Carroll Yesteryears 10 August 2008 Patent Medicines Once Abounded By Mary Ann Ashcraft Anyone watching TV this summer has probably chuckled over the country and western group extolling the virtues of Viagra with its song, “Viva Viagra.” Reading patent medicine advertisements from long ago provides similar amusement, or at least produces a grin. If Lydia Pinkham’s [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 27 July 2008 Camps were Big During Summer By Mary Ann Ashcraft Remember the song entitled “Give Me That Old Time Religion?” It immediately comes to mind when reading accounts of camp meetings in newspapers of the late nineteenth century. Carroll County, the birthplace of Methodism in the U.S., was the site of numerous [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 13 July 2008 GAR Helped to Foster Camaraderie By Mary Ann Ashcraft Before our patriotic feelings kindled by Memorial Day and the Fourth of July fade, it is worth looking at one organization which fed deeply on love of country during the late nineteenth century. The Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) was, for [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 29 June 2008 Mason, Dixon Made Mark in Carroll By Mary Ann Ashcraft Couldn’t you just kick yourself sometimes! What did I have to do on October 19, 2002, that was more important than watching a re-enactment of the placing of a Mason-Dixon crownstone near Harney on the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary? Hundreds of media types, [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 15 June 2008 Carroll Busy During War By Mary Ann Ashcraft For those readers of the Times who aren’t aware of local experiences during the Civil War, I’d like to suggest picking up a copy of Frederick Shriver Klein’s Just South of Gettysburg this summer. First published by the Historical Society of Carroll County [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 1 June 2008 Train Accident was Big News in Union Bridge By Mary Ann Ashcraft Sensational stories certainly help sell newspapers. That fact hasn’t changed since the nineteenth century when The People’s Voice of Union Bridge headlined “EXPLOSION OF AN ENGINE – The Engineer Killed and Two Men Injured – GREAT EXCITEMENT.” For a [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 18 May 2008 Decoration Day Continued After War By Mary Ann Ashcraft Westminster’s two newspapers, the American Sentinel and Democratic Advocate, were filled with details about the observance of Decoration Day on May 30, 1887. A heartfelt speech was reproduced verbatim and the grave-decorating ceremonies in various towns were meticulously reported. Twenty-two years after [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 4 May 2008 Sykes’ Industry Helped Counties By George Horvath, Ann Parry Horvath and Mary Ann Ashcraft A glimpse at historical records reveals that James Sykes (1791-1881), for whom Sykesville is named, had the energy and business acumen typical of so many early Carroll County settlers. Industry, not farming, was his area of expertise [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 20 April 2008 Life Not So Speedy in 19th Century By Mary Ann Ashcraft It’s delightful when old newspapers reveal the way things used to be in Carroll County, particularly when those “long agos” were as early as the 1840s. The “Reminiscences” James L. Switzer wrote for the Union Bridge Pilot of 1910 stretch [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 6 April 2008 Hoover Has Connections to Carroll By Mary Ann Ashcraft Republican presidential candidate Herbert Hoover and his wife slipped quietly into Carroll County during the autumn of 1928 to explore the area where Hoover’s Quaker ancestors had settled almost two centuries earlier. According to an account in The Times, the Hoovers arrived [...]