Northern Chesapeake Heritage Foundation

01/08/2026

The last American battle casualties of the Vietnam War are believed to be CDR Harley D. Hall, Capt. George W. Morris, and Lt. Mark A. Peterson. One of them, George W. Morris, was a "hometown boy," from Baltimore, MD.

Captain George William Morris, Jr. was born on 16 Sep 1946 to George William and Elizabeth (Davies) Morris, Sr. in Baltimore, Maryland. The family would later relocate to Alhambra, CA, in the suburbs of Los Angeles where George, Sr. would serve as mayor from 1971-1973.

Capt. Morris was assigned to the 23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron, 504th Tactical Support Group, 56th Special Operations Wing, 7th Air Force, Nakhon Phanom RTAFB, Thailand, arriving in-country on 13 Nov 1972.

On 27 January 1973, just hours before the ceasefire agreement signed earlier that day in Paris would go into effect, Lt. Mark Peterson and Capt. George W. Morris, pilot and co-pilot respectively, were piloting an OV-10 Bronco light attack and observation aircraft, tail number 68-3806, call sign "Nail 89,” on a search mission for two Navy pilots of a downed F-4 Phantom near the Cua Viet River in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam. Those pilots were Navy CDR Harley D. Hall, executive officer of the F4 squadron, VF143, on the USS Enterprise, and his back-seat Radar intercept Officer (RIO), LCDR Al Kientzler.

Their aircraft was soon hit by a Soviet made, S7 surface-to-air missile in the right engine causing pieces of aircraft wreckage to sever the Bronco's tail. Capt. Morris and pilot Lt. Mark Peterson ejected safely, with witnesses in other aircraft in the vicinity seeing the parachutes land close to one another. Rescue beepers from both crew members of the Bronco were heard for a short time and radio communication with one of them, believed to be Lt. Peterson, stated that he was about to be captured. That was the last communication received from either of pilots.

Due to the enemy presence in the area, attempts at rescue were abandoned. There are many conflicting “witness” statements from American pilots in the area, civilians on the ground, and NVA military veterans after the war as to the fate of Capt. Morris and Lt. Peterson on that day, just hours before America’s involvement in its longest war would come to an end.

When the North Vietnamese released U.S. prisoners of war during Operation Homecoming just a few weeks later, the crew members of the OV-10 Bronco, tail number 68-3806, call sign "Nail 89,” and CDR Harley D. Hall were not among them. LCDR Al Kientzler, though wounded, was the only survivor of the two ill-fated flights.

Baltimorean, Captain George William Morris, Jr. is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii, and among his fallen comrades on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.

We are proud and honored to establish this local memorial to an American hero in his hometown of Baltimore, MD. His memorial marker will join those of other hometown Maryland hero’s in our Garden of Remembrance within the walls of Baltimore’s historic Green Mount Cemetery.

With this memorial garden, we pay special tribute to all Marylanders who paid the ultimate sacrifice, and whose final resting places are known but to God.

11/02/2025

Lying forgotten in an umarked grave for nealy 160 years...

Descended from Old World Irish and Scottish stock, Junius Butler French was born 7 Aug 1837 in Fauquier Co., VA to James and Sarah Scarborough Butler (Henry) French, Junius was the fourth of five children to survive into adulthood. His father was a Planter by trade but would also serve three terms i...

07/14/2025

What We Do...
The Northern Chesapeake Heritage Foundation (NCHF) is a 501c3 non-profit, with a two-fold mission dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of the Northern Chesapeake Bay region and to support and honor our military men and women in uniform. Our mission is also to identify and honor all veterans who have gone before us but lie forgotten in unmarked graves or rest among the missing and lost around the globe.

07/05/2025

Born 16 Sep 1914, and raised in Giulianova Italy, Violist Anthony “Tony” Iovane immigrated to the United States in 1953. Having graduated from the Conservatory of Music Statale Pescara with further study at Rome’s Conservatory of Santa Cecilia, and a teaching gig in Bologna, Anthony felt America held a better promise for achieving his musical ambitions.

Landing first in the Bronx, in New York, he would soon travel to Indianapolis, IN and spend several years playing with the symphony orchestra in that city. By 1957, Baltimore called, and Anthony finally found a permanent home where he could fulfill his musical ambitions. For the next thirty years, he would perform with the BSO, teach at the Peabody Institute, and occasionally perform with other orchestras, including the Gettysburg Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania.

Capping his career, Iovane would travel and perform with the BSO’s "Harmonie" 1981 European Tour that would include East Germany; traveling again with the 1987 European Tour, he would retire following their return to Baltimore.

Anthony Iovane died of heart disease on the 28th of January 1996 at the St. Josephs Medical Center in Baltimore, leaving his wife of 42 years, the former Josephine Tringali. Josephine would pass away three years later in Charlotte, NC.

Several months ago, we received a call from the Dublin Methodist Church in northeast Harford County, regarding an urn of cremated remains left on the steps of the church. Inside was a tag identifying the crematory (Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore) and the name of the deceased, Anthony Iovane. Nothing else accompanied the “package,” no contact information for the individual who left it there, nothing. Adding further mystery to the discarded urn, the funeral home that had retrieved Anthony’s ashes nearly thirty years ago, had long shuttered its doors and Anthony lived in the northern Baltimore City community of Guilford, nowhere near Dublin.

The superintendent of Green Mount, also a board member of the Northern Chesapeake Heritage Foundation, traveled to Dublin to retrieve the urn and assured the church that we would provide a proper burial for Anthony.

What happened to that last request and why wasn’t it carried out? How did his urn end up in northeast Harford County, and who left it at the church? Those are questions that will most likely never be answered.

After several weeks searching for family members, Anthony and Josephine had no children, I finally identified a close relative who was shocked to receive a phone call regarding the discarded ashes of a relative. Adding to the mystery of Anthony’s “travels” was the revelation that his ashes were to be spread in the Atlantic Ocean between Maryland and his native Italy. Unfortunately, it seemed that Anthony had a bit of a temper, not unlike many “artists,” no insult intended, and was not the easiest person to live or work with. Not able to assist in our efforts to give Anthony a final place to rest, I assured the relative we would find a suitable home for him.

Regardless of his shortcomings, no man is without flaws, Anthony Iovane deserved dignity in death. With that in mind, we obtained permission from cemetery management to place Anthony in an unsold space in what has historically been known as “Strangers Row” in the cemetery. This area was reserved for travelers, ships captains and crew, wartime casualties, and others who died in Baltimore and could not be sent home for one reason or another. It is also the resting place for many infants and toddlers whose families would later move on from Baltimore.

Obtaining a suitable marble a headstone, we engaged a local monument maker to inscribe it for us, thus giving Anthony Iovane a final resting place and recognition he deserved as a worthy contributor Baltimore’s and America’s historical cultural landscape.

06/22/2025

Honoring a Maryland son and American Hero...

Last American soldier killed in World War I. Sgt. Gunther, at age 23, was killed on 11 Nov 1918, at 10:59 am, just one minute before the Armistice was to take effect at 11:00 am. Born 6 Jun 1895 in Baltimore, MD to George and Magdelena (Roth) Gunther. Inducted on 30 Sep 1917, assigned to Co. A,...

05/26/2025

This Memorial Day, we honor Sgt. John Clemm, a Baltimore Merchant who was killed on the afternoon of 13 Sep 1814 during an attempted surprise attack on Fort McHenry by British Capt. Charles Napier and 1200 sailors and marines. Sgt. Clemm was a member of the Baltimore Fencibles, men of means in the city who heeded the call and volunteered to defend their city.

The Fencibles (“Local Defenders”) were an artillery company commanded by Capt. Joseph H. Nicholson, a Baltimore City Judge and brother-in-law of Francis Scott Key. On that day, they had charge of the southwest bastion of the fort.

Pvt. Isaac Monroe, editor of the Baltimore Patriot and member of the Fencibles, described the action that would kill Sgt. John Clemm and Lt. Levi Claggett.

"By early afternoon September 13th, a nor’easter brought heavy showers and rain on Captain Nicholson’s Baltimore Fencibles Artillery gun crew. At 2pm a bomb would slam into Bastion 3 instantly killing Lt. Levi Claggett [sic] and severely wounding four other men. A 24 pounder was knocked off its carriage. A second bomb would burst over the bastion. Shrapnel the size of a silver dollar tore through Sergeant John Clemm killing him on the spot. These were citizen soldiers, two of the four men killed during the bombardment and were prominent flour merchants and investors in Baltimore’s Privateer trade."

Sgt. Clemm’s mortal remains lie in an unknown grave somewhere in Baltimore City. It is most likely he was initially interred in a small cemetery on the southeast side of the peninsula. That burial ground was later moved in 1839, and by 1895, over 200 remains were disinterred from the Post cemetery and buried in various cemeteries around Baltimore. There is no known record of John Clemm’s ultimate resting place, he could well be standing watch at Fort McHenry, as many claim to have seen his ghost.

John Clemm married Maria Eichelberger, the daughter of John and Elizabeth, and sister of John’s friend and business partner, Jesse Eichelberger. John’s brother William Clemm, Jr. would marry Maria Poe after the death of his first wife (her cousin); their daughter Virginia would marry her first cousin, Edgar Allan Poe. Maria Eichelberger Clemm is interred in her family vault at Green Mount Cemetery.

After a lengthy, but successful search for a descendant of John Clemm this past Fall, we were fortunate to gain his permission to procure a memorial marker from the Veterans Administration to be placed in our Maryland MIA Memorial Garden at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore. Sgt. Clemm’s marker rests among markers for three other MIA Maryland Veterans and within a short distance of his wife Maria’s resting place.

05/16/2025

From Emmy Award-Winning MAD MEN Creator comes "JOHN WILKES BOOTH: ONE NIGHT ONLY!"

05/10/2025

Did you know?

Once upon a time at 314-320 West Fayette Ave. in Baltimore, MD sat a grand old Opera House, that rarely hosted opera performances. In 1871, John T. Ford, most notably the past owner of the infamous Ford's Theater in Washington, DC, opened a new theater in his hometown of Baltimore, but worried of his former establishment's association with President's Lincoln's assassination in 1865; Ford sold his DC theater to the government in 1866.

Ford decided that by naming it, "Ford's Grand Opera House," he would escape the stigma that was his association with his former DC property. So, on Oct 2, 1871, his new theater opened for business with a performance of William Shakespeare's "As you like it," starring noted Shakespearean actor, James W. Wallack, Jr. Ford's "Opera House" would host many of the industry's greatest names throughout its history, and would soon became known as sort of an audition stage for Broadway bound shows.

In 1946, the theater became the site of recurring protests by civil rights activists protesting discrimination against Black patrons; the theater was finally desegregated in 1952. The last performances would be presented in 1964, with the building sold and torn down for a new parking lot that year.
(Photo Credit: Maryland Center for History and Culture)

11/23/2024

Our Second Annual Wreaths for Veterans at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, MD.

Extending an invitation to all of our friends to join us in honoring our Maryland Veterans over the Christmas Holiday Season!