Carroll Yesteryears 22 July 2018 Immigrants of Early 1900s Found Work at Union Bridge Cement Plant By Mary Ann Ashcraft From time to time, this column features stories of immigrants who settled in Carroll County and achieved success. Today’s column looks at several Italian and Eastern European immigrants who found work at the cement plant in [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 24 June 2018 Stop at Bethel UMC Before Gettysburg Changed Soldier’s Life By Jeff Duvall In her book, “The Story of Bethel United Methodist Church,” the late Myra Ensor included a story told by Civil War historian Dan Hartzler regarding a Union soldier whose regiment camped for the night at Bethel on its march [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 10 June 2018 In 1757, “Gift of Freedom” Bestowed Upon Slave Nero By Mary Ann Ashcraft At the Request of Negro Nero the following Gift of Freedom was recorded April the first day for the Year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred & fifty seven - To wit: To all whom these presents [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 27 May 2018 Union Meeting House Served as a Church, Community Hub, Hospital for Nearly a Century By David Bearr On Monday, May 28, American Legion Post 31 will conduct Westminster’s 151st Memorial Day service at the Center Circle in Westminster Cemetery. The annual observance originated there in 1868 in the shadow of the [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 22 April 2018 Imagining Margaretha Newson’s Century of Life By Mary Ann Ashcraft One day in February 1913 Mary Shellman wrote a letter to Taneytown’s Carroll Record newspaper about an event she thought was noteworthy. Writing those kinds of letters had been her custom for years and would continue until she died. Her topic [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 8 April 2018 Two Centuries later, Headstone Engraving Process has Changed, Need for Precision Hasn’t By Mary Ann Ashcraft At Mathias Monuments and Memorials, Dan Long, Jr. carries on a tradition of engraving tombstones that stretches back in Westminster almost two centuries. The techniques used by the first documented local carver have changed dramatically, [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 25 March 2018 The Saga of Centenarian Nancy Saunders, (Part 2 of 3) By W. Peter Pearre and Jeff Duvall In the 1880 census the African American centenarian Nancy Saunders was living with her son George in the Englar’s Mill area of Frederick County. Two years earlier there had been an article in the [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 11 March 2018 The Saga of Centenarian Nancy Saunders, (Part 2 of 3) By W. Peter Pearre and Jeff Duvall In her own lifetime Nancy Saunders was a celebrated African American resident of the Sam’s Creek area when the nation was celebrating the centenary of its independence. Her reported age in 1881 of 114 [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 11 February 2018 Fate of Bowen’s Chapel, Once Grim, Settled as Supporters ‘Just Kept Going’ By Stacy Shaffer The following information will bring “Carroll’s Yesteryears” readers up-to-date on the fate of Bowen’s Chapel, also known as Bark Hill Methodist Church, at the corner of Bark Hill Road and Raywell Avenue on the outskirts of [...]
Carroll Yesteryears 14 January 2018 Take Time to Learn About, Preserve Your Family’s History By Mary Ann Ashcraft What will you do on these cold, dark, winter weekends? They could become an opportunity to nail down some of your family’s history whether you are a Carroll County native or not. Although family get-togethers are most common [...]