Carroll Yesteryears 23 March 2008 German Influence: Lutheran, Reformed Immigrants Built Several Area Union Churches By Mary Ann Ashcraft As eighteenth century German immigrants moved south and west from the East Coast ports where they landed, they brought along their religious preferences whether Protestant or Catholic. Carroll County was strongly influenced by German Baptists, also known [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 9 March 2008 Look for History in Carroll By Mary Ann Ashcraft When I moved to Oregon in the ‘60s after growing up in northern Delaware, I was dismayed at what the Oregonians called “history.” No Revolutionary War battlefields, no cemeteries predating 1840 – even the antiques shops seemed to be full of the [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 24 February 2008 Carroll’s Links to Civil Rights By Mary Ann Ashcraft The history of civil rights activism in Carroll County is long, rich and complex – a history that cannot be adequately covered in a column such as this, even if continued over several months. Most events never became newspaper stories, so information [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 10 February 2008 Union Bridge Memories By Mary Ann Ashcraft For fifteen weeks during 1910, James L. Switzer wrote a series of “Reminiscences” which were published in the Union Bridge Pilot. Switzer was born in the town in 1837 and his family knew everyone. Sometime between 1850 and 1860 they moved to Iowa, but [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 27 January 2008 County’s 50th Birthday Party Delighted By Mary Ann Ashcraft Saturday, January 19, 2008, marked the 171st birthday of Carroll County. Several hundred history enthusiasts gathered at the Westminster Fire Department for an interesting lecture and refreshments including birthday cake. The fiftieth anniversary on April 11, 1887, was quite a different affair [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 13 January 2008 Carroll Land Used for Mining By Mary Ann Ashcraft and Johnny Johnsson Although agriculture played the major role in development of Carroll County, there is evidence of other land use – namely mining - in very early records. Legh Master mined iron ore outside Westminster shortly before the Revolution, but a [...]