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What's Happening MoCo?
An authentic, unscripted update from County Cable Montgomery highlighting items that help residents of Montgomery County. This program features interviews with elected officials, employees, public servants, and residents. This program is produced by the Office of Community Engagement from the Department of Technology and Enterprise Business Services. Interviews are recorded live and presented with very few edits to ensure the integrity and authenticity of the conversations.
What's Happening MoCo?
What's Happening with MoCo's Hidden History with Brian G. Myers
Curious about the hidden tales of Montgomery County, Maryland? Brian G. Myers, a dedicated young historian and author, joins us to unravel the fascinating stories tucked away in local archives. At just 24, Brian's passion for genealogy has led him to compile an extensive family tree and an impressive genealogy project.
Discover Brian's path to authorship, starting with a winter break project that blossomed into a published book. As the pandemic reshaped our world, it also sparked Brian's ambition to write a second book, set to release in February 2025, filled with extraordinary tales from Montgomery County's past. He teases one of the riveting stories about Vernon, or "Villa Thompson," promising to keep readers on the edge of their seats.
His upcoming book, "Hidden History of Montgomery County, Maryland," scheduled for February 4th release, breaks away from traditional historical narratives. By incorporating elements of local sports, pop culture, and modern events, the book becomes an intriguing tapestry that invites readers to uncover Montgomery County's secrets.
Good day and welcome to what's Happening MoCo, an authentic unscripted podcast from your Montgomery County government. Now here's your host, derek Kenney.
Speaker 2:Good day and welcome to what's Happening MoCo. Today we have a special treat we are shining the resident spotlight on Brian G Myers. He's an author who has a book about the history of Montgomery County, maryland About 30 or so of the most interesting, shocking, wild stories associated with our very own MoCo. Brian, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me, derek, thank you for being here, and as soon as I saw you which you're going to find, guys, when you talk about history, a lot of times you associate history with older people. I'm not saying that that's something relegated to people that are more senior, but you don't always associate it with someone. Brian's age. Brian, how old are you and tell us a little bit about.
Speaker 3:I'm 24 years old. I was born in 2000.
Speaker 2:Whoa.
Speaker 3:Whoa, all right. Yeah, so I've always had a love of history. I mean, it started when I was about six years old. I was visiting my grandparents' house and I noticed the family history book, a big old genealogy I love to read. So I picked it up off the shelf, started reading it and, uh, I think it might have been a little bit um. I, I have adhd, so I've heard that's correlates a little bit with a love of names and dates, and if you have looked at a genealogy before, it's chock full of them. It's nothing but names and dates in there. Oh, great, um. So yeah, I just started looking and, uh, I also found a love of history through that. And I just kept looking and looking and looking. And you know, I've been working at my own family history for about 13 years now. But yeah, here I am age 24, I guess.
Speaker 2:Now, when you say working at it, I read the press release. Are you understating things a bit? Did you document things as you were working on it?
Speaker 3:What is the results of your labor? Looking at the genealogy, um, so I mean, I've I've worked on my uh, I've worked on my mom's side and I've worked on my dad's side. Um, I have a working family tree of over 25 000 people okay um. So that's something that I've been working on, um. I've also um been working on the side on a genealogy that I've that that I really need to get back into formatting, because I've been working on it since I was 13. So there's a little bit of 13-year-old formatting in there.
Speaker 2:I can imagine when you're 13, it's more like you're writing things on construction papers. Right, right, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a lot more journalism and business writing classes since then.
Speaker 3:Okay, all right, yeah, yeah, but I'm putting that together. I think that's up to over 100 pages now and that's not out for publication or anything. That's mainly for personal use and just for history in the future, because I work with a lot of people across the country who are distantly related to me and they reach out, I reach out and we work together, saying, okay, you know, uh, how are we related here? Um, are we sure on these facts? Um, do you have any photos that um of my relatives that I might be able to share with some of my relatives? Um, you know, that's how I, that's how I get family images that you know a lot of my family members have never seen before, right? Um, I'll go out and talk to people online and sometimes I'll have pictures of my, like, great-great-grandparents that nobody in my family who's currently alive has ever seen. Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:And then they ask me like where did you get that from? It was like oh, like my third cousin, you know, three times removed, who lives out in Saskatchewan.
Speaker 2:Where did you start your process? Lives out in Saskatchewan. Where did you start your process? You started, I guess. What type of resources did you use? You mentioned in-person interviews and phone calls. What other resources did you use as you tried to build your genealogy? Just kind of tips for others that might be searching or finding ways to build their own family trees.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure. So I think what held me back when me back, you know, when I was starting out is one you know I was 11.
Speaker 3:So my frontal lobe isn't fully developed to you know, have have all those ideas right out in front of me. But one thing that's really cool is, as I got older, you know you start getting more ideas and you start realizing more. You know there are way more resources out there, not just on the Internet, you know. Go in person, person, go to those archives, don't be afraid to. You know, come up to a stranger and say, hey, I'm looking for such and such a record, and, um, you know, go on a little tour with them, because in a lot of the cases, um, they've been really, really helpful to me. Um, you know, if I ask like, oh, you know one more thing, I I was also looking for this, they'll be like yeah sure, it's my job, I'll come and help you look for it we have it in this file back here.
Speaker 3:Um yeah, maryland state archives, for instance, that's one of my um that's one of my best in-person resources.
Speaker 3:If you're looking at genealogy in maryland um montgomery county historical society, uh, which is referenced in that book a lot um yeah, jane, sweene library, um, that's where I found a lot of really cool and really important to my family history like baptismal records, death records, marriage records. Yeah, I mean, I found my great-great-grandma's birth record in there and for a while I mean until I started looking and that's something I addressed in the preface to my my, my parents are both from the Baltimore era we had no idea that we had any connection to the Montgomery County area because, we, we thought we were just coming into it.
Speaker 3:We weren't. We didn't think we were, you know, circling back around to it. So yeah, I mean it's, it's, it's a really cool experience. You know, it's a really full, it's a really cool experience.
Speaker 2:You know it's a really full, really cool, full circle experience, all right. And also, you just graduated from University of Maryland. Congratulations on that. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:And what was your major at University of Maryland?
Speaker 3:Um, so I ended up with, uh, information systems and marketing. Um, I started out in journalism. I decided to switch over into business just because I wanted a broader spectrum of things to do. Personally, I didn't feel like I had as much voice as if I went into journalism, went into a conventional journalism job. After I did business, I graduated from University of Maryland. Then I got a job as a business technology consultant Wow. And in the interim between actually starting that job and between graduating from college, I graduated from college in May of 2023. And I started my job in October of 2023. Gave me five months to do nothing if I wanted to, but I get really antsy when I don't have anything to do. So that's why I reached out to my publisher and said, hey, I got a little idea here and here it is.
Speaker 2:So you say you're a publisher. In this day and age, there's a lot of people that have written books and many people are self-published, but how did you go about getting a book published with a publisher? And also tell us also about the first book you wrote, because this is not the. This is your second book, so you have two books, right? Yes, so I guess there's a lot you can share right now. What was the topic of your first book? Uh, what inspired you to write it? And then what was the process like, um, finding a publisher to get it out?
Speaker 3:sure, um. So for the first book, um, that was also a. Uh, that was also a sim, that was also. That also resulted from me being antsy and me wanting to go out and do something right. Um, university of maryland is notorious for having a very, very long winter break which is awesome, don't get me wrong I love having a long winter break.
Speaker 3:I like, I like when it breaks um, but, um, you know, after a while I get a little antsy and I'm like, okay, I need to go out and do something. Um, so I went on a freelance website called upworkcom and.
Speaker 3:I was just looking around seeing whatever popped at me and there was a notification for um, a job offering uh, write 50 facts about your uh hometown for a book series that we're doing. And I said you know what, why don't I just do that? Because it sounded really fun, it sounded really interesting, so I reached out and did a submission for that and publisher got back to me and she said wow, I really like that idea. So I ran with it, worked on that from December and then came out in April of 2020, december 2019 to April 2020. Yeah, and I mean, looking back, that was a crazy year. That was a COVID year.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I mean it's crazy to think about. You know, I started my book, I started that first book before COVID started and you know, now, coming back to it, I feel like I've been through so much life experience and um well, okay, and.
Speaker 1:I'm 24, you know, I'm 24.
Speaker 3:I don't want to sound too pretentious, but, um, but yeah, I mean. I mean, during that time I went through a lot of life experience and self-reflection relatively, and, um, a lot more writing classes, a lot more done virtually than in person. Oh wow, and I came back and I felt a lot more confident and I said you know what I'm going to submit for a second project, and so that's where this came out of.
Speaker 2:All right, all right, so let's talk about this. This is what really brought me into this. I love the way it's described. This is what really brought me into this. I love the way it's described. Wild, shocking as well as interesting stories from Montgomery County, maryland Over 30 chapters in this book. It's a paperback and it's going to be available when.
Speaker 3:February 4th 2025.
Speaker 2:So by the time this podcast is out, people will be able to go to the stores and find this book or look online, buy the book and benefit one of their very own people that's been spotlighted on the what's happening moco podcast. Brian all right, brian g myers. What does the g stand for?
Speaker 3:uh, gregory, shout out my dad, gregory myers, there you go, all right, all right I knew there was a.
Speaker 2:There's a g in there and it's included in the name. It has significance, all right. Yeah, brian g myers all right yeah let's let's talk about some of the stories. Okay, so you've, we've, learned about your history and in your short history um, relatively short compared to someone that's older like me. Yes, relatively short, but you have over, I guess, a decade worth of research, analytical and writing skills and experience. So how did that contribute to this book? And then let's talk about some of the cool stories that you have in the book.
Speaker 3:Sure. So I talked a little bit about the beginning of this process going into writing this book, and it does stem back to my genealogical background. So another resource that I use for genealogical research is going through local newspapers. So that includes, you know, the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, montgomery County Sentinel and the Frederick News Post. So I went through a lot of those newspapers and as I was looking for other relatives I kept seeing accompanying articles about all these wild stories you know, like people's wedding dresses being set on fire you know, back in the 1910s.
Speaker 3:People running away and getting married, not, you know, telling their parents. I just thought to myself I'm like this seems, I'm picturing it in my head as a movie and I'd love to write something about this, you know, from a 21st century perspective, from a 21st century perspective. So I reached out to my publisher initially and said, hey, I'd love to do something on Western Maryland newspapers and spotlight some of these really interesting articles that I found and that didn't really fit the scope of what series that they have right now. But they said, well, do you want to limit it to one county and do you want to write a broader range of stories? So I said, well, why not do Montgomery County? That's where I lived for, you know, 22, 23 years. So here we are.
Speaker 2:Here we are. All right, let's share the first story. Give us one of the stories that you might describe as shocking. What's a shocking story that someone might find in your book?
Speaker 3:A shocking story, so, excuse me, let me grab my throat. So a shocking story that I might share is well.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much.
Speaker 3:It's already worn down a little bit.
Speaker 2:I have my fingerprints all over I was ready to start reading it. I was waiting for the autograph and take it home and reading, so I can, I can share my knowledge of the county, some things everyone doesn't know about the county.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course you're getting a preview right, that's right that's right. Yes, yeah, so, um, a shocking story, um, I mean, the first one that comes to mind is my longest chapter, which is on vernon. He is a character they called him Via Thompson, after Pancho Via, who was a renowned I think it was a Mexican militant. I have to look back, I have to study. I'm like this book is going to be news to me too.
Speaker 2:You did the research, you wrote it, but you didn't memorize every detail.
Speaker 3:It's like studying for a test and then, as soon as you take the test, everything goes out. No worries, no, worries, no. But I say that to mean that he was very quick draw. This is a man who lived in Germantown. He lived from 1880 to 1921. He lived in Germantown. He was very known for being a quick draw guy, very quick to violence.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, and quick draw is almost like a cowboy, I guess. Quick draw like literally with a gun, I mean that's sometimes yeah.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow, okay I mean that's that's why they, that's why they called him Villa Um. And there's a story in, there's a story in that chapter, um, about how, um, some people, some people think that, um, you know, he served in the Spanish American war and some people think that, um, because of an illness he sustained during that time, it kind of messed with his mental state a bit and that's maybe why he was the way he was. But, to put it into perspective, he wanted to marry a woman. The woman's family didn't approve and so he threw.
Speaker 2:I believe a rock through a window at her uncle. Luckily he didn't die. He didn't die, yeah, but he hit him. He hit him.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow, okay, yeah he hit him through the window.
Speaker 2:That's a way to respond to that, I guess.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah yeah. We do not recommend violence. We here at the Montgomery County Council do not endorse Brock violence.
Speaker 2:That's right, there you go. There you go, all right, all right, all right. So we've learned about this hyper-violent man who may or may not have mental illness, um, and had some interesting stories about his response to his environment and things that happened to him. Correct? Wow, uh, give us a one, uh, one of your other most, give us an interesting story, one of your interesting stories, interesting story um, well, there is the um.
Speaker 3:There's an interview that I did with Joe Aconfora. He used to be a teacher back in the early 1970s in the Montgomery County Public Schools. He worked at Parkland Junior High School, which is now Parkland Middle School. But back in the early 1970s he got a job as a teacher. But the Montgomery County School Board found out that he, um, he had previously had some involvement um with, uh, the gay rights movement while he was a student at Penn state. And so I think about a month into um his tenure as a teacher, um, they said, okay, you know, they they're like all right, well, you know, we're letting you go from this position, um.
Speaker 3:So the chapter basically goes into, um, how he fought that decision, um, what the result of that was, um, and what he's up to now and how he feels about the county now, um, and I think it was really eye opening to me because, um, you know, I think Montgomery County is, you know, I think Montgomery County is, you know, a very progressive area. But I think it was eye-opening to me to say, you know, wow, this was only 50-some years ago and, you know, even looking today, we've still got a ways to go, you know, with making everybody feel like they belong here, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think in some ways, we may have taken a step back in the last week or so when it comes to ensuring that everyone feels like they're making everybody feel like they belong here. And also, as a quick self-plug, our last podcast episode was focused on the LGBTQIA plus two two plus community. So good information there in the last podcast episode. But it's disheartening to see that just 50 years ago, somebody was denied a job that they were qualified for simply because they were different in some way than others, and that's terrible, but it is interesting. It's interesting to see a glimpse at what people were dealing with in Montgomery County just 50 years ago and, as you mentioned earlier, we are one of the most progressive counties in the country, but just 50 years ago we weren't. So wow, it's good that you share that story. It is interesting.
Speaker 3:Right, right, and it's a debate that's still going on today. You know it's not set in stone, which is the really interesting thing.
Speaker 2:Indeed, indeed. What are some of the other stories you have to share? Indeed, indeed. What are some of the other stories you have to share? I just love stories. I love stories about MoCo, and then also it's great to learn more about the county that we all love, especially in a historical sense, and then, of course, having people that listen to the podcast can share. Hey, did you hear about this? You know, you probably didn't know about the hidden stories in Montgomery County, because people may not have known about the angry guy or this teacher that was mistreated.
Speaker 2:What are some of the other stories that people may not be aware of?
Speaker 3:Right. So I mean, you brought up the adjective hidden, which of course you know hidden. History of.
Speaker 1:Montgomery.
Speaker 3:County. I think one of the stories that best serves that title is Woodstock, which is a property located um if you keep going down route 28 um the woodstock uh, no, okay, okay, no not 1969 woodstock, but um that sounds.
Speaker 3:I mean it would be a great chapter, but it'll be an incredible chapter, yeah, a lot of scope, but, um, yeah, so if you go all the way down uh 28 toward dickerson, um, there is a little. There's a little marker that, um, that marks where woodstock is and woodstock is the property where um george washington had one of his tenant farms okay um in maryland, and so the last tenant house um in montgomery county is over there.
Speaker 3:Um so it is still being lived in by the boblitt family um megan boblitt in particular. Um they're wonderful family, very gracious um so they they allowed me to, uh, they gave me a tour around their house. Um, it's a very historic house. It was built in um pre-1800. It dates back to pre-1800.
Speaker 2:Whoa, and it's still standing.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's still standing.
Speaker 3:It's definitely been through some hardships. She talks about in the book how when she went in there it was I mean, I'll let you read the book but it was in a rough shape and she really put in the work and the man hours to put all that back together. And now if you look at it, she calls it a Franken-house, because, yeah, so there's one part of it that was built or dates back to pre-1800. And they can tell because of some of the architectural features, um, and then there's another part of it, um, of the house that was built in 1899. Um, and you can tell because there is a little etching, um in pencil, um, in one of, I think, under the stairs. If I remember correctly, um, under the stairs it says WT Hilton, 1899.99. So that was the builder for the house and he actually, if y'all are familiar with Hilton Funeral Home, william T Hilton, is also the one who founded Hilton Funeral Home up in Barnesville.
Speaker 3:He was also the builder of that house.
Speaker 2:So he had a funeral home, and he also built homes as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and homes that last apparently, yeah that last what?
Speaker 2:over 100 years?
Speaker 3:I guess 140 I guess a little off here, but yeah, that's a long time we have some homes that don't last 30, 40 years.
Speaker 2:It's incredible. Um, now, now what? What do you? Uh, what's your pitch? Do you have a pitch yet for your book? When someone says why should I buy your book?
Speaker 3:um, well, I mean, I I like to say somebody asked me that question the other day and I said you know, I wrote a history book that I would like to read. You know? Because I mean it wasn't that long ago, I was in school and I was reading history books and I would read through some passions and be like this is just really boring. I feel like they're talking at me and not with me. They're not really catering to what I want to hear. And what I want to hear is I put in some different topics in there. I talk about different sports in the county. I talk about some more modern topics too, because we're not just the 1700s and the 1800s of history, we're the 1900s and even the 2000s of history, so I also have some pop culture in there.
Speaker 3:There is a chapter in there where I interviewed the director one of the directors of the blair project. Oh, wow, okay well let's stop right there.
Speaker 2:Fantastic movie, uh, one of the movies that I like. I like horror movies, so okay, and it was quite shocking is when I first saw it it was. I was amazed at how scary the movie was without a big uh special effects budget.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah to say the least without huge and obviously not without a huge um production budget, but it was done so well that right, it really brought you into it. It was a fast watch and at the very end I mean I won't talk about it, but just okay. So just remind people what that is the Blair Witch Project, um, and then what kind of what year that came out, and then let's talk more about your conversation with the director sure, sure so um the Blair Witch Project.
Speaker 3:If you haven't heard of it um, it is a movie set in maryland um, and it centers around um the story um of three campers and uh three campers slash uh videographers and so they're going into uh the blair woods in maryland to uh film a documentary um about the blair witch, who is rumored to lurk there and has caused these strange occurrences, and um you know it's a horror movie, so you can guess what happens from there um, right, yeah, how about that?
Speaker 2:there's some horrific stuff. Yes, yeah, it's in the name.
Speaker 3:There you go, yeah yeah, yeah, but um, I mean the significance of of that movie is it was one of the first significant, widespread found footage films that was ever distributed. So if you're familiar with the Rack movies or Paranormal Activity, that was one of the precursors to it. It came out in 1999. And the way that they did the marketing for it I mean I go into more detail in the book in my interview with the co-director but the way that they did the marketing for it was genius, because a lot of people when they came out of the movie they said like we don't even know if this was real or not, like this could have been real they didn't go in to watch a horror movie.
Speaker 3:They thought, well, maybe this is a documentary, we just don't know. Yeah, yeah. So I got to interview the director and, fun fact, the director is actually from Tacoma Park, maryland.
Speaker 2:All right, actually grew up. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Actually grew up right around here, you know, talks to me about going to the wheaton mall and, uh, playing at the arcades when he was a little kid um right and some of the shows and movies that he watched when he was growing up and uh how that contributed to um, the ultimate project that he put together, um, in the late 1990s wow, that's amazing, amazing, another, another fruit of MoCo that has gone worldwide. Yes, we should be very proud of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm definitely proud. I really enjoyed seeing the movie and actually I was around. Value when can people buy your?
Speaker 3:book when it comes out.
Speaker 2:And again it comes out, it's available for purchase. February 4th, February 4th yes, it's published conventionally and people can find it where.
Speaker 3:People can find it. Well, we have some local bookstores chiming in saying that they want to purchase some copies. Fantastic, go to your local bookstore um barnes and noble. That is one spot where um arcadia publishing and the history press um shows up a lot um, and then, of course, on amazon, um, you can buy it on there, or you can buy it on arcadia publishing's website, or you can come. Uh, we're we're still scheduling these out, um, but we've had some book events coming up. I have one, I think, on February 12th at 7 pm at Wonderland Books. I don't know when this is coming out, but we'll find out February 12th.
Speaker 3:Wonderland Books Okay, fantastic, and then, may 14th, at 7 pm, we're doing another event with Gaithersburg Community Museum at Saints Row Brewing in Gaithersburg.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, that's great. Now are you going to do a book reading, I guess, as an author, where you'll be reading some chapters of your book?
Speaker 3:I expect to, as well as signing your books as well. I expect to. I mean, I haven't done a book read, I haven't done a book event before, but I expect to Well.
Speaker 2:congratulations.
Speaker 1:We're so proud to resident spotlight on you.
Speaker 2:Brian G Myers who has the book Hidden Gems Hidden History of Montgomery County, Maryland. We had a County of Montgomery show called Hidden Gems. But oh, hidden History of Montgomery County, maryland, stories that you may or probably don't know about Montgomery County, Maryland. Read this book, support our local author, local businessman. We sent Maryland University grad and that's what's happening, moco, uh, you've gotten some hidden history from montgomery, county maryland today. Be sure to like, subscribe and share. And, brian, if people want to connect with you, how do they do that?
Speaker 3:um well, first of all, thank you so much, derek um and uh. Second of all, we I just put up a facebook page, so so Hidden History, montgomery County, maryland, and you can just connect with me on Instagram or buy the book as well. Follow your local bookstores as well, like the ones I mentioned Wonderland Books, gaithersburg Community Museum. Keep up to date, because I'm working with all these people right now and we're going to get the show on the road.
Speaker 2:That's wonderful, wonderful and at the end of each show we often ask people to ask the question of you, ask a question where we respond to you. And Brian asked the question hey, why don't you talk about my book on your podcast? And I thought, why not? It sounds great and and it really delivered great stories, great content, a great young man that has done a wonderful work, not only for his family with the genealogy, but with a gate, this work, maryland documenting something in his first book and with all of Montgomery County with the hidden history on his new book. So thank you again for being here today and I thank you all, montgomery County, for listening to the podcast and subscribing, and thank you.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to what's Happening, moco. Please subscribe via your favorite podcasting platform and follow us on Facebook. This podcast is brought to you by County Cable Montgomery, your source for news and information from the Montgomery County Government. Connect with us via cable, facebook, instagram or YouTube by searching for County Cable MoCo.