Appalachian Festival

Lynn Groesbeck Bowman, an assistant English professor at Allegheny College of Maryland, presented the “Hidden History: A Tour of Brownsville and Bringing the Jane Gates Heritage House to Life” around the Upper Quad of FSU’s campus. This was one of the first African American communities in Frostburg that lasted for over 50 years. Tamer Brown, who the community was named after, was sent to Frostburg to work by her owner Thomas Johnson after being freed as a slave. She bought the first piece of land from Nelson Beall in 1866 and this is where Brownsville began.

One of their first school’s in this community was built in 1898, named State Normal School No. 2, which is now Old Main Hall. This school supplied the residents with new jobs and financial opportunities, along with other jobs around their community such as “working in stores, homes, manual labor, etc.” said Bowman. However, this school would soon begin the demise of the Brownsville community because the town of Frostburg wanted to expand its city, and most of Brownsville was bought to enlarge the school as well as the general development of Frostburg.  

During her presentation/tour, Bowman discussed how the African American residents in this community were being “ripped off by those trying to expand the normal school to get the residents to sell their land” said Bowman. She also stated that some of the non-African American residents in Frostburg’s community-owned slaves. These slaves worked anywhere including in stables, sometimes walking horses over 50 miles to Petersburg, WV. They also worked as coal extractors, even though there is some speculation to that fact according to Bowman. Lynn Bowman also mentioned that “KKK meetings, yes where they burned crosses, were held in the place where Lane Center stands now.” This statement issued shock across the people apart of the tour because Lane is somewhere that most people do every day.

There was a new tour guide in training helping to present as well. She was a student at Allegheny College of Maryland. The touring organization has done their best to training students in touring Brownsville because it is a crucial history in the town of Frostburg, MD. Many questions were asked during the tour. Most of them were asked by what seemed to be locals present to learn history about their town. Among the other FSU students that were there, it could be seen that all of them were there because of a class requirement to attend the Appalachian Festival. Almost all of them had a book and pen or phone out taking down as much detail as they could.

      Among other presenters/performers at this annual festival were Carrie and Michael Kline. They are a husband and wife duet that utilize specific melodic and guitar riffs that embody the spirit of the townsfolk in the mountains of Western Maryland. Their performance was unique. It was almost soothing to sit there and listen to the different levels and tones that they made seem so easy to do while keeping pace and harmony with each other. During the performance, Carrie mentioned that it was a big music only portion in one of their songs and that if anyone wanted to dance that they could, even though no one stood up. Michael had a certain anxiousness yet peace as if he himself wanted to get up and dance with his wife. The group was clearly in tune with each other and it could be seen that this was one of the many times that they have performed together. The audience seemed to not be affected by their music, sitting in silence and staring at the performers as if they were waiting for

them to be finished.

(Carrie Kline-left and Michael Kline-right)