The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-04-28
WESTERN MARYLAND.
In the Limestone Valleys Of the State.
BY JARED VAN wAGENEN, JR., IN THE ooUN-
TRY GENTLEMAN"

very poorest lanQS OF the STATE are the
almost sterile red clays that lie along
the main line ofthe railroads between
Delaware and Washington. Millions
of people look out on the lands each
year they rush through them OH fast
express trains, and consequently the
general impression is that the soils
of the state are poor, for few see the
fertile, prairie like lands of the East
ern Shore or the beautiful limestone
valleys that lie between the noun
tains in the west.
Once you gain sight Of the Blue
Ridge, you know that you have come
into new land and among different
people. The most eastern of lime
stone counties Of the state is Freder-
ick-the county which, at one time,
at least, stood third in the United
States in the value of its agricultural
products. Its county town is Fred
erick City, sleepy place of about
ten thousand people, which lives in
popular knowledge almost solely be-
cause of Whittier's simple ballad of
Barbara Fritchie." 1 fear that if
the strict canons of historical investi
CATION were applied here, we should
find that old Quaker poet has largely
availed himself of his privilege of poet
ical license. Still, they assure me
that "the story must be true, for her
grave is here YETI This last fact is
incontestable, and I would be glad to
believe the story as whole, if I
could.
Frederick's interests and glories
lie in the past. The old town is
crusted thick with history. On the
hill beyond the town, under an or
nate monument lies Francis Scott
Key, author of the "Star Spangled
Banner" and down in the heart of
the town in a tiny walled cemetery
sleeps the worn old woman whom
Whittier's poem has made immortal
and heroic forever. They are proud
of her as a commercial asset at least,
for they spot the stranger on arrival
and sell him the History of her Life
on sight. 1t seems to me that sell
ing her life deserves to be enumerated
among the leading industries of the
town.
Through Frederick, in 1853, Cen
eral Braddock marched, seeking the
pass over the mountains to the west,
o1:.,,~ -, - l.;e Jafaof o~,1 1oofL ot f11o
hands of the French and Indians near
Pittsburg. Following the trail he
made came the National Pike, great
est of all American highways, stretch
ing its vast length from Baltimore
across the mountains into the Ohio
country. The long story of that old
road has in it the making of an epic.
The men who built it saw by faith a
great country beyond the Alleganies
which should some day be full of
people. lay at the City Hotel, a big
ancient, dingy hostlery, the very
stone flags in the Office floor worn
thin by the feet of those who have
tramped throughit. The hotel fronts
on this old imperial way, and this is
the road where, in September, 1862
lice marched over the mountain
WALL" and where
.'All day long through Frederick Street
Sounded the tramp of marching feet"
Then, after the battle of Monocacy
this hotel became an hospital, and
all night long, by the murky gleam
of lanterns, were received the loads
of wounded at the doors. Andagain
in 1864, Early made his whirlwind
raid and levied a ransom of quarter
of million dollars, raised in two
hours, as the price for not burning
the town-this old brick town, sofull
of stories and honors in the past, so
peaceful now. Down in the hotel
Office, where once the dead and wound
ed lay in fearful ranks, men sit with
their feet on the brass rails, smoking
and chatting and out in the street,
where the artillery rumbled by in al
most unending train, pass well-dress-
ed men and pretty, smiling women.
1t would not be easy to say too
much for this Monocacy Valley, in
the lap of which Frederick lies. 1t
runs fromthe Pennsylvania line south
west to the Potomac valley from
six to eight miles wide, with just
enough of roll for drainage and made
up of deep, rich, almost stoneless
limestone loan. These lands are very
high in price-most of it more than
hundred dollars per acre. am glad
they are. Soil like this ought always
to be regarded as rich possession.
1t is land of old brick farm houses
and red barns and broad wheat and
maize fields, with few dairy cows and
some fat steers. There is no wood
land, for the valley is arable-every
foot of it.
I doubt if you would call it pro-
gressive land. These farmers are
not the descendants of the men who
came with Leonard Calvert, but they
belong to the same racial stock as
the so-called Pennsylvania Dutch,
and are allied to them in agricultural
methods and habits ofthought. They
cling close to the past, but they are
honest, thrifty and industrious to
fault. 1 fear that they take the
teachings of the farmers insti-
tutes with much private skepticism
and large grain of salt, but as a
whole, nothing can be said of them
save good. The wealth of Frederick
county, nearly all of which has come
from the soil, is extraordinary for a
rural community.
West of Frederick is another valley,
the Middletown, pretty well walled IN
by mountains. 1t is not as broad and
smooth as the Monocacy, but it is
fertile. 1 like the sturdy pride these
men show in their own localities, each
strenuously insisting that while the
others NAV be very good indeed, yet