Carrollite: The Mineral Once Found Only in Carroll County

While Carroll County is part of Maryland and the United States, it is also very different. I’m not just talking about the people, history or culture here. The actual land of Carroll is so different that it has had a mineral named after it. For years after it was first discovered, Carroll County was the only place in the world that Carrollite was known to exist. Then slowly other deposits were discovered on other continents and in other countries. Now there are even a few other places in the United   States where it has been found. Though the place where it was first discovered is buried and forgotten, the name remains not only to mark Carroll County’s place in Maryland, but in the world. Mining in Carroll County Carroll County attracted the attention of prospectors in 1846. They weren’t Read more…

Chambersburg's (Pa.) trolley days

            At the turn of the 20th Century, automobiles were a rarity that few people could afford. If someone needed to get into Chambersburg from one of the nearby communities or get around town, he or she needed to ride a horse or walk.             That changed in 1902 as preliminary work began on planning a trolley route to service Chambersburg, but not one that was pulled by horses. The Chambersburg and Gettysburg Street Railway Company would be independently powered trolleys that would run from Chambersburg to Gettysburg.             The Public Opinion reported that, “Mr. Baumgardner declared it was so cold in December 1902 when surveying was done in the open country for the line that ‘we had to cut the ground with an ax before we could drive an iron pin in.’”             The plan was eventually for the Read more…

Patrick Gass: Explorer, Soldier, Patriot from Franklin County

Patrick Gass was a native son of Franklin County, but the impact of his life stretched far beyond the borders of the county and Commonwealth. “Before he died on April 2nd, 1870 at the age of almost 99 years, great cities had been built and untold wealth found in the land he had helped discover. During the War of 1812 he fought in some of the bloodiest battles of the campaign on the Canadian border, and at the age of 63, after a lifetime spent in the service of his country, he married a girl of 20, whom he survived many years. Born before the Revolution, he lived to see this country grow from the original thirteen colonies to 38 states; he voted at the election of 18 presidents from Washington to Grant who served during his lifetime. Four great Read more…

Thurmont's House of Matches

Note: Since the world’s eyes were focused on Thurmont this past weekend, I figured I’d post a historical story about the town. Jacob Weller was a blacksmith and the grandson of one of the founders of Mechanicstown. He knew how to make tools and he did that well in his shop across the street from his house in Mechanicstown. He was proud of his work, so proud in fact, that you often see his name as “Jacob Weller, B.S.” for Jacob Weller, blacksmith. Jacob was born on January 25, 1775. He was the oldest of nine children born to Jacob and Anna Krall Weller. Jacob married Anna Margaret Weller in 1800. She was the granddaughter of another unrelated Weller family who were also one of the founders of Mechanicstown. They had five children before Anna died in 1816. Jacob remarried Read more…

Coming in June!

I thought I would let everyone have a peek at the cover art for my next book, which should be out just in time for the Heritage Days Festival in Cumberland in June. I think Stephanie E. J. Long did a great job with it. I definitely looks like it is part of the series. This volume is 150 pages and 47 stories from Western Maryland along with 33 black-and-white photos. It contains stories of lost treasure, train wrecks and successful residents. You’ll also find out where Albert Einstein liked to get away in the summer and the story of Allegany County’s lost automobile manufacturing industry. Looking Back II: More True Stories of Mountain Maryland will retail for $14.95.

Looking Back: Samuel Cormany makes a wartime decision

When Samuel Cormany left Franklin County in 1859, his country united. He returned to find it split in two and a decision to make that hundreds of thousands of other men had made and were making. With his family barely started, should he risk his life in a war between the states? Cormany returned to Franklin County in August 1862. Since he had been gone, he had gone to college, married, had a child and lived in Canada. His time away had changed his viewpoint of the world as well as his physical appearance. The first family he stopped in to see on his way home was his half-sister Lydia and her husband Henry Rebok who lived near Mechanicsburg. “Sister Lydia didn’t recognize me, nor did Henry – not knowing anything of our coming, and my being away since early Read more…