The following appears in the book titled “Call Me Cousin George”, written by George M. Radcliffe, Jr., grandson of Senator George L. Ratcliffe.
George L. was the founder of the Grace Foundation of Taylors Island, and this article gives us that history.
George M. Radcliffe, Jr. the author, has given his permission to place it on the Grace Foundation website.
Essay 24
The Promise
… consider for a moment the early settlers in our tidewater sections. Countless rivers and inlets divided these communities one from the other, and since the most practical means of transportation among these communities was by water, each community was inclined to develop a distinctive form of living. Consequently, we find the growth of numerous communities which, in many respects, are almost like little separate countries.1
George, the youngest of many siblings, was the apple of his mother’s eye and was devoted to her. While George lived across the Chesapeake Bay in Baltimore throughout his adult life, he always wrote his mother and visited whenever his busy schedule would permit. In 1925, he had rescued his mother’s ancestral home just before shoreline erosion on the western side of Taylor’s Island turned the house into one large piece of driftwood; he moved the house across the island and up the Little Choptank River to Spocott, where his mother now lived. His mother had been bedridden for several years now, and the end of her long and productive life was drawing near. George’s work at the Fidelity and Deposit Company was sending him from coast to coast and occasionally abroad, but he still made it home whenever he could. He and his mother talked frequently about Taylor’s Island, where her Travers ancestors had lived since settling there in the seventeenth century, and George had developed the same fascination with family history. In 1926, she insisted that George preserve the history of the island and its many historical entities, including the church which her father had built. George promised he would always stay connected to the island and that he would work to preserve its history and heritage. Work, politics, and twelve years in the Senate would sideline him, but he never forgot. Retiring from the Senate in 1947, he returned to the promise he had made two decades earlier, and his efforts to preserve Taylor’s Island history would now be the centerpiece of the remaining quarter century of his life.
Sophie Delila Travers (1837–1927), the oldest of three daughters. was descended from Thomas Broome Travers (1802–1875) and Mary Elizabeth Travers (1820–1843). The two were cousins, but then it was virtually impossible living on that small island to marry someone who was not a cousin. Thus, George was descended from the earliest Travers (or Traverse) settler to Taylor’s Island from at least four different lines. William Aip Travers (1640–1701) settled Taylor’s Island in 1665, three years after its earliest settlers, John and Thomas Taylor, for whom the island is named. The western part of Dorchester County, on the Chesapeake Bay, was the earliest part of the county settled, and Taylor’s, James, and Hooper’s Islands, once all connected by land bridges, were important in early county history. Connected to the mainland by ferry until 1856, when a bridge was finally built, the islands were home to many prominent Dorchester families and were the site of an early timber industry, farming, extensive shipbuilding, and more recently of a seafood industry center.2 Sophie’s father, Thomas Broome Travers, continued this shipbuilding legacy and was as successful in the mid-nineteenth century as anyone on the island.
Sophie’s great-grandparents through one line were John Critchett Travers (1768–1831) and his wife Mary Dove (1777–1857). John played a prominent role on the island, owning ships and managing the local store, and Mary, who all called Grandmother Polly, was a Taylor’s Island legend. When the British were moving up the Bay toward Baltimore in 1814, they came ashore on the island looking for gold, silver, and provisions. Raiding and burning many of the farms, they soon moved to John and Polly’s property on the Bay, since John was a well-known leader in the community. John and one of his schooners were captured, but the British were unable to find the valuables which John and Polly surely had. While many island residents hid their valuables in their outhouses, the British had long ago figured out that this was the first place to check. The shrewd Polly came up with a foolproof hiding place. There was a setting goose on the farm, and Polly somehow moved the nest and hid the family silver and gold underneath. Moving the nest back, she correctly assumed that the British would go nowhere near the setting goose.
With her husband and schooner now in the possession of the British, Polly once again took control of the situation. Donning her finest dress, she enlisted the help of friend Mary Gadd and a servant. With the servant rowing, Polly, toting a parasol, set out for the Marlborough, the flagship of the British fleet, asking to see its captain, Admiral Cockburn. Treated like royalty, she was led to the captain’s cabin, where the two had tea. She had the British take cake out to the servant while she pleaded with Cockburn to free her husband and his ship. Known to be quite persuasive, she succeeded in getting both John and his schooner released. In addition, the Admiral presented her with a silver tea service. The British also forgot to get back the silver platter that the cake had been served on; thus, Polly came out way ahead on that negotiation and soon became a Taylor’s Island legend.3
Polly and John’s granddaughter, Mary Elizabeth, had married another Travers, Thomas Broome Travers, and these were George’s grandparents. Mary Elizabeth tragically died at age twenty-two, and Thomas was left with raising his three young daughters as well as the responsibilities of farming and shipbuilding. Rather than remarry, he decided to devote his life to his daughters, taking on the roles of both mother and father. His attention to them was remarkable for the times, and he could afford to send each of them away in their later childhood to get the best education possible at private schools in the Baltimore area. He did this despite being one of the busiest businessmen anywhere. He farmed, managed considerable forest areas for timber, and with the timber, built ships which traveled the Bay and Atlantic Ocean. Inheriting a considerable sum from his ancestors, his wise business practices increased this sum considerably. The end of his life saw the beginning of the decline of life on Taylor’s Island as erosion, the decline of the shipbuilding industry, and the loss of enslaved labor worked together to negatively impact life on the island. However, Thomas remained completely devoted to his three girls, going to unusual lengths to provide for them. When his oldest Sophie was to marry, he sent one of his schooners to Baltimore, its only mission to bring the wedding cake to Taylor’s Island from Baltimore. As his biography states:
Possibly the most distinguishing characteristics of Thomas Broome Travers were the personal attention and interest which he gave to the daily life of his daughters, and his constant efforts to give them the best training and education. This was carefully done despite engrossing business cares.4
Sophie married Andrew Jackson Robinson in 1861, and the two had six children over the next eight years. However, Sophie, like her father, would lose her spouse, with Andrew dying only months after the birth of their youngest. Two years later Sophie would marry a widower, John Anthony LeCompte Radcliffe, and from this second union would come George L. Radcliffe. While she now lived twelve miles inland from the Island, she never forgot her roots, and trips “home” were frequent.
While only a tiny island barely six miles long and a mile or so wide, Taylor’s Island figured significantly in the early history of Dorchester County and of George’s heritage. Speaking of the Grace Church, the Island Episcopal Church, and its graveyard, George said:
My grandfather is buried in that graveyard. So are his wife, his father and mother, his uncle and other of my ancestors and my relatives, including Traverses, Spilmans, Keenes, Bosleys, Griffiths, Edmondsons, and Cators, etc. In fact, with very few exceptions, everyone buried in that graveyard is a relative of mine.5
At the same time, he saw the Island dying in many ways, and George was one to always yearn for the glory of bygone days:
They [Taylor’s Islanders] were often resourceful and good businessmen and displayed a remarkable amount of self-sufficiency. They lived well and never forecast that loss of slaves, exhaustion of timber, practical drying up deep sea shipping and other factors [which] would bring on economic stagnation and induce active young men to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Practically every home has passed out of the family.6
This was all part of the legacy that Thomas’ daughter Sophie wanted her son George to preserve and that George saw eroding away just as the disappearing shoreline. By the mid-twentieth century, the islands had eroded considerably from the wave action of the Bay, and the original location of the Travers home George had moved in 1925 was now well out in the Bay. The land bridges were gone, and the once large James Island was now uninhabited, with only a few trees remaining. Cambridge on the Choptank River was now the heart of the county, and the islands were quickly reduced to history. With such a family legacy, it was no surprise that George’s mother wanted her son, the historian, to preserve its legacy.
On occasions George attended the church on Taylor’s Island which his grandfather had played a part in constructing. Grace Church became a focus for his interest in preserving Taylor’s Island history. Prior to Grace Episcopal Church, the nearest church had been Old Trinity on the mainland, some ten miles away. Since that distance was prohibitive for churchgoers, a “chapel of ease” had been constructed on the island. Literally a “bare-bones” wooden structure, the chapel served as the church for the locals until 1873 when Thomas Broome Travers, Samuel M. Travers, and Jeremiah L. Pattison each contributed an equal sum to finally get a church for the island. Thomas donated the land and supervised the construction. In 1936, on the sixty-third anniversary of Grace Church, George L. Radcliffe, then a U.S. Senator, gave a talk in which he recounted the history of his grandfather’s church.7 More than a decade later, he rolled up his sleeves and got to work.
Grace Church was deteriorating like so many colonial structures, and Ella Spilman, one of George’s many “Island” cousins had enlisted George’s help in getting money for a new roof. This project was the impetus for much discussion on how to preserve the church. In June of 1950, George attended a service at Grace Church and was distressed to find it in deteriorating condition and rather poorly attended. In a letter to Marguerite Ewell, wife of his nephew Emmett Robinson Ewell, he wrote:
I was disappointed that you and other members of the family were not at church last Sunday. In view of Grandfather Thomas Broome Travers’ intimate contact with the church, his splendid qualifications as a man, his devotion as a husband, father, and grandfather, I was sorry that of his many descendants, only three were at the church on Sunday, Sewell [George’s brother], Mabel Neild, and I.8
What followed was what George did best. Within a short period, he had written over 100 letters to family and Travers descendants. He had been affiliated with the association supporting Old Trinity Church, and he saw that Grace Church needed such a group. Using his position as president of the Maryland Historical Society, he convened a meeting at the Society in Baltimore on December 8, 1950, to discuss the matter. Marguerite Ewell was at that meeting, as were thirteen others. All agreed that an organization was needed and that Grace Church was to be the focal point. The name Grace Foundation of Taylor’s Island was hatched at this meeting. George, not surprisingly, agreed to act as temporary chairman of the group. Cousins Ella Spilman and Arnold Travers, and island resident Reynolds Carpenter played key roles right from the beginning.
On March 19, 1951, an informal meeting was held, attended by George, his son George M., and Arnold Travers. Reynolds Carpenter of Taylor’s Island and William M. Travers of Baltimore were suggested as vice presidents of the group. An official first meeting date for the organization was set for Sunday, May 13, and George wrote letters to everyone he could.9 The church was filled that May afternoon with over 200 people, and soon after, Articles of Incorporation were filed. The following year the organization received tax-exempt status, and George finally had his organization, a quarter century after he made that promise to his mother.
{24a – Grace Foundation 1st Meeting}
However, this organization was never meant to be just a church preservation entity. George and the many Travers descendants and relatives were looking to preserve much of the history of the Island that still existed. While land acquisition for additional grounds and parking, building restoration, and cemetery maintenance were key issues, the group set its sight on acquiring the Chapel of Ease, the original Taylor’s Island chapel, built about 1762 to accommodate church goers on the Island, since water and distance prohibited a Sunday round trip to Old Trinity Church on the mainland. Concurrent with the first year of the Grace Foundation, George was also involved with the Eastern Shore Survey, the brainchild of Arthur Houghton; this sought to identify and evaluate historic structures on the Eastern Shore, and the Chapel of Ease was one of the historic buildings identified.
In early 1952, the Grace Foundation purchased the Chapel of Ease for $800 from J. Stapleforte Neild whose wife, Mabel Spicer, was a great-granddaughter of Thomas Broome Travers. The chapel was located near the bridge, where the ferry docked at one time. The Foundation raised the additional funds in 1952 to move the old chapel, and that year it was moved the three quarters of a mile to rest near Grace Church.10
{24b – Chapel of Ease 1959}
George began digging deep into the history of Taylor’s Island, and the Grace Foundation was becoming a vehicle for commemorating the role of the island in Maryland history. In 1956, George began to focus on a dispute between William Penn of Pennsylvania and Lord Baltimore over the exact border between the two states, and Taylor’s Island had figured significantly in that argument. With Delaware still a part of Pennsylvania at the time, the starting point for the Mason-Dixon Line was being argued, a point which would mark the southwest corner of what was to become Delaware. They determined that the line would begin at the midpoint between the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay at a particular latitude, and in determining where to place this middle point, Penn insisted that Taylor’s Island be included as a part of the mainland, thus placing the midpoint two miles farther west, while Lord Baltimore claimed that the western part of the mainland should not include the island. Penn won this argument, thus increasing the size of his holdings. Delaware now has 150 square miles which would have been a part of Maryland if Lord Baltimore’s argument had prevailed. With talk of commemorating the “Middle Stone” marking this controversial point, George used the attention Taylor’s Island was getting in the historical discussion to focus interest on the Chapel of Ease, the only “church” on the Island at the time and probably where much of the original debate over the line would have occurred. This was vintage “George L. Radcliffe,” connecting bits of history to accomplish a goal.
In the mid-1950s, renovation was begun on the Chapel of Ease; the roof was replaced, and a new chimney and fireplace were built using bricks retrieved from many of the historic properties on Taylor’s Island and nearby areas on the mainland. This clever move directly connected many of the Taylor’s Island families to the project. George was clearly making the chapel the focal point of Island history. As he stated:
The old chapel is rich in history and for most of us, it has long-continued close family associations. It has architectural and historic values. It fully deserves preservation. It can have community uses for all of us, irrespective of religious differences. It can be utilized in part for library and museum purposes. It will be the outstanding physical connecting link for persons living out of Maryland who have close family associations with Taylor’s Island. It can be in a sense their local headquarters. It is a unique and very historic survival, fully deserving cherishing preservation and utilization.11
At the end of that first decade, the Foundation acquired from the Spicer family the only remaining of four original schoolhouses on the island and had it moved beside Grace Church and the Chapel of Ease. With both an original chapel and schoolhouse on location, Grace Church was becoming the historical venue that the group had wanted. George brought the commemoration of the Middle Stone to a head with a resolution in the Maryland legislature and a ceremony in 1959 at Grace Church where a plaque was erected commemorating the Chapel of Ease and Taylor’s Island’s role in the Middle Stone controversy. He was thus able to focus considerable public attention on the Island, the boost needed to continue the work of the Grace Foundation.
{24c – Survey Marker}
While George was clearly the driving force behind all these projects, with his characteristic modesty he downplayed his role. The fact that the Grace Foundation is not only thriving but expanding almost seventy years later is a testament to its being a community organization and not just a pet project of George L. Radcliffe. His extensive network of contacts and his prolific letter writing certainly played a key role, and his seemingly limitless energy clearly helped power the projects in those early days. It was obvious that nowhere in George’s efforts was he seeking any personal recognition, but this clearly was personal. All traced back to a promise he had made years earlier to a dying mother. Quite likely he would have done this all anyway as family history and historical preservation were his forte—but then that was all rooted in Sophie Delila Travers, the remarkable mother of a remarkable man.
Sources:
⦁ Radcliffe, George L. Speech before the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, 23 March 1935.
⦁ Grace Foundation of Taylor’s Island, Inc. “About Historic Taylor’s Island.” http://www.gracefound.net/about-taylors-island.html. Accessed 3 Mar 2020.
⦁ Many accounts of this legend exist with slight variations in all. The basic core facts are the same, and this version is based on the written account of her grandson, Levi Dove Travers.
⦁ Spencer, Richard Henry, ed. “Thomas Broome Travers.” Genealogical and Memorial Encyclopedia of the State of Maryland, The American Historical Society, Inc. (New York), 1919, pp. 262 – 265.
⦁ Radcliffe, George L. Letter to Guy Steele, 17 July 1950.
⦁ Ibid.
⦁ “Anniversary Services Grace Church, Taylor’s Is.”, Unknown Newspaper clipping. The event was on 31 May 1936.
⦁ Radcliffe, George L. Letter to Marguerite Ewell, 29 June 1950.
⦁ Radcliffe, George M. “Memories of the Formation of Grace Foundation of Taylor’s Island, Inc. After 50 Years.” 2001.
⦁ Radcliffe, George L. “Grace Foundation of Taylor’s Island, First Annual Report.” 20 Feb 1952.
⦁ Radcliffe, George L. “Grace Foundation of Taylor’s Island, Sixth Annual Report.” 15 May 1957.
George L. was the founder of the Grace Foundation of Taylors Island, and this article gives us that history.
George M. Radcliffe, Jr. the author, has given his permission to place it on the Grace Foundation website.
Essay 24
The Promise
… consider for a moment the early settlers in our tidewater sections. Countless rivers and inlets divided these communities one from the other, and since the most practical means of transportation among these communities was by water, each community was inclined to develop a distinctive form of living. Consequently, we find the growth of numerous communities which, in many respects, are almost like little separate countries.1
George, the youngest of many siblings, was the apple of his mother’s eye and was devoted to her. While George lived across the Chesapeake Bay in Baltimore throughout his adult life, he always wrote his mother and visited whenever his busy schedule would permit. In 1925, he had rescued his mother’s ancestral home just before shoreline erosion on the western side of Taylor’s Island turned the house into one large piece of driftwood; he moved the house across the island and up the Little Choptank River to Spocott, where his mother now lived. His mother had been bedridden for several years now, and the end of her long and productive life was drawing near. George’s work at the Fidelity and Deposit Company was sending him from coast to coast and occasionally abroad, but he still made it home whenever he could. He and his mother talked frequently about Taylor’s Island, where her Travers ancestors had lived since settling there in the seventeenth century, and George had developed the same fascination with family history. In 1926, she insisted that George preserve the history of the island and its many historical entities, including the church which her father had built. George promised he would always stay connected to the island and that he would work to preserve its history and heritage. Work, politics, and twelve years in the Senate would sideline him, but he never forgot. Retiring from the Senate in 1947, he returned to the promise he had made two decades earlier, and his efforts to preserve Taylor’s Island history would now be the centerpiece of the remaining quarter century of his life.
Sophie Delila Travers (1837–1927), the oldest of three daughters. was descended from Thomas Broome Travers (1802–1875) and Mary Elizabeth Travers (1820–1843). The two were cousins, but then it was virtually impossible living on that small island to marry someone who was not a cousin. Thus, George was descended from the earliest Travers (or Traverse) settler to Taylor’s Island from at least four different lines. William Aip Travers (1640–1701) settled Taylor’s Island in 1665, three years after its earliest settlers, John and Thomas Taylor, for whom the island is named. The western part of Dorchester County, on the Chesapeake Bay, was the earliest part of the county settled, and Taylor’s, James, and Hooper’s Islands, once all connected by land bridges, were important in early county history. Connected to the mainland by ferry until 1856, when a bridge was finally built, the islands were home to many prominent Dorchester families and were the site of an early timber industry, farming, extensive shipbuilding, and more recently of a seafood industry center.2 Sophie’s father, Thomas Broome Travers, continued this shipbuilding legacy and was as successful in the mid-nineteenth century as anyone on the island.
Sophie’s great-grandparents through one line were John Critchett Travers (1768–1831) and his wife Mary Dove (1777–1857). John played a prominent role on the island, owning ships and managing the local store, and Mary, who all called Grandmother Polly, was a Taylor’s Island legend. When the British were moving up the Bay toward Baltimore in 1814, they came ashore on the island looking for gold, silver, and provisions. Raiding and burning many of the farms, they soon moved to John and Polly’s property on the Bay, since John was a well-known leader in the community. John and one of his schooners were captured, but the British were unable to find the valuables which John and Polly surely had. While many island residents hid their valuables in their outhouses, the British had long ago figured out that this was the first place to check. The shrewd Polly came up with a foolproof hiding place. There was a setting goose on the farm, and Polly somehow moved the nest and hid the family silver and gold underneath. Moving the nest back, she correctly assumed that the British would go nowhere near the setting goose.
With her husband and schooner now in the possession of the British, Polly once again took control of the situation. Donning her finest dress, she enlisted the help of friend Mary Gadd and a servant. With the servant rowing, Polly, toting a parasol, set out for the Marlborough, the flagship of the British fleet, asking to see its captain, Admiral Cockburn. Treated like royalty, she was led to the captain’s cabin, where the two had tea. She had the British take cake out to the servant while she pleaded with Cockburn to free her husband and his ship. Known to be quite persuasive, she succeeded in getting both John and his schooner released. In addition, the Admiral presented her with a silver tea service. The British also forgot to get back the silver platter that the cake had been served on; thus, Polly came out way ahead on that negotiation and soon became a Taylor’s Island legend.3
Polly and John’s granddaughter, Mary Elizabeth, had married another Travers, Thomas Broome Travers, and these were George’s grandparents. Mary Elizabeth tragically died at age twenty-two, and Thomas was left with raising his three young daughters as well as the responsibilities of farming and shipbuilding. Rather than remarry, he decided to devote his life to his daughters, taking on the roles of both mother and father. His attention to them was remarkable for the times, and he could afford to send each of them away in their later childhood to get the best education possible at private schools in the Baltimore area. He did this despite being one of the busiest businessmen anywhere. He farmed, managed considerable forest areas for timber, and with the timber, built ships which traveled the Bay and Atlantic Ocean. Inheriting a considerable sum from his ancestors, his wise business practices increased this sum considerably. The end of his life saw the beginning of the decline of life on Taylor’s Island as erosion, the decline of the shipbuilding industry, and the loss of enslaved labor worked together to negatively impact life on the island. However, Thomas remained completely devoted to his three girls, going to unusual lengths to provide for them. When his oldest Sophie was to marry, he sent one of his schooners to Baltimore, its only mission to bring the wedding cake to Taylor’s Island from Baltimore. As his biography states:
Possibly the most distinguishing characteristics of Thomas Broome Travers were the personal attention and interest which he gave to the daily life of his daughters, and his constant efforts to give them the best training and education. This was carefully done despite engrossing business cares.4
Sophie married Andrew Jackson Robinson in 1861, and the two had six children over the next eight years. However, Sophie, like her father, would lose her spouse, with Andrew dying only months after the birth of their youngest. Two years later Sophie would marry a widower, John Anthony LeCompte Radcliffe, and from this second union would come George L. Radcliffe. While she now lived twelve miles inland from the Island, she never forgot her roots, and trips “home” were frequent.
While only a tiny island barely six miles long and a mile or so wide, Taylor’s Island figured significantly in the early history of Dorchester County and of George’s heritage. Speaking of the Grace Church, the Island Episcopal Church, and its graveyard, George said:
My grandfather is buried in that graveyard. So are his wife, his father and mother, his uncle and other of my ancestors and my relatives, including Traverses, Spilmans, Keenes, Bosleys, Griffiths, Edmondsons, and Cators, etc. In fact, with very few exceptions, everyone buried in that graveyard is a relative of mine.5
At the same time, he saw the Island dying in many ways, and George was one to always yearn for the glory of bygone days:
They [Taylor’s Islanders] were often resourceful and good businessmen and displayed a remarkable amount of self-sufficiency. They lived well and never forecast that loss of slaves, exhaustion of timber, practical drying up deep sea shipping and other factors [which] would bring on economic stagnation and induce active young men to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Practically every home has passed out of the family.6
This was all part of the legacy that Thomas’ daughter Sophie wanted her son George to preserve and that George saw eroding away just as the disappearing shoreline. By the mid-twentieth century, the islands had eroded considerably from the wave action of the Bay, and the original location of the Travers home George had moved in 1925 was now well out in the Bay. The land bridges were gone, and the once large James Island was now uninhabited, with only a few trees remaining. Cambridge on the Choptank River was now the heart of the county, and the islands were quickly reduced to history. With such a family legacy, it was no surprise that George’s mother wanted her son, the historian, to preserve its legacy.
On occasions George attended the church on Taylor’s Island which his grandfather had played a part in constructing. Grace Church became a focus for his interest in preserving Taylor’s Island history. Prior to Grace Episcopal Church, the nearest church had been Old Trinity on the mainland, some ten miles away. Since that distance was prohibitive for churchgoers, a “chapel of ease” had been constructed on the island. Literally a “bare-bones” wooden structure, the chapel served as the church for the locals until 1873 when Thomas Broome Travers, Samuel M. Travers, and Jeremiah L. Pattison each contributed an equal sum to finally get a church for the island. Thomas donated the land and supervised the construction. In 1936, on the sixty-third anniversary of Grace Church, George L. Radcliffe, then a U.S. Senator, gave a talk in which he recounted the history of his grandfather’s church.7 More than a decade later, he rolled up his sleeves and got to work.
Grace Church was deteriorating like so many colonial structures, and Ella Spilman, one of George’s many “Island” cousins had enlisted George’s help in getting money for a new roof. This project was the impetus for much discussion on how to preserve the church. In June of 1950, George attended a service at Grace Church and was distressed to find it in deteriorating condition and rather poorly attended. In a letter to Marguerite Ewell, wife of his nephew Emmett Robinson Ewell, he wrote:
I was disappointed that you and other members of the family were not at church last Sunday. In view of Grandfather Thomas Broome Travers’ intimate contact with the church, his splendid qualifications as a man, his devotion as a husband, father, and grandfather, I was sorry that of his many descendants, only three were at the church on Sunday, Sewell [George’s brother], Mabel Neild, and I.8
What followed was what George did best. Within a short period, he had written over 100 letters to family and Travers descendants. He had been affiliated with the association supporting Old Trinity Church, and he saw that Grace Church needed such a group. Using his position as president of the Maryland Historical Society, he convened a meeting at the Society in Baltimore on December 8, 1950, to discuss the matter. Marguerite Ewell was at that meeting, as were thirteen others. All agreed that an organization was needed and that Grace Church was to be the focal point. The name Grace Foundation of Taylor’s Island was hatched at this meeting. George, not surprisingly, agreed to act as temporary chairman of the group. Cousins Ella Spilman and Arnold Travers, and island resident Reynolds Carpenter played key roles right from the beginning.
On March 19, 1951, an informal meeting was held, attended by George, his son George M., and Arnold Travers. Reynolds Carpenter of Taylor’s Island and William M. Travers of Baltimore were suggested as vice presidents of the group. An official first meeting date for the organization was set for Sunday, May 13, and George wrote letters to everyone he could.9 The church was filled that May afternoon with over 200 people, and soon after, Articles of Incorporation were filed. The following year the organization received tax-exempt status, and George finally had his organization, a quarter century after he made that promise to his mother.
{24a – Grace Foundation 1st Meeting}
However, this organization was never meant to be just a church preservation entity. George and the many Travers descendants and relatives were looking to preserve much of the history of the Island that still existed. While land acquisition for additional grounds and parking, building restoration, and cemetery maintenance were key issues, the group set its sight on acquiring the Chapel of Ease, the original Taylor’s Island chapel, built about 1762 to accommodate church goers on the Island, since water and distance prohibited a Sunday round trip to Old Trinity Church on the mainland. Concurrent with the first year of the Grace Foundation, George was also involved with the Eastern Shore Survey, the brainchild of Arthur Houghton; this sought to identify and evaluate historic structures on the Eastern Shore, and the Chapel of Ease was one of the historic buildings identified.
In early 1952, the Grace Foundation purchased the Chapel of Ease for $800 from J. Stapleforte Neild whose wife, Mabel Spicer, was a great-granddaughter of Thomas Broome Travers. The chapel was located near the bridge, where the ferry docked at one time. The Foundation raised the additional funds in 1952 to move the old chapel, and that year it was moved the three quarters of a mile to rest near Grace Church.10
{24b – Chapel of Ease 1959}
George began digging deep into the history of Taylor’s Island, and the Grace Foundation was becoming a vehicle for commemorating the role of the island in Maryland history. In 1956, George began to focus on a dispute between William Penn of Pennsylvania and Lord Baltimore over the exact border between the two states, and Taylor’s Island had figured significantly in that argument. With Delaware still a part of Pennsylvania at the time, the starting point for the Mason-Dixon Line was being argued, a point which would mark the southwest corner of what was to become Delaware. They determined that the line would begin at the midpoint between the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay at a particular latitude, and in determining where to place this middle point, Penn insisted that Taylor’s Island be included as a part of the mainland, thus placing the midpoint two miles farther west, while Lord Baltimore claimed that the western part of the mainland should not include the island. Penn won this argument, thus increasing the size of his holdings. Delaware now has 150 square miles which would have been a part of Maryland if Lord Baltimore’s argument had prevailed. With talk of commemorating the “Middle Stone” marking this controversial point, George used the attention Taylor’s Island was getting in the historical discussion to focus interest on the Chapel of Ease, the only “church” on the Island at the time and probably where much of the original debate over the line would have occurred. This was vintage “George L. Radcliffe,” connecting bits of history to accomplish a goal.
In the mid-1950s, renovation was begun on the Chapel of Ease; the roof was replaced, and a new chimney and fireplace were built using bricks retrieved from many of the historic properties on Taylor’s Island and nearby areas on the mainland. This clever move directly connected many of the Taylor’s Island families to the project. George was clearly making the chapel the focal point of Island history. As he stated:
The old chapel is rich in history and for most of us, it has long-continued close family associations. It has architectural and historic values. It fully deserves preservation. It can have community uses for all of us, irrespective of religious differences. It can be utilized in part for library and museum purposes. It will be the outstanding physical connecting link for persons living out of Maryland who have close family associations with Taylor’s Island. It can be in a sense their local headquarters. It is a unique and very historic survival, fully deserving cherishing preservation and utilization.11
At the end of that first decade, the Foundation acquired from the Spicer family the only remaining of four original schoolhouses on the island and had it moved beside Grace Church and the Chapel of Ease. With both an original chapel and schoolhouse on location, Grace Church was becoming the historical venue that the group had wanted. George brought the commemoration of the Middle Stone to a head with a resolution in the Maryland legislature and a ceremony in 1959 at Grace Church where a plaque was erected commemorating the Chapel of Ease and Taylor’s Island’s role in the Middle Stone controversy. He was thus able to focus considerable public attention on the Island, the boost needed to continue the work of the Grace Foundation.
{24c – Survey Marker}
While George was clearly the driving force behind all these projects, with his characteristic modesty he downplayed his role. The fact that the Grace Foundation is not only thriving but expanding almost seventy years later is a testament to its being a community organization and not just a pet project of George L. Radcliffe. His extensive network of contacts and his prolific letter writing certainly played a key role, and his seemingly limitless energy clearly helped power the projects in those early days. It was obvious that nowhere in George’s efforts was he seeking any personal recognition, but this clearly was personal. All traced back to a promise he had made years earlier to a dying mother. Quite likely he would have done this all anyway as family history and historical preservation were his forte—but then that was all rooted in Sophie Delila Travers, the remarkable mother of a remarkable man.
Sources:
⦁ Radcliffe, George L. Speech before the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, 23 March 1935.
⦁ Grace Foundation of Taylor’s Island, Inc. “About Historic Taylor’s Island.” http://www.gracefound.net/about-taylors-island.html. Accessed 3 Mar 2020.
⦁ Many accounts of this legend exist with slight variations in all. The basic core facts are the same, and this version is based on the written account of her grandson, Levi Dove Travers.
⦁ Spencer, Richard Henry, ed. “Thomas Broome Travers.” Genealogical and Memorial Encyclopedia of the State of Maryland, The American Historical Society, Inc. (New York), 1919, pp. 262 – 265.
⦁ Radcliffe, George L. Letter to Guy Steele, 17 July 1950.
⦁ Ibid.
⦁ “Anniversary Services Grace Church, Taylor’s Is.”, Unknown Newspaper clipping. The event was on 31 May 1936.
⦁ Radcliffe, George L. Letter to Marguerite Ewell, 29 June 1950.
⦁ Radcliffe, George M. “Memories of the Formation of Grace Foundation of Taylor’s Island, Inc. After 50 Years.” 2001.
⦁ Radcliffe, George L. “Grace Foundation of Taylor’s Island, First Annual Report.” 20 Feb 1952.
⦁ Radcliffe, George L. “Grace Foundation of Taylor’s Island, Sixth Annual Report.” 15 May 1957.
