The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1881-06-25
From the Baltimore american, June II.
SOLDIERS DELIGHT,
AS DESCRIBED BY MIR. EDWARD SPENCER
BEFORE THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

! AS DESCRIBED BY MIR. EDWARD SPENCE Err
BEFORE THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The Maryland Historical Society held
last night the last meeting this summer,
and adjourned over until the second Mon
day in October The feature of the meet
ing was the reading of paper by Mr. Ed
ward Spencer, of the staff of The Ameri-
can, on the Soldiers Delight" tract of
land in Baltimore county of some histori-
cal significance.
HISTORY OF SOLDIERS DELIGHT.
Mr.. Spencer began by saying that the
( Soldiers Delight was sort of geographi
cal conundrum in Maryland history which
he desired help in solving. 1t was most
extensive tract of land, and filled at one
time a large place on the maps, yet he
could not fud any one who knew much
about it. When he lived in Baltimore
county he never could find any one who
would admit that he lived there. The
speaker, though often accused Of it, did
not, having only resided adjacent thereto,
as be did also to "Possum Holler- and
dumb Quarter" 1t used TO be said at
Princeton College that all the North Caro-
lima students claimed residence either in
Virginia or South Carolina-just across
the line-and there were to-day, he
thought, hundreds of likely farmers trav-
elling the Liberty and Reisterstown roads
who inform YOU with delicious sincerity
that they dwell ''just on the edge OF Sol
dicr's Delight The reproaehes which the
ancient hundred had to meet we're not so
sharp now as they had been, as the tract
was increasing in value as it diminished in
extent Referring to the characteristics
Of the Delight, Mr.. Spencer said it was
the worst place in the world to get lost
in, for it was full of pits and shallow shafts,
sunk in search of chronic iron ore.
The land had never been cultivated, and
was lust as the Indians had left it. About
1S4l-46 it was said that some of the peo-
pie only came out once a year--to vote
and that it often took them to Christmas
70 find their way home again.
VISIT TO THE DELIGHT.
L, abounded 10 game, and speaking of
a visit TO it, Mr. Spencer said. "If you
took the liue Of the Deer Park road, you
came almost suddenly TO Z spo. where the
fences ceased, the great forest melted down
into the dwarfy umbrase | have spoken
Of. and YOUR horse, from plungiOg fctlock
deep in sticky red clay, came suddenly
upon hard, dry road, that rang under his
hoofs with more elasticity than au asphalt
pavcmeni ia winter This roadbed was
one Of the best 10 the world, though viii
ated sometimes By the outcropping Of huge
green or gray boulders Il was never
muddy, it could not be cus into ruts; 1t
dried in an hour after the heaviest and
most pro.racted rains. There was no soil,
So 10 sneak. an inch aud a-half depth Of
il only. thin aud porous, yielding nutri-
meDt TO sedgc, heather aud poverty grass.
There were DO briars, save, in hollows,
some dwarfed cslaniines Of most exquisite
fragrance Underneath was one mass Of
serpeutine rock, finely comminnied on the
surface, aud oycrlyiag the deposits Of ehro-
mate of iron. This land lay very high.
The road trayersed two or three rounded
shoulders of hills, until It brought you TO
the highest, Beuy's Hin, where, in 1888,
john Berry was hanged in chains for mur-
der. the legends about his execution are
sti'l tod throughout the neiShbOrh0Od.
From this point you have one Of the finest
views kuOw anywhere. When the at
uospbere is clear You can see all around
from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the
Eastern Shore. YondeF are the Catoetin
hills. here winds the Valley Of the Patap-
SEQ. over there is 81. Thomas Church,
aud over there again Doughoregan Manor.
This way Is Annapolis, and yondeT flows
Pine creek. As | first saw il, Soldiers
Delight was singulsrly Park-like for the
work Of nature The woods were not
continuous. The oaks grouped themselves
ia li,tle groves, in which sort OF clusters
the gwerclts Hiclf0La, with its compact
head aud its slistening, waxy leaves, looks
very handsome, in spite Of its gnarled and
weazsn trunk and limbs-and the saSsa-
fras were distributed iu orchards. At in
teryals an open glade extended down the
hillside until it disappeared from sight in
briary ravine. No wonder they called the
place Soldiers Delight Why should peo-
pie be ashamed of hailing from this hun
ter's paradise
WHAT THE TRACT INCLUDED.
Mr.. Spencer said that they reckoned
without their host who imagined that Sol
diers' Delight, as originally constituted, in-
eluded only poor land and barren hill top.
At one tiae it embraced the richest land in
the State. including the plateau OF West
Minister, the Pipe Creek and Middleiown
Valleys, and the rich bottom lauds OF
North Branch, where twenty barrels Of
corn to the acre was not an unusual crop.
The boundaries OF the Delight were thus
given by Mr.. Spencer
The old Soldiers Delight Hundred
began at the Patapseo, not tar from the
present Relay House. Its eastern boun-
I dary line was the old Court road, extend
Ing from Elkridgc Landing across the
country to Joppa. This road, which still
follows the original bed and crosses the
Reisterstown road at the Seven-mile House
aud the York road at Towsontown, is one
I Of the Oldest roads in the State. The An
napolis worthies used it to so to Joppa aud
+ to Philadelphia, before Baltimore was
thought about, and it was the Indian path
from the Susquehanna to the Potomac at
I Piseataway. At or about the Reieters-
town road Soldiers Delight Hundred met
Back River Upper Hundred The divid-
ing line between these two election dis
tricts ran northwest through the sites of
Westminster and Taneytown to the Penn
! sylvania line, all of Baltimore county
southwest Of that line falling to the Sol
diers Delight This Old Hundred, there
fore, at one time included parts of what
are now Cross and Lisbon districts, in
| Howard county, with portions of what is
still called CAROLS big woods is
to saw. the forest-the Second and part of
the Fourth districts of Baltimore county,
the Freedom, Franklin, Woolery and New
Windsor districts of Carroll, and the Lib
erty and other districts of Frederick coun-
ty west to the Blue Ridge.
| EARLY CHARACTERISTIC AND SCENERY.
Its early population was not at all in
prooortiou to its size. In fact, when the
hundred was first laid out there were no
people 10 it at ALL except in the neighbor-
hood of Elkridge. Baltimore county was
peopled very curiously. The matter is