MARKING
Little Hesikell 1769 @ Bottom of Feet)
Hagerstown MD (@ Bottom of Base)

History :
The doorstop is a replica of a weathervane named "Little Heiskell". It portrays a German Hessian soldier from the Revolutionary War. The weathervane was made to be mounted atop Hagerstown, MD's first city hall and was in 1769. It was designed & fabricated by a German tinsmith named Benjamin Heiskell. On the doorstop, the soldier has a hole just above his gun in his shoulder (as seen in picture 1) which represents the bullet hole in the original weathervane from a confederate sharpshooter who won a bet by shooting it from a full block away. In 1935, the original weathervane, being a symbol of Hagerstown, was retired to the Museum of the Washington County Historical Society. Later it was moved to its present location in the Jonathan Hager House. An exact replica was mounted atop Hagertown's City Hall building.