Henry & Margaret Gies

October 4th marks 102 years since the death of Henry Lewis Gies.

Asleep in Jesus peaceful rest Whose waking is supremely blest

Henry Lewis Gies was born on September 17, 1834 in Hesse-Darmstadt (Germany), the son of John and Anna Elizabeth Gies.  When he was 7 years old, he immigrated with his parents, siblings, and grandparents to the U.S., arriving in Baltimore in December of 1841.

Henry's grandmother Mary passed away in 1848, but all of the rest of the family was living in Baltimore County's first district in the 1850 census, plus three new children who were born in the U.S.  His father John was working as a shoemaker, and Henry was attending school along with two of his siblings, Christiana and John.  [Side note:  Christiana later married John Hitshue Sr., from June's blog post.]

On October 28, 1856, Henry became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Margaret Ann Uhler was born on August 30, 1835 in Maryland, the daughter of Andrew Uhler and his first wife, Margaret Towson.  Andrew was a veteran of the War of 1812, having served as a Private in Captain Conrad Hook's Company.  After his wife's death, Andrew married widow Juliet Bowen Alder in 1839; little Margaret was just 4 years old at the time.  In the 1850 census, the Uhlers were living in Baltimore County, in the same district as the Gies family, with Andrew working as a farmer.

Henry Gies and Margaret Uhler were married in early 1858 in Baltimore City.  Later that same year, on November 12th, Henry purchased a house and plot of land called "Brotherly Love" in Reisterstown from Edward and Rebecca Lowe for $450.  Two years later, in the 1860 census, the couple now had a two-year-old son, George.  Like his father before him, Henry was working as a shoemaker.  Henry's real estate was now valued at $800.

In the 1860s, Henry Gies seems to have possibly had some money troubles. In 1864, he sold his property "Brotherly Love" to his father John for $500, who then sold it back to him for the same price four years later in 1868.  Perhaps this was his father's way of giving him a loan, with the land as collateral?

By the 1870 census, four new children had been welcomed into the Gies household:  Julia, Edward, Charles, and Eudora.  Henry was still a shoemaker, and Margaret was keeping house.  Curiously, their real estate was reduced in value to $300.

A map of Reisterstown from 1877 shows the location of the Gies' property, near the modern-day location of Drs. Pick, Siegel, and Shoe's Orthodontics Office at 409 Main Street.

Over these years, several of Henry and Margaret Gies' children died young:  Fanny in 1856 (per her gravestone, she was born and died before the couple was married?), George in 1862, Eudora in 1870, and Charles in 1877.  All were interred close together in the Reisterstown Cemetery.

In the 1880 census, the Gies family had four remaining children:  Julia, Edward, Leonidas, and John.  While Henry's occupation was given as boot and shoe maker, the record also indicates that he had been unemployed for two months that year.

Margaret Gies passed away at the age of 64 on April 12, 1900 from pneumonia.

Margaret has a unique distinction in the Reisterstown Cemetery;  she has two different grave markers in two different rows.  The first, where she is most likely to have been buried, is next to her husband's grave in row 8, close to her young children.  The second is shared with her son Leonidas and his wife in row 2.  Oddly, both stones incorrectly give her year of death as 1901.

The 1900 census finds Henry a widower, working as a farmer.  Living with him were his youngest son John, also a farmer, and his new daughter-in-law, Ada.

Sometime around 1904, Henry Gies married a second time, to Rosa Lee Gore, the daughter of Hillen and Eliza Gore.  In the 1910 census, Henry was 75 years old and retired, living on Reisterstown Road with his wife, aged 31 years, and widowed mother-in-law, aged 73 years.

Henry Gies passed away a year later, on October 4, 1911.

After Henry's death, his four surviving children sold the property on Main Street to their stepmother. Rosa Gies later remarried, to Robert Beveridge.  After her death in 1957, she, too, was interred in the Reisterstown Cemetery.

Henry and Margaret's children were:

• Fanny Lee Gies, c1855-1856
• George Towson Gies, c1858-1862
• Julia Gies, c1862-19??, wife of Charles H. Chaney
• Edward L. Gies, 1862-1918, husband of Henrietta Seaman
• Charles Harris Gies, c1865-1877
• Eudora F. Gies, c1868-1870
• James Leonidas Gies, 1873-1958, husband of (1) Emma Isabelle & (2) Lucy Ellen Marshall
• John Franklin Gies, 1877-1932, husband of Ada Q. Beaver

Sources:
Ancestry.com (census & immigration records)

• National Archives and Records Administration; Records of the US Customs Service, RG36; Series: M596; Roll: 4.
• National Archives and Records Administration; Indexes to Naturalization petitions to the U.S. Circuit and District Courts for Maryland, 1797-1951; Series: M1168; Roll: 6.
• Year: 1850; Census Place: District 1, Baltimore, Maryland; Roll: M432_280; Page: 246B.
• Year: 1850; Census Place: District 1, Baltimore, Maryland; Roll: M432_280; Page: 221B.
• Year: 1860; Census Place: District 4, Baltimore, Maryland; Roll: M653_468; Page: 43.
• Year: 1870; Census Place: Reisterstown, Baltimore, Maryland; Roll: M593_569; Page: 278B.
• Year: 1880; Census Place: District 4, Baltimore, Maryland; Roll: 495; Page: 570D-571A.
• Year: 1900; Census Place: Election District 4, Baltimore, Maryland; Roll: 606; Page: 3B.
• Year: 1910; Census Place: Election District 4, Baltimore, Maryland; Roll: T624_550; Page: 17A. 

Baltimore Sun

• "Death Of Mrs. M. A. Gies." Date: 14 April 1900; Page: 7.
• "Mr. H. L. Gies Buried." Date: 6 October 1911; Page: 9.

FamilySearch.org (marriage records)

Maryland Archives (marriage, death & land records, Historic Sites Inventory Survey)

Cemetery Photos © AgateGS