Allegany County partied like it was 1789
In 1789, Washington County gave birth to Allegany County. It had some settlements in it at the time, but by and large, the area that would become Allegany County was a frontier. The preamble of the act from the Maryland General Assembly that created Allegany County read: “Whereas, A number of the inhabitants of Washington county, by their petition to the General Assembly, have prayed that an act may pass for a division of said county by Sideling Hill Creek, and for erecting a new one out of the Western part thereof; and it appearing to this General Assembly that the erecting such a new county will conduce greatly to the due administration of justice, and the speedy settling and improving the western part thereof, and the ease and convenience of the inhabitants thereof…” It didn’t stay a frontier, though. Read more…
1931: Bootlegger vs. a revenue agent in Oldtown
The two revenue agents for the federal government crept into the woods around Oldtown on November 15, 1931. William R. Harvey was the senior agent so he led the raid. They were after three bootleggers who they had been watching lately. While making illegal liquor during Prohibition was a problem in Western Maryland due to its abundance of forests and lack of population, it usually wasn’t a fatal one like it could be in the larger cities. For the most part, it was a game of hide and seek between the bootleggers who would try and hide their stills and federal agents who would try and find them. If a bootlegger was caught, he would serve a few months in prison and then start all over again when he got out. Two of the bootleggers had been arrested previously for Read more…
Brotherhood of the Jungle Cock (and, no, this isn't porn…it's history!)
On May 23, 1953, about 350 boys and probably just as many adults gathered on the banks of Hunting Creek where the Thurmont (Md.) Town Office now sits. The boys were at the end of a three-day campout where they were taught how to fly fish. The adults included men like U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Douglas; U.S. Senators J. Glenn Beall, John M. Butler and A. Willis Roberterson; Congressman DeWitt S. Hyde and former Maryland Governor Preston Lane. They were there to dedicate a memorial to deceased members of the Brotherhood of the Jungle Cock. While the name of the group sounds like the title to a bad porn movie, Ken Crawford, president of the Jungle Cocks at the time said in the Frederick Post, “Our only aim is to teach youngsters the art of fishing. … We Read more…
White House wallpaper came from house waiting to be demolished
The White House staff darted back and forth, even busier than usual on September 20, 1961. A State dinner was to be held for Peruvian President Manuel Prado, but the Diplomatic Reception Room, the first room that President Prado and the other guests would see was filled with workmen, paint cans and drop cloths. The staff was used to preparing dinners and receptions for President John F. Kennedy and his wife, but they weren’t used to having to make the preparations while weaving in between workmen who were redecorating one of the rooms they needed to prepare. Peter Guertler of New York was in charge of redecorating the Diplomatic Reception Room with antique wallpaper acquired from the Stoner House in Thurmont. “We just sneaked out as the guests arrived,” Guertler told the Associated Press at the time. “Sitting on empty Read more…
Thurmont’s “Cat Lady” lived in an old bus
Mae Carbaugh lived the quiet life of a hermit. She rarely left her home along Route 550 close to the Western Maryland Railway tracks near Thurmont. Yet, in the months before she died in 1974, her life was national news. Carbaugh wasn’t a native of Frederick County. She was born on a farm in Delaware in 1896. Deciding that the farming life wasn’t for her, Carbaugh left home at age 16. She wound up working as a hotel restaurant waitress in Emmitsburg until the hotel closed. She married Charles Carbaugh and the couple had a daughter. Charles was an alcoholic and didn’t work much so when he died in 1953, he left his wife with nothing. Mae found work as a housekeeper for an elderly bachelor, though. “When the old bachelor died, she continued, she had no place to live. Read more…
C&O Canal murder mystery has surprising solution
One of the oft-told stories of the C&O Canal is that of Lockkeeper Joe Davis. “Lock tender Joe Davis and his wife were murdered here by shooting in 1934,” Thomas Hahn wrote in his Towpath Guide. He expanded on the story in The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Lock-Houses & Lock-Keepers writing that Davis took care of Lock 61 in the last decades of the canal’s operation. Hahn wrote that the bodies of Davis and his wife were burned after the murder to try and cover up the murder. George “Hooper” Wolfe told a similar story in I Drove Mules on the C and O Canal. He did not name the lockkeeper and made no mention of his wife. He also wrote that the lockkeeper was murdered to steal his rare coin collection and that the murderer was later caught in Read more…
Carroll County, Md.,'s Hidden History
During its 174 years, Carroll County has been the scene of war, growth, disaster, betrayal and more. Much of its history has faded into obscurity, but some pieces remain, just waiting to be rediscovered. Here are a few: Railroad Ties The Western Maryland Railway Historical Society works to preserve the records and artifacts of the WMRR, which began as the Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick Railway in 1852. In the Union Bridge building that had for many years served as the main offices for the Western Maryland Railway, you can tour a free museum maintained by the society. On view are bells, lanterns, pictures, model train layouts and more. “The scale-model layout we have represents the Western Maryland route from Union Bridge to the high bridges just west of Thurmont,” said Society President Dennis Wertz. The second floor of the building Read more…
1949: Tracking the Underground Pony Express
Herds of ponies once roamed Maryland, though they were rarely seen my most people. They were mining ponies whose job it was to haul the coal from Maryland’s coal mines. In one instance, Ray O’Rourke wrote for the Baltimore Sunday Sun Magazine, “Twenty-odd ponies that haul coal from under some 2,000 acres of Maryland territory are never seen in this State, and never breathe the air over it.” These ponies hauled coal for the Stanley Coal Company in Crellin, Maryland. Though the mine was under Maryland, the entrance was in nearby West Virginia. Miners had to walk from Crellin across the state line and then backtrack once they were in the mine. The mine’s location also created some political headaches with Maryland and West Virginia governments fighting for the tax revenue from the mine. Eventually a compromise was reached where Read more…
Embarrassed wife has doctor killed in 1851
It’s been said that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Such fury cost Oakland, Md., its first doctor. When Dr. John Conn stepped off the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad train in 1851, he was a pioneer. Oakland hadn’t yet been incorporated as a town and the region was still frontier for Maryland. The town only had a few hundred citizens and they needed a doctor. The next-closest doctor was Dr. John H. Patterson in Grantsville, Md. To get there and back to Oakland would have taken a full day. Conn set up his office at Second and Oak streets where it quickly flourished. “In the days before the convenience of a well-stocked pharmacy, it was said that the ‘young doctor’ either had on hand the correct medication, or could prescribe a suitable home remedy Read more…
"Looking Back" newspaper column now in 4 newspapers
I’ve posted many of my history articles to this blog. Many of them come from my newspaper column, “Looking Back.” Beginning in the middle of next month, I’ll be adding the Gettysburg Times to the newspapers to the ones that run my column. It will be the fourth newspaper that runs my column. The others are: The Cumberland Times-News in Maryland, the Chambersburg Public Opinion in Pennsylvania and the Catoctin Banner in Maryland. Though “Looking Back” is a column in multiple newspapers, it isn’t syndicated. It is unique to the newspaper in which it runs. I get to dig through old newspapers and find forgotten or little-known stories in Maryland and Pennsylvania. I find them interesting whether they are simple slice-of-life or a murder mystery. So pretty soon you’ll be able read about some of the interesting goings-on in Adams Read more…
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