Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1898 — BARBARA FRIETCHIE. [ARTICLE]

BARBARA FRIETCHIE.

Commodore Schley Teased Whittier’* Heroine When He Was a Boy. John Schley, of Indianapolis, a cousin of Winfield Scott Schley, tells some interesting stories of the days when he and the commodore were playmates in Frederick, Md. One of their favorite and most thoroughly enjoyed diversions, Mr. Schley says, was to tease Barbara Frietchie, the identical heroine of Whittier’s famous poem, who waved the Stars and Stripes with historic effect In the face of Stonewall Jackson’s marching brigade. “Barbara,” says Mr. Schley, “was an Irascible, hot-headed woman, who was a holy terror to the boys of Frederick, and as a result she was a particular oh ject of our fun-making. Her husband was a maker of buckskin gloves. Th< Frietchie house was located just where Patrick street crosses the town creek, the waters of which laved one side ol its foundation. Patrick street Is a continuation of the National road, which was the great artery of trade through which the commerce of the west in those days found its way to the eastern markets, there being as yet no rail roads. Hundreds of wagons rolled through Frederick, every day, and Frietchle’s business was manufacturing rough buckskin, hand-made glovet for the drivers—a business of which h« and his brother-in-law together had a monopoly that made them Independent ly well off.

“The bane of Frietchle’s existence was Barbara, his wife, who had so sub dued and cowed him that he was ont of the meekest little men imaginable I remember that Scott and I used t< take great delight in playing beneatl her windows In order to create a dia turbance. She was probably the mos! tactful enemy the commodore ever had to deal with. Her resources for getting even were manifold, but her favorltt one was to catch us In an unguarded position and throw kitchen litter or our heads. From my recollections ol her I should say that she was just th< kind of woman who would perform th< foolhardy trick of waving a flag In tht face of 10,000 armed enemies, and tak< keen delight In doing it.”