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Shortly after the Garrett County Historical Society was formed,
artifacts having to do with the history of Garrett County were presented
to the Society for a museum "some day." Then before a museum could
ever be established, the gifts of artifacts increased to include not
only items that were of local and state interest, but several of
national interest. Included in the latter category were two
artifacts that had local, state and national association. These
were a silver fork and spoon that were part of a silver table setting
given as a wedding gift to Frances Scott Key and his wife when they were
married in 1802.
Now,
the fork and spoon are displayed in the Society's museum in Oakland.
They were a gift from his great-grand daughter, Miss Francis Key Howard,
one of the original members of the Society.
The
Key's first visit to Oakland was in 1857 when Mrs. Key (then a widow),
her married daughter Mrs. Howard, and the Howard children came at stayed
at the Glades Hotel. Except during the Civil War years, they came
each summer to Oakland. In the late 1860's they bought the Stabler
cottage on Alder Street. Very gradually, they added porches and
wings to the cottage until it was a fairly large house. They
continued to come to Oakland each summer and for many years until the
Howard children grew to be old people and only one was alive, Miss
Francis Key Howard. In 1958, she presented the silver fork and
spoon to the Historical Society.
After Miss Howard's death, the Society lost touch with the Howard side
of the Key family. This despite the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Frances
Scott Key has six sons and five daughters. Later, the old Oakland
summer house was put up for sale and eventually torn down because no one
purchased it.
Then, in November 2004, a letter came from Mrs. Sarah Boddy,
great-great-great-great granddaughter of Frances Scott Key.
She and her mother, Mrs. Barbara Roberts, had a box full of old
documents and photographs. They thought that one of the
photographs was Phoebe Key Howard, the oldest child of the Keys, and
wanted to know if the Society had any photographs that included
Mrs. Howard. They society sent her a photograph that appeared in
the Tableland Trails in 1963.
Hence, there is a renewed interest in the Key's silver fork and spoon
now on display in the Society's museum.
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