Spiro Agnew the patron saint of Alaska

Spiro Agnew the patron saint of Alaska

December 31, 2008 © by Kevin Dayhoff

On Christmas morning I was treated to a white Christmas when I awakened in Anchorage Alaska. As a matter of fact, it was a white Christmas week as it snowed everyday the entire time I was there.

I stayed at the Captain Cook Hotel which is incidentally the same hotel where one of Alaska’s heroes, our own thirty-ninth Vice President of the United States, and the 55th governor of Maryland, Spiro Agnew, stayed on an impromptu stopover in 1981.

Yes, you read that correctly, according to Anchorage Daily News columnist, Mike Dunham, who wrote a tribute to Mr. Agnew on the anniversary of his birthday in 1996; Mr. Agnew is considered to be “arguably the most important man in Alaska history after William Seward.” More on that in a minute…

As readers are aware I am not a fan of the cold or snow, but there I was looking out upon a beautiful city situated on a glacier silt plain in southeastern Alaska, picturesquely framed by the Chugach Mountain range and Cook Inlet.

The temperature averaged in the teens for the entire stay – and yes, the sun only shines for about four hours a day this time of the year in Anchorage. Even then, sunlight is only distinguishable as a brighter - lighter shade of gray.

Nevertheless, I had a wonderful visiting a city I had only read about before in the context of oil exploration and politics, Native American struggles and public policy, Russian - Alaskan history, the globalization of American economic structure, and anomalies of municipal government.

For government geeks who study municipal governance, Anchorage is fascinating. Above and beyond the fact that there is no sales tax or income tax in Anchorage or Alaska for that matter, is the sheer geographic size of the municipality. The city limits of Anchorage encompasses 1,955 sq. miles or about the size of the state of Delaware. For a comparison, Carroll County is 452 square miles – and Westminster is about 6 square miles.

On December 28, I had a nice opportunity to talk with Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich; a young and energetic rising star who will in the future make a name for himself on the national stage. For now I’ll leave that for a future column. Yes, he is the son of former Congressman Nick Begich. Congressman Nick Begich and Representative Hale Boggs of Louisiana were the focus of a national tragedy on September 16, 1972. Who remembers the terrible circumstances?

Getting back to Spiro Agnew, according Mr. Dunham, Mr. Agnew he did not happen to visit Anchorage “on purpose. In 1981, he and 180 other passengers on a commercial jet to Korea were detained in Anchorage after an engine conked out. Spotted at the Hotel Captain Cook, Agnew shied from questions — ‘I’m not in politics anymore. I just don’t have time to fool with this anymore’ — lit his Marlboro and puffed quietly into history.”

It is that “history” that is so fascinating to congressional historians. Except as a peculiar footnote, history is befuddled as to what to do with the legacy of Mr. Agnew. For the most part, historians essentially ignore him. In what is otherwise the sordid and conflicted saga of an American politician from Maryland, then-Vice-President Agnew irrevocably changed the future of Alaska just months before he resigned as the United States vice-president on October 10th, 1973.

To refresh your memory, the thirty-ninth Vice President of the United States, and the 55th governor of Maryland, Spiro Theodore Agnew, passed away on September 17th, 1996. He was born on November 9, 1918 Spiro Anagnostopoulos, the son of Greek immigrants, and grew up in Baltimore.

While serving his country in World War II, he earned the Bronze Star in France. Upon returning home he began practicing law in 1949 and entered politics in 1957, eventually being elected Baltimore County Executive in 1962.

In an extraordinary twist of fate, Mr. Agnew, a Republican, really burst on the scene in 1966 as a courtesy of the Democratic Party. Who can remember the circumstances?

On November 8, 1966, the day before his 48th birthday, Mr. Agnew, defeated his Democratic-Dixiecrat opponent, by a margin of 81,775 votes in a three-way race. Who can name his Dixiecrat opponent or the third prominent politician in the 1966 Maryland gubernatorial election?

Presidential candidate Richard Nixon picked the nationally unknown Maryland governor as his running mate two years later. Most all Marylanders were proud when then-Governor Agnew was elected Vice-President of the United States in 1968.

In the fall of 1973, as the Watergate scandal mounted, the prospect of Vice-President Agnew succeeding President Nixon became a matter of profound concern to political elites. An investigation into the Baltimore County payoffs provided a suitable pretext as he eventually became the focus of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney's office in Maryland for financial irregularities while he held state office. Rather than face trial, Agnew resigned and entered a plea of no contest to charges of evading income tax.

Years earlier, Mr. Agnew made a campaign stop in Anchorage in 1968, according to Mr. Dunham. It was the first of his three visits to Alaska. The second visit occurred during the re-election campaign of 1972 – in addition to his last visit, mentioned earlier, in 1981.

In 1968, a few months before Mr. Agnew’s first visit, oil had been discovered on the North – Arctic Slope north of the Brooks Mountain Range. The Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) was proposed in 1969, but it was greeted met with tremendous opposition from environmentalists.

By July 17, 1973, the Trans-Alaska Authorization Act which cleared the way for the 800-mile pipeline had passed the House of Representatives, but was deadlocked in the Senate – 49 to 49.

Vice-President Agnew, in his constitutional capacity as President of the Senate, cast the tie-breaking vote, “for” the pipeline.

Mr. Agnew was many different things to many folks, however, today, few Marylanders are aware of him, except that he was once a Maryland governor and a United States vice-president.

In Alaska, the former governor of Maryland is known to keen historians as the reason there is no sales tax or income tax in the 49th state. Additionally, he is one of the reasons why the Anchorage of today, poised as the gateway to northern North America and the vast economics of the Pacific Rim, is a modern and exciting city. It is far different from the boom-to-bust, “small, dirty, hardscrabble place,” as described by Mr. Dunham, “with more bars than churches when Agnew flew in on a campaign swing in 1968.”

I did find a statue of Captain James Cook who sailed into the area in 1778, but on my visit, I found no statue for Spiro Agnew. Nevertheless, to paraphrase Mr. Dunham, he may have picked pockets in Maryland, but he made Alaskans rich.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.
E-mail him at: kdayhoff AT carr.org
####

Dayhoff Art writing essays articles, Dayhoff Travel, Energy Independence, Energy Oil, Gov Vice-Pres Spiro T Agnew, US st Alaska

20071231 Spiro Agnew The Patron Saint of Alaska

Spiro Agnew the patron saint of Alaska

Spiro Agnew the patron saint of Alaska

December 31, 2008 © by Kevin Dayhoff

On Christmas morning I was treated to a white Christmas when I awakened in Anchorage Alaska. As a matter of fact, it was a white Christmas week as it snowed everyday the entire time I was there.

I stayed at the Captain Cook Hotel which is incidentally the same hotel where one of Alaska’s heroes, our own thirty-ninth Vice President of the United States, and the 55th governor of Maryland, Spiro Agnew, stayed on an impromptu stopover in 1981.

Yes, you read that correctly, according to Anchorage Daily News columnist, Mike Dunham, who wrote a tribute to Mr. Agnew on the anniversary of his birthday in 1996; Mr. Agnew is considered to be “arguably the most important man in Alaska history after William Seward.” More on that in a minute…

As readers are aware I am not a fan of the cold or snow, but there I was looking out upon a beautiful city situated on a glacier silt plain in southeastern Alaska, picturesquely framed by the Chugach Mountain range and Cook Inlet.

The temperature averaged in the teens for the entire stay – and yes, the sun only shines for about four hours a day this time of the year in Anchorage. Even then, sunlight is only distinguishable as a brighter - lighter shade of gray.

Nevertheless, I had a wonderful visiting a city I had only read about before in the context of oil exploration and politics, Native American struggles and public policy, Russian - Alaskan history, the globalization of American economic structure, and anomalies of municipal government.

For government geeks who study municipal governance, Anchorage is fascinating. Above and beyond the fact that there is no sales tax or income tax in Anchorage or Alaska for that matter, is the sheer geographic size of the municipality. The city limits of Anchorage encompasses 1,955 sq. miles or about the size of the state of Delaware. For a comparison, Carroll County is 452 square miles – and Westminster is about 6 square miles.

On December 28, I had a nice opportunity to talk with Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich; a young and energetic rising star who will in the future make a name for himself on the national stage. For now I’ll leave that for a future column. Yes, he is the son of former Congressman Nick Begich. Congressman Nick Begich and Representative Hale Boggs of Louisiana were the focus of a national tragedy on September 16, 1972. Who remembers the terrible circumstances?

Getting back to Spiro Agnew, according Mr. Dunham, Mr. Agnew he did not happen to visit Anchorage “on purpose. In 1981, he and 180 other passengers on a commercial jet to Korea were detained in Anchorage after an engine conked out. Spotted at the Hotel Captain Cook, Agnew shied from questions — ‘I’m not in politics anymore. I just don’t have time to fool with this anymore’ — lit his Marlboro and puffed quietly into history.”

It is that “history” that is so fascinating to congressional historians. Except as a peculiar footnote, history is befuddled as to what to do with the legacy of Mr. Agnew. For the most part, historians essentially ignore him. In what is otherwise the sordid and conflicted saga of an American politician from Maryland, then-Vice-President Agnew irrevocably changed the future of Alaska just months before he resigned as the United States vice-president on October 10th, 1973.

To refresh your memory, the thirty-ninth Vice President of the United States, and the 55th governor of Maryland, Spiro Theodore Agnew, passed away on September 17th, 1996. He was born on November 9, 1918 Spiro Anagnostopoulos, the son of Greek immigrants, and grew up in Baltimore.

While serving his country in World War II, he earned the Bronze Star in France. Upon returning home he began practicing law in 1949 and entered politics in 1957, eventually being elected Baltimore County Executive in 1962.

In an extraordinary twist of fate, Mr. Agnew, a Republican, really burst on the scene in 1966 as a courtesy of the Democratic Party. Who can remember the circumstances?

On November 8, 1966, the day before his 48th birthday, Mr. Agnew, defeated his Democratic-Dixiecrat opponent, by a margin of 81,775 votes in a three-way race. Who can name his Dixiecrat opponent or the third prominent politician in the 1966 Maryland gubernatorial election?

Presidential candidate Richard Nixon picked the nationally unknown Maryland governor as his running mate two years later. Most all Marylanders were proud when then-Governor Agnew was elected Vice-President of the United States in 1968.

In the fall of 1973, as the Watergate scandal mounted, the prospect of Vice-President Agnew succeeding President Nixon became a matter of profound concern to political elites. An investigation into the Baltimore County payoffs provided a suitable pretext as he eventually became the focus of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney's office in Maryland for financial irregularities while he held state office. Rather than face trial, Agnew resigned and entered a plea of no contest to charges of evading income tax.

Years earlier, Mr. Agnew made a campaign stop in Anchorage in 1968, according to Mr. Dunham. It was the first of his three visits to Alaska. The second visit occurred during the re-election campaign of 1972 – in addition to his last visit, mentioned earlier, in 1981.

In 1968, a few months before Mr. Agnew’s first visit, oil had been discovered on the North – Arctic Slope north of the Brooks Mountain Range. The Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) was proposed in 1969, but it was greeted met with tremendous opposition from environmentalists.

By July 17, 1973, the Trans-Alaska Authorization Act which cleared the way for the 800-mile pipeline had passed the House of Representatives, but was deadlocked in the Senate – 49 to 49.

Vice-President Agnew, in his constitutional capacity as President of the Senate, cast the tie-breaking vote, “for” the pipeline.

Mr. Agnew was many different things to many folks, however, today, few Marylanders are aware of him, except that he was once a Maryland governor and a United States vice-president.

In Alaska, the former governor of Maryland is known to keen historians as the reason there is no sales tax or income tax in the 49th state. Additionally, he is one of the reasons why the Anchorage of today, poised as the gateway to northern North America and the vast economics of the Pacific Rim, is a modern and exciting city. It is far different from the boom-to-bust, “small, dirty, hardscrabble place,” as described by Mr. Dunham, “with more bars than churches when Agnew flew in on a campaign swing in 1968.”

I did find a statue of Captain James Cook who sailed into the area in 1778, but on my visit, I found no statue for Spiro Agnew. Nevertheless, to paraphrase Mr. Dunham, he may have picked pockets in Maryland, but he made Alaskans rich.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.
E-mail him at: kdayhoff AT carr.org
####

20071231 Spiro Agnew The Patron Saint of Alaska

20070627 Davis Library part 1

20070627 Davis Library part 1

Library is at the center of the bookshelf of Westminster history

Davis Library part 1
Westminster Eagle
June 27th, 2007 © by Kevin Dayhoff (669 words – as filed)

Plans were recently announced for the renovation of the 27-year-old Westminster branch of the Carroll County Public Library.

This news prompted some discussions of the history and origins of the library in Westminster. Of course, the history of the library in Westminster, like most successes in Carroll County, is the history of a tradition and heritage of private – public partnerships, great leadership, and selfless philanthropy from community leaders.

Writing for this paper, Katie Jones noted, “Two years ago, the Westminster Public Library celebrated 25 years of service” in its present location. She also noted that the “students of Medora Lynn's school of ballet, The Ballet Slipper,” put on a recent benefit performance to help raise money for the renovations.

The current site of the library on Main Street is the fulcrum point of old traditional Westminster and is steeped in history. It was preceded by several different church structures for the St. John Catholic Church community dating back to 1789 when four acres were donated to the Catholic community for a cemetery and a church.

However, in those days, the church property was not in Westminster. It was in an outlying area which was laid out in 1812 as the town of “Bedford.” The town of Bedford comprised the area between Main and Green Streets, from where Longwell Avenue is now, to near where Bond Street currently exists.

On the other side of Main Street was the “Town of Winter’s Addition to Westminster,” which was recorded with the Frederick County clerk on December 5th, 1815 by John Winter and John Winter, Jr. It is the area between Main Street and Winter’s Alley.

At the time, Westminster, then “Winchester,” laid out in 1764,- was comprised of King’s Street (now Main Street) from Manchester Road to Court Street.

In between the town of Bedford and “Winchester,”, was the competing town of “New London,” which was laid out in 1765 by Captain John White.

New London included that area along King’s Street from Court Street to Longwell Avenue. On February 5th, 1819, “Westminster,” and the first annexation of the town, in 1788, of the area along Green Street from Washington Road to Church Street, plus “Winter’s Addition” and “New London” were incorporated as Westminster by the Maryland General Assembly.

“Bedford” was not a part of Westminster until a re-incorporation occurred in 1830 and the town expanded as far as “The Forks” where Pennsylvania Avenue begins at West Main Street. The area at “The Forks” and beyond was a rival thriving business area, parts of which were known as “Pigstown,” “Fanny’s Meadow” and “Logsdon Tavern.”

In those days St. John Catholic Church was a mission church of the Conewago, Pennsylvania parish. It soon became parish mission of Taneytown’s St. Joseph Catholic Church.

Construction began of the last of several church structures in 1865 (four years after the railroad arrived). On Thursday, June 19, 1952 at 4:45 in the afternoon, the steeple of that church was destroyed by a tornado and the church damaged. In 1968 the building was deemed unusable. In 1972, a new church was built on Monroe Avenue and the Main Street property remained unused until March 1980 when the current 40,000-square-foot library facility opened with a chilly parade – of sorts.

It was a “book parade” which followed the tradition of how the books were moved by schoolchildren from the old Westminster High School at Green and Center Streets to the then-new Westminster High School on Longwell Avenue on an equally cold Monday afternoon on November 23rd, 1936.

This time it was a cold Saturday morning when, according to published accounts, about 500 citizens hand-carried 60,000 books and other library items from the Davis Library building at 129 East Main Street to the new building.

The roots of the library in Westminster began during the Civil War, in 1863, at the other end of town, the Odd Fellows Hall, now known as the Opera House Printing Company at 140 East Main Street.

For now, bookmark this introduction until next week’s chapter.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.
E-mail him at: kdayhoff at carr.org
####

20070627 Davis Library part 1

Carroll County Public Library, Dayhoff Art writing essays and articles, Dayhoff Media Westminster Eagle, History Westminster, Westminster Scrapbook Davis Library

20051229 Community Foundation of Carroll County announces Philanthropists of the Year Award

20051229 Community Foundation of Carroll County announces Philanthropists of the Year Award.

Community Foundation of Carroll County announces Philanthropists of the Year Award.

December 29, 2005 by Kevin Dayhoff

Writers note: A shorter version of this article titled, “CFCC on lookout for good deeds in honoring philanthropists” appeared in the Westminster Eagle on 01/05/06

“Charitable giving comes from the heart and mirrors the soul. Community philanthropists deserve to be recognized,” said Kathy Brown, the Director of Shepherd’s Staff as she multi-tasked at the front desk, answering questions and waiting on customers.

“It’s marvelous what the Foundation is doing for families in Carroll County.”

Brown was referring to a recent announcement that the Community Foundation of Carroll County (CFCC) is looking for “nominations to recognize the exceptional generosity and strong commitment of extraordinary local philanthropists.”

Audrey Cimino, CFCC executive director noted, “This is something we have wanted to do for quite sometime. We want to recognize those heroes who give of their time and money to make a better community. And it’s not always the huge donations – it is the accumulation of all the small donations that make things happen. You could not put a price on the volunteerism hours.”

According their website, CFCC is an umbrella organization to facilitate philanthropic activities in Carroll County since 1993. That is when a steering committee of “James Wise, Arthur Valenzano, Calvin Seitz, Peggie Roland, Donald Hull, George Giese, William Gering, and Audrey Cimino, began the process of making the Community Foundation of Carroll County a reality.”

“Beginning with a gift of sixty thousand dollars from the Estate of Rosa B. Null, a Hampstead, Maryland resident, the Community Foundation has grown to 3.4 million dollars in endowments, operations funds, scholarships and funds managed for other community organizations.”

The press release announcing the new awards program states: “The Community Foundation of Carroll County is requesting nominations to recognize the exceptional generosity and strong commitment of extraordinary local philanthropists.”

Cimino said in the announcement, this “is the beginning of what we anticipate will be a long-tradition of honoring the philanthropic efforts of Carroll County residents and businesses. Often, the long-term impact of those efforts is not recognized. Our goal is to honor and thank those in our local community who consistently respond to needs with generosity and leadership.”

CFCC marketing chair Fred Teeter gives a lot of credit to CFCC Board Chair Linda Ryan for “getting behind this effort and giving it some legs. “The Foundation came up with this project because there is no countywide recognition program to recognize philanthropists in [Carroll] County. The objective is to award an individual or family, a business, an organization, and a youth who exemplify the spirit of giving through financial support, and volunteerism.”

“Through its partnership with the Carroll County Times,” CFCC will recognize Carroll philanthropists “during the first annual Carroll County Philanthropists of the Year awards program on April 5, 2006,” the announcement continued.

Hampstead mayor Haven Shoemaker thinks the award program “is a fantastic idea.”

When asked what private sector contributions means to municipalities, Shoemaker, president of the Carroll Chapter of the MD Municipal League said, “town governments can’t do it alone… [Hampstead] is just all-local government… We operate on a shoestring budget and without philanthropy; taxes would be a lot higher than they already are. For example, we really appreciate the Hampstead Lion’s Club providing citizens with recreation, baseball programs, and the like…”

“Charitable donations mean everything to us,” Brown said, referring to Shepherd’s staff, a Westminster based Christian outreach and emergency support center. “We depend on the charity giving of the community because we don’t accept any county state or federal funding.”

Commissioner Perry Jones said, “The generosity of the community has been critical to Carroll County being the great place that it is for all our families. Carroll is very fortunate to have the Community Foundation.”

Timmi Pierce, the new executive director of the Historical Society of Carroll County remarked that she had already discussed with her staff who to nominate. “Volunteerism is really a core element for a community. Carroll County has a rich history of generosity in the community that goes to back to the founding of the county.”

A nomination form must be completed in its entirety for each nominee, and mailed to the Community Foundation of Carroll County, P.O. Box 170, Westminster, MD 21158, postmarked by Thursday, January 12, 2006. Nomination forms are available on the web at www.carrollcommunityfoundation.org or by contacting Lisa Aughenbaugh, CFCC Project Manager, 410-876-8772 or Fred Teeter, 866-775-2185.

Forms are also available at the office of The Westminster Eagle, 121 E. Main St., Westminster, MD 21157, during regular business hours.

Carroll County Scrapbook Community Events, Non-profits and charities Carroll Community Foundation, Westminster Scrapbook community news and events

http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/2005/01/20051229-community-foundation-of.html