The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1961-04-20
Next Year Marks

Continued from Page One)
lots, the area opened for building
expanded greatly. In 1854, ID. r.,
Brant bought several military lots
and surveyed them for building,
and a few years later this lana
was cut into more than 101 parcels,
known as Brant's Addition to the
Town of Oakland The original
McCarty survey had included only
lands adjacent to the river, but
Brants addition included all the
lots beyond Fifth street, extend
ing to Green and Church streets
By 1861, with the railroad having
been completed through to Fair
mont and beyond, and passenger
and freight traffic increasing. the
little town which had called itself
at various times McCarty's Mill
Brant Town, Slab Town and final
ly Oakland. decided it had reached
the stage where it should be self
governing, and accordingly a
group of citizens petitioned the
Maryland Legislature, meeting in
Annapolis, to consider its incor-
poration. This it did in January
of 1862.
The Legislature set the date for
the towns first election for the
following May. Thus it was that
on the first Monday of that month
60 qualified voters residing within
the limits of the new corporation
cast their ballots and elected for
their first burgess, or mayor, DR..
st. Felix Colardeau, a native of
French Guadalupe, who had
been the prime force behind the
incorporation movement.
In establishing the date of the
towns legal formation, this writer
was struck by a singular fact
Every previous writer of local his
tory has either completely ignored
or lightly dismissed the fascinat-
ing story of Oakland's first mayor.
truly remarkable man who de-
serves a larger share of credit fo-
development of this area than he
has been accorded.
Research into the life of DR..
Colardeau has been a most in
teresting experience, involving as
it did inquiries to Paris, France;
Yale University where his origin
al doctors thesis is still on file;j
the Island of Guadeloupe, where
he was born in 1929 and where
he died in 1898, and other less
distant sources.
Some Of the material uncovered
in this search includes the orr
ginal hand-written transcript of
the first Oakland election. record
ing the votes cast in May 1862;
q brief biography of DR.. Colardeau
written by one of his granddaugh-
tiers while she was a translator
in the United States Embassy in
Paris many years ago; blueprints
for a wooden mill established in
Oakland by the remarkable doc
tor in 1864, and an abundance of
other material which has never
before been made available for
public records, in most instances.
If ever there was a forgotten
man, surely it is Oakland's first
mayor The Glades Star, official
organ of the Garrett County His
. torical Society, during it's more
than 20 years of publication, re-
ferS to DR.. Colardeau only once.
so far as can be determined, and
then with but a few words: Table
land Trails, in its Garrett County
number, with a wealth of historical
data concerning the community
and the county, fails to mention
him at all; the official Centennial
History of Oakland, published in
1949, dismiSSes him with an eight
line biography, and that not en-
tirely accurate; and Jacob Brown,
perhaps the most prolific of all
early regional historians, in his
| book published in 1895, ignores
the man completely, although he
devotes an entire chapter to early
doctors of Garrett county!
The story of DR.. Colardeau's life
is one of adventure, romance, ac-
complishment and personal ira
gedy, much of it associated with
the years he spent in this COM
munity, community which he APP
preached with love and left with
sorrow.
Succeeding articles in this series
will deal with episodes in the life
of DR.. Colardeau, and it is to be
hoped that the history-minded
will not let this centennial pas;
without at least token observ.