Pomfret

The Big House at Pomfret

The tobacco barn at Pomfret, Maryland

Blanche Shaw came from Pomfret in Charles County, Maryland, about midway between Indian Head and La Plata. It’s on the eastern side of the Potomac River about 20 miles south of Washington, D.C. In the 1900’s it was a rural farming community that grew tobacco as the main crop.

Here is the barn, one of three and the largest, with tobacco drying on racks.

The big farmhouse was new then, built in 1910. The farm itself was deeded to Mollie Ann Murray ( Mary Shaw's mother) in the late 1800's. Blanche and her older brother Frank were born in the old log house behind the big house.

This is where the Shaw family genealogy starts and I don’t want to make stuff up, so instead I will post an image from the 1910 U.S. Census of Charles County, MD. It shows her parents Fredrick A. Shaw and Mary V. along with Blanche, age 2 and her older brother Frank.