Friday Potluck Luncheon

Friday, February 16, noon. Jefferson Boyer will be our guest speaker. He is president of the Smithsburg Historical Society. Jefferson has, over the years, been a college professor teaching art history, writing, and speech, but he has had a lifelong interest in local history. Over the years, he has been active in historic preservation in both the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where he lived for over 30 years, and here in his native Washington County. His interest in researching the impact of the Civil War on the people of Washington County was in part an outgrowth of his being rather tired of hearing about the Civil War from the perspective of military historians who rattle on about troop movements and battle statistics but who largely ignore the way that the battles of the Civil War such as Antietam, South Mountain, and Gettysburg, and the threat of invasions affected– and interrupted– the way that the average people and families went about their daily lives during the War. It was a time of much stress, shortages, and ongoing hardships. Currently, Jefferson Boyer is a park ranger at Fort Frederick State Park and serves on the Washington County Historic Preservation Advisory Committee. Please bring a dish to share.