hostler in various years.

In 1885, The Irish Matriarch had three children in her home, ages 10, 15 and 18. They had moved to a village that had its own churches, schools, grocers, doctors, space for a future library and firehouse, and open space which became Clifton Park just a few years later (http://www.friendsofcliftonpark.org/History%20of%20the%20Park.htm). The family preoccupation with being photographed did continue, and Annie Jane is pictured here, being her pious self. I suspect that this studio pose was taken around the time of the family move.

Their new neighborhood had a family that affected the Burgans in notable ways. These were the Bambergers, who had been in Baltimore for 75 years, and were listed as Homestead residents by 1870. Several of them worked at the Bamberger Brothers firm on nearby York road. Their occupations at the time are listed as wheelwrights, coach builders and painters, and blacksmiths. This rugged bunch lived in homes right around the Burgan place, and all this intimacy led to the inevitable.

Where City and County Met

How in the world could someone have thought of Homestead as a place for country living? If one drives through the neighborhood today, it is hard to imagine that it was considered a respite from city life at any time. Of course, that depends on whether you are coming or going.

The Burgan family had their own 500 acres or so in Baltimore County for around 150 years, but lands that were farmed by one generation were sold by another. The Irish Matriarch and her family had moved into Baltimore City by 1870, but returned to a form of country living when Homestead was ready for them. Houses close to Harford Road were more traditional brick row houses, but a few blocks further northwest were wood frame homes with a little grass around them. The picture above shows the Irish Matriarch and her daughter Annie Jane on the front porch of 426 Madison Street. The back of the picture has 1892 and 1900 written on it. I wonder who the photographer was?

New construction of houses in Baltimore City was not allowed to be wood-framed, but above North Avenue was a different story. The Burgan duplex was thought of as a step up from the nearby rowhouses, and a good place for the lace curtain Irish side of my family to be proud of. The Irish Matriarch paid a mere $400.00 for the place, and it had running water but no indoor plumbing or central heat, but rather three wooden stoves and an oil heater. Four generations of Burgans would live here before the flight further north in 1952. Their next door neighbors were the Bambergers, a family whose men were employed as wheelwrights, coach painters and a marble cutter, of all things.

Homestead, in Homestead?

Have you ever noticed how developments are plopped right in the middle of perfectly good lands that have served seemingly grander purposes up until recently? This map tells us that this is not a new phenomenon. Northeast Baltimore was still in the county, and was a place of estates for quite a while. Montebello, the elegant mansion of John W. Garrett, was just northeast of Homestead, and and other neighbors included the Gilman, Abbott, Kelso and Patterson families, a virtual "who's who" of Baltimore. Another major landowner was the Gorsuch family, and they got the bright idea of getting into the real estate development business. Robert Gorsuch Jr. inherited land in 1828, and decided to form a syndicate in order to develop Baltimore's first planned suburb. Homestead was begun in 1851 in the area bordering Harford Road, adjacent to land owned by Johns Hopkins, originally planned to be the location of JHU. What did these fine gentlemen think of all this? I am confident it was, "there goes the neighborhood".

Perhaps we should think of Mr. Gorsuch as a visionary of sorts. He laid out the streets quite early, but no one wanted to build there, as the transportation system wasn't ready. Nonetheless, Homestead was modeled as a grand place to enjoy noble country living, albeit a bit more snugly than in the countryside. Homestead boasted about its fine neighbors, and named most of the streets after presidents, including one named Madison Street, home of the Bamberger family......oh, and another named Gorsuch Avenue. Imagine that!

This is so exciting!

• Well, despite my natural fears, I actually ordered a scanner on Amazon, received it, installed it, and scanned something....and it worked, only upside down. After pushing a few buttons, this scan of an old tin type picture was in my files, and here it is. The Irish Matriarch must have been a lady that was proud of her children, liked to dress them up, show them off and pay a photographer real money to record the moment. I just love how she is showing affection to the children for all the world to see. It appears to be taken in front of a decorative screen of some sort. There is no date on the picture, but I am thinking that it must be from circa 1890. Here she is with her three children:

• Annie Jane, born in 1867


• John J. Jr., born in 1870


• William Edward, born in 1875

I am not sure where John Sr. was, but these four look pretty dapper. Tintypes were easily made, quick to develop, and pretty durable. This one fell out of a scrap book I inherited a few years back.

I was interested in learning something about the hats that the boys wore. They are bowlers, and according to one web site (http://www.ehow.com/about_5037692_bowler-hat-history.html) they were common among men of various classes.

Reading the Final Chapter of the Book, Just to See How it Ends

Has a cemetery marker ever told so much of the story? I reflected on this while visiting the Irish Matriarch's final resting place. I was there to remember my Mom, the most recent to join Agnes Bettie Kenney Burgan on the old sod, and took a few pictures to help tell the story.

Holy Redeemer is a cemetery that is owned by the Redemptorists, an organization that ministers to ethnic Catholics through its Priests and Brothers. Some web sites list the cemetery as beginning in 1880. The land was marked as being owned by Thomas Burgan, Agnes' father in law, on the Hopkins Map of 1877. How it moved to the Church's hands is a mystery to me. However, the Burgans would not be off the land for very long. John J. Burgan, the Irish Matriarch's husband, died on August 6, 1900. The very next day, Agnes signed a document to purchase lot # 17B, Section G, and paid $78.00 for the 10' by 18' plot. The certificate that I have a copy of notes that those buried there had to be in good standing with the Catholic Church.

Our family's oral history asserts that Agnes' youngest child, William Edward Burgan, carved the marker himself. An important part of the marker is the Celtic Cross found on top. Agnes had come to America almost 50 years earlier, and had married into a well established Episcopal landowning family. This did not keep her from raising her children in the Catholic faith, and her Irish roots were reflected in the monument. During her lifetime, other family members would be buried in the Burgan plot, including her son-in-law, daughter-in-law and grandaughter. After her death in 1924, 2 of her 3 children would be buried there, as well as another grandaughter (and husband) and great grandaughter. Each were Catholic, and most of them were proudly Irish.

A Different Perspective, 20 Years Later

The Hopkins Map of 1877 shows some changes. Thomas Burgan had land further north by then, at the modern day corner of Belair Road and Moravia Road. His previous land was now clearly marked as Laurel Cemetery. I do not know if the Irish Matriarch ever lived on this land with her husband, John J. , and his parents, but by 1870 they are marked on U.S. Census records as living in Baltimore's 7th Ward with two of their 3 existing children. This ward was in the Northeast section of the city, near St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church. Their youngest son's very fuzzy birth certificate says that his dad was originally from Belair Road, which helps to firm up the link between the Burgan generations.

Gotta Love the Old Maps

I have really enjoyed the searching of old maps. There is something exciting about seeing "your" name on a map from 150 years ago. It's one of those, " Oh, that's how I got here" moments. There is a good collection of maps on the Library of Congress Web site, http://memory.loc.gov/ . Included in their online collection is the J.C. Sidney Map of the City and County of Baltimore, Maryland, published in 1857. The Irish Matriarch was a teen at the time, but her future father in law, Thomas Burgan, owned a plot of land just northeast of the city limits. The 1860 census shows that her family lived in the same district of Baltimore County. I wonder how they met. Both the Burgan and Kenney family were farmers, so perhaps the neighbor's cute little Irish girl struck someone's fancy at a church dance, or at the local general store.

This land was eventually sold by Thomas to a group of investors that formed Baltimore's first private Black burial ground, known as Laurel Cemetery.