Carroll

Carroll / Frederick — 1 Comment
01
Jul 10

Mt Airy

Welcome to Mt. Airy. I drove through this town on Saturday to pick up meat for a barbeque competition from the local butcher shop in town, Wagners. (the competition was out of state, so sadly we can’t include any pictures) I snapped a few photos and I’ll share them over the next few weeks.

Though people had lived in the area since the prior century, the town really developed in the 1830′s as the B&O came through it and built a station there. It’s the perfect example of how towns would develop throughout the 19th century around new sources of transportation. For this reason, it is significantly intertwined with tomorrow’s post. However, it’s also intertwined with this week’s other mini theme: the battle of Gettysburg.

If you are one of those people who follows the Maryland Civil War Trails signage, you are probably used to stories like that of Mt Airy. During the civil war, troops occupied Mt Airy to largely protect the railroad. Its other piece of Civil War trivia comes from the fact that on June 29th, on his controversial path away from both armies and from the town of Gettysburg, J.E.B. Stuart and his cavalry passed through the town of Mt Airy.

One other fun fact about Mt Airy is that it straddles two counties: Frederick and Carroll.

Carroll — 2 Comments
27
Oct 09

Farm Musuem

As a follow up to last week’s farm picture, here’s a shot of the Carroll County Farm Museum. Unfortunately it was closed when I went, so this is as good as it gets for now, but MDP will be back there soon.

Carroll — 2 Comments
28
Jul 09

Monument

This is a picture from the Westminster Cemetery. The entire area is located on a hill. The hill’s top, which is the center of the cemetry, holds a single tree and this monument / fountain of an unknown nature. I thought it was an interesting focal point.

Carroll — No Comments
27
Apr 09

Welcome to Sykesville

Welcome to Sykesville, a town that is anchored by its train station. Located right along the Patapsco river, in the various parts of the 1800′s, it was your typical Maryland town; with a river, a mill, and a railroad station. The name Sykesville, comes from the man, James Sykes, who bought the property from the Patterson family. Sykes built a hotel and renovated a mill on the Howard county side of the Patapsco, but the railroad station is on the opposite side of the river, in Carroll County.

The confederates, ran through town and destroyed the bridge that linked the two sides of the river. After that point, the town’s growth came on the side of the river with the railroad station.

The station, which since the 1880′s brought Sykesville it’s commerce and served to anchor the community, is now a restaraunt. I haven’t been yet, but I will be there soon.

Baltimore County / Carroll — 3 Comments
16
Apr 09

Maryland 1818

This was a different state in 1818. For one thing, a law was passed REPEALING an earlier law that prevented swine from wandering through Salsibury. Another thing of note: there was no Carroll county. It had not yet been carved out of Baltimore and Frederick counties. So, when the town of Westminster was incorporated by chapter 128 of the acts of 1818, it was incorporated into Frederick county.

Why is this relevant? Well you may remember from Tuesday’s post that there is a good deal of controversy over the date when Westminster was truely incorporated. Someone even went so far as to paint the date 1838 on a wall to further their point. However, there was much doubt in the air. While the town’s charter references the 1838 date, the state archives’ website clearly claims that the town was incorporated in 1818. Fortunately that site offered a reference: The 1818 acts of Maryland, chapter 128. That is what you see before you.

It was not easy to find. After many online sources were exhausted, I had begun to believe that someone was really trying to cover up the 1818 acts. This didn’t totally deter the MDP legal staff. (consiting largely of MDP contributing esquire, Gump who bravely brought me to the one circuit court within close distance that had a legal library open late enough to allow visits after work, and Jess whose comments and research started this journey) Thanks to a trip to the Baltimore County Law Library, we have this copy of the 1818 acts, which shows that Westminster was incorporated under the acts of 1818, which were actually passed in 1819. There are no cameras allowed in the library, so for today we have a Maryland Daily Photocopy.

So why does the mural say 1838? We know that the town would later become a city, but that was not until well after 1838. We also know that the town charter is from 1838, but does that mean you can ignore the 1818 acts? Does it mean that a town isn’t really incorporated until it has a charter? I don’t know. I’ve enjoyed this journey, but I don’t know where to turn next.

Carroll — 3 Comments
15
Apr 09

Welcome to Westminster

The Answer to yesterday’s question can be found here:

I highly recommend that you click on the above link, which will help orient you with the City of Westminster, the county seat of Carroll County and home of the Sherwood smokestack as seen below.

Welcome to Westminster, a city known not just as the training home of the Ravens, but also as the home of the hub to the first county-wide rural free delivery service in the country, eliminating the need to come to the post office for your mail. you can read more about that here.

About this smokestack, it belonged to the Sherwood distillery, makers of Sherwood Rye, one of the many formerly well known Maryland’s ryes. The original location of sherwood was in what is now known as Hunt Valley in Baltimore Co. stay tuned for more Rye history at a later date from there.

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