The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1956-09-13


mention OF Garrett County Silver
will bring back poignant memories
of times long past Some of those
memories may not be exactly pleas
ant ones, and none Of them will be
amusing.
In reality there are three sepa-
rate events whose stories | wish
to narrate. They all occurred in the
same general area. Unfortunately
cannot set exact dates to any of
the events as | am writing entirely
from memory with no notes. We
can only say that many decades
separated the first from the last,
The Layman Lode
, George W. Layman was born in
western Maryland in 1910. He lived
in what was then known as Dis
trict 3, Allegany County, Maryland.
1t is now the northern part of Gar
rett County He often went hunting
in the dense forests near his home.
Game was plentiful The old Ma
tional Pike was then in its heyday,
great highway to the West. A
constant stream of traffic flowed
along this great Appian Way. Some
Travelled by coach, some by wagon,
and some on horseback. Many
went on "Shanks Mare" Large
droves of cattle, sheep and hogs
moved slowly along to the accom-
paniment of loud and raucous
shouts of the drovers. A short dis
lance on either side of the high
way one plunged into the primeval
forest where all was peace and
quiet. Settlers cabins were few and
far between.
On one occasion, Mr., Layman
Travelled far to the south and west
of his usual haunts. He may have
been hot in pursuit of some espe-
cially priced game or wild animal.
Eventually he realized that he was
in completely strange territory and
hopelessly lost Then, game for
gotten, he began a long series of
wanderings trying to eXtricate him
self. Tired and thirsty, he came at
last to a frce-flowing mountain
spring. After quenching his thirst
and while resting beside the spring,
he noticed an Outcropping of rock
that was like nothing he had ever
seen before. 1t was heavy and had
a metallic sheen. He broke off a
chunk of the rock and placed it in
his hunting bag. Then he resumed
his weary wandering
He came eventually to a point
that he recognized and was able to
get his bearings and thus home
This point which he was later able
to identify was known during my
boyhood as the Bancord farm. 1t
was later owned by Lewis Warwick
and still later by his son William
Warwick. 1t is at New Germany just
below the Twin Churches and some
five miles from the old National
Pike.
Upon reaching home the chunk
of rock was placed on the what
not" and forgotten except to show
the the neighbors as curiosity. At
a much later date someone saw it
and prevailed upon him to send it
away for assaying. | do not known
what the completed assay showed
but the silver was extracted and
minted into silver coins. When
these were returned to Mr.. Layman
they amounted to S1610 Daniel
Layman, son of George and the
writer y llIlClG, Cal leu OllC VI tll1oN
silver half-dollars as pocket-piece
during most of his life
While there are too many UNI
knowns in the equation for an ac-
curate estimate, it seems reason
able to assume that at that time
S16.1O would represent full pound
Troy of pure silver. A man lost in
the woods would probably not
burden himself with large amount
of rock. The concentration of metal
in the ore seems to have been very
high suggesting a fissure lode of
some form of native silver There
is, of course, no way of estimating
the extent of the lode 1t might be
large or small.