TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction....................................................................................................................... ii

Chapter 1: Settling the Catoctin...................................................................................... 1

A. Native Americans...................................................................................................... 1

B. Early White Exploration and Settlement .................................................................. 8

C. Settling Western Maryland ..................................................................................... 12

D. The French and Indian War .................................................................................... 21

E. The Arrival of Iron.................................................................................................. 25

F. The Road to Revolution.......................................................................................... 29

Chapter 2: War and Industry on the Mountain, 1776-1859 ....................................... 33

A. Introduction............................................................................................................. 33

B. Forging a Revolution .............................................................................................. 34

C. Revolution and the Furnace .................................................................................... 37

D. Rumsey's Steamboat ............................................................................................... 41

E. Early Industry.......................................................................................................... 44

F. Wheat and Whiskey ................................................................................................ 48

G. Catoctin Furnace from the Top Down .................................................................... 52

H. Catoctin Furnace from the Bottom Up: Slavery ..................................................... 58

I. The 1838 Riot ......................................................................................................... 66 

J. The Furnace After Brien ......................................................................................... 71

Chapter 3: Civil War and the Decline of Industry ...................................................... 75

A. Introduction............................................................................................................. 75

B. Catoctin's Civil War................................................................................................ 75

C. "The Sound of the STeam Whistle Twice a Day" .................................................. 90

D. The Furnace: A Relict Industry............................................................................... 91

E. Life and Labor at the Catoctin Furnace .................................................................. 98

F. The Rise of Tourism ............................................................................................. 101 

Chapter 4: The Eve of Acquisition.............................................................................. 110

A. Introduction........................................................................................................... 110

B. The End of Industry on the Mountain................................................................... 110

C. "Pleasure Seekers": The Growth of Tourism........................................................ 112

D. The Wreck of the Blue Mountain Express............................................................ 119

E. Fire and Fire Control............................................................................................. 120

F. Moonshining and Blue Blazes.............................................................................. 122 

G. The Mountain on the Eve of Acquisition.............................................................. 129

Chapter 5: A New Deal for the Mountain .................................................................. 138

A. Introduction........................................................................................................... 138
B. The Depression in Washington and Frederick Counties....................................... 138

C. The New Deal in Western Maryland .................................................................... 148

D. Bessie Darling....................................................................................................... 150

E. The Birth of the Park............................................................................................. 153

F. The Ordeal of Acquisition, Part I.......................................................................... 161 

G. Construction and Labor at Catoctin, Part I ........................................................... 166

H. The Ordeal of Acquistion, Part II ......................................................................... 171

I. Construction and Labor at Catoction, Part II........................................................ 176

I. Use and Segregation ............................................................................................. 178

I. The CCC in the Catoctins..................................................................................... 181

Chapter 6: War and Politics Shape the Park ............................................................. 194

A. Introduction........................................................................................................... 194

B. The Winds of War................................................................................................. 194

C. War........................................................................................................................ 196

D. Shangri-La............................................................................................................. 200

E. Wartime Road Construction ................................................................................. 208

F. The War Reshapes the Park .................................................................................. 210 

G. The Fate of the Park.............................................................................................. 211

H. Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 217

Prospects for Future Research .................................................................................... 218

Selected Sources............................................................................................................ 221

Maps and Appendices................................................................................................... 230

iii

Introduction

Present-day Catoctin Mountain Park encompasses 5,770 acres, nestled in the hills 

of western Maryland. To visitors the site is both majestic and serene. No matter how 

crowded the park, a hiker can always find long stretches of trail to him or herself. The 

quiet and peace of the park today, however, masks a long and complex history. Since 

settlers first arrived in the region in the 1740s, the park area has witnessed both 

subsistence and commercial farming, industry, tourism, recreational hunting, and military 

usage (both during the Civil War and World War II). 

Over the years, the National Park Service has made numerous efforts to document 

and interpret the history of the park. The lost art of charcoal making and the workings of 

an early sawmill, for instance, are on active display for interested park visitors. This 

historic resource study is part of that continuing effort to better understand and interpret 

the abundant cultural resources present within the park boundaries. It seeks to “address 

the relevant contexts for the park” and to offer “an historical framework for future 

interpretive and preservation efforts, and to provide baseline information for development 

of the Park General Management Plan.”

The six chapters presented in this study depict the several overlapping phases of 

mountain development. The first chapter treats the Native American presence and the 

early, largely German, settlement of the region. Chapter 2 introduces industry to the area 

in the form of the Catoctin Iron Furnace. Included is a discussion of the presence of 

slavery at the furnace. The third chapter, focusing in particular on the Civil War, the 

slow decline of the iron furnace, and the emergence of a tourist industry, carries the story 
iv

to the end of the nineteenth century. The mountain area on the eve of acquisition by the 

federal government is the subject of the fourth chapter. 

The narrative takes a new direction in Chapter 5. In 1935, as part of a New Deal 

program to develop recreation areas near urban populations and address the problem of 

farmers working “submarginal land,” the federal government began purchasing mountain 

land for a planned “recreational demonstration area.” The acquisition and construction 

process, chronicled in Chapter 5, was anything but smooth. The final chapter treats the 

military’s use of the park during World War II as well as the establishment and early use 

of the presidential retreat President Franklin D. Roosevelt called Shangri-La. Finally, 

tensions between the state of Maryland and the federal government over the fate of 

Catoctin Recreational Demonstration Area are described. In the end, a compromise 

allowed the National Park Service to retain a large portion of the originally-purchased 

area, while the state of Maryland took over the southern portion of the park. This 

compromise between two opposing forces might be seen as representative of the many 

compromises and accommodations made over time—all of which ultimately shaped the 

present-day park.

My study comes of the heels of others, including historical work by Former Park 

Superintendent Frank Mentzer and author Dale Nelson. Barbara Kirkconnell’s excellent 

administrative history of the park, covering in detail many of the important decisions that 

shaped the park offers an excellent companion piece to this HRS . 

In the preparation of this report, I was especially indebted to members of the 

Catoctin Mountain Park staff who gave generously of their time, in particular to James 

Voigt, Roger Steintl, Sally Griffin, and Park Superintendent J. Mel Poole. Gary Scott, 
v

regional historian for the NPS, National Capital Region, proved a helpful and patient 

overseer. Among the many archivists and libraries who have generously of their time is 

Ann Cissel of the Thurmont Historical Society, as well as Louis O’Donoghue and Mary 

Mannix of the Frederick County Public Libraries Maryland Room. Janet L. Davis, 

historical preservation planner for the Frederick County Planning Commission provided 

expert counsel and opened her files for my use. In addition, the staffs of the Maryland 

Department of National Resources, the Maryland Hall of Records, the Maryland Historic 

Trust, and the Frederick County Historical Association proved particularly helpful. 

Special thanks also goes to Judith Early, of the NPS, National Capital Region, who 

generously read and edited draft chapters of this report.

While these individuals gave kindly of their time, and while their insights and 

help have made the study richer, any oversights remain the responsibility of the author.
1

Chapter One

Settling the Catoctins

For centuries before the arrival of European whites, the Catoctin mountain area sat largely 

uninhabited with the exception of occasional groups of roaming Native Americans, lured by the 

rich natural resources of the area. Even as white colonists settled other areas of Maryland, the 

western part of the state remained sparsely populated. Then, beginning in the 1740s, whites 

began arriving in greater numbers. Early settlers were mostly Germans, escaping the political 

and religious turmoil of Europe. They carried with them an intense religious devotion and 

proficiency in farming. Life for the early pioneers could be hard, even terrifying when war broke 

out. Yet the availability of large, bountiful tracts of land offered real rewards. As the revolution 

approached, eastern elites, largely of English origin, also began noting the rich resources of the 

Catoctin area. Among them were Thomas Johnson, future governor of Maryland, and his 

partners who planned to build a iron furnace at the foot of the mountain. Chapter 1 then is the 

story of pioneers, rapid development, and swift change.

Native Americans

Traveling through Maryland in the 1680s, Dutch explorer Jaspar Danckaerts was 

impressed by the burgeoning colony, but he sensed that something was missing. “There are few 

Indians,” noted the Dutchman, “in comparison with the extent of the country.” He blamed the 

English for having “almost exterminated” the native population.1

 1

Frank Porter, “Behind the Frontier: Indian Survival in Maryland,” Maryland Historical 

Magazine, 75 (March 1980), 42.

 The relative paucity of Indians 
2

in Maryland actually was a permanent feature of the region and predated the arrival of the 

English by centuries. But Danckaerts’ general point was correct: Native Americans did not 

populate Maryland as heavily as they did other areas of North America. And within the Maryland 

region, no area had a smaller Indian population than western Maryland, which reflected the 

general trend of sparse inhabitation found in the northern and central Appalachian region.2

During the Paleo-Indian era (1300-7500 BC) the first Native Americans entered the 

continent by crossing the Bering Strait. Nomadic hunters, these early travelers left few traces. 

Still, archeologists have uncovered enough evidence to establish that such early natives did 

inhabit the region that became Maryland.3

 Gradually as the climate warmed and forests 

developed, the early Indian population increased--especially around the waterways of the 

Chesapeake. By the Woodland period (2000 BC-1600 AD), agricultural villages and organized 

tribes had emerged in the coastal areas.4

Yet archeologists have uncovered significant evidence that western Maryland was not 

The Blue Ridge and Monocacy Valley areas, however, contained significantly fewer 

occupants than eastern areas. Some scholars have theorized that during the Woodland period and 

after western Maryland served as a buffer zone between coastal settlements and the western 

Indians occupying the Ohio Valley. 

 2

Robert Mitchell, “Revisionism and Regionalism,” in Appalachia: A Regional 

Geography, Mitchell, Raitz and Ulack eds. (Boulder, Co., 1984), 9.

3

Frank W. Porter, Maryland Indians: Yesterday and Today (Baltimore, MD, 1983), 2-3.

4

Porter, Maryland Indians, 5-11, 30. Scholars continue to debate the total number of 

native Americans in Maryland at the point of contact with Europeans. Estimates range from 

roughly 6,500 to 8,500. By 1756, a conservative estimate had only 140 Indians living in 

Maryland.
3

completely uninhabited. In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, amateur 

archeologists such as E.R. Goldsborough began making surveys of the Monocacy Valley and 

Catoctin area. His surveys pointed to numerous sites containing evidence of Native American 

inhabitation. Although Native American sites in Eastern Maryland continue to draw the majority 

of scholarly interest, by the second half of the twentieth century, building on the work of 

Goldsborough, professional archeological surveys were underway in western Maryland. These 

studies suggest that native Americans did value and seek to exploit the rich natural resources 

available in the region. 

More than anything else, the Catoctin and Monocacy areas served as fertile hunting 

grounds for eastern tribes. Around the mountains, exploring parties pursued deer and other 

game. In order to facilitate hunting in the uninhabited territory, Native Americans set brush fires 

to clear out game. At times the fires burnt with such fury that they could be smelled forty miles 

away.5 Also of value were the rich deposits of rhyolite available in the western mountains.6

 

Rhyolite could be fashioned into arrowheads, hoes, and other important tools. Those in search of 

the compound would dig small pits into the flattops of ridges.7

 The work of local archeologist 

Spencer O. Geasey in the 1960s and 1970s, focusing on rock shelters and rhyolite pits in 

Frederick County, stirred interest and suggested the need for more archaeological work.8

 5

Robert Brugger, Maryland: A Middle Temperament, 1634-1980 (Baltimore, 1988), 67.

6

Dennis C. Curry and Maureen Kavanaugh, "The Middle to Late Woodland Transition in 

Maryland," North American Archaeologist, 12 (1991), 3-28.

7

C.E. Schildknecht, Monocacy and Catoctin, vol. 1 (Shippensburg, PA, 1985), 8.

8

Spencer O. Geasey, "Albert's Cave," Maryland Archeology 9 (March-September 1973), 

3-9; Geasey, "The Tuscarora-Rock Shelter," Journal of the Archeological Society of Maryland, 7 
4

Between 1978 and 1980, the Maryland Geological Survey conducted an "intensive 

archeological reconnaissance" of upper Frederick County. As part of the survey, Michael 

Stewart excavated "aboriginal quarries" along the west slope of Catoctin Mountain near Foxville. 

Seeming to date from the Woodland period, the site was “characterized by large amounts of 

primary chipping debris, few diagnostics, and occasionally by small pits against the face of the 

outcrop." Finding ample evidence of rhyolite manufacturing, Stewart and the survey group 

concluded that the site might have been part of a larger "rhyolite procurement and processing 

system." Although, little is known of the mechanics of this system, archeologists hypothesize the 

existence of "a regional exchange network operating between bands or by movement of groups 

from the Coastal Plains to the interior processing camps."9 What one archeologist characterized 

as "periodically revisited temporary" camps existed in the area to support to the rhyolite 

extraction.10

Other Western Maryland excavations have indicated more permanently inhabited sites. 

State archeologist Tyler Bastian excavated a Monocacy Valley site called Biggs Ford Village, 

where he found an ornament and other artifacts from the Late Woodland Period.11

 

(March 1971). Geasey also reports finding pottery bits on Catoctin Mountain, .5 miles southwest 

of Hamburg Fire Tower.

9

Maureen Kavanagh, "Archeological Resources of the Monocacy Region," (Annapolis, 

MD, 1982), 68, 97-100.

10Ibid., 117. In 1980, the survey group excavated one such "periodically revisited 

temporary camp," named Myers' site, on Owens Creek in the foothills of Catoctin Mountain. 

Projectile points found on the site suggest habitation in the late Archaic to Middle Woodlands 

eras.

 More 

11Tyler Bastian, "Preliminary Notes on the Biggs Ford Site, Frederick County, Maryland," 

(1974), Maryland Geological Survey, Division of Archeology, File Report 16.
5

recently, in 1992, the Archeological Society of Maryland initiated a major effort to excavate a 

Late-Woodland site high on a bluff over the Monocacy river, northwest of the present site of the 

Frederick Airport. While preliminary investigations do not lend themselves to absolute 

conclusions, the Rosenstock Village site, as it was named, did contain evidence of a possible 

permanent settlement.12

Clearly, the major source of transportation for the Native Americans sojourning in 

Western Maryland were the Potomac and Monocacy Rivers. But there also appear to have been a 

series of Indian trails allowing for passage through some of the more difficult terrain. Although 

nearly impossible to recreate, such trails do seem to have provided the basis for the later 

Monocacy wagon road, which sliced diagonally through the region from eastern Pennsylvania to 

central Virginia (see Map 1).

 Future digs may someday fill out the picture of prehistoric life in the 

Monocacy Valley region, but preliminary surveys suggest that temporary camps existed in the 

Catoctin Mountain area, while more permanent, yet still small, dwelling areas lay to the south--

especially along the Potomac.

13

With the arrival of European settlers in Maryland, beginning in the 1630s, a clearer 

picture emerges of the native population in the region. Early accounts from white settlers suggest 

a state of tension between coastal Indians and their neighbors to the northwest. Smaller tribes--in 

 12Archaeological Society of Maryland, "Field Procedures for the 22nd Annual Field 

Session in Maryland Archeology: the Rosenstock Village Site," 1992; Donald Peck, 

"Archaeological Resources Assessment of the Monocacy River Region," January 1979, 178. 

Other sites which may have featured permanent inhabitants include those on Nolands Ferry and 

near Devilbiss bridge.

13John Dern and Grace Tracey, Pioneers of the Old Monocacy, 1721-1743 (Baltimore, 

1987), 50; Schildknecht, vol.1, 15.
6

particular the Piscataway (also known as the Conoys) and Nanticokes, both from the Algonquian 

language group--occupied the Chesapeake area.14 To their north and west were the 

Susquehannock, a more warlike tribe, which made its home on the Susquehanna River. The 

Susquehanna--related to the Iroquois-- but not part of the confederation--frequently clashed with 

both their Algonquian neighbors to the south and the confederacy to the north.15

Intertribal tensions also shaped early relations with the newly arrived Europeans in the 

1630s. The Chesapeake Algonquian tribes strove to establish good relations with the whites, so 

as to tip the scales against the Susquehanna. They shared their technology with the newcomers 

and introduced Europeans to maize, beans, pumpkins, and squash.

 These series of 

raids and battles may have discouraged permanent settlement in the western reaches of Maryland, 

which sat as disputed territory between warring tribes. 

16 But good relations were not 

to last. Lord Baltimore, after essentially removing the Susquehanna threat, turned on his Indian 

allies.17 By the late seventeenth century, the proprietary government of Maryland had forced the 

Piscataway out of the Chesapeake region. Most moved to Pennsylvania, but some settled 

temporarily near Point of Rocks, on Heater's Island, on the Potomac River.18

 14Barbara Leitch, Concise Dictionary of Indian Tribes of North America (Algonac, MI, 

1979), 447-485. 

15Ibid, 292-3.

16Porter, Maryland Indians, 12-14.

17Elizabeth Kessel, "Germans on the Maryland Frontier: A Social History of Frederick 

County, Maryland, 1730-1800," (Ph.D. diss., Rice University, 1981), 16.

 By the 1720s, the 

18Ibid, 18-19.
7

tribe had left Maryland completely.19

The displacement caused by the arrival of white Europeans brought other Native 

American tribes briefly to the Monocacy Valley region. Leaving their native South Carolina, the 

Algonkian Shawnee tribe temporarily inhabited the region before moving further north.20 At 

other junctures, the Delaware and the Catawbas used the Monocacy River for travel and hunting 

purposes. The Tuscarora tribe, originally from the Carolinas, moved northward, after the 

Tuscarora war in 1711-1713. An English map from 1721 clearly shows a Tuscarora village at the 

mouth of the Monocacy River on the Frederick County side. The tribe, of course, also gave its 

name to the creek flowing to the south of the present-day park.21

 19James Merrell, "Cultural Continuity Among the Piscataway Indians of Colonial 

Maryland," William and Mary Quarterly, (1979) 36, 548-570. Frank W. Porter, "A Century of 

Accommodation: The Nanticoke Indians in Colonial Maryland," Maryland Historical Magazine, 

74 (June 1979), 175-188. The Nanticokes of the Eastern Shore followed a similar route of exile, 

reaching Pennsylvania by the 1940s.

20Kessel, 17, Frederick Hoxie, Encyclopedia of North American Indians (Boston, 1996), 

582-583.

21Hoxie, 650.

 Like other eastern tribes during 

the difficult eighteenth century, the Tuscarora only briefly made Maryland their home before 

moving westward.

By the second decade of the eighteenth century, then, most Indians tribes had passed 

through western Maryland onto points further west. Although they dramatically reasserted 

themselves during the French and Indian War, on the eve of the white settlement of western 

Maryland, Native Americans were simply not a factor in the region. 

Early White Exploration and Settlement 
8

The absence of hostile Indians, however, did not lead to the immediate European 

settlement of Western Maryland. Indeed the first whites to come to the mid-Atlantic region 

(arriving in 1607) remained primarily in the Chesapeake area for almost a century. The appeal of 

the Tidewater region rested on the profitability of tobacco. By the late seventeenth century--

while western Maryland remained largely uninhabited--thriving plantations, a self-indulgent 

gentry, and an African slave-based labor system had sprung up in the Chesapeake. Since good 

tobacco could not be cultivated in the western reaches of the colony, there existed little interest in 

exploration and development.22 The absence of a navigable river in central western Maryland, the 

threat of Indian raids, and an ongoing border dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania also 

worked to discourage settlement of the region.23

By the early-eighteenth century, however, the market for tobacco had softened and the 

colonies began to diversify their economies.

 While eastern Maryland thrived, western

Maryland sat virtually vacant of white settlers.

24

 22Brugger, 73.

23Frank W. Porter III, “From Backcountry to Country: The Delayed Settlement of 

Western Maryland,” Maryland Historical Magazine 70 (1975), 329.

24Kessel, “Germans on the Maryland Frontier,” 22.

 Like the Native Americans whom they had 

displaced from the Tidewater region, European settlers began to look west in hope of exploiting 

the rich natural resources of the region. Trappers, traders, and missionaries were frequent 

visitors to the area by the early part of the century. In 1712, explorer Baron de Graffenried 

climbed Sugar Loaf Mountain and recorded: “We discovered from this height three chains of 

mountains, the last higher then the one before, somewhat distant and a very fine valley between 
9

the first ranges.” Soon squatters and a few other hearty souls began setting up permanent homes 

in the region.25

The Chesapeake gentry, seeking investment opportunities, also grew interested. In 1727, 

a Chesapeake planter, Benjamin Tasker acquired a patent for 7,000 acres, west of the Monocacy, 

roughly twelve miles up the Potomac. The investor called his purchase “Tasker’s Chance,” as if 

to underscore the still risky nature of western ventures. Maryland’s colonial government--

seeking to encourage settlement of the backcountry--issued a proclamation in 1732 waiving the 

usual 40 shillings Sterling per 100 acre fee to anyone who would settle land in the western 

holdings of the colony.26

Yet settlement was hampered by a bitter debate over the exact boundaries of Maryland. 

Pennsylvania claimed much of the land west of the Susquehanna (which, of course, would 

include the present-day park). Indeed, Maryland’s interest in populating the area had everything 

to do with efforts to buttress its claims against Pennsylvania. Quickly the dispute turned violent 

and a bitter war broke out in the 1730s. English-born pioneer Thomas Cresap--a robust Daniel 

Boone-type character--was Maryland’s chief defender. His wife, known to sport a gun, two 

pistols, a scalping knife, and a tomahawk, was no less committed to the cause. To Cresap, area 

farmers loyal to Pennsylvania were “poachers.” When captured by Pennsylvania authorities in 

1736 and brought to Philadelphia to stand trial, Cresap infuriated his captors by declaring Penn’s 

 25Paul and Rita Gordon, A Textbook History of Frederick County (Frederick, Md, 1975), 

9-11.

26Kessell, 110-111.
10

city, “one of the Prettyst [sic] Towns in Maryland.”27

The bitter conflict slowed settlement of the Monocacy Valley region even as immigrants 

began passing through the region and noting its potential. Fleeing religious persecution and 

dwindling economic opportunity, Germans, especially from the Palatinate region of the Rhine, 

began migrating in large numbers to Pennsylvania in the 1730s. By 1750, the population of 

Pennsylvania was one half-German. Seeking inexpensive but fertile land, some Germans moved 

southwest from Pennsylvania, along the Monocacy Road or “Great Wagon Road.”28 Most likely 

an outgrowth of the old Indian trail through the region, the Monocacy route began in 

Pennsylvania on the west side of the Susquehanna at Wrightsville, then proceeded through York 

and Hanover counties to Taneytown, Maryland. From there, the road moved into the future 

Frederick County through the future Williamsport, then southwesterly across the Monocacy and 

Potomac.29 Germans traveling the road might have been tempted to join the smattering of 

settlers already in western Maryland, but, despite the promises of Maryland’s leaders, they feared 

paying double taxes or getting caught in the violent cross fire between warring colonies.30

 27Brugger, 68; also see Charles Dutrizac, “Local Identity and Authority in a Disputed 

Hinterland: The Pennsylvania-Maryland Border in the 1730s” Pennsylvania Magazine of History 

and Biography 115 (1991), 35-61.

28John Hinton, “A New Maps of the Province of Maryland in North America,” from 

Universal Magazine 66 (1780), in Atlas of Historical Maps of Maryland, 1608-1908, Papenfuse 

and Coale, eds. (Baltimore, 1982), 44. Hinton’s map designates a “Great Wagon Road to 

Philadelphia.” Also see Park Rouse, Jr., The Great Wagon Road, Philadelphia to the South, How 

the Scotch-Irish and Germanics Settled the Uplands (Richmond, Dietz Press, 1995).

29Kessell, 48-49.

 Most, 

therefore, pressed onward to the Shenendoah Valley.

30Porter, 329.
11

By the 1740s, the conflict had settled somewhat, although it would fester for another 

thirty years. By that time Benjamin Tasker’s son-in-law, Daniel Dulany, was ready to take the 

initiative in settling the area. Acquiring his father-in-law’s land in 1744, Dulany hired Thomas 

Cresap to conduct a survey of western Maryland. Cresap reported that land in the Monocacy 

Valley equaled if not surpassed “any in America for natural Advantages.” Encouraged, Dulany 

patented other land in the area, and subdivided Tasker’s Chance, initially offering plots at bargain 

prices.31 Although a member of the Chesapeake gentry, Dulany actively sought to attract 

Germans to his holdings. With a reputation as solid, industrious farmers, Dulany thought them to 

be the perfect pioneers to tame his land, and he offered them land sometimes at below cost.32

Many Germans took up Dulaney’s offer. The 7,000 acres that made up Tasker’s original 

chancy purchase soon became the site of a thriving city named for Lord Baltimore’s son, 

Frederick. Many others, having accumulated enough money to purchase land themselves, took up 

residence to the north of Tasker’s Chance, along the Monocacy River, near the Catoctin 

Mountains. The area had real appeal to German immigrants. The attractions, according to 

historian Elizabeth Kessel, included a “large measure of civil and religious freedom and 

unprecedented opportunity of owning . . . and accumulating large amounts of land . . . for a 

simple fee and only a minor obligation of a quitrent (annual tax), and land could be passed on to 

heirs with full force of law.”33

Settling Western Maryland

 31Brugger, 67-69.

32Kessell, 58.

33Ibid, 330.
12

Who were these German and German-speaking Swiss immigrants? Most journeyed to 

the New World as a result of the religious, social, and economic chaos plaguing Germany in the 

decades following a costly series of religious-inspired wars. The War of Spanish Succession in 

1701, in particular, ravaged the area along the Rhine known as the Palatinate, the homeland of 

many who later moved to the Monocacy and Catoctin region.34 Not yet a united country, 

Germany contained what one historian called a “myriad of petty principalities,” each with its own 

authoritarian leader, imposing his religion on his subjects.35 Protestant sects such as the 

Dunkards (German Baptists), the Mennonites, and the Moravians often suffered persecution, as 

could Lutherans or Catholics if they found themselves in the wrong municipality. Likewise, land 

had grown scarce and costly. A twelve-acre farm actually represented a substantial holding in 

eighteenth-century Germany.36

There then existed compelling religious and economic “push” factors encouraging 

emigration. At the same time, honest men such as William Penn and less honest speculators and 

shippers, seeking to profit from the desperate population, aggressively advertised along the 

Rhine. The promise of land and help on the journey created powerful “pull” factors for already 

discontented Germans in the area. Not all the pull factors, however, proved quite to be all they 

were made out. Dishonest schemers lay in wait for the eager migrants, and some were cheated 

 34Bernard Bailyn, The Peopling of British North America (New York, 1986), 34. The 

Palatinate, itself, was something of a “melting pot,” and, at times, a catchall term. Anyone 

traveling down the Rhine, including a Bavarian, a Westpahalian, or a Swiss, might have been 

called a Palatinate at the time.

35Jerome R. Reich, Colonial America (Saddle River, NJ, 1998), 138.

36Elizabeth Kessel, "Germans in the Making of Frederick Country, Maryland," in 

Appalachian Frontiers: A Regional Geography, Mitchell et als. eds., (Boulder, 1984), 95.
13

out of their money. For most, even under the best of circumstances, the journey to the new world 

was expensive and difficult. Forty toll barriers sat along the Rhine. Authorities often slapped 

taxes on migrants, and Dutch officials in Rotterdam also sought their share of money from the 

pockets of immigrants. Some travelers might actually go broke en route and suffer the indignity 

of being sold into servitude in the New World in order to pay off passage, a process known as 

“redemption.”37

While often impoverished, the migrants did bring skills with them to America. Germans 

had the reputation of being particularly industrious farmers. Many had other skills as well. 

Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush noted of the immigrants, “the principal of them were 

farmers; but there were many mechanics, who brought with them a knowledge of those arts 

which are necessary and useful in all countries. These mechanics were chiefly weavers, tailors, 

tanners, shoemakers, combmakers, smiths of all kinds, butchers, paper makers, watch makers, 

and sugar bakers.”

 But the allure of cheap land and religious freedom resonated for thousands of 

immigrants.

38

German and Swiss migrants settled throughout the North American colonies. But the 

majority established themselves--at least temporarily--in Pennsylvania. By the late-seventeenth 

century, Penn’s colony was home to over 100,000 Germans. In fact, the vast majority of

Germans and Swiss who settled the Catoctin region arrived in the early 1730s and initially settled 

 It is little wonder that one of the future settlements of these German 

migrants was christened Mechanicstown.

 37Bailyn, 36-40, 71.

38Kessel, “Germans on the Maryland Frontier,” 75.
14

in Pennsylvania before pressing on into western Maryland.39

One of the earliest settlers in the Catoctin area, Daniel Leaterman (also spelled Lederman 

or Letterman), a bishop in the Church of the German Baptist Brethren, emigrated from Germany 

in 1727. He briefly ministered to a church in Conewago, Pennsylvania before establishing 

himself in the 1740s on a farm he called Sandbergen (named for its sandy soil) southwest of the 

future Catoctin Furnace.40 Yost Harbaugh (at times spelled Herbech) led his family from a 

village near Pfalz, Switzerland to Berks County and then York County, Pennsylvania. Yost's son 

George moved down the Great Wagon Trail to settle in what became known as Harbaugh's 

Valley in 1758 or 1759. The mountainous surroundings, it was said, reminded Harbaugh of his 

native land. In 1761 he married Catherine Willard, also originally from Switzerland. Later one 

of their daughters married a member of the Eyler family from Germany, who settled in the valley 

after having passed through Adams County in Pennsylvania.41

Some of the families later settling in Western Maryland actually traveled to the New 

World on the same ship. Such was the case with twenty-four year old Lenhart Firohr, who, in 

1731, crossed the ocean on a ship with the Devilbiss family. Firohr arrived in Philadelphia, 

moved to Adams County and later settled east of Catoctin Mountain. Once in Maryland, the 

Firohrs found the Devilbiss family to be their neighbors to the south. In 1760, with area's 

 39Kessel, “Germans in the Making of Frederick County,” 95. Kessel notes an “average 

ten-year span between the immigrant’s’s arrival in Philadelphia and appearance in Frederick 

County records.” Most, she concludes, settled for a period in Pennsylvania.

40Tracy and Dern, 33-35.

41Albert L. Oeter, The History of Graceham, Frederick County, Maryland, (Frederick, 

1913), 12; Schildknecht, vol., 1, 91, 86; Schildknecht, vol. 3, 81, 127; Thomas Scharf, History of 

Western Maryland (1882, reprint, Baltimore, 1967), 612. 
15

population growing, the Firohr family acquired land for the construction of the Lutherans and 

Reformed Apple's Church.42

While many of the early settlers were members of either the larger German Reformed or 

Lutheran strands of Protestantism, members of the smaller Moravian sect also arrived in the 

Catoctin area. Among the more prominent Moravians in the area was the Harbaugh family. The 

Moravians also managed to attracted converts. Jonhann Jacob Weller from Diedenshausen, 

Germany, in 1737 stepped off the Andrew Galley ship in Philadelphia, a member of the German 

Reformed Church. By the time he settled in Western Maryland in what became Mechanicstown, 

Weller had become an active Moravian. For a time, traveling Moravian ministers actually 

conducted services in Weller's home. His cousin, Johannes Weller, who also settled in what was 

later the Mechanicstown area, however, was associated with the Lutherans.

 A descendent of the original Devilbiss family, Alexander Devilbiss 

owned a plot of mountain land (tract 215), later incorporated into Catoctin Mountain Park.

43

Other influential German families who settled in the area included the family of 

Lawrence Creager (Krueger), originally from a village northwest of the city of Marbugh (roughly 

50 miles north of Frankfurt) in Westphalia. Creager moved the family to York County, 

Pennsylvania in 1738, then to the Monocacy Valley in 1747.44

 42Schildknecht, vol. 1., 168; Tracey and Dern, 212.

43Schildknecht, vol. 1, 63, 97,134, 158; Dern and Tracy, 210-213.

 The Creagers later owned 

mountain land--a plot known as “Creegers’ Surprise” (later tract 163). Friedrich Wiblheit 

(Willhides) and his wife Lucretia left their village near Sinsheim southeast of the Heidelberg in 

44Ibid, 105.
16

1731. Their son Frederick Jr. bought land on the northeast side of Hunting Creek in 1752.45

The Rouzers, originating, as did the Willhides, from the area near Sinscheim also firmly 

established themselves in the Catoctin area. Unlike the others, the Rouzers, led by Gideon 

Rauscher, an elder in the Dunkard Church, settled first in New Jersey. Gideon's son, Martin 

Rouzer (1734-1777), then moved to the Rocky Ridge area. His son Daniel settled in 

Mechanicstown, probably in the late eighteenth century, where he began a tanning business. 

Daniel married Sophia Shover, the daughter of Peter Shover, Revolutionary War veteran and 

another owner of land later incorporated into the Catoctin Mountain Park.46 Yet another 

immigrant from Sinsheim was Georg Philip Dodderer, who migrated in 1724. Georg's grandson 

Conrad later owned a mountain lot optimistically entitled "Worth Something," which was part of 

the park acquisition tract 153.47

One of the few original settlers who does show up in the limited land records of the 

Many of the founding families mentioned above probably owned land in the area that 

now encompasses the park and certainly the names of their decedents can be found throughout 

Catoctin mountain land records. Early land records, however, for the Catoctin area are 

incomplete. Along with the families and persons noted in census, tax, and church records, there 

were no doubt other records either lost or destroyed. Likewise, squatters, settling unofficially on 

land and avoiding taxation or other charges, also certainly occupied the mountain land.

 45Ibid, 48; Scharf, 473. Willhides’ son, also named Frederick, served in the colonial army, 

fighting at Brandywine, Trenton, and Yorktown.

46Schildknecht, vol. 3, 56-57; Scharf, 630. As of 1806, Peter Shover was recorded owner 

of the land that later became tract 5 purchased as part of the Catoctin RDA.

47Schildknect, vol., 3, 124.
17

eighteenth century was Leonard Moser, a fascinating pioneer figure. Moser arrived in 

Philadelphia in September 1732 aboard a ship appropriately named “Adventure.” Probably in his 

twenties, Moser traveled from Germany with his large family, who ranged in age from eight to 

forty. Very quickly, Moser became caught up in the Pennsylvania-Maryland dispute as an ally of 

Thomas Cresap. In 1735, Pennsylvania authorities captured Moser just south of Wrightsville. 

After a brief prison term, young Leonard retreated further south with Cresap and by 1736 settled 

in the Monocacy area. A close friend of Jacob Weller, Moser eventually joined the Moravian 

Church in Graceham. Moser was a weaver by trade, and, in 1751, he took on eleven-year old 

Michael Coker, a relative of his wife, as in apprentice. Moser also owned land along Great 

Hunting Creek, and in 1764 sold a thirty-acre tract on what was called Nolin Mountain (park 

acquisition tract 91) to a farmer named Mark Harmon (see Map 1).48

Pioneer life in the Catoctin region was hard at first. Migrants, generally chose 

homesteads near running streams or creeks and built homes from logs. In the absence of nails, 

they carved notches into the logs to fit walls together. Rocks and clay provided raw materials for 

chimneys. As farms prospered, Germans and Swiss sometimes abandoned their log houses and 

constructed larger homes of wood and limestone, utilizing traditional German designs, often 

featuring central chimneys. In other cases, log houses were sheathed in clapboard or vertical 

board. Barns were large and built into bank slopes. The barn basement served as a stable and the 

 Moser's family remained 

very much an active part of life on and around the mountain--as the presence of Moser Road in 

Thurmont attests.

 48Dern and Tracey, 196-198; Schildknecht, vol. 3, 64-65. Moser name intermittently 

appears as Leonard Mozar, Johann Leohardt Moser, and Leonart Moser.
18

first floor for storage and threshing. A popular German feature on barns were decorative 

ventilation slits on the gable ends.49 Alongside their sturdy architecture and productive farms, 

Germans quickly gained notice for their hearty baked dishes that incorporated preserves made 

from huckleberries (generally found on the mountain, especially burned-over land), strawberries, 

grapes, and cherries.50

While early historians of the upper Monocacy Valley postulated the existence of a lost 

town called Monocacy somewhere south of later Creagerstown, such a town appears never to 

have existed. Instead, settlers established dispersed farms, eschewing the example of the 

cramped villages of Europe.

 

51

Religion alongside kinship was the other glue that held early Catoctin society together. 

Germans brought numerous versions of Protestantism with them to North America. “There exist 

so many varieties of doctrines and sects,” noted an observer of the Germans, “that it is 

impossible to name them all.”

In the Monocacy Valley, Germans kept close kinship relationships, 

helping to preserve German culture for generations. Until the 1830s, German was the dominant 

language of central and northern Frederick County. Remarkably, today many of the same 

founding families continue to occupy the region in significant numbers, and evidence of 

traditional German culture can still be found.

52

 49Paula Stoner, “Early Folk Architecture of Washington, County,” Maryland Historical 

Magazine, 72 (Winter 1977), 513, 522; Charles S. Martin and Thomas Rose, The History of 

Wolfsville and the Catoctin District (Frederick, 1972), 9.

50Brugger, 71-72; Gordon, 15.

51Kessel, “Germans and the Making of Frederick County,” 96.

 Settlers constructed the first church in the region, known as the 

52John B. Frantz, “The Awakening of Religion Among German Settlers in the Middle 
19

Monocacy Church, out of logs as early as 1745. According to local historian Elizabeth 

Anderson, the church sat at the present junction of Hessing Bridge and Blue Mountain Road.53

While apparently of Lutheran denomination, the church appears to have served all of the early 

settlers. With a great shortage of ministers in the back country, traveling Lutheran missionary 

Pastor Johann Caspar Stover from Pennsylvania served the church as part of his regular rounds.54

Very quickly, however, dissension between religious sects broke up the early ecumenical 

Monocacy Church (also known as the Log Church, see Map 1). The 1740s, the era of the Great 

Awakening, was in fact a time of great religious enthusiasm. Germans enjoyed their own revival 

of religious fervor. German missionaries, such as Michael Schlatter of the German Reformed 

Church traveled through the Maryland frontier attracting large audiences. Despite the language 

differences, Germans also flocked to the religious revivals held by English evangelical George 

Whitefield.55

 

Colonies,” William and Mary Quarterly (April 1976), 268.

53Elizabeth Anderson, Faith in the Furnace A History of Harriet Chapel (1985), 3.

54Millard Milburn Rice, New Facts and Old Families (Redwood, CA, 1976), 173-174; 

Frantz, 270-271.

55Frantz, 281-283.

 With the population growing and farmers increasingly prosperous, settlers wanted 

their own churches in which they could worship their own way. Moravians began meeting at the 

home of convert Jacob Weller and, in 1758, built their own church in Graceham. Meanwhile the 

Lutherans constructed Apple’s Church in the future Mechanicstown. Later, as settlers began 

filling up the west side of the mountain, the Hauver family, led by German immigrant Peter 

Hauver, and area Lutherans built the Mount Moriah Lutheran Church (on present-day Foxville 
20

Church Road, see Map 1).56

Writing in the nineteenth century, historian of western Maryland, Thomas Scharf 

reported real rivalries and occasional violence between “Swizzers” (Swiss immigrants) and 

Germans in northern Frederick County (at this time Frederick County included present-day 

Montgomery, Frederick, and Washington Counties). These conflicts, Scharf suggested, were 

outgrowths of political tensions. Unfortunately, he provided no evidence for his claim, nor can 

any be readily found. One can surmise that there were differences, especially along the lines of 

religion, but any real conflict went unrecorded in historical sources.57

Rather than conflict between nationalities, the pioneers appeared more interested in 

material gain from increasingly commercialized agriculture. Upon arrival, first generation 

settlers quickly surveyed and appropriated the best land in the region, most acquiring tracts 

averaging 152 acres. The settlers cleared and plowed fields and established a grain-based mixed 

farming economy in sharp contrast to the tobacco grown in Eastern Maryland. Wheat was the 

primary crop but the German migrants also raised livestock, and grew small grains such as rye, 

barley, oats, buckwheat, flax, and hemp.58

 56Scharf, 614.

57Ibid, 614; Paul and Rita Gordon, 184, picked up Scharf’s claims in their 1974 history of 

Frederick County.

58Richard Walsh, “The Era of the Revolution,” in Richard Walsh, Maryland: A History

(Annapolis, 1983), 83. “The wheat farmer,” noted historian Richard Walsh, “brought changes to 

the economic structure. By 1775, Maryland was in a transitional stage economically with all of 

its attendant uncertainties of promise for some and altered conditions. As a saleable commodity, 

wheat had its benefits and limitation...good for the small producer, since there was no restriction 

locally such as the tobacco inspection Act.” But it remained on the list of enumerated items that 

must be sold either locally or to the motherland (England).

Credit networks among the settlers helped the 
21

Germans establish themselves and, sometimes, expand into more commercial farming.59 While 

most farms remained family operations, more prosperous farmers did hire servants and some 

bought slaves. The first generation of Catoctin area farmers thrived despite adversity. Land 

holding at death frequently exceeded 400 acres.60

Washington’s defeat sparked an international war--the Seven-Year’s War. The war in 

America put the colonists in a difficult position. Many, especially the Germans, had little loyalty 

to the British. Mennonites and Moravians, as pacifists, opposed both oath-taking and bearing 

The French and Indian War

Despite the general success experienced by the pioneer generation of Germans and Swiss 

in the Catoctin area, the area suffered a significant upheaval in the decade following the initial 

settlement. As the English colonial frontier edged westward, conflicts grew over the fate of the 

Ohio Valley, claimed by both France and England. The two nations long had been at each 

other’s throats and had fought several wars, the most recent of which ended in 1748. Seeking to 

lay a claim to land west of the English colonies, the French, with the help of their Native 

American allies, built a series of forts in western Pennsylvania in 1752 and 1753. Their efforts 

culminated in 1754 with the construction of Fort Duquesne (present site of Pittsburgh). Angry 

English authorities sent a young George Washington and a small group of Virginia militiamen to 

warn the French away. But the future president and his forces met a much more determined 

enemy than they had expected. Fighting broke out and the overwhelmed Virginians were forced 

to flee eastward. 

 59Kessel, “Germans in the Making of Frederick County”, 101.

60Kessel, ““Germans in the Making of Frederick County,” 95-98.
22

arms; they felt particularly uncomfortable under pressure to fight for an imperial power with 

which they had little connection. Even colonists of English descent seemed to feel no great 

commitment to the battle. There was little interest in organizing a central administrative body 

among the colonies and real resistance to supporting financially the English army in the colonies.

Angry at the American colonists but determined to defeat their enemies, the English, in 

the summer of 1755, organized a large army under General Edward Braddock to march on Fort 

Duquesne. Braddock spent several weeks marshaling his forces at Fredericktown, where he 

headquartered at a Tavern on West All Saint’s Street. There, he was joined by Washington and 

about 250 Virginia militiamen as well as by Thomas Cresap and a contingency from western 

Maryland. The colonists found Braddock to be an arrogant commander, contemptuous of their 

advice and knowledge of the back county.61 In June Braddock rallied his troops, numbering 

some 2,500, toward Fort Duquesne. They stayed their first night on South Mountain before 

pressing further west.62

Settlers on the Maryland frontier reeled in horror at the specter of their defeated troops in 

Although the English greatly outnumbered their adversaries, the French with the aid of a 

group of war-seasoned Indians took the offensive. They ambushed Braddock’s army as it 

attempted to cross the Monongahela River, roughly six miles from the fort. Braddock and nine 

hundred men died in the fighting. Washington had two horses shot from under him. Defeated 

for a second time, Washington led the remaining forces back to Frederick County. 

 61Thomas J.C. Williams, History of Frederick County, (1910, reprint, Baltimore, 1967), 

29-34.

62Gordon, 27.
23

retreat. Now there was nothing between them and the French and Indians. Hundreds of settlers 

fled their farms to the relative safety of Fredericktown, which quickly became an armed camp.63

Paranoia swept not only western Maryland but the entire colonies. Fears swirled of Indian 

attacks, slaves uprisings, and Catholics plots.64 Worried about their own security, eastern 

Maryland elites seemed little concerned with the fate of western homesteaders. Thomas Cresap, 

infuriated that the colonial government had not sent reinforcements west, threatened to lead a 

protest march on Annapolis.65

But Cresap and the other pioneers could not leave their western holding for fear of a 

French and Indian invasion. They organized a volunteer militia at Elizabethtown (the future 

Hagerstown), and Cresap turned his Potomac River outpost at Oldtown into an armed fort.66 

Tensions grew even greater as Indians began raiding and attacking settlements in western 

Maryland. Spurred by their French allies, Native Americans attacked Emittsburg. The small 

Moravian church at Graceham recorded 1756 as a year of “great danger and distress.”67

 63Ibid, 30.

64Mark Stegmaier, “Maryland Fear of Insurrection at the Time of Braddock’s Defeat,” 

Maryland Historical Magazine, 71 (Winter 1976), 467-482.

65Gordon, 33.

66Brugger, 94.

67Oeter, 22.

 The 

Maryland Gazette, the colony’s main newspaper, reported numerous scalpings in 1756 and 1757. 

Equally horrifying were the abductions. Native Americans kidnapped colonists, especially 

women and children, holding them hostage, sometimes for several years. In the Catoctin region, 
24

Indians abducted the daughter of Caspar Schmidt, listed in the Graceham Moravian records as a 

“farmer in the mountains,” in 1757. The kidnapping apparently took place directly in front of her 

father. With a treaty signed in 1758 requiring the release of all captives, the Schmidt girl found 

freedom but was apparently claimed by a family living in Philadelphia. Schmidt was forced to 

travel north to reclaim his daughter and the final outcome is unrecorded.68

Iron was, in fact, an increasingly important colonial commodity. England, the mother 

country, had developed a strong metalworking industry by the mid-eighteenth century. But the 

forests of Britain quickly became severely depleted, depriving English iron makers of necessary 

fuel for iron furnaces. By 1720, England was importing over 20,000 ton of iron, mostly from 

Sweden. To the English, committed to the mercantile economic ideals of the times, dependent 

colonies--and certainly not profiteering outside countries--should provide raw material and ready 

The several years of war had a profoundly dislocating effect on life in the Monocacy 

Valley. After having established farms, churches and homes, the settlers abandoned everything 

and fled. With the English victory in North America in 1760, the pioneers were eager to 

reestablish themselves and, no doubt, hoped for peace. But war, tumult, and change continued.

The Arrival of Iron

Security having been restored after the end of the French and Indian War, settlers returned 

to their homes. At the same time, easterners began looking anew at western Maryland with an 

eye toward investment opportunities. Just as eastern Maryland’s Native Americans had mined 

the mountains for rhyolite, white easterners sought to extract their own bounty from the region in 

the form of iron. 

 68Oeter, 22.
25

markets for finished products. Great Britain thus set about to encourage iron making in the North

American colonies. In 1719, the Maryland General Assembly passed “An Act for the 

Encouragement of an Iron Manufacture within this Province.” The far-reaching act allowed an 

entrepreneur interested in iron manufacturing to obtain a “writ ad quod damnum” or a special 

condemnation to acquire a water-powered site capable of producing iron. An unfortunate owner 

of a targeted site would lose his land unless he or she produced proof of an intention to build an 

iron works. If no proof was forthcoming, the land would go to an entrepreneur, who was required 

to begin furnace construction within six months.69

Iron manufacturing in the colonies presented challenges. English colonial officials, while 

eager to encourage the colonists to produce pig and bar iron, were less enthusiastic about the 

colonial manufacturing of finished products from iron. Parliamentary acts pertaining to iron in 

1750 and 1757 allowed for the duty-free shipping of the metal but prohibited manufacturing of 

finished products and declared all “machines for hammering or drawing metal” as “common 

nuisances” to be destroyed within thirty days. Nevertheless, some colonial manufacturing of iron 

did continue in defiance of British authorities and money still was to be made from the 

production and exporting raw iron.70

Inspired by colonial incentives, a nascent iron industry in Maryland sprang to life. The 

 69Michael Thompson, The Iron Industry in Western Maryland (Baltimore, 1976), 14-15; 

Michael Robbins, Maryland’s Iron Industry During the Revolutionary War Era, (Baltimore, 

1973), 6-8.

70Michael W. Robbins, The Principio Company: Iron-Making in Colonial Maryland, 

1720-1781 (New York, 1986), 13.
26

Principio Company in Cecil County became the colony’s first iron furnace in 1720.71 The 

erection of several other furnaces for the manufacture of pig iron quickly followed. By 1762, 

eight iron factories existed in Maryland.72 With greater security on the western frontier following 

the French and Indian War, investors targeted the western portions of the colony for 

development. Entrepreneurs from the lower Tidewater area erected the Hampton Furnace, one 

mile west of Emmitsburg in 1764.73 The furnace boasted 3,000 acres of land. African-American 

slaves provided the bulk of labor. But operations at the furnace lasted only a few years before it 

went broke.74

Undeterred by the apparently risky nature of the venture, other wealthy Marylanders also 

began investing in western enterprises.75 As early as the 1750s, prominent investor Charles 

Carroll, eventually planning to construct an iron-making plant, purchased a large tract of land in 

western Maryland.76

 71Ibid, 1-12,

72Walsh, 85.

73Basil L. Crapster, "Hampton Furnace in Colonial Frederick County," Maryland 

Historical Magazine 80 (Spring 1985), 1-5.

74Maryland Gazette, 22 May 1767.

75Robbins, Maryland’s Iron Industry During the Rev War Era, 9. Iron manufacturing in 

Western Maryland, with its rich natural resources, offered real advantages over eastern 

production. Eastern furnaces, for instance, often used oyster shells fro Chesapeake Bay to create 

lime to serve as furnace flux. At the Catoctin site, however, lime and iron ore could be mined 

directly from the mountain.

76Ibid, 49.

 By the 1760s, another wealthy easterner, Thomas Johnson, a prominent 

lawyer, entrepreneur, and future governor of Maryland, also took an active interest in western 
27

Maryland. Johnson’s grandfather had come from Yarmouth, England in 1660 to settle in Calvert 

County. The family, already aristocracy, further prospered in Calvert County. Grandson Thomas 

was one of twelve children born to Thomas and Dorcas Johnson. Quickly proving himself adroit 

in both politics and business, Johnson moved to the forefront of colonial leadership. Among his 

close friends he counted George Washington.77

Seeking economic opportunity on the Maryland frontier, Johnson formed a partnership 

with Launcelot Jacques, a fifth-generation descendent of French Huguenot refugees. In 1768, 

taking advantage of the Maryland Assembly offer of ad quod damnum, Johnson and Jacques 

purchased a 9,860-acre tract known as Green Springs, roughly two miles south of Fort Frederick, 

on the Potomac River, in what is present-day Washington County. Accounts from the time 

referred to the furnace constructed on the site as the “Fort Frederick Iron Mill.”

 

78

A tract south of the Hampton Furnace--land which may well have provided some of the 

iron ore for the Hampton furnace--caught the attention of Thomas Johnson. Situated near a an 

iron ore bank, a ready supply of lime, and a plentiful water source (Hunting Creek), the tract 

known as “John’s Mountain” owned by John Valentine Verdries and his wife Elizabeth appeared 

ideal for iron exaction and manufacture. The Verdries, like most in the area, were refugees from 

Germany and had been among the early members of the Lutheran Monacacy Log Church 

 Their 

investment proved not particularly successful, and the two began to look for a better furnace 

location somewhat to the east.

 77Williams, 101; Thompson, 61.

78Thompson, 67-68. The deed from Lord Baltimore conveying Green Springs to Jacques 

and Johnson is reprinted in Scharf, 106-107.
28

Congregation.79

Although ad quod damnum would have certainly been at Johnson’s disposal, he and his 

partners do not appear to have used condemnation to obtain Verdries’ land. In 1770, the 

Verdries sold the land, now called “Mountain Tract,” to Thomas Johnson and his partner 

Benedict Calvert, also a partner in the Hampton enterprise to the north.80 Johnson then set about 

to acquire other land in the area with the help of his brothers, Roger, Baker, and James, all of 

whom had already moved to Frederick County. Among their acquisitions was a tract known as 

“Good Will” and a tract originally granted to Charles Carroll known as “Stoney Park.”81

The Johnson brothers, having secured several thousand acres in the area for mining and 

timber harvesting, then moved to construct their furnace. The Johnson family owned a sizable 

number of slaves and it is most probable that unfree labor constructed the original furnace. The 

exact site of the original furnace remains a point of some controversy. Archeological surveys 

have failed to yield any definite conclusions, although it appears that the first furnace was built 

within a mile of the current ruin.82 An 1842 letter from the son of James Johnson identified the 

location of the first furnace as where “the Auburn house now stands” (see Map 1)83

 79Schildknecht, vol. 1, 149.

80Patent BC & GS 42:3-8. A third partner in the purchase was John Davidson.

81National Heritage Corporation, “Catoctin Iron Furnace, Cunningham Falls, State Park, 

Thurmont, Maryland: A Report on an historical Survey,” (December 1975), 4.

82John Milner Associates, “Archeological Excavations at Site 18 FR 320, Catoctin, 

Maryland,” (July 1980), 3. John Means, Maryland’s Catoctin Mountain Parks, An Interpretive 

Guide to Catoctin Mountain Park and Cunningham Falls State Park (Blacksburg, VA, 1995), 

100. Means estimates the original furnace site as 3/4 of a mile from the ruins.

 The original 

83James Johnson letter, 1 September 1842, Johnson Family Papers, Frederick Historical 
29

furnace stack stood 32 feet high and 8.5 feet in diameter. Although small compared to stacks 

later constructed at Catoctin, nothing like it had ever been seen in the Catoctin area before.

The Road to Revolution

While the Johnson brothers were introducing the Catoctin Mountain area to industry, 

tensions between Great Britain and her North American colonies were heating up. The friction 

grew out of an attempt by Great Britain to tighten colonial control after years of loose 

administration. Although essentially a frontier only a decade before, Frederick was the third 

largest county in Maryland by the 1770s, and western Maryland, along with new resident Thomas 

Johnson, were active players as the colonies edged toward independence.

Western Marylanders had little reason to feel any great affection for the mother country. 

General Braddock during the French and Indian War had proven callous and contemptuous of 

Americans trying to aid his cause. English incompetence was a bitter memory for many in 

Frederick County. In addition, roughly half the population was German and had little affinity for 

the imperial British and their authoritarian ways. Maryland authorities still forbade Germans 

from voting. There also existed fears that the British eventually would seek to impose their 

Church of England on the sectarian Germans.84

The local population was ripe then to support the growing resistance to the new imperial 

edicts. When colonial authorities attempted to impose the Stamp Act, requiring all printed 

materials to carry a stamp for which a payment was required, Frederick County joined in the 

 

Society, Frederick, Maryland.

84Bernard Steiner, Western Maryland in the Revolution, (Baltimore, 1902), 7; Brugger, 

97.
30

upheavals that shot across the colonies. Protestors burned a tax collector in effigy during a mass 

demonstration in Fredericktown.85 Meanwhile, despite the prosperity of some, others, especially 

commercial farmers were going into debt. They blamed imperial authorities and petitioned the 

General Assembly to protest a shortage of currency. Some Marylanders even resorted to using 

Pennsylvania currency.86

Reacting to the growing tensions, the Governor of Maryland blamed Thomas Cresap for 

stirring up the people. In fact, Cresap, now rather elderly, again threatened to march on 

Annapolis when the colonial government appeared hesitant to recompense members of the 

western militia.

Meanwhile in 1767, the long-standing Pennsylvania-Maryland dispute came to an end 

with the establishment of the Mason-Dixon Line. This resolution paved the way for greater 

cooperation between the two colonies, as each faced the growing crisis with Great Britain.

87

Resolved by the Inhabitants of Tom's Creek Frederick County, in 

the Province of Maryland, loyal to their king and country that we 

reaffirm the Great Magna Carter of Civic and Religious Rights, as 

granted by Charles of England to Lord Baltimore and the 

Inhabitants of this colony, as reaffirmed on the first landing of the 

Pilgrim Fathers of Maryland. That there shall be a perfect freedom 

of conscience and every person be allowed to enjoy his religious 

 When tensions heated up again around the time of the Boston Massacre in 

1770, a group of angry western Marylanders, primarily concerned with threats to religious liberty,

met at Tom’s Creek near Emmitsburg and issued the following statement:

 85Maryland Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, Patriots All: Being a History 

and Report on Seventy-five Years of Leadership in Frederick County, (Frederick, MD, 1895), 33.

86Walsh, 59; Brugger, 103.

87Brugger, 112.
31

political privileges and immunities unmolested.88

By 1774, a dysfunctional relationship between the colonies and motherland had 

disintegrated into open hostilities when the British forcibly closed Boston Harbor in retaliation 

for the Boston Tea Party. Although far way, Marylanders, especially in the west, identified with 

the struggles of the Bostonians. In July of 1774, 800 gathered in Elizabethtown (Hagerstown) to 

protest the blockade of Boston Harbor.89 Similar protests were held in every district of the 

county. Proclamations of sympathy for Boston poured out of the meetings.90

Jonathan Hager, a German immigrant and founder of the future Hagerstown, was a great 

supporter of the colonial cause, as were the Johnson brothers.91 When open hostilities developed 

in early 1775, Frederick County immediately organized two companies of volunteers, one under 

Michael Cresap, son of Thomas. With their faces painted like Indians, armed with tomahawks 

and rifles, and dressed in deerskins and moccasins, the volunteers headed north to aid the battling 

minutemen in the summer of 1775.92

 88Maryland Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 34.

89Gordon, 38.

90Historical Society of Frederick County, “Three Historical Sketches of Frederick County: 

From its Foundation to the End of the Revolutionary Period,” (Frederick, 1974), 18.

91Brugger, 114.

92Ibid, 127.

 The war began just as construction completed on the 

Johnson Furnace at Catoctin. Both events signaled a new era for the mountain.
Chapter Two

War and Industry on the Mountain

Introduction

In 1841, The Baltimore Phoenix and Budget carried a long article reflecting on a halfcentury of change having occurred in the shadow of the Catoctin mountains. The piece began by 

recalling the idyllic state of the mountain and environs in the late eighteenth century: “At that 

period . . almost uninterrupted forest; and game of various descriptions. . . the frightful shrieks of 

the howling wolf were heard at night.” But “a few years brought the woodman's axe in fearful 

conflict with the mighty oak that had withstood the blasts of many winter, and the majestic trees 

whose towering height almost pierced the clouds all were laid low." By the early nineteenth 

century, explained the author: “Now how changed the scene! The p'ough is seen gliding o'er the 

horizontal plain, attached to furious steeds, and the husbandman is heard merrily whistling, as the 

chargers fling the foam--now the clank of busy mechanic, and the rattling of chariot-wheels, and 

the hum of business are always heard." The once peaceable mountains, according to the writer, 

had changed forever. 1

This chapter covers the evolution of the area, later to become Catoctin Mountain Park. It 

carries the story through a time of tumultuous change--from the time of the American Revolution 

through to the 1830s. While the region remained primarily agricultural, industry, in the form of 

the iron works, increasingly changed the face of the area both environmentally and socially. To 

the already diverse Catoctin population was added a new group--African slaves who worked in 

 1

Baltimore Phoenix and Budget, May 1841.
34

the furnace. Their work was often brutally hard. But industrial slavery at Catoctin appears to 

have been a fundamentally different experience from the plantation slavery also practiced at the 

time.

Forging a Revolution

In 1775, a band of western Marylanders, led by Michael Cresap, marched off to join their 

colonial brothers under siege in Boston. This was not unexpected. Most residents of the upper 

Monocacy and Catoctin region were strong supporters of the movement for American 

independence. The English-descended elites in the region had plenty of reason to resent their 

colonial overlords. Many were in debt. Others were angered by high taxes. Still others were 

beset by the mercantile regulations imposed by the British Parliament that circumscribed their 

businesses. Nor did the Germans in the area have any great allegiance to Great Britain. Many 

had come to America to escape religious persecution, and efforts to tighten imperial control did 

not sit well with a population that prized religious and political freedom. Rumors freely 

circulated that the British planned to impose Church of England practices on all dissenters. 

Likewise, the Germans--barred by colonial law from voting--felt alienated from the civic life of 

the region.2

Many in the Catoctin area contributed both materially and with their lives to the 

American cause.3

 2

Brugger, 7.

 Unlike the previous French and Indian War and the future Civil War, there 

was to be no fighting in the immediate Catoctin vicinity. Nevertheless, western Marylanders 

3

William Hinks, Centennial Celebration in Frederick County, on June 28, 1876

(Frederick, 1879), 26-27.
35

volunteered in large numbers to aid the new nation's cause. With a estimated 130,000 colonists 

of German origin, the continental army organized special German regiments. Most members of 

the special force came from Maryland and Pennsylvania. German regiment officers were 

bilingual, but German was the spoken language among the ranks. These special regiments saw 

action in both the Trenton and Princeton campaigns and spent time at Valley Forge.4

Germans from Frederick County and newly-formed Washington County (created out of 

the Western portion of Frederick County in 1776) served in the German regiments.5

 A survey of 

the German regiment muster rolls, however, turns up none of the prominent family names from 

the Catoctin area. However, members of the Frederick County--Middle District regiment did 

include a few familiar family names including Vallentine Creager, Ludwick Moser, and Michael 

Fox. Members of the Frederick Company Third District organized out of Emmitsburg included 

Philip and John Weller, Lawrence Freagers, and Peter Shover (who owned a small farm on what 

would later become parkland). First Lieutenant Frederick Nicodemus (ancestor of a Nicodemus 

who owned the furnace property in the twentieth century), headed up the Flying Camp in 

Washington County.6

The paucity of Catoctin-area names among the ranks of Maryland's soldiers may have 

 4

Henry Retzer, The German Regiment of Maryland and Pennsylvania in the Colonial 

Army, 1776-1781 (Westminster, MD 1991), 1-2.

5

That same year Montgomery County was created out of the lower portion.

6

Archives of Maryland, Muster Rolls and other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in 

the American Revolution, 1775-1783 (Baltimore, 1972), 72-73, 224, 266-267. Maryland Society 

of the Sons of the American Revolution, 4. A Martin Lantz does appear as a member of the 

German regiment in 1780, but the records provide no mention of individual soldiers specific 

homes.
36

been due to incomplete records, but also may have related to religious strictures against war. For 

instance, despite their sympathy for the American cause, Moravian beliefs forbade the taking up 

of arms. Nevertheless, the Graceham Church recorded that patriotism led some members of the 

congregation to join the Continental army despite their pacifistic convictions.7

American officials viewed those Marylanders who did fight, including those in the 

German regiments, as among the best soldiers in the continental army. After fighting with 

distinction in the northern campaigns, the Maryland soldiers were redeployed. They passed 

through their home state on their way south to the Carolinas. This would be the next theater of 

the war. In the Southern campaigns, General Nathaniel Greene exalted that, "nothing could 

exceed the gallantry of the Maryland line." Others recalled the Maryland forces as having "the 

hottest blood in the union."8

Frederick County was not the scene of much fighting, but it made invaluable 

contributions to the war effort. With its rich wheat fields, the county, claimed one historian, 

became the "breadbasket of the Revolution," supplying hungry troops and making up for crops 

destroyed in the many military campaigns of the war.9

 7

Oerter, 34.

8

Brugger, 128-129.

9

Maryland Agricultural Week Committee, "Breadbasket of the Revolution, Maryland 

Agriculture, 1776-1976" (Annapolis, 1976), 3.

The emerging industries of the region also 

provided for the military needs of the war. An important powder depository and gunlock factory 

was situated in Frederick City. There was also a prison camp in the city which held captured 
37

Hessian soldiers.10 Other important powder mills could be found in Antietam and along the 

Monocacy River.11

Revolution and the Furnace

Frederick County's important role in the war could be credited in part to Thomas 

Johnson's increasingly central role in the government of the new nation. Johnson, along with his 

brothers, had numerous business interests in Western Maryland--including the brand new 

Catoctin iron furnace. Earlier he had helped draft many of the early colonial protests to the 

King's imperial policies. As a wealthy, well-connected patriot, Johnson was elected to the 

Continental Congress where, in turn, he nominated his friend George Washington to be 

commander-in-chief of the continental army. Johnson proved to be a well-respected and 

important member of congress. Fellow congressman John Adams commented that although not 

a great orator, "Johnson of Maryland, has a clear and cool head . . . He is a deliberating man."12

In January 1776, Johnson's home colony tapped his talents when its Provincial 

Convention elected him Brigadier General of the Militia. In this position Johnson had the 

challenging duty of raising supplies and money to arm the new army. The job kept him so 

occupied that he missed the debate and signing of the Declaration of Independence. His work 

was demanding and allowed Johnson to utilize his immense network of business interests and 

contacts. On February 13, 1777, the Maryland legislature elected Johnson the first governor of 

 10Brugger, 125-127.

11Williams, 87.

12Frank F. White, Jr. The Governors of Maryland, 1777-1970 (Baltimore, 1970), 3-5.
38

the state. He was inaugurated amid a lavish ceremony in Annapolis on March 13, 1777.13

"Sir. We are in want of about 20 41b Cannon, 20 31b and 20 21b and 40 Swivels 

for the use of the Province and desire to know whether you will engage to furnish 

us with those quantities immediately--if you can, be pleased to favor us as soon as 

possible with your terms and the time by which you will have them made, the-it 

will be such more agreeable to us to see you upon the occasion. We shall likewise 

want 200 Iron Potts, some to contain 4 and other 2 Gallons, with Gales or Handles 

to supply the place of Camp Kettles, and should be glad you would advise us 

whether you could also cast them for us and by what time, likewise the price."

By the time of the American Declaration of Independence, Johnson's long-planned 

furnace at the foot of the Catoctin mountains was nearly completed--just in time to meet the 

demands of war. Continuing uncertainty exists as to the exact contribution made by Johnson's 

Catoctin Furnace during the Revolution. With few surviving records of the operations of the 

furnace (even for the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century), current research can do little 

beyond pointing to probabilities. In the case of the Revolutionary War, it does appear that some 

war materials were produced from iron manufactured at Catoctin. On July 17, 1776, the colonial 

Council of Safety contacted Thomas Johnson and his brother, James, a colonel in the Continental 

Army and proprietor of the furnace about the possibility of producing cannon balls and shot from 

the furnace. The Council of Safety was the revolutionary body in charge of virtually all elements 

of war preparation and life in the new nation, and it needed the Johnson’s help: 

14

On behalf of his brother, Thomas Johnson replied to the Council. He explained that "our furnace 

is not yet in blast," but there was on hand "a few potts of about the size you describe." Johnson 

 13Ibid, 5.

14William Hand Browne, ed. Archives of Maryland, Journal and Correspondence of the 

Maryland Council of Safety, July 7-December 31, 1776 (Baltimore, 1893), 55.
39

promised an effort to meet the Council's needs. Meanwhile, he assured the council that his 

"brother is getting his furnace into Blast with all Diligence and hopes to effect it within a 

fortnight. You may then have any number of potts and kettles that you please within a short 

time." Johnson also promised "to cast such guns as are wanted but cannot contract for them in all

Events because the metal may not suit, although we have every Reason to expect it will."15

Most interested in the guns, the council quickly replied: "If your Brother's Iron is suitable 

for casting Guns we could contract with you for fifty three pounders, fifty four-pounders, and 

seventy five Swivels to Carry one point Ball."16 With the Council's offer to purchase guns, the 

paper trail ends. By September 1777, the Johnson furnace was fully functioning and the partners 

were advertising for the sale of "[s]alt pans, ten feet square and fifteen inches deep with crews 

ready to join an fit them up made at Catoctin Furnace about 10 miles from Frederick Town at 

551 per ton."17 Presumably the Johnson's Bush Creek Forge, built in the mid-1770s near the 

mouth of Bush Creek, three to five miles from Frederick City, forged the iron produced at 

Catoctin. The Johnson Forge included a rolling and slitting mill, although these might have been 

added later.18

Several years later, in 1780 James Johnson and his partners contracted with the Board of 

War to "prepare for casting ten inch shells . . . for the use of the United States.” Johnson was to 

 15Ibid, 92.

16Ibid, 114.

17Maryland Gazette, 2 September 1777.

18Board of World's Fair Managers, Maryland: Its Resources, Industries and Institutions

(Baltimore, 1893),106. Thompson, 64.
40

ship the shells to Baltimore and be paid in continental dollars. The Board of War, however, 

seemed to have had reservations about Johnson's abilities to produce the shells. The contract 

required that the partners "use their best Endeavors" and instructed that "if they can succeed in 

Casting them" to follow specific instructions for the delivery of the shells.19

The announcement of American victory brought tremendous celebration to Frederick 

County. Fireworks accented festivities in Frederick City, while residents of upper Frederick 

County enjoyed a victory celebration on Israel Creek.

The writers of the 

contract apparently had some doubt that the Johnson furnace could produce the shells. On the 

other hand, it was wartime and uncertainties abounded.

No specific evidence could be found that Catoctin Furnace contributed to the production 

of Revolutionary War munitions. There is ample evidence, however, of discussion relating to 

munitions manufacturing and the Johnson Furnace. One could surmise that given the Johnson 

family connections and the length of the war, which lasted seven years following the first blast of 

the furnace, the Catoctin Furnace did produce iron--either for shot, cannon balls, guns or swivels. 

At the very least, it appears almost certain that Catoctin iron produced "potts" and other products 

for the war effort. The Johnson works was a new, centrally-located furnace owned by a wellconnected patriotic family. It would be difficult to believe that the Johnson enterprise did not 

contribute to the war effort.

20

 19"It is agreed between Capt Daniel Joy. . ." RG 93, #29632, Roll 103, Frames 227-228, 

National Archives.

 The legacies of the Revolution were 

many, including the introduction and elevation of industry in the former frontier region. One of 

20Gordon, 49.
41

the most immediate impacts was the introduction of a new group of German immigrants to the 

area--Hessian soldiers, many of them former prisoners of war, who decided to stay in the New 

World.21 Some apparently found employment in the furnace, eventually becoming key 

operators.22

Rumsey's Steamboat

One of the most interesting events in which the newly built Catoctin Iron Furnace played 

a role was the launching of James Rumsey's steam ship on the Potomac in 1787. The event grew 

out of the friendship and common interests of Governor Johnson and George Washington. Both 

owned land along the Potomac, and both eagerly sought to improve upon their investments. 

Along with other prominent figures, the two formed the Potomac Company to promote 

development along the river. Washington served as president of the organization, and Johnson 

was an active member of the board of directors.23

The company hired James Rumsey, an enterprising inventor from Cecil County, 

Maryland, as its superintendent. Rumsey used his position to generate interest in his plans to 

construct a steam-powered boat. When he submitted a preliminary proposal to the company, 

General Washington immediately saw the potential. The founding father declared "that the 

 21Reich, 294.

22Louise McPherson, "Recollections of Catoctin Parish, Protestant Episcopal Church," 

nd. McPherson identified two men, Blackford and Thronburgh, as Hessian soldiers who settled at 

Catoctin Furnace and eventually ran the operations for Baker Johnson in the early nineteenth 

century.

23Ella May Turner, James Rumsey: Pioneer in Steam Navigation (Scottdale, PA, 1930), 

27.
42

discovery is of vast importance . . . and if it succeeds (of which I have no doubt) that the value of 

it is greatly enhanced by the simplicity of the works which, when seen and explained, may be 

executed by the most common mechanic."24

In 1785, Rumsey and Washington visited Thomas Johnson in his Fredericktown home to 

discuss the manufacturing of needed parts at the Johnson iron works.25 Over the next couple of 

months, Johnson’s brother, James, attempted to forge and cast the necessary parts. The Catoctin 

Furnace, however, proved inadequate to the task. Thomas Johnson then arranged to have the 

cylinders made from copper in Frederick City.26

Two years later, Rumsey's ship was ready. On December 3, 1787, a large crowd gathered 

in Shepardstown, Virginia on the Potomac to witness the first run of Rumsey's engine-powered 

ship. A vertical pump, seated in the middle of the vessel, driven by a steam engine powered the 

inventor's eighty-foot long boat. As the crowd looked on, Rumsey's boat struggled up to about 

four-miles per hour before dying out.27

Rumsey was not alone in experimenting with steam engines in the 1780s. Others, 

including John Fitch of Connecticut were developing similar engines. A bitter debate broke out 

 

 24Turner, 12-13.

25Turner, 32; James Rumsey, "A Short Treatise on the Application of Steam" May 7, 

1788, 27th Congress, 2nd, sess, House. Docs, v.4, public document 189, 23-24.

26Rumsey, 23-24. In a short pamphlet describing the development of his steam engine, 

Rumsey reprinted a letter sent to him from Thomas Johnson on December 18, 1787. In the letter 

Johnson explained his efforts to cast the cylinders “at my brother’s and my works; the attempt 

did not succeed.”

27Scharf, 994; Turner, 81.
43

as to whose engine was actually the first.28 Seeking to promote his case, Rumsey cited the 

experiments at Catoctin Furnace--which must have taken place in 1785 or 1786--to bolster his 

claim to have been first in inventing the steam technology.29

While Rumsey's engine was hardly ready for immediate commercial utilization and may 

not have been unique, his invention suggested a real future in steam travel. Robert Fulton’s 

steam ship in 1807 and the rapid spread of the railroad, of course, later realized this. The 

Johnson enterprise did not produce any of the parts used in Rumsey’s engine. But having played 

a role in the important experiments leading to the steam engine, the Catoctin area can claim a 

small part in the work of a man whom Thomas Jefferson called "the most original and greatest 

mechanical genius I have ever seen."

 

30

Early Industry

Others in the Catoctin region soon followed the Johnson brothers in exploring the 

potential of industry. By the early nineteenth century, numerous small industries had sprung up 

east of the mountains, especially in the town soon incorporated as Mechanicstown. One of the 

first was a 1793 tannery constructed by Daniel Rouzer, a German immigrant who had first passed 

through New Jersey before coming to the Catoctin area (see Map 2). The tannery, set on Owens 

Creek, made use of the tanning agent found in the bark of abundant oak tree bark found in the 

area. Heavy stones crushed the bark and water from nearby creeks allowed for the soaking of 

 28Robert D. Arbuckle, "John Nicolson and the Great Steamboat Rivalry," Maryland 

Historical Magazine, 71 (Spring 1976), 60.

29Rumsey, 23-24.

30Arbuckle, 60.
44

animal hides. The business prospered and remained in family hand when Daniel Rouzer's son 

John took over the tannery in 1815.31

Other tanneries followed. The Wampler Tannery opened for business in 1810. Ten years 

later, Captain W.L. Jones of Baltimore built a two-story, stone-faced tannery, containing 200 vats 

for soaking, located on Hunting Creek.32 The creek's flowing water propelled a large "grinding 

apparatus," and the tannery yearly consumed some 2,000 cords of bark, employed fifteen men, 

and produced 25,000 hides of leather per year.33

Other industries developed east of the mountains in the early national period including a 

snuff factory in Graceham, an extensive edge-tool manufactory erected in 1811, and a 

matchmaking factory begun by the Weller family.34 Meanwhile, into the early nineteenth 

century, the Johnsons continued to expand their business enterprises. Alongside his furnace, 

James Johnson also owned a flour mill on Fishing Creek.35

Each of these early industries made ample use of one of the region's most abundant 

natural resources--timber. In fact, logging was a major mountain area industry. Sawmills, 

 31Catoctin Enterprise, 21 November 1947; George Wireman, Gateway to the Mountains, 

(1969), 25-27.

32Baltimore Phoenix and Budget, May 1841; Oeter, 58; Wireman, 28.

33Baltimore Phoenix and Budget, May 1841.

34Wireman, 35; Paula Strain, The Blue Hills of Maryland: History Along the Appalachian 

Trail on South Mountain and the Catoctins, (Vienna, VA, 1993), 269; Gordon, 189; Baltimore 

Sun, 22 July 1951. The Weller match factory was the first in America to produce friction 

matches, known as “lucifers.”

35Frederick Town Herald, 12 December 1802. In 1802, James Johnson attempted to sell 

the mill, located "nine miles from Frederick-Town no the road leading to Herman's Gap.”
45

which were features of the mountain since the arrival of white settlers, continued to operate and 

expand. When Catoctin Furnace owner James Johnson sold 715 acres of mountain land roughly 

a half mile from his business, "abounding with chesnut, locust, poplar, and oaks of all kinds," he 

made sure to mention the additional presence of "a saw mill that would work four or six months 

in the year."36 Ten years later Johnson put on the market "325 acres of heavily timbered 

Mountain land.” Again the land was within a mile of his furnace. Johnson suggested that the 

land might be divided into four to six lots, and among the enticements, he trumpeted a "saw mill 

set and a seat for a distillery or tanyard."37

"seven tanniers in town and vicinity, two blacksmith shops, a tilt hammer, grand 

stone, polishing wheel and turning lathe, all propelled by water power, one wool 

and cloth factory, two shoemaker shops three tailors, three weavers, one gunsmith, 

one silversmith, two wagon and coach shops, two mill-wrights, three cabinet 

maker and house carpenter shops, one saddler, one hatter, one doctor, three stone 

and brick masons, three hotels and a match factory."

 No doubt dozens of other sawmills dotted the 

Catoctin area.

Small industry also proliferated along Hunting Creek as it flowed through the valley at 

the foot of the mountain. Soon locals began calling the area Mechanicstown for the large number 

of mechanics operating in the area. In 1882, Andrew Sefton, longtime resident of 

Mechanicstown, recalled his arrival: "I came to this town, April 1st 1831. It then numbered about 

three hundred inhabitants and was a very business place for its size." Sefton married one of the 

daughters of Jacob Weller and settled down. In the 1830s, he recalled: 

38

 36Frederick Town Herald, 12 December 1802. Johnson's advertisement continued to run 

into 1803. 

37Frederick Town Herald, 20 February 1813.

 In 1832, the thriving 

38Catoctin Enterprise, 5 December 1947, reprint of article from a 1882 edition of the 
46

settlement was incorporated as the town of Mechanicstown.

Growing industry, of course, required transportation, a perennial problem in the 

mountainous Catoctin area. What roads existed as the new century began often were barely 

passable. Many were essentially dirt trails through dense forest, with tree stumps cut at 16 inches 

so axles could clear them. Frenchman Ferdinand M. Bayard, traveling through Frederick County 

in the early nineteenth century, found himself "confronted with abominable roads . . . where one 

runs the risk of being upset at any moment on sharp stones or of being thrown into mudholes."39

Travel by stagecoach from Baltimore to Hagerstown in 1803 required one to board the coach in 

Baltimore at three in the morning, arriving in Frederick by evening. A second coach in 

Frederick, again departing at three in the morning, arrived in Hagerstown by early afternoon. Fare 

for the two-day journey was three dollars and an extra dollar and a half for additional luggage.40

With Baltimore the largest growing city in the country by the 1790 pressure grew to 

create a network of useful, passable roads radiating out from the city. Turnpike companies were 

incorporated to build the necessary links. One of the first construction endeavors was a turnpike 

from Baltimore to Frederick, which, by 1807, was extended to Boonsborough, and later to 

Williamsport, where it could link up with routes along the Potomac River.

There does not appear to have been a coach that traveled north from Frederick during this period.

41

 

Catoctin Clarion.

39Rice, 60.

40Frederick Town Herald, 26 March 1803.

41Brugger, 132, 153.

 Construction of the 
47

famed National Road then followed. The road linked existing roads to a major turnpike that ran 

from Cumberland, Maryland, on the Potomac River to Wheeling, Virginia on the Ohio River.

In the Catoctin area, the first phase of the transportation revolution involved the 

Westminister-Hagerstown Turnpike completed in 1816, which connected to the National Road in 

Hagerstown (see Map 2). The Turnpike ran through Mechanicstown and Harmon's Gap (a 

portion of the pike that appeared to have been called Harmon's Gap Road) and what became 

Mechanicstown.42 Within a few years, the Frederick-Emmitsburg Turnpike, passing through 

Creagerstown to the east of Mechanicstown was also completed.43

Wheat and Whisky

If an early industrial revolution was taking hold east of the mountains, a simpler 

agricultural economy centered around hunting, the harvesting of wheat, and raising a small 

number of livestock, persisted on the west side of the mountain. With no agricultural census until 

mid-century, records relating to the local agricultural economy are sparse for this period. 

Nevertheless, what evidence we have suggests a subsistence economy where barter more than 

cash was the basis for most transactions. Of key importance was the exchange of whiskey, 

brandy, and hides. 

 42Frederick Town Herald, 25 October 1817; State Road Commission of Maryland, A 

History of Road Building in Maryland, (Baltimore, 1958), 40. A land advertisement from the 12 

November 1831 edition of the Frederick Town Herald refers to 120 acres of land "lying near 

Miller's tavern, on the top of Catoctin Mountain. The turnpike road also runs through the 

property, and considerably enhances its value."

43Anthony Finley, “Maryland [map],” 1824, in Papenfuse, 58; David H. Burn, “Delaware 

and Maryland [map],” 1838, in Papenfuse, 68. Both maps show the Westminister-Hagerstown 

Turnpike as well as the north-south, Frederick-Emittsburg pike.
48

The center of the mountain economy was a tavern—which still stands--on the southeast 

side of Manahan Road in present-day Foxville (see Map 2). Labeled Wolfe’s Tavern on an 1873 

map of Frederick County, the two-story, log and frame building sheathed in German siding dates 

from around 1800.44

The tavern served multiple functions. The ever-increasing number of migrants moving 

west found a night’s sleep and something to eat at the tavern. With politics an increasingly 

important part of the new nation, the tavern served as a polling place and local court house.

 Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, the Hauver family 

operated the tavern. The Hauvers --following the much-traveled route of German migrants to 

America--first settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, then, by the 1760s, moved to Frederick 

County, settling on the west side of Catoctin Mountain. The family briefly changed its name to 

Oates in the late eighteenth century, apparently feeling that Hauver sounded too German. In 

1779, the Oates\Hauver family purchased a tract of land known as “Good Luck” on which they 

built their tavern. Situated on the road to Hagerstown, the tavern could take advantage of 

business from both the local community and travelers.

45

 44Survey F-6-57, Maryland Historic Site Inventory Form, Frederick County Planning 

Commission.

45Donald Wolf, “The Oates/Hauver/Wolf Tavern,” description attached to Survey F-6-57, 

Maryland Historic Site Inventory Form, Frederick County Planning Commission.

For 

nearby farmers, it served as a general store at which to buy needed supplies such as salt, butter, 

cornmeal, and coffee. It provided needed services such as shovel sharpening. Most importantly, 

the tavern offered farmers and trappers a trading post through which to exchange goods. 

Farmers, for instance, could exchange cow hides for whiskey. The Hauvers often would sell the 
49

hides they obtained to Daniel Rouzer for use in his tannery. Lumber was an important 

commodity and farmers could make staves from wood processed at the many sawmills in the 

region. The Hauvers bought staves by the thousands and resold them to businesses in 

Mechanicstown.46

Operating on a system of credit and counter credit, the primary product sold by the tavern 

was whiskey, and secondarily brandy. A product of the abundant wheat grown in the area, 

whiskey offered obvious advantages. In an area like the Catoctin mountains--with no nearby 

source of water transportation, and railroads still many years off--whiskey could be shipped at a 

significantly lower cost than wheat. The nation, in the early nineteenth century, had an insatiable 

thirst for alcohol, leading one historian to dub the new country the “alcoholic republic.”47 While 

it is impossible to determine the amount of alcohol consumed by local farmers, they did purchase 

a great deal of whiskey and brandy from the local tavern. Some of the whiskey, no doubt, was 

resold. Some may even have been used in place of hard-to-come-by currency.48

 46Ledger of George Hauver Jr., Journal of his Ordinary (later Wolfe's tavern), Frederick 

County Historical Society.

47William J. Rorabaugh, The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition (New York, 

1979). According to the census of 1810, the young nation supported 14,000 distilleries that 

produced 25 million gallons of spirits per year. Soon the country’s intense abuse of alcohol was 

gaining the attention of reformers which led to the temperance movement.

 Whatever the 

case, Wolfe’s Tavern sold close to one hundred gallons of whiskey on a monthly basis. In the 

month of November 1820, for instance, local farmer John Wiant purchased six gallons of 

whiskey, one gallon of brandy, and a half bushel of salt from the tavern. In return, he appears to 

48John Marsh, The Land of the Living: The Story of Maryland’s Green Ridge Forest

(Cumberland, MD, 1996), 636.
50

have sold the tavern one twenty-three pound hide.

Two farmers who owned mountain tracts, later incorporated into the park, appear with 

some regularity in the records of the tavern. Yost Wiant, whose name or whose son’s name 

appears on early maps of the region as owner of a significant plot of mountain-top land, was a 

colorful character, who, according to local legend, kept wild hogs on a portion of his holdings. It 

was that area that became known as “Hog’s Rock.”49

 49"How Hog Rock Got its Name,” History/YCC Anecdotes, Catoctin Mountain Park, 

Thurmont, MD (subsequently to be referred to as CMP).

Wiant mainly purchased alcohol from the 

tavern, occasionally selling a hide or calfskin in return. His purchases for the first several months

of 1821 appear in the Wolfe’s Tavern ledger as follows:

January 15, 1821

one gallon of wiskey [whiskey]

one quart of brandy

one quart of brandy

January 20, 1821

two quarts of cider

two gallons of brandy

Carage for butter

two gallons of wiskey

March 3, 1821

two gallons of wiskey

tow gallon is wiskey

one gallon of wiskey

March 10, 1821

two gallons of wiskey

March 17, 1821

two gall of wiskey

fish

one quart of wiskey

one quart of cidrile[?]

one pint two gall of wisky

two gallons of wiskey

two gallons of brandy
51

April 10, 1821

one shovel plow at bars

one quart cidrila [?]

Another prominent farmer whose family played a major role in the development of the 

area and later acquisition of the park was Archibald McAffee. Settling on a large tract 

surrounding Cunningham Falls, McAffee’s descendants retained ownership of the land until they 

sold it to the government in the 1930s. Like Wiant, McAffee (whose name is spelled Archibald 

Mackffe in the tavern ledger) used the local tavern primarily to purchase and trade for whiskey. 

For instance in March 1819 he purchased the following:

one quart of wiskey

one half pint of wine one sling

three half points of wiskey

two gallons of wine

two gallons of wiskey

three gallons of wine

In return for the alcohol, McAffee appears to have paid cash and traded horse shoes.

Compared to the rapid development of industry in western Maryland and throughout the 

country, agriculture saw few advances and the beginnings of some setbacks. Observers noted the 

first signs of soil exhaustion and lower yields. The Hessian fly, a costly remnant of the 

Revolutionary War, also ravaged crops. Although roads improved and new efforts to build canals 

and railroads generated excitement, transportation networks generally remained primitive in the 

area.50

 50James Van Ness, “Economic Development, Social and Cultural Changes: 1800-1850,” 

in Maryland: A History, Walsh and Fox, eds., 188-190; Robert Mitchell and Edward K. Muller, 

 It was thus industry rather than agriculture that generated the great changes of the times.
52

Catoctin Furnace From the Top Down

During the late eighteenth century, the iron furnace at Catoctin prospered as one of the 

many business interests under the ownership of the Johnson family. In 1787, the brothers rebuilt 

the furnace entirely, moving it roughly three quarters of a mile up Little Hunting Creek to its 

present site (See Appendix 1). The new furnace continued to operate with one stack, producing 

an estimated 900 tons of iron per annum.51 That same year the Johnsons also added another 

furnace located at the mouth of the Monocacy to their growing domain.52

By the early 1790s, the diverse interests of the Johnson family were proving too extensive 

to be jointly managed by the four brothers. In 1793, the Johnsons, therefore, divided up their 

jointly-held enterprises.53

Around 1805, Baker constructed for himself a handsome home, slightly west of the 

furnace, which he called “Auburn.”

 The Catoctin furnace, which previously had been under the 

supervision of James Johnson, now shifted to the former governor, Thomas, and his younger 

brother Baker (1749-1811). It was Baker who took the greatest interest in Catoctin. The younger 

Johnson acquired his brother's half share in 1802, becoming sole owner of the furnace. 

54

 

Geographical Perspectives on Maryland’s Past (College Park, Maryland, 1979), 24-26. Future 

research might focus on the impact of the Hessian Fly in Western Maryland.

51Neumann, 20; Singewald, 146; Thompson, 63.

52Frederick Town Herald, 20 September 1817.

53Frederick Town Herald, 19 March 1803.

54Anderson, 7.

 Apparently not an iron master himself, Johnson leased the
53

land to Benjamin Blackford of New Jersey, who operated the furnace for almost a decade.55

When Baker died in 1811, Catoctin Furnace went up for public sale, as instructed in his 

will. Newspapers from around the country carried lengthy announcements, advertising the merits 

of the furnace. Promising a public auction if the property failed to generate a private buyer, the 

site was advertised as "consisting of a large blast furnace-the stack, wheel and bellows, and all 

the buildings of the furnace are built in the best manner are in complete order." A considerable 

amount of land, about 4,611 acres, accompanied the furnace. Between 600 and 700 acres 

consisted of "arable land, and about 60 acres sat as meadow, a great part is well set with 

timothy." The land, the newspaper ads explained, "is well covered with wood and young timber, 

and is deemed sufficient to furnish coal wood for the furnace for many years." Iron ore found 

near the furnace "is easily raised and the Bank apparently inexhaustible." Likewise a "limestone 

quarry is also very convenient not more than 200 yards from the furnace bank." Other attractions 

included the master's house, a large two-story stone building, with "necessary out-houses," 

fountain pump at the kitchen door, and two store houses. Also included was a chopping mill, a 

stone blacksmith shop, barns, stables, and corn houses. The Catoctin Furnace apparently had 

taken on something of a company-town look, and a successful buyer would also acquire "from 15 

to 20 houses for the accommodation of workmen, all in good order" (see Appendix 2 and 3)

During the Blackford period, Baker Johnson continued to improve upon his industrial holding. 

56

 55Louise McPherson, “Recollections of Catoctin Parish, Protestant Episcopal Church," 

(nd), 6. According to Louise McPherson, Benjamin Blackford, Hessian mercenary during the 

Revolutionary War, decided to remain in America, after the war and ended up working at the 

furnace.

56Frederick Town Herald, 13 July 1811. Frederick Post, 5 August 1987. In the late 
54

The executors of Johnson's will eventually sold the furnace to Thomas and Wiloughby 

Mayberry of Philadelphia.57 The Johnson family, however, remained an active presence in the 

area. Baker Johnson, Jr., continued to live at Auburn House, for several decades.58

The Mayberry brothers enjoyed initial success with their new investment. With the 

United States desperately trying to avoid involvement in a war between France and Britain, 

President Thomas Jefferson declared a trade embargo against both belligerents. Spurred by the 

cut-off of foreign competition, American industry thrived. The subsequent War of 1812, although 

disruptive, especially in Washington and Baltimore, led to an economic boom in areas less 

affected by the war. But with the cessation of hostilities in 1815, British iron again flowed into 

the country. The Panic of 1819--the most severe economic downturn in the history of the young 

country--then virtually decimated the iron production business, and the Mayberrys went 

bankrupt.59

At a sheriff’s auction on May 2, 1820, Colonel John McPherson, Jr., and his business 

partner and brother-in-law John Brien, who together already owned an iron furnace in Antietam, 

purchased Catoctin.60

 

1980s, supported by a grant from the Maryland Historic Trust, the Catoctin Furnace Historical 

Association restored one of the original log worker’s houses, dating from circa 1800.

57Ibid; Thompson, 66. The Catoctin buyers paid for property in pounds, the primary 

currency used in Maryland during this period of competing and confusing currencies.

58Frederick Town Herald, 13 July 1811. 

59Thompson, 80.

By the 1820 sale the Catoctin Furnace land holdings had expanded 

60Census Bureau, Census of Manufactures, 1820. Antietam Iron works was a larger 

operation than Catoctin, employing 150 men, and with roughly $200,000 invested.
55

somewhat to include 5,000 acres on which sat "a blast furnace with a commodious casting-house 

and pot-houses, sufficiently large for sixteen moulders, built of stone, office and store houses, 

coal house, two blacksmith's shops, a large ware house, and stables for four teams; chopping, 

stamping and saw-mills, all in complete order." Twenty-two houses "for workmen" now adorned 

the property, as did the two-story, stone master's house, a large stone smoke house, a milk house, 

and an ice house. The sale also included two mountain tracts, "considered the most valuable on 

the Catoctin mt [sic] being covered with fine second growth chestnut." On one of the mountain 

tracts sat a two-story stone house, and the other a "log dwelling."61 But the thirty-three-year-old 

site had aged and had been closed for at least for several months. After the purchase, Brien 

reported to the Census of Manufactures that Catoctin was an “Old Establishment in need of 

repairs. Now repairing it.”62

The sale represented something of a homecoming for the furnace, since John McPherson 

Jr.'s wife was the granddaughter of Governor Thomas Johnson. Likewise McPherson was no 

stranger to the iron manufacturing business. His father, John, Sr., was an "iron master," and his 

sons, explained a family friend in 1809, "wished to adventure the same way."63

 61Frederick Town Herald, 1 April 1820.

62Census Bureau, Census of Manufactures, 1820.

 John Brien also 

had a background intimately linked to iron production. Born in County Tyrone, Ireland, Brien, 

along with his two brothers, followed an uncle to America and into the iron business. The Brien 

brothers worked in iron furnaces in Pennsylvania, gradually accumulating enough money to 

63Denton Jacques to Col John McPherson, 26 December 1809, McPherson Family Papers, 

Frederick County Historical Society.
56

purchase a furnace named Spring Grove. In 1804, John Brien married, Harriet, the daughter of 

"iron master" John McPherson, Sr.64

Brien and McPherson were dedicated to their investment. They added some 3,000 acres 

to the furnace holdings, built a grist mill, enlarged the furnace stack, and increased capacity.65

The furnace began to cast ten-plate stoves, capable of burning full-length cord wood, which 

carried the inscription "McPherson and Brien, Catoctin Furnace.”66 Meanwhile, as the railroad 

revolution began to take hold, the demand for iron rose.67

The mid-1820s also brought something of an educational turn to the furnace area. In 

1825, Baker Johnson, Jr., son of the former furnace owner, "at the solicitation of several of the 

citizens of Frederick and the vicinity . . .consented to open his large and commous house at 

Auburn for the receivership of boys to be instructed in all those branches of education necessary 

to prepare them for the higher classes of college." The boarding school, called Auburn Academy, 

consisted of 20 students, instructed by a Mr. Peers,"a gentlemen in every respect." 

Advertisements for the school, stressed the mountain atmosphere (rather than the nearby burning 

iron furnace operated by slaves): "a high and healthy situation, commending all the advantages of 

pure air and fine water."68

 64Anderson, 10-11.

65Neumann, 21; Anderson, 12; Thompson, 84.

66McPherson, 6.

67Maryland State Planning Commission, "The Iron and Steel Industry: Blast Furnaces, 

Steel Works and Rolling Mills," (Baltimore, 1938), 8.

68Frederick Town Herald, 21 May 1825.
57

The school does not appear to have operated for more than two years. In 1827, John 

Brien purchased and moved into Auburn house.69 Two years later his business partner, John 

McPherson, Jr., died. In 1834, Brien himself died while recovering from an illness at a health 

resort in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania.70

Catoctin Furnace from the Bottom Up: Slavery

Within a couple of years, Brien’s son, John 

McPherson Brien, managed to purchase the furnace from his father’s estate, but, with the panic 

of 1837, the economy again collapsed, and the furnace operated only sporadically for the next 

couple of years.

While we know the names and much about the lives of those who owned the furnace at 

Catoctin, we know little of the workers who toiled in the iron-making plant--many of whom were 

African slaves. Later, as shall be shown in Chapter 3, slave labor declined at the furnace, 

replaced largely by immigrant workers. Until the mid-1830s, however, slaves provided at least 

half of the labor at the furnace. While the subject of slavery inevitably conjures up images of 

large cotton plantations, there existed a sizable number of slaves working in industry. Although 

industrial slavery has not received the attention given to plantation slavery, those historians who 

have studied the phenomenon sharply disagree about the conditions under which slaves worked. 

Some argue that the unique circumstances surrounding slavery in industrial settings allowed 

slaves slightly more freedom and encouraged between master and slave “mutual accommodation 

 69Anderson, 12-13.

70Ibid, 16.
58

rather than outright repression.”71 Other conclude that "[f]or laborers--slave and free--engaged in 

southern industries, working conditions were usually worse than those for laborers engaged in 

southern farming, since industrial development often demanded longer and harder working days 

than did plantation agriculture."72

Before discussing slavery at Catoctin Furnace, we might briefly consider the nature of the 

“peculiar institution” in western Maryland. There was, in fact, much slavery in Frederick and 

Washington Counties. In 1790, around 3,900 (roughly 13%) of Frederick County’s total 

population of 30,000 was of African lineage. Of the total African population, only 213 were 

free.

 With only the most limited of sources on slavery at Catoctin, 

there is little that can be added to this debate. Nevertheless, the few scraps of information we do 

possess are tantalizing--such as evidence of an 1838 riot between furnace workers and residents 

of Mechanicstown. In the brawl black and white furnace workers fought side-by-side, suggesting 

a very different type of slavery than existed on plantations. Likewise, preliminary evidence--

although still too sketchy to allow for any conclusions--suggests that ironmasters may have 

chosen African slaves because of their backgrounds in iron manufacturing. One again this 

suggests that the topic of industrial slavery at Catoctin and elsewhere deserves much deeper 

inquiry.

73

 71Charles B. Dew, “Disciplining Slave Ironworkers in the Antebellum South: Coercion, 

Conciliation, and Accommodation,” American Historical Review, (April 1974), 417.

72Robert Starobin, Industrial Slavery in the Old South (New York, 1970), 36.

 Most slaves worked in agricultural settings. Although many of the German religious 

sects held slavery in low regard, Germans in western Maryland eagerly sought to become slave73Rice, 54.
59

holders. Despite the German reputation for frugality, reports historian Elizabeth Kessel, the "one 

major exception to this rule was slave holding. A slave was a status symbol, and only the 

wealthiest members of this generation could afford such luxury."74 Advertisements for escaped 

slaves in Frederick County often noted that a particular runaway spoke German as well as 

English.75 A twenty-five-year-old slave named Jack, employed as a joiner by John Brien at the 

Antietam Iron Works, ran away in 1807. Frantically advertising for the slave, Brien described 

him as of “dark complexion, speaks German, blue coat, black Pantallons, white Jacket, and a fur 

hat much worn, 5'9, plays violin well.”76

Slaves labored on many of the larger farms surrounding the Catoctin mountains. A 

particularly large farm that was advertised for rent, situated “one mile from the Catoctin 

furnace,” boasted 700 acres of land “about 400 acres of which are cleared and under good 

fencing,” with a “comfortable log dwelling, two barns, and several stables, granaries, and negro 

quarters.”77 Records of the Moravian Church of Graceham, likewise, contain numerous 

references to slave baptisms and marriages. For instance, in 1828, the church recorded the 

marriage of Jeremiah Sims to Mary Tuckman, a couple belonging to George Zollinger, listed as 

“a farmer in mountains.”78

 74Kessel, “Germans on the Maryland Frontier,” 172-178, 184.

75Rice, 55.

76Frederick Town Herald, 11 July 1807. Census records reveal that virtually no slaves 

were held in the mountain area east of the furnace.

77Frederick Town Herald, 8 February 1817.

 In 1832, Jacob Hoover, a prominent store keeper in Wolfsville, 

78James Young Henry, ed. Moravian Families of Graceham, Maryland, 1759-1871
60

advertised: “[c]ash for Negroes, Eighteen or Twenty men, women, and children wanted, for 

which the highest price will be given in cash, apply to Jacob Hoover.”79

Alongside African slaves, a smaller population of unfree whites also worked in Frederick 

County well into the nineteenth century.80 Some of these white “servants” were German, paying 

off their passages to America with several years of indentured work. Advertisements for escaped 

white servants ran alongside announcements of runaway African slaves.81

The majority of unfree labor in western Maryland worked in the dominant agricultural 

sector. But as wealthy eastern Maryland planters, fully versed in the workings of slavery, 

launched industries in the west, it followed that slavery would be the preferred system of labor. 

Before the Civil War, throughout the South, increasing numbers of slaves worked industrial jobs 

in textile factories, sugar refining, grist milling, or coal mining. By the early-nineteenth century, 

roughly 5% of slaves (between 150,000 to 200,000) worked in industry.

 No evidence, 

however, exists that unfree white labor ever toiled at the iron works in Catoctin.

82

 

(Silver Spring, Maryland, 1942), 121-123.

79Hagerstown Mail, 31 August 1832.

80George Anthony Douglas, “An Economic History of Frederick County, Maryland, to 

1860,” (Ph.D. diss., Johns Hopkins University, 1938), 13.

81Frederick Town Herald, 26 March 1803

 It was the iron 

industry in the South, however, that became the most dependent on slave labor. Throughout the 

south, some 10,000 slaves worked in iron production, making up the majority of workers at 

Maryland’s Antietam and Hampton Furnaces and Richmond’s infamous Tredegar Iron Company, 

82Starobin, 5, 17-21.
61

which employed roughly 100 slaves.83

Given the paucity of information about slavery at the Catoctin Furnace, generalizations 

do not come easily. We do know that Catoctin was a large operation, requiring generally around 

80 workers.84 Most were unskilled, but a handful possessed valuable skills necessary to keep the 

furnace functioning. Among the occupations necessary to the industry were founders, colliers, 

miners, teamsters, wood choppers, and, most likely, a group of general furnace workers assigned 

to labor wherever needed. Furnace blasts often lasted between four and five months. The rest of 

year was taken up by logging, coaling, and mining. Only when a proper supply of ore, charcoal 

and limestone--materials jointly called “stock”-- was ready would the furnace be put into 

operation.85 During lulls in furnace operations, it may have been that a portion of the slave 

workforce shifted to agricultural work. Wheat production, in turn, had its slack seasons which 

would allow workers to return to the furnace. Slaves could be hired for these purposes. While it 

is clear that some of the slaves working at the Catoctin Furnace were the legal property of the 

furnace owners, it is unclear whether the furnace hired additional bondsmen in busy seasons, or 

hired-out slaves when the furnace sat idle.86

 83Ibid, 14-15.

84Census Bureau, Census of Manufacturing, 1820.

85Dew, 396.

86Frederick Town Herald, 20 October 1804. In 1804, James Johnson announced: “I have 

for fale feveral valuable negroes, confiting of men, men, boys and girls brought up to farming.” 

The fact that Johnson would point to the farming background of these slaves, suggests the 

possibly that a differentiation, at least for Johnson, existed between industrial and agricultural 

slaves. 
62

Nor does information exist regarding living quarters for slaves. Since listings of furnace 

property however, contained no separate designation for slave quarters, it might be fair to assume 

that slaves lived in the workmen’s houses. Were houses segregated, with some designated for 

white workers and others for slaves? Did slaves live with their families or dormitory style? Did 

skilled and unskilled workers live separately? Barring any new unearthing of information, these 

questions will remain unanswered. That life for slaves working in the furnace was difficult is 

beyond question. One of the few references to slavery at the Catoctin Furnace comes from a 

traveling Moravian minister, Brother John Frederick Schlegel, who came to the furnace in 1799 

as part of his ministry to the area. At Catoctin, he met James Johnson, then owner of the furnace, 

and Johnson’s family. He then met with the furnace slaves. “[A] little group of them gathered 

around me at the top of the furnace opening,” he noted in his journal, and “they wept very much 

because they were bound to work so hard during the week as well as on Sunday in the iron 

smelter and thus were seldom able to hear the Word of God.” The missionary recorded his 

concern for the slaves “whose inward and outward conditions are troubled.”87

Not only were hours long and the work hard, but conditions also could prove dangerous. 

By the late-nineteenth century, the weekly Mechanicstown newspaper, which began printing in 

1871, contained much information regarding the dangerous work conditions at Catoctin. For the 

antebellum period there is little similar information, but we can assume that accidents happened 

 What the 

Moravian witnessed suggested the worst aspects of slavery. Almost everywhere, owners gave 

slaves Sundays off. But at Catoctin the Sabbath appeared to be just another working day.

 87As quoted in Anderson, 6.
63

frequently. The Graceham Moravian Church does record an April 1826 fire, fanned by high 

winds, “in the wood on the mountain started by a pile of coals.” Large numbers of people 

labored to contain the conflagration, but they had little luck “until the greater of the wood that 

had been cut and corded, about 3,000 cords belonging to the Furnace, and many thousands of 

fence-rails and a lot of bark for the tanners, had been consumed.” Losses from the fire were 

estimated at between four and five thousand dollars.88

With few historical sources available with which to recreate the lives of the slaves 

working at Catoctin Furnace, archeological evidence can help fill in some of the gaps. Locals 

long had known of a slave burial site marked by roughly a dozen fieldstones, within a half mile 

of the furnace site (see Map 2). In 1979 and 1980, with a planned expansion of Route 15 through 

the area, archeologists excavated some 31 burial sites--roughly one third of the interred bodies.89

Of the thirty-one bodies unearthed, six were newborns, five children (ages 2 to 12), two 

teenagers, and fifteen adults (consisting of eight females and seven males, between the ages of 

The decision to disrupt the bodies, which later were reburied, was made reluctantly and only 

with the intention of gaining an understanding of the lives of those overlooked in traditional 

historical accounts.

 88Oerter, 95. The Republican Citizen, 7 September 1838. A decade later, in September 

1838, another fire broke out near “Brien’s iron works.” The home, barn, and entire crop of farmer 

James Hawkins, burned as did large portions of the mountain. The fire, according to a 

newspaper, “originated from the negro children’s playing with fire during the absence of family 

residing on the place.”

89Ahron Ann Brunston, “The Cemetery at Catoctin Furnace, Maryland: The Invisible 

People,” Maryland Archeology: Journal of the Archeological Society of Maryland 17 (March 

1981), 19.
64

nineteen and sixty-five). There appeared no obvious causes of death as might be found in an 

industrial accident. Nor did there appear to have been any nutritional deficiencies. From body 

weight and analysis of teeth, the archeologists concluded that diets consisted of “relatively coarse 

food, probably unmilled cornmeal” and little sugar. Nails found at the graveyard dated between 

1790 and 1840, and the bodies appeared to have been buried in a manner consistent with 

Christian customs90

Archeologists identified all of the thirty-one bodies as of African heritage, with “no 

visible admixture of white.” This led to the somewhat surprising conclusion that those buried 

were first or second generation Americans.

 

91 According to Jean Libby, in her study of slave 

ironworkers in western Maryland, ironmaking was a well-developed craft in many West African 

societies. Comparing African iron production with that practiced in America, Libby found many 

similarities “in furnace technology and cultural practices.”92 There is some evidence that slave 

traders valued Africans with skills or at least those from iron-producing regions who might 

possess skills.93

 90Jennifer Olsen Kelley and J. Lawrence Angel" The Workers of Catoctin Furnace" 

Maryland Archeology: Journal of the Archeological Society of Maryland 19 (March 1983), 1-3.

91Brunston, 26.

92Jean Libby, “African Ironworking Culture Among African American Ironworkers in 

Western Maryland, 1760-1850,” (San Francisco State University, M.A. Thesis, 1991), 1.

93Michael Craton, “The African Background,” in Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery,

Miller and Smith, eds., (New York, 1988), 15.

 There also exists limited evidence that some slaves practiced their native skills 

in America. A 1760 newspaper advertisement, for instance, calls attention to a runaway slave 
65

“imported in 1760, so that he scarcely speaks any English, but can work at the Smith’s Trade, 

having been employed in his own Country in that way.”94 Citing the recent arrival status of those 

buried at the Catoctin slave cemetery, Libby offers the hypothesis that Catoctin slave furnace 

workers may have had backgrounds as African iron workers and brought elements of African 

ironworking skills with them.95

The 1838 Riot

 While provocative and fascinating, the Catoctin Furnace does 

not offer the sort of evidence needed to support such a claim. Nevertheless, if first generation 

African slaves did work at the furnace, they would have brought elements of West African 

culture with them to the Catoctins.

Aside from Brother Schlegel’s brief comments in 1799, only one other source offers a 

glimpse into the lives of antebellum blacks employed at Catoctin. In September of 1838, a 

Baltimore newspaper carried the story of a riot between the citizens of Mechanicstown and iron 

workers, including slaves, enjoying a day off. The story is so strange that it seems to challenge 

much of our cumulative understanding of the nature of race relations at the time. The following 

account of the riot appeared in a newspaper called the Baltimore Gazette and Daily Advertiser on 

September 17, 1838, under the headline, “Late Disturbances in Mechanicstown.” The author was 

a resident of Mechanicstown who witnessed the riot:

"Dear Sir-As much as has been said about an unfortunate 

disturbance in Mecanics'Town on Friday evening last, and as there 

can be no doubt that various misrepresentations have gone abroad 

 94Libby, 31.

95Ibid, 31.
66

upon the subject, I have thought proper to give you a statement of 

the whole affair as witnessed by myself.

The facts are simply these. A little before sun-down some ten or a 

dozen furnace hands, having indulged too freely in their libation on 

the race course, came into town, accompanied by two stout 

Negroes, for the purpose, as one of them afterwards expressed 

himself, of "using up the people." They very soon made known 

their intentions by an unprovoked attack upon two of our citizens. 

The people, anxious to persevere the peace, and apprehending the 

consequence of their remaining in town used every means to 

persuade them from the place. They, however, refused to go and 

became more violent, until at length one of the citizens, after in 

vain urging a Negro fellow to throw away some stones with which 

he had armed himself attempted to take them from him by force; 

this the Negro resented, with violence, and the citizen knocked him 

down.

The civil authorities now interfered to arrest the slaves, and 

they were actually committed, when their white associates rescued 

them from the officer having them in charge. This act, though 

highly outrageous, the people were disposed to tolerate, as some of 

the rioters proposed to depart, and here it was thought the matter 

would end. We were, however, disappointed. Some one demanded 

more whiskey, and this the landlord refused to give, supposing no 

doubt, that they already had too much, and dreading the 

consequence of giving them more. Upon this, one of them left the 

crowd, but returned in a moment with an axe, swearing that the 

landlord who refused to sell liquor ought to have his sign post cut 

down, & accordingly commended hewing at the post. Up to that 

this time we had used every effort to prevent a disturbance of 

peace-We, however knew very well that, once they were permitted 

to commence depredations of this kind there could be no telling to 

what their insolence might lead them. We therefore determined to 

protect ourselves.

One of the citizens in attempting to seize the axe received a 

severe blow; and now commenced a regular, or rather irregular, 

though desperate and bloody fight. Stones, brick bats and whatever 

could be picked up, were resorted to by both parties, until the 

rioters were completely driven from the town,--some of the them 

so severely beaten that they could not reach the furnace, though but 

three miles distant, without having their wounds dressed. It was a 

fortunate circumstance that the two Negroes left the town a few 

moments before the fight commenced, for, such was the 
67

excitement that I have no doubt, had they remained they would 

have been killed on the spot. After the affray was over, the people 

assembled and a guard was appointed to patrol the streets, though I 

am glad to say that no further violence ensued and the night passed 

off quietly. 

In conclusion I would remark that a full representation of 

the whole affair was made to Mr. Brien by the civil authorities of 

Mechanics'Town and there can be no doubt that the gentlemen will 

use his influence to prevent a repetition of the outrages. The people 

of our village are quiet, industrious and, as a community highly 

intelligent. They are unused to acts of violence and, in no event, 

but in case of actual necessity, as in the present instance, could they

be urged into such extremes. They, however, will protect 

themselves, and any attempt to disturb the people hereafter, in a 

similar manner will be opposed by an efficient force well prepared 

for the purpose.

-One of the people

N.B. It may be proper to state that in their attack on one of the 

individuals mentioned in the first part of this article, several of them 

followed him with clubs and drawn knives invading and disturbing 

the peace and quiet of his family, compelling him to escape through 

a window to which fortunate circumstance probably he owned his 

life. There were three other persons of notorious bad character from 

the neighborhood of the furnace in company with the gang, who 

shared in those triumphs and fortunes of the same.96

The Mechanicstown citizen’s letter offers a brief window into the complex social 

relations of upper western Maryland in the early-nineteenth century. The riot clearly reveals 

tensions--probably longstanding--between the people of Mechanicstown and those of Catoctin 

Furnace, a few miles to the south. Residents of Mechanicstown tended to be small businessmen, 

 96Baltimore Gazette and Advertiser, 17 September 1835. The Brien referred to in 

the piece was John McPherson Brien, son of John Brien. What may have been the same riot is 

mentioned in an article on Mechanicstown, published in The Baltimore Phoenix and Budget, 

May 1841. The date given for the riot, however, is 1832. The Catoctin Clarion, on February 18, 

1896 also mentioned a riot between locals and furnace workers, but gave the date as 1836. It may 

have been that there were several riots. My thanks to Dr. David Grimsted, who came across the 

reference to the furnace riot in the Baltimore Gazette while researching his book: David 
68

operating often prosperous craft shops. The furnace workers who were not slaves worked for 

wages, rented houses in what was essentially a company town, and suffered periodic bouts of 

unemployment. By the early part of the nineteenth century, the emerging market economy had 

begun to transform the country. Former frontier areas such as the Catoctin region, where once a 

rough equality had existed, now experienced social stratification. In many ways, the riot, 

especially given the stress that the author puts on Mechanicstown as “quiet, industrious, and, as a 

community, highly intelligent,” represented a clash between emerging middle-class and an 

increasingly assertive working-class.

Another revealing element of the riot was the role played by alcohol. As previously 

mentioned, American alcohol consumption was at an all-time high in the early-nineteenth 

century. The uncertainties fostered by the market revolution only encouraged drinking--

especially among those who found themselves the victims of the changing economy. For many, 

the arrival of early industry brought with it uncertainty and a loss of control. Instead of keeping 

one’s own hours, one worked according to another’s schedule. A wage-earner’s future depended 

upon a host of factors well out of his or her control--economic downturns, changing technology, 

the whims of a boss or foreman. These factors, no doubt, all contributed to the rise in alcohol 

abuse. Meanwhile the emerging middle class, made up of business managers and small business 

owners, grew concerned with alcoholism and the resulting problems posed by an inebriated work 

force. By the 1830s, a middle-class-driven temperance movement, with strong ties to evangelical 

Protestantism, began organizing a temperance movement. In the Mechanicstown riot, one can 

 

Grimsted, American Mobbing, 1828-1861: Toward Civil War (New York, 1998).
69

see both the problems of alcohol abuse and the concern of the middle class for sobriety and order.

The Catoctin area was hardly alone in this period in suffering a riot with deep social 

implications. Indeed rioting long was an American tradition. To some, crowd action actually 

represented a democratic spirit at work. But by the 1830s, violence often was out of control. 

The construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, which passed through the south end of the 

county, was continually plagued by riots between the largely Irish immigrant workforce, the local 

populations, and the project supervisors.97

The most perplexing aspect of the riot is the racial component. The two blacks involved 

are identified as slaves. Even if the writer is incorrect and the blacks were free, the episode was 

unique. Despite the all-powerful color bar of the time, the furnace workers--both black and 

white--stood together during the riot and apparently had celebrated together at the race track 

before the disturbance. White furnace workers even rescued one of the blacks, saving him from 

possible death. The skirmish, in a sense, represents a rare case in American history of class 

trumping race. The strong group identity among the furnace workers, apparently overcame the 

divisions of race. Perhaps the circumstances surrounding industrial slavery, in which blacks may 

have had the opportunity to earn overtime rewards and perhaps had obtained special skills, 

played a role in the apparent absence of racial divisions between workers. As currently is being 

explored by some historians, the designation of “white” in the nineteenth century tended to apply 

 As riots became an increasing problem, the propertyholding classes began to take action. Towns organized police forces. The reference to the “civil 

authorities” by the Mechanicstown letter writer may in fact have been an early police force.

 97Brugger, 229, 232. 
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more to middle and upper-class white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Members of the working class, 

especially immigrant workers, generally occupied a middle-ground in public perception—a 

position that was neither white nor black.98

As sectional tensions over slavery heated up, the number of slaves working at Catoctin 

declined. From studies of personal property records and census materials, Michael Thompson 

has hypothesized that roughly twenty slaves labored at Catoctin in the 1820s and early 1830s. 

With the death of John Brien and a national recession beginning in 1837, the iron furnace 

operated only sporadically, and the number of slaves working appears to have declined 

dramatically.

 Viewed in these terms, the riot might be seen as 

whites against non-whites. 

Still, with only one brief episode told from one point of view, few definite conclusions 

can be reached about social relations. Nor do there exist the sort of sources that would provide a 

complete picture of this complex and fascinating period of development in the area surrounding 

present-day Catoctin Mountain Park. From our presently available sources, we can only 

conclude that social relations were mired in unexpected complexities and defy any easy 

categorization.

The Furnace After Brien

99

 98On the general topic of whiteness see Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White (New 

York, 1995) and David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness, Race, and the Making of the 

American Working-Class (Chapel Hill, 1991).

 99 Thompson, 86.

 The 1860 census showed only 21 slaves living in the entire Mechanicstown 
71

district, seven of whom were males over seventeen years of age.100

Following a potato famine in Ireland and political trouble in Germany, and as the cost of 

slaves rose, a new source of labor flooded into the country. Ever-increasing numbers of Irish and 

German workers began arriving in the America, especially after 1848. While census takers did 

not record the nation of origin of workers living in the area until later in the century, there is 

some evidence that the furnace employed immigrant labor.

 No doubt the ever-rising 

price of slaves along with the soaring price of cotton made unfree labor increasingly cost 

prohibitive. While we have no evidence, the furnace owners may still have “hired out” slaves for 

the busy seasons at Catoctin--although the price of leasing labor was also rising.

101 As early as 1828, a Moravian 

minister assigned to Harriet’s Chapel (named for John Brien’s recently deceased wife) recorded 

in his journal a burial service for an Irish immigrant furnace worker. Friends of the deceased--

apparently also Irish Catholic furnace workers--stood apart from the service, wanting to pay their 

respects but not partake in the Protestant rites.102

Relying primarily on wage labor, the furnace struggled on. In the late 1830s, John 

McPherson Brien, son of John Brien, managed to purchase the enterprise from his father’s estate. 

But McPherson’s tenure as owner proved brief and difficult. Near broke, in 1843, Brien sold the 

furnace to Peregrinn Fitzhugh. Again, the sale kept the furnace in the family, as Fitzhugh--

descending from a wealthy planter family in Virginia--was connected by marriage to the Brien 

 

 100Maryland Census, 1860, Slave Schedules.

 101The 1870 Census, for instance, notes of number of Irish-born workers laboring at the 

Catoctin Furnace, particularly in the iron mines.

 102Anderson, 14.
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and McPherson families. By the early 1840s, the economy had emerged from the Panic of 1837, 

and Fitzhugh enjoyed several successful years at the helm of the furnace. The new owner made 

significant investments to revamp the operations. Within ten years, The Frederick Examiner

could proclaim: “the works are in complete repair; and in regular blast, and are doing a better 

business than at any time for some years past.”103 Fitzhugh’s investments do not appear to have 

included slaves. According to the 1850 census, he owned eight slaves, but only one was of 

working age.104

The partnership, however, came too late to save Fitzhugh. In 1859, he sold the entire 

furnace and property to Kunkle’s family for $51,000. Under Kunkle, the transition away from 

slave labor appears to have continued. John B. Kunkle, brother of Jacob, who became iron 

master at the furnace, owned only four slaves, all of whom were under eight years old. In 

general, the Kunkle acquisition of Catoctin was a fortunate one for the furnace and its employees. 

The Kunkle family proved dedicated, hands-on owners, willing to continue investing in the 

The new owner’s success did not last long. In 1855, fire destroyed another enterprise 

owned by Fitzhugh, the Carroll Creek Foundry in Frederick City. The disaster began a period of 

financial collapse for Fitzhugh. A year later, increasingly in debt, Fitzhugh took on a partner, 

Jacob B. Kunkle (also frequently spelled Kunkel), in an effort to protect his Catoctin investment. 

 Kunkle was a politically active lawyer of German descent, whose family owned a prosperous 

tannery in Frederick City. 

 103Frederick Examiner, 14 September 1853.

104Mary Hitselberger, Bridge in Time: The Complete 1850 Census of Frederick County 

(Redwood City, CA, 1978), 461.
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enterprise long after it held any promise of profitability. But difficult days lay immediately ahead 

for the mountain area. 
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Chapter Three

Civil War and Decline of Industry

Introduction

The Catoctin area had been fortunate not to have experienced fighting during the 

Revolutionary War. The region would not be so fortunate during the Civil War. Memories of 

the dislocations and fears wrought by the Civil War long lingered for generations in the mountain 

area. Following the war, the second half of the nineteenth century continued to bring change. 

A changing economy threatened and eventually subsumed the furnace. Meanwhile, the first 

signs emerged that the Catoctins might one day become a recreation and vacation area. For 

those farming in the mountains, however, such changes were hardly noticeable. And subsistence 

agriculture continued in many ways as it had since the arrival of the first settlers.

Catoctin’s Civil War

“Maryland, by the mid-nineteenth century,” wrote historian Robert Brugger, “had become 

a sectional netherland, a mix of free and slave economy, Northern and Southern cultures.”1

 

 1Brugger, 248.

 

Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, tensions between North and South mounted. As a true border 

state in every sense of the term, Maryland (and more specifically Frederick and Washington 

Counties) sat geographically along an unenviable fault line. By the 1850s, there was little hope 

of delaying the inevitable conflict between North and South. Western Maryland suffered terribly 

during the war. While the upper areas of Frederick County were spared the worst of the 
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fighting, the region still experienced the uncertainty, fear, dislocation, and occasional violence of 

the conflict.

In the fall of 1859, rumors swept across western Maryland of some sort of a riot or battle 

in Harper’s Ferry. “Conspicuous among the rumors,” reported the Frederick newspaper, “was 

the alarming statement, that the outbreak was a Negro insurrection.”2 The event was John 

Brown’s raid on the Harper’s Ferry arsenal, which the insurrectionist hoped would be the 

beginning of a revolution. When the local militia proved unable to handle the situation a 

company under Colonel Robert E. Lee, which included soldiers from Frederick County, quickly 

contributed a company to restore peace to Harper’s Ferry.3

The next trauma came with the election of 1860. The newly formed Republican Party, 

and its nominee Abraham Lincoln, had its strength in the North and West. Meanwhile, the 

Democratic Party was badly split and nominated two candidates--Stephen Douglas, from the 

North and John Beckinridge, representing southern sentiments. A fourth candidate, John Bell of 

Tennessee, ran as a member of the Constitution Party, advocating some sort of eleventh-hour 

compromise. Beckinridge won Mechanicstown with 189 votes, followed closely by Bell with 

182. Stephen Douglas, the Democratic candidate from the north, earned 7 votes and Lincoln 

only 6. Meanwhile in Hauvers District, west of Mechanicstown, Beckinridge won 

overwhelmingly with 154 votes, Bell won 46 votes, Douglas 27, and Lincoln only three. In the 

 

 2Frederick Examiner, 19 October 1859.

 3

Gordon, 77.
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end, Lincoln won only 103 votes in all of Frederick County.4 But the Republican candidate, 

with the other parties deeply split, won enough votes nationwide to become the new president. 

The prospect of a Lincoln presidency sent chills through western Maryland. In mid-November, 

The Frederick Herald could offer only a prayer: “May God in his mercy avert the dangers so 

threateningly.”5

Clearly significant sympathy for the southern cause existed in western Maryland. In 

December 1860, a countywide convention met in Frederick City in an attempt to establish a 

common approach to the coming troubles. But the convention split roughly in half between 

unionists and secessionists and no progress could be made.6

Among the strongest secessionists in the county were a member of the family that owned 

 Towns in southern Frederick 

County--such as Urbana, Buckeystown, and Petersville--all were particularly pro-South. In areas 

to the north, such as the upper-Catoctin region, opinions tended to be split. Bell’s strong 

showing certainly suggests that many in Mechanicstown/Hauvers District areas hoped that 

conflict could be put off. But there was much pro-southern sentiment to be found even in the 

northern portions of Frederick County. In the growing town of Mechanicstown, in 1861 Isaiah 

Wolfersberger began the first newspaper, The Family Visitor, a weekly with a decidedly 

pro-southern orientation.

 

 4Frederick Examiner, 14 November 1860; Bart Rhett Talbert, Maryland: The South’s First 

Casualty, (Berryville, VA, 1995), 15. Bell narrowly won the state of Maryland over Beckinridge. 

Statewide, Douglas received 5% of the vote--Lincoln, 1.9%.

 5

Brugger, 272.

 6

Gordon, Textbook, 82.
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Catoctin furnace and a descendent of the family that had built the facility. Jacob Kunkle, the 

politically-savvy lawyer who had entered into a partnership with Fitzhugh and whose family later 

gained sole ownership of the furnace, actively promoted the southern cause. Fluent in German, 

Kunkle--often addressing audiences in German--campaigned aggressively for Beckinridge.7 In 

addition, Bradley Tyler Johnson, grandson of former furnace owner Baker Johnson, and 

grand-nephew of Governor Thomas Johnson, was perhaps Frederick County’s most outspoken 

southern sympathizer. Like Kunkle, Johnson campaigned for Beckinridge, and when Lincoln 

moved to invade Baltimore in the spring of 1861, attempted to mobilize local secessionists to 

block Union troops.8

Lincoln’s invasion of Baltimore was certainly symbolic of the divisiveness and incendiary 

sentiments present in Maryland by the beginning of the Civil War. Bordering Virginia, Frederick 

and Washington Counties braced for a war close to home. Colonel Bradley Johnson, C.S.A. 

quickly moved to organize Marylanders for the new Confederate army. He refused all 

suggestions that he meld his recruits into the Virginia regiments, insisting instead that Maryland 

organize a rebel regiment of its own.9 Johnson’s recruits appear largely to have come from the 

southern portion of the state. A survey of names of those enlisted in the Maryland line of the 

Confederate army reveals none of the family names associated with the Catoctin area.10

 

 7Paul and Rita Gordon, Never the Like Again, (Frederick, 1995), 13, 16.

 8Ibid, 45.

 9Ibid, 48.

 10W.W. Goldsborough, The Maryland Line in the Confederate Army, 1861-1865

(Gaithersburg, 1987, reprint of 1900 edition). The name Zollinger, perhaps a relation to the 
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Desperately needing to keep the state of Maryland in the Union camp--even if it would 

require force--Lincoln arrested secessionists and dispatched troops throughout Maryland. With 

Annapolis occupied by federal troops, the Maryland state legislature briefly moved operations to 

Frederick City. But in April 1861, Union soldiers surrounded the city, arrested key leaders of 

the legislature and forced members to take a loyalty oath. Those who refused quickly found 

themselves prisoners in Fort McHenry.11

The Union army showed little concern with civil rights. They set up check points and 

led raids on the homes of suspected Confederate sympathizers. The army staged a surprise 

search of Jacob Kunkle’s Frederick City home, but found only a Confederate flag and a picture of 

Jefferson Davis. To the north, pressure also grew on those with pro-northern sentiments. In 

Mechanicstown, “the union men of the town” forced the inflammatory Family Visitor out of 

business.

Eventually, Lincoln dispatched nearly 15,000 troops to 

Frederick County to insure that the pivotal region would remain within the union.

12

Despite the Union's advantages in numbers, equipment, and industrial power, the rebels 

Like those with southern leanings, unionists in western Maryland also mobilized for the 

war effort. In August 1862, Company D of the Sixth Maryland Regiment Maryland Volunteers 

formed under Captain Martin Rouzer. The company included fifty men from Mechanicstown and 

twenty-five from Hauvers’ District. It would not be long before these soldiers would see action.

 

Zollingers living in Harbaugh’s Valley, does however, show up.

 11Gordon, Textbook, 85.

 12Catoctin Clarion, 13 February 1896.
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scored several early victories. Frederick City became an enormous hospital, caring for the 

ever-increasing number of Union casualties. Following the Confederate victory at the second 

battle of Bull Run, in early September 1862, an estimated 80,000 southern troops poured across 

the Potomac into Frederick County, in hope of prying Maryland from the North and staging an 

invasion of Washington DC. As they forded the river, Lee’s men broke into a rousing rendition 

of “Maryland, My Maryland.” Badly outnumbered, the Union army hurried to evacuate the 

area. Soldiers burnt supplies and loaded patients on trains, headed for safety.

On September 6, led by Bradley T. Johnson, between 10,000 and 15,000 troops invaded 

Frederick City. News of the invasion rippled northward, causing great alarm. The Graceham 

Moravian Church recorded: "Yesterday morning we received the intelligence that the 

Confederates had invaded Maryland and were marching on to Frederick City. During the day the 

sick and the wounded quartered there were moved to Pennsylvania through Mechanicstown. All 

are in great excitement, fearing that they will impress union men into the service. We here at 

Graceham became very uneasy, and towards evening a party of eighteen men concluded to leave 

for Pennsylvania.” The Graceham unionists mounted horses and buggies and dashed to 

Taneytown, where they stayed for three days. Then, when word came from the Confederates 

that no one would be impressed, the men finally felt confident enough to return home. 13

 

 13Oeter, 120. Since the Frederick-Emmitsburg Turnpike passed through Graceham, rather 

than Mechanicstown to the west, it is strange that the wounded would be taken through 

Mechanicstown. They may have feared being chased down by Confederates along the main road.

 As the 

caravan of “ambulances” moved through town, local residents scrambled to find food for the 

refugees. One resident remembered her mother baking short cakes on top of her ten-plate stove 
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for the wounded. Fearing that the Confederates might move northward, some drove their horses 

to Pennsylvania, where they would be safe from theft. Some even packed so as to be ready to 

quickly flee into the mountains should the need arise.14

The Confederates, in fact, had hoped that the citizens of Frederick County would rally to 

the southern cause. But they were sorely disappointed. “We were received with neither cheers 

nor songs or other evidence of approbation,” wrote one solider, “but instead they looked on us in 

self-evident pity.”15

As the Confederates occupied Frederick, northern troops massed to the east and prepared 

to press the invaders out of the border state. On September 10, Union troops retook the city. 

Some rebels headed northward. The Graceham church recorded 300 Confederate Cavalry 

passing through town on September 1861. The next day more rebels came through, and seven 

soldiers stopped and enjoyed breakfast in the church’s parsonage. That evening 2,000 troops 

passed through Mechanicstown.

 The rebels, in fact, were a motley, impoverished crew. Many arrived 

hungry, without shoes, wearing dirty and torn uniforms. But the troops were polite and did not 

plunder, despite their need.

16

Most Confederate troops, however, headed west from Frederick toward Hagerstown 

(along the National Road) and Antietam. On September 14, 1862, fleeing rebel troops 

attempted to make a stand outside Middletown, near Catoctin Creek on South Mountain. There, 

 

 14Mrs. Walter Rice, “Recollections of the Civil War,” Thurmont Historical Society.

 15Gordon, Never the Like Again, 128-129.

 16Oerter, 121.
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they suffered a decisive defeat--leading to the first Union victory of the war. Following the 

Battle of South Mountain, the Confederates further retreated to Antietam, where Lee assembled 

his tired troops behind Antietam Creek. On September 17, 1862, the Battle of Antietam proved 

the single costliest day in American military history. The combined dead numbered 4,800 and

wounded 18,500. Worse, the battle proved indecisive. Lee simply slipped back across the 

Potomac and the war went on. 

Western Maryland had witnessed the full anxiety and tumult of a new kind of total 

warfare. In the aftermath of the battle, the Graceham Church recorded, “A Time of war, and all 

minds are filled with apprehension and alarm. Persons who have visited the battle field describe 

the scenes as heart-rending.”17

Again, crisis was not far off. In the fall of 1862, J.E.B. Stuart crossed the Potomac at 

Williamsport intent on stirring up trouble in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Leading a cavalry unit 

of roughly 1,600 men, Stuart raided Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, then turned south to 

Emmitsburg. On October 12, 1862, Stuart entered Emmitsburg where he was “hailed by the 

inhabitants with the most enthusiastic demonstrations of joy.” But Stuart’s men wore blue 

overcoats covering their gray uniforms, and locals may have thought they were greeting union 

men. The real Union army soon got word of the raiding party and dispatched troops from 

 The invasion and battles thoroughly disrupted life in the area. 

Rebels destroyed the Baltimore and Ohio railroad bridge over the Monocacy and tore up miles of 

train track. Thousands of acres of valuable farm land had also been ravished. Remaining was a 

profound sense of fear of what might still be to come.

 

 17Ibid, 121.
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Hagerstown to oust the invaders. Union calvary charged from Hagerstown along the 

Westminster-Hagerstown Pike (passing through Harman’s Gap) and massed in Mechanicstown. 

But, by the time they arrived, they learned that Stuart had already slipped back to Virginia, 

probably via Libertytown.18

First massing in Frederick City, Union troops took several routes in pursuit of the rebels. 

On June 29, 1863, the First Corps of the Army of the Potomac left Frederick and marched 

through the rain northward, along a series of roads paralleling today’s Route 15 (see Map 3). The 

corps moved through Harmony Grove, Lewistown, Catoctin Furnace, Mechanicstown, 

Franklinville, and then onto Emmitsburg, where they spent the night. As they passed through 

Mechanicstown and Catoctin Furnace, the soldiers found a reception “overflowing with 

For several months an uneasy calm settled across the region. Then, in late June 1863, 

the calm broke. “Considerable excitement during the day,” reported the Graceham Church. 

“The Confederates are reported massing themselves about Boonsboro, etc. A number of horses 

were taken.” The county braced for another invasion. The free black population of western 

Maryland, fearing that invaders might ship them south, was the first to flee. General Robert E. 

Lee, in fact, had invaded Maryland apparently with the intent of bringing the war to the north, 

where he might win a determining battle. The bulk of the invaders moved northward from points 

west of the Catoctins, but fighting did break out near Frederick City, and the rebels briefly held 

Westminster before moving northward toward Pennsylvania.

 

 18Gordon, Textbook, 106; Gordon, Never the Like Again, 203.
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patriotism and hospitality.” 19 In many cases food was freely passed out to the hungry soldiers. 

Elsewhere soldiers could buy pies, a loaf of bread for 50 cents, a canteen of milk for 25. Despite 

prohibitions, soldiers also bought whiskey along the way. In Catoctin Furnace, soldiers actually 

tried to stop and buy food at the local general store, but their superiors ordered them on.20 At 

the end of the day, the soldiers passed through Emmitsburg, which only weeks earlier had 

suffered a calamitous fire, and set up camp just north of the burned-out town.21 Meanwhile the 

Eleventh Corps moved along one of the region’s major arteries, the Frederick-Emmitsburg 

Turnpike, passing through Creagerstown, to the east of Mechanicstown and Catoctin Furnace 

(see Map 3). The Eleventh Corps found the trip to be a smooth one, along a good stone road, and 

was able to travel thirty-seven miles in twenty-four hours.22

On July 1, the soldiers who marched north along the eastern border of the Catoctins met 

the Confederates at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The next day, the Graceham Church reported: 

“The community kept in great suspense and anxiety.”23

 

 19John Schildt, Roads to Gettysburg, (Parson, WV, 1978), 357-358; Oerter 122.

 20Maude Luken, “Catoctin Furnace--A Different Village,” American Motorist, September 

1930.

 21Schildt, 362.

 22Ibid, 365.

Both armies suffered causalities of well 

over 20,000. But for Lee, the cost was higher; he lost one third of his army. In the confusing 

aftermath of the battle, the Confederates managed to escape south, robbing the North of an 

opportunity to end the war.

 23Oerter, 123.
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With the defeated rebels retreating through the area, anxiety again rippled through 

northern Frederick and Washington Counties. On a rainy Sunday, July 5, the day after the battle, 

J.E.B. Stuart--seeking to protect the rebel retreat--moved his unit south along the 

Emmitsburg-Frederick Turnpike. He stopped in Graceham long enough to frighten locals, then 

moved to Creagerstown (which he called Cooperstown). From Creagerstown, Stuart and his 

men planned to move west, along the Westminster-Hagerstown road (today’s Route 77), with the 

eventual aim of joining up with General Lee (see Map 3). But Stuart received intelligence that 

Union soldiers had blocked Harman’s Gap. Instead of taking the established road, Stuart thus 

shuttled northwest to the small hamlet of Franklinville (just north of present-day Catoctin High 

School) where he may have encamped. From there Stuart continued to move westward, 

probably through Harbaugh Valley then onto the Deerfield area. At some point, probably in 

Washington County, he emerged back on the road to Hagerstown. Very quickly, probably at 

Harman’s Gap, Stuart came under fire from Union troops. After a standoff, however, the 

northerners backed off, allowing Stuart to pass through.24

Some Union troops also moved through the area on their return from Gettysburg. The 

First Corps, which had advanced up through Mechanicstown, retreated along the same road, as 

did the Sixth corps. According to one report, along the way, young girls serenaded the soldiers 

with “Battle Cry of the Republic.”25

 

 24John Schildt, Roads from Gettysburg (Shippenburg, PA, 1998), 17-18; Oeter, 123; also 

see M. Jacobs, Notes on the Rebel Invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania and the Battle of 

Gettysburg, (Gettysburg, PA 1909).

After a few days the Graceham Church could finally give 

 25Schildt, Roads from Gettysburg, 64-66.
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“thanks for our deliverance from the calamity of Confederate invasion.26

The ongoing war was the cause of endless anxiety and tension in the area. Fifty years 

later, one Mechanicstown resident vividly recalled the trauma of being woken by a soldier loudly 

banging at her family’s front door. In the darkness, it was some time before the unionist family 

could determine that the solider was not a rebel, and the family could direct the midnight visitor 

to Chimney Rock, from where he apparently sent signals to Sugar Loaf Mountain.27

By 1863, the war had caused serious economic and social disruption throughout western 

Maryland. Fighting in the region had destroyed much valuable farmland. Likewise the draft 

caused serious labor shortages. The Frederick Examiner, in the fall of 1863, noted that “serious 

apprehensions are beginning to be expressed least the agriculturists of Maryland shall experience 

loss and inconveniences for the want of labor to till the earth.”28 Likewise the hard work, 

dislocation, and anxiety of the war, resulted in numerous social problems. A resident of 

Catoctin Furnace later recalled the war as a time of “a-working and a-scotching (working and 

drinking).”29

 

 26Oeter, 123.

 27Rice, “Recollections of the Civil War.”

 28Frederick Examiner, 2 September 1863.

 29Luken. The quote comes from Catoctin Furnace resident Henry Fraley.

It could also be a time of lawlessness. In “a deep vastness of the Catoctin 

Mountains” roughly eight to ten miles from Frederick City, “seven or more guerilla horse 

thieves” kept an encampment. Angry victims of the thieves finally raided the hide-away and 

captured four of the "guerillas," whom they suspected to be “rebel recruits on their way to 
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Dixie.”30

While law enforcement could be loose in some places, elsewhere it remained tight. 

Travelers had to pass through check-points all over western Maryland. In 1863, when Jacob 

Kunkle told a union officer, inquiring after his destination, that it was “none of his business,” the 

secessionist found himself under arrest for disrespecting military authority.31

A year after the Battle of Gettysburg, in the summer of 1864, with the war entering its 

fourth miserable year, the Confederates--as they had the two previous years--again invaded 

western Maryland. “Rumors in town that the Confederates are again in Maryland” interrupted 

Independence Day around Catoctin Mountain. The reports turned out to be true. The rebels 

again took Frederick City, holding it for ransom. Meanwhile, Confederates led raids as far north 

as Lewistown and Creagerstown, where the rebels “robbed store-keepers and took horses.”32 

The looting panicked locals. Soon, even Bradley Johnson was complaining about the 

plundering by rebel troops.33

By early 1865, the Civil War--the most difficult time in the history of western 

Maryland--had come to an end. But there was one last casualty--President Lincoln. News of the 

president’s assassination reached the Catoctin area, “mournful intelligence,” according to the 

 Finally, after the Battle of Monocacy, the Confederates again left 

Maryland--for the last time.

 

 30Frederick Examiner, 2 September 1863.

 31Frederick Examiner, 14 October 1863

 32Oeter, 124.

 33Paul and Rita Gordon, Frederick County Maryland: A Playground for the Civil War

(Frederick, Maryland, 1994), 198-200.
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Graceham Church, just in time for Easter prayers.34

As part of its maritime history initiative, the National Park Service and other 

organizations sponsored a study of the manufacturing firms contributing to the U.S.S. Monitor. 

Of the ironworks employed in the making of the ship, all but one was from New York. The sole 

non-New York contributor was Horace Abbott and Sons, a Baltimore firm very involved in 

producing iron for railroad construction. The large Abbott iron works does not appear to have 

made iron, but rather focused on rolling iron at its several rolling mills. Historian William N. 

Still deemed it “more than likely these [Abbot’s rolled iron] were the rolls used to make the 

plates for Monitor and other armored vessels during the Civil War.”

For generations, the Civil War, which had caused so much upheaval in the Catoctin area, 

remained a monumental event about which stories were told and retold. One longstanding claim 

about the area had the Catoctin Furnace playing a part in the manufacturing of the U.S.S. 

Monitor, a 172 foot long, turreted war ship. The vessel, designed by John Ericsson, a 

Swedish-American engineer and inventor, was first launched at Greenpoint, Long Island, on 

January 30, 1862. Because we have such limited records for the Catoctin Furnace, claims are 

difficult to substantiate or refute. But it does not appear that the furnace produced the sort of bar 

iron capable of being molded into the rolled plate that surrounded the ship. 

35 Tradition does have the 

Catoctin Furnace producing iron that became part of the armored plating on the ship.36

 

 34Oeter, 124.

 35William N. Still, Monitor Builders, (Washington, 1987), 10-12.

 There 

 36The story about Catoctin iron used on the U.S.S. Monitor, for instance, can be found in 
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are, however, no surviving records for the Abbott firm, thus the names of the firm’s iron 

suppliers are lost to us. Nevertheless, it seems unlikely that the Catoctin Furnace, which was 

already using outdated technology by the 1860s, was capable of producing the sort of bar iron 

required by rolling mills. Throughout its existence, Catoctin produced pig iron, unsuitable for 

such rolling.37

Whatever its role in constructing the Monitor, the Civil War long remained a presence in 

the lives of area residents. The Jason Damuth Post, G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic 

veterans organization), made up of veterans of the Sixth Maryland Regiment, in particular, 

remained an important and influential local force.

 Nevertheless, the Monitor myth has persisted, and there is much we do not know 

about the workings of Catoctin Furnace.

38 Every Memorial Day in Mechanicstown, 

veterans marched behind the Graceham Cornet Band to the Town Hall where the Gettysburg 

Address was read.39

 

The Frederick Daily News, 10 August 1940, and in a report prepared for President Roosevelt on 

the construction of his Shangri-La retreat: “Summary of the Development of ‘Shangri-La’: The 

Presidential Lodge in Catoctin Mountain, Maryland,” 1942, Album 461, Roosevelt Library, Hyde 

Park, NY.

 37Malcolm Davies, “Iron Forging and Smelting in the Maryland: A Relict Industry After the 

Civil War,” (Ed.D. diss., Columbia University, 1972), 10; Mark Howell, telephone interview by 

author, Frederick, Maryland, 18 May 1999. Mark Howell, a local historian interested in iron 

manufacturing has come to these conclusions about the iron manufactured at Catoctin.

 38Jason Damuth was a Mechanicstown local killed during the Wilderness campaign of 1864.

 39Catoctin Clarion, 7 June 1900.

 The death of Henry Fleagle, the last surviving member of the Damuth Post 

at the age of 95 in 1937, received heavy coverage in the local media. Fleagle, who had met 

Lincoln and been present at Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, lived well beyond those tumultuous 
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days to see the founding of a park in an area once so threatened by war.40

The railroad had been transforming western Maryland since the 1830s. The Baltimore 

and Ohio connected Frederick City and points west to Baltimore, creating tremendous economic 

opportunity. But the area north of Frederick City had to wait over forty years to connect with 

the railroad. Plans long had been in the works to build a railroad from Baltimore to the 

northern portions of Frederick and Washington Counties. In 1852, the Maryland General

Assembly chartered the Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick County Railroad, which later evolved 

into the Western Maryland Railroad (see Map 3). Within a year of its chartering, construction 

began. But the challenges of building in mountainous areas slowed progress. On May 17, 1862 

the builders of the Western Maryland Railroad caused “quite a stir” in Graceham by laying track 

near the outskirts of town.

“The Sound of the Steam Whistle Twice a Day”

41

The sound of steam whistle twice a day in the suburbs of our 

hitherto quiet little town has awakened everything up to newness of 

life and a spirit of "go-aheadativeness" which is quite refreshing. 

We begin to put on city airs and learn city fashions; Baltimore is 

brought close to our doors, and oysters and cavs-back ducks and 

fresh fish can be produced and eaten daily as at one of the largest 

 But then the war slowed all progress. It was not until later in the 

decade that the railroad pushed into Graceham. And not until March 1871 did the railroad 

finally arrive in Mechanicstown and press through the rest of Frederick County (see Appendix 5). 

Its arrival brought monumental changes according to the local newspaper:

 

 40Catoctin Clarion, 16 November 1934; Catoctin Clarion, 5 November 1937.

 41Oeter, 128.
90

90

90

restaurants in the Monumental City.42

After its expansion to Mechanicstown, railroad workers began laying tracks westward to 

Sabillasville. The brand new Mechanicstown newspaper, The Catoctin Clarion, predicted that 

the new railroad would “whistle the inhabitants of Sabillasville from the Rip Van Winkle sleep 

into a new and creative existence” (see Appendix 7).43 Once completed, the railroad took a 

leisurely semi-circular route around Sabillasville, a ride that quickly became known as 

“horseshoe curve” (see Appendix 6).44 A strike by workers demanding a $1.75 per day and a 

ten-hour day temporarily halted plans to extend the railroad to Smithburg in the spring of 1871.45

As the builders of the western Maryland railroads were determining the proper route 

But soon labor and management settled the strike, and the new railroad was pressing onward 

toward Hagerstown.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, the rapid expansion of the railroad into the northern 

part of Western Maryland offered new excitement and pointed to a brighter future. Throughout 

the country--as was the case in the Catoctin--the railroad reached and transformed formerly 

remote areas. In northern Frederick and Washington counties, the railroad opened tourism to the 

mountain area and revived agriculture and industry in the region.

The Furnace: "A Relict Industry"

 

 42Catoctin Clarion, 4 March 1871.

 43Catoctin Clarion, 11 March 1871.

 44Scharf, 1007.

 45Catoctin Clarion, 11 March 1871.
91

91

91

through the mountainous area, the Kunkles saw an opportunity. Jacob Kunkle, arguing that the 

train would move along a more level grade, petitioned the directors to route the railroad through 

Catoctin Furnace. Such a path would obviously create opportunities for the family business. In 

the end, however, the designers chose to lay tracks six miles to the north of the furnace.46

Bypassed by the railroad, using increasingly outdated technology as the era of steel 

approached, and operating in the thick of a competitive industry, somehow the Catoctin Furnace 

managed to survive into next century. To historian Malcolm Davies, the survival of the furnace 

offers a prime example of a "relict industry" able to endure the changing economic times of the 

late nineteenth century.47

 

 46Joseph Gitt, "Report of the Survey and Location for the Extension of the Western 

Maryland Railroad," 1865, 48-51. Catoctin Clarion, 4 March 1871. The arrival of the railroad 

was still of great benefit to the furnace. On February 18, 1871 the first load of pig iron from the 

furnace was hauled six miles north to the Western Maryland Railroad depot then shipped to 

Woodberry, near Baltimore. The local newspaper declared the shipment: "the beginning of a 

trade which will prove highly lucrative in the future." "Catoctin Furnace Historic Notes: 

Information from Mr. Edward Nunemaker, 1967," interview by Howard Damuth, Thurmont 

Historical Society. With the construction of the new Deborah coke-burning stack, coke was also 

shipped by rail to Mechanicstown then transported by wagon to the furnace.

 Key to the survival of the furnace was the dedicated, hands-on 

ownership of the Kunkles, the availability of local markets and abundant natural resources. The 

last years of the furnace, however, were anything but easy. The Kunkles struggled to keep the 

furnace technologically up-to-date and suffered perennial shutdowns. It was a difficult battle, 

doomed to ultimately failure, but for the families depending upon the furnace, including many 

farmers who periodically worked as choppers and colliers, the survival of the relict industry was 

a godsend.

 47Davies, 1-6.
92

92

92

At the end of the Civil War, the Kunkles had every reason to believe that their 

newly-purchased enterprise would continue to thrive. The Civil War had created great demand 

for iron, and, with the promise of greater industrialization following the war, the demand was 

expected to grow. Markets for pig iron to produce pipes, stoves, and machine parts promised 

profitable times.48

With the death of John Kunkle, Sr., in 1866, the enterprise at Catoctin passed to his two 

sons. That same year, John B. bought out his attorney brother to become sole owner of the 

furnace and properties. Anticipating a great market for pig iron and rail iron in Europe, Kunkle 

actively campaigned for trade regulations that would help American manufacturers of iron. He 

also planned to expand his operations at Catoctin.

 

49 Kunkle hired additional workers and in 

1873 built a new furnace stack, the Deborah, named for his wife. The Deborah utilized exciting 

new technology. It was a steam-powered, coke-burning furnace, 50 feet high and 12 feet in 

diameter.50 Alongside the Deborah, the Isabella, burning charcoal, remained in use. At peak 

operations, the furnace may have employed as many as 500 men: roughly 100 manning the 

furnace, 300 chopping wood and making charcoal, and 100 men working in the open pits of the 

ore and limestone banks.51

 

 48Davies, 68.

 49Catoctin Clarion, 24 February 1872.

 50Thompson, 107; Davies, 85; Singlewald, 147. Kunkle also patented what he hoped would 

be a new technology that involved lining the furnace with magnesian limestone to help free iron 

from phosphorus. The experiment largely failed.

 During busy times, the furnace even imported carloads of Italian 

 51Thompson, 107. Norman Waesche, "Economic History of Catoctin Furnace," Term Paper, 

Johns Hopkins University, 1936," Waesche, who used as a source his relative L.R. Waesche, 
93

93

93

immigrants from Baltimore to help with the work load.52

In no way were the Kunkles absentee owners. John B. Kunkle served as iron master at the 

furnace and lived in the large house adjoining the enterprise. The German-descended Kunkle 

family fit in well in the Catoctin area and quickly became a fixture of local life. Lillian Kunkle, 

daughter of John, became superintendent of the small church school associated with Harriet's 

Chapel at Catoctin Furnace.53

Clearly, the abundant natural resources in the area continued to facilitate iron production. 

Magnetite ore unique to the area could be found in great abundance.

 Not only were family investments tied up in the furnace, but so 

were family lives.

54 Enormous quantities of 

limestone and timber were also nearby. Charcoaling, by the second half of the nineteenth century, 

had been practiced and perfected on the mountain for nearly a hundred years. Farmers during 

their off-seasons could provide additional labor for chopping wood and charcoaling. Even 

children contributed by gathering leaves for the charcoal pits.55

Another factor working in favor of the furnace was the presence of local markets, 

particularly in Baltimore. Pig iron produced at Catoctin was ideal for railroad car wheels. Into 

 

former property manager of the Catoctin Furnace estimates roughly 350 workers at the furnace.

 52Waesche.

 53Catoctin Clarion, 1 January 1885.

 54Davies, 48-50. In the area around the furnace, Davies notes "10,000 acres was 

compromised of literally one vast ore bank."

 55"Information from Edward J. Nunemaker, Sr., Catoctin Furnace, 28 January 1958," 

interview by Howard Damuth, Thurmont Historical Society.
94

94

94

the twentieth century, railroad wheels made from charcoal iron had the reputation of being 

superior to steel.56 The Catoctin Furnace appears to have had a long-standing relationship with 

Lobdell Railroad wheel manufacturing company of Wilmington, Delaware. Access to local 

markets such as Lobdell and others in Baltimore provided Catoctin Furnace with a much needed 

life-line during changing economic times.57

Alongside the coke furnace, Kunkle introduced other technology to expedite work at 

Catoctin, including steam-powered shovels on tracks to facilitate open-pit mining.58 In 1886, 

the railroad that the Kunkles had wanted twenty years earlier finally came to Catoctin. L.R. 

Waesche of Mechanicstown and Steiner Schley, of Frederick, together, financed a rail connection 

between the Western Maryland Railroad Depot in Mechanicstown to Catoctin Furnace four miles 

south. This replaced the old system of hauling pig iron and coke in wagons driven by teams of 

six or eight mules.59 Conveniently the railroad used slag from the furnace as ballast (slag also 

was used on roads and for filling purposes).60

 

 56Davies, 93.

 57Strain, 49; Kenneth Orr, "The Catoctin Furnace Archeological Mitigation Project Final 

Report of the 1979 Excavation," February 1982, 29. The Cunningham Fall State Park 

superintendent managed to recover a mining cart from the pond now covering the former 

open-mining pit near the old furnace. The cart bore Lobdell wheels.

 58Davies, 60-64. A steam power to drive the blast and possibly other equipment at Catoctin 

was also introduced probably in the 1860 and 1870s.

 59"Monocacy Valley Railroad," verticle files, Thurmont Historical Society.

 The founders named their railroad, built primarily 

to serve the furnace, the Monocacy Valley Railroad (MVRR).

 60"Information Edward J. Nunemaker, Sr, Catoctin Furnace, 28 January 1958, Interview by 

Howard Damuth,” verticle files, Thurmont Histoical Society.
95

95

95

J.B. Kunkle, proud owner of the furnace, never saw the railroad in operation; he died of 

pneumonia in 1885. Kunkle’s obituary noted his early success with the furnace and willingness 

to invest in the operations. But Kunkle’s 1873 decision to expand the operation by constructing 

a new stack, the obituary noted, was “probably a mistake.” As the business declined and 

periodic shutdowns grew more frequent, Kunkle attempted to reorganize the business as a 

joint-stock company, with himself as a member. But few could be found who were willing to 

invest in the relict industry. Nevertheless, Kunkle’s devotion to the furnace and its workers 

remained his overriding concern: “withal whenever the price of iron poised to make it possible to 

produce without a loss Mr. Kunkle started the furnace and gave employment to all he could. He 

then undoubtedly kept want from the door of many of the hands.”61

For several years, Kunkle’s family, operating under the name Catoctin Iron Works, 

struggled to keep the furnace afloat. The family attempted to diversify by adding a paint 

manufacturing plant utilizing waste ochre from the iron mining.62

As the new century opened, prospects for making profits from the production of pig iron 

 But within two years, the 

newly-minted Catoctin Iron Works went into receivership. In 1888, at a public auction, 

Thomas Gorsuch of Westminster, Maryland purchased for $75,000 the enterprise and 9,000 acres 

associated with the furnace. By 1892, Gorsuch’s efforts to revive the furnace collapsed, and it 

sat vacant for several years. In 1899, a group calling itself the Blue Mountain Iron and Steel 

Company purchased the property.

 

 61Catoctin Clarion, 9 April 1885.

 62Davies, 89-90.
96

96

96

could not have been bleaker. The construction of an enormous integrated steel mill at Sparrows 

Point southeast of Baltimore signaled the final triumph of steel.63 Nevertheless, the Blue 

Mountain Iron and Steel Company began a major rebuilding project at the relict furnace. The 

new ownership introduced steam engines to replace hand and horse power. Workers dug a 

second mine south of the furnace by steam shovel and built a new ore stock house.64 By May of 

1900, the furnace was back in blast, and, according to the local newspaper: “[t]he output of 

furnace is of a very high grade on which circumstances all concerned are to be congratulated.”65 

Predictably, within months the furnace was again in trouble, and the new owners were looking 

for a buyer.66

When no investor could be found, the furnace, enduring more and more periodic 

shutdowns, struggled on. By 1903, the company was no longer paying its bills nor meeting its 

payroll, and the workers were growing fed up. According to Catoctin Furnace resident William 

Renner, reality finally hit the workers on a Sunday evening in 1903. Recognizing that time had 

passed by the century-and-quarter-old enterprise and that no revival was on the horizon, the 

furnace hands simply turned off the pumps that siphoned water out of the mine pits. The mine 

pits filled up, and iron was never again produced at Catoctin.67

 

 63Davies, 105.

 64Catoctin Clarion, 1 February 1900.

 65Catoctin Clarion, 17 May 1900.

 66Catoctin Clarion, 29 November 1900.

 67Kenneth G. Orr, Ph.D., "The Catoctin Furnace Archaeological Mitigation Project Final 

Report of the 1979 Excavation," Feb 1982, 29.
97

97

97

Life and Labor at Catoctin

Working at the furnace was never easy, but in its final years with the frequent shutdowns 

the experience was, no doubt, particularly difficult. Under Kunkle, roughly 350 men worked in 

the furnace operations, including wood cutters and miners. Increasing numbers of Irish workers 

also worked in the furnace. Also, as previously mentioned, in busy times, supplementary 

workers in the form of immigrants, apparently Italians, would be brought in from Baltimore 

along the Western Maryland Railroad.68

The Catoctin work day was long. Former employees recalled that the furnace operated 

around the clock, with workers assigned to ten to twelve hour shifts.69

But work was anything but steady. It would have been a rare year when the furnace did 

not suffer at least one shutdown. In 1876, for instance, the furnace shut down in early January. 

“The stoppage of Catoctin Furnaces,” reported the Catoctin Clarion, “makes a visible impression 

on the money market of Mechanicstown.”

 But the actual work day 

could be even longer. Former furnace worker Henry Fraley remembered: “there were no hours; 

it was all day long, as long as you could stand.” Pay scales ran between nine cents an hour for 

unskilled workers, and thirteen cents for skilled workers. Management paid wood cutters on a 

piecemeal basis--at roughly fifty cents a ton. 

70

 

 68Waesche, 9.

 69"Operations of Catoctin Furnaces, Edgar Miller, interview by Howard Damuth, Thurmont, 

Maryland, 25 March 1959; Lukens.

 By mid-March, owner J.B. Kunkle restarted the 

operation to the relief of “all particularly those who have been out of employment for the past 
98

98

98

four months.”71 But within a few days, the furnaces again shut down, and the Catoctin Clarion

reported “dear only knows when it will reopen.”72

Throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth century, the village of Catoctin Furnace 

was essentially a company town. The furnace proprietor owned the town. The company rented 

out roughly sixty houses and operated a boarding house. Workers paid between $2 and $4 for 

their homes (average incomes in a good year would run roughly $20-$25 per month). 

Management required renters to whitewash homes each year by May 30.

 1876 was no doubt a particularly difficult 

year, but the periodic layoffs must have had a devastating impact on the furnace workers.

73 The company also 

ran a general store, at its peak, employing four to five clerks. Management paid workers in 

script redeemable at the store. Workers also could buy on credit from the store and have bills 

deducted from paychecks.74

Following the Civil War, all workers at the furnace were wage earners, but the work force 

remained ethnically and racially diverse. As was the case in many factories and mills at the 

time, work assignments at Catoctin appear to have been segregated. The 1870 Census, for 

instance, listed eight Irish-born laborers as working in the iron mines. In addition, the census 

 

 70Catoctin Clarion, 14 January 1876.

 71Catoctin Clarion, 12 May 1876.

 72Catoctin Clarion, 19 May 1876.

 73Elizabeth Y. Anderson, “Catoctin Furnace: portrait of An Iron-Making Furnace 

Community,” (Hood College, Honors Thesis, 1982), 67.

 74Lukens, Anderson, “Catoctin Furnace,” 69.
99

99

99

listed a mine worker of Bavarian origin and a furnace founder from Prussia.75 Several African 

Americans held jobs at the furnace. One former worker recalled six African-American working 

in the open-face mines, filling cars, and taking them to a turntable for further transportation.76 

In February of 1874, the failure to supply a boiler with adequate water resulted in a major 

explosion that was heard for miles. The blast killed two African-American furnace workers, 

James Norris and Samuel Mitchell, and severely injured several other workers, and “cast a gloom 

over the whole neighborhood.”77

Accidents were a major component of life at the furnace. One former employee 

remembered work in the casting house, where hot iron was channeled into pig iron molds then 

broken off by workers, as particularly dangerous. Casting house workers took precautions, 

including wearing heavy wood soles attached to their shoes by a strip of leather. Nevertheless, 

remembered a worker, “many burns” were suffered.78

 

 751870 Census. The workers included sixty-year old John Fitzgerald, thirty-year old John 

Cramer, thirty-five year old Michael Brice and Thomas Craig, thirty-eight year old Patrick 

McGill, fifty-year old James Crosby, and forty-five year old James O’Connor. Many of the Irish 

workers had families. For instance, John Cramer had a wife, Mary, and three children.

 76"Information Edward J. Nunemaker, Sr, , nnterview by Howard Damuth, Catoctin 

Furnace, Maryland, 28 January 1958, Thurmont Historical Society.

 77Democratic Advocate, 21 February 1874. Neither Norris nor Mitchell appeared in the 

1870 census. While no African-Americans lived in Hauver’s District, west of Catoctin 

mountain, in the Mechanicstown District that included Catoctin Furnace, twenty-six African 

Americans appear, but none appeared to have worked at the furnace. The census listed most as 

farm workers.

 In another tragedy, in 1889, an ore mine 

car drawn by mules ran over and killed its thirteen-year-old driver who had attempted to stop and 

 78"Operations of Catoctin Furnaces,” Edgar Miller, interview by Howard Damuth, 25 March 

1959, Thurmont Historical Society.
100

100

100

retrieve a cow bell under the car. Dr. William McPherson, owner of Auburn House, was 

summoned, but could do nothing for the teenager.79 On another occasion, fireman Roger 

Weddle lost a leg in an accident.80 Even on the mountain, danger accompanied furnace work. 

The job of charcoaling was particularly fraught with hazards. At one point a wagon filled with 

charcoal on its way to the furnace caught fire, searing the teamster and forcing him to climb 

aboard his team of horses to calm them.81

From the time of the earliest settlers, the mountain had provided residents with recreation 

and leisure along with the valuable natural resources that drove local industry. Well before the 

Civil War, picnickers and hikers, believing in the benefits of fresh air and pure water, enjoyed the 

beauty of the mountain.

Life at the furnace, thus, offered few rewards and presented the constant challenge of 

low-pay, lay-offs, and accidents. With little to lose, the decision in 1903 to simply turn off the 

pumps is readily understandable. 

The Rise of Tourism

82

 

 79Catoctin Clarion, 7 November 1889.

 80Evers G. Eylers, interview by Howard Damuth, 16 August 1965, Thurmont Historical 

Society.

 81Donald Wolfe, interview by author, Frederick Maryland, 26 October 1998.

 In the years following the Civil War, many Americans enjoyed 

greater prosperity and more leisure time. For the first time, recreational sports, especially 

 82Asa P. Stotelmyer, “The Black Rock Hotel on Bagtown Jugtown Trail,” Baltimore Sun, 15 

November 1970. A popular pre-Civil War trail was the Bagtown trail running near the current 

Appalachian trail on South Mountain. Hikers to the peak would enjoy picnics and water from 

the two natural springs nearby. On the fourth of July, picnickers were known to enjoy toasts of 

rye whisky to each of the thirteen colonies.
101

101

101

baseball, gained popularity. By 1876, Mechanicstown had its own baseball club, actively 

playing teams from other towns.83 Another example of the growth of leisure was the rise of ice 

cream. During the summer months, Catoctin residents began streaming to local establishments 

serving the frozen delight. “Call to see me often and I will make you cool,” promised one local 

ice cream parlor.84

But it was with the arrival of the railroad that recreation increasingly became a business 

in the Catoctins (see Appendix 8). John Mifflen Hood, president of the Western Maryland 

Railroad, viewing such activities as integral to the success of his enterprise, was an aggressive 

promoter of tourism and recreation. In 1877, Hood constructed an amusement park/vacation 

resort at Pen Mar, near the Pennsylvania border. Easily accessible along the railroad route, the 

village quickly became “the most fashionable summer colony in the East.” Soon over one 

hundred hotels and boarding houses sprang up at Pen Mar, as did observation towers and dance 

pavilions.85 Real estate prices soared in the area. By 1889, land that a few years previous would 

have sold for $700 went for $7,000.86 At every stage in development, the Western Maryland 

Railroad was intimately involved, even helping with the mortgage in 1883 for the Blue Mountain 

House, one of the large hotels at Pen Mar.87

 

 83Catoctin Clarion, 26 May 1876.

 84Catoctin News (Wolfsville), 10 August 1888.

 85Judith Schlotterbeck, The Pen Mar Story, (Funkstown, MD, 1978), 1.

 86Catoctin Clarion, 5 September 1889.

 87Ibid, 155.
102

102

102

Hood’s railroad ran special excursion trains to Pen Mar throughout the warmer months. 

An express train from Baltimore ran to Pen Mar each day except Sunday. The trip took roughly 

two and a half hours.88 Such special trains would sometimes include an oyster dinner.89

The Mechanicstown-Foxville area could not hope to compete with such well-funded 

initiatives. But with the arrival of the railroad, a nascent tourist industry emerged in the area. 

Boarding houses sprang up in Mechanicstown. Residents of Rocky Ridge and Graceham 

organized yearly festivals to attract vacationers. Graceham’s mid-June festival attracted a 

“constant stream of buggies, jaggers and hacks . . . along East Main Street.”

 

Residents of the Mechanicstown area eagerly joined the swarms going to the resort. With the 

mountain areas now easily accessible by rail to city dwellers, other resort areas also opened their 

doors. One of the most successful was Braddock Heights, to the west of Frederick.

90 In 1885, The

Catoctin Clarion declared: “in no summer since we have known Mechanicstown has there been 

so large a number of visitors as during this season.”91 Soon community leaders were lamenting 

the lack of “a first-class summer hotel” in town to further attract vacationers.92

 

 88Breed Publishing Company’s Directory of the Western Maryland Railroad for the year 

1892 from Baltimore to Williamsport (Newburgh, New York, 1893).

 89Catoctin Clarion, 22 September 1890.

 90Catoctin Clarion, 25 June 1885.

 91Catoctin Clarion, 23 June 1885.

 Meanwhile there 

was also talk of establishing small cottage colonies for vacationers. In 1890, a group of Georgia 

businessmen arrived in the area with the intention of establishing such a development near Blue 

 92Catoctin Clarion, 24 July 1890.
103

103

103

Ridge Summit.93

The small village of Foxville, on the west end of the mountain, also put its best foot 

forward to lure visitors. Foxville boarding houses like the Glynden House and the Spring Grove 

House, by the summer of 1885, were attracting visitors from Washington, Annapolis, and 

Baltimore. Sojourners in Foxville could enjoy evening promenades and entertainment by a 

“submarine band.”94

That same summer, Foxville exploded in excitement with the news that President Grover 

Cleveland would visit the popular Gap Falls Mineral Springs Park near Foxville. The small 

town went into manic preparations. Hundreds lined the railroad station waiting for the 

president. But at the last minute, Cleveland apparently decided to vacation elsewhere. “The 

disappointment was great,” reported the local newspaper.95

For some farmers the arrival of the railroad also brought changes and new opportunities. 

 

It would be nearly fifty years before the area finally would become a retreat for the 

nation’s highest officer. Nevertheless, the face of mountain in the second half of the nineteenth 

century was again changing. New attitudes about the benefits of the picturesque region 

emerged. The mountains remained an important source of raw materials for many years, but 

gradually they began to supply other needs as well.

Farming on the Mountain

 

 93Catoctin Clarion, 28 August 1890.

 94Catoctin Clarion, 23 July 1885. The exact location of these homes now appear to have 

been lost.
104

104

104

In 1885, The Catoctin Clarion would declare that since the arrival of the Western Maryland 

Railroad fifteen years before, "farmers awoke from the lethargy, land improved, crops increased 

and produce found a ready market in our great commercial center."96 For those with larger 

farms in Harbaugh Valley and the Mechanicstown District, the railroad did appear to open new 

markets. Wheat production in Maryland soared, hitting a record high in 1900, when the state 

produced 16.6 million bushels of wheat.97 Throughout upper Frederick County, farmers grew 

much wheat, but Indian corn, not wheat, remained the largest crop. In the Mechanicstown area, 

many farmers enjoyed yields of several hundred bushels of wheat--some producing yields of 

nearly a thousand bushels. Larger farms, such as Leonard Harbaugh's 175-acre farm, in Harbaugh 

Valley, yearly producing 175 bushels of wheat easily thrived despite nationally falling prices 

throughout the late nineteenth century.98

Farms in Hauver District, encompassing most of the mountain area west of 

Mechanicstown, tended to be smaller and less focused on cash crops such as wheat. While 

many of the farmers who owned land that later became park property held tracts of well over 100 

acres, rarely did they possess more than forty acres of improved land . Yost Wiant--the 

mountain land owner who shows up most frequently in the census records--owned forty acres of 

improved land in 1850 on a plot of roughly 100 acres. Within thirty years he added more 

 

 95Catoctin Clarion, 23 July 1885, 30 July 1885.

 96Catoctin Clarion, 30 July 1885.

 97Maryland Agricultural Week Committee, 10.

 98Figures based on 1860 Agricultural Census; 1873 Bond Map.
105

105

105

unimproved land, but kept his farm at roughly 40 acres. Wiant grew Indian corn and kept 

chickens, swine, and cows, from whose milk he produced butter. In 1880, he produced 160 

bushels of apples and 200 cords of wood.99

Wiant's land appears to have been among the least productive in the area. Other farms 

did somewhat better. In 1870, Levi Brown (park tract 103) owned a 160-acre plot of which 95 

acres were improved. Brown produced 150 bushels of Indian corn, 100 bushels of oats, and 160 

bushels of wheat. He appears to have been one of the few in the area to have grown wheat.100 

Brown's farm was listed as worth $7,000 compared to Wiant's $4,000 holdings. Wealthier yet 

was Peter Hauver (tract 153), whose farm was valued at $2,150. Encompassing only 20 acres of 

improved land, one must assume that Hauver’s livestock holdings, including 3 horses, 3 cows, 10 

sheep, and 7 swine, significantly added to the value of his holdings. In addition to his twenty-acre 

farm, Hauver also owned almost 200 acres of forest land from which he produced $350 a year in 

"forest products." Like Brown, Hauver also grew wheat--roughly 20 bushels per year.101

Most of the other farmers on what is now park land owned between 40 to 70 acres of 

improved land. The most frequently grown grain crop was Indian corn. Many farmers also 

grew potatoes, several producing over 100 bushels. Orchard crops such as apples and peaches 

added to the produce yielded by the mountain. Farmers kept a variety of livestock, but most 

 

 

 991880 Agricultural Census; Hitselberger, 154. In 1850, Wiant identified himself as a 

laborer. Subsequent census entries have him as a farmer. In the 1870 census, Wiant is listed as 

the owner of 5 cows and a horse. 

 1001870 Agricultural census.

 1011870 Agricultural Census.
106

106

106

owned 2 or 3 cows, and between 3 and 6 swine. Without question, the farms of Catoctin 

Mountain were small subsistence-based agricultural holdings. It was a rare farm in Hauvers 

District in the second half of the nineteenth century that was worth over $5,000. Given the 

nature of most of the farms, slavery was rare outside the immediate furnace area. Only two 

slaves appear as living in Hauver’s District in the 1850 census. Farms in the Mechanicstown 

District tended to be significantly larger--some up to 12,000 acres. Many also exceeded $10,000 

in value. 

Few people living in the valley afforded much attention to the mountain areas (although 

many owned small, wooded tracts). The one exception was the occasional excitement related to 

a snake killing. In June of 1876, for instance, a party of boys near Chimney Rock killed "a 

monster black snake," measuring six feet in length.102 The mountain was home to many 

snakes--most of which were harmless. But rattlesnakes upset the public. Later in the summer of 

1876, a man killed a 44-inch rattlesnake near Wolf Rock, earning him heroic mention in the local 

newspaper.103

The presence of rattlesnakes threatened one of the popular activities enjoyed in the 

mountains--huckleberry and blackberry gathering. In 1889, the local newspaper noted that the 

blackberry "demand is exhausting supply." But the paper also acknowledged the threat to 

harvesting posed by rattlesnakes.104

 

 102Catoctin Clarion, 15 June 1876.

 103Catoctin Clarion, 10 August 1876.

 104Catoctin Clarion, 4 August 1889.
107

107

107

That same summer brought an event that no doubt long remained in the memories of both 

valley and mountain dwellers. In June, several days of rain drove water over the banks of Owens 

and Hunting Creeks. Headlines proclaimed: "Owens Creek Becomes a Mad River." The eldest 

inhabitants could not remember a flood with such ferocity. Engineers for the Monocacy Valley 

Railroad placed several cars on a railroad bridge, hoping to use the weight to prevent a washout. 

Elsewhere, flood waters washed out several miles of the Western Maryland Railroad and 

destroyed crops and fields along Hunting Creek. Despite the destruction of the flood, western 

Marylanders could feel lucky that they were spared the worst. The same flood waters that sent the 

local creeks over their banks burst a dam in Pennsylvania and destroyed the entire town of 

Johnstown, killing over 2,000 people.105

Despite the 1889 flood, census data and the few other records we have for mountain life 

in the nineteenth century suggest a slow existence in which farming and supplemental work such 

as charcoaling and timbering provided locals with a steady subsistence but little beyond.106

The second half of the nineteenth century, then, was a period in which the signs of change 

 

While the railroad transformed industrial and agricultural life in the valleys below, for 

mountaineers, the nineteenth century brought few drastic changes.

Conclusion

 

 105Catoctin Clarion, 6 June 1889; Louise McPherson, “Recollections of Catoctin Parish, 

Protestant Episcopal Church,” nd.

 106Charles S. Martin and Tom Rose, The History of Wolfsville and the Catoctin District

(Frederick 1972), 13. A study of nineteenth-century Wolfsville concludes that "trade, barter and 

cooperation" held the local together. Any supplemental income was earned by practices such as 

"coaling" for Catoctin furnace.
108

108

108

could be seen--if one looked carefully. The furnace persisted, and even expanded at times. But 

an informed observer would see the enterprise more as a relict industry than a harbinger of new 

industrial potential. Meanwhile, signs of an emerging recreational economy were popping up in 

the form of boarding houses and tourists transported to the region by trains. The arrival of the 

Western Maryland Railroad offered a new and convenient source of transportation tying the 

Catoctin area closer to larger cities and towns. As the century came to an end, mountain 

residents continued to work simple subsistence farms, bartering for needed goods, and 

charcoaling or logging to earn extra money--much as they had toward the beginning of the 

century. But such lifestyles would not survive long into the next century.
110

Chapter Four

The Eve of Acquisition

Introduction

In the Catoctin Mountain area, the first three decades of the twentieth century 

witnessed a continuing shift away from an emphasis on industry and farming toward 

recreation and tourism. The village of Catoctin Furnace, for instance, once a bustling 

center of industry, increasingly became a quaint tourist stop. By the 1920s, thanks in part 

to frequent visits to the area by President Herbert Hoover, the Catoctins were gaining a 

national reputation as a desirable vacation site. The number of local boarding houses 

steadily grew. Outdoor enthusiasts purchased land, especially along Hunting Creek, for 

recreational use. On the eve of acquisition, mountain landowners were a diverse lot. But 

traditional subsistence farms continued to operate, even as pressure gathered for change.

The End of Industry on the Mountain

Following the worker-initiated shutdown in 1903, the formerly bustling village of 

Catoctin Furnace sat vacant for two years. Many residents of the village, without steady 

income, descended into poverty. Some turned to looting the roughly 10,677 acres 

associated with the furnace. In the absence of real furnace ownership, locals viewed the 

area as a “no-man’s land.”1

 Looters destroyed fences, took timber for firewood, even 

stripped the brass from an idle steam shovel.2

On February 19, 1906, at noon, a small crowd gathered in Catoctin Furnace to 

witness the U.S. District Court-ordered auction of the holdings of Blue Mountain Iron 

and Steel Company. The auction included over 10,000 acres of land, the furnace, office 

buildings, the company store, the manor house, and the roughly sixty tenement houses in 

 1

Charles Anders, interview by author, Thurmont, MD, 6 February 1999.

2

Catoctin Clarion, 22 February 1905.
111

Catoctin Furnace. That day, Joseph E. Thropp, a former congressman and owner of an 

iron works in Everett, Pennsylvania, stepped forth and purchased the enterprise for 

$51,135. Following the bidding, Thropp briefly addressed the gathering. First, he 

threatened any looters, proclaiming that he “would prosecute to the full extent of the law 

anyone taking or destroying any property even if its value be but 15 cents.” Then he 

promised to rebuild the enterprise, and vowed “to pay 100 cents on the dollar for every 

dollar I contract.” The small crowd applauded in appreciation.3

Whether Thropp ever intended to act on his promise to reopen the furnace is 

unclear; but iron was never again produced at the site. Thropp, however, did reopen the 

iron ore mines, located to the south of furnace, along present-day Route 15. He shipped 

ore mined from the Catoctin grounds to his still-operating iron furnace in western 

Pennsylvania. Local residents were disappointed as it slowly became clear that the iron 

industry would not be revived. The Catoctin Clarion lamented, “Mr. Thropp . . . does not 

seem to be going to do anything toward engaging in active work.”

 

4

 In 1912, Thropp shut 

down his operations entirely. Those living in the former company houses continued to 

pay rents of two dollars a month to Thropp and continued to view the furnace land as a 

“no-man’s land” from which firewood and booty could freely be extracted. Most of the 

former employees either went to work in the quarries or in the timber industry. For many 

in the town of Catoctin Furnace, life was hard, and survival required ingenuity. Residents 

made handkerchiefs from the large sugar bags sold at Henry Farley’s Catoctin Furnace 

General Store. And many families sold chestnuts to pay for winter cloths.5

 3

Catoctin Clarion, 22 February 1905.

4

Catoctin Clarion, 6 July 1906. Interview with Evers G. Eyler, 16 August 1965, by 

Howard Damuth. At some point, Thropp did build a washer (gig) below the furnace to 

wash the iron ore.

5

Charles Anders interview.

 Some relief 
112

came in 1915 when a Pennsylvania company started a stave mill near the Catoctin 

Furnace trolley station, which made use of local timber reserves.6

While the large-scale iron furnace was no longer a presence on the mountain, 

tourism continued to expand. Hundreds of “pleasure seekers” flocked each summer and 

fall to the Catoctin Mountains. By the early twentieth century the popularity of larger 

resort hotels, often owned by railroad companies began to wane. In a movement one 

historian called “private pastoralism,” an increasingly urbanized population began to look 

for more remote, less expensive lodging.

“Pleasure Seekers”: Growth of Tourism

7

To make ends meet, a farm wife, on a well-situated plot of land, might open up 

her house to summer boarders. Attractions would include healthy water and air, trails for 

hiking, and good cooking. Often a wife and children from Baltimore or Washington DC 

would arrive for several weeks during the summer and be joined by the husband and 

father on weekends. The boarding houses assumed fancy names, such as “The Milburn,” 

“The Catoctin,” “Idlewhile,” and “Aurora Cottage.” At one point in the summer of 1906, 

Aurora Cottage, operate by Miss Florence Geesey, entertained 18 boarders, including one 

from Brooklyn, New York. That same summer, the boarding house operated by Mrs. 

W.W. Zimmerman lodged a visitor from Indianapolis.

 Positioned along a major railroad line, with 

good scenery, and flowing creeks of fresh water, the Catoctin area was well situated to 

appeal to the ever-growing herds of excursionists and vacationers.

8

 6

McPherson, 11.

7

Warren James Belasco, Americans on the Road: From Autocamp to Motel, 1910-

1945 (Cambridge, MA, 1979), 63.

8

Catoctin Clarion, 6 July 1906.

 According to a 1913 account, 
113

“the favorite point in the mountains for excursionists is Hunting Creek Falls 

(Cunningham Falls)” as well as Chimney Rock and neighboring Table Rock.9

Transportation remained a concern in the mountain area. Tourists, of course, 

could arrive via the Western Maryland Railroad, which published a yearly guide entitled 

“Summering on the Western Maryland Railroad,” listing boarding house locations and 

prices. In hopes of helping out farmers and “developing excursion resorts and summer 

boarding businesses,” local politicians and businessmen began exploring the possibility 

of an electric railroad or trolley to run from Frederick north to Thurmont.10 No doubt the 

success of a similar trolley line from Frederick to Braddock Heights built in 1898 

encouraged the Catoctin version.11 Over the years, the Monocacy Valley Railroad, 

connecting Catoctin Furnace to Thurmont’s Western Maryland Railroad Depot, had 

expanded to connect with the Northern Railroad Company’s line between Frederick and 

Lewistown (built in 1898). This created a direct line between Thurmont and Frederick. 

After a few years of negotiations, the Potomac Edison Company purchased and electrified 

the line, and in 1909, the Potomac Edison Railroad enjoyed its maiden voyage.12 The 

new electric railroad handled both people and freight, making it, according to some 

sources, the first railroad line in the country to handle freight.13

Facilitated by the new trolley system, ten boarding houses operated in Thurmont 

by 1913 and eleven took boarders in Sabillasville. Among the houses was the Crow’s 

 9

Oeter, 6. “Neighboring Table Rock,” a popular turn-of-the-century location for 

picnicking, was located in Garrett County near Backbone mountain.

10Catoctin Clarion, 2 November 1905.

11Gordon, Textbook, 127.

12Frederick News, 19 February 1954; Herbert H. Harwood, Jr. Blue Ridge Trolley: 

The Hagerstown and Frederick Railway (Frederick, 1979). 

13Planning Commission of Thurmont MD, "Suggested Master Plan" 1964.
114

Nest, located just to the east of the present-day park and operated by Joseph Gernand. 

The Crow’s Nest took on weekly boarders at a weekly rate of six to eight dollars.14

These such boarding houses offered the women of the area a rare opportunity to 

operate businesses. One such women was Bessie Darling, a Baltimore resident who 

owned and ran a summer boarding house and who later became the area’s most famous 

murder victim. Darling had served as a personal secretary to a well-known professor at 

the prestigious Peabody Institute in Baltimore. In 1917, following a failed marriage that 

produced a son, Darling purchased from Mary E. Lent a tract of steep land on the north 

side of the mountain near Deerfield. A large house, built in 1907, sat on the land. There, 

Darling set up a summer hotel called the Valley View Manor (see Map 4). She generally 

managed the hotel in the summer and returned to Baltimore in winter, where she used her 

considerable social contacts to drum up summer business for her hotel. Her skill at 

cooking and baking, as well as the scenic site helped build her a solid clientele.15

World War I, no doubt, interrupted the development of the tourist trade in the 

Catoctins. The 1920s, however, brought yet another form of tourism to the mountains, 

based on a new form of transportation--the automobile. In 1910, there existed roughly 

500,000 cars in America, but by 1920, eight million automobiles packed American roads. 

The proliferation gave rise to a new form of tourism--autotouring. Independent of the 

railroads, with their set timetables and routes, millions of Americans, camping out as they 

traveled, took to the roads. Of the new “motor gypsies,” one journalist waxed: "A tourist 

automobile is like a little yacht on wheels. You have your provisions and equipment, your 

 14Western Maryland Railroad, “Summering on the Western Maryland Railroad,” 

(Baltimore, 1913), 32.

15The Frederick News, 1 November 1933; Spencer Watson, "The Halloween Murder 

of Bessie Darling," The Banner, November 1998. 
115

maps and compass, your eager consultation with other mariners, your dangerous Cape 

Horns, your snug, cozy harbors."16

Often seeking out “picturesque villages” and, when not camping, staying at quaint 

inns and boarding houses, autotourists sought areas off the beaten track. Catoctin 

Furnace, now largely idle, became a favorite destination of the autotouring crowd. The 

Baltimore Sun in 1925 reported that motorists in “increasing numbers are visiting the old 

Catoctin Iron Works.” Many, according to the story, then went on to visit Chimney 

Rock.17 Reports in 1927, spread by a booster of local tourism, of a silver mine shaft high 

in the mountains, supposedly dug by Jonathan Hager in the eighteenth century, added to 

interest in the area. In 1930, American Motorist ran a piece on Catoctin Furnace extolling 

its historical past and picturesque present. Spurred, no doubt, by locals ready to tell a 

good story, the article described at length the apocryphal stories of Jonathan Hager’s 

silver mine, the furnace’s contributions to Rumsey’s steam ship, and to the U.S.S. 

Monitor.18

Not every auto excursion proved enjoyable, however. On July 20, 1920, a group 

of “pleasure seekers” arrived in the mountains to enjoy a Sunday afternoon. The “auto 

party” consisting of three women and two men, drove a “big Buick.” West of Thurmont, 

along Hunting Creek, the car got stuck in a dip in the creek called “Little Sandy Hole.” 

Unable to extract the car, the group sought the aid of farmer George Bussard, who 

chained the car to his team of horses. Still unable to pull the Buick out, Bussard sought 

 

 16Belasco, 8.

17Emily Emerson Lantz, “Catoctin Furnace has Rich Past,” Baltimore Sun Magazine, 

4 October 1925, 

18Maude Luken, “Catoctin Furnace--A Different Village,” American Motorist, 

September 1930.
116

out another team from postmaster and boarding house keeper Joseph Gernand. 

Eventually, the group turned to a tractor, and finally, after midnight, the car was freed.19

As autotourists began to tire of camping in open fields, a new sort of lodging 

establishment emerged aimed at motorists--the motel. In 1929, Wilbur Freeze erected 

three simple cabins and opened the Cozy Inn in Thurmont (see Map 4.5). Advertising a 

“home for night for a tourist,” within two years, the camp grew to fifteen cabins and a 

store to serve lodgers. An aggressive promoter, Freeze painted his cabins bright colors 

and made sure that flowers were always in bloom in the gardens. He also built sea-saws, 

and other playground equipment for children. The largest cabin, named “Betty Lou,” 

featured two bedrooms and a kitchen.20

Alongside the autouring phenomenon, some Americans sought more vigorous 

recreation. Inspired by Theodore Roosevelt and other advocates of a return to the 

“rugged life” enjoyed by American pioneers, recreational hiking clubs sprang up around 

the country. In 1910, Maryland hikers formed the Wanderluster Hiking Club. Later a 

group of Washington outdoors fanatics organized the Red Triangle Club. A key member 

of the early outdoor movement was Benton Mackaye, a forester, regional planner, and 

philosopher, who joined the U.S. Forest Service in 1905. Envisioning a mammoth trail 

running north to south through the eastern United States, Mackaye devised a plan for the 

Appalachian Trail in 1921 (see Map 4). Construction began in 1923 on the first stretch of 

the trail, which ran through New York state. In the Middle Atlantic states, the Potomac 

Appalachian Trail Club, founded by Myron Avery in 1927, raised money and chartered 

the course of the trail. While Mackayne provided the grand vision, Avery did much of 

the grass roots work for the trail. Endlessly committed, Avery raised both money and 

publicity for the trail project. During the New Deal period, Avery arranged to obtain 

 19Catoctin Clarion, 15 July 1920.

20Catoctin Clarion, 7 November 1931.
117

some public sponsorship for trail construction and improvement.21 The Civilian 

Conservation Corps (CCC) for instance, constructed two road shelters on the Appalachian

Trail near the park.22

A major component of the “rugged life” movement aimed to rescue children from 

unhealthy city living, even if it was for only a few weeks during the summer. In 1924, a 

Jewish youth organization purchased land at the foothills of Catoctin mountain and 

established Camp Airy, still in existence today. The camp represented the beginning of 

organized youth recreational use of the area. A few years later in 1931, the Boy Scouts 

established a camp north of Catoctin Manor on Hunting Creek. The scout camp, set on 

258 acres, featured a number of halls, and a 2000 square feet dammed-up swimming area 

on the creek, featuring a 35-foot waterfall.23 The camp operated for roughly two years, 

then closed due to low enrollment and the washing out of the pool’s dam.24

In the 1923, Lancelot Jacques, whose ancestor had been among the original 

investors in the Catoctin Furnace, purchased the furnace manor house and a large amount 

of surrounding land.25

 21Sandra Koker, Appalachian Trail, (Portland, OR, 1979), 7-11.

22"Camp Inspection Report,” 3 February 1941, RG 35, Records of the CCC, Division 

of Investigations Camp Inspection Reports, box 94, National Archives, Washington, DC. 

W.S. Bahlman, “Memorandum for the Director, 6 September 1939, RG 79, RDA 

Program Files, box 57, National Archives, College Park.

23Catoctin Clarion, 8 May 1931; Catoctin Clarion, 26 June 1931.

24#704 Public Camp and Picnic Development, 3-25-35, RG 79, Records Concerning 

Recreational Demonstration Areas, Project Records of the Project Planning and Control 

Section, Land Utilization Division, Resettlement Administration, 1935-6, box 3, NA.

25McPherson, 12.

 Jacques apparently planned to develop the land as a deer park, 

complete with a scenic pond constructed from the former iron ore pits. Apparently 

inspired by the Florida land boom at the time, Jacques hoped to attract hunters to his 
118

preserve and hired local resident William Renner as custodian.26

In 1927, Jacques sold roughly 1,800 acres of his holdings to a wealthy 

Washingtonian named Lawrence Richey. Richey hoped to establish fishing camp on 

Hunting Creek for his and the use of his guests (see Map 4.5).

 The extent to which 

Jacques actually developed the full “deer park” he envisioned is unclear. In 1929, 

Jacques set up the “Potomac Development Corporation” with himself as president. His 

apparent aim was to develop the area between Catoctin Furnace and Hunting Creek into a 

vacation resort. The same year he formed his corporation, however, the stock market 

crashed, setting in motion the Great Depression.

27 Among his friends was 

Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover. When, two years later, Hoover became 

president, he appointed Richey as his secretary. A fishing enthusiast, whose ancestors 

had been among the settlers of the area, Hoover became a frequent guest at the Richey 

Camp. At first, the president and his entourage would stay in tents, but eventually the 

proprietor constructed cabins for his guests. Richey hired Charles Anders, a Catoctin 

Furnace local, to prepare fishing equipment and food for the guests. In contrast to the 

president’s aloof public image, Anders found a relaxed man of good humor. He called 

the president “chief,” and Hoover nicknamed Anders “Jack.” Mrs. Hoover occasionally 

accompanied her husband and was also warmly remembered by Anders.28

After several visits to the Richey camp, Hoover, by 1930, began frequenting 

another camp on the Rapidan River near Madison, Virginia. The large crowds and media 

that frequently joined him in the Catoctins may have bothered the president. Whatever the 

reason for the Hoover move, his visits to the area helped bring notice to the region as an 

 26Kenneth G. Orr, “The Catoctin Furnace Archaeological Mitigation Project Final 

Report of the 1979 Excavation,” Feburary 1982.

27Strain, 267.

28Anders interview.
119

outdoor recreational oasis, and established the area in some minds as a presidential 

retreat. 

By the early 1930s, the upper Catoctin region was known throughout the middle 

Atlantic states and beyond as a desirable vacation and leisure spot, featuring boarding 

houses, fishing camps, and mountain scenery fit for a president.

The Wreck of the Blue Mountain Express

On June 25, 1915, the Western Maryland Railroad’s Blue Mountain Express, 

Number 15, heading west, arrived late for its scheduled 5:10 PM stop in Thurmont. The 

express consisted of a Pullman Parlor Car, three coaches, and a baggage car.29 In 

Thurmont, the train stopped briefly to take on water and drop off Baltimore’s afternoon 

newspapers for delivery. The express then pulled out from Thurmont toward 

Sabillasville, where it entered onto the roughly 2.2 miles of the line which became one 

track--the portion of the railroad that conductors considered to be the most dangerous. 

With roughly twenty passenger trains passing through the area each day, local residents 

could keep time by the train whistles. At roughly 5:30 PM, the Blue Mountain Express 

let out the expected whistle, but then--to the alarm of all within earshot--the whistling 

continued. Locals knew something was wrong.30

As the express crossed over the scenic high bridge above Owens Creek, it had 

crashed head-on with engine number 203, an eastbound mail train (see Appendix 9 and 

Map 4.5). The impact of the crash tossed the westbound wooden baggage car a hundred 

feet to the creek below. A handicapped woman on a stretcher and her son, both of whom 

were ridding in the baggage car, died in the plunge. Remarkably, the two engines 

involved in the head-on crash locked together, appearing as almost one engine to the 

 

 29William Graffam, “Reliving the 1915 Train Wreck on Bridge at Thurmont,” 

Frederick News-Post, 20 February 1975.

30Charles W. Eyler, “I Remember the Wreck of the Blue Mountain Express,” 

Baltimore Sun, 20 March 1960.
120

horrified rescuers who quickly gathered on the scene. Had the engines ricocheted off of 

one another, there undoubtedly would have been more causalities. Roughly one hundred 

people convened on the scene to aid frightened survivors, care for the injured, and insure 

that no further disasters occurred. Among the first to arrive was Dr. Morris Birely, who 

worked into the night with the aid of gas lanterns. The Western Maryland Railroad sent 

two special trains, one from each direction to aid in the calamity. 

In the end, six died in the crash of the Blue Mountain Express and twelve suffered 

serious injuries. An investigation revealed that a mix-up in the all-important right-of-way 

orders issued from Hagerstown had caused the crash. No doubt, troubles keeping 

scheduling that day contributed to the tragedy.31

The train wreck was certainly the greatest tragedy that ever beset the mountain 

area, but the threat of forest fires remained a perennial concern. In the summer of 1914, 

fire destroyed half the town of Creagerstown.

Fire and Fire Control

32 In April 1920, efforts to clear land for 

huckleberry growth resulted in a forest fire that destroyed ten mountain acres near the old 

saw mill once owned by John Rouzer.33 The next month, a much worse fire began in the 

Phillips Delight area, west of Catoctin Furnace (see Map 4.5). According to the local 

paper, the initial destruction was confined to an area that “has been burned over many 

times and at this time contains very little timber of any value.”34

 31Graffam; Frederick Post 24 May 1971.

32Frederick News-Post, 3 June 1914.

33Catoctin Clarion, 14 April 1920; “Youth Conservation Corp Interviews with 

Howard Damuth, 27 July 1972,” CMP. Huckleberries which needed bare earth to grow 

were a popular mountain product. Often in the spring, small mountain fires were started 

to clear land for huckleberry growth. Such fires occasionally got out of control.

34Catoctin Clarion, 13 May 1920.

 This area, known as 

Salamander Hill, had belonged to the furnace and locals apparently had cut most of its 
121

best timber. High winds fanned the fire that quickly spread and threatened more valuable 

land to the north. Under the direction of fire wardens, between 75 and 100 men set up a 

thirteen-mile fire line to control the burning. Finally after two days, fire fighters had the 

blaze under control.35

 The presence of the fire wardens on the scene at the Salamander Hill fire was 

symptomatic of the increasing organization and effort devoted to controlling the forest 

fire threat. By the early-twentieth century, the state of Maryland had organized a state 

Board of Forestry, under State Forester F.W. Besley.36 Besley began a statewide program 

of fire prevention and forest conservation. The advent of the chestnut blight, beginning 

roughly in 1910, complicated his work. The blight, which attacked and destroyed the 

bark of the chestnut, began on Long Island and quickly spread. The once-abundant 

chestnut trees of western Maryland quickly fell victim. By the early 1920s, nearly all the 

chestnut trees in Frederick County were gone.37 The chestnuts blight represented a major 

loss for the mountain area. The trees had provided valuable timber, and nuts from the 

trees were an important food for hogs and wildlife.38 To rebuild the forests, Besley 

distributed seedlings and ran programs encouraging reforestation.39

Alongside the chestnut blight, Besley identified and attempted to address other 

forest-related problems. He saw his mission as reversing “destructive agencies, which for 

150 years have been operating in the forests. Chief among them are forests fires, 

destructive cutting practices, excessive grazing, and the ravages of insects and fungus 

 35Catoctin Clarion, 18 May 1920.

36The state Board of Forestry was founded in 1906. It evolved into the Board of 

Natural Resources’ Department of Forests and Parks in 1941.

37Frederick News, 28 November 1930; F.W. Besley, The Forests of Frederick County

(Baltimore, 1922), 31.

38Mastran and Lowerre, xx.

39 Frank Mentzer, Administrative History, Vol. I.
122

diseases.” Successful conservation meant changing longstanding attitudes and practices. 

Of particular concern in Frederick County was the custom of “repeated cutting.” For 

“generations,” complained Besley, mountaineers “cut over their woodlands at frequent 

intervals, taking out the best and most saleable products, with little or no thought to 

succeeding growth and future productiveness.” “Repeated cutting,” he warned, inevitably 

led to an “inferior species.”40

Besley issued pamphlets and gave frequent talks promoting new conservation 

measures. When it came to forest fires, advances in technology allowed for real progress. 

Phone lines, airplanes, and watchtowers allowed for early detection. In Foxville, Karl 

Brown (tract 156) and H.L. Hauver served as fire wardens for the district, while G.A. 

Willard served in Catoctin Furnace (see Appendix 10 and Map 4.5).41 The advent of the 

automobile allowed for improved response time. Soon the local Thurmont newspaper 

could report that, with the arrival of new initiatives, forest fires henceforth would “lose 

much of their horror.”42

By the early twentieth century, Americans were increasingly aware of the unique 

culture and society that existed in the Appalachian chain of mountains. In 1921, John 

Campbell published his classic The Southern Highlander and his Homeland, detailing the 

distinct folk culture of the isolated mountain areas. Campbell did include the western 

reaches of Maryland (although not the Catoctin area) in his study. Yet few others since 

have included Maryland in any definition of Appalachia as a region. More recently, some 

Moonshining and Blue Blazes

 40Besley, 21.

41Besley, 22.

42Catoctin Clarion, 25 November 1920.
123

scholars, concluding that the area was simply “too culturally diverse to be regarded as a 

unit,” even have questioned the usefulness of viewing Appalachia as distinctive region.43

Attempting to salvage some understanding of Appalachia as a region, Ronald 

Eller, suggested that Appalachia might be approached as a “cluster of scattered, selfsufficient island communities” with commercial settlements often at their gaps. The upper

Catoctins do appear to share some of the characteristics highlighted in Eller’s definition. 

But from the earliest settlements, mountain residents of the Catoctin region had contact 

with the outside world through trading and the turnpike that passed through the mountain 

area. While certainly not a dynamic force, mountain farmers, to some extent, were 

integrated into the local economy and society. Town residents considered mountain 

dwellers to be somewhat distinct and odd, but a Mechanicstown resident also might hold 

someone from Catoctin Furnace or any outlying farm area as different.44

The issue of moonshining--particularly the tragic affair surrounding the Blue Blazes raid--

reveals both the secluded and distinct aspects to Catoctin mountain life and yet how the 

area also remained very much tied to ongoings in western Maryland and the rest of the 

state. As evident in the Wolf Tavern Ledger, distilling alcohol long had been a part of 

mountain life. Efforts on the part of the state and federal government to tax whiskey, 

dating back to Alexander Hamilton’s levy against whisky in the late eighteenth century, 

encouraged illegal distilling. During the Civil War, the federal government licensed 

distilleries and taxed liquor at increasingly higher rates. Stills safely located in the 

mountains, beyond the reach of tax collectors, proliferated. Opposition to drinking also 

spread. In 1866, prohibition advocates circulated a petition to prohibit the sale of alcohol 

 43Bruce Ergood, “Toward a Definition of Appalachia” in Appalachia: Social Context 

Past and Present, Ergood and Kuhre, eds., (Athens, OH, 1976), 31-41.

44Ernest Tresselt, interview by author, Thurmont, MD, 9 February 1999. Henry 

Shapiro, Appalachia on Our Mind (Chapel Hill, 1978). Shapiro stressed the sense of 

“otherness” with which Appalachian dwellers were regarded by the outside world.
124

in Mechanicstown district.45

With high liquor taxes and an active temperance movement, illegal alcohol 

production, no doubt, was a facet of mountain life well before Prohibition. However, the 

beginning of national prohibition in 1919 brought new incentives and profits to the old 

business of moonshining. Overnight the price of “backwoods grog” soared from $2 a 

gallon to $22.

 The Women’s Christian Temperance Union also thrived in 

the region during the late nineteenth century. 

46 Without question, moonshining was profitable, and distilling alcohol 

became big business in the Catoctin mountains. The mountain provided a secluded 

protected area with ready sources of water. Meanwhile, using nearby roads, moonshiners 

could ship their product to Baltimore or Washington within two hours.47 Very quickly, 

local moonshine gained a national reputation. Thurmont native Howard Damuth, while 

working as a salesman, traveled to New York City where he was stunned to learn that the 

high quality of Catoctin moonshine was common knowledge in the Big Apple.48

The authorities, of course, took a dim view of moonshining. The Frederick 

County sheriff’s department mounted a series of raids on stills nestled in the mountains 

between Thurmont and Foxville. Police launched several raids on a site known as Blue 

Blazes, set on the small bubbling Harman’s Creek, five miles west of Thurmont (see Map 

4).49

According to police testimony, Charles Lewis, a Foxville resident, contacted the 

sheriff’s office with information about a still at Blue Blazes where he was employed. 

 In the summer of 1929, the sheriff’s department began planning yet another assault 

on the site, setting in motion events that would lead to a tangled tragedy. 

 45Oeter, 126.

46Esther Kellner, Moonshine: Its History and Folklore (New York, 1971),104.

47Donald Lewis, 13 July 1999.

48Youth Conservation Corps Interviews, 1972, Howard Damuth,” 27 July 1972, CMP.

49Frederick Post, 3 August 1929.
125

Lewis, already having been convicted of larceny and shooting a man, was no stranger to 

trouble. He apparently met with Deputy Sheriff Vernon Redmond at a Frederick 

restaurant. The two established July 31, 1929 as the date on which police would raid the 

still.50

On the given date, at roughly six in the evening, Redmond and four other deputies 

from the county’s sheriff office, including Deputy Sheriff Clyde L. Hauver, drove a 

caravan of cars up the “unfrequented road” that led to the hamlet of Blue Blazes.51 

Leaving their cars, they proceeded up a narrow path through the thick undergrowth 

leading to the still. As they moved, they may have tripped a wire or set off a warning to 

those working the still above the raiding party. Whatever the case, the moonshiners were 

ready for the raiders. Gun shots suddenly rained down upon the police officers. They fell 

back and returned fire. Appearing to trip on a root, Deputy Hauver fell to the ground. It 

was only when the moonshiners retreated that police discovered Hauver had suffered a 

gun shot wound to the head. His fellow officers rushed him down the mountain to a 

Frederick City hospital where he died.52

Catoctin Furnace resident Charles Anders had spent the summer in charge of 

Lawrence Richey’s fishing camp, at which President Herbert Hoover was a frequent 

visitor. Upon hearing of the botched raid, he borrowed one of the cars that the president 

kept at the camp and rushed to Blue Blazes. By the time he arrived in his White House 

car, dozens of others already had gathered at the site. What they saw was startling. Blue 

Blazes was no small operation. Twenty large vats filled with 500 gallons of mash 

alongside coils, cooling boxes, and hoses made up what was the largest and best equipped 

 50Frederick Post, 30 December 1929; Hagerstown Herald, 19 December 1929, 

Charles Lewis admitted that Deputy Redmond had approached him for help in raiding the 

still. But Lewis insisted he turned down the request.

51Frederick Post, 6 August 1929.

52Frederick Post, 1 August 1929.
126

still ever found in Frederick County.53 Anders watched as the mayor of Thurmont struck 

a match and tossed it onto some spilled alcohol. When the puddle immediately lit up, the 

mayor pronounced it “good alcohol.” Suspicious of his out-of-state car, police stopped 

Anders on his way back from the mountain. Managing to explain with some difficulty 

why he was driving the president’s car, Anders was allowed to pass on.54

As the police continued their intense manhunt for the moonshiners, word of the 

tragedy spread to the family of the deceased officer. Thirty-five-year-old, Clyde Hauver, 

in fact, was a direct descendent of Peter Hauver, one of the eighteenth-century settlers of 

the town. He had attended Thurmont High School and played amateur baseball before 

joining the sheriff’s department. He was the father of three young children. His killing 

shocked the large, closely-knit Hauver family.55

Within a few hours police rounded up those responsible for the ambush. Paul 

Williams of Hagerstown surrendered along one of the roads leading from the still. He 

was shirtless and had several days growth of bread. Another moonshiner, Lloyd Lewis 

stumbled into a doctor’s office in Smithsburg, seeking treatment for a gun shot wound to 

the head. The doctor quickly notified authorities. Police found yet another suspect, Lester 

Clark, drunk and hiding in the woods.56 In addition to Williams and Clark, police 

arrested Osby McAffee, William “Monk” Miller, Norris Clark, Charles Lewis, and Floyd 

Williams, the brother of Paul.57

 53Ibid.

54Anders interview.

55Frederick Post, 1 August 1929; Hagerstown Herald, 1 August 1929.

56Hagerstown Herald, 3 August 1929.

57Frederick Post, 1 August 1929.

 McAffee owned a home on the Thurmont-Foxville 

Road, where the gang apparently stayed and took meals while working the still. Several 

of the moonshiners were locals. Charles Lewis was the son of prominent fruit grower 
127

Hooker Lewis from Thurmont.58 But the Williams brothers were from Hagerstown and 

hailed originally from North Carolina. Lester Clark was a Virginian.59

Authorities then had the difficult job of unraveling the events leading up to the 

botched raid. Police initially insisted that they had been double-crossed. Charles Lewis, 

they claimed, lured them into an ambush.60 But the day following the ambush, the 

sheriff’s office released Lewis from custody. Frederick County Sheriff William C. 

Roderick, who strangely had been in Pittsburgh during the raid, returned and insisted that 

his officers had not been double-crossed. Likewise, not all local authorities seemed 

concerned with illegal moonshining in the mountains. Thurmont Constable Charles W. 

Smith, who had participated in several still raids, insisted that the “moonshiners appear to 

want to be let alone. They won’t disturb anyone unless they are interfered with. To the 

man they are opposed to the prohibition law.”61 Seeking to contain the confusion and 

suspicion surrounding the case, the Frederick Sheriff’s Department arranged to have 

Special Detective Joseph F. Daugherty, from the Baltimore Police department, act as a 

special investigator in the case.62

Eventually State’s Attorney William Strom sorted through the evidence and 

rearrested Charles Lewis. He then charged Lewis, McAffee, and Clark with the murder. 

The other moonshiners faced charges of manufacturing liquor for sale.

 

63

 58Donald Lewis, interview by author, Thurmont, MD, 13 July 1999.

59Hagerstown Herald, 21 December 1929.

60Frederick Post, 1 August 1929.

61Frederick Post, 3 August 1929.

62Hagerstown Herald, 18 December 1929.

63Hagerstown Herald, 5 August 1929.

 A Grand Jury 

that convened on September 9, 1929 subsequently indicted Lewis and Clark for murder. 
128

An overflow crowd gathered for the trail, held in December in Hagerstown. A surprise 

witness from Baltimore, W.L. Poole testified that Lewis had threatened “to get [Deputy] 

Redmond by fair means or foul.” Osby McAffee testified that Lewis wanted to use the 

McAffee house for a meeting at which to set up the police. McAffee insisted that he had 

refused.64 A few days after his testimony, McAffee’s home burned to the ground. 

Authorities suspected arson. As the newspaper explained “firing property is a mode of 

revenge that has been practiced in some mountain sections.” Attorneys for Lewis and 

Clark insisted that, while both men had fired shots, Hauver had been shot from the rear. 

Therefore, the killing was an accident.65 Facing the Christmas holiday, the presiding 

judge held night sessions to speed up the trail. After several days of confusing and 

conflicting testimony, the case went to the jury, who convicted both men. Three Maryland 

circuit judges then sentenced Clark to 15 years and Lewis to life.66

Both Lewis and Clark denied having fired the shots that killed Deputy Hauver. 

Given the confusion at the scene and the unresolved issue of who double-crossed whom, 

many in the local area long have wondered whether justice was served in the Blue Blazes 

case. Naturally, hearsay and rumors--all unsubstantiated--developed around the story. In 

1972, the Youth Conservation Corps, a federal project to employ young people, sent forty 

youths into the community surrounding Catoctin Mountain Park to gather local folklore. 

When it came to the Blue Blazes story, some locals claimed that out-of-town “tar heels” 

had operated the still and that the tip-off to police came from local moonshiners upset 

about competition. The story has some validity since the Williams brothers were from 

 64Frederick Post, 17 December 1929.

65Hagerstown Herald, 17 December 1929; Hagerstown Herald, 18 December 1929. 

No evidence appears to have been present to challenge testimony that Hauver had been 

shot from the rear. However, experts did testify that the shot had not come from 

Redmond’s gun.

66Frederick Post, 20 December 1929.
129

North Carolina. Others insisted that the raid was the product of a revenge plot relating to 

a love triangle. According to the romance-gone-wrong story, Deputy Hauver was the 

innocent victim of a bullet meant for someone else.67 The fact that Charles Lewis was a 

locally-known figure, considered to be “a nice guy,” and a member of a well-regarded 

family added to a sense that justice had not quite been served.68 Ultimately in 1950, 

Governor Theodore McKeldin commuted Lewis’s life sentence. And the now-elderly 

inmate, suffering from tuberculosis was released from prison. 94Clark had been paroled 

in 1946.69

Having suggested that Catoctin Mountain life both was both secluded and yet still 

tied to the world beyond, we might take a closer look at some of the people who made 

their lives on the mountain in the years before the area became parkland. While the 

The exact circumstances surrounding the Blue Blazes raid and the murder of 

Clyde Hauver most likely will remain a mystery and a testament to the confusing times 

and effects of a law with little popular support. Beyond the window opened to the 

Prohibition era, the event also suggests the dual nature of mountain life at the time. On 

one hand the secluded whiskey still, the secrecy, the role of revenge all are suggestive of 

stereotypes of Appalachian mountain peoples. Yet several of the persons involved were 

from the large towns of Thurmont and Hagerstown. And the still itself was a large, 

sophisticated operation--in a sense, industrial moonshining. Unlike some areas in 

Appalachia, which were more culturally and economically isolated, even the more 

secluded areas of the Catoctins had links to the world beyond.

The Mountain on the Eve of Acquisition

 67"Blue Blazes,” Youth Conservation Corps Anecdotes, 1972, CMP, “Still 

Information Binder, “Still Talk,” CMP.

68Donald Lewis, 13 July 1999; Charles Anders, 7 July 1999.

69Clipping, nd, “Still Information Binder,” CMP.
130

government officials who arrived to purchase land in the 1930s often depicted residents 

as dirt-poor farmers barely eking a living from the substandard soil on the mountain, in 

truth the local population was much more diverse. Wealthy local businessmen, 

vacationers, well-to-do fruit growers, and others owned mountain tracts alongside 

subsistence farmers. Likewise, while some poorer farmers lived on the mountain, the 

majority managed to provide, usually with the help of a second line of work, a healthy 

existence for their often large families.

In the area that is now Catoctin Mountain Park, several farms sat on the west side 

of the mountain in the Foxville-Deerfield area. Two main roads, still in existence today, 

ran north from the Thurmont-Foxville Road (Route 77) connecting the small farms. The 

current Foxville-Deerfield Road, then known simply as Foxville Road was the major 

artery. A secondary road then known as “the backroad,” today Manahan Road, ran 

parallel.70 Life on the westside of the mountain continued to revolve around the Foxville 

store, the former Wolf’s Tavern, well into its second century of use by the 1930s. The 

store offered the community both groceries and necessary farming implements and 

accessories.71

Corn, potatoes, and berries were the primary crops grown in the area.72 One 

farmer recalled that one could "grow the best kind of potatoes" on the mountain.73

 70Irene Flaugher and Louise Bittner, 13 July 1999.

71Donald Lewis, 13 July 1999.

72"Catoctin Recreational Area, MD R-1, New Symbol number LP-MD 4," 2 October 

1935, CMP.

73Albert Zentz, interview by author, Thurmont, MD, February 6, 1999.

 Area 

growers found a ready market for such farm produce at the canning factory located in 
131

Thurmont.74 Farmer Roy Lewis, for instance, owned a 98-acre tract (tract 18), along 

Foxville Road in the area that is today Round Meadow (see Map 4). Roy and Lillie, his 

wife, shared a two-room house and managed enough income to afford a farm truck, one 

of the few in the area.75 Across from Lewis, on Foxville Road, lived the family of Victor 

and Berta Brown (tract 154, see Map 4). The Browns raised four daughters in an eightbedroom log house. As was the case everywhere on the mountain, the Browns had no 

electricity and hence “lived by oil,” lighting their homes with oil lamps.76 The family 

grew raspberries, potatoes, green beans, wheat and other produce. Livestock included 

hogs, chickens, sheep. To make ends meet, Victor Brown sheared sheep for farmers in 

the general area. The family also harvested crops on neighboring farms. On one 

particular day, the daughters and Berta made $10 “pulling beans” on a Sabillasville farm. 

The Brown daughters particularly looked forward to Saturday nights when, on the back of 

Roy Lewis’ truck, they would travel to Thurmont to enjoy ice cream or a movie.77 

Closer to home, mountain-area social events included cooperative butcherings, where 

neighbors would gather to slaughter hogs and socialize. Butcherings continued in the 

mountain area until 1993.78

 74Catoctin Enterprise, 5 September 1941. In 1941, the filtration system used for the 

Thurmont canning factory failed. As a result, pollution flowed into Hunting Creek, 

where it killed hundreds of fish.

75E.R. Henson to H.L. Russell, 9 September 1935, RDA Program Files, box 61, NA; 

Irene Flaugher and Louise Bittner, interview by author, 13 July 1999, Sabillasville, MD; 

“Abstract, Tract 98,” RG 79, Land Acquisition Case Files Pertaining to the Catoctin 

RDA, box 6, NA. Lewis purchased his land in 1920. Christian Harman, one of the 

earliest settlers in the area first purchased the land in 1793, and the property remained in 

the hands of the Harman family through the first half of the nineteenth-century.

76Lewis interview.

77Flaugher and Bittner interview.

78Zentz interview.
132

Even larger families lived alongside the Browns. Ike and Della Smith (tract 93) 

raised nine children on their 213-acre tract (see Map 4). The strawberries produced on 

their large farm enjoyed a particularly good reputation. With nine children, Smith 

supplemented his income by working as a butcher in the colder months, then returned to 

farming when the weather turned warmer. Walter Shatzer (tract 109) owned a farm just 

to the north of Victor Brown and Roy Lewis (see Map 4). He and his family moved onto 

the farm in 1920. They lived in a frame house built in 1873.79 Shatzer, like Smith, 

supplemented his income by hauling goods, including fish, from Baltimore, in his truck.80 

He also bought and sold dogs.81 For virtually everyone on the mountain, sales of timber--

in some cases hauled down the mountain in an old, barely-running truck--provided much 

needed supplementary income. But such practices carried with them dangers, and, by the 

1930s, National Park Service officials warned that "the [Catoctin] forests are rapidly 

being denuded" and such cutting practices could not continue forever.82

Not all farms in the mountainous area offered a solid living. For instance, the 

212 acres (tract 94) owned by R.A. Fox, a 73-year-old lifelong bachelor, who appeared 

“quite feeble” to appraisers, offered him little more than a subsistence living (see Map 

4).

 

83

 79 Mentzer, vol. I.

80Flaugher and Bittner interview.

81Lloyd Manahan, interview by author, Sabillasville, MD, 13 July 1999.

82Ibid.

83Appraisal Report, RG 79 , National Capital Region, Land Acquisition Case Files 

Pertaining to the Catoctin RDA, Box 11, NA.

 During the Depression, Catoctin Recreational Demonstration Area project manager, 

Garland Williams, reported that of the roughly 50 families residing on the mountain, only 

eight managed a living solely from the land and had "adequately stocked and equipped" 

farms. Another twenty six supplemented their farm incomes with other jobs, and some 
133

sixteen families were on the relief rolls.84

Not all residents of the area east of the mountain were involved in farming. 

Addison, Elmer, Hampton, and Jackson Wolf were brothers who owned separate tracts of 

land that they later sold to the government. Yet none of them ever farmed. Instead they 

worked a variety of different jobs. Elmer Wolf (tract 105), for instance, owned a saw mill 

for a time and later worked as a gunsmith.

 Yet statistically, family farms generally (to this 

day) rely on income generated outside the farm to supplement earnings. This would have 

been particularly the case in the period after World War I, when falling prices for farm 

goods made life difficult in rural areas.

85

East of Foxville, the mountain areas of highest elevation remained largely 

uninhabited, enjoyed largely by tourists and children who might hike up to Chimney or 

Hog Rock.86 On the east side of the mountain there were fewer farms and no real roads, 

other than the Thurmont-Foxville Road and a series of long-forgotten logging trails. A 

diverse group of land owners held most of the wooded acres on the mountain’s east side. 

Some used their property for recreational purposes. Dr. Morris Birely (tract 84), a 

respected physician and town leader in Thurmont, owned 42 mountain acres, which he 

held with an eye "toward possible summer home development." Another owner, Guy 

Lanzilotti (tract 313), a resident of Washington, D.C., owned a two-acre tract along 

Hunting Creek apparently as a fishing camp (see Map 4).87

 84"Catoctin Recreational Area, MD R-1, New Symbol Number LP-MD 4," 2 October 

1935, CMP.

851920 census; Flaugher and Bittner interview.

86Lewis interview.

 Joseph Gernand (tract 104) 

87James Trouth to C.F. Clayton, 12 December 1935, RG 79, Records Concerning 

RDAs, Project Records of the Project Planning and Control Section, Land Utilization 

Division, Resettlement Administration, 1935-1936, box 3, NA; “Deed,” 15 December 

1937, RG 79, National Capital Region, Land Acquisition Case Files, Pertaining to 

Catoctin RDA, box 7, NA. Lanzilotti resisted selling, insisting that he be paid for all 

improvements on the two acres. He eventually sold for $1000.
134

kept sixty acres, as an extension of his Crow’s Nest boarding house (see Map 4.5). 

William and Lillie Willhide also ran a boarding house in a still-standing purple house 

(480 West Main) on the Thurmont-Foxville Road. They owned mountain land (tract 

101), later purchased by the government, for the use of their summer guests.88

Some larger-scale agriculture did exist east of Foxville. Thurmont fruit grower

Hooker Lewis owned over 260 acres on what has become Camp David. The mountain 

land was only a small part of Lewis’ much larger holdings throughout the area, especially 

in the area south of Thurmont where he lived near Camp Cozy. Lewis, who employed a 

large crew to work his orchards, grew peaches, apples, raspberries, potatoes, and 

tomatoes, often supplying the local canning company in Thurmont (see Map 4).89 

Smaller-scale orchard owners included Emory Moser (tract 118), who made his home in 

Thurmont, and Daniel Himes (tract 276), of Foxville.90 Edgar Nicodemus, a well-to-do 

fruit grower from Zulinger, PA also owned an extremely large (3360 acre) tract near the 

furnace (tract 16).91

By the early 1930s, mountain residents had been harvesting timber in the area for 

almost two hundred years. As long had been the case, large sawmill operations were 

responsible for much of the lumber cut on the mountain. Ralph Miller owned a small 

mountain tract (115a) that supplied lumber for his Thurmont sawmill. But he hardly 

restricted his cutting to his own property. He had a reputation for logging anywhere--

whether he owned the land or not.

 It is unclear whether Nicodemus intended to establish fruit fields on 

the site or if he sought to develop vacation land.

92

 88Lewis interview.

89Lewis interview.

901920 Census; Anders interview; laugher and Bittner, interview.

91Baltimore Sun, 9 May 1937.

92Lewis interview.

 Indeed, locals viewed much of mountain region, 
135

especially on the land formerly belonging to the furnace, south of Hunting Creek, as a 

"no-man's land," open to anyone who wished to take a few trees.93 Another Thurmont 

sawmill owner was J. Howard Creeger, who employed one to two men at his mill and 

would periodically hire cutters to harvest timber. Creeger owned various mountain tracts 

(including tract 147) which he used to supply his mill with timber and satisfy his love for 

hunting.94 In addition to Creeger and Miller, Catoctin Furnace sawmill operator James 

Stevens, who made his home in Creagerstown, also had land on the mountain (tract 

148).95

Alongside these larger operations, farmers, generally from the immediate 

surrounding area but some as far away as Creagerstown, owned mountain tracts that they 

generally used as a source of firewood. Some local residents can still remember farmers 

driving their wagons up old Catoctin Hollow Road--which, since the days of the furnace, 

was essentially a logging road--into the mountain to retrieve firewood. In the mountain 

areas, farmers marked their property with piles of stones and notches on trees.96 Albert 

Zentz remembered his father's periodic treks to his plot (tract 190) for firewood. Zentz 

would drive his wagon, led by four horses up the mountain, cut his wood, then chain large 

logs to the front part of his wagon (the back portion of the wagon having been removed) 

to drag them back to town. One could transport between two and three big logs on such a 

"log wagon."97

 93Anders interview.

94Albert Zentz, interview by author, Thurmont, MD, 26 March 1999; “Statistical 

Report, Catoctin RDA,” November 1941, RG 79, Records Concerning RDAs, RDA 

Program file, box 61, NA. An outdoor enthusiast, Creeger later served as a park ranger at 

Catoctin in the early 1940s.

95Anders interview.

96Zentz, 26 March 1999 interview.

97Ibid.

 Other farmers, including Charles Weller (tract 177) and Ivie Brooks (tract 
136

88) kept similar small mountain plots. For many of these farmers, Catoctin Hollow Road 

was the main route to and from their mountain holdings.

Reuben McAffee and his wife Rosa (tracts 26, 26a) lived south of Hunting Creek 

on a plot that included McAffee Falls (later Cunningham Falls). In his seventies by the 

1930s, McAffee continued to do some farming but also took in boarders at his home 

conveniently located on the Thurmont-Foxville Road (Rt. 77). He also sold the rights to 

cut timber on his substantial holdings, thus providing himself with another source of 

income.98

A number of other Thurmont residents kept mountain tracts for what were 

probably a variety of reasons. Harry Finneyfrock (tract 219) was a junk man, living in 

Thurmont, who, in particular, sold scrap iron in Frederick. For whatever reason 

Finneyfrock kept a twelve-acre plot in the mountains. Samuel Weybright and his wife 

Lillie (tract 149) owned a hardware store in Thurmont and a 35-acre plot in the 

mountains. Edwin Creeger (tract 252), brother of J. Howard Creeger, owned a Chevrolet 

dealership in Thurmont. And Frank Anders (tract 91), who operated a motel on West 

Main Street in Thurmont, owned a 264-acre parcel of land, along the south side of 

Hunting Creek, along the eastern border of the McAffee plot.99

The mountain area that later became Catoctin Mountain Park, then, meant 

different things to different peoples on the eve of acquisition. On the west side of the 

mountain, families owning farms found that survival required cooperation and much hard 

work. But the farms generally provided a subsistence living for the families, many of 

whom were quite large. As one former mountain resident recalled, "no one ever went 

hungry."100

 981920 Census; Charles Anders, interview by author, Thurmont, MD, 7 July 1999.

99Anders, 7 July 1999 interview.

100Flaugher and Bittner interview.

 On the east side of the mountain, toward Thurmont, there were fewer farms. 
137

Land instead offered important resources in the form of timber or recreational outlets. In 

fact, it would be this recreational use of the mountain that would define the next stage of 

development in the Catoctins.
138

Chapter Five

A New Deal for the Mountain

Introduction

A debate among historians continues to rage as to whether Franklin D. 

Roosevelt’s New Deal (1933-1940) represented revolutionary change or simply 

evolutionary reform. While the debate will go on, from the standpoint of the Catoctin 

Mountain area, the changes brought during the New Deal were revolutionary. The 

government--once playing only a distant role--became a central player in the lives of the 

people in the region. Older conceptions of self reliance and independence died along the 

way. The process of change, however, was hardly smooth. Indeed, the confusing and 

frequently chaotic nature of the New Deal often poisoned the transition and created 

problems where none need have existed. This is particularly evident in the case of 

relations between the government and land holders in the area under development. 

Chapter 5 traces these revolutionary changes, from the economic collapse beginning in 

1930, through to the planning and early development of Catoctin Recreational 

Demonstration Area.

The Depression in Washington and Frederick Counties

While the nation experienced great prosperity during the 1920s, farming areas, 

such as those in Frederick and Washington counties, lagged behind the rest of the county. 

But the flourishing industries of the 1920s were the first to feel the sting of the economic 

collapse that began with the stock market crash. Western Marylanders initially hoped 

that, by virtue of having few industries (except in Hagerstown), they might escape the 
139

worst ravages of the Depression. Such hopes, however, failed to survive even the first 

year of the Depression.1

The first signs of trouble came with an unusually hot and dry spring in 1930. On 

May 4, 1930, a fire broke out near Fishing Creek and quickly spread northward. Stoked 

by dry conditions and shift winds, the blaze quickly spiraled out of control and threatened 

the school and homes at Phillips Delight as well as the Richey fishing camp near Catoctin 

Furnace. Some 125 volunteers labored for more than three days to control the fire. The 

Frederick News declared the blaze “the most disastrous in the history of Frederick 

County.” Within four days, fire fighters had conquered the flames, but they destroyed 

several thousand acres, along with 15,000 young trees recently planted by the Isaak 

Walton League.2

Natural disaster, however, did not stop there. The dry heat only worsened with the 

coming of summer. Soon a terrible drought overtook the region. Day after day followed 

of one hundred degree temperatures and no rain. By late summer, few could deny that 

the drought was the worst in recent memory. In August, the Frederick News recalled that 

only a few months before there was “every indication that we would go through the 

slump with very little trouble. But along comes the drought, which cripples our major 

industry, agriculture.” Describing the “short term outlook” as “depressing,” the 

newspaper forecasted “visions of hard times . . . with winter approaching.”3

 1

Brugger, 495.

2

Frederick News, 6 May 1930; Frederick News, 7 May 1930. Frank W. Fraley, 

owner of Catoctin Furnace’s General Store, recalled the 1914 fire, which took a week to 

control, as a worse than the 1930 blaze.

3

Frederick News, 8 August 1930.

 Weeks later, 
140

Professor T.B. Symons, of the University of Maryland Agricultural Extension Service, a 

state agency mandated by the federal government to “assist the farmer and his family . . . 

in every phase of agricultural and rural home life,” declared that Maryland farmers were 

suffering their worst setback in history. Meanwhile, losses continued to mount.4 Into 

September, temperatures continued to peak in the hundred-degree range. In October, 

Smithburg High School in Washington County temporarily shut its doors as the reservoir

on South Mountain, upon which the school depended for drinking water, went dry.5

Ultimately, state officials estimated Frederick County drought losses at more than four 

million dollars.6

Coming as it did, on the heels of the industrial and banking collapse, the drought 

had far reaching consequences. Farmers--in desperate need of credit to make up for 

drought losses--had nowhere to turn. The chair of a state committee on drought relief 

regretted that “there seems no legal way of getting money to aid the farm laborers and 

some farmers who have no credit.”7 Without access to the meager dollars that supported 

the local farm economy, a downward spiral began. Many farmers both hired and worked 

as temporary farm laborers, usually at a scale of roughly a dollar a day for a ten-hour 

day.8 But with few spare dollars, this fragile system collapsed.9

 4

Secretary of State, Maryland Manual, (Annapolis, MD, 1936) 36; Frederick 

News, 14 August 1930.

5

Frederick News, 6 October 1931.

6

Frederick News, 11 March 1931. Brugger, 496. Total statewide losses from the 

drought were estimated at $38 million.

7

Dorothy Brown, “Maryland Between Wars,” in Richard Walsh, Maryland: A 

History, 1632-1974 (Baltimore, 1974), 736.

 

8

Zentz, 2 February 1999 interview.
141

Farmers could only cling to the hope that the drought and declining productivity 

eventually would give food prices a much needed boost. Yet with farmers elsewhere in 

the country continuing to increase their production, the price of wheat and other farm 

products continued to decline. The drought in fact meant that Catoctin-area farmers had 

less to sell at lower prices.10

Fears grew as colder weather approached. The condition of the poor, warned the 

Frederick News, “will be very difficult this winter.” The paper called upon local charities 

to gear up for a daunting task.11 Even before the worst of winter arrived, appeals for food 

and clothing from those in need overwhelmed the Frederick County Children’s Aid 

Association.12

Neither Washington County nor Frederick County could look much beyond 

private charities to deal with the growing need for relief. There was little tradition of 

using government--certainly not the federal government--to address such problems. As 

the Depression set in, recalled the Maryland Board of State Aid and Charities in 1935, 

 County officials--seeking to coordinate relief efforts--created the 

Frederick County Drought Emergency Association in November, 1930. 

 9

Theodore Saloutos, The American Farmer and the New Deal (Ames, Iowa, 

1982), 151. By 1934, throughout America, an estimated 1.7 million rural families, 

amounting to between 6.5 and 7 million people, relied on some form of emergency relief. 

10Frederick News, 21 June 1930. In the midst of the drought, wheat prices fell to 

their lowest levels since World War I. 

11Frederick News, 29 August 1930.

12Frederick News, 28 November 1930.
142

“the opinion was held generally that the way to meet relief needs was through private 

agencies and voluntary relief.”13

In Frederick County, for instance, the only real program for the poor remained the 

old almshouse--a decidedly nineteenth-century (or even eighteenth-century) institution. 

Located outside Frederick City, the Montevue almshouse, a “rather pretentious looking 

five story building,” on a 96-acre farm, housed roughly 150 “inmates,” many of whom 

were elderly or “suffering some chronic physical or mental disability.” But Montevue 

also housed persons simply down on their luck, including “inmates” as young as three.14 

The onset of the Depression quickly overwhelmed the almshouse. By February of 1931, 

the number of “transients” seeking help at Montevue was “breaking all records.” And 

those seeking relief were hardly the traditional poor. These new poor were “well 

dressed,” most claiming that they never before asked for charity.15

Pressed by the growing need, the Frederick County Drought Emergency 

Association struggled to provide whatever relief possible. The association coordinated 

the efforts of local charitable organizations, such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army. 

 Most of the county’s 

poor, however, never saw the inside of Montevue. Instead, they continued to rely on a 

loose network of local charities. But these such organizations also quickly found 

themselves stretched to their limits.

 13Board State Aid and Charities, Maryland’s Emergency Relief Program, From 

April 1933 through December 1935 (Baltimore, 1935); 1. Saloutos, 151. “Preparations 

for a major depression at the local, county, and state levels were even less advanced in 

the rural areas than in the urban,” noted agricultural historian Theodore Saloutos.

14J.F. Kendrick, A Survey of Frederick County, Maryland With Special Reference 

to Public Health, Medical Care, and Social Welfare, (Baltimore, 1935), 32-34.

15Frederick News, 5 February 1931.
143

Over the difficult winter of 1930-1931, the association managed to distribute 7,000 

loaves of bread, 1,200 loads of wood, and 3,000 quarts of milk.16 Recognizing the 

continuing need, county officials, in 1931, reorganized the Drought Emergency 

Association as the permanent County Emergency Relief Association.17

Meanwhile local communities strove to coordinate and streamline their own 

charitable efforts. In Thurmont, representatives of relief associations gathered at the local 

high school, and, under the direction of Rev. J.S. Weybright, chairman of the Ministerial 

Association, planned relief efforts for the upcoming winter of 1931-1932.

 

18 The collapse 

of the Citizen’s Trust Company of Frederick, along with its branches in Smithburg, 

Thurmont, and Emittsburg, in which investors saw their savings suddenly disappear, lent 

urgency to Weybright’s work.19

Amid growing despair, there was some sense that “the government should take 

more active measures to keep people at work.”20

 16Frederick News, 13 March 1931.

17Frederick News, 11 March 1932. No records of either organization appear to 

have survived. Nor does there exist surviving records for the subsequent Frederick 

County Welfare Board, nor even records of the County Commissioners for the 1930s. 

The local newspapers offer the only record of life in Central Western Maryland during 

these pivotal years.

18Catoctin Clarion, 16 October 1931.

19Catoctin Clarion, 4 September 1931; C. Roy Weddle, Life in a Small Town, 

(Frederick, 1996), 3. Thurmont resident Roy Weddle also remembered the collapse of the 

Citizen’s Saving Bank of Thurmont as traumatic. Investors eventually received ten cents 

on the dollar for their investments. Brown. 736, Fourteen smaller banks in Western 

Maryland later failed.

20Frederick News, 30 April 1930.

 The county, in fact, did initiate a series 

of road building projects in an effort to put people back to work. The public road crews 
144

for the Catoctin and Thurmont districts included such familiar local names as Bussard, 

Harbaugh, Hauver, Eyler, and Wilhide.21

But for most in western Maryland, especially in the early days of the Depression, 

there remained an intense suspicion of such government aid--as well as an insistence that 

traditional values of self-reliance could see the area through the crisis. As the Catoctin 

Clarion newspaper declared: “Let us cease to whine about depression and devote 

ourselves to the diligent performance of our daily duties.”22

A reliance on optimism and private charity, however, could not have provided 

much solace as county relief cases grew in number. Private charities simply could not 

keep up with the growing need. Facing another depression winter, the Frederick County 

Emergency Relief Association in 1932, called upon all employed workers to donate one 

day’s pay a month to relief efforts.23

With little in the way of public or private relief, the individual often was left to 

cope any way possible. For most this meant tightening belts, raising a few more chickens, 

and perhaps cutting more timber from mountain lots to supplement coal furnaces over the 

winter.

 

24

 21Twentieth Annual Report of the Auditors of Frederick County, Maryland, From 

July 1, 1932 to July 1, 1933, (Frederick, 1933), 27-29.

22Catoctin Clarion, 1 August 1932.

23Frederick Post, 11 November 1932.

24Weddle, 4.

 Likewise, the cooperative traditions of mountain life took on renewed 

importance. Annual “butcherings,” in which several families would gather to butcher 
145

livestock, continued, as did other cooperative practices.25 Talk increased of the need to 

establish more formal farmer cooperatives to ease the increasing burden on the individual 

farmer.26

Faced with fewer and fewer opportunities to make money, moonshing remained a 

fixture of mountain life, especially before the repeal of Prohibition. Despite the recent 

tragedy at Blue Blazes, moonshiners continued to man their stills. In 1930, authorities 

raided a 1,000 gallon still west of Thurmont and seized 13,000 gallons of mash. One of 

those arrested had been a witness at the Hauver (Blue Blazes) murder trial. Two years 

later, police staged a similar raid on a 75-gallon still near Wolfsville .27

Those not engaged in illegal activity often sought escape in any form from the 

relentlessly troubled times. While children continued to find diversion at the popular 

swimming hole at Owen’s Creek, adults might enjoy a twenty-five cent double feature at 

the State Theater on Water Street in Thurmont or visit the increasingly splashy spectacles 

put on by Wilbur Freeze at his Cozy Inn. On weekends, Freeze would fly hot air balloons 

or bury a man alive in a wooden box. Freeze’s tireless efforts gave the Cozy an 

increasingly central role in Catoctin area social life.28 One also could go dancing every 

evening at the Mountainside Inn in Sabillasville.29

 25Catoctin Clarion, 15 December 1935. The local newspaper would often report 

butcherings, mentioning the event and the parties “assisting.”

26Catoctin Clarion, 4 August 1933.

27Frederick News, 11 December 1930; Frederick News, 9 July 1932. Because 

Frederick County does not make a practice of preserving police records (over twelveyears-old), the exact location of the still cannot be pinpointed.

28Weddle, 3.

Later, perhaps to compete, Freeze 

29Catoctin Clarion, 22 November 1935.
146

opened his own Camp Cozy Nite Club, urging patrons to “Meet Your Friends at Camp 

Cozy.”30

Faced with a struggling town, the enterprising leaders of Thurmont were eager to 

strike a blow against the collapsing economy.31 In meetings and discussions among 

themselves, they pondered ways to bring economic recovery to their town. As 

increasingly is the case today when regions face economic difficulty, Thurmont’s town 

leaders concluded that the answer lay in tourism. As an editorial in the local newspaper 

explained: “In a nutshell, the idea is to make a drive for the summer tourist trade in an 

effort to bring more people to Thurmont who in turn would put more dollars in the cash 

registers of every business in town.” But despite the presence of “good hotels, excellent 

drinking water, cool summer days, good roads, fine transportation facilities and a variety 

of stores,” Thurmont, the city leaders declared, needed more--in particular a swimming 

pool and tennis courts.32 No doubt the city fathers recalled that swimming pools at 

Braddock Heights had attracted more than 11,000 paying swimmers the previous summer 

of 1932.33 “Make Thurmont Attractive to Folks, and Folks will be Attracted to 

Thurmont,” declared the proponents of tourism, who then initiated a poll of town citizens 

on the question of a municipal swimming pool and tennis courts.34

 30Catoctin Clarion, 26 March 1935.

31Tresselt interview. Among the important local leaders of the time were Dr. 

Morris Birely, Edgar Palmer, Ross Smith, D.S. Weybright, W.R. Freeze, and foremost 

the enterprising mayor of Thurmont, William Stoner.

32Catoctin Clarion, 22 January 1932.

33Frederick News, 6 August 1932.

34Catoctin Clarion, 22 January 1932; Catoctin Clarion, 12 February 1932.

Despite the eagerness 
147

of the town fathers, little support for sacrifice could be mustered in the midst of hard 

economic times. Undaunted and still eager to lighten the depression mood and attract 

visitors, town businessmen initiated a series of summer band concerts in the corner 

square of town in 1932.35

Yet it was a less harmonious event that summer that lingered in the minds of local 

citizens. In Washington, DC, veterans of World War I had gathered from around the 

country to press Congress for early payment of bonuses promised to every veteran. When 

Congress failed to pass the bonus bill, and the veterans, or Bonus Marchers, failed to 

leave the city, President Herbert Hoover--a frequent guest at Lawrence Richey’s Catoctin 

Furnace fishing camp--ordered General Douglas MacArthur to corral the remaining 

marchers out of the city. The violent spectacle that followed upset the nation and did 

much to dash Hoover’s hopes for reelection. Once out of the city, authorities hustled 

2,000-3,000 marchers, including some women and African-Americans, north through 

Frederick County. Many spent the night at the Frederick County Fair Grounds, where the 

Maryland National Guard fed them 1,500 loaves of bread and 150 gallons of coffee.36

Residents of the Catoctin area also remember seeing Bonus marchers camping in one of 

Hooker Lewis’s fruit fields just south of Thurmont (current site of Bogley’s Chevrolet).37

The horrific spectacle of the Bonus Marchers and continuing economic 

difficulties no doubt contributed to a growing sense of depression in the area. Soon the 

local newspaper in Thurmont was worrying that the “amazing decline in property values” 

 

 35Catoctin Clarion, 24 June 1932.

36Frederick News, 29 July 1932; Frederick News, 30 July 1932.

37Weddle, 3; Brugger, 498-499.
148

have caused “many owners to allow home and places of business to fall into extremely 

poor condition.”38 Despite the traditional Republican conservatism of the area, residents 

were ready for change. On November 8, 1932, area voters overwhelmingly supported 

New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt for president.39

incredible to state authorities.”

The New Deal in Western Maryland

Maryland’s Governor Albert Ritchie, an ardent believer in small government and 

private welfare, long had resisted turning to the federal government for aid. But with 

other states lined up for funds flowing out of Washington in the early days of the New 

Deal, Ritchie, in April 1933, reluctantly added his request for federal aid. It was, as the 

Maryland Emergency Relief Administration, noted two years later, a major turning point:

“When Governor Ritchie, in April 1933, made his first request to the 

Federal Government for help in meeting the State’s relief needs, it 

marked the end of an important chapter in the history of social welfare 

in Maryland. The machinery that proved ample in previous years of 

normalcy or prosperity was not equal to the load thrust upon it by the 

depression and the resources available for such an emergency had been 

exhausted. It was a situation Maryland had never found before--almost 

40

The infusion of federal funds made an immediate difference to relief efforts in 

western Maryland and in the state in general. A statewide agency, the previously 

mentioned Maryland Emergency Relief Administration, took charge of state relief efforts. 

In Frederick County, the Emergency Relief Association morphed into the Frederick 

 38Catoctin Clarion, 28 July 1933.

39Frederick News, 9 November 1932.

40Maryland Emergency Relief Administration, Relief--A Challenge to the State of 

Maryland, A Report of the First 21 Months of Maryland’s Relief Administration, April 

1933-December 1934 (Baltimore, 1935),7. On Maryland’s embrace of the New Deal, see 

Charles V. Kimberly, “The Depression in Maryland: The Failure of Voluntaryism,” 

Maryland Historical Magazine, 79 (1975), 189-202.
149

County Welfare Board, now coordinating both public and private relief efforts. From its 

headquarters in the Federated Charities Building on South Market Street in Frederick, the 

County Welfare Board screened Civilian Conservation Corps applicants, kept personnel 

files for public works projects, and distributed food and supplies. In the fall of 1933, the 

board distributed 3,000 pounds of federal government-supplied, surplus pork dispersed to 

1,035 needy families in the county.41 With Civil Works Administration money, the 

county also built an emergency hospital on the grounds of the Montevue farm, and, with 

Federal Emergency Relief Act funds, the Welfare Board began a rehabilitation project at 

Gambrill Park, which eventually employed 100 men.42 The citizens of Western 

Maryland were grateful for the help. The mayor of Hagerstown soon was noting the 

“salubrious effect” of the New Deal on “morale of community.”43

Despite the infusion of funds, needs continued to go unmet. Roughly three times 

as many young men applied for positions in the CCC as were available.44

 41Frederick News, 2 November 1933.

42Frederick News, 6 December 1935. 

43Brown, 753.

44Frederick News, 2 November 1933.

 Likewise, 

money came in spurts and was subject to political pressures (as remained the case once 

the Catoctin project got underway). In mid1935, with Congress holding up relief 

legislation, the County Welfare Board suspended a project employing ten Thurmont men 

at the Graceham reservoir, and it sharply curtailed relief payments while it awaited a new 

infusion of funds. Confronted with the cutbacks, many continued to have no option other 
150

than to turn to the kindness of others. In Sabillasville, the parents of a chronically ill 

young girl made a public appeal for the four quarts of milk that she needed daily.45

Darling, of course, was a well-known figure in the Catoctin area. Most of the 

women who ran boarding houses were the wives of local farmers. But Darling was from 

Baltimore and thus appeared somewhat exotic and sophisticated to local residents.

Bessie Darling

A few short months after the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt--while the 

Catoctin area remained very much mired in the Depression--a violent and gruesome 

murder occurred on Catoctin Mountain. The victim was Bessie Darling, a figure 

mentioned in the previous chapter as an example of a woman carving out a niche for 

herself in the emerging tourist trade in the Catoctin area. The grisly murder--an 

outgrowth of an unfortunate love triangle--immediately captivated the attention of people 

in western Maryland and beyond. Even today, the murder stirs an unusual amount of 

residual interest. Why the fascination? The answer seems tied to the hard times of the 

Depression. Seeking escape, everywhere people clambered for diversions. The 

newspapers of the time were packed with sensational stories of poisoned toasts, love 

affairs gone tragically wrong, and dramatic bank robberies. When Darling was 

murdered, she shared the headlines with Bonnie and Clyde and the Lindbergh baby 

kidnapping. In the midst of hard times, the salacious events surrounding her killing 

provided a shocking and voyeuristic spectacle, but also a compelling break from the daily 

grind of depression living.

46

 45Frederick News, 23 May 1935; Frederick News, 20 June 1935. 

46Frederick News, 1 November 1933; Spencer Watson, "The Halloween Murder 

of Bessie Darling," The Banner, November 1998. 
151

Around 1929, Darling met and quickly became involved with George Schultz, a volatile 

official at the State Health Office in Baltimore. Her active social life clearly caught the 

attention of Catoctin locals. Likewise, Schultz's bad temper also drew notice. One 

Thurmont resident remembered that Schultz frequently drank, and, on one occasion, 

assaulted Darling during an argument in front of the Lantz post office. Other similar 

confrontations also apparently occurred.47

On October 31, 1933, Schultz, carrying a .38 caliber pistol, took the Western 

Maryland Railroad mail route from Baltimore to Thurmont. Since the mail train made no 

stop in Deerfield, Shultz deboarded at Thurmont and hired Clarence Lide to drive him to 

the Valley View Manor. Lide noticed and inquired after the pistol. Shultz laughed and 

remarked that "he didn't know what he might run into."

In 1933, tiring of Schultz's abuse, Darling evidently broke off the relationship and 

established a friendship with Charles A. Wolfe, a widower from Foxville. Instead of 

returning to Baltimore that winter, Darling decided to stay in Deerfield, perhaps to avoid 

Schultz. But her former beau appeared unable to recover from the end of the relationship, 

and the tragedy was set in motion. 

48 Years later Lide continued to 

regret that he had not been more suspicious.49

That day, Darling was at the house with her employee, Mazie Willard, an 18-yearold hired by Darling to work at the hotel at the going rate of a dollar-a-day and board. 

 47YCC Interview with Albert Wilhide, 1972, Catoctin Mountain Park Library 

(hereafter CMP); George Wireman, "Bessie Darling Murder Still Brings Vivid 

Memories," Catoctin Enterprise, 6 January 1978.

48Catoctin Clarion, 3 November 1933; Frederick News, 1 November 1933.

49Interview with Charles Anders, 6 February 1999, Thurmont, Maryland.
152

Willard later recalled that, "The leaves were beautiful that fall, the petunias were 

blooming in the yard, and we had gathered bunches of leaves to put all through the 

house."50

Leaving Lide's taxi, Schultz slipped through the rear entrance of the hotel and 

demanded that Mazie take him to Darling (see Map 5). She led him up the stairs. Shultz 

entered Darling's door, locking it behind him. Darling, who, perhaps aware of the 

potential for trouble, had her own pistol nearby, made a mad grab for her gun. But before 

she could secure it, Shultz shot her dead. In a strange calm, the murderer emerged from 

the room and ordered the petrified teenage Mazie, to make him coffee. In one version of 

the story, he threw Mazie the ring that Darling apparently had returned to him, telling her 

"You can have that to remember her."51 Shultz then sent Mazie to notify the authorities, 

and he began to disrobe. "When you come back," Shultz coldly informed Mazie, "you'll 

find the two of us dead."52

Mazie ran down the mountain and telephoned Sheriff Charles Crum, who 

immediately drove to the hotel, which he entered through the basement, since Shultz had 

locked all the doors. Inside, Crum found Darling dead in her nightgown and Shultz near 

death as a result of a self-inflicted wound. Dr. Morris Birely treated Shultz then sent him 

to the hospital in Frederick for further care. He then performed the required autopsy on 

Darling. News of the murder, complete with Shultz's cold conversation with Mazie, 

quickly spread. The Catoctin Clarion noted that the murder has "furnished ample 

 50George Wireman, "Bessie Darling Murder Still Brings Vivid Memories," 

Catoctin Enterprise, 6 January 1978.

51Ibid.

52Catoctin Clarion, 3 November 1933.
153

conversational material for the residents of this and other sections of the state and country 

ever since it occurred early Tuesday morning."53

When Shultz had recovered enough to stand trial, throngs packed the courtroom. 

Sixty-six years later, Catoctin native Charles Anders, who managed to get into the trial, 

still vividly recalled the spectacle of Shultz sobbing on the stand before receiving an 18-

year sentence.

 The grisly killing on Halloween, the 

innocent victims, including Mazie, and the sordid details of the affair fit perfectly into the 

sensational style of the news of the day. However tragic, the sensation fascinated people 

and provided needed drama and diversion. 

54

While the community was reading and talking about the Darling murder, the New 

Deal's initial relief efforts were easing the Depression for many in central western 

Maryland. But relief was only one part of Roosevelt's broad plans. He also hoped to bring 

about economic recovery and initiate fundamental reform. The National Industrial 

Recovery Act (NIRA) aimed to replace business confusion with cooperation. The 

Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), sought to address the problem of 

 For many in the local area--even those born years after the event--the 

Bessie Darling murder continues to be a subject of fascination, in part due to the efforts 

of local author George Wireman. Coming, as it did, in the dark hours of the depression, 

before the New Deal could be felt fully, the Darling murder and the sensation 

surrounding it, should be remembered not only for its lurid details, but also in the context 

of the difficult times.

Birth of the Park

 53Ibid.

54Anders Interview.
154

agricultural overproduction and falling prices by subsidizing farmers to produce less. 

Deeper problems of persistent poverty--especially in rural areas--were also on the New 

Deal agenda. Catoctin Mountain Park grew out of these efforts, in particular the aim of 

removing poor farmers from submarginal land. 

But the birth and early life of the park resembled anything but tranquil and 

smooth reform. Indeed, the development of Catoctin Recreational Development Area 

might best be described as a chaotic battle between competing interests: competition 

between federal and state authorities, competition between and within federal agencies, 

and competition between government officials and the entrenched population who called 

the mountain home. 

The idea of removing farmers from unproductive farms surfaced during the “farm 

crisis” of the 1920s.55 As governor of New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt created a 

reforestation program involving the purchasing and transformation of abandon farms, a 

program that inspired the later creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps.56 The state 

of Michigan had a similar initiative to purchase submarginal land for conversion into 

state forests.57

 55David E. Hamilton, From New Day to New Deal, American Farm Policy from 

Hoover to Roosevelt, 1928-1933 (Chapel Hill, 1991), 184. In the 1920s, the Bureau of 

Agricultural Economic and economist L.C. Gray pressed concerns about “economically 

obsolete” farms. Under the New Deal, Gray worked for the National Resources Board 

and later the Resettlement Administration, where he was involved in the Catoctin project.

56Gertrude Slichter, “Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Farm Policies Governor of New 

York State, 1928-1932,” Agricultural History, 23, (October 1959), 173-174. 

Paradoxically, as New York governor, FDR also promote a “back-to-the-land” program, 

which encouraged the unemployed to take up subsistence farming.

57Conrad Wirth, Parks, Politics and the People (Norman, Oklahoma, 1980), 176.
155

With the advent of the New Deal with its mandate finding solutions to the everworsening farm crisis, plans for rural resettlement and rehabilitation found a ready venue. 

Roosevelt appointed an interdepartmental Land Planning Committee to oversee 

resettlement of farmers from poor land. The committee included Interior Secretary 

Harold Ickes, Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) chief Harry Hopkins 

and Conrad Wirth of the National Park Service (NPS).58 Initial efforts took place in 

conjunction with FERA which had $500 million available for direct relief. The Land 

Planning Committee set overall policy, then, under a confusing and overlapping 

arrangement, the Land Policy Section of the Division of Program Planning of the 

Agricultural Adjustment Administration (part of the Department of Agriculture) managed 

the selection and purchasing of land (with Surplus Relief Corporation money). Once 

chosen and acquired, the redevelopment activities fell under the purview of FERA's 

Division of Rural Rehabilitation and Stranded Populations.59 In practice these activities 

were even more decentralized, as much of the planning and rehabilitation often fell to the 

various states involved. Many states eventually formed State Rural Rehabilitation 

Corporations to carry out the work.60

It was in this confusing morass that Catoctin Mountain Park was conceived. 

Viewing the FERA’s program as a unique opportunity to acquire land that would 

 58Ibid, 177; Harold Ickes, The Secret Diary of Harold Ickes, The First Thousand 

Days, 1933-1936 (New York, 1954), 105, 171.

59Land Planning Committee of the National Resources Board, Maladjustments in 

Land Use in the U.S. (Washington, 1938), 48. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. The Coming of 

the New Deal (Boston, 1959), 280-281.

60Resettlement Administration, First Annual Report Resettlement Administration, 

(Washington, 1936), 9.
156

“provide a much needed recreation facility for large numbers of people,” the Park Service 

threw itself into the land purchasing program in hopes of acquiring land for parks near 

urban areas.61 Eventually, the NPS participated in the purchase and development of 

forty-six parks, known as Recreational Demonstration Areas, in twenty-four states. Once 

purchased and developed by the federal government, the lands, in most cases, were to be 

turned over to state governments. Conrad Wirth, then assistant director of the NPS 

Branch of Planning and Matt Huppuch, supervisor of the NPS Recreation Division 

clearly served as the spearheads for the Park Service’s drive to harness resettlement 

land.62

As part of the NPS’s search for recreational land, in April 1934, NPS Regional 

Officer H.E. Weatherwax conducted a preliminary survey of suitable sites in Maryland 

and recommended the purchase and development a number of areas, including South 

Mountain and land near Fort Frederick. He, however, did not mention the Catoctin 

Mountain area.

Other departments and agencies, including the Agricultural Department, which set 

up Agricultural Demonstration Projects, also established programs to develop acquired 

submarginal land.

63

 61Wirth, 177; Land Planning Committee of the National Resources Board, 

“Recreational Use of Land in the U.S.,” (Washington, DC, 1938). In 1934, the NPS 

prepared an extensive study for the National Resources Board of the need for recreational 

parks near growing urban population. The NPS declared, “more spent for recreation 

means less for insanity, crime, disease. . . ”

62NPS, State Park Division, “Press Release,” 17 October 1935; Wirth, 176-190. 

Also see Bonj Szczygiel, “The Recreational Demonstration Area Program of the New 

Deal,” (M.A. thesis, Pennsylvania State University, 1971).

63Weatherwax to State Park, Emergency Conservation Work Office, 6 April 1934. 

RG 79, Records Concerning RDAs, RDA Program Files, box 47, NA.

 
157

The actual land selection decision for Maryland, however, fell to the State 

Cooperative Extension Service, under University of Maryland Professor T. B. Symons. 

Since 1914, the federal government had charged the extension services of each state with 

providing support services for the agricultural sector in conjunction with the federal 

Department of Agriculture and the state agricultural college. On May 15, 1934, A.W. 

Manchester, the regional director of the Cooperative Extension Service, wrote Symons: 

“I would consider it a great favor if you would take the responsibility in Maryland” for 

developing “a general plan” for the purchase and development of submarginal land, 

adding that “federal funds may be made available for the purchase of land.”64 The issue, 

in fact, had long concerned the professor, who in a January 1934 speech declared there to 

be “no sadder spectacle than an honest industrious man and his family endeavoring to 

make a living on poor land. . . . We have observed this for many years, but little has been 

done.” Symons defined submarginal land as “steep shallow soil, lacking in drainage,” 

and set about to locate such areas in Maryland ripe for rehabilitation.65

The University of Maryland professor, in his report that summer, identified the 

land on and around Catoctin Mountain as his top candidate for redevelopment. At 

Catoctin, he found “good roads,” proximity to the nearby Appalachian trail, and Hunting 

Creek, which might be damned up in portions to create swimming pools (as had already 

been done at the boy scout camp). He also found farmers in economic distress, many on 

 

 64A.W. Manchester, to T.B. Symons, 15 May 1934, RG 79, Records of RDAs, 

RDA Program Files, box 61, NA.

65T.B. Symons, “Problems at Our Doorstep,” 10 January 1934, Cooperative 

Extension Service Collection, Services II, box 1, McKeldin Library Special Collections, 

University of Maryland at College Park. 
158

relief, and farm land “not yielding enough for families.”66

Also of concern to Symons and others was the condition of area forests. The 

10,000-acre park finally purchased by the government consisted, according to a NPS 

official, of an estimated 90% cut over forest tracts, and 10% "tillable land and pasture." 

Only a few inaccessible tracts still contained marketable timber. Between the tree 

harvesting and recent chestnut blight, the wooded areas on the mountain, without 

question, were in poor condition.

 No doubt, the eagerness of 

Thurmont’s town leaders to develop the tourist industry also lent interest. 

67 Observing the environmental situation, a Baltimore 

Sun reporter visiting the site in the fall of 1935 wrote: "Today whole groves of gray, 

ghostly trunks, stripped of bark and leaves, testify to the completeness of the 

destruction."68

At roughly the same time as Symons conducted his study, the National Resources 

Board--founded as part of the Executive Branch in early 1934 to study the nation’s 

resources with an eye toward development and public works projects--launched its own 

extensive study of land use. The Resources Board assigned an inspector to study each 

state.69

 66Maryland State Planning Commission, “Preliminary Statement on the Problem 

of Land Use in Maryland,” (Baltimore, July 1935), 65, 107. Symons’ second choice for 

redevelopment was the Elk neck area.

67G.B. Williams to Conrad Wirth, 12 December 1942, CMP.

68Baltimore Sun, 3 November 1935.

69Land Planning Committee of the National Resources Board, 1.

 Mark Shoemaker, land consultant for the board, prepared the Maryland survey. 

As with Symons, the Catoctin area greatly appealed to Shoemaker. But unlike Symons, 

Shoemaker appeared contemptuous of the local population, whom he described as “of a 
159

very low grade.”70

The favorable reports coming from the mountain area north of Frederick City 

impressed the NPS Regional Office in Richmond, eager to steer resettlement projects 

toward recreational use. Tell Nicolet, an NPS district inspector, went north to monitor 

developments. But there, Nicolet clashed with state officials, especially Symons, whom 

the NPS suspected sought “complete control over all sub-marginal land activities.” 

Nicolet and Symons openly quarreled at a meeting of the State Planning Commission, 

where the NPS official pressed members on the need for “a responsible state park 

agency” to maintain any area developed by the NPS. He also vigorously stressed the 

need for greater cooperation between state agencies. State officials seemed put off and 

complained of a “battle of personalities.” An NPS official likened the spectacle of 

federal and state officials clashing over the resettlement issue to “five people [who] were 

fighting over one piece of pie.”

 Shoemaker’s reaction to the Catoctin Mountain population mirrored 

contemporary myths about Appalachian mountain people. The extent to which other 

government officials shared his views is unclear, but such attitudes may have been 

responsible for some of the mistrust and tensions that later surfaced between the 

population and the government authorities.

71

The tensions between state and federal officials, however, did not dull the park 

service’s interest in Catoctin. Visiting the Catoctins in the fall of 1934, Nicolet saw both 

 70Maryland State Planning Commission, 12.

71Matt Huppuch to Conrad Wirth, 12 July 1934, RG 79, Records of the National 

Park Service, Records Concerning Recreational Demonstration Areas, Recreation 

Demonstration Area Program Files, box 57, NA. Coming out of a more southern tradition 

and led by conservative leaders such as Governor Albert Ritchie, the Maryland state 

government was underdeveloped compared to states like New York. Maryland, in 1934 

had no state parks agency and only a small Forestry Department.
160

the mountain’s poverty and the potential, offering “almost unlimited possibilities.” He 

envisioned a Civilian Conservation Corps camp remaking the area into a park with 

handsome camp sites.72 Meanwhile, the state of Maryland moved to placate federal 

officials by having State Forester F.W. Besley promise that his department would 

maintain all recreation areas developed by the federal government from submarginal land 

purchases.73 This appeared enough to gain NPS support, and Symons sent a park serviceendorsed proposal for the development of the Catoctin area to FERA’s Land Planning 

Committee, which, approving the project, passed it onto the Agricultural Adjustment 

Administration’s Land Program. On January 7, 1935, the AAA lent its approval to the 

project.74

But only a week later, A.W. Manchester, the regional director of the Department 

of Agriculture’s state extension service, was having second thoughts--at least about the 

recreational aspect of the Catoctin project. He told a key official at the AAA that he 

regretted not setting up Catoctin as an “agricultural project,” which he added would have 

been “more appropriate.” Manchester may have recognized what many farmers in the 

Catoctin area still passionately insist: that there was agricultural potential on the 

mountain, given proper use and expert guidance. But with so many park officials already 

 72Tell Nicolet to H.E. Weatherwax, 19 November 1935, RDA Program Files, box 

61, NA.

73"Summary of Correspondence Relative to Interest of the State of Maryland in 

Catoctin Recreational Demonstration Area,” RDA Program Files, box 60, NA. 

74John S. Lansill to Wirth, 7 January 1935, CMP.
161

deeply involved in the project, Manchester commented that he “could not see how we 

could work that out without incurring their [the NPS] ill will.”75

Regardless of Manchester’s last minute regrets, the project quickly moved to the 

next stage. The NPS assigned as project manager Garland B. (Mike) Williams, a 

Petersburg, Virginia native and former land appraiser of the C&O Canal, who more 

recently served as Civil Works Administrator for the city of Petersburg. Meanwhile, the 

FERA assigned W.W. Simonds the job of managing land acquisition.76

Simonds faced a daunting task. Supported by only a limited staff, his job was to 

appraise and acquire more than one hundred tracts of land initially covering over 20,000 

acres (for maps of the park with its originally planned borders see Appendix 11). The 

sellers had a reputation for being conservative and traditionally suspicious of outsiders. 

Meanwhile, funding for the acquisitions was to come through a complex allocation 

process that involved several shifting government agencies. And the task was to be 

performed through persuasion rather than coercive means such as condemnation. As 

A.W. Manchester explained, "It would be contrary to the entire spirit and purpose of the 

program, to resort to general condemnation, as a mean to acquire land."

The Ordeal of Acquisition, Part I

77

 75"Telephone conversation Between A.W. Manchester and C.F. Clayton,” 14 

January 1935, RDA Program Files, box 61, NA.

76Barbara Kirkconnell, “Catoctin Mountain: An Administrative History,” (M.A. 

thesis, University of Maryland at College Park, 1988), 35-36.

Despite the best 

77A.W. Manchester to Harry T. Schoemaker, 9 May 1935, RDA Program Files, 

box 61, NA. Manchester, however, did conceded that there "may be times when titles to 

property will be so involved and muddled that the federal Government can acquire a free 

and clear title only by having recourse to the courts. Although suits of this nature will be 

in the form of 'condemnation proceedings' they will be entered into only by and with the 

consent of the present owner of the lands."
162

hopes of those launching the acquisition effort, the process, in fact, did not go smoothly 

and in some cases resulted in lasting resentment. 

In early 1934, a group of government acquisition officers arrived in Western 

Maryland to begin their difficult job. Hampered by over twelve inches of snow, the 

acquisitions team moved slowly at first, setting up initial operations in Frederick City and 

later, when conditions permitted, moving to the Cozy Inn in Thurmont. The first step 

involved interviewing twelve of the largest owners in the proposed area. While indicating 

a general willingness to sell at a fair price, the group demurred and "wanted time to talk 

over offers with families etc."78 By March the snow began to clear but the caution of the 

land owners had not. Williams reported to his superiors a "reticence of the natives in 

these areas toward signing ‘offers to sell’ or ‘options.’" The acquisition team, therefore, 

began moving ahead with appraisals after only a "verbal indication of willingness to 

sell."79

But the process of appraising land then asking for options also caused problems 

and resulted in delays. On April 21, NPS Regional Officer H.E. Weatherwax journeyed 

to Catoctin "to ascertain the reason why the project is not progressing as it should." 

Weatherwax noted that "regardless of how good an appraiser might be, it is very difficult 

in appraising cheap land, that is from $1 to $5 an acre, to make an absolutely perfect 

appraisal." Appraisers, according to Weatherwax, first should have ascertained the price 

at which owners were willing to sell. All the land then should have been evaluated, and 

 78Mentzer Administrative History, 4-6, CMP; "Tri-Monthly Report, 15 February 

1935, RDA Program Files, 1934-1947, box 57, NA. 

79Tri-Monthly Report," 15 March 1935, RDA Program Files, 1934-1947, box 57, 

NA.
163

the appraisals should have been verified by the regional appraiser. But at that point, the 

regional appraisal was actually two weeks late in getting to Catoctin, and Weatherwax 

appealed to Washington to do something "in order to speed up this project."80

By April, Mike Williams and the NPS, eager to get the project moving, had 

another--this time local--problem with which to contend. In charge of public relations, 

Williams devoted much of his initial work to lining up endorsements for the Catoctin 

project from the local community. He received enthusiastic endorsements from the 

YMCA, the Izaak Walton League, the Rotary Club of Hagerstown, the mayor of 

Frederick, and others.81

The general secrecy surrounding the project might have contributed to the rumors. 

No public announcement yet had been made regarding the government’s plans for the 

mountain, perhaps fueling the gossip. Williams quickly traced the problem to a Lantz 

mail carrier named Herman Hauver, who had spread some of the rumors and influenced 

his father, Albert Hauver, an 81-year-old local leader, against the project. The younger 

Hauver apparently feared that he would lose his mail delivery route and hence his job 

 But in the spring, word surfaced of grass-roots opposition to the 

project. The local community apparently was awash in “idle rumors, initiated by jokers 

in the local country stores.” One rumor had the government planning to use the purchased 

land as target practice for the “big guns” at Fort Ritchie. Another involved a tunnel to be 

built under the mountain for traffic to Hagerstown. 

 80H.E. Weatherwax to State Park ECW, 24 April 1935, RDA Program Files, box 

61, NA.

81"Catoctin Recreational Area, MD R-1, New symbol number LP-MD-4" 2 

October 1935, CMP.
164

should the project go forth. Park officials spoke with the elder Hauver and felt that they 

had cleared up any misunderstandings.82

But problems quickly resurfaced with the Hauvers, whom project planners 

learned had contacted the Frederick County Commissioners “and expressed their 

intention of blocking the Government’s program.” Williams and his staff were 

particularly concerned that a mail carrier--a government official, presumably privy to 

inside information--was spreading the rumors. On April 15, Williams called an 

“emergency meeting” with the County Commissioners, the mayor of Frederick, and the 

head of the County Welfare Board. “It could readily be seen,” Williams reported, “that 

the County Commissioners were opposed to the present administration,” feared losing 

taxes if the area became a park, and worried that the government would condemn 

property. Williams explained the condemnation policy, and pressed the commissioners 

to tally up taxes collected from those on the mountain and weigh them against welfare 

costs, maintenance of roads, and other expenses.83

William’s hardball tactics seemed enough to placate the county commissioners.

 

84

Meanwhile, the park service moved to neutralize the Hauvers. Informed of the problem, 

NPS Assistant Director Conrad Wirth, instructed Williams to “submit the address of the 

post office out of which Mr. Hauver works and we shall take the necessary action.”85

 82Kenneth Sigworth to C.R. Clayton, 28 March 1935, CMP.

83Williams to Weatherwax, 15 April 1935, RDA Program Files, box 61, NA.

84Catoctin Clarion, 18 October 1935. By October, a local newspaper could write 

“County Commissioners from both Washington and Frederick counties have hailed the 

land purchase as an asset to the nearby local communities.”

85Wirth to H.E. Weatherwax, 8 April 1935, RDA Program Files, box 57, NA.

 
165

Still the Hauvers continued to cause trouble and in the fall, Albert Hauver’s name showed 

up on a petition of those objecting “to the acquisition of land by the Government” (see 

Appendix 12).86

Meanwhile, bureaucratic turbulence continued to mount for the nascent Catoctin 

project. On April 30, 1935, under the Emergency Relief Act and Executive Order 7027, 

President Roosevelt transferred authority for the resettlement projects from the FERA 

and the Agriculture Department to a new independent agency called the Resettlement 

Administration, under Rexford Tugwell.87 While the NPS was to remain intimately 

involved with the Recreational Demonstration Areas, ultimate responsibility now lay 

with the Resettlement Administration (See Appendix 13). Problems quickly developed. 

Tugwell later recounted “countless difficulties in operation” at his new agency. Not 

having been recognized by Congress, the Resettlement Administration remained 

dependent on funds allotted to other agencies, in particular the WPA. Tugwell’s 

reputation as an extreme liberal may have also hurt him politically and cast a certain pall 

over all the resettlement initiatives.88 Questions of precisely who would be in charge of 

RDA administration also quickly divided Tugwell and Ickes.89

 86"To the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Program Planning,” nd, 

CMP.

87Resettlement Administration, “First Annual Report,” (Washington, 1936), 21.

88Rexford Tugwell, “The Resettlement Idea,” Agricultural History, 23 (October, 

1959), 159; Saloutos, 151-152; Ickes, 474-475. Wirth, 189. After roughly a year and a 

half, it was clear to all parties that the RDAs would be better administered directed by the 

NPS. By executive order on November 14, 1936, Roosevelt transferred control of the 

RDAs to the NPS, although the NPS still had to submit requests for funds to the 

Resettlement Administration.

 For the Catoctin project, 

89Bernard Sternsher, Rexford Tugwell and the New Deal (New Brunswick, NJ, 

1964), 277-278.
166

the organizational changes meant adjustment to a new chain of command, although the 

NPS remained intimately involved. 

Nor did problems with the local population ease. By the summer, acquisition 

officers were hitting real road blocks. The troubles threatened to derail the entire project. 

The Washington Post, getting wind of the problems, ran a front page story headlined, 

“Catoctin Park Plans Menaced as Owners Refuse to Sell Land.” The article pointed to 

planned restrictions on hunting as the source of much of the resistance.90

While land acquisition remained an entangled mess, Williams pressed ahead with 

his plans to begin construction of the park. Having secured enough land through lease 

agreements, Williams began interviewing prospective workers for the project. Since the 

primary goal of the project, along with providing urban dwellers with recreation, and 

addressing the problem of submarginal farms, was to furnish locals with work, most 

workers were to be taken from relief rolls. The newly inaugurated Works Progress 

 Without the 

option of condemning massive amounts of land, and with increasing numbers of 

landholders resisting, park service officials decided to sharply curtail the quantity of land 

to be purchased from circa 20,000 to 10,000 acres. Likewise, with acquisition proving a 

slow, complex process, requiring extensive research, Williams arranged to lease land 

from owners who signed “Temporary Special Use Permits.” This allowed for the hiring 

of men (one of the principle purposes of the project) and the beginning of construction. 

Construction and Labor at Catoctin, Part I

 90Washington Post, 24 June 1935.
167

Administration (WPA), part of the Emergency Relief Act of 1935, was to finance the 

Catoctin jobs.91

While offering those on relief the dignity of a job rather than just a handout, the 

WPA had its problems--in particular, bureaucratic confusion. Roosevelt chose Harry 

Hopkins over the more exacting Interior Secretary Harold Ickes to head the WPA. 

Hopkins’ willingness to spend and belief in getting money to the needy as quickly as 

possible clearly appealed to the President. As Hopkins explained the worker “must be the 

first and last digit in all government accounting.”92 But the WPA’s efforts immediately to 

employ millions--even before an organized structure or bureaucracy could be developed--

caused problems. Critics complained of idle workers assigned to useless projects. 

Hopkins’ insistence that the bulk of all WPA grants be spent on labor also ruffled 

feathers. Maryland WPA chief John Mackall, complaining that projects were not of 

“lasting value,” actually resigned his post in 1935.93 By the summer of 1935, an 

Associated Press reporter wrote of the WPA, this "summer finds the whole program 

lagging with key men at loggerheads and officials out in the states plainly bewildered."94

Williams had arrived in the Catoctin area confident that he easily could raise the 

needed labor from the "approximately 300 families on relief in and immediately adjacent 

 91Harry L. Hopkins, Spending to Save: The Complete Story of Relief (Seattle, 

1962). 166.

92Ibid, 178; Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Politics of Upheaval (Boston, 1960), 

34-3-345.

93Mackall to Hopkins, 29 May 1935, RG 69, Records of the Works Progress 

Administration, Central Files: States, box 1467, National Archives, Washington, DC; Jo 

Ann E. Argersinger, Toward a New Deal in Baltimore (Chapel Hill, NC, 1988), 65-66.

94Frederick News, 27 June 1935.
168

to the area."95 But, perhaps because of a mild recovery in the region, by November, 1935, 

Williams reported that there were "less than 100 men on federal relief within a radius of 

15 miles of the project."96 In need of several hundred laborers, the NPS turned to the 

idea of establishing a worker camp on the project grounds for transients to be employed 

on site. Plans went ahead for the construction of a camp on tract 91 capable of housing up 

to 200 men (see Map 5).97 The camp was to be administered by the WPA Transient 

Bureau.98 The preliminary project proposal for the Catoctin RDA included mention of the 

"work camp," and the Resettlement Administration established work hours and pay scales 

for both Catoctin’s resident and nonresident workers. In order to "work off part of the 

cost of maintaining them,” workers housed in camps would labor a 35-hour week, while 

nonresident workers were to work 30 hours. The cost of housing transients also was to 

be covered by an $8 to $12 dollar monthly deduction.99

For whatever reason, perhaps concerns about already-strained relations with 

locals, the transient camp never was built. Instead, project supervisors hired local workers 

off relief rolls and transported--sometimes at great distance--supplemental workers. This 

 95Tri-monthly Report," 15 February 1935, RDA Program Files, box 57, NA.

96Weatherwax to Peter DeGelleke, 5 November 1935, RDA Program Files, box 

61, NA; Catoctin Clarion, 6 November 1936. Business were returning to the area. In 

November 1936, a Pennsylvania man opened a factory on the corner of Carroll and Main 

streets in Thurmont. Hiring 100 women, the factory made “ladies cotton dresses.”

97Weatherwax to Huppuch, 3 October 1935, RDA Program Files, box 61, NA.

98A.B. Thatcher to Rex Williard, box 61, RDA Program Files, box 61, NA.

99"Resettlement Administration Analysis Report Prepared by Analysis and 

Section Unit Project Planning and Control Section Land Utilization Division," 19 

February 1936, RG 79, Records Concerning RDAs, Project Records of the Project 

Planning and Control Section, Land Utilization Division, Resettlement Administration, 

box 3, NA.
169

also caused some headaches when workers from Woodsboro, Maryland, complained that 

their transportation consisted of riding in the rear of subfreezing unheated trucks back 

and forth forty miles (see Appendix 14).100 Also helping to ease the labor problem, the 

NPS managed to obtain "percentage exemptions" allowances that permitted the hiring of 

some non-relief roll workers, often workers with necessary special skills.101 

Resettlement Administration officials, in fact, critiqued Williams' original development 

plan for its over reliance on unskilled labor.102

On January 2, 1936, work began with fifty-five men cleaning up the general area 

in preparation for fire prevention work. Within a week, the WPA transferred twenty men 

from its fish hatchery project in Lewistown to join in work at Catoctin.103 By spring, 

over 300 men were hard at work.104 Alongside construction, destruction was central to 

development. Miles of old roads and fences (made of stones wrapped in wire) had to be 

obliterated.105

 100Joel Berrall to Matt Huppuch, "Subject: Complaint of Excessive 

Transportation, MD-4," 23 December 1935, RDA Program Files, box 57, NA.

101L.C. Gray to Conrad Wirth, 19 December 1935, RDA Program Files, box 7, 

NA. Gray noted a "problem in all parts of the US in securing relief labor from the WPA." 

James Trouth, Memo, 29 January 1936, RG 79, Records Concerning RDAs, Records of 

the Project Planning and Control Section, Land Utilization Division, Resettlement 

Administration, box 3, NA.

102L.C. Gray to Wirth, 23 April 1936, RG 79, Records Concerning RDAs, Project 

Records of the Project Planning and Control Section, Land Utilization Division, 

Resettlement Administration, box 3, NA.

103Catoctin Clarion, 3 January 1936.

104Catoctin Clarion, 10 April 1936.

Likewise thousands of blighted chestnuts required removal. Also there 

105"#114 Obliterating Fences," 7 March 1937, RG 79, Records Concerning RDAs, 

Project Records of the Project Planning and Control Section, Land Utilization Division, 

Resettlement Administration, box 3, NA.
170

was the destruction of the farm buildings that dotted the area (although some, due to 

acquisition delays, had to be left standing temporarily). Salvageable items such as 

hinges, ironware, doors, and glassware went to the blacksmith or craft shops (once 

workers constructed these shops) for rehabilitation and use in construction. On-site saw 

mills also created needed lumber from the many trees felled to make way for construction 

(see Appendix 15).106 WPA workers--some of whom were descendants of the original 

furnace workers--began a cleanup and excavation of the furnace site. The regional 

historian, however, fearing damage to the site, insisted that work be halted.107

With areas cleared, construction could begin. In the first year, attention focused 

on building support structures such as a central garage unit, a blacksmith shop, and a 

temporary administration building, containing office space for the project manager, 

clerical personnel, engineers, and draftsmen. Workers also graded land and built truck 

trails to allow vehicles access to construction sites. Most important, construction began 

on picnic areas and the first public camp, to be known as Misty Mount (see Map 5). 

Along with everything else, immense bureaucratic challenges persisted for Williams. 

Each individual project had to be numbered and described along with estimates of 

material costs and labor. Then the project manager had to submit the proposals to the 

NPS for approval. Individual Job Plan No. 203-A, for instance, involved the construction 

of a "vehicular bridge" over Hunting Creek. Williams set bridge labor costs at $79, and 

 106Baltimore Sun, 10 December 1939. Workers sawed off an estimated 2,500,000 

feet of blighted chestnut in the forest.

107Huppuch to the Third Regional Officer, 6 February 1936, RDA Program Files, 

box 61, NA. The work, in fact, was halted.
171

materials at $48.50. He also included a justification, noting it necessity to "provide 

access to the parking area."108

Delays in obtaining approval for projects and allocation of money also provided 

headaches for Williams. Eight months into construction, holdups in procuring approval 

for construction of a park road forced the project manager to lay off around 200 men. By 

the end of the month, the necessary permissions arrived, and Williams could hire the 

workers back.109

Despite problems and layoffs, those in need both on Catoctin Mountain and in the 

surrounding environs clearly benefited from WPA employment.

 Still, the lack of security kept life difficult for those working at 

Catoctin. 

The Ordeal of Acquisition, Part II

110

 108See file "703-01, General Correspondence, RG 79, Records Concerning RDAs, 

Project Records of the Project Planning and Control Section, Land Utilization Division, 

Resettlement Administration, box 3, NA, for reports of work sent to NPS Assistant 

Director Conrad Wirth.

109"Tell Nicolet, Associate Landscape Architect, First Region, August 1936 

Report,” RG 79, Records of the Branch of Plans and Design, Monthly Narrative Reports, 

box 1, NA.

But deep resentment 

of the projected lingered among some locals. At seven o'clock on Saturday morning, May 

2, 1936, a fire of suspicious origins broke out on tract 307 of the project grounds. Shortly 

after, a second fire ignited on tract 116. Sometime later, the Foxville fire tower reported a 

third fire on tract 328. Although WPA workers had the day off, as word of the fires 

spread, they rushed to the project site to join in fighting the blazes--no doubt fearing the

destruction could imperil their livelihoods. When high winds from the west threatened to 

110Fred Johnson to David Lewis, 24 October 1936, RDA Program Files, box 60, 

NA. In October of 1937, of the 254 workers employed at Catoctin, 31 were landowners, 

having optioned their land to the government for the project.
172

fan flames, Mike Williams called for help from the CCC camps at Boonsboro and the 

Frederick City watershed. By three-thirty that afternoon, a combined force of 250 men 

finally tamed the conflagration. But questions smoldered. It appeared that someone 

purposely had set the fires, and officials suspected "disgruntled mountaineers." A $25 

reward was offered for information leading to arrests.111

"the Government--if you call it that--I don't; I call it Russia--

they came along here and wanted to get all of our land and 

they fooled some people and some people signed a waiver to 

let them have it and they have not paid them one cent; but, 

they took it and they have cut it up as soon as they got it. 

Now, they aren't going to pay for it; they have it under lease 

for five years. They came after and wanted me to agree to 

sell my farms and they suggested if we could not agree that 

they would appoint two men and I appoint one, and what 

they would say would be final in reference to the price and I 

told them no. I have been raised on this mountain and I am 

one of the first Fire Wardens and I am still one of them. . . . 

There will always be hungry people in these mountains, but 

there never were any hungry ones there before relief, and 

who is going to pay for it I don't know."

The State Forestry Department also hired the private investigation firm of 

Lancaster and Daugherty to look into the matter. Information gathered pointed to a group 

of mountain-area teenagers. Frederick county police aggressively questioned each 

implicated young man in succession at police headquarters. Despite sharp interrogation, 

each defiantly denied any role in setting the fires. Then police questioned the father of 

one of the youths, who actually had worked for the State Forestry Department. Like the 

boys, the man denied any knowledge of the origins of the fires. But he made his 

sympathies clear:

112

 111Catoctin Clarion, 8 May 1936; G.B. Williams, "Fire in Area," 5 May 1936,

RDA Program Files, box 61, NA.

112Lancaster and Daugherty Detective Bureau to F.W. Besley, "Regarding: Fires 

on Catoctin Mountain," nd, RDA Program Files, box 61, NA.
173

Despite his harsh tone, the “mountaineer” had some valid points. Planners had 

not always been diplomatic or respectful of the residents of the mountain. For instance, in 

a widely quoted public statement the previous fall, L.C. Gray, a key administrator in the 

Resettlement Administration, said of the Catoctin land: "Today the land is of almost no 

value to anyone, most of it lying idle and unproductive."113

While the May 1936 fires were the last such open manifestation of resistance, the 

entire process of acquisition remained--as one local recalled--"a mess for a while."

Such comments could not 

have sat well with those who had struggled to make a living from the mountain. Likewise 

the mountaineer, quite correctly, asserted that most owners remained uncompensated--

and yet construction was underway. In addition, circumstances had forced the 

government to resort to condemnation in a number of cases in which titles were too 

convoluted to allow for normal transfer. Even when every effort was made to put the 

condemnations in proper context, they inevitably caused suspicions in an era in which 

one’s life earnings suddenly could disappear. To many Americans, especially during the 

Depression, bigness--whether big banks, big business, or big government—was suspect.

114

 113Baltimore Sun, 3 November 1935.

114Anders Interview.

The 

acquisition quagmire even became a political issue. In an attack on the New Deal-friendly 

Western Maryland congressman, David Lewis, The Cumberland Daily News, assailed the 

"excuse" issued by "the New Dealers" that trouble clearing up land titles was preventing 

the exercising of options. "The New Dealers," claimed the editorial, "are fooling the 
174

owners of the land."115 In fact, procedural obstacles were slowing down the process and 

frustrating everyone. But some problems lay beyond the control of the project 

supervisors. For instance, at one point in the summer of 1936, the project’s title 

abstracter, hired to research land deeds, disappeared for a month, supposedly sick. 

Infuriated officials later found him doing outside work in Allentown, Pennsylvania.116

By late 1937, the laborious acquisition process was slowing down construction. 

Williams postponed the planned construction of a water system for a new camp because 

contracts had yet to be closed on five important tracts of land. Having only managed to 

pay for only 65 of the 123 properties optioned, park officials complained that the office 

of the special attorney was holding up checks, and "meanwhile, of course, a tremendous 

amount of ill will has been created around the Project Area by these dilatory tactics."

 

117

Perhaps also of concern to the local population, the Thurmont Bank, which held 

several mortgages on land in the project area, was eager to get the loans liquidated and 

worked with park acquisition officers to secure land. Because option prices were often 

higher than original amounts owed, mortgaged land owners still could end up making 

money, but the specter of the bank working with the government could not help but make 

locals uneasy.118

 115Cumberland Daily News, 16 October 1935.

116A.P. Bursley to D.J. Chaney, 25 January 1937, RDA Program Files, box 61.

117S.M. Woodward, Jr. to Regional Director, 20 October 1937, RDA Program 

Files, box 58, NA.

118L.S. Birely, President, Thurmont Bank to U.S. Department of Interior, 16 

October 1936, RDA Program Files, box 60, NA.

 When project planners briefly toyed with the idea of attempting again 

to acquire land south of Foxville, they were “confidentially informed . . . that foreclosure 
175

proceedings by the [resistant] lien holders would be instituted and title taken by persons 

more friendly toward the program.”119

The ordeal of acquisition lasted well into 1939, when the U.S. District Court for 

the District of Maryland heard the case of the U.S. verses 810.3 acres of land situate in 

Frederick County, the State of Maryland, and Reuben A. McAfee, et al. Ultimately, the 

court ruled in favor of the condemnation of over forty tracts of land with titles too 

convoluted to sort out any other way.120 The entire elongated process resulted in much 

lasting bad feeling. Even today, in the area around the park, popular opinion holds that 

the government, sometimes with the cooperation of banks, pressed people off their 

land.121

 119"Formation of Future Work Program, Tentative,” 19 January 1937, CMP.

120C. Ross McKenrick to R. Baldwin, 4 October 1939, RDA Program Files, box 

58, NA.

121Anders interview, Zentz interview; History/YCC Anecdotes, "The Catoctin 

Project," CMP. The author's interviews confirm this conclusion as did interviews 

conducted by the Youth Conservation Corps in the early 1970. The YCC concluded that 

there were "two different versions" of the acquisition story. The local version involved 

forced condemnation and banks that "pressured on them [landowners] to sell and pay of 

the mortgages."

 But there is no evidence that the government acted with anything other than 

good--although occasionally sloppy executed--intentions. Cultural misunderstandings 

probably were inevitable. The general confusion and haste of New Deal programs only 

added to the potential for problems. In the end, it also must be remembered that 

acquisition officers, under the best of circumstances, have a very difficult job--that of 

persuading people to give up their homes. Nor was the Catoctin project unusual in 

experiencing problems. Other parks had even greater problems. Even in urban settings, 

such as Baltimore, planners of the Edgar Allan Poe housing project in the late 1930s 
176

found residents clinging to their dilapidated houses, and complaining of authorities who 

"ask us to sell at a quarter their value the homes we cherish."122

Despite the continuing acquisition problems, construction moved ahead. By early 

1937, workers completed the first camp. An inspector declared the buildings to be "of 

the better class in RDP work. The materials, (chestnut logs and native stone) were 

particularly well chosen and the designs, following the local precedent, have been well 

executed." On June 25, 1937, ready to show off their new camp, project officials held an 

open house, dubbed "Thurmont Day," a sunup to sundown affair, in which visitors could 

walk through the newly completed Misty Mount grounds.

Construction and Labor at Catoctin, Part II

123

Planning next shifted to the second camp, to be known as Greentop, a special 

needs site for disabled children (see Map 5).124 The impetus for the camp came from the 

Baltimore-based Maryland League for Crippled Children (MLCC), an organization 

founded in 1927, as an outgrowth of the Council of Jewish Women. Aggressive fundraisers, the organization managed to forge a personal relationship with President 

Roosevelt, who, of course, had every reason to be sympathetic to the group's cause.125

 122Argersinger, 103-104.

123Catoctin Clarion, 25 June 1937. A handicapped children’s camp, under the 

auspices of the Maryland’s League for Crippled Children, used Misty Mount in 1937 then 

moved to the more specialized accommodations at Greentop in 1938.

124"Monthly Narrative Report to Chief Architect by Fred P. Parris, District 

Architect District C, Branch of Plans and Designs, February 20 to March 20, 1938, RG 

79, Records of the Branch of Plans and Design, Monthly Narrative Reports, box 1, NA.

 

125Allan Sauerwien to President Roosevelt, 15 May 1933, Sauerwien to Stephen 

Early, 5 June 1933, President's Personal Files, folder 505, FDR Library. Kirkconnell, 53-

61, covers the MLCC's lobbying campaign and the role played by the league in the 

construction of the camp Greentop.
177

The league also established an effective working relationship with the park service and 

contributed financially to the special equipment needed at the camp.126 Construction 

began in 1937 and continued into the winter, during which work moved inside the cabins 

to avoid freezing weather."127

In the summer of 1938, 120 handicapped children enjoyed the new camp’s 

specialized facilities. Meanwhile, nearly 300 workers began construction of the third 

camp, to be known as Hi-Catoctin (see Map 5).128 As in every other phase of the project, 

bureaucratic entanglements often retarded progress. Federal dictates passed in 1937 

required that an increased percentage of WPA laborers come from the relief rolls, 

hampering the hiring of much needed skilled workers.129

 126Stanley Hawkins, "Memorandum to Mr. Lisle," 13 October 1936, RG 79, RDA 

Program Files, box 24, NA.

127"Monthly Narrative Report to Chief Architect by Tell Nicolet, August 21 to 

September 20, 1937," RG 79, Records of the Branch of Plans and Design, Monthly 

Narrative Reports, box 11, NA.

128Catoctin Clarion, 15 July 1938. According to the local newspaper, all workers 

lived "within a radius of 12 miles of the Recreational Demonstration Project."

129Williams to Regional Director, 19 March 1937, CMP.

 The next year, as construction 

on the third camp moved ahead, Williams, in order to prevent "a number of men being 

thrown out of work," used a "nonowner operated" 2.5 ton truck to complete a job for 

which his supervisors had mandated a 1.5 ton truck at a lower cost. In what he later 

admitted was an "irregular payroll practice," Williams papered over the detail in his 

records. When discovered, the project supervisor was reprimanded, but investigators also 

noted that his "record of accomplishment on the project is excellent," and that his efforts 
178

to fabricate on site many of the materials needed in construction had eliminated the 

"necessity of many outside purchases."130

With the completion of Camp Hi-Catoctin later that year, planners turned to other 

projects (see Appendix 16). Envisioning a Lake Placid in the Catoctins, a Baltimorebased advisory committee for the Catoctin project recommended the development for 

winter sports of an area of the mountain known as "cold valley.” But several "blue-bird" 

winters discouraged such plans.

 

131 Thoughts of refurbishing the Mt. Lent house, site of 

the Bessie Darling tragedy, as an overnight shelter for hikers, surfaced but were later 

shelved.132 Planners also foresaw a "Wayside Day Use Area" at Catoctin Manor, which, 

unlike Mount Lent and "cold valley," later was completed with CCC labor.133

Maryland League for Crippled Children had been the first organized group to use 

Catoctin's facilities in 1937. The next year it moved into its own custom-designed camp 

at Greentop. The league's staff and administration immensely impressed park service 

Use and Segregation

 130Arno Cammerer, "Memorandum to Mrs. Maulding," 4 November 1938, RG 79, 

RDA Program Files, box 57, NA.

131Baltimore Sun, 8 January 1937; Baltimore Sun, 10 December 1939. The 

advisory group was titled the Executive Committee for Catoctin Center, and included ten 

members, all from Baltimore, including Frank L. Bentz, chief clerk of the Maryland State 

Conservation Department; E.M. Lisle, "Memo for Director," 26 February 1941, RG 79, 

RDA Program Files, box 23, NA. By early 1941, the Catoctin advisory committee had 

been "inactive" for some time, despite interest in its revival.

132Orveill W. Crowder, to Emil C. Heinrich, 14 April 1941, RG 79, RDA Program 

Files, box 61, NA. In the early years of the project, hikers and groups did actually use Mt. 

Lent, but later the park service deemed the costs of refurbishing the collapsing house as 

too high.

133"Memorandum to Mr. V.R. Ludgate," 6 August 1938, RG 79, RDA Program 

Files, box 7, NA. On the construction of the Day Use area see Kirkconnell, 71-75.
179

inspectors, who complimented the "exceptionally cordial, cooperative spirit and interest 

evident by campers, staff, and help. An excellent job is being done by this 

organization."134 Meanwhile, other groups took over Camp Misty Mount, including the 

girl and boy scouts, and such short-term users as the Recreational Association of the 

Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, who paid $5.25 for use of the camp, May 

14-15, 1937 (see Appendix 17).135

While the project was finding enthusiastic users, one group appeared shut out--

African Americans. While President Roosevelt was not a great supporter of civil rights, 

others in his administration, in particular his wife and Secretary of the Interior Harold 

Ickes, were eager to open New Deal programs and benefits to all.136 Ickes appointed 

W.J. Trent as his "advisor on Negro affairs." From his office, Trent pressed the Park 

Service to consider African-American needs. With the New Deal-funded construction of 

over forty RDAs, Trent and others argued that some, perhaps including the Catoctin 

project, should include camps for African-Americans. A memorandum prepared by the 

Park Service on September 20, 1936 identified recreational and wayside projects "with 

the possibility for the development of Negro camping facilities." Surveyors designated 

most as either "all white" or "all colored." Catoctin, however, earned the designation as 

"possible for both white and colored" camping (See Appendix 18).137

 134J.I Neasmith, "NPS Camp Appraisal Report," 21 July 1938, RG 79, RDA 

Program Files, box 58, NA.

135Matt C. Huppuch to Director NPS, 8 June 1938, RG 79, RDA Program Files, 

box 31, NA.

136Schlesinger, 430-436.

137Associate Director, "Memorandum for the Secretary," 30 September 1936, RG 

79, RDA Program Files, box 17. W.J. Trent to A.E. Demaray, 10 June 1939, RG 79, 
180

In 1939, several prominent African-Americans from Baltimore began a campaign 

aimed at the construction of a crippled children's camp for African-Americans to be 

situated "adjacent to the camp now used . . . for white children." Officials from the Henry 

Watson Children's Aid Society, the Rose Ward Circle, and Willard W. Allen, a prominent 

African-American businessman from Baltimore, all joined the campaign.138 But Park 

Service officials politely put off the lobbyists. They cited a lack of public works money 

for such an endeavor and suggested that "needs could be furnished in some area nearer to 

this population group, probably along the Bay or Potomac Shore in Southern 

Maryland."139

The “possibility” of African-American use again resurfaced in the 1940 master 

plan for the Catoctin RDA, which included a recommendation for “a comprehensive 

development outline for Negro use.”

 

140

 

RDA Program Files, box 60, NA. On June 10, 1939, Trent asked Assistant NPS Director 

A.E. Demaray for information as "to the recent developments concerning a proposed 

Negro Recreational Demonstration Project at Catoctin." Demaray's reply could not be 

found.

138Paul Beissser to Senator George Radcliffe, 5 May 1939; Williard W. Allen to 

Conrad Wirth, 5 May 1939; Fred T. Johnson to Ethel J. Day, 17 May 1939, RG 79, RDA 

Program Files, box 60, NA.

139J.B. McGovern, "Memorandum for Regional Director, 23 May 1939; Fred T. 

Johnson to Ethel J. Day, 17 May 1939, RG 79, RDA Program Files, box 60, NA.

140"Memorandum for Inspector Henrich,” 28 June 1940, CMP.

In the end, despite the efforts of an increasingly 

organized African-American community, both the labor force constructing the project 

and the early groups using the Catoctin park remained exclusively white.
181

The CCC in the Catoctins

From the earliest planning stages, National Park Service officials, such as Tell 

Nicolet, pictured a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp at Catoctin. The CCC, a 

brainchild of President Roosevelt himself, was one of the most memorable and popular of 

the New Deal programs. Congress passed the program--originally called Emergency 

Conservation Work--during FDR’s whirlwind first 100 days in office. By the summer of 

1933, the CCC had enrolled 270,000 young single men, between the age of 18 and 25, to 

work in 1330 camps around the country. Enrollees signed up for a renewable six-month 

stint, which began with a three-week conditioning program, usually on a military base. 

Pay was a monthly thirty dollars, twenty-two of which enrollees had to send home. Peak 

enrollment came in 1935, when 500,000 filled the ranks of the organization, jointly 

administered by the Army, Labor, Agriculture, Interior Departments.141

In early 1936, CCC officials gave approval for a future CCC “expansion camp” at 

Catoctin.

 

142 But, with a mandate to provide work for the local community and the CCC 

undergoing cutbacks, the Park Service deferred plans for the Catoctin camp and began 

development with WPA labor.143

 141Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., The Coming of the New Deal (Boston, 1959), 336-340.

142Assistant Director to Mr. Demaray, 18 September 1936, RG 79, Records of the 

Project Application Section, Memoranda and Correspondence Concerning CCC Camps, 

box 3, NA. The NPS deferred establishment of the Catoctin camp “due to restrictions on 

new ECW camp construction.”

143John C. Paige, The CCC and the NPS, 1933-1942, An Administrative History

(Washington, 1985), 21-22, 26. In 1936, as the construction at Catoctin began, FDR 

ordered the CCC downsized as an economy measure, cutting the number of camps from 

446 to 340. 

 Nevertheless, the CCC was an active part of life 

around Catoctin Mountain. The Department of Agriculture administered a camp focusing 
182

on fire prevention just to the south of Catoctin on Fishing Creek. On at least two 

occasions, Fishing Creek corps members helped fight fires on project grounds.144

Despite the deferment, the NPS still hoped to establish a Catoctin CCC camp and 

planned WPA construction according. As one NPS official explained in 1937, “most of 

our straight labor projects have been put aside on the supposition that eventually a CCC 

camp would be attained.” With much of the heavier construction completed, park 

officials began searching for a suitable site on project grounds for a camp. By late 1937, 

the supervisors selected a locale near the project office, north of the central garage unit, 

and adjacent to a 75,000-storage tank capable of providing an unlimited supply of water 

(See Appendix 19).145

By 1939, the depression in Central Western Maryland had eased thus thinning the 

ranks of relief workers. Meanwhile, Congress merged the CCC into the Federal Security 

Agency, and, in the process, also allotted funds for 245 new camps. Catoctin quickly 

moved to the top of the priority list, and, early in 1939, along with Otter Creek, 

Kentucky, selection officers assigned to the western Maryland RDA a CCC camp.

 It would be, however, almost two years before a CCC camp could 

be assigned to Catoctin.

146

 144Catoctin Clarion, 20 November 1936; Catoctin Clarion, 11 November 1939. 

Game wardens in the Catoctin area frequently warned local hunters to be especially 

careful around CCC sites.

145S.M. Woodward Jr. to Regional Director, 1 November 1937, “Subject: New 

Camp Areas,” RG 79, Records of the Project Application Section, Memoranda and 

Correspondence Concerning CCC Camps, box 3, NA. This area was later known as 

Round Meadow.

146"Memorandum for Regional Director, Region 1,” 28 February 1939, RG 79, 

Records of the Project Application Section, Memoranda and Correspondence Concerning 

CCC Camps, box 3, NA.
183

In late April, an advanced detachment of 35 men and one officer arrived in 

Thurmont to scout the site and work to be done. The men were from CCC Company 

1374, situated for the past four years (or, in CCC parlance, eight terms) at Quantico, VA, 

where they constructed cabins for the Washington Recreational Demonstration Area. 

Before their work at Quantico, the company worked at Clifton Forge and Douthat State 

Park both in Virginia. Although some members of the company hailed from Maryland 

and Virginia, most actually came from Pennsylvania--some from Philadelphia, but most 

from the coal-mining regions of Central Pennsylvania.147

Within a few days, the rest of company arrived, numbering nearly 200 young 

men, most between ages 17 and 29. The men lived in tents while they constructed a 

company camp. Living roughly four men to a tent, the corps members dug a latrine and 

setup portable toilets, awaiting the construction of a water system. Within weeks, the 

young men had finished their new camp, complete with utilities and a water system.148 

Hardly fancy, the major buildings were prefabricated, portable barracks. The standard 

CCC camp in 1939 consisted of twenty-four structures, including several dormitories, a 

recreation hall, a garage for CCC vehicles, a mess hall, an administrative center, and a 

separate residence for the camp superintendent.149

 147Catoctin Clarion, 28 April 1939, Howard Rothmel, telephone interview by 

author, Stuart, Florida, 30 July 1999.

148"Camp Inspection Report,” 30 August 1939, RG 35, Records of the Civilian 

Conservation Corps, Division of Investigations, Camp Inspection Reports, box 94, 

National Archives, Washington, DC.

 The recreation hall included a small 

149Paige, 71-72. “Camp Inspection Report, 3 February 1941, RG 35, Division of 

Investigations, Camp Inspection Reports, box 94, National Archives, Washington, DC. 

An inspector visiting the camp in 1941 found the “building and camp areas are in good 

condition,” with a water-drilled well. He noted the portable buildings had been moved at 
184

canteen, where corps members could buy candy and soda.150 Red brick walkways 

connected the structures.151

Company staff consisted of a company commander, a camp superintendent, a 

medical doctor, two senior foremen, a junior foreman, two foremen, a toolkeeper and 

sharpener, a mechanic, an educational advisor, seven assistant camps leaders, and nine 

assistant project leaders.152

Although the CCC--by taking young men off the streets and giving them jobs--

clearly served the cause of relief, park service officials, such as Conrad Wirth, insisted 

that it was “primarily a conservation program.”153 As such, much of the CCC’s initial 

work at Catoctin focused on blazing trails, reforestation, and improving Hunting and 

Owen’s Creeks. Work on the creeks generally involved clearing the creek of 

obstructions and building small dams for fish.154 Corps members also prepared chestnut 

rails for use at Gettysburg Memorial Battlefield, where an African-American CCC 

company was stationed. 155

 

least once. Rothmel interview. The Catoctin Recreational Hall included a pool table and a 

juke box. The hall was the site of occasional dances, attended by local women.

150Joseph Negrello, interview by author, Pottsville, PA, 14 July 1999.

151Ibid.

152 "Inspection Report, 3 February 1941, NP-3, CCC, MD,” RG 35, Division of 

Investigations, Camp Inspection Reports, box 94, NA.

153Conrad Wirth, “Civilian Conservation Corps Program of the U.S. Department 

of Interior, March 1933 to June 1943,” (Washington, 1944), 2.

154Negrello interview.

155Camp Inspection Report, 30 August 1939, RG 35, Records of the CCC, 

Division of Investigations Camp Inspection Reports, box 94, National Archives, 

Washington, DC.
185

In addition, road construction was also a priority for Camp 1374 at Catoctin. 

Members frequently worked “road crew” detail, which involved laying stones and 

clearing brush from the road side.156 Other work centered on the construction of a home 

for the project supervisor, a lone ranger station, and on digging water for the Blue Blazes 

contact station and camp Hi-Catoctin. In 1939, members also left the park to help 

construct a recreation center in Thurmont.157

The arrival of Company 1374 did not bring an end to WPA work at Catoctin, 

although the number of relief workers did steadily decline from 291 in the summer of 

1939.158 Often WPA and CCC workers would labor side by side as was the case in the 

spring of 1940, when 75 locals joined 200 corps members to resurface the central road 

from Thurmont to the park.159

Through 1940 into 1941, CCC work continued at Catoctin. By the summer of 

1941, a camp inspector could report that corps members had built 12.5 miles of power 

lines, a water supply system, the custodian’s residence, two sewage systems, 4.5 miles of 

foot trails, one retaining wall (built along old route 15), a bath house, four drinking

fountains, .3 miles of roads, a filter system, two trail-side shelters (on the Appalachian 

Trail), and a forest fire danger station. In addition, the young workers planted 1500 trees 

and shrubs, seeded five acres, developed 400 acres and 25 miles of fire hazard reduction, 

 

 156Rothmel interview.

157Rothmel interview.

158Catoctin Clarion, 28 April 1939.

159Catoctin Enterprise, 18 March 1940.
186

committed 500 man days in emergency work, 1500 man-days in preparation and 

transportation of materials, and 180 man-days to fighting forest fires.160

Of their various duties, fighting forest fires, no doubt, presented the gravest 

challenges. In 1939, CCC members battled a blaze near Mount Lent all night. The 

young men used shovels, hoses, and water tanks that some members carried on their 

backs.161 The most threatening fire occurred within the camp itself. On a Sunday 

morning in November 1941 (just as the corps was winding up its overall work at 

Catoctin), the equipment garages holding several large trucks burnt to the ground. The 

fire destroyed the enclosed trucks, and for the rest of their stay, the corps depended on 

trucks borrowed from other camps. Investigators never discovered the true cause of the 

fire, but corps members suspected that a stray cigarette following the weekly Saturday 

night outing to Hagerstown may have been the culprit. 162

Heavily structured, the CCC work week consisted of 40 hours. As a member of 

Company 1374 recalled, a bugler "called us to meal time, sounded retreat, and woke us 

up in the morning."163

 160"Camp Inspection Report,” 3 February 1941, RG 35, Records of the CCC, 

Division of Investigations Camp Inspection Reports, box 94, National Archives, 

Washington, DC. W.S. Bahlman, “Memorandum for the Director, 6 September 1939, RG 

79 RDA Program Files, box 57, NA. 

161Rothmel interview; Negrello interview.

162Negrello interview.

163Caption to photograph in "CCC Buildings and Activities, CPP-030" folder, 

CMP.

Catoctin enrollees rose at six in the morning, and, by eight, after a 

hearty breakfast, were at work until noon. After an hour for lunch, they returned and 

worked until 4pm. Under the command of the army, regulations required enrollees to 
187

appear at daily roll calls wearing ties in summer and full suits in cooler weather.164 Each 

enrollee had a bunk in the barracks and an individual trunk in which to keep personal 

articles. The bunk was to be kept up to military standards of cleanliness and order. Coal 

stoves heated the barracks, and one company member suffered the difficult job of 

keeping the stoves fired. Under the best of circumstances the barracks could get very 

cold.165

Company chefs served plain but “plentiful” fare in the camp mess.166 Former 

members remembered food as “wholesome.” Cooks, themselves CCC members, received 

special training in Pennsylvania. By 1941, with the camp firmly established, bakers 

prepared bread, rolls, cakes, and pastries right in camp. Camp truck drivers often 

delivered meals to men working in the fields.167

Breakfast

 Enrollees also enjoyed occasional extras 

such as when in January of 1941, chefs added sixteen gallons of oysters and four pounds 

of Italian cheese to spice up bland CCC diets. But overall food remained simple. For 

instance, the camp menu on Friday August 25, 1939 consisted of: 

Dinner Supper

Bread, V.S. Sausage Sweet Potatoes Buttered bread

Cereal, Eggs V. S. Sausage Sardines, potatoes

Canned Apples Spaghetti Sauce Canned corn

Milk, Cinnamon Canned Tomatoes Tunatidbits

Baking Powder Apple Butter, Brown Sugar Cocoa

Sugar Tomatoes

On January 27, 1941:

 164Ibid.

165Negrello interview.

166Paige, 81.

 167Negrello interview.
188

Breakfast Dinner Supper

Eggs Bread Boston Butts

Milk Bologna Peanut Butter

Coffee Jam Potatoes

Blackberries Potatoes Baked Beans

Oatmeal Tea

Tomato Juice

The CCC--while clearly a conservation and employment program--also had a 

strong educational component. The camp had an education advisor, and each enrollee 

received at least six hours of training a week. After work, enrollees attended vocational 

and educational classes given in a number of subject areas. In the summer of 1939, the 

majority of the 191 members of Company 1374 learned at roughly a seventh grade level, 

and hence "instruction and material is developed accordingly." Course work included 

reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, history, carpentry, painting, electricity, surveying, 

transportation, and woodworking. Camp administrators looked forward to the 

completion of a company education building that would allow classes in photography, 

lathe work, bookkeeping, shorthand, business English, and geography. The company had 

at its disposal a 16 mm sound projector, a film strip projector, and a library with 1500 

volumes. While at Catoctin, the company even had its own newspaper, "The 

Mountaineer."168 Some enrollees also attended night school in Hagerstown. Howard 

Rothmel, a company member in 1939, for instance, attended a mechanics course in 

Hagerstown, a course he found “helped out later” during World War II.169

 168"CCC Camp Education Report, SP-7-MD" 30 August 1939, RG 35, Division of 

Investigations Camp Investigations Reports, box 94, National Archives, Washington, DC.

169Rothmel interview.
189

Nearly two years later, with the education building completed, study areas had 

expanded greatly to included aviation, typewriting, first aid, photography, auto 

mechanics, and radio servicing among other subjects. The majority of company members 

now learned at high school level, allowing classes to delve into more advanced subjects. 

In addition, a new preoccupation took over the CCC--military preparedness. With the war 

in Europe raging, a long debate over military training in the CCC was won by those in 

favor of preparedness.170 Military drilling took place at the camp, and 62 members of the 

company attended national defense classes at Hagerstown High School. An indication of 

changing times, sixteen company members trained in acetylene welding were 

recommended for jobs at the expanding Fairchild Aircraft Corporation in Hagerstown.171

When not working, sleeping, nor learning, enrollees enjoyed a number of other 

activities. There were occasional trips to the Gettysburg Battlefield.172

 

170Happy Days, 12 October 1940.

171"CCC Camp Education Report," 2 February 1941, RG 35, Division of 

Investigations Camp Investigations Reports, box 94, National Archives, Washington, DC.

172Rothmel interview.

Camp supervisors 

showed two movies a week and broadcast sporting events over the public address system. 

In the winter season, the young men could enjoy darts, pool, and ping-pong in the

recreation hall. The company partook in a local basketball league as well. With excellent 

recreational facilities at its disposal, baseball, softball, volleyball, swimming, and 

horseshoe pitching appear to have been camp Catoctin’s favorite warm weather pastimes. 
190

In baseball, the company found a taste of distinction.173 Convenient for practices, a 

baseball diamond sat right next to the camp (southeast side of camp).174 Within weeks of 

its arrival at the camp, Company 1374 began dominating the local baseball leagues. The 

Company 1374 team, calling themselves, the Catoctin Buccaneers, tore through its 

opposition, including Frederick County WPA teams and the Boonsboro, Maryland CCC 

camp. The Buccaneers soon won recognition in the national CCC newspaper Happy 

Days.

175 Alongside baseball, several members of the company also exhibited prowess in 

the boxing ring. One particular boxer, known as Smity, traveled successfully to several 

different camps for bouts.176

Less taxing recreation might involve a hike around the mountain, or a visit to the 

Foxville General Store for a five cent soda.177

 173"CCC Camp Education Report, SP-7-MD" 30 August 1939;"CCC Camp 

Education Report," 2 February 1941, RG 35, Division of Investigations Camp 

Investigations Reports, box 94, National Archives, Washington, DC.

174Joseph Negrello, 15 July 1999.

175Happy Days, 17 June 1939, 1 July 1939: Happy Days 23 September 1939.

176Rothmel interview.

177Rothmel interview.

Weekends offered the company the 

opportunity to get into town. Enrollees could go into Thurmont for Sunday observances, 

although a chaplain also offered services at the camp. Saturday night was the company’s 

“recreation” night, involving a trip by truck to Hagerstown. The weekly trip to 

Hagerstown, however, brought the Catoctin camp its only real disaster. On the evening of 

February 1, 1941, near Cavetown, Maryland, a car struck the large truck transporting 

Company 1374 members back from their Hagerstown evening outing. The accident 
191

killed the driver of the car and resulted in nineteen injuries to young corps members. At 

least two injuries were particularly serious, but all fully recovered.178

The Catoctin camp--like most CCC camps--suffered from a chronic problem with 

desertion. In early 1941, for instance, the company had stood at 169 enrollees, but 

thirteen members were absent without leave. Indeed, while the numbers of deserters 

always remained high, after 1940, when young men more easily could find work 

elsewhere, AWOL cases grew.179 No doubt the discipline, hard work, and loneliness of 

the corps also played a role. It was frequently less educated, out-of-state enrollees who 

defected, or “went over the hill,” as it was known in the CCC vernacular. One Company 

1374 veteran recalled that it was frequently boys from Philadelphia, unaccustomed to 

isolated life in the country, who frequently deserted.180 While the army oversaw the 

camp, it made little effort to find AWOLers. The CCC simply would send deserters an 

unsatisfactory discharge.181

As early as the fall of 1940, a Happy Days headline described the challenges 

faced by the corps: “Jobs and National Defense Thin Ranks of CCC.” With a peacetime 

draft instituted in 1940 and the world situation heating up, the corps looked more and 

more like a relic of a passing time. CCC administrators, meanwhile, became increasingly 

 178Ross Abare to Charles H. Kenlen, 7 February 1941, RG 35, Division of 

Investigations Camp Investigations Reports, box 94, National Archives, Washington, 

DC; Negrello interview.

179Paige, 28. “Camp Inspection Report,” 3 February 1941, RG 35, Division of 

Investigations Camp Investigations Reports, box 94, National Archives, Washington, DC.

180Negrello interview.

181Joseph DeCenzo, telephone interview by author, Clinton, MD, 28 January 

1999. DeCenzo, a Marylander, was stationed at the Silgo Park, Pennsylvania CCC camp.
192

concerned about the poor quality of corps applicants. In the fall of 1941, the Catoctin 

camp became a victim of cutbacks. Company 1374 closed shop on November 7, 1941--

exactly a month before the Pearl Harbor attack. A few members of the company 

remained to pack up supplies, most of which were sent to an army depot in Fleetwood, 

Pennsylvania.182

The coming of war was no surprise to the corps members. As one former member 

explained, “we knew ahead of time what was coming.” The military-style training 

proved a great help as the vast majority of Company 1374 entered the military to fight in 

World War II. “Once overseas,” recalled a Catoctin CCC veteran, “you had to take care 

of yourself.” Familiarity even with something as simple as making a proper bed gave 

CCC veterans a head-start, made them more effective soldiers, “helped out one hundred 

percent.”

Congress ordered the complete liquidation of the CCC on July 2, 1942. 

183

The men who experienced the CCC camp at Catoctin look back on their work 

with pride and satisfaction. It was “an opening for me,” “a great experience.”184 “Many a 

guy wishes there was still a CCC” commented a Catoctin CCC alumnus.185

Conclusion

For more than fifty years the Catoctin mountain region underwent a slow 

transformation from an agricultural/industrial economy to one more reliant on recreation 

and tourism. The New Deal in the 1930s dramatically sped up the process and introduced 

a new player with enormous resources at its disposal--the federal government. Clearly the 

 182Negrello interview.

183Rothmel interview.

184Ibid.
193

national economic emergency set the stage for the revolutionary changes. The old ways 

of self-reliance and independence disintegrated under the pressure of the hard times. In 

stepped the government to offer its own, desperately-needed, brand of relief and renewal. 

Its ambitions were huge, and not all residents were pleased with the new force on the 

mountain. But despite the enormity of the job, the bureaucratic changes, and the 

resistance of some locals, development of the park moved forwarded. Out of chaos came 

a beautiful park. In his reflections on the accomplishments of the NPS during the 1930s, 

Conrad Wirth might provide an epitaph for the Park Service’s work at Catoctin: 

“Looking back, I have often wondered how we ever accomplished it all.”186

 185Negrello interview.

186Wirth, 103.

But the federal government was not yet done with the park. And soon another 

grave emergency would take precedent. World War II transformed the mountain yet 

again. This time taking it in new and very unexpected directions. 
194

Chapter Six

War and Politics Shape the Park

Introduction

World War II forever changed the destiny of Catoctin Recreational Demonstration Area. 

The establishment of the presidential retreat known as Shangri-La turned the park into an area of 

international significance. Few having lived in the area before the war could have ever imagined 

the important developments that consumed the park during the war years. Not only was it a 

meeting place for Churchill and Roosevelt, but it was also a training ground for soldiers and 

secret agents. After the war, despite the protests of the state of Maryland, it was clear that 

Catoctin would never again be just another park. Still, local protests and lobbying shaped the 

destiny of the area as well—and resulted in the division of park in the early 1950s.

The Winds of War

By 1941, the growing international crisis was having an unmistakable impact on the 

nascent park. In the summer before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the army established a temporary 

training camp at the Catoctin RDA. Soldiers put up tents next to the CCC barracks and trained 

as part of America’s response to the crisis in Europe.1

 Alongside their other work, Company 

1374 of the CCC began practicing military drills. In September 1941 company members began 

attending a “national defense training program” in Hagerstown, which included courses in 

electric and acetylene welding.2

 1

Negrello interview.

2

The Mountaineer, September 1941.

 
195

As the war in Europe heated up and the United States developed a closer relationship 

with Great Britain, over 21,000 British sailors enjoyed brief respites in the U.S., many at the 

recently constructed Recreational Demonstration Areas, which offered “the play and active 

recreation” facilities desirable for exhausted crewmen.3 In the summer of 1941, the Catoctin 

RDA hosted 74 British sailors, who arrived in mid-June. At first, Superintendent Williams 

hoped to house the group at Mount Lent, Bessie Darling’s former boarding house now converted 

into a lodge. But when word arrived that the group could include over 100 sailors, Williams 

hastily arranged to shift the British to Greentop, where they would be near swimming and other 

sport facilities.4 In the end, seventy-four sailors arrived. The seamen, who stayed through 

August, appear to have enjoyed their brief stay on land, which included visits from CCC 

company members and a Fourth of July celebration.5

While the British sailors enjoyed a Catoctin summer, the National Park Service was 

discovering that the improving economy (the result of war mobilization) had dried up the once 

large labor pool that had constructed the park. Once scarce, good jobs now were readily 

available in the defense industry. Before it closed down in November 1941, several members of 

the Catoctin Company 1374 corps members left for jobs in the burgeoning airplane plants of 

Hagerstown. Apparently informed that the Catoctin CCC company would soon be disbanded, 

 3

"National Park Service War Work,” December 7, 1941-June 30, 1944,” RG 79, Records 

of the National Park Service, Records of Newton B. Drury, 1940-1941, box 25, NA.

4

Mathew Huppuch to Wirth, 14 June 1941, RG 79, Records of the NPS, Records 

Concerning RDAs, RDA Program File, 1934-1947, box 57, NA. In the fall, of that year with their

numbers down somewhat the sailors did move to Mount Lent.

5

Herbert Evision to Stephen Thompson, 26 February 1942, RG 79, Records Concerning 

RDAs, RDA Program Files, box 14, NA; Kirkconnell, 84-85; Negrello interview.
196

Williams searched for new sources of labor. In the summer of 1941, the NPS applied to the 

Maryland WPA requesting workers for projects yet to be complete. These projects probably 

included a long-planned fourth camp for the park (see Map 6). At one point, the NPS regional 

director considered seeking out military funding for several of the Catoctin projects.6 Despite 

the growing labor scarcity, WPA officials approved a new project at Catoctin “to continue work 

of the type previously carried on” by the CCC.7

 When Company 1374 disbanded in November 

1941, 30 WPA workers continued at the park. Whereas the new labor contingency was a far cry 

from the large numbers who had contributed to the early construction of the park, the new 

workers did allow Williams to continue work on park roads and some smaller construction 

projects.8

The attack on Pearl Harbor launched the already significant American military 

mobilization into hyper speed. The war took precedent over everything. In desperate need of 

training facilities, the branches of the armed forces turned to the National Park Service. The 

Recreation Demonstration Areas, constructed near large urban areas, generally featuring 

organized camp sites, and containing, “within them little that can be permanently damaged by 

War

 6

A.P. Bursley, “Memorandum of the Director,” 20 June 1941, RG 79, Records of the 

National Park Service, Records of the Branch of Recreation, Land Planning and State 

Cooperation, Records Concerning WPA Projects, 1935-1943, box 4, NA.

7

"Memorandum of the First Assistant Secretary,” 3 July 1941, RG 79 Records of Branch 

of Recreation Land Planning and State Cooperation, Records Concerning WPA Projects, 1935-

1943, box 1, NA.

8

"Memo for Mr. Wirth,” 31 December 19341, RG 79, Records of Branch of Recreation 

Land Planning and Sate Cooperation, Records Concerning WPA Projects, 1935-1943, box 1, 

NA.
197

heavy visitation and intensive use” clearly lent themselves to military use.9 In the spring of 1942, 

the NPS announced that henceforth the Catoctin Recreational Demonstration Area would be 

closed to civilian use and “taken over for use in the present war effort.” The NPS extended 

permits to the War Department, and the in spring of 1942, the military surveyed the park to plan 

their use of the grounds.10

With the military takeover, the NPS summarily informed groups that had enjoyed use of 

the organized camp sites that “the war program of the nation has rendered impossible the normal 

utilization of organized camp facilities.”

 

11 In order to facilitate the new park occupants, the NPS 

also asked the Maryland League for Crippled Children (MLCC) and the Salvation Army to 

remove all special equipment that had been stored at the camps.12 The MLCC then moved its 

operations temporarily to the French Creek Recreational Demonstration Area at the Hopewell 

Village National Historic Site.13

 9

"National Park Service War Work, December 7,-June 30 1944,” RG 79, Records of New 

B. Drury, 1940-1951, box 25, NA.

10Kirkconnell, 94, 108.

11Fred T. Johnson, Acting Regional Director to Robert Catee, Washington County Girl 

Scout Council, 6 May 1942, Records Concerning RDAs, RDA Program Files, box 31, NA.

12Catoctin Enterprise, 10 April 1942.

13Hillory A. Tollson, “Memorandum of the Secretary,” 22 January 1943, RG 79, Records 

Concerning RDAs, RDA Program Files, box 61, NA.

For the next several years recreational use of the park area was 

limited to a few picnickers using what was known as the West Picnic Area and a few fishermen 
198

making use of Hunting Creek (see Appendix 20).14

By the summer of 1942, the army had established a temporary camp at the former CCC 

camp (Round Meadow). Meanwhile, a short distance away from the army campsite, a group of 

spies-in-training was learning the rudimentaries of espionage. President Roosevelt had 

authorized the formation of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1942 as an independent 

agency to coordinate overseas intelligence and espionage. In the fall of 1942, the OSS took over 

Camp Greentop, the former home of the camp for handicapped children (see Map 6). Recruits, 

both men and women, came from all over the country and all over the world (the largest nonAmerican group was the French contingent) to be trained by the OSS. After preliminary training 

at Prince William Forest Park in Virginia, they shuttled between several sites including Greentop, 

which was known in OSS parlance as Area B. The Catoctin site specialized in hand-to-hand 

combat, infiltration training, marksmanship, and setting charges. At any given time, OSS 

instructors trained roughly one hundred recruits in groups of ten. Each recruiting class spent 

roughly two weeks in the Catoctin Mountains. During training, none of the recruits used their 

real names—even to those in their group. Instead alias allowed for a cloak of secrecy. Among 

the expert training staff was a colorful English colonel, formerly employed by the Shanghai 

police. The colonel was remembered as a particularly “notorious character in the OSS.”15

more unique features of the OSS training camp was the so-called “mystery” or “spook” house. 

Impressed by German expertise in unconventional warfare, OSS Director William “Wild 

Bill” Donovan sought to train operatives capable of working behind enemy lines. One of the 

 14"Narrative Report for Month of April, 1942,” RG 79, Records Concerning RDAs, RDA 

Program Files, box 61, NA.
199

Armed with a .45 caliber pistol with two clips of six rounds, agents would enter the darkened 

house, apparently built somewhere around the camp. Inside the house, Nazi cardboard cutouts 

would suddenly pop out, requiring the trainees to think fast.16 Wild Bill Donovan, himself, came 

to the camp on several occasions to oversee the training.17

The military presence at Catoctin required a host of changes to the park. The camp later 

known as Misty Mount was winterized to facilitate year-round training.18 And a number of new 

parcels of land (totaling nearly 275 acres) were added to the park. The family of Victor Brown 

on Foxville Road, who had long resisted selling to the government finally relented. By the spring 

of 1942, the War Department had acquired the Brown farm in addition to a number of other 

properties.19

While the military provided for much of the labor and materials needed to turn the park 

 15Reginald Spear, telephone interview by author, San Marino, CA, 3 March 2000.

16Baltimore Evening Sun, 26 July 1948.

17G.B. Williams to Conrad Wirth, 12 December 1942, CMP.

18Garland Williams, “Memorandum for the Director,” 15 July 1945, RG 79, Records 

Concerning RDAs, RDA Program Files, box 61, NA.

19War Dept Corps of Engineers Real Estate Branch Map, "Showing Government Property 

Catoctin Area," Map, May 26, 1942," RG 79 Records of the National Park Service, Records of 

the Office of the Chief Counsel, Legislative Files, 1932-1950, box 76, NA. The properties 

(totaling 274.75 acres) included:

Tract 21 Church of the Brethren Inc, 15 acres (leased not purchased)

Tract 114 Eddie Dziura et ux, 2 acres 

Tract 125 Aaron Strauss Inc, 20 acres

Tract 125a Aaron Strauss Inc, 28 acres

Tract 154 Victor Brown, 23.75 acres

Tract 149a Church of the Brethren, Inc 15 acres (leased not purchased)

Tract 279a Samuel T. Royer, 12 acres 

Tract 284 Ralph W. Miller et ux, 9 acres

Tract 305 Horace D. Rouser et al, 37 acres
200

into a training ground, much work was still left for Williams and his skeleton crew who remained 

the official custodians of the park. For Williams, lack of labor hampered even routine 

maintenance efforts. Maryland State WPA Director Dryden, once awash in labor, now scrambled 

to find even a few workers for Catoctin. In the summer of 1942, the WPA could only assign 

twelve workers to Catoctin.20 By the winter, the number had risen to thirty-five workers, but 

Williams worried that the WPA’s “goodwill” would soon run out.21 Of particular concern to the 

Catoctin project supervisor was the condition of park roads--all of which remained stone surfaced

and susceptible to serious problems in bad weather conditions. Williams hoped to pave over the 

main Thurmont-Foxville Road, but fears that it would damage Hunting Creek kept the project on 

hold.22 He hoped that the war emergency might create the pressure needed to encourage serious 

work on the park roads.23

The story of the founding and early years of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Shangri-La 

retreat in the Catoctin mountains has been told in depth by Kathie Hogan, Barbara Kirkconnell, 

Shangri-La

 20Drury to Harold D. Smith, 17 August 1942, RG 79, Records Concerning WPA Projects, 

1935-1943, box 1, NA. The twelve workers apparently did not include those assigned to 

Roosevelt’s Shangri-La construction project.

21"Telephone Conversation with Manager Williams, Catoctin RDA,” 10 December 1942, 

RG 79, RDA Program Files, 1934-1947, box 58, NA.

22"Report to Accompany Master Plan of Catoctin Demonstration Area,” 24 February 

1942, CMP.

23Williams to Roger Willard, 26 June 1942, RG 79, Records Concerning RDAs, RDA 

Program Files, box 60, NA.
201

and most recently by W. Dale Nelson.24

The mountains of central western Maryland had offered a retreat to government officials 

for over a half century by 1942. Diplomats from Washington DC’s many foreign embassies 

vacationed at Pen Mar. Washington officials such as Lawrence Richey and attorney Kingman 

Brewster, later president of Yale University, kept vacation homes in the area.

 While little can be added their accounts, the story 

briefly can be recounted with some new information.

25 President Hoover 

was a frequent guest at the Richey camp, and his visits continued even after his presidency. 

Hoover, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., and leaders of the Maryland Republican party, for instance, 

enjoyed the opening of the 1935 fishing season at the Richey camp in April 1935.26 Franklin 

Roosevelt, himself, appreciated the area’s recreational potential. As assistant secretary of the 

Navy, he had vacationed at Braddock Heights during World War I.27

As president, Roosevelt had enjoyed escapes from the pressures of the White House at 

Warm Springs, Georgia and on the presidential yacht. In 1942 with the world war raging and U 

boats patrolling the Atlantic, the yacht was deemed too dangerous and Warm Springs deemed too 

far from Washington. Instead, White House officials sought a new retreat and assigned the 

National Park Service to find a suitable location near Washington, DC. The park service 

 24Kathie Hogan, “A Secret in the Catoctin Mountains, A History of Camp David," 

(Honors Paper, Hood College, 1979); W. Dale Nelson, The President is at Camp David, 

(Syracuse, NY: 1995).

25Frederick News, 11 May 1935. Washington dignitaries frequently joined Brewster at his 

fishing lodge near Catoctin Furnace. In 1935 visitors included Senators Willard E. Tydings and 

George Radcliffe as well as Vice President John Nance Gardner.

26Catoctin Clarion, 19 April 1935.

27Nelson, 6.
202

submitted potential locations, two of which were at the Catoctin RDA. One site was Camp HiCatoctin. The Federal Camp Council, which organized retreats for government employees, was 

among the prime users of the camp and had sponsored numerous outings to the scenic site (see 

Map 6). The Girl and Boy Scouts also made extensive use of Hi-Catoctin. The second site was 

the area slated for the construction of the fourth Catoctin Camp, a project which had been 

temporarily shelved. On April 15, 1942 Conrad Wirth of the NPS took White House officials on 

a tour of the Catoctin RDA. The group was particularly impressed by Hi-Catoctin and asked 

Williams to clear brush for automobiles should the president wish to visit.28

A week later, FDR did visit. Reports had the president “very much pleased with the 

area.”29 One story had him exclaiming upon seeing the site, “This is Shangri-La,” a reference to 

James Hilton’s famed novel The Lost Horizon.

30

 28Wirth to Ickes, 16 April 1942, RG 79, Records of Key Officials, Records of Newton B. 

Drury, box 4, NA.

29Durary to Ickes, 23 April 1942, RG 79, Records of Key Officials, Records of Newton B. 

Drury, box 4, NA.

 The appeal of the site was clear. At an 

elevation of 1,800 feet, Hi-Catoctin offered seclusion and a spectacular view that included the 

Monocacy River. It offered cool breezes and temperatures five to ten degrees below steamy 

conditions in Washington DC. Best of all, the site already contained a number of cabins and 

other structures, including a swimming pool (see Appendix 21). The site could be reconstructed 

as a presidential retreat at a fraction of a brand new retreat. With Americans making enormous 

sacrifices for the war effort, the president could ill afford to appear extravagant. The revamping 

of existing buildings also could be done quickly, allowing the president use of his new retreat 

30Nelson, 6.
203

that summer. The overall location offered the appeal of a two hour drive from Washington, DC 

“over first-class roads” (until one arrived at the park where there existed only dirt roads).31

From there the project moved quickly. President Roosevelt returned to Catoctin on April 

30 to give final approval to “preliminary sketches of the expanded lodge buildings (see Appendix 

22). Within days the building had begun. WPA labor at various local projects was diverted to 

Catoctin to aid in reconverting the camp. Construction proceeded very much along the lines of 

Roosevelt’s plan that the camp lodge, a structure roughly 17 by 28 feet, with a kitchen and open 

porch, be converted into the retreat’s main building, with four bedrooms, two baths, a living 

room/dinning room, a screened-in porch, and a paved terrace. Builders then combined two cabins 

on the camp grounds to serve as guest quarters, while the camp craft shop became the servant’s 

quarters. Crews also added a gate house, a communications building, three latrines, and an access 

drive, 1,060 feet in length.”32 In front of the lodge, workers built a cistern and fountain. Special 

features inside the lodge included French doors, crafted by a local Thurmont carpenter, that 

dropped down to allow Roosevelt’s wheel chair easy access.33 As Winston Churchill described 

Shangri-La, it was “in principle a log cabin with all modern improvements.”34

With the presidential yacht out-of-commission during the war, the navy dispatched to 

Shangri-La a team of twelve Filipino stewards formerly assigned to the yacht. The crew, 

 31"Maryland: Catoctin Mountain, Shangri-La, 1942,” FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY.

32Album 461, FDR Library; Demaray, “Memorandum of the First Assistant Secretary, 9 

July 1942, RG 79, Records of RDAs, RDA Program Files, box 60, NA.

33Lewis interview.

34Winston Churchill, The Hinge of Fate (Boston, 1950), 797.
204

overseen by Sotero Abida, who remained in the Thurmont area long after his service to FDR, 

worked to put final touches on the retreat.35

By early July, Shangri-La was ready, and, on the weekend of July 18-20, Roosevelt and 

entourage arrived for their first weekend in the Catoctins (see Appendix 23 for listing of FDR 

visits to Shangri-La). The furnishings, courtesy of a naval warehouse, were austere: simple metal 

beds, a chair, and a dresser in each room. The floor covered by a worn rug.

 

36 Nevertheless, 

Roosevelt seemed to delight in the surroundings which offered him a needed respite from the 

pressures of the war. Among the president’s favorite Catoctin diversions was tending to his 

stamp collection.37

But war frequently intruded on Roosevelt’s hide-away. On his second trip to Shangri-La, 

the president spent much of his time in deep conversations with his military advisors over the 

situation at the battle of Guadalcanal in the Pacific. Later, it was at Shangri-La where Roosevelt 

first heard of the successful invasion of North Africa on November 7, 1942. The next year, on 

June 25, 1943, Roosevelt was again at Shangri-La when he received word of Mussolini’s 

resignation.38

 35Baltimore Sun, 6 September 1978.

36Samuel Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt (New York, 1952), 349.

37Churchill, 797.

38James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: the Soldier of Freedom (New York 1970), 291, 

283.

Over the next three years, the president made numerous trips to the retreat. Guests 

included Supreme Justice William O. Douglas, OSS Director William Donovan, and poet and 

Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish. Royal visitors, including Princess Martha of Norway 
205

and Princess Juliana of the Netherlands, also made their way to the retreat.

The most famous visitor to Shangri-La (and the one still talked about in the local area) 

was Winston Churchill. The English prime minister had been a frequent visitor at the White 

House during the war years. One May 15, 1943 Churchill set out with the President, Mrs. 

Roosevelt, and Harry Hopkins bound for Shangri-La. Passing through the town of Frederick on 

their way to the retreat, Churchill impressed his guests by reciting John Greenleaf Whittier’s 

famous poem “Barbara Fritchie.” Roosevelt and Churchill later talked of the impact of the Civil 

War in the area. During their stay in the mountains, the president and prime minister took some 

time to tour the general area. According to Churchill, the two fished in Hunting Creek. Locals 

remember the entourage arriving at Catoctin Furnace to observe Fred Tresselt’s gold fish ponds. 

Churchill, who kept a similar pond at his home in England, particularly admired the fish and 

talked at length with Tresselt. The Secret Service then swore Tresselt to secrecy about the 

meeting.39 On their way home, while Roosevelt waited in the car, Churchill surprised Camp 

Cozy proprietor Wilbur Freeze by stopping into the Cozy Tavern for a beer and to play the 

jukebox. In fact, the prime minister had never seen a jukebox and Freeze had to explain its 

function.40

With such famed visitors, security was a major concern at Shangri-La. A barbed-wire 

fence surrounded the compound, and marines, stationed at Camp Misty Mount, patrolled the area 

(see Map 6). Likewise the very existence of the retreat was to be kept a secret. The most 

 On Monday, Churchill left the mountains, but left a lasting impression on all those 

who came into contact with him. 

 39Tresselt interview.

40Baltimore Sun, 1 October 1945.
206

Roosevelt would say as he departed the White House was that he was on his way to “ShangriLa.” Of course, local residents knew fully well when the president was coming. As Camp Cozy 

owner Wilbur Freeze explained the president “was proceeded by about three or four hours by 

secret service men, who sent ahead inspecting bridges and roads.” One several occasions, 

Thurmont locals lined the streets to greet Roosevelt.41 When Churchill arrived with the 

president, a traffic light on Church and Main brought their entourage to a dead stop. Secret 

Service men jumped from the car and stood on the running boards. To the delight of onlookers 

Churchill and Roosevelt flashed victory signs from their car windows.42

Although local residents certainly figured out the location of the secret retreat, the White 

House remained officially silent on the issue. Reporters likewise, even if they knew or suspected 

the location were expected to remain silent about the retreat. On October 15, 1943, the Chicago 

Daily News broke the silence on the presidential hide-away. The newspaper reported the location 

of Shangri-La in the Catoctin RDA and claimed that the National Park Service had “confirmed 

the fact that the President used Catoctin on several occasions in the past” (see Appendix 24). 

NPS officials quickly denied being the source of the leak.43 The floodgates having been opened 

in Chicago, the local Catoctin Enterprise then reported the story of Churchill and the Cozy 

Tavern juke box. Other newspapers printed similar stories.44

 41Baltimore Sun, 1 October 1945.

42Baltimore Sun, 16 September 1945.

43Chicago Daily News, 22 October 1943; see annotated clipping, RG 79 Records 

concerning RDAs, RDA Program Files, box 59, NA.

44Catoctin Enterprise, 22 October 1943.

 Louise McPherson, a descendent of 
207

the McPherson-furnace owning family then living in Auburn house, also wrote to Roosevelt to 

deny any local involvement in the disclosures. She also recounted some of the history of the area 

and welcomed the president to the area.45

The most serious threat to the president, however, came from the most unlikely of places. 

In planning his retreat, Roosevelt had made a special request for “an old wheel with lights 

coming out of it for the dining room.” Wagon wheel chandeliers were fixtures of many rustic 

camps at the time. Conrad Wirth of the NPS Branch of Planning arranged to have such a 

chandelier made. To Wirth’s horror, later, when Roosevelt was not at the camp, the wheel fell 

onto the maghongany table below.46

After making seventeen pilgrimages to Shangri-La in 1942 and 1943, Roosevelt found 

time for only four trips in 1944, a tough election year. There was also talk that with security 

broken the president might be safer elsewhere. His last trip to the Catoctin hideaway was on July 

9, 1944 accompanied by his friend Lucy Mercer Rutherford.

 Wirth could only be grateful that neither Roosevelt nor 

Churchill had been present.

47

With Roosevelt’s death in April 1945 and the end of the war that summer, the press 

began pushing for more information about the mountain retreat. In late September 1945, the 

White House finally decided to “take the lid off” Shangri-La. Reporters were allowed a tour of 

 45 Louise McPherson to Roosevelt, 21 October 1943, Presidential Personal Files, PPF 

8086, FDR Library.

46Barbara Kirkconnell interview with Conrad Wirth, Washington, DC, 3 March 1986, 

CMP.

47FDR: Day by Day- The Pare Lorentz Chronology, FDR Library.
208

the facilities that included a special doghouse for Fala, the first dog.48 As FDR had feared, the 

unveiling of the retreat immediately became a political issue. The decidedly-Republican 

Chicago Tribune, asserted that the costs of Shangri-La early ran over $100,000, with the lodge 

alone costing $60,000. The article also complained about a “swimming pool, which was built 

especially for the late president . . . quite pretentious.”49

A few weeks after the revelations about Roosevelt’s camp, on a Sunday morning, 

Catoctin superintendent, Mike Williams, rose and lit the fireplace in the Custodian’s house, built 

by the CCC several years earlier, where he and his family lived. As he prepared breakfast, he 

smelled smoke and ran to the second story of the house. There he found the “entire overhead 

ceiling in flames.” He immediately notified Camp One (Misty-Mount), where the Marines 

protecting Shangri-La remained stationed. They quickly arrived at the scene as did the 

Smithburg and Thurmont fire departments. The combined forces showered the residence with 

water and chemicals, but the house could not be saved. An official investigation revealed that 

structural timbers had been placed too close to the flue lining.50

By the eve of World War II, Catoctin Project Superintendent Mike Williams long had 

been eager to improve the roads around the park. A gritty, dirt road, that suffered frequent washouts, greeted visitors, most of whom entered the park along the Thurmont-Foxville Road. But 

Wartime Road Construction

 48Times-Herald, 1 October 1945.

49Chicago Tribune, 21 September 1945.

50"Individual Fire Report for Building on Government Property,” RG 79, Records 

Concerning RDAs, RDA Program Files, box 61, NA.
209

concerns over precisely who--the state or the federal government--would pave the road delayed 

plans. Likewise, officials worried about the impact of road improvements on Hunting Creek, 

“the most famous trout stream in Maryland.” Some talked of rerouting the road through 

Deerfield.51

The advent of the war both delayed then ultimately spurred road improvements. Initially, 

with the military take-over of the park, other, more critical, construction projects took precedent 

over road construction. The WPA, upon which the park had depended for labor since its 

founding, announced that as of 1943 it could no longer supply assistance to federal agencies.

Again these concerns delayed construction plans.

52

Williams used the national emergency to press the state’s road commission to improve 

the Thurmont-Foxville state road. Anticipating a bright post-war future for Thurmont, town 

businessmen lobbied actively for road construction. Governor Herbert O’Connor promised that 

the Thurmont-Foxville road would be first on the list for post-war improvement.

But the national emergency and Catoctin’s increasingly important role in the war effort also 

generated momentum for road construction. With the president frequently visiting, the OSS 

training at Greentop, and the Marines and other branches of the services utilizing other facilities, 

good roads were a necessity.

53

 51"Report to Accompany Master Plan of Catoctin Demonstration Area.” 24 February 

1942, CMP; Baltimore American, 23 February 1941.

52George H. Filed To Newton Drury, Director of NPS, 5 December 1942, RG 79 Records 

of Branch of Recreation of Land Planning and State Cooperation, Records Concerning WPA 

Projects, 1935-1943, box 1, NA.

53Catoctin Enterprise, 28 January 1944.

 Cooperation 

between state and federal authorities allowed construction on a stretch of highway connecting 
210

Thurmont to Foxville to begin even earlier than planned in the spring of 1944 (see Appendix 

25).54

Not only did the Catoctin RDA contribute to the war effort, but the local community also 

gave generously. Area residents formed a “minute man unit” that practiced drills, wore 

uniforms, and trained 94 “spotters” to watch the skies over the mountains for enemy aircraft.

 While the road was built, the tensions between state and federal officials over the 

construction foreshadowed post-war tensions over the fate of the park, itself.

The War Reshapes the Region

55

Numerous local residents served overseas. Hooker Lewis’ grandson Donald Lewis, making use 

of talents he developed as an avid hunter in the Catoctin mountain, served as a sharp-shooter 

guard to General Dwight D. Eisenhower.56 Staff Sergeant Kieffer Lewis from Thurmont was 

among the soldiers to tour Buchenwald prison camp. Nineteen local residents gave their lives in 

the war.57 Nor was service in the war was limited to males. Catoctin-area native Mary C. 

Willhide served in the army nurse’s corps in France.58

At home, a severe shortage of farm labor posed a grave challenge to the farmers of the 

Catoctin area. In an effort to help, the government developed programs that provided tractors at 

low cost. Professor T.B. Symons of the Maryland Agricultural Extension Service arranged for 

 54Catoctin Enterprise, 2 June 1944.

55Catoctin Enterprise, 2 October 1942; Catoctin Enterprise, 11 December 1942; George 

Calcott, Maryland and America, 1940-1980 (Baltimore, 1985), 32.

56Lewis interview.

57Catoctin Enterprise, 20 July 1945.

58Catoctin Enterprise, 14 July, 1944.
211

teenagers to help with some of the labor. With the cooperation of military authorities, he also 

developed a program of using German Prisoners of War in the region. Since Germans had 

founded the area in the eighteenth century, it seemed somehow fitting that German POWs return 

to the region. Symons recommended Catoctin RDA for a possible prison camp from where 

prisoners could be dispatched to work on local farms.59 Concerns about security and the fact that 

Catoctin’s camps all were occupied forced Symons to establish the Frederick County POW camp 

at a branch of Fort Meade located west of Frederick.60 These POWs labored on farms 

throughout Frederick and Washington counties. And some of the prisoners developed lasting 

relationships with area farm families.61

The federal government built the Catoctin RDA with the expressed intention of 

eventually returning the park to the state of Maryland. In the initial planning stages, in fact, the 

federal government had pressured Maryland for assurances that once turned over the land 

properly would be administered as a state park. And Maryland did give such assurances.

The Fate of the Park

62

With the establishment of the Shangri-La presidential retreat, however, future plans for 

Catoctin changed. In the summer of 1942, President Roosevelt signed legislation turning over to 

 59Catoctin Enterprise, 11 June 1943.

60Helen Hammond, “The Year the Nazis Came to Frederick,” Frederick Magazine, June 

1996. 28-30. 

61Catoctin Enterprise, 30 May 1947; Frederick News, 30 July 1980.

62Summary of Correspondence Relative to Interests of the State of Maryland in Catoctin 

Recreational Demonstration Area,” RG 79, Records Concerning RDAs RDA Program Files, box 

60, NA.
212

the states, under certain considerations” the Recreational Demonstration Areas created during the 

New Deal period. But he explicitly forbade the Interior Department from transferring Catoctin 

because, he explained, the park “would undoubtedly be traversed by any expansion by the 

Skyline Drive.”63 More than likely, the “Skyline Drive” justification was a front, and the real 

issue was the White House’s desire to protect the new presidential retreat. In early 1943, the NPS 

announced that all RDAs would be transferred to their respective states, with the exception of 

Catoctin and six other sites to be “further studied to determined whether or not they are qualified 

for permanent inclusion in the Federal park system.”64

On August 28, 1943, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes reported to Roosevelt on his 

study of the remaining RDAs. While Catoctin, Ickes explained, would not be part of the Blue 

Ridge Parkway extension, there existed compelling reasons to add the site to the National Capital 

Park System. "This extra-ordinarily fine property,” explained the secretary, “reached by a short 

drive from the District of Columbia through charming country side, will always find its greatest 

usefulness in primarily in serving the needs of the people of the District even though the 

enjoyment of it will be shared by the people of Baltimore, Frederick, and other cites.”65

But many Marylanders, especially hunters, felt otherwise. When word got out of the 

 63FDR to Ickes, 8 June 1942, “Statement by Roosevelt on his veto of an Act Affecting 

Recreation Demonstration Projects,” 11 August 1939, in Franklin Delano Roosevelt and 

Conservation, 1911-1945, vol. II, Edgar B. Nixon, ed. , (New York, 1957), 376, 556. In 1939, 

FDR vetoed H.R. 3959 also designed to return the RDAs to the states. The president feared that 

it did not contain enough safeguards to protect land after the transfers.

64Wirth to H.S. Fairbanks, 14 January 1943, Records Concerning RDAs, RDA Program 

Riles, box 15, NA.

65Ickes to Roosevelt, 28 August 1943, RG 79, Records Concerning RDAs, RDA Program 

Files, box 60, NA.
213

intentions of the federal government, the League of Maryland Sportsmen unanimously adopted a 

stinging resolution complaining that “instead of administering this tract of land as a recreational 

demonstration area, the NPS has, in fact, closed a large part of it to public use.” Given “the 

pressing need for recreational areas where the people of the state and of adjoining states may find 

healthful outdoor enjoyment,” the league called upon the NPS to transfer the site to the Maryland 

Department of State Forests and Parks.66

Clearly Maryland-area hunters and sportsmen were the prime proponents of returning the 

park area to the state. They obviously hoped that the no-hunting policy that had reigned for ten 

years at Catoctin would be lifted when the state assumed control of the park.67 Catoctin-area 

hunters long had had an antagonistic relationship with Superintendent Mike Williams, whom 

they considered too committed to preservation rather than use.68 Joseph F. Kaylor, F.W. 

Besley’s successor as state forester, took up the sportsmen’s cause. In the summer of 1945, he 

wrote a series of pointed letters to the National Park Service demanding to know when Catoctin 

would be transferred to Maryland. The NPS’s failure to acknowledge his letters only added to 

his sense of agrievement.69

 66"A Resolution Calling upon the Federal Government to Return the Catoctin National 

Recreation Area to the State of Maryland,” transferred with M.E. Tyding to Drury, 1 July 1944, 

RG 79, Records Concerning RDAs, RDA Program Files, box 60, NA.

67John Boley, “Review of the Catoctin Story,” 26 September 1987, CMP. Boley 

concluded that the “main political pressure for obtaining Catoctin, or parts thereof, by Maryland, 

came from Maryland hunters.”

68Lewis interview.

69Drury to Tyding, 5 June 1945; Kaylor to Hillory Tolson, 1 June 1945, RG 79, Records 

Concerning RDAs, RDA Program Files, box 60, NA.

 The best the NPS could respond was that because “of the continued 
214

military use of Catoctin, there appears no possibility of the transfer suggested.”70

With the war over, the NPS came under increasing pressure to respond in some way to 

Kaylor’s demands. Finally in December of 1945, President Truman announced that the park 

would remain in the hands of the federal government: “I have decided because of the historical 

events of national and international interest now associated with the Catoctin Recreational Area 

that this property should be retained by the Federal Government and made a part of the National 

Park Service.” When he received Truman’s edict, Governor O’Connor of Maryland complained 

that the federal government intended to make the park a “shrine.”71 Kaylor echoed the 

governor’s sense of betrayal by threatening to end cooperation between the National Park Service 

and his Department of State Forestry: “We trust that you will no longer brother us with any 

requests.”72

The NPS then moved to introduce legislation in Congress that would formally shift 

responsibility for the proposed park from the Region One office in Richmond to the National 

Capital Areas Parks. H.R. 3807, introduced in 1947 to the 80th Congress, added property 

acquired during the war to the park and transferred administrative responsibility to the National 

 70"Summary of Correspondence Relative to Interests of the State of Maryland in Catoctin 

Recreational Demonstration Area,” RG 79, Records Concerning RDAs RDA Program Files, box 

60, NA.

71Ibid.

72Kaylor to Thomas J. Allen, 5 March 1946, RG 79, Records Concerning RDAs, Program 

Files, box 60, NA. Kaylor began his letter: “We are still smarting under the sting of having the 

Park Service come in and purchase the Catoctin recreational area, which we were promised 

would be returned to the state.”
215

Capital Areas.73 The bill, sponsored by Representative Glen Beall of Western Maryland, slowly 

meandered through committee and then passed a full vote in the House. Beall promised that the 

legislation would reopen the park, except for Shangri-La, to public use. In fact, the White House 

had taken an active interest in encouraging the reopening of Camp Greentop for use by 

handicapped children.74 In 1947, the president’s Marine guards moved out and the Maryland 

League for Crippled Children began their first Catoctin camp in five years. President Truman, 

who was developing a strong appreciation for his Catoctin hide-away, paid a surprise visit to the 

children at the camp in August 1947 (see Appendix 26).75

But the slow pace of legislative progress, allowed Kaylor to mobilize against the bill. His 

office sponsored a survey showing that the overwhelming number of Frederick, Carroll, and 

Washington county “sportsmen, picnickers, and farmers are supporting the Maryland Board of 

Natural Resources.”

 The reopening of large portions of the 

park, no doubt, relieved the suspicions of some that the federal government intended to retain the 

area as a military installation.

76

 73Fredrick News, 9 January 1947. Although the formal legislation remained tied up in 

Congress, Mike Williams began officially reporting to the National Capital Areas Parks on 

January 1, 1947.

74A.E. Demaray, “Confidential,” 25 November 1946, RG 79, Records Concerning RDAs, 

Program Files, box 60, NA.

75Catoctin Enterprise, 8 August 1947.

76Baltimore Sun, 23 June 1948.

 H.C. Buckingham, director of Maryland’s State Forests and Parks, added 

another dimension to Maryland’s attack by complaining publicly that all revenue from the 

proposed national park would be deposited in the U.S. Treasury, whereas money generated from 
216

a state park would be pumped into the state, with 15% going directly to Frederick County. “I 

hardly think,” opined Buckingham, “that Representative Beall could have been aware of this 

when he introduced his bill.”77

Caught in a war of words between the federal government and the state of Maryland, 

Representative Beall backed away from H.R. 3807. Like Kaylor and Buckingham, Beall insisted 

he also wanted to obtain the Catoctin land for Maryland but argued that with the presidential 

retreat, such hopes at present were not realistic.78

Undaunted, and with the Democrats having taken over Congress again in 1949, the NPS 

reintroduced the Catoctin legislation. This time around the bill’s sponsors stressed use, pointing 

to the endorsement of the bill by “all of the social service agencies in DC and adjoining states,” 

the “inadequacy of recreational facilities in the National Capital,” and promising swimming, 

boating, fishing and the “almost unlimited” potential of the park.

 With only lukewarm support from its sponsor 

and the anti-Truman Republican Party in the majority, the Senate defeated the Catoctin bill in

1948. 

79

In some ways, passage of Catoctin legislation represented a victory for the federal 

 The new tactics paid off. 

The bill became law, and Catoctin joined the National Capital Areas Parks system (forerunner of 

the current National Capital Region of the NPS).

 77Buckingham, “Catoctin Area,” The Old Line Acorn, January-April 1948, 5. 

Buckingham claimed that Maryland was willing to allow Shangri-La to remain in federal hands, 

but wanted the rest of the park be turned over to the state.

78Catoctin Enterprise, 25 June 1948.

79Catoctin Enterprise, 27 May 1949; H.R. 4405, introduced into the 81st Congress on 

April 27, 1949 was essentially the same bill as its predecessor, H.R. 3807, although the public 

relations stress use and the park service found another sponsor.
217

government. But the popular pressure to transfer the park to the state of Maryland had forced 

park officials carefully to weigh the needs and desires of the public alongside concerns about 

conservation and facilities for the president. Indeed, the pressure to turn the park over to 

Maryland continued. Finally, Conrad Wirth, who became director of the NPS in 1951, moved to 

settle the ongoing tensions with Maryland. He arranged to have the southern portion of the park, 

south of route 77, transferred to Maryland.

Conclusion

The transfer of the park to the National Capital Area Parks in 1949 sealed the future of a 

large portion of the park. The federal government would remain a permanent player on the 

mountain. The Shangri-La presidential retreat, later Camp David, would continue to garner 

international attention. But the needs and desires of the public remained a priority in park 

decision-making. Although the park would never again see the sort of development and activity 

that it saw between 1935 and 1945, it continued to evolve all the while remaining cognizant of its 

complex, multi-layered past. 
221

Selected Sources 

Primary Sources

Frederick County Historical Society, MD

McPherson Family Papers

Post Card Collection

Ledger of George Hauver Jr., Journal of his Ordinary (later Wolfe's tavern)

National Archives, Washington, DC

RG 69, Records of the Works Progress Administration, Central Files.

RG 35, Records of the CCC, Division of Investigations Camp Inspection Reports.

National Archives, College Park, MD (NA in notes)

RG 79, Records of the National Park Service

Records of the Branch of Plans and Design, Monthly Narrative Reports

Records of the Project Application Section, Memoranda and 

Correspondence Concerning CCC Camps

Records of Newton B. Drury, 1940-1941

Records of the National Park Service, Records of the Branch of 

Recreation, Land Planning and State Cooperation, Records 

Concerning WPA Projects, 1935-1943

Records of the National Park Service, Records of the Office of the Chief 

Counsel, Legislative Files, 1932-1950

Records Concerning RDAs, Project Records of the Project Planning and 

Control Section, Land Utilization Division

Records Concerning RDAs, RDA Program Files

Land Acquisition Case Files Pertaining to the Catoctin RDA

Thurmont Historical Society, Thurmont, MD

Vertical Files

Catoctin Mountain Park

Vertical Files

Census Material

Maryland Censuses, 1820-1920

Slave Schedules, 1860

Census of Manufactures, 1820

Agricultural census, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1870 

McKeldin Library Special Collections, University of Maryland at College Park. 

Agricultural Cooperative Extension Service Collection

Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, NY

President's Personal Files
222

Scrapbooks

FDR: Day by Day- The Pare Lorentz Chronology, FDR Library.

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Happy Days

The Mountaineer