Fraktur

Place Made
Washington County Maryland United States of America
Date Made
1805
Medium
ink –watercolor –paper
Dimensions
HOA: 11 3/8″; WOA: 15 1/4″
Accession Number
6008
Description
The fraktur was executed for David Cuschwa, who was born on September 10, 1804, and baptized the following spring. A second hand recorded David’s death and burial twenty-six years later. David’s parents were Johannes Cuschwa, Jr. (1769-1845) and Catharine (Seibert) Cuschwa (1772-1849). The Cuschwa family were part of the large German-speaking community who settled in western Maryland. David’s grandfather, Johannes Cushwa Sr. (1731-1805), was among the founders of Washington County, Maryland. Originally from Berks County, Pennsylvania, Johannes Sr. settled with his family near Clear Springs, about twelve miles west of Hagerstown.

This fraktur also records the name of the minister who officiated at David’s baptism into the German Reformed Church: Jonathan Rahauser (1764-1817). Pastor Rahauser was born in York County, Pennsylvania, and ordained in the German Reformed Church in 1791. He served churches in the Hagerstown area until his death in 1817.

This fraktur, executed almost exactly thirty-years after the start of the American Revolution, is most signifiant for its depiction of Revolutionary-era iconography. After the Revolution, western Maryland was home to a large number of Hessian prisoners of war. Some of these prisoners eventually chose to stay in America where they settled and intermarried with the large German-speaking protestant communities in Virginia and Maryland. I have yet to find a Hessian connection to the Cuschwa family. However, David’s family was active in the Revolution. Maybe the soldiers are meant to be the prisoners of war who were housed in the region. It is even possible that the artist himself was a former Hessian: the Virginia fraktur artist Fredrich Bandel is one example of an ex-Hessian who remained in America and assimilated into the larger German-speaking community. Perhaps after three decades the general iconography of the Revolution was more important than the precise details of the uniforms.

Credit Line
Gift of Pastor Frederick S. Weiser, by exchange