By Ally Lanasa, Staff Writer

PHOTO COURTESY DIGITAL MARYLAND
Emily Ann Powell Warrington, who grew up in Berlin during the 19th century, offers a female perspective about the Civil War in her annotated diary that is housed at the Berlin Library on Harrison Avenue and is accessible for free online.

(Sept. 3, 2020) The Berlin branch of the Worcester County Public Library is hosting an introduction to Emily Ann Powell Warrington’s annotated diary via Facebook on Friday at 2 p.m.

The diary features handwritten pages in three separate volumes containing newspaper and magazine clippings, letters and photographs that capture Warrington’s early life and the culture of her hometown, Berlin, from the 1840s to 1878.

“At a time when historical documentation was written by white men, having a view of the area and the time from a woman’s perspective is phenomenal,” said Alice Paterra, the Berlin branch manager.

Rather than daily entries, Warrington wrote about important events in her life and offers a female point of view of life before and during the Civil War. She recounts participating in days of fasting and prayer to end the “National Crisis.”

She also includes details about now-historical landmarks, such as the Merry Sherwood Plantation in Worcester County, which she visited in the spring of 1860 when it was being built by Henry Johnson and Lizzie Henry.

With annotations added later, such as the birth and death dates of relatives and friends,  the diary covers 100 years of history.

“On July 20, 2012, the Berlin Library received a phone call from Marta Jones of the St. Petersburg Florida Museum of History,” Paterra said. “Someone had donated some old artifacts to the museum, and in the box was an old daybook or ledger. After looking at the book, [Jones] was able to connect the author, Emily Powell Warrington, with Berlin, Maryland, and looked us up.”

Kim Brown, then-assistant manager at the Berlin Library, accepted the donation.

Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage Center, now Digital Maryland, located at the State Library Resource Center at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, offered in 2013 to digitize the diary for free so it could be used as a resource.

As written in her diary, Warrington’s parents, Littleton Powell and Elizabeth Jarvis, were married on Oct. 28, 1828.

Born on March 3, 1842, she was the sixth of their seven children.

Warrington grew up in the Powell house in Berlin, which was built in 1830.

“From a quick glance at census records, I can see that Emily and her family lived here in Berlin for several generations,” Paterra said.

According to the diary, Warrington married William Warrington Sr. on Jan. 29, 1862.

During the 1860s, she opened a school in Berlin to help her husband pay off debts.

Her husband was the manager of the Atlantic Hotel in Ocean City and also ran the Colonial Hotel. In addition, he owned and managed the Atlantic Casino with his two sons.

He died on Sept. 8, 1897 of ‘paralysis of the heart’ brought on by a slight sunstroke. His funeral was held at the Presbyterian chapel in Ocean City, and he was buried in Buckingham Cemetery in Berlin.

Warrington and her husband had four children, Albert P. Warrington, William Warrington Jr. and Mary (or May) Warrington Burwell and Virgalyn (or Virgie) Warrington.

Her diary is owned by the Berlin Library and digitized on DigitalMaryland.org.

For more information about the library event, visit www.facebook.com/worcestercountymarylandlibrary.