Chapter 2 Early Years 1841-1863

Eugene Alonzo Cost Poole was born to John and Anna Rebecca Cost on February 16, 1841 in what would become Poolesville, Maryland. Rebecca was John’s second wife. His first wife, Sarah Dickerson Poole, died in 1836, and he soon married Anna. Poole was the second of four children with Anna, joining three half siblings, Susan Cost Beardsley[1838-1929], Richard Poole [1843-1906] and Mary Catherine Ker[1846-1871].

In 1848, his father was the proprietor of the Washington Hotel in Rockville, Maryland. On October 27, 1849, at the age of 49, John died. Poole was eight years old. After John’s death, his will stated that hiswife and son William were to “continue to carry on under the presentarrangements the Washington Hotel.” From what we can ascertain ,Poole’s mother resided at the hotel until at least 1854. Young Poole’s talent in art was evident at an early age as evidenced from a woodcarving that he did when he was 12 years old and that is still owned by his family. With this innate talent, Poole’s life journey would be focused on his ambition to excel as an artist. His upbringing and early circumstances were modest. Poole most likely attended a one-room school in Poole’s Tract or the surrounding area. Poole’s Tract gained a second room at some point, but remained a simple, relatively small school.

Students learned reading,writing, math, geography, and history.Teachers would call some of the younger children to the front of the classroom for their lesson, while highergrades worked at their seats. Sometimes older students helped teach the younger pupils.By the late 1850s, when he was of secondary school age, Poole attended the Rockville Academy, a school that was chartered by the state of Maryland and authorized to hire teachers in 1809 “to instruct students and scholars in the vernacular and learned languages andsuch sciences and branches of education as they shall think proper.”Student tuition was $10 a year, and for an extra $30, the students could board with local families or teachers.

At the time he was attending school, Rockville would have had a population of around 400 people. He would have attended classes in the second academy building, which was completed in 1813. The structure was designed in the Federal style of architecture and presented as a handsome red brick building on a grassy knoll. The Academy faced Jefferson Street and was five bays wide with interior chimneys at either end. The building contained only classrooms and possessed an annual enrollment of 30 to 60 young men. Rockville Academy was one of only two suchschools in Montgomery County. Enrollment varied from thirty to eighty students, all of whom received a classical education studying subjects such as Latin, mathematics, English grammar, and geography.

The Academy would prove to be formative for many young men such as Poole. At the time, however, the nation was veering towards Civil War and individuals and families throughout the country would be impacted by this cataclysm. In April of 1861, the “irrepressible conflict” became a reality with the firing on Ft. Sumter in Charleston harbor.Maryland was a border state between the Union and the Confederacy. While it was a slave-owning state, Maryland did not secede from the Union. Instead, its loyalties were split, with most ofthe population living north and west of Baltimore loyal to the Union, and with most citizens living on larger farms in the southern and eastern areas of the state being sympathetic to the Confederacy.

His family was most likely sympathetic to the Southern side, as was Poole himself, as evidenced by an 1866 entry in his diary. By mid-1861,Union troops moved into his hometown of Poolesville with nearly12,000 men camped in town.Later in 1861, Maryland was firmly in Union hands. Once he graduated from the Academy, Poole was of prime ageto volunteer for military service—North or South. Eventually, Poole would have also been eligible to be drafted. When the Civil War began, neither the Union nor the Confederacy relied on conscription to fill the ranks.

As the war dragged on through 1861 and into 1862, however, both the Union and the Confederacy enacted conscription laws. Living in Maryland—a border state, but still a part of theUnion—Poole would most likely have been eligible for the Union draft. The Confederate conscription law would not have applied in the state.

After the U.S. Congress passed the first draft law in March of1863, all able-bodied men between the ages of 20 and 45 were requiredto be enrolled and available for military service. Draftees werechosen by lottery. Once conscripted, a man could avoid service forthat particular round of the draft either by paying a $300 commutationfee or by hiring a substitute to take his place. His family may havepaid for a substitute to avoid service. Nor did being chosen necessarily mean that the draftees would report; it has been estimated that nearly 160,000 Northerners chose not to report, even after their names were called. We have no record (or indication from private letters) that Poole’s name was drawn. If he was chosen, he mighthave decided not to report, or his family may have paid for a substituteto avoid service. In any case, instead of serving, in 1863, Poole went to Philadelphia to attend art school. The next phase of his artistic education was about to begin.