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Brunswick People

Virginia Chew Longbrake Cramer Of Brunswick, Maryland 1914-2006

(Details learned from census records, obituaries, and cemetery markers)

Virginia Chew was born on 14 Nov. 1914, the third child of Joseph E. Chew (1881-1959) and his wife Daisy M. Her younger siblings were Elsie (or Ethel or Edith W.) Chew (b. 1902) and Baughman Chew (b. 1905).

Sometime before Virginia was 5 years old, her parents divorced. Her father, a Brunswick policeman, moved into a boarding house in town. Her mother remarried (Harry F. Longbrake, 1880-1948), and the three children lived with them on Petersville Road.

Daisy and Harry had two more children: James F., Longbrake (b. 1920), and Sarah J. (b. 1924). In 1930, Baughman, now married (to Anna L., the same age as Baughman – 25) was still living with the family.

Virginia graduated from Brunswick High School. In 1933, at 18 years of age, she kept a diary for approximately 12 months. [This diary showed up in 2018 at a flea market in West Virginia, and was purchased by Edgar Peden, who donated it to the Brunswick History Commission.] In this diary, she talks about her friends, places she visited, and other day-to-day activities.

Virginia’s father, Joseph Chew, had become Brunswick’s Chief of Police, which position he held for 20 years. By 1940, he had remarried (Pearl E. Henderson, 1888-1946) and was now working as a policeman at the U.S. Senate Building in Washington, D.C., where he was employed for 35 years. His son Baughman was living next door to him in Brunswick on Petersville Road. Virginia, now 26 years old, was still living with the Longbrakes further out on Petersville Road in Petersville, and working as a retail clerk.

In 1941, at the age of 27, Virginia started a 40-year career with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Around that time, she married William Franklin Cramer (1906-1959), a life insurance agent living in Walkersville. He had previously been married to Catherine P. Geisbert (1908-1959), with whom he had two children: William Cramer (1932-2013) and James Cramer (1937-2012). [Jim would later become the owner of Blue Ridge Floors in Jefferson, MD.] There is no evidence that William and Virginia had any children of their own.

Her step-father Harry Longbrake died in 1948, and was buried in Fairview Lutheran Cemetery, Bolivar, WV.

(cont’d) William died in 1959, leaving her a widow for the next 47 years. Her father Joseph Chew, who was living with them in Petersville, died that same year. He was employed at the Montevue Home in Frederick at the time.

Her mother Daisy Longbrake died in 1973, and was buried beside her husband (see above).

In 1981, at the age of 67, Virginia retired from the Corps of Engineers and was able to enjoy the next 25 years in retirement, living in her home in Petersville. She died on 11 March 2006 at the age of 91, and is buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Frederick, MD. Her husband is also buried in that cemetery (as is William’s first wife Catherine).

Research done by: Wayne Allgaier