Silver Fancy seems a rather poetic and perhaps pretentious name for a tiny frontier settlement. When its population increased to seven families, people called the place Poplar Fields and then Carrollsburg. Samuel Emmit acquired over 2,000 acres in the area originally chartered to the Carroll family and began to sell lots. To honor this fellow citizen and local landowner, townsfolk agreed on the name Emmitsburg.
Roads lead south to Frederick, north to Gettysburg, and west to Hagerstown.
The older portion of the town is west of these, however, once the real center of the old German houses, all of which were swept away in a fire of many years ago. His reputation as possibly America s finest antique gunsmith is known throughout the country. According to Wade Chrismer, in the town s history compiled by Emile and Mary Nakhleh in 1976, residents of Emmitsburg had strong pro-Sooth feelings during the Civil War. It evidently puzzled the writer as to how Dr. McCaffrey, then president of Mount St. Mary s College managed to get away with what he did without being arrested. Federal orders were issued for every house to display some sign of mourning.