Carroll Yesteryears 21 December 2008 Belsnickling Once Popular in Area by Mary Ann Ashcraft Celebrations surrounding the winter solstice vary from religion to religion, country to country, community to community and even from one family to another. A Christmas Eve tradition practiced in areas with a strong Pennsylvania German heritage like Carroll County was “belsnickling” or [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 7 December 2008 Fate of Trite Brother Uncovered by Mary Ann Ashcraft Thanks to many readers who replied to my November 23rd column about the Trite twins who died in a 1902 well accident near McKinstry’s Mills, I can finish the story of their older brother, Edward. He had been the first to go [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 23 November 2008 1902 Tragedy Leaves a Mystery by Mary Ann Ashcraft Living in the twenty-first century, we are so lucky to have access to powerful medicines, to hospitals with well-trained doctors, to ambulances and medevac helicopters carrying medical technicians and to other sources of help when emergencies arise at home, at work or [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 9 November 2008 Missourian Reconnects to Roots in Carroll By Byron Christopher Shutz Why does a fifth generation Missourian who has always lived in Missouri have a great interest in the history of Carroll County, Maryland? It all began in 1991 when I decided to see for myself the stone house built about 1793 [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 26 October 2008 Church Preserves Tradition By Mary Ann Ashcraft Thanks to vital assistance from contractor Alex Dorsey, Fairview United Methodist Church, Carroll’s oldest surviving black church, was rebuilt in 2008. Cook family members from his mother’s side have attended the church for more than 100 years, so Dorsey had a special desire to [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 12 October 2008 Lincoln Gained Carroll’s Support By Mary Ann Ashcraft This seems an appropriate time to look at another election or two, ones which took place nearly 150 years ago, the crucial presidential elections of 1860 and 1864. Those were turbulent times, as all of us know, when the southern states were threatening [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 28 September 2008 Governor from Carroll had Connections By Mary Ann Ashcraft Frank Brown was Maryland’s only governor to come from Carroll County – and he was truly a native son, not a transplant who settled here as an adult. We don’t talk about him much. There are no highways named after him (like [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 14 September 2008 Sauble’s Once Popular for Dining By Mary Ann Ashcraft A drive from Taneytown to Emmitsburg takes you past a large complex of buildings at the corner of Harney Road and Rte. 140 – a place you can’t miss because of its size and distinct yellow color. Be sure to look twice [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 31 August 2008 Ponds Once Source of Food, Fun By Mary Ann Ashcraft Since the 1700s, streams have powered roughly one hundred grist mills, saw mills, and fulling mills in what is now Carroll County. Understanding the mechanics of mill operation is beyond me. I narrowly escaped failing the mechanics portion of physics, but [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 24 August 2008 Inn was Town’s Hot Spot By Mary Ann Ashcraft Meandering slowly past the former Dielman Inn at the south end of Main Street in New Windsor is like a trip back in time. More than a century ago, the highly successful hostelry catered to visitors from Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia who [...]