Frederick A. Tschiffely (b. 1817 - d. 1892)
MSA SC 5496-036174
Slaveholder and Property Owner, Rockville District, Montgomery County,
Maryland
Biography:
Frederick Adolphus Tschiffely was born in Washington D.C. in 1817 to Frederick D. and Catherine Ann Tschiffely. His parents had immigrated to the United States eight years earlier from the Swiss capital of Berne.1 After receiving his U.S. citizenship in 1814, Frederick D. Tschiffely moved his family to Baltimore City while keeping his position as a draftsman in Washington's General Land Office. In the 1830s, the young Frederick A. Tschiffely likewise began working as a Land Office draftsman, a position that he held for the next thirty years.2 He married twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth Ann Wilson (or Willson) Berry in July 1840. The couple lived in the District of Columbia until the early 1850s.
Frederick and Elizabeth Tschiffely had nine children: Elberta Moore, nicknamed Bertie (b. 1841), Elgar Laurie (b. 1842), James Hall (b. 1844), Catherine Ann (b. 1846), Elizabeth Whiting (b. 1850), Frederick Adolphus, Jr. (b. 1851), Wilson Bannatyne or Barnard (b. 1853), Linda Louisa, nicknamed Lou (b. 1855), Kate T. S. (1857), and Albert Lysle Motzir (b. 1860).3 Perhaps Frederick named his son Albert after his late brother, a private who had died in 1847 in the Mexican War.4
In 1852, Tschiffely purchased 268 acres of farmland in Montgomery County, Maryland.5 Located north of the road connecting Darnestown with Rockville, Tschiffely's farm included portions of tracts called "Joseph," "Arpos," "William and John," and "Quince Orchard." In 1860, Tschiffely added seventy-six acres to his farm, which he had appropriately named the Wheatlands. Like many other farmers in the county, Tschiffely raised wheat, oats, corn, and potatoes. He also sold butter, pork, and beef.6
Records do not show how many slaves Frederick Tschiffely purchased when he started farming. However, in 1856, he advertised the sale of a 43-year-old male slave in the Montgomery County Sentinel.7 Tschiffely specified that the slave would not be sold to any location outside the Rockville area “on account of his fidelity," but also emphasized that he would be sold "at a bargain" since the slave was no longer useful to him. The advertisement appeared from August through September.
The sale of the unnamed slave coincided with Tschiffely's public sale of a large variety of farming implements. On October 24, 1856, Tschiffely advertised farm equipment including wagons, plows, a harrow, and a McCormick reaper, as well at least a dozen farm animals such as cattle, cows, horses, and mules. The advertisement appeared in the Montgomery County Sentinel for approximately a month.8 Despite these sales, Tschiffely appeared in the 1860 Agricultural Census as still owning livestock, $500-worth of farming equipment, and nearly fifty more acres than his original purchase. When he wrote his will in 1885, Tschiffely mentioned that he was also earning income by renting out property on Ridge Street in Washington, D.C.9
In 1860, Frederick Tschiffely owned a slave named William W. Bowie (b. 1819),10 who remained enslaved at the Wheatlands until statewide emancipation. Bowie then moved to Washington, D.C, where he lived with his wife, Jane, and their children.11 By that time, the Tschiffelys were employing a young farm laborer named Jacob Weaver, the son of a Bavarian immigrant. He worked on the farm until his death in 1889 at the age of 29.12
Despite the high mortality rates in 19th-century Maryland, many of the Tschiffelys' children survived into their seventies and eighties. Census records show that they followed a variety of paths after leaving the Wheatlands. Both Linda and Frederick Jr. moved Washington D.C., with Frederick Jr. establishing his own pharmacy on Pennsylvania Avenue and splitting his time between Washington and the Tschiffely farm.13 Elgar Tschiffely enlisted with the Confederacy in 1863, serving in Company A of the First Regiment of the Maryland Cavalry.14 At the time of his death in 1930, he was the last Confederate veteran of the Civil War in Montgomery County.15 Kate married Phillip Stone of Potomac, Maryland,16 while Elberta married George Rice,17 the brother of Elgar's wife, Jane. Wilson Tschiffely worked as a banker and a farmer, also operating the historic Seneca Stone Mill in the early 1900s.18 The youngest son, Albert, moved west to Texas and then to Oklahoma.19
Frederick A. Tschiffely Sr. died on his farm on July 20, 1892, and
was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in the District of Columbia. His wife,
his parents, his daughter Catherine Ann (who had died at the age of eleven),
and several other children, grandchildren, and relatives were buried at
the same site. The Wheatlands remained with Tschiffely's descendants until
the 1940s, when Montgomery County conservationist Otis Beall Kent purchased
the property and renamed it the Kentlands.20 The two-and-a-half-story
Georgian Revival manor house, which Frederick Jr. had built in 1901 after
tearing down the original house, now serves as a reception hall.21
1. Naturalization Record for Frederick D. Tschiffely, June 6, 1814. U.S. Naturalization Records Indexes, 1794-1995. The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. www.ancestry.com.
2. "Known in This City: Hon. John Lynch, Col. E. Mck. Hudson, and F. A. Tschiffely Dead." Washington Post 3 August 1892: 5.
3. U.S. Census Bureau (Census
Record, MD) for Fredk. A. Tschiffeley, 1860, Montgomery County, District
4, Page 57, Line 35 [MSA SM61-213, M 7223-1].
DEPARTMENT
OF HEALTH BUREAU OF VITAL STATISTICS, (Death Record, Counties), 1930, [S1179-4010].
Elgar Laurie Tschiffely, June 3, 1930, Montgomery County
BOARD OF HEALTH,
(Death Record, Counties), 1898, [S1178-13]. Mrs. Mary Tschiffely, July
21, 1898, Montgomery County
4. U.S. Army Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914. Albert G. Tschiffely, 1st Dragoons, Company F. The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. Ancestry.com.
5. MONTGOMERY COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Land Records), Liber JGH 1, Folio 291, 1851-1853, [MSA CE 63-1]. Joseph Hawkins Jones and Elizabeth Jones to Frederick A. Tschiffelly, May 2, 1852.
6. U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, (Census Record, MD), 1870, Agriculture, [MSA S1184-11]. Frederick A. Tschiffely, Fourth District, Montgomery County, Line 12.
7. "Negro Man for Sale," Montgomery County Sentinel 22 August 1856: 2. MSA SC 2813, Reel M 476-01.
8. "Public Sale of Stock, Farming Utensils, &c, &c." Montgomery County Sentinel 7 November 1856: 3. MSA SC 2813, Reel M 476-01.
9. MONTGOMERY COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS, (Wills), 1891-1897, Liber GCD 2, Folio 24, Film Reel: CR 44-2, [MSA CM756-6]. Frederick A. Tschiffely, October 29, 1885.
10. MONTGOMERY COUNTY, COMMISSIONER
OF SLAVE STATISTICS, (Slave Statistics), 1867-1868, Film Reel: CR 12255-2,
[MSA CM750-1]. Frederick A. Tschiffely, May 29, 1867, Page 84 (Page 60
electronic).
MONTGOMERY
COUNTY, BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, (Assessment Record, Slaves), 1853-1864,
[MSA C1112-1]. Slaveholder: Frederick A. Tschiffely. Slave: Bill. 4th District,
Page 319.
11. 1870 U.S. Federal Census Record (DC) for William Bowie, Washington, Ward 3, Page 46, Line 19. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.
12. John D. Bowman.
Guide to Selections
from the Montgomery County Sentinel, Maryland, January 1, 1888—December
30, 1892 (Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2006) 49.
U.S.
Census Record (Census Record, MD) for Jacob Weaver, 1870, Anne Arundel
County, District 2, Page 35, Line 33 [MSA SM61-275, M 7256].
13. 1900 U.S. Federal Census Record
(DC) for Frederick Tschiffely, Washington, District 122, Page 44, Line
69. Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.
1930 U.S. Federal Census Record (DC) for Linda Tshiffely, District of Columbia,
Washington Township, District 175, Page 26, Line 35. The Generations Network,
Inc., 2002. Ancestry.com.
"Washburn's
Kidnacura." 7 May 1896 The Washington Post: 4. Historic Newspapers.
14. Civil War Record for Edgar L. Tschiffely,
Confederate, Maryland. Enlistment Date: 15 Jun 1863. Company A, Maryland
1st Cavalry Battalion. American Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles.
The Generations Network, Inc., 2009. www.ancestry.com.
Civil War
Record for Elgar L. Tschiffely, Confederate, Maryland. Private, 1st Regiment,
Maryland Cavalry. National Park Service. U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865.
The
Generations Network, Inc., 2007. www.ancestry.com.
15. "Last Confederate Vet In Montgomery
Dies: E.L. Tschiffely Was at Appomattox When Lee Surrendered. " The
Washington Post: 5 Jun 1930: 22. ProQuest databases. www.proquest.com.
Charles
W. Mitchell.
Maryland Voices of the Civil War (Baltimore, MD: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2007) 9.
16. American Clan Gregor Society. Year Book of the American Clan Gregor Society (Charlottesville, VA: 1932) 31.
17. Maryland Marriage record for George R. Rice and Bertie M. Tschiffeiz [Tschiffely], December 30, 1865, Montgomery County. Jordan Dodd, Liahona Research, comp. Maryland Marriages, 1667-1899. The Generations Network, Inc., 2000. www.ancestry.com.
18. "Seneca Quarry." National Register
Listings in Maryland. http://mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDetail.aspx?HDID=161&FROM=NRMapMO.html.
"Seneca Stone
Mill, Poolesville, Montgomery County, M: 17-53." Maryland Historical Trust.
Maryland State Archives. www.mdihp.net.
19. 1910 U.S. Federal Census Record (OK) for Albert L. Tschiffely, Pittsburg County, McAlester Ward, District 231. The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Ancestry.com.
20. MONTGOMERY COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT
(Land Records), Liber 883, Folio 15, 1942-1942, [MSA CE 63-841]. Clifton
L. Tschiffely, et al., to Otis Beall Kent, June 23, 1942.
"Kentland
(Tschiffely-Kent Farm, F.A. Tschiffely Farm, Wheatlands), Gaithersburg,
Montgomery County, M: 21-6." Maryland Historical Trust. Maryland State
Archives. www.mdihp.net.
21. "Kentlands Mansion." City of Gaithersburg.
www.gaithersburgmd.gov.
Researched and written by Rachel Frazier, 2009.
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