Carroll Yesteryears 20 December 2009 Paper Give Look at ‘War Christmas’ by Mary Ann Ashcraft Carroll County – Christmas 1917. Local newspapers offer a wonderful glimpse into this period of history when there were advertisements like John E. Eckenrode’s. He was still making horse-drawn buggies and sleighs yet also mentions, “Automobile tops made at our factory.” [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 6 December 2009 Marriage Applications Insightful by Mary Ann Ashcraft Over the last twenty-eight years, the Carroll County Genealogical Society has published a variety of material relating to county history and genealogy – cemetery inscriptions, marriages, census records, Orphans’ Court minutes, indentures, an index to wills and administrations, and a research guide. Members of [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 22 November 2009 John Smith Helped Start College by Mary Ann Ashcraft John Smith of Wakefield has not received enough credit for his contributions to Carroll County. Perhaps it is his common name which makes it easy to overlook him. Maryland history students read only about Captain John Smith, controversial leader of the Jamestown [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 8 November 2009 Child Apprentices Once Common by Mary Ann Ashcraft Among the fascinating records at the Carroll County Courthouse is a fragile, handwritten ledger with the title “Book of Indentures.” It covers indentures from the county’s founding in 1837 until 1927 when the last entry was the placement of a four year-old girl, [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 25 October 2009 Itinerant Photographers Documented History by Mary Ann Ashcraft How much easier it would be to understand Carroll’s yesteryears if photography had been invented long before 1839! We might have pictures of the Native Americans who lived here, our ancestors in their homes, and myriad other things now only preserved as sketches [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 18 October 2009 Railroad Boosted Region’s Reach by Mary Ann Ashcraft Serious construction of the Western Maryland Rail Road began in July 1857 with two gangs of workmen laying track – one from Owings Mills toward Westminster and the other from Union Bridge toward New Windsor. Track into Baltimore was still needed, but that [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 27 September 2009 Railway Line Began With A Dream by Mary Ann Ashcraft That wonderful, lonely sound of a train whistle first echoed across central Carroll County in June 1861 when the Western Maryland Rail Road finally reached Westminster. People celebrated an event over nine years in the planning. As Harold Williams wrote in [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 13 September 2009 Church Served Many Functions by Mary Ann Ashcraft Almost every community has its “sacred ground” – whether that ground has national significance like the former site of the World Trade Center in New York or is simply the middle of Westminster Cemetery where the old Union Meeting House once stood. Each [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 30 August 2009 Two Floods Caused Major Damage to Carroll by Mary Ann Ashcraft If you are over the age of fifty, the words Hurricane Agnes will likely conjure up vivid images of the flooding which occurred over most of Carroll County in June 1972. Even if you didn’t suffer, newspaper photographs of Detour [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 16 August 2009 Political Conflict Heavy After War by Mary Ann Ashcraft After the turbulence of the Civil War, the years 1866 through 1868 were calm in Carroll County – well, relatively. Although many of Carroll’s sons had been killed or wounded, the countryside had not been devastated. However local newspapers from the period [...]