Masonic Marker Jewel, c. 1799-1808

This silver oval disk shaped jewel engraved with various Masonic emblems and the inscriptions: “Daniel Marker” and “Hiram Lodge No. 28”originally belonged to Daniel Marker (1777 or 1778-1854), a member of Hiram Lodge No. 28 (instituted in 1799 and lapsed in 1808). During the War of 1812 he served from August 25 to October 27, 1814 as a Captain of Stembel’s 3d Regiment of Militia (Maryland) subsequent to serving from August 16 to September 11, 1813 as Captain of ‘Captain Marker’s Company of Riflemen’ in the 28th Regiment. He participated in the battle of Bladensburg in 1814.The eldest son of George Marker (1753-1827), a gunsmith working in Frederick County, Daniel Marker continued the family business of manufacturing and selling gun powder, rifles, shotguns, and cannon as several advertisements placed in ‘The Martinsburg Gazette’ testify, including one from July 10, 1817. He married his first wife, Anna Christena Beckenbaugh (1778-1835), on May 9, 1797 in Frederick County, Maryland and had ten children. Frederick County court records document the couple’s martial difficulties which appear to be largely related to the family’s constantly fluctuating financial situation. Sometime after Anna’s death on April 10, 1835 in Sharpsburg, Washington County, Maryland Daniel Marker moved to Darke County, Ohio. From county records he appears to have remarried twice, first to Nancy Ann Dowler (dates unknown) on August 23, 1836 and later to Mary Ann Harksider (dates unknown), the widow of Daniel Morgan (?-1835), on November 25, 1840, with whom he had one daughter, Christine Marker (dates unknown). He died on January 1, 1854 and is interred in Christian Cemetery in Darke County, Ohio.