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ing/building business.
On April 20, 1861, the day following the riots in Baltimore over the movemnt of troops through the city to the defense of Washington during the opening days of the Civil War, as a show of support for the Union, John Conrad Morsberger raised a United States flag on the front of his home. A mob of Rebel sympathizers (many of whom were in the shooting the previous day) gathered in front of his home and threatened to burn his home and kill him if the offending flag was not removed. John Conrad stood solid in an upstairs window with rifle in hand and shouted that he would shoot anyone who attempted to harm him or his beloved flag. (Remember that he knew he was facing people who the day before were shooting at armed soldiers nearby.)
John Conrad stood his ground and did not back down that entire day. The mob, many of whom knew John Conrad as a friend, and realizing that John Conrad was serious, gradually filtered away. John Conrad never took down the flag and it stayed up until it rotted.
When John Conrad was drafted in July of 1864, he decided that his family could not survive his loss and hired a substitute for $300.
John Conrad continued his building and contracting business after the war, building many houses including some next to Duffy's Bar on Frederick Avenue. His first wife known as Delia was born in 1836 and was six feet tall. She died in childbirth in 1873 after giving John Conrad 13 children.
John Conrad lived on Frederick Avenue and operated his saloon known as "Morsberger's Hall" for the rest of his life. He was continually active in Republican politics and was very involved in William McKinley's first and second Presidential elections. Several of his children lived with him and nearby and probably worked for him in his contracting business as carpenters and painters. An enthusiastic horticulturist, he had 1500 rose bushes of every known variety in his garden. He sent President-elect McKinley at Canton, Ohio a rare red rose that later became known as the McKinley Rose. A letter of acknowledgement was prized as a treasure. John Conrad was six feet tall or over and wore a beard.
John Conrad's tavern/hall was a regular stop for Republican office seekers including Vice-Presidential candidate and friend, Teddy Roosevelt. John Conrad was a Baltimore campaign leader for the McKinley-Roosevelt ticket in 1899. The first presidential inauguration of the twentieth century was also the centenary of the first inauguration held in Washington. John Conrad Morsberger, who had arrived in the United States penniless and speaking only German, but full of dreams, some fifty years earlier, and who was now a successful businessman and political leader with a thriving family, proudly marched in the Honor Guard of the inauguralparade on that cloudy morning of March 4, 1901.