Baltzley apple

If you grow an apple variety called Baltzley or are aware of someone who does, please contact me. I'm interested in the Baltzley variety because it originated in Adams County, Pennsylvania (where my father's side of my family settled) and it's named after a relative of one of my ancestors. 

I first learned of the Baltzley apple from the 1860 "Descriptive Catalogue of Fruit Trees, Plants, and Shrubbery" of Springdale Nurseries, "Situated near Bendersville, Adams County, Pa" which was run by Cyrus Griest and Sons. [Cyrus Griest (1803 - 1869) was a second cousin of my fifth-great-grandfather Nicholas "Hill" Wierman (1771 - 1848), on my grandmother's side. In addition to operating a fruit nursery, Cyrus Griest was an abolitionist and participant in the Underground Railroad.] 

Entry in the catalog under Fall Apples, page 8: "BALTZLEY--Large, flat, pale yellow; flesh tender and juicy, with a rich, sweet, pleasant flavor; excellent and productive. October to November,"

The Baltzley apple variety is listed in The Illustrated History of Apples in the United States and Canada, Volume 1, by Daniel J. Bussey: "Originated on the farm of John Baltzley, Manellen [sic--should be Menallen] Township, Pennsylvania; recorded in 1867. Rather large in size, oblate or roundish oblate, nearly regular. Pale yellow skin, often with a shade of light pale red in the sun, and a few grayish dots....White flesh, half fine, tender, moderately juicy, rather rich, mild subacid to sweet. Good to very good quality."

I suppose this John Baltzley is the one buried at Bendersville Cemetery (1782 - 1868), which is surrounded by Menallen Township.  According to the 1860 Census, his family lived in Menallen.  He might be a brother of my fourth-great-grandfather Jacob Baltzley (1786 - 1840), on my grandfather's side. 

Another John Baltzley (1820 - 1876) was a brother of my third-great-grandfather Peter Baltzley (1812 - 1884). 

Below are watercolors of two Baltzley apples painted by Deborah Griscom Passmore for the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection. By the way, an apple with a slightly different spelling--Baltzby--was described in The Fruits and Fruit-trees of America (1881) by A. J. and Charles Downing, page 87:  "From Virginia. Tree spreading, productive. Fruit large, oblate, yellowish white, with a faint blush; dots scattered, small, white. Flesh white, firm, somewhat  tough, juicy, almost sweet. Good. October." That seems similar to the apple labeled Baltzley in the second watercolor. 

From "U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection.
Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705"

From "U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection.
Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705"

Added on December 10, 2021: 

From Tilton's Journal of Horticulture and Florist's Companion, Volume 9, 1871, page 204:

"Baltzley. —Tree received from Franklin Davis, Staunton, Va.; is healthy, spreading, open, early productive. Fruit large and handsome, flat, somewhat angular; surface smooth, yellowish-white, faintly blushed; dots small, scattered, white; basin rather deep, abrupt, wavy; eye medium, short, open; cavity medium, wavy, brown; stem medium, green; core small, irregular, not meeting the eye; seeds numerous, angular, brown; flesh white, firm, somewhat tough, juicy; flavor almost sweet, rich. Use, market and family; quality, good; season, October. As a market fruit, this variety will follow the Maiden's Blush, and promises to be equally valuable, though less elegant."

I suppose this Baltzley tree originated in Adams County. I wonder if any records remain that could show it was bought from Springdale Nurseries.

Graceanna Lewis (August 3, 1821-February 25, 1912)

Today, August 3, 2021, is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Graceanna Lewis, an abolitionist, underground railroad station operator, women's rights advocate, artist, and natural scientist. If you have writings (such as letters and articles), photos, prints, artworks, or other material connected to her, please contact me. I've read the brief biography on her by Deborah Miller, Graceanna Lewis: Scientist and Humanitarian, and want to learn more.  

Hannah Wright Mifflin, a first cousin of my fourth great-grandmother Jane Wierman Funk, and Graceanna Lewis were good friends. In letters, Hannah called her Gracie. Both were Quakers raised in abolitionist families that were major participants in the underground railroad. Hannah grew up in the northeast part of Adams County, Pennsylvania, where Gettysburg is the county seat. Her parents, William Wright and Phebe Wierman Wright, as well as Gracie's family were among the underground railroad participants that William Still included in his book, The Underground Railroad (1872). 

Graceanna Lewis grew up near Philadelphia in Chester County. I suppose Hannah and Gracie met through their parents' underground railroad work and got to know each other better at Kimberton Boarding School for Girls, near Gracie's home and where they both studied. My impression from descriptions of the school is that it was similar to a progressive and STEM-focused school of today. 

More information on Graceanna Lewis: "Graceanna Lewis--Abolitionist to Natural Scientist" by Rob Lukens, March 21, 2013 

"From The Plumage Of Birds To The Classification Of The Natural Kingdom: The Life Of Ornithologist Graceanna Lewis" by Dale Debakcsy, March 3, 2021

One of the leaf charts she created for schools:

709 (July 9, 2015)

Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of the start of the "709 Crackdown" on human rights lawyers in China on July 9, 2015. 

From March 1994 to January 1996, I taught English and various classes on US law (mainly Contracts and the US legal system) at the China University of Political Science and Law at the old campus by the Third Ring Road. Some of the over 300 detained in the crackdown studied at this law school, and a few were in my classes. I wonder how they are doing and what I could do to help.

One of them was Wang Yu (王宇), who was arrested in Beijing on July 9, 2015. In 2016 she was the first recipient of the American Bar Association International Human Rights Award. 

"Chinese lawyer Wang Yu given ABA International Human Rights Award in absentia" August 6, 2016, ABA Journal

https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/chinese_lawyer_wang_yu_given_inaugural_aba_international_human_rights_award

This video prepared for The Guardian focuses on a Hainan case in which a school principal and a government official raped school girls. But they were initially charged with having sex with prostitutes, a lesser offense than assaulting children. Wang Yu took up the case to try to rectify this offensive abuse of power.

"Chinese human rights lawyer: 'You might disappear at any time' " September 5, 2015 (7 minutes 44 seconds)

https://www.the guardian.com/world/video/2015/sep/02/china-human-rights-lawyer-wang-yu-video-interview

On March 4, 2021, the US State Department announced that she was one of the 14 recipients of the "2021 International Women of Courage Award," officially awarded on March 8, International Women's Day.

https://www.state.gov/2021-international-women-of-courage-award-recipients-announced/

William Wright and Phebe Wierman Wright: Plainfield Nurseries and Farm of Latimore Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania

If you have information about this fruit nursery when it was run by William Wright and Phebe Wierman Wright in the mid-1800s, please contact me. Phebe was a sister of my 5th great-grandfather Nicholas "Hill" Wierman. William and Phebe Wright were also prominent participants in the underground railroad for over 40 years, starting in 1819. I will write about this in a later post. (Various sources, such as her gravestone, indicate that her name should be spelled Phebe, not Phoebe, as appears in some writings about her in the 1900s up to now.)

Plainfield included what is now the property of 514 Latimore Valley Road and possibly more. The remains of their brick house are among trees east of the newer buildings that are visible from the road. The most recent photos I have seen--shared online and I think taken in the 1990s--show the house crumbling, with much of one side gone. 

Prior to Plainfield, they lived at Woodburn, which was to the west near York Springs, but I know almost nothing about it. I think they were there between 1820 and 1840 and that it was also a nursery. In a piece published in the Gettysburg Times, June 9, 1952, page 6, Gettysburg College professor of history Robert Fortenbaugh places Woodburn "a little more than two miles northwest of York Springs." He goes on to say, "This place was improved by a red brick house which is still standing." I suppose he means it was built by the Wrights. However, I have seen a Facebook comment to a post on the Plainfield house ruins that claims the Woodburn house no longer exists and was located behind what is now an auto auction site at the intersection of US 15 and Bonners Hill Road. This is between 1.5 and two miles northeast of York Springs. I wonder if Prof. Fortenbaugh mistakenly wrote northwest instead of northeast because I think the Facebook commenter has good access to property search tools. I am particularly interested in finding a scanned copy of the catalog/catalouges that were mentioned in ads, such as these: 

From the Star and Republican Banner (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), August 7, 1846, page 3.

From the Gettysburg Compiler, March 19, 1849, page 3

Notice of sale of Plainfield after the death of William Wright, Adams Sentinel, November 7, 1865, page 2

A little bit of Plainfield's history is described on page 14 in this booklet posted by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission: Adams County Fruit Belt, c. 1875-1960 http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/agriculture/files/context/adams_county_fruit_belt.pdf

Madison sidewalk chalk message in September 2019

One of the reasons that I often prefer to walk to get to some place is what I can see along the way. Another reason is that sometimes I get into a conversation with a stranger.

This is along the east side of Midvale Boulevard, a little south of Mineral Point Road. I take this route between my Madison apartment and the Sequoya Library.

Pottery by David Ditzler (1777 to 1857), David Ditzler Jr (1810 to 1891) and Jacob Yohe Ditzler (1806 to 1878)

If you have or are aware of pottery by possibly any of them or anyone else with the last name of Ditzler, please contact me by posting a comment or using the message space in this blog.

At least two of my direct ancestors were potters in Adams County, Pennsylvania, during the 1800s: David Ditzler Sr and Jr. The latter's older brother, Jacob, was also a potter in Carroll County, Maryland (probably in or near Manchester around 1850 to 1860), and later on a little across the border from Adams County in York County, Pennsylvania, in the Heidelberg Township that borders the north side of Hanover.

Harold Ditzler, the son of one of my grandfather's cousins, was on the lookout for a long time but apparently never found pottery with the name of David Ditzler. See his "Keystones of Adams County" column, number 18, Gettysburg Times, November 5, 1986:
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20845355/ditzler_harold_keystones_of_adams_c/


The only specific lists of works and photos of pottery by a Ditzler in the 1800s are by a Jacob Ditzler. I think he was a son of David Ditzler Sr and lived from 1806 to 1878.  What complicates this is that the father of the first David Ditzler was Jacob Ditzler, one of the brothers of the first David was also called Jacob, and one of David Jr's children was Jacob Stock Ditzler (1848 to 1911 and a brother of my great-great-grandfather John Stock Ditzler). Elsewhere were others, maybe distant relatives, with the name of Jacob Ditzler.

(Yohe was the maiden name of Anna Maria Yohe Ditzler, 1781 to 1859, the wife of the first David. Stock was the maiden name of Sarah "Sallie" Stock Ditzler, 1825 to 1908, the wife of David Jr. They seemed to have the practice of using the mother's maiden name for the middle name of some of the sons, which I think is interesting. I wonder if that shows at least a little more enlightened attitude about women's rights.)

A photo of three pottery dogs attributed to Jacob Ditzler is in Jacob Paxson Temple Collection of Early American Furniture and Objects of Art (1922). This was the catalog for an auction by the Anderson Galleries in New York City during the week of January 23 to 28, 1922. According to the catalog, Temple worked in the construction department of the Pennsylvania Railroad and lived in Chester County, Pennsylvania. While traveling for work, he often bought early American furniture and folk art.

a couple of sources
Lasansky, Jeannette. 1989. Central Pennsylvania Redware Pottery, 1780-1904. Univ of Pennsylvania Press.

Rice, Alvin H. and John Baer Stoudt. 1929. The Shenandoah Pottery. Shenandoah Publishing House. (Available through Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/shenandoahpotter00rice ) This includes a letter that mentions a potter with a  name mistakenly spelled "Titzler" who was David Ditzler Jr.

Online personal information

I've found out that a website purporting to give background information on people posts a photo of someone that isn't me and lists "associates" that I've never heard of. There are other mistakes from mixing me up with others with my name, such as my father and grandfather. I was already aware of that problem.

I'm worried this kind of thing could hurt me.

Anne Frank's 90th birthday

This afternoon while I was reading parts of Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl, I surprised myself that I started to cry in the middle of her July 15, 1944, entry. The first tears came from the sadness of what was done to her, especially because the secret annex was discovered the following month, but a lot also came from the pain I felt on how she was writing about her inner self and opening up to others. For me, it's a lot from wishing someone in particular would be willing to open up to me. 

On a more positive note, I liked being reminded that she kept a Book of Beautiful Sentences, which was made up of passages she liked from what she was reading. I sometimes do that but want to be more organized and regular about it. 

One of the people I follow on Facebook,  Rebecca Solnit, posted today about research indicating that using paper maps can be better for our minds. She quoted T.S. Eliot:

"We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring 

Will be to arrive where we started 

And know the place for the first time." 

From "Little Gidding," last of the Four Quartets (short interpretation of those poems: "Four Quartets: TS Eliot’s struggle to make the real world right in a spiritual realm" by  Roz Kaveney in The Guardian, May 19, 2014) These lines remind me of my post about labyrinths in Baltimore.

According to the Poetry Foundation biography of T.S.Eliot, "He himself thought Four Quartets his greatest achievement and Little Gidding his best poem."

It goes on: "Whereas his early poems had been centered on the isolated individual, Four Quartets is centered on the isolated moment, the fragment of time that takes its meaning from and gives its meaning to a pattern, a pattern at once in time, continuously changing until the supreme moment of death completes it, and also out of time. Since the individual lives and exists only in fragments, he can never quite know the whole pattern; but in certain moments, he can experience the pattern in miniature."

Starting last night, I was re-reading Anne Frank because today, June 12, would have been her 90th birthday.

Some interesting links to explore:

1. Anne Frank House in Amsterdam: 

https://www.annefrank.org/en/

A. "The complete works of Anne Frank" (about them--not the full actual texts)

This page has a lot of interesting information, such as on her "Book of Beautiful Sentences" (passages she liked from what she was reading) and her starting to write "The Secret Annex" (a book that drew from her diary and she intended for people to read after the war)

https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/diary/complete-works-anne-frank/

B. Visual tour of the secret annex

https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/secret-annex/

2. US Holocaust Memorial Museum

A. Anne Frank biography in the Holocaust Encyclopedia

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/anne-frank-biography

B. "Anne Frank: The Writer"

(exhibit hosted by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum) https://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/anne-frank/htmlsite/index.html

Spring breezes

From about the middle of May into around the middle of June is one of my favorite times of the year. The skies are often blue with puffy clouds drifting across. I think that I accidentally deleted a picture I took of the curtain blown by a nice breeze entering my bedroom where I lived in Baltimore's Charles Village neighborhood in part of 2017. I wanted to include that picture in this entry. That moment was so relaxing and reminded me of how my bedroom curtains moved on a June morning where I grew up in Kansas.

I took the picture above in Madison's Rennebohm Park, near my apartment. This scene and the weather make me wish that I could wash clothes in the morning and hang them to dry on the line, as I did at my grandmother's in Gettysburg. I loved the feeling of the whole atmosphere. As a way of keeping touch with that time, I wish that I could have gotten my grandmother's grey bag in which she kept her clothespins. The bag had a large hook that could be hung on the line so that it was more convenient to fetch a clothespin. I sometimes had to replenish the clothespins because my grandmother liked to use them to clip together things. Another reason I loved this is because of the smell of the clothes after they'd dried and knowing that I'd not used the drier, which consumes a great deal of electricity.

I've stayed longer in Madison so that I could take some training classes for faculty and staff. On Thursday, for instance, I took a workshop on what to do if someone feels suicidal. I asked the instructors about the ideas of that workshop's approach--QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer)--versus ALGEE in Mental Health First Aid. My impression is that ALGEE focuses more on taking the time to talk, but I'll need to look into the research.

For the time being, it has been better for me to keep my position in Madison as I also live in the DMV area.

Driving

I sometimes wonder whether a good way to get an early idea of someone's character would be to observe how that person drives. This could indicate such things as self-control, risk taking, patience, politeness, reliability, responsibility, and empathy.

An exception to this is that some bad driving habits might come more from not learning the right way. For example, I once met someone who grew up in China before driving was common there and learned from a friend in the US. She was unaware of the importance of a safe following distance because she had seen many others drive very close and thought that is what she was supposed to do.

One of the few articles that I found online about this topic is "How You Drive Reveals a Lot About Your Personality." I'm not sure if I agree with some of the connections the author draws. Tailgating might mainly reveal excessive risk taking and pushiness rather than lack of imagination. But I see his point that safe driving entails imagining--more like anticipating--what others might do and what could go wrong.  

Another possibile exception is that people can vary a lot in how they act--maybe because of setting or simply from differing over the course of a day. This has happened with people who seem to be very nice yet are abusive at home or who are going through a particularly bad day. 

Near the end of the article, the author concludes, "Based upon my years of experience, the best and easiest-to-get-along-with coworkers, colleagues and customers tend to be courteous when they drive and, when confronted with the bad driving of others, tend to shrug it off." 

I guess by "shrug it off" he means not react with anger or aggression. In some cases, though, I'm alarmed, which I don't think of as shrugging off. What I think can be scary is something hard to defend against, such as someone suddenly swerving head-on into the opposite lane. The wife and daughter of an assistant basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin recently died near Ann Arbor, Michigan, when a wrong-way driver hit his car head-on. He and his son survived. I wonder if they are now thinking and feeling over and over how their lives changed so much because of another driver's recklessness. 
https://madison.com/wsj/sports/college/basketball/men/badgers-assistant-howard-moore-seriously-injured-wife-and-daughter-killed/article_7c6bcd13-4ab2-5ed3-887e-37cdf751c1b0.html

My impression from walking a lot is that there's an increase in number of drivers who blatanly go through red lights. So I must keep reminding myself of that when driving.

-----------
added May 28, evening
The main reason I posted this is because I'm thinking about whether I should have taken this more into account with one person I've gotten to know in recent years.  It's about predicting about a person so as not to be blindsided, similar to what I want to do with driving but with strangers. 

Mental Health First Aid

On Tuesday I was finally able to take the Mental Health First Aid eight-hour workshop, which I first learned about three to five years ago. It was for free through a college where I teach. The main emphasis was on a mental health first aid mnemonic: ALGEE. (See this page https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/take-a-course/what-you-learn/)

ALGEE steps
Assess for risk of suicide or harm
Listen nonjudgmentally
Give reassurance and Information
Encourage appropriate professional help
Encourage self-help and other support strategies

I've noticed that sometimes discussions about suicide will go straight to the first E by suggesting a hotline, but maybe that can risk making the person feel abandoned or not cared for without making sure of the previous steps in ALGEE.

I wonder if schools K through 12 could teach something like this along with Red Cross first aid and maybe many other life skills. When I was in seventh grade, my life sciences teacher decided on his own to teach us first aid--burns, CPR, broken bones, etc. I wish that my schools offered this K through 12 so that we could build up skills and get this embedded into us. Maybe it could be done in PE classes.

Silhouettes Exhibit at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (May 11, 2018 - March 17, 2019)

Visiting Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now helped me appreciate the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery a lot more. What especially drew me to it was this silhouette, cut into paper, of an enslaved women, Flora, created by tracing her shadow cast by a candle. I procrastinated going to the exhibit but finally went there twice in March. Interesting article about this: "An Enslaved Woman's Candlelit Shadow Is the Most Compelling Image in the US National Portrait Gallery" https://qz.com/quartzy/1471019/an-enslaved-womans-candlelit-shadow-is-the-most-compelling-image-in-the-us-national-portrait-gallery/

 You can see in the picture below that this was cut into paper.

Another reason I liked this exhibit was that many of the silhouettes were of interesting women in the 1800s.

Sylvia Drake and Charity Bryant--Early 1800s same-sex couple. More on them at the museum that owns this silhouette:
https://henrysheldonmuseum.org/exhibits/charity-sylvia-a-weybridge-couple/

Laura Bridgman--more about her at Perkins School for the Blind website:
https://www.perkins.org/history/people/laura-bridgman

I was already familiar with current-day silhouettes by Kara Walker, so I'm glad the exhibit included these really neat ones by Kumi Yamashita in which she uses various objects and light to cast shadows that are silhouettes.

Kristi Malakoff

Kara Walker

Some other silhouettes from the 1800s. Pieces in which the silhouettes are doing something were among my favorites.

Lydia Maria Child--She deserves more attention in US history lessons.

Some sights while walking

In Baltimore I often walk between downtown and Charles Village or Mt. Vernon Square along Charles Street. One reason is to see the current quote at the First Unitarian Church at Charles and Franklin Streets. I don't remember ever reading anything by Joseph Joubert. This quote is 261 in his Pensées. Maybe I should look more through these kinds of books for discussion topics to assign my students.

For the unit on media in my Contemporary American Society class, I assign a poem by Emily Dickinson and some quotes.

"I'm Nobody! Who Are you?' (260)

I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you - Nobody - too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Dont tell! they'd advertise - you know!

How dreary - to be - Somebody!
How public - like a Frog -
To tell one's name - the livelong June -
To an admiring Bog!

One of the quotes:
"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” - Kurt Vonnegut Mother Night page vi

Below is a picture I took late last summer in DC along the Mall near the Smithsonian Castle. There were a lot more butterflies, but I couldn't get a good picture of a large group of them. One of my favorite walks anywhere is along that side of the Mall at sunset, so I wish I could find one of my pictures of red skies while looking toward the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.

This was recently on a sidewalk in Madison along Midvale Boulevard, the route I often walk between my Madison apartment and the Sequoya Library. 

Exhibits of art by young people

One of my favorite types of art exhibits is art created by kids and teenagers, particularly at art museums. I think this is a great way to link art collections with doing art. Other ways are things like drawing lessons, which I often notice at the Walters in Baltimore.

The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art runs Young at Art every two years. I wonder why not more often since many people really enjoy this. None of the staff knew the answer when I asked them, so I'll email the museum.

We were allowed to take photos of the art. One of my favorites was the bear near the bottom left.

The ceramic work below was one of my favorites at this exhibit because of the messages it suggests and the look of it.

Below is a big piece.

I think flowers set around the face are neat. I wonder how long it took the student to become this skilled.

Below is the section facing the sidewalk. The painting on the bottom right is of the Monona Terrace convention center designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and the state capitol.