The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1946-12-05
Interesting History Of Funkstown
Is Found In Book BY Helen Ashe Hays
Bridges OF The Anetam" Reveals Little Known Histories
Sketches Of Town Of Fmkstown Legally Called Jerusalem
By MILDRED Schoen

| NA~ttAS "1bAA OAA~ NAclJo WAlNAA JllC N111dEC
resounded to the clack of hooves
and the creaking of the great wagon
caravans that surged through it day
and night.
Much broader than the thread of
road we travel today, the wide, level
turnpike, fioored with crushed stone
Carefully laid by the belligerent
Paddies), was the scene of the nigh
ty surge of traffic and goods flowing
from the seaboard to the West. car
mics of cattle sheep, hogs and
beeVes trudged over the road" Miss,
Hayes reports, passenger coaches
and mail stages flew over its level
floor and an endless train of freight
ers toiled over it ="
Many a lively legend centers about
the hardy breed of adventurous men
who made up the wagoners of that
bygone era. They drove the Cone
stoga wagons, with their blue, boat
shaped beds borderd in bright red,
and their white-covered tops which
''reSembled a shaker bonnet" There
was great rivalry among them and
many are famous for deeds of cour-
age and strength. While the Hag-
erstoWn of that period was celebrat-
ed for its taverns, it was bit too
swanky for the hard-fisted, hard
working Wagoners who were wont to
foregather, by preference, in the
taverns of old Funkstown.
The coming of the railroads, which
deprived them of their livelihood as
well as the brotherhood and friendly
rivalry of the road, almost broke the
hearts of the wagoners. 1t ended
their world, world made up of six
strong horses, pulling proud and free
over the mountains and valleys, the
cold and starlit nights with the cam
araderie of friendly inn at the
days end; the stirring competition;
the sense of being an important link
in the chain of nations destiny.
With the departure of this cara
van from its midst, Funkstown, IA
nous through all its more brilliant
years for its tidy beauty of gray,
stone houses, quiet churches and
well-kept gardens, settled down to
placid existence on the banks of the
Antietam.
Miss Hayes gives a charming pic
ture of the village as it looked in
1910, when her book was written
long after the departure of the
stage coaches and wagon teams,
droves of cattle, swearing teamsters,
noted men travelling East and West,
which gave it the animation of a
perpetual Fair.
THE bridge at Funkstown" wrote
Miss Hayes the oldest over the An
tietam, might be the youngest judg-
ing by the life and gayety about it.
The trolley from Hagerstown brings
crowds of holiday makers who row
on the creek and make picnics on
IS banks. In summer the water is
alive with craft. Young girls paddle
in canoes and brown and bareheaded
young men take their boats up the
stream. Children play on the grassy
banks and there is continual hum
of laughter and gay voices. The tide
of youth and pleasure passes up and
down under the gray arches of the
bridge.
"In winter when the country is
white with snow and a hard frost
stills the water, skating parties come
to the bridge. The trolley running
back and forth discharges its load
of merrymakers. Groups along the
bank keep up bright fires and again
the scene is as gay as in summer.
The quiet town guards the bridge
but lies century behind the life
which eddies around it."
Thus the FunkstoWn-or Jerusalem
of other days. If, as Miss Hayes
points out, nothing will ever awak-
en- it to such life again. enough!
Let it stand, as it does, in the fine
dignity of its memories, calm me-
mento of the turbulent charm of
days gone by.