The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1963-05-02

ldI Bt udlli vi DCCP SlNChs hNei
the site of the present Narrows
Bridge, impounding a lake which
he named Lake Brown in honor of
Frank Brown who at that time
was Governor of Maryland. On
the shore of the lake he built a
summer home, the family usually
returning to Oakland for the
winter months. Growing up, Getty
acquired with a love for the out
doors, an iron constitution as the
result of many rugged hunting
trips. Both of these were to stand
him in good stead in the years to
follow. He attended the Oakland
Grammar School, there being no
high school in Oakland in those
days, and when the family re-
manned at the Lake during the
winter months, he went to the
little country school at Thayerville.
In his early teens he worked as
Printers Devil in the office
of the Mountain Democrat, Oak
land, under the late Hiram P
Tasker and Charles A. Deffin-
baugh. Years later, when Mr. Task
er had retired from the newspaper
field, Getty's father arranged for
him to spend one winter at their
home at the Lake, in return for
which he taught Getty English,
Mathematics and the elements of
Surveying.
Being ambitious and not afraid
of work, and having exhausted the
local sources of education, Getty
took a course in Surveying and
Mapping from the International
Correspondence Schools, and later
full Civil Engineering course
from the same school. At the same
period he enrolled in the American
School of Engineering, Chicago,
following this with a course in
Real Estate and Craftsmanship from
the Chicago School of Real Estate.
To put his theoretical instruction
into practice. he secured work with
Mr.. Alec Mason, the famous old
surveyor, and later Mr.. H. j.
Frear. who had come to Oakland
to survey route for the Preston
Railroad, employed him as Assist
ant Engineer. This railroad cX-
tended south from Hutton and
Crellin for thirty miles or more
into the dense forests around
Breedlove and Wolf Run. When this
work was finished, Getty went in
to business for himself for a time.
but he found this involved diff
cult problems in the field of col
lection There was plenty of work,
but it was not easy to secure pay
ment after the surveys were
finished
In the spring of 1908 he went
to work as an Inspector, at $4,000
per month. for what later became
the Maryland State Roads Com
mission Promotion was fairly
rapid, however, and Getty was adj
vanced from one position to an
other in this expanding state de-
partment. He supervised the con-
struction of bridges over many
rivers, among them the Nanticoke,
Choptank, Bohemia, Sassafras
Elk. Miles, and College Creek, as
well as the building of long
stretches of state roads. 1t was
during this peri j that he became
acquainted " III Miss Bertha
Cooper of Mardela Springs. whom
he married in 1914 The largest
single project supervised by the
young engineer in Maryland was
the Hanover Street Bridge over
the middle and main prongS OF
! the Patapsco River in Baltimore
built in 1914-1917. Later he de
cided to resign from the State
Roads Commission and accept {
position with a ship building com.
pany which was constructing ships
urgently needed by the govern
ment for use during World War
After the Armistice, however. this
firm like many others was forccc
out of business.
In 1921 he was employed by the
State Roads Commission of Nortf
Carolina. Here his progress wa:
rapid, and he soon was made Chic
Locating and Claim Engineer foi
the Commission Around this time
North Carolina became highWa.
conscious and vast sums were APP
propriated to build roads through
out the state from the sWampS anC
sand dunes of the Atlantic coasta
section to the 5000 foot peaks o
the Blue Ridae and the Grea
! Smokes in the extreme western
part of the state, some six hundred
miles distant. Much of this mileage
was through virgin forest anC
around and across towering noun
tain ranges, and just about ever!
type of engineering problem wa
encountered. As few reliable map