Part 2 of 3 Submitted by Joan Bittner Fry The Sabillasville Charge was formed in May 1886 by detaching St. John’s congregation of Sabillasville and Jacob’s from the Mechanicstown Charge. Jacob’s congregation (originally Herbach’s) was with the Emmitsburg Charge after 1842 until 1853, when Jacob’s and Millerstown were made into a charge. Rev. A. B…

written by James Rada, Jr. A new serial fiction story for your enjoyment 6: Hot On The Trail Rubbing his eyes and yawning, Mechanicstown Sheriff Paul Cresap rode his horse into the collier’s camp on Catoctin Mountain. This was the fourth camp he had visited today. The colliers moved their camps from time to time…

Eileen Dwyer Established in the mid-1700s, the village of Thurmont was originally named Mechanicstown. The settlement offered plentiful sources of timber, iron ores, and creeks to provide sources of power. The area flourished with mills, iron forges, tanneries, wheelwrights, blacksmiths, and other craftsmen. The name Mechanicstown seemed appropriate, given the means of trade of commerce.…

by James Rada, Jr. Celebrating Independence During the Country’s Centennial When America celebrated its first one hundred years in 1876, Mechanicstown threw the country a grand party. “The old saying that the people of Mechanicstown could never get up anything of a startling nature was beautifully knocked in the head last Tuesday—the 4th of July—by…

The Western Maryland Comes to Mechanicstown by James Rada, Jr. Photo Courtesy of Thurmontimages.com Thurmont’s stop on the Western Maryland Railway makes up only a paragraph in the history of the railroad. For Thurmont, however, it was a major event that not only helped shape the town’s future but also gave it its unique name.…

Recollections of the Civil War, Part 2 by James Rada, Jr. Editor’s Note: This is the second of two articles recounting Sarah (Six) Schnure’s recollections of life in Thurmont during the Civil War. Schnure wrote her recollections while living in Hollywood, California, in the 1930s. Sarah Six had been ten years old when the war…

Recollections of the Civil War by James Rada, Jr. Editor’s Note: This is the first of two articles recounting Sarah (Six) Schnure’s recollections of life in Thurmont during the Civil War. Schnure wrote her recollections while living in Hollywood, California, in the 1930s. Sarah Six was ten years old in 1861. Her family lived in…

by “My Father’s Son” Keeping Track When traversing the history of small areas such as Thurmont and its surrounding municipalities, several names begin to be repeated. Dissimilar to culture today, when a family settled in an area, they usually stayed in that area. Our northern Maryland vicinity has collected several names that have a way…

by James Rada, Jr. 1871 — Catoctin County, Maryland Can you imagine a Catoctin County, Maryland? It would have included Frederick County, north of Walkersville, and Mechanicstown would have been the county seat. It was a dream that some people in the northern Frederick County area pursued throughout 1871 and 1872. The Catoctin Clarion was…

James Rada, Jr. Freemasonry conjures up images of a secret society with hidden rituals and, thanks to the movie National Treasure, hidden treasure. Yet, the Masons are far from secret. They are men who work hard to find brotherhood, enlightenment, and truth. When John Hagemann first came to Thurmont in 2006 and joined the Acacia…

by James Rada, Jr. Thurmont Gets A New School It used to be that if students in Thurmont were going to be late to school, they simply didn’t go because they would have been sent home anyway. At the beginning of the 1877-1878 school year, Thurmont, which was still known as Mechanicstown at the time,…