16 November 1997 – Manchester Incorporated in 1833

“Manchester Incorporated in 1833”

Carroll County Times article for 16 November 1997

By Jay A. Graybeal

Each year the Historical Society has its annual dinner meeting in a different community and this year we visited my hometown of Manchester. Preserved at the Historical Society is the minute book of the Commissioners of Manchester following the first incorporation of the town in 1833. Section 1 of the Act of Assembly briefly outlined the new town government:

The next several ordinances involved ordinances for keeping animals in town. The commissioners had considerable difficulty in reaching a agreement on how to deal with swine. A bill by Mr. Maxfield to prohibit swine from running at large between June and November was considered. Mr. Everhart proposed two successive amendments to exempt porkers weighing over 40 pounds or that they only require their owners to pen them up at night; each was voted down. The original bill was enacted, however, Mr. Everhart was not finished with his opposition. At the next meeting, he presented a petition from “sundry citizens of Manchester, complaining that the ordinance prohibiting Swine from running at large was oppressive, and praying that said ordinance be repealed”. The commissioners apparently bowed to public pressure and the ordinance was repealed at least for the time being.

After one year in office the commissioners found themselves in a financial crisis; the treasury was low. There were insufficient funds to pay Town Clerk Joseph M. Parke his yearly salary of $10. Mr. Everhart proposed a bill to reduce the clerk’s salary to $6.39. The solution, which was agreeable to Mr. Parke, saved the commissioners from “resorting to taxation” at least for the time being.

Not much new business was undertaken by commissioners from 1836 until 1839 when the swine issue again reared its ugly head. A new bill prohibited swine from running loose was passed on 28 June but again there was discontent. At the next meeting Baliff John Krautz reluctantly resigned because he was “fearful of threats made him by a certain Individual in Manchester”. For a second time the “Ordinance for the better regulation of swine” was repealed. The measure, however, was not dead. The commissioners passed a new bill on 14 August 1841 which imposed a $2 fine for those who let their pigs run free. Subsequent commissioners reconfirmed the bill and the matter was finally laid to rest.

In 1840 the commissioners found is necessary to institute a “dog tax” to raise money. The 1840 tax list shows that 41 dogs were owned in Manchester; their owners paid a quarter for each dog which put $10.25 in the town treasury. The commissioners also passed a bill for public safety. They appointed a committee to purchase five ladders to be kept around town and used only in the case of fire. Anyone who borrowed a ladder without permission was subject to a $1 fine. In the same year a bill passed that prohibited any one from discharging a gun in town, except to kill an animal afflicted with rabies.

The record book continues until 1846 with some scattered records until 1860 and then ceases for no apparent reason. The Corporation of Manchester was reorganized by an act of the Legislature in 1870. The early record book shows the kinds of issues that were important in our local towns as they developed in the mid-nineteenth century. Residents wanted access to uniform sidewalks, some control of domestic animals and a measure of public safety.