File:Edward Schafer Morsberger research.JPG

Summary

Edward Shafer was born in Burkittsville. He came to Brunswick, started investing in real estate, and founded a newspaper, its first issue rolling off the press on 6 March 1891.

Shafer was a real man-about-town and made the guest list of many private parties and dances. While he was probably popular, he could also mention the soirée in the paper. On the serious side, he was also tapped to serve on committees for public improvement and community celebrations, was a candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates and was the Chief Marshal of the Brunswick Fire Department. He was also the Brunswick Mayor 1896-97.

He was a real cheerleader for the town and the B&O. During the next decade Edward expanded his business interests buying and selling property and acting as an executor of several estates. He also got more involved in county and state politics of the Democratic Party acting as delegate, conventioneer and secretary.

In 1906 Edward was among the incorporators of the Brunswick and Middletown Railroad Company. That same year he moved his paper to a large building he purchased at the foot of what would become Delaware Avenue. He would continue printing paper in the first floor front, the other spaces used for other things.

On May 4, 1909, on the front page of Washington DC's 'Evening Star,' under the headline "EDITOR TAKES A WIFE," it is announced that Edward C. Shafer and Eva E.S. Nicodemus were married the previous Saturday in Washington by Rev. J.B. McLaughlin. We also learn that Eva has worked as a compositor at the Herald for 10 years (no mention n 1900 Census) and that, in addition to setting the type, she helped edit the paper. And it is noted that Edward is engaged in the insurance business. In 1910 the couple is enumerated on First Street presumably in the house that would later be addressed as 22 North Virginia Avenue. She still has no occupation on form, but one can assume she is still assisting her husband. Edward is still listed as an Editor, but in September 1912, feeling he needed a rest from the newspaper business, Edward Shafer sold the Brunswick Herald.

The Post Publishing Company, publishers of the Frederick Evening Post, purchased the Herald and continued to put it out weekly with Oscar M. Fogle, of Brunswick, as Editor. Now, free of the newspaper, Edward and Eva could concentrate on their insurance business. Edward would be tapped again in 1920 to serve as Mayor of Brunswick and would continue into a second term until failing health would force him to resign in 1923. He died a year later.

Eva would soldier on operating the insurance agency from her home. She is listed there in the 1924 City Directory along with an advertisement for Bowers & Shafer insurance at the same address. She's enumerated there in 1930 as an insurance saleslady. She died at the residence in 1970, at age 91. She was buried beside her husband at Mt Olivet Cemetery in Frederick.

(Photo credit City of Brunswick, Maryland History Commission; information courtesy of John Roby Morsberger)