Point Lookout Lighthouse
Francis Hart Transcript- August 2003
Laura: Francis’ great grandfather was the light keeper.
Robert: There were so many Yeatmans that spread out
Carol: Francis said there were 12 children when we looking through the pictures.
Francis: There was a family tree but I don’t remember all of them.
C: 12 or 14, you told me
F: No, that was something else.
C: That was a family in there. It was another family that had 20 kids.
R: Before lighthouse was expanded
C: All the pictures he has the lighthouse is two-story. We found these postcards – says the lighthouse is rebuilt 1927 and 1928, built in 1830.
L: He has a picture
R: Yes, that is what it looked like before 1927
Robert: In 1927, raised the second story and changed the entire lighthouse; where the southside kitchen is now.
Went to Philadelphia and looked at the architectural drawings
C: Are you two writing a book?
L: We have a website
F: Came in the porch from the river side and you went in the kitchen
R: you remember that?
F: was divided – he had assistant light keeper on one side, keeper on the other side. Came up on the porch and went in through a kitchen. Then there was a sitting room and then went into the parlor or living room. Steps in living room went to the second floor. There were three bedrooms upstairs. I stayed in the middle bedroom.
L: I’ve never seen this one before
R: This is an archives picture
L: I have a copy that says 1885 but this one doesn’t say that.
R: This says 1830, look a person is there.
L: Look at how big the buoys are
R: Wow – I always wondered why they had railroad tracks there
F: The railroad track went out on the pier and boats used to come in there for the buoys. You had flat cars that you pushed and put the buoys on the flat car and pushed into the two buoy sheds.
C: We went through and marked the ones from Point Lookout
F: There used to be kerosene lamp – there is a light and then they put in glass batteries.
R: Glass batteries?
F: Yes – there was a little closet in the buoy sheds that had rows and rows of glass batteries. You used to have to go out for ________.
C: How did you get interested in the lighthouse?
L: I used to live in it. I was the last person to live in it. I rented it from the State and the State leased it from the Navy back in the 1970s.
F: What was that?
C: She used to live in the lighthouse.
F: At Point Lookout?
L & C: Yes
L: I became fascinated by it and then I met Robert and we are interested in saving the history.
F: You used to say the lighthouse was haunted and you could hear someone going up the steps to the tower but I never heard nobody.
C: But you saw a ghost – not there but you saw a ghost.
F: I don’t remember where.
C: That was his father – he died in 1918.
F & L: There is the old Confederate monument. Greenwells used to take care of that. Adie Greenwell was his grandmother’s sister. She married a Greenwell.
R: Virginia Jackson was your grandmother.
F: Yes, my grandmother was Virginia Jackson. My mother was Rose Jeannette. My grandmother had Rose Jeannette and Marie.
C: This is your great grandmother?
F: Yes
L: What was her name?
F: I think it was Catharine – but I can’t remember. I’m not sure
C: We think it was Catharine – because that’s what written. Catharine with C.
R: That’s William Yeatman’s wife – we weren’t sure what her name was.
(NOTE: we later learned that Anna Maria Lamb Yeatman was William Yeatman’s wife).
C: This is a picture of her and that is her brother
F: I don’t know – I’m confused on this. I don’t know if this is my great grandfather or his brother.
L: Your great-grandfather did have a beard and it was described as white in later years.
F: I know he did – he says something else:
C: The fact that she left the lighthouse and moved back to the city – you can tell this is the city but it was after her grandfather died.
F: She probably came up for visit because this in my grandmothers backyard (her daughter’s back yard)
C: You don’t think this is your great grandfather?
F: My mother used to speak a lot about ???? I can’t remember – maybe John
R: Herbert?
F: No, not Herbert – he was his grandmother’s brother.
R: One more generation beyond
F: Our family didn’t talk much about each other – its hard for me
C: His mother got mad at her side of the family and didn’t talk to anybody for years and years.
R: Plus they all moved away after William Yeatman passed away – the family kind of scattered.
F: Yea. I can remember as a kid we were always close to Aunt Cora which was Cora Yeatman, sister of my grandmother. Cora was a heavy women and late in years at one time she lived down there at Point Lookout right outside the lighthouse she had a shack there and there used to a billy goat there and he would buck the hell out of you if you didn’t watch there. The old smokehouse was there then.
R: So that was a smokehouse?
F: Yes, that was the smokehouse. Aunt Cora had the shack there, I don’t know who built the shack. Then it was torn down. Then she moved in with her sister, Amy Greenwell down in Scotland. Then Aunt Cora got breast cancer. But back in those days, you didn’t talk about those things. People went into isolation when they got those things but I can remember Aunt Cora at Aunt Amy’s in one of the bedrooms and they had camphor in the room because of the smell and she died of cancer. Uncle Will, her brother, was partly deaf, he was the lighthouse keeper at Piney Point. Will Yeatman was a woman chaser. He liked young women, chewed tobacco, would come up for visits to my grandmothers. My father died in 1918, I was only six months old and then my mother had to go to work. My grandmother raised me. We all had to ban together. Uncle Will would come and you had to get a tomato can. He would walk around the house and spit in the tomato can. He was a bird too, Uncle Will. He had children, I don’t remember how many he had. I remember one time he was assistant light keeper at Point Lookout. They had closed Piney Point and he became assistant lighthouse keeper and Point Lookout. The lighthouse keeper then was Willis.
R: George Willis?
F: He had a son George Jr. He was in the merchant marines during WWII. In 1942, his ship stopped in the Atlantic on the coast. He also had a sister Mahalia but she was a younger sister. I can remember Uncle Will, his wife was dead. He had a younger son, two small boys one younger than me and one older and I know he had at least one daughter.
C: Dad, do you know who this is? It looks like it says Mary, May 1917. But that’s not gaga.
L: It’s a great picture with the bell tower.
F: That’s Carrie Dismer That’s somebody off our family tree somewhere – Dismer. She was my godmother.
F: My Aunt Marie, she was my mother’s sister. She lived until 98. I tried to get some information out of her on some of these pictures but she had forgotten.
F & L & C: Talking about Piney Point – some old pictures taken there.
C: We don’t even know who these pictures are. Grandmother didn’t write anything on them.
R:
C: Do you know who these people are – they are around the lighthouse?
F: I don’t know
F: Virginia Jackson was a Yeatman. She married an Ardeeser. My mother was an Ardeeser and married a Hart. Her sister Marie married a Hessler.
C: …She had a chicken farm and had 100 acres. We used to go down there. Dad would fish. Mom would relax and the kids would swim. Taxes got high. She would sell an acre a land for $100 to pay her taxes. Dad said he couldn’t afford to pay her taxes. Now… It was country
F: The first time I remember riding down there in a Model T Ford it took us 5 hours to get down there. The old Model T would get hot and steamy and you would have to pull over to the side of the road. Had to add water to the radiator. A couple of hills you might not get up – always had flat tires. You were lucky if you didn’t have flat tires.
There used to be a boat that would stop several places along the river and I rode that down from Baltimore a couple of times when I was a kid.
R: There is a tape – Kathy’s grandmother. Said the kids used to wave at the boats and ring the fog bell. What was her name: Catharine was Kathy’s grandmother. Trying to the get the names straight. Anna Maria? How was it pronounced?
F: That’s like my aunt – her name was Marie, but we pronounced it Mare ee.
L: Her grandmother was Virginia Jackson Yeatman? Kathy’s grandmother also.
L: Kathy said her Uncle Larry Hessler and cousin Francis Hart can verify that Jenny (Virginia) left PLO to go to DC marry Henry Christian Ardeeser.
F: That’s my uncle. He’s a bastard???
C: No she married him. That’s Henry not Harry.
L: Francis and his mother lived in DC with his grandmother Virginia Yeatman Ardeeser and may have stories to tell.
C: His grandmother, Virginia Yeatman Ardeeser actually raised him because his father died when he was six months old and his mother had to go to work. So he stayed with his grandmother.
R: At the lighthouse?
F: No, we lived here on 9th Street NE
R: OK, so that’s when William Yeatman died and they all scattered. Where did grandmother go – her name was Catharine?
L: That was the great grandmother?
F: I don’t remember my great grandfather – he died before I was born. My grandfather died before I was born. I don’t remember him either. I was born in 1918 – he died before that.
L: Where is the tombstone?
F: Bladensburg Road – Mt. Alto??? Ardeeser Tombstone
C: Great grandmother is Catharine?
L: Yeah
C: Great grandfather is Henry?
L: Henry Christian
C: Catherine – was her maiden name Yeatman?
L: No she married a Yeatman. William Yeatman
C: Then that is his great-grandfather.
C: Willie?
F: No, my uncle was Willie.
C: Your great grandmother was Catherine, great grandfather was William? Then your grandmother was Virginia?
F: Yea, but you’re getting me all confused.
R: St. Jerome (Robert and Laura talking)
C: Virginia Jackson Yeatman (Carol and Francis talking)
C: What was your great grandmother’s maiden name?
F: There was a family tree we had
C: Your grandfather’s name was Henry Christian
C: His name was Ardeeser?
L: Barbara Quasny said one of the ghost tapes where it was believed to say Merry Christmas, she felt they were saying Henry Christian.
R: Name each one with a number, export and cut, time consuming
L: We’ll double check with Carol
F: This one was down Scotland Beach because they used to have wooden things on piers.
R: This first one – this is Point Lookout, is there a date on it?
C: No that’s the problem – theres no date.
R: Its pre-1927
C: This one – is this you with your mother on this buoy. You look like you are 3 or 4 years old, he was born in 1918. So this would be 1921 1922 or so.
R: The second picture – who is that?
C: That’s my dad – the little boy. Do you know who is in this picture?
R: There is two people in the picture?
C: Two children and a man.
F: The little one is me.
C: You don’t know who this boy is standing with you.
F: No, I don’t.
R: So the fourth picture is also your dad.
C: The little boy.
R: There is no people in this picture.
C: This little boy is my dad – on the left. The third picture is my dad and his mother Rose Jeanette.
C: And then that is my dad but he doesn’t know who this kid is.
L: Did you scan those in already?
R: Got those. We should probably go through each book.
C: You just want pictures with the lighthouse in it?
L: Or also with people who were involved with the lighthouse.
F: Evidently this must have been the well – I see buckets and all. You have to get the light.
L: Yea
F: See the buckets.
L: When I lived at the lighthouse, you couldn’t use the water coming out of the spigots – it was from the Chesapeake Bay.
C: Dad, do you know who these people are?
F: That was a group from Virginia somewhere.
C: Oh, so this wasn’t from down there
C: These are all my Dad
F: They are all down Irenes
R: So, there are just 4 pictures in this book from Point Lookout
C: We don’t know who these people are.
F: We don’t know who the small pictures are
C: This one looks like your dad in the corner – is that your dad?
F: No.
C: We don’t know if they have something to do with… whatever she did.
L: She was being artistic?
C: This is her beside one of the buoys.
R: So we will begin scanning. So this is the first one we will scan. This is the lighthouse, we are not sure of the year.
R: This is lighthouse with unknown people surrounding.
R: Kathy Handiboe has done a lot of research for the family tree. She is your?
C: She is my father’s cousin
F: She is my first cousin
R: Then she would be your second cousin (to Carol)
L: To Francis – do you have any memories of when you visited the lighthouse?
F: I remember as kids we used to play on the point. You go out on the point. I don’t know if there much more point out there anymore. They had rocks out there the last time I went there years ago. I remember the tides would shift a lot.
L: Do you remember any ships sinking?
F: No, can’t say I have. I’ve heard them talk about that ____ on the bay.
C: But you remember the prisoner of war camp down there and all.
F: Well there was one – I don’t remember it. I remember when there used to be old civil war trenches down there.
C: Oh, I wonder which book it was in that she had the arrows pointing. Remember? That was for the camp, right? You don’t remember?
F: No
R: This looks like it was at the lighthouse.
C: Yea, we think that is. We think that’s the garden. That’s is dad.
F: There used to be amusements down there at one time to.
R: There the lighthouse and fog bell.
C: What was your father’s name?
F: Aloysius?
C: Yea, Francis Aloysius
L: Do you know how to spell it?
C: No
F: That’s like me – my middle name is Ignatius. I had a teacher in high school and they asked me how to spell it. I said heck if I know.
Discussion about St. Ignatius.
F: St. Ignatius was supposed to be the first person put to death for Christian religion. Stoned to death
R: You can see the lighthouse and fog tower in the background (to Carol)
L: Do you remember a garden down at the lighthouse?
F: Yes
L: There was a big two-acre garden down there.
F: They had a garden down there.
L: Did they have a barn for a house?
F: They had a billy goat.
L: Did they have any other livestock?
F: They might have had a cow – but I don’t remember.
F: They had a big hotel down there at one time.
C: Is this Marie in these pictures?
F: Yes
C: This is Marie – his mother’s sister.
R: Is she a Yeatman?
C: She is an Ardeeser.
F: Yes she is an Ardeeser
C: She is his aunt?
C: Do you know who this man is?
F: No idea
C: Are you any of these kids playing here?
F: I don’t know who they are
F: I do remember there was a house down there on that property?
L: On the lighthouse property?
F: Well, the lighthouse was here and the house was back – further up the road where my great-grandmother lived.
L: Did you ever go to the hotel?
F: Well, I’ve been there but I never stayed there. It was a big wooden hotel. At one time, they had a dance hall down there. All washed out.
L: They had a big ballroom. Its torn down now. When I lived there, the Bay was washing into it.
F: I remember at the neck with the creek and Bay come together. If you went to the lighthouse you had to make sure you left before high tide or you stayed there.
L: Yea, I wondered because they built the causeway and raised the road – I figured when the tide came in – it would block you.
F: If the tide came, you just stayed there that was all there was to it.
L: Even during storms when I lived there, the causeway wasn’t high enough and the tide would sometimes cover the road. They’ve raised it even higher since I’ve lived there.
F: At right there at that causeway, they used to have an electric generator. It generated power for down there. That all washed out.
L: Do you remember a windmill down at the lighthouse that generated electricity?
F: Yea, there is a picture of it in here somewhere.
C: What?
F: A windmill. Somewhere in there I saw the picture.
R: There is one on the postcard.
F: There was a picture – maybe that was it.
R: We’re figuring these are all from the 20’s in this little book.
C: In that book, they would be from….it’s a shame….that book looks older
F: Uncle Herbert, that was my grandmother’s brother
C: What year was your mother born?
F: My mother was born in 1890
C: No she was 19 here I think
C: How old was your father when he died?
F: I don’t remember. He died in 1918.
C: You were born in 1918.
F: That’s right.
C: You were born in June.
F: June 7 and he died December 28
C: I thought they got married when she was 19.
F: Oh no – she was older than that.
C: How old was she when they got married? We looked for marriage papers. We looked through all the pictures but there are none of their marriage.
F & L: They might not have taken pictures of weddings back then.
C: I don’t know – we have some pretty old pictures here
F: My mother had an old box camera – I’ve still got it – took all those pictures.
L: It took some good ones – really clear
F: Its amazing how long the pictures have lasted. They didn’t have the chemicals that they have today.
R: Photography was started in the Civil War – this was only 50 years later or so.
L: Did you ever fish when you were down there?
F: Oh yes
L: What kind of fish did you check?
F: Everything
L: Not snakeheads there.
F: When I got older I used to stay with friends – the Wilkersons of St. Jerome’s Creek. They had two girls and a boy my age and they wanted to fish together. Their mother would say you go catch some fish for dinner – put our lines in and we would catch all the fish we wanted.
L: Those were the good old days.
F: I used to fish all the time but it got so bad years and years ago, I just quit.
R: The lower picture is….
C: I don’t think there is anything written on the back of these or not.
R: We don’t want to damage it.
F: Let me see that picture.
C: This is Aunt Cora
F: That is my Aunt Cora – that’s my grandmother. Let me make sure.
F: This is my great grandmother
C: Catharine
F: And this is Aunt Cora. She is the one that died of cancer.
F: When you get them all together – you get confused.
C: Is this Marie (pronounced Maree)?
F: Yes that is Marie.
F: This is the back of my grandmother’s house on 9th Street NE.
R: If it is a relation, we would like to capture it. You never know you might put this out and someone will say I know who that is. This is Marie.
C: She is Rose Jeannette’s sister (my grandmother’s sister). On mother’s side.
L: I think this one is done.
R: Lets go through again
R: Any ideas on this one
C: That’s their house – I don’t know – you are asking the wrong person – ask my dad.
R: Who are the men in the corner?
F: I don’t know.
C: Did you get these?
L: Yes, we are finished with this book – there was only one picture in that book.
C: This book has a date in the beginning of 1923. I don’t know if that is probably around that time. We are done with this book too.
R: Do these look familiar?
L: I can’t tell who the man is in there. Can’t see his face.
C: I think that is Marie but I don’t know who the lady is next to her.
F: Looks like the old smokehouse down there in that one
C: Dad, do you know any of these people. Is that Marie or GaGa
F: That’s Marie there – I think that’s – let me see something a minute. That’s the one she called Uncle Johnny.
C: Who called Uncle Johnny?
F: My mother. That was my grandfather’s brother.
L: Henry Christian’s brother.
F: Yea, he was a stonecutter. I understand he made a lot of tombstones. They are out there in a cemetery but I don’t know which ones.
L: So, Henry Christian was the bricklayer and Johnny was the stonecutter
R: This will be file 15. The man is Uncle Johnny.
L: Henry Christian’s brother
C: And your great-grandfather was the lighthousekeeper. Didn’t one of your uncles keep the lighthouse too?
F: That was Uncle Will. He was at Piney Point. He went to Point Lookout as the assistant keeper.
L: There were two Williams – one was the keeper and the other was the assistant keeper.
C: Was that your great-grandfather’s son?
L: No it was his brother? Was it Catharine’s brother? But if his name was Yeatman?
F: Uncle Will was my grandmother’s brother.
C: Virginia Jackson Yeatman’s brother?
F: Yes
C: So it was William’s son.
F: I guess so – you got so many names going here.
C: Well William was your great-grandfather.
F: Yea, but I never knew him.
C: I know, but if his daughter was Virginia and her brother was Willie, it had to be his son. So father and son managed the lighthouse. One was the keeper and one was the assistant. Why are you shaking your head no?
F: Father and son never managed the lighthouse together – where did you get that?
L: I think they might have been at one point.
C: Because you said your great grandfather was the lighthouse keeper. And your Uncle Willie was also the lighthouse keeper.
F: At Piney Point
C: But then he went to
F: When Willis was the lighthouse keeper.
R: OK – that’s later – 1939.
F: That’s after they closed Piney Point. They closed Piney Point and they sent Uncle Will over to Point Lookout when Willis was the lighthouse keeper.
R: I haven’t gotten to these papers yet…..
C: That’s his mother there – Rose Jeannette.
F: Do you want to know who that baby is? That’s me
R: That one’s loose
C: Do you know who this is Dad?
F: That was a woman my mother worked with.
C: Dad you should be sitting here so you can tell him who people are because you know more than I do. Why don’t you come sit over here Dad? Its easier on that side as he goes through the book. That’s the later book.
R: If you could just tell me if any of these are lighthouse people?
F: This is in my grandmother’s back yard – Marie on the right on both of them. This is my mother at the top (Rose Jeannette). This is Marie – I call her Marie but its Catharine Marie. The lady I have no idea.
R: Let me scan that.
R: Lets see if there are more past this page that you recognize. My grandmother actually lived about three miles from here – in Brandywine – off Brandywine Road……
F: This one is Marie and this is my mother but I don’t know who the rest of the people are.
C: You live in Calvert County – my daughter lives in Calvert County.
R: I live in St. Leonard – 10 miles north of Solomons. I forgot now – your mother is on the right?
F: Yea
R: Your mom is on the right – both of them are my mother on the right.
F: I don’t know who the rest of them are.
F: It used to be a good place down there – too many people now.
L: I’ll say
C: Now see here’s the one – that’s Marie, this is Willie and that’s my grandmother and Harry and he doesn’t know who they are.
F: This is my mother, and this is my mother. This is my father here on the left. This is my mother and this is my mother. This is my father.
C: We went through all of these. But we thought you only wanted the lighthouse. We didn’t know you wanted people. Some of these were taken later – this is my dad and my brother.
L: We are interested in any photos of the lighthouse. This one was taken 1949.
C: You see this is down at St. Jerome’s Creek at Irene’s place. There was a chicken farm.
F: These are all my mother except these two.
C: I haven’t changed much.
F: Her daughter looks exactly like her.
C: Here’s the chapel down there.
L: That’s a great postcard.
F: It was mailed from Point Lookout
L: I’ve never seen any of these postcards – St. Mary’s Chapel in Ridge, etc.
C: You have a bunch of things of people we should know – but we have no idea who these people are.
F: All these pictures are of Marie. I don’t know who the rest are.
R: The ones going this way
F: Yea
C: Dad, who was Henry Christian Charles Disner?
F: That was
C: Since your grandfather’s name was Harry Ardeeser?
F: Somewhere in the family Disner got in there – he was old German or something.
C: I was wondering who they were.
L: …Marie was still flirting with the boys
C: There were some personal notes in here – from my grandfather. 1908. This is his mother - look at these beautiful pearls – I said Dad what did you do with those pearls?
He said I have no idea.
C: This is the one –
L: Could have made this one into a postcard and mailed it off to somebody.
F: talking to Robert – those 2 are my mother, that one is my father, I don’t know who those two are but that is my father and those two are my mother.
R: Your dad is at the top and then your mother
C: talking to Laura – these were torn out of an album – it says marine camp something point and there are arrows drawn. I don’t know if that is from down there or not.
C: Here is a really great one of Aunt Cora.
F: That’s Aunt Cora
L: That looks just like I would picture Aunt Cora.
R: The one with a garden? In one of the interviews they talked about William Yeatman was very short
C: Well then that one picture in that book is him and not her brother because that man is short.
R: And the grandmother was very tall and thin. They described her as feeble. So, Aunt Cora did all the work around the house and the garden.
C: So you haven’t got to that book yet – have you? Where we have that picture of the man that we didn’t know who the picture was of – it might be your grandfather.
C: It had to be of your great-grandfather – have we gotten to that book yet.
L: The one with the arrows – I don’t think that is Point Lookout but you would know better because the land has changed so much.
C: The one that was in the back yard – do you remember which one that was in?
R: Back when we first started doing this I thought some of the pictures or drawings were wrong because the land was so different – it added and substracted…
L: Right – he said when he was a child the land would shift with the tides and stuff
R: Is this your mother?
F: Yea
R: All these are your mom except maybe these?
C & L: It has to be him – look how…
F: This one is Marie here, I don’t know who these two are and this one is my mother
C: Look how thin she looks and that is a little guy – that has to be his great-grandfather
F: This is some army post or something – I don’t where the hell it is
L: Talking to Carol – Aunt Cora
R: We’ll try to get through this book
L: Yes, we’ll do one at a time – some of these are from this box.
L: Do you recognize?
F: No that’s some army camp.
C: I didn’t know if it was that camp down there.
F: No, I don’t know – can’t make it out here. I had an uncle that was WWI in Quantanomo??? spelling.
Phone rings
F: This is my mother. This is Marie and the rest of the young ladies I have no idea.
R: OK. This is really …. I have to sit down with my aunt I would be in same boat
F: I wasn’t even a dream in my mother’s eye
F: Yea, we used to take a lot of pictures. I’ve got slides downstairs of course they are all later years now. I took
L: You used to have a train garden – do you still put up a train garden?
F: No, my wife and I used to work on that thing one day at a time.
R: I bet
F: This is Marie
R: Do you recognize anyone in this picture?
F: This is Marie here. This is very faded – but looks like Marie here and this one here right here.
F: This is my mother and this is Marie.
L: Black eye – 1952 (chuckle)
F: Fellow I worked in the Fire Dept and then he went to a Revenue Agent – named Ray Hart, no relationship and he went to Fayetteville VA and I went to visit him one time.
F: That’s my father, that is my mother and this one is my mother. These children here I have no idea.
R: Your mom is on the right hand picture on the left.
F: Yep. My father at the top and my mother at the bottom.
R: Your mother is on the left and on the bottom and you don’t know who these children are.
F: And on the top.
L: Talking to Carol: Either she is related or she is Aunt Cora – they have the same nose.
C: But I don’t know. Phone rings again.
R: That’s Aunt Cora
F: Uh huh.
L: 1954 now – taking a nap (to Francis!)
F: This is Harry Ardeeser
L: Taken at Point Lookout in 1935
F: You might want to get a picture of that
F: This is my mother and Marie here.
F: This is Marie and this one is Marie
F: This is Zee??? at Ninth and E Street, NE where they had a little house there. They cut the hill down and put apartment houses there.
C: Do you know who this is Dad?
F: Wait a minute. This is a picture of that – an old time steam shovel. This is Marie’s husband here. This is Harry Ardeeser here – my uncle. This is my grandmother there.
C: That’s Harry? You didn’t tell me that the other day. We ought to put that in here.
F: This is Bernard – this is Marie Hessler’s husband.
L: Here is a picture of Harry too.
F: I’m a little ahead here
C: Well – see that’s got….
R: Now these are your mom right here right?
F: Well this is her – this is Marie, this is my mother and I don’t know who that is.
C: Stick that under Harry’s picture. Do you know who that is?
F: I think that is Irene’s brother – the one who drowned.
C: Oh – that’s not – this is my dad’s dad and mother. Maybe these are wedding pictures because she is posing.
L: Might be
L: Looks like your father and you.
C: But there is no date. I don’t know why they didn’t date stuff back here – dated 8/3 but no year.
R: Could be August 1903?
C: I don’t think so. You don’t know what year they got married in?
UNKNOWN VOICE: "Girl" Track (1) 05:02
F: I don’t know. Their marriage license might be in here somewhere.
C: Not in any of these boxes
F: No, but in safety boxes
C: Because they were married a few years before you were born
F: Yea, because I had a brother who died at birth
C: So they had to be married at least two years at least before you were born.
C: The old pictures are so neat
L: Even the old cards
C: I know – I’ll show you one. This one here of his Dad before they got married – because it is addressed to Ardeeser – "best wishes for every birthday" and this one is from her to him "wishing him many many happy returns".
L: They didn’t mail them though because there is no stamp
F: No they didn’t mail – too expensive – 2 cents
C: They probably handed them to each other – seems to be one card did have a postmark. This is your Dad as a boy – we can’t figure out he’s got a white arm band – we don’t know what that means. Do you?
L: No
F: This is his draft card
C: His Dad’s
L: June 1917
C: May have turned photographs into postcards
F: Not a clue. Looks like the beer truck there.
C: We don’t know who these people are
F: See – they are cutting the hill down. This is my father here and my father there. This is Marie’s husband – he was a civil engineer who used to build bridges – Bernard Hessler.
C: This was mailed in 1911.
L: Big Emery, Cornelia….talking to Carol
F: All my family – right under your hand.
C: This is William Ardeeser on the left.
F: This is Wally (Willie?) here – I don’t know who that is.
C: And he worked at the lighthouse right?
L: The assistant?
F: No he wasn’t the assistant he was just in the Navy – this is my Uncle Wally.
L: It had to be his great uncle Willy because it was Virginia’s brother and not his uncle. Is that what he is saying?
C: This is Gaga’s brother.
F: No, that’s her son.
C: Your Gaga
F: This is my father’s sister Nelly. This is my mom and dad. I really can’t make this lady out. I’m really not too sure who that is.
R: OK
F: This is my mom and dad. This is father’s sister Nelly. Nelly Hart.
C: To my little wife….from your husband.
F: This is Marie’s husband
C: I don’t know – I asked Dad…
F: This is Harry Ardeeser. And this is my grandmother Virginia – Virginia Jackson.
L: I don’t think they wore white
C: Yeah they were smart
F: …we’re in the lighthouse now
C: The lighthouse isn’t here – this was St. Michael’s Church.
C: But they look like they were hand painted.
L: Canadian….. They look textured. To Robert: Do you want this monument from St. Mary’s City?
R: Is that before they moved it?
L: It says this is the Calvert Monument
R: Is that the little one?
C: Postcard was mailed in 1908
R: Sure
C: I wonder if they are worth anything because they look like they are hand painted.
L: Have you ever gotten on eBay – good place to determine value…..has name of company on the postcard – should be easy to determine value. "Chuck’s postcards", printed in England.
C: We don’t know where they came from
F: No, I don’t know either.
L: Maybe they were a souvenir.
R: Any idea how old the picture is of Cora Yeatman?
L: Its not written on here.
R: No guesses? Any idea when she passed on?
C: Which one is of Cora – that big one?
F: Yeah
C: Considering that most of the things in this book and this box were from 1908 to 1913 like the postcards I would say it would have to been within that time frame because the other things are older.
R: OK – just so we have an approximation. This book – I’m done with – do you want to put this with the other things. I’m finished with that one.
C: You didn’t put Harry’s name by that picture.
L: There is only two in this book – so do you want to do these.
R: Let me scan this loose one first first. I think this one is also in that box – the monument
C: Did you get these?
R: Is there three of them?
R: Yes
C: These came from that book.
R: Just so we can keep them organized
L: Right – we can get this done and then the other two I think have quite a bit in there.
R: I want to get the back of this one here – I think its quite interesting. I know some postcards go for a fair amount of money on eBay. I know you look for postcards of Point Lookout.
L: I am always looking for postcards – I haven’t seen any of these.
R: Some are a bit too rich for my blood. I’m not going to pay $80. I might spend $3.00 if they are not very relevant.
R: This one goes – I believe this one goes in the bottom.
C: That one came out of the one you just had. I will put it in there.
L: This one is of Carol and her brothers when they went down to visit in the summer of 1949.
R: So this is going to be…
L: Francis’ children – but they don’t know who the other boy is here. Two are her brothers
C: Terry is the oldest Terry Steven and then Edward Norman and I’m Carol Jane
R: Is that the order they are in in the picture?
C: Edward, Carol, unknown and then Terry – that’s the order.
F: Who is the unknown?
C: I don’t know.
R: 1949
L: All 4 pictures – only people in one.
C: You can probably take that one out because they are on these things.
R: OK
R: Can probably do 3 at a time – line them up.
L: One more at the back (can hear scanner)
R: Be careful not to touch the glass….one more I didn’t get. 34 is the same thing as summer of 1949.
L: Correct. This one is Uncle Harry, 1935. Taken at Point Lookout. Dated 1941 on the front but handwritten taken in 1935.
R: Maybe this is a reprint.
L: First time I’ve seen a date on the back-printed from the company.
R: Used to do that in the 70s – put a strip on the back.
C: People don’t do stuff like this anymore. Christmas Eve 1947 – a man dressed up like Santa Claus and came through my bedroom winder. He worked with my dad and went through all those houses that worked at the firehouse and came through the bedroom windows of all the men that had children.
R: Talked about kids being afraid today – all the warnings.
C: Just came back from O.C. with my daughter and her 3 sons – 6, 5 and 2 – have to stay together hold hands don’t run down the beach. One just wanted to run down the beach.
R: Talked with my mom about that recently. Let me go for a haircut and walk along the busy highway years ago. She can’t believe she let him do that then because she is scared of everything.
C: Talked about her experiences with her daughter.
R: Let them enjoy something at a young age.
C: Calls him boogie boy – first time he remembers the ocean now – growing up.
R: Do you have any idea what year that is? No? 37 is just Point Lookout.
C: Are these the most pictures you ran across?
R & L: Yes. By far. Archives has only 1 or 2 prints.
L: We’ve hit the motherload.
R: Its just this one right – that’s Cora Yeatman and her mother (#38)
L Her mother is Catherine – William’s wife.
R: We don’t have many of her. We are transcribing that tape of Kathy’s. They never mention her grandmother’s name. Trying to make the parts flow.
F: Not many people have seen all this crap.
L: You should see my house. But this is important – its history.
F: This is my mother got married in 24 Nov 1915.
C: 3 years before you born – that sounds right.
F: That’s the wedding announcements. The name of the
church is on the back.
R: Paper slipped – retake.
F: Father’s death notice sad and loving remembrance – 28 Dec 1918 – Francis A. Hart.
C: This is the family that he doesn’t know who they are.
F: Saturday 28 Dec 1918 Father’s death – death notice. Died at his mother’s residence 12/31. 1829 N. Capital Street (his father’s mother’s house) St. Martin’s Church Mt. Olive Cemetery (interred).
C: That’s nothing to do with Point Lookout.
L: But they got married in 1915.
F: So I am legitimate.
R: Do you want me to scan that in?
F: Here’s something that might interest you – Henry Ardeeser July 1, 1861 born died 12/15/12; Virginia Jackson born 5/5/1863, died 2/5/1940; Rose Jeannette Ardeeser Born (His mother) 4/27/1890; born 5/9/1881-Catherine marie; John William 9/28/1893; Henry Christen 9/20 1895; Rose Jeanete 11/24/1915 Marie married Bernard 1916. Francis X. Hart born (his brother) 4/7/16 Edith Marie 11/1/17, Francis born 6/7/18.
L: Whose writing?
C: His mother
R: Whose pictures? F: Aunt Cora, mother, Marie, don’t know who they are – gentlemen?
F: My mother. I think this was the house at Point Lookout where my grandmother lived. On the property. I remember it had a lot of flowers around it.
C: Do you want something to eat?
F: That’s Marie. I don’t know who they are.
R: We have Marie in the top picture.
L: Little picture.
F: My father
C: Put near marriage certificate with that.
F: Do you need a copy – already have.
L: Mother’s birth certificate.
F: Keep in strong box (Carol asked where it is kept)
F: This is my wife’s mother and father. Wife’s birth certificate. Your mothers.
C: We should put death certification here – keep together.
F: I don’t where all this stuff is.
F: Certificate of live birth. This is Linda Ann Ross. That’s Carol’s daughter.
L: James William Ross – both of Carol’s children.
F: This is my mother, don’t know who that is. This is evidently – here is that interview again. We saw that before.
L: He thinks that is the smokehouse
F: Looks like it but can’t tell.
R: There is a plan to restore that.
L: Civil war photographic gallery – when I lived there. That was how it was labeled. One of the Yeatmans came forward.
R: A dog in the photo with your mother.
F: She liked dogs.
L: Here is a dog and a baby.
F: Birth certificate of your mother
F: Discharge from the Navy reserves.
F: US Navy Reserves 7/January 1939.
F: That’s my father.
L: There is a cat – not a dog.
C: My dad’s side of the family were dog people.
L: Conduct in the Navy
L: Naked child.
C: Asked Robert where he worked.
R: Contractor for the government for the nation’s banks.
C: My son in law works at ????, Inc.
F: Your mother’s school report. She got all Bs.
L: A in sewing and cooking
C: She was a good cook. We used to go to church……..giggle and laugh
L: My daughter would laugh when I sang also.
F: That’s Marie there but I don’t know who those people are.
R: His mother couldn’t sing.
L: My parent’s professional musicians.
R: In the choir – open mouth wide to sing – people made fun.
C: Are you married?
R: Tells Carol where he lives
R: Theres another dog in this picture.
R: Anyone here you recognize?
R: I’m a dog person too.
F: No, I don’t know these people. This is my mother here. I don’t know who these are.
C: Talking about dogs.
R: Is that you? She is holding you?
F: Yes
L: Mother’s lab – very gentle
C: I’d like a lab. But they are a lot of responsibility.
F: We haven’t had a dog for a while.
C: We have a cat now – she hides.
L: Mine comes out – very sociable.
C: My daughter lives off Plum Point Road. She owns Chesapeake Montessori School.
L: Talking to Francis – they are planning to move ugly tower.
F: I remember this is the bedroom, this is another bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, sitting room, steps right here – steps by little window. Steps also down to basement. There was a black girl who lived there who did all the housework. Can’t remember her name.
I can remember Uncle Will’s kids were there and as a big treat we would get canned peaches and pour condensed milk over them. That was our treat.
Discussing Navy tracking facility. The Navy ruined it when they took over.
L: Are moving tower. When I lived there there were trailers next to it – manned 24 hours a day.
F: That’s my mother. (talking to Robert). This is my dad. This is Harry Ardeeser on the right on the porch.
L Is there anything in here? One page.
F: That’s my mom and dad, don’t know who these people are.
F: I’ve got hundreds of slides downstairs – haven’t looked at.
C: This is my mom and dad. Married another woman named Lucille. Lived in Annapolis. She was his old girlfriend.
F: That was how I met my wife.
C: Lived in Damascus, MD – my dad’s best friend.
F: This is my dad – these people
F: This is also my dad – don’t know who these people are. These are Blanch and Howard Leonardo were friends of my mother.
C: Slides won’t have any photos of the lighthouse.
R: When was the last time you were down the lighthouse?
F: Years and years.
R: Why don’t you come to the open house?
F: My son Terry would probably like that.
R: Is this your mom?
F: This is my grandmother. Virginia Jackson. Don’t know the others.
C: Talking about open house.
R: Tower taking too long to go through.
F: What is with the prison down there?
L: Restored it.
C: The prism not prison.
L: Unknown. No records kept.
F: Couldn’t touch – if you put your finger on it would turn your finger black. This is what they told the children.
F: This is my dad and mom. This is Marie here. This is my mother. This is Marie.
F: Couldn’t touch them prisms.
R: It’s a shame we don’t know what happened to the lens.
C: You know last year Francis was thinking about getting a new car – went to Ken Dixon, salesman name was Yeatman. Is a direct decendant. He kept saying his mother would know things about Point Lookout. Don’t remember his first name.
F: This is my mother, this is my mother and dad. These are all my mother and dad.
L: Talking about Larry Yeatman at Parkville High.
F: Greenwells too – mother’s sister married a Greenwell. A lot of Greenwells are around. Amy married George Greenwell.
C: To Robert – how did you get interested?
R: Missed ghostwalk first year, missed open house the next year. Loved lighthouses. Met Laura one year. Loved Cedar Point, etc. Have always liked lighthouses and grew up on the water. Outer banks. Liked Point Lookout.
F: Was really country down there when I was a kid.
R: On the previous page.
C: White pencil to label.
F: Blanche. These are friends of mine.
F: This is my mother, this is Marie, this is mother and dad, my mother is playing by hiding behind a bush.
C: Talking about a lighthouse in Cape May. Other boating experiences.
F: That’s my dad there. And this is my mother.
C: My son used to be in the boy scouts – they used to camp down there.
F: The mosquitos used to be bad down there. Are they still bad?
L: Yes – even after frosts.
F: If breeze was from Eastern shore – they would eat you up.
C: He still likes to camp.
R: Don’t like heat, bugs, and crowds. One of my friends is a park ranger.
F: One of our friends used to like to camp.
C: I’m not a camper – I like the beach – like to stay at a hotel.
F: That’s my mom and dad. Both are mom and dad.
R: Sorry this is so slow.
L: We are down to the last book.
C: You sure you don’t want something to eat.
R & L: Thanks anyway –we are fine.
F: Do you know any Greenwells from down there?
L: No don’t recall meeting any.
F: They used to take care of that monument. Amy Greenwell – used to have a big green house. Houses are gone but I’m sure some of the clan is around.
F: This is mom and dad, the lower one is my mom. Don’t know who these ladies are.
C: Did you guys take off work?
R & L: Yes
C: You live in Baltimore?
L: Baltimore County.
F: Don’t know what this is behind the building.
F: Mom and dad, mom and dad, this is great-grandmother –
R: This is your grandmother and grandfather.
C: This is great grandmother Catherine (sic) and William Yeatman.
R: Strong women to have 12 children in such a small area.
F: No TV.
L: I didn’t have TV either!
TV discussion.
R: Will set picture here since it keeps falling out.
F: Don’t know who that is.
C: Going to write all this down.
C: Dad said they are going to bring a camera and take pictures of the pictures. I said no they are bringing a scanner.
L: Did you bring your digital camera?
R: Yes.
L: Want to take photos today.
F: This is Harry.
C: I wrote down who you told me these people are.
C: This is Marie and her husband. You didn’t tell me who this was.
F: This is not her husband Francis. This is Bernard Hessler.
C: You told me Francis.
F: This is her mother on the beach here – bathing beauties.
F: This is my mother and Marie both. They look like wild women.
R: Some places don’t like me scanning. Only allow Xerox – bad quality.
F: This goes to my daughter when I die.
R: Are you the family historian?
C: No don’t want to be the family historian.
F: This is Marie.
R: OK
L: My sister’s aren’t interested. Brother no.
R: Is that your mom and dad?
F: Yes, these people….
F: That’s mother and dad, and that’s Marie hiding behind the tree, and that’s my mother and dad. And of course, that’s the Confederate monument.
L & C: discussing antiques, etc.
F: This is Marie and her husband. This is Bernard, this is Marie, this is my father, and this Bernard, Marie and my father.
F: I don’t how people out there buy houses. My son bought a house worth half a million.
C: He didn’t pay that for it.
F: He added a second floor – now worth a million.
F: This is Aunt Cora here milking the cow. This is Marie, this is mother and this is my mother.
F: Over here this is Marie, this is Marie over here.
R: Is this Aunt Cora: F: No this is Aunt Cora here.
F: Probably Marie in the back here. They had their hair up like that.
F: I’ll tell you people out there
F: Out west – discussing different part of country
R: Seattle discussion.
F: This is Marie here. This is Marie and her husband here. This is Marie. Looks like Clarence Bradburn.
R: So this is Marie in this picture?
F: That’s Marie here with Clarence.
R: The one at the bottom.
F: Can’t distinquish that.
R: OK will scan those.
F: You work on Pax River?
L: No I work for Health Department in Baltimore.
F: Not living here now.
L: No.
C: What do you do for the Health Dept?
L: Procurement officer
F: I would like to live somewhere where is not so damn many people. I am not anti-social.
C: Where you live near Prince Frederick is not too bad.
R: You haven’t been there lately – Prince Frederick is strip mall heaven. Don’t want to be the next Waldorf.
F: That’s my mother and my father. This is Marie. Don’t know who the other one is. Let me see – this is my mother here – these three are my mother.
R: Is this your father?
F: No, don’t know who they are.
C: These are not at Point Lookout?
F: That is not my father – don’t know.
C: Used to go to Broome’s Island – Stoneys for best crabcake. Closed and re-opened recently.
R: Expensive – but crab cake is a whole pound. Very good.
F: This is Marie and that’s my mother. And this is my father. Those on the horse I don’t know.
R: Top picture is your mother and father.
F: No, don’t know who they are.
F: Lower picture – looks like Marie but don’t know others.
R: OK
R: Have you talked to Kathy Handiboe lately?
L: Busy with her father right now. Dad is sick.
C: Went to the funeral.
F: This is my mom and dad, this is my mom, the children I don’t know.
R: Who is woman from Pasadena?
L: Quasney
R: To Carol – do you know Barbara Quasney.
F: This is my mom and dad and Marie and her husband.
F: This is my mom and dad and the one on the right is Marie and her husband. Down here is my mom, then Blanch and Bernard. Don’t know this motley crew over here.
F: 32 Ford coupe for $??
F: This is Marie. Don’t know who that is. And, this is Marie, this is my mother. I don’t who the rest of them are. This is Marie here, Marie here on the left.
C: What is your website?
F: Look at that waist.
L: One tiny waist. Can’t even find mine.
F: How did they breathe with those corsets?
C: To Francis – are you going golfing tomorrow? Supposed to be 83 degrees tomorrow. Cooler.
F: This is my mother here and that is the only thing I recognize here.
C: Talking about golfing.
F: There’s my mother there, that’s my mother and that’s my mother.
Animal discussion
F: This is Marie, my mother is here but don’t know who all these people there. Might be Marie here but that is mother there. Marie – bathing beauties.
More animal discussion
F: This is Marie and her husband; this is dad and mom – not very clear. This is Marie’s husband. Don’t know who these two clowns are.
R: Almost there.
Beverage discussion.
R: Those are the pictures that I wanted to bring back to you (to Laura).
L: Ok
F: I don’t know any of those there. This is Marie here and my father. And, those girls, don’t know them.
C: Have you been through them?
F: 7th and B Street, NE
F: My father, Harry Leonardo, Blanch Leonardo, Marie, Bernard
R: Top picture
F: That’s my father, Harry, my mother and Bernard. Umbrella – not sure.
F: Bernard Hessler, Blanch Leonardo (friend) and my mother
R: Do you know where William YEatman and Catherine were buried?
F: My grandmother is buried at Mt. Olivet and so is my grandfather. Marie is buried at Mt Olivet and her husband. My mother is at Mt. Olivet (at Bladensburg). One of Marie’s boys is buried in the Ardeeser plot. One of Catherine’s boys is in the Ardeeser plot.
R: Only a couple more.
F: These people are from down there. Irene, Spencer,
C: Not Point Lookout
F: Here is the one you are talking about.
F: This is Marie, Willie, my mother, Harry, don’t know other two. Glass print – still have it. Picture on the glass.
L: Two pages in the back in here. Then done scanning.
R: Then we’ll get a picture.
R: Metal one fell out. Two pictures.
L: Very faded of bell tower.
R: Write anything with these?
R: Wow – really nice.
L: Amazing
Discussion on digital cameras.
R: Shutting down scanner and packing up.
L: Got a lot of nice pictures.
F: I was married for 57 years and my wife passed away 7 years ago.