WOOLERY DISTRICT, No. 4.
Woolery District, or District No. 4, of Carroll County, is bounded on the north by Hampstead, on the west by Baltimore County, on the south by Freedom District, and on the west by the district of Westminster.
Deep Run, Middle Run, Beaver Run, and the Patapsco River, with their tributaries, furnish abundant water-power for manufacturing and milling purposes. In addition to the numerous excellent public roads and the Chambersburg turnpike, the Western Maryland Railroad passes through the northeastern portion of the district, and furnishes admirable facilities for travel and transportation. The metes and bounds of the district, as originally laid down by the commission of 1837, were as follows:
“Beginning at the twenty-sixth milestone on the Reisterstown turnpike road; thence with a straight line to the late Richard Gorsuch’s house, leaving said house in No. 4; thence to the Patapsco Falls; thence down said Falls to Stansbury’s house, leaving said house in District No. 4; thence with the county road to Brown’s meeting-house; thence to Brown’s mill; thence to Williams’ school-house, binding on the road leading past John Kelly’s; thence to Edward Bond’s; thence with the county line to the bridge over the Patapsco Falls, near John Ely’s mill; thence with the Patapsco Falls to Beasman’s bridge; thence with the Deer Park road to the road leading from Philip Nicodemus’s mill to the Calico House; thence with said road to Pool’s school-house; thence to Morgan’s Run, near Thomas Beasman’s barn; thence up Morgan’s Run to Hawkins’ Branch; thence up Hawkins’ Branch to the county road leading past Benjamin Gorsuch’s; thence with said road until it intersects a county road leading from the ‘Stone Chapel’ to the Washington road; thence with said road to the Washington road; thence with a straight line to the place of beginning.”
Daniel Weaver’s was made the place for holding the polls.
By an act of the General Assembly of Maryland, passed May 23, 1853, it was provided that “so much of the Fourth Election District lying north and west of the Washington road should thereafter be deemed and taken as part of the Seventh Election District; and that the division line between Election Districts Five and Nine should be so far altered and changed as to commence at a point where the then division line crossed the new Liberty road, and running thence with a straight line to the dwelling-house then occupied by James McQuay, leaving said McQuay’s in district number nine; thence with a straight line to the dwelling-house then occupied by John Hess, leaving said Hess in district number nine; thence to the Washington road; thence with said road to Morgan’s Run, and up said run to the original division line.” Woolery District had 2743 inhabitants in 1880.
The German element predominated to a large extent in the first settlement of this district, which was part of Baltimore County until the creation of Carroll in 1836. Among the early settlers were the Woolerys (from whom the district received its name), Stockdales, Garners, Jacobs, Gorsuches, Shipleys, Barneses, Cockeys, Finks, Leisters, Zepps, Armacosts, Prughs, Conaways, and Flaters.
Finksburg, the most prominent town in the district, is twenty miles from Baltimore and about one mile from the Western Maryland Railroad. It was laid out in 1813 by a Mr. Quigly, a contractor on the Chambersburg turnpike, then being built through it. It is situated on a survey called “Hooker’s Meadow,” and was named Finksburg in honor of Adam Fink, who built the first house. Mr. Fink lived and kept tavern on the land now owned by Daniel Frazier, and was succeeded by William Horner, Sr., who kept the inn for twenty years. Mr. Fink had fifteen acres of land, eleven of which Daniel Frazier now owns, but the house (tavern) built by the former was long ago taken down. Mr. Quigly laid out the town for Mr. Fink on the latter’s land. The oldest house is that of Thomas Demoss. Thomas Ward kept the first store, Samuel Hughes was the first blacksmith, and his shop was that now occupied and carried on by Thomas Demoss. The first physician was Dr. Forrest, and the first teacher Charles W. Webster, an attorney-at-law of Westminster, son of Rev. Isaac Webster, who taught the school in Finksburg in 1831, in a log school-house on the site of the present school building. The oldest man in the village is John Nelson Whittle, aged seventy-three years, who married, June 11, 1830, Miss Cynthia Ann, daughter of Thomas Ward, an old settler and the first merchant of the place. The merchants are George W. Horner and H.S. Thompson,—the latter being the postmaster. Dr. S.L. Morris is the resident physician, and the venerable Samuel Stansbury keeps the toll-gate at the east end of the village.
Zion Methodist Protestant church was erected in 1856, under the auspices of Rev. Scott Norris. Frank Hering is superintendent of the Sunday-school.
The pastors of Zion Methodist Protestant Church have been:
1856, R.S. Norris, A. Anderson; 1857, R.S. Norris, C.H. Littleton; 1858, J.A. McFadden, N.S. Greenaway; 1859, J.A. McFadden, C.M. Whiteside; 1860, J. Elderdice, C.H. Littleton; 1861, C.H. Littleton, G.W. Weills; 1862, J.F. Whiteside, G.W. Weills; 1863, J.F. Whiteside, J.W. Gray; 1864, T.M. Bryan, G.D. Edmondston; 1865, T.M. Bryan, C.T. Cochel; 1866, C.T. Cochel, F.M. Hawkins; 1867, C.T. Cochel; 1868-70, W.T. Dunn; 1870-72, J.H. Ellegood; 1872, A.D. Dick, J.G. Sullivan; 1873, A.D. Dick; 1874, A.D. Dick, S.B. Tredway; 1875, G.D. Edmondston; 1876, S.S.T. Ferguson, J.B. Butler; 1877, S.S.T. Ferguson, G.F. Farring; 1878, S.S.T. Ferguson, J.M. Brown; 1879-81, J.W. Charlton; 1881, W.D. Litsinger.
The church building of the Methodist Episcopal Church South was erected in 1856 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, but shortly after the late war the church organization became so feeble and so reduced in numbers that the building was sold to the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Its first pastor under the Church South was Rev. William Etchison, and the present incumbent is Rev. Mr. Brown, of Reisterstown.
In the rear of the church is a graveyard, with only a few interments, among which are William L. Crawford, born December, 1834, died January, 1879.
The two most prominent burials are those of Judge Mordecai G. Cockey, who died July 29, 1872, aged 70; and his wife Eurith, who died Dec. 27, 1843, aged 42.
In a field adjoining are the graves of the following-named persons: Ann E. Corbin, wife of William Corbin, born Sept. 12, 1800, died April 30, 1829; and Keturah Wheeler, died June 15, 1829, aged 2 years and 20 days.
The Independent Order of Mechanics was instituted in 1872, in which year it built its hall, which was sold recently to George W. Horner. He has enlarged and beautified it, and the order continues to hold its meetings there. Its officers are:
W.M., Frank Stocksdale; S.M., John Simmons; J.M., Conrad Mann; Sec., Alfred Williams; F.S., John W. Barrett; Treas., L.A.J. Lamott.
The Excelsior Literary Society, an association for entertainment and instruction, is in a flourishing condition. Its officers for 1881 were:
Pres., B.L. Fair; Sec., Dixon Leister; Treas., Miss Alverdie Lamott; Vice-Pres., F.L. Hering.
Samuel Shoemaker, the wealthy and distinguished Baltimore railroad and express man, was raised in this village, and Lewis H. Cole lives near the town, on his elegant farm known as “Clover Hill.” Abraham Leister owns part of the old Leister estate, among the first located in the district. That portion of this farm near the railroad is owned by William Zepp. Thomas Gorsuch came to this section of country at an early day from Baltimore County, and settled where Elias Gorsuch now lives, before whose time George W., son of Thomas Gorsuch, owned it.
The Garner Graveyard is on the road from Finksburg to the railroad station, and is a private burial-lot, in which only three of the tombstones have inscriptions, as follows:
“In memory of Flinn Garner, who departed this life Feb. 20, 1859, aged 93 years. He was a member of the Methodist Church 69 years.”
“In memory of Cary Garner, wife of Flinn Garner, the mother of 13 children.”
“Sarah Fresh, died Sept. 19, 1822, aged 28.”
Carrollton is a romantic and pretty village on the Western Maryland Railroad, seven miles from Westminster and twenty-six from Baltimore. The North Branch of the Patapsco River passes by the hamlet, and furnishes an abundance of water for manufacturing and other purposes. Thomas Chapel, Pleasant Grove, and Bethel churches are near. Edward H. Bash is a merchant, railroad agent, and postmaster. J.A. Bush, a surveyor, lives here, as does also W.J. Houck, the undertaker.
Patapsco.—This village lies on the Western Maryland Railroad, twenty-seven miles from Baltimore and six from Westminster. Ezra Chew is postmaster. J.H. Chew & Co., J.W. Sanders, and John S. Martin are merchants in the village. P. Lingenfelter keeps the hotel, and E.E. Koons, a miller and lumberman, resides there.
Bird Hill is on the “Nicodemus road,” six miles from Westminster, and near Morgan’s Run. John W. Nelson is the postmaster of the village and keeps a store.
Louisville is also on the “Nicodemus road,” six miles from Finksburg, ten from Westminster, and twenty from Baltimore. There are copper-mines situated on Morgan’s Run, within a half-mile of the town, containing large deposits of copper, and operated by John Vial. S.H. Patterson is postmaster, and John Reed and Nicholas Benson, merchants. The village has two churches,—Mount Pleasant Methodist Episcopal and Providence Methodist Protestant. The millers are G.W. McComas and George F. Branning. The town is partly in Woolery’s and partly in Freedom District,—the “Mineral Hill Copper-Mine” being in the latter.
Mechanicsville.—This pleasant village, rapidly growing in business and population, lies on the Nicodemus road, midway between Bird Hill and Louisville. It has a Methodist church and cemetery, two stores, several shops, and is the home of an industrious people.
Shamberger’s Station, on the Western Maryland Railroad, is an important shipping-point, and has large and excellent flouring-mills.
The following is a list of persons seventy years old and over living in the district in 1879:
Mrs. Margaret Wickert, aged 95 years; her son, Jacob Wickert, 77; her daughter, Mrs. Margaret Crapster, 75; Mrs. Rachel Roache, 79; her sister, Mrs. Mary Criswell, 74; Samuel Stansbury, 75; his wife, Rachel, 75; John Whittle, 71; Mrs. Lavina Grumbine, 73; her sister, Mrs. Eliza Stocksdale, 71; Mrs. Catharine Stocksdale, 71; her brother, Benjamin Haines, 82; Cornelius Cole, 82; his wife, Maria, 73; Cornelius Buckley, 80; his wife, Annie Buckley, 74; Mrs. Henrietta Williams, 74; John Uhler, 81; Cyrus Shilling, 79; his wife, Annie, 71; Mrs. Elizabeth Shilling, 80; Lloyd Shipley, 85; Joshua Murray, 71; his wife, Mary, 76; Abraham Prugh, 80; his wife, 72; Rich. Manning, 80; his wife, 79; Mrs. Lydia Crawford, 74; Stephen Oursler, 83; his wife, 75; her brother, Edward Gardner, 78; Elias Brothers, 70; Mrs. Mary Haines, —; George Ward, 74; his wife, 70; Mrs. Catherine Hedges, 79; Miss Mary Caple, 83; Mrs. Augustus Galloway, 75; Lewis Hobb, 85; Daniel Bush, 73; Mrs. Mary Gorsuch, 82; Mrs. Mary Ogg, 73; Lovelace Gorsuch, 76; his wife, 71; Nathan Gorsuch, 70; Maj. Gorsuch, 72; Philip Smith, colored, 79; his wife, 76. The list comprises 26 females, whose combined ages are 2040 years, averaging 75 5/9 years; 22 males, whose united ages are 1703 years, averaging 77 9/22 years. Total average, 76 ? years.
Some of the finest estates and most beautiful residences in the State are situated in this district, among which may be noted “Wilton,” the present country-place of Thomas C. Brown. Mr. Brown was born at Elkridge Landing, Md., where his father, an emigrant from England, had settled prior to 1760. He married Nancy Cockey, of the well-known Baltimore County family of that name, and removed to the neighborhood of Sykesville, in Freedom District, towards the last decade of the eighteenth century. His son William served with distinction in the war of 1812, and was adjutant of Col. Beall Randall’s battalion when only eighteen years of age. He participated in the battle of North Point, where he acquitted himself with credit. William Brown married Miss Ann Waters Perry, by whom he had twelve children. He was a brother of Hon. Elias Brown, a former Congressman of the Baltimore District, and, like his brother, an active and prominent politician; he was a Presidential elector for Gen. Jackson in the campaign of 1824. He was born in 1796, and died in 1836, aged sixty years. His mother, Nancy (Cockey) Brown, was an aunt of the late Judge Mordecai Gist Cockey, who died in 1872. Thomas Cockey Brown was the third child of his parents, and was born in Freedom District, April 5, 1822. He was raised on his father’s large estate and educated in the neighboring schools. He was early inured to farm-work, which he thoroughly understood and at which he continued until his twenty-sixth year.
In 1848 he went to the State of Louisiana, where he remained until 1869, as agent and general manager of a large sugar plantation. He worked three hundred and sixty negroes and eighty other hands, averaging an annual yield of eighteen hundred hogsheads of sugar. He returned to Maryland in 1869, and bought his present splendid farm, “Wilton,” of Dutell and Humphreys. It consisted of 185 ? acres, and was originally owned by the Gaither family. He erected an elegant mansion on the place, and since then has greatly improved his farm, which is now one of the best in the county and in the highest state of cultivation. It lies near Finksburg, and is a mile from the Western Maryland Railroad. He received the three symbolical degrees in Masonry in 1851, in Lodge A.F. and A.M. “True Friends,” at Grand Island, in the Gulf of Mexico. He was elected a member of the Maryland House of Delegates in 1874 from Carroll County, and served two years in the Legislature, in which he was a zealous advocate of reform and economy in all public expenditures of the people’s funds. Mr. Brown has ever been an active public man, and a warm adherent of the Democratic party. He has never married. By his own industry, integrity, and prudent management he has arisen to be one of the leading farmers and most public-spirited citizens and business men of the county, and largely enjoys the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens.
The following are the public school trustees and teachers, with the number of pupils under each, for this district in 1851:
1. Carrollton.—William Arbaugh, C.W. Brown, Isaac Green.
2. Brown’s Meeting-House.―.S.A. Martin, George Taylor, Noah Bucher.
3. Patapsco.—John H. Taylor, Edmond Koontz, David Abbott.
4. Sandy Mount.—Peter Woods, H.H. Caple, William A. Bush.
5 and 6. Finksburg.—William H. Stocksdale, G.W. Horner, Stephen B. Stocksdale.
7. Fairmount.—Nicholas Benson, Hanson Davis, D.B. Hoff.
8. Deer Park.—H.T. Smith, E.N. Davis, Henry Vardenfelt.
9. Morgan’s Run.—George Freeman, John Owings, George Caple.
10. Louisville.—Joshua Baesman, Eli T. Bennett, William Roberts.
The teachers for the term ending April 15, 1881, were:
1, Laura S. Poole, 58 pupils; 2, John W. Abbott, 57 pupils: 3, Joel Ebaugh, 53 pupils; 4, Ida F. Fox, 40 pupils; 5, D.L. Farrar, 20 pupils; 6, Mary E. Johnson, 29 pupils; 7, N.G. Harden, 53 pupils; 8, Aquilla McGee, 46 pupils; 9, G.J. Shipley, 42 pupils; 10, M.F. Ebaugh, 43 pupils; 11,
J.C. Nutting, 48 pupils; 1 (colored school), E.H. Trusty, 23 pupils.
The justices are William Stocksdale, Nathan Gorsuch, Azariah Oursler.
The following is the vote of the district for local officers from 1851 to 1861 inclusive:
1851.—Vote for Primary School Commissioners: John W. Gorsuch 136, E.D. Paine 105, John W. Gorsuch 99.
1853.—For Justices: Mordecai G. Cockey 187, Jacob Wickert 130, Abraham Lamott 149, Thomas S. Brow 120, James Baker 12, Jesse Frizzell 23, George Ogg 130, Samuel Wilderson 67; Constables: J.F. Gardner 154, J.M. Flater 120, Samuel Flater 73, William Stocksdale 148; Road Supervisor: John D. Powder 176, Elijah Wooden 113, A Taylor 12.
1855.—For Justices: M.G. Cockey 228, N. Gorsuch 199, E. Woolery 184, J.D. Powder 121, S. Wilderson 38; Constables: S. Flater 165, Jesse Magee 146, D.D. Byers 198; Road Supervisor: Lewis Taylor 200, Amon Allgire 123.
1857.—For Justices: S.A. Lauver 188, Daniel Stull 184, L. Lamott 186, M.G. Cockey 208, Nathan Gorsuch 206, Elijah Woolery 191; Constables: J. Shilling 178, J.H. Uhler 172, Samuel Flater 204, D.D. Byers 204; Road Supervisor: G. Mummaugh 193, H.T. Bartholow 198.
1859.—For Justices: Joseph Poole 187, James Lockard 208, S.A. Lauver 198, M.G. Cockey 203, Azariah Oursler 188, Nathan Gorsuch 186; Constables: William Crusey 192, Lewis Taylor 170, Jesse Magee 203, William Gorsuch 212; Road Supervisors: Henry Taylor 203, Joseph Bromwell 214.
1861.—For Justices: William Lockard 240, M.G. Cockey 232, N. Gorsuch 213, N. Burgett 48, Azariah Oursler 166, J.W. Steele 182, L.A.J. Lamott 187 ; Constables: P. Gorsuch 271, Jesse Magee 272, Jer. Taylor 161, D.D. Byers 163; Road Supervisor: Peter Flater 268, John Uhler 180.
One of the best-known farmers in this district is Col. James Fenner Lee, who was born in Providence, R.I., July 9, 1843. He is the eldest living son of Stephen S. and Sarah F. (Mallett) Lee, who removed to Baltimore the year of his birth. In that city he was placed under the instruction of the best masters, and in 1855 sent to Europe, where he was for several years in one of the first schools of Switzerland. He completed his collegiate studies in Paris, at the Lycée St. Louis, and after having traveled over the continent returned to Baltimore. There he entered as a law student the office of Brown & Brune, and before applying for admission to the bar spent a term at the Law School of Harvard University. In 1866 he married Mrs. Albert Carroll, daughter of Hon. William George Read, and granddaughter of Col. John Eager Howard. On this occasion his parents presented him with a farm in this district, and he decided to devote himself to agricultural pursuits as soon as he could dispose of his law business and complete the third volume of the “Maryland Digest,” which he had, in conjunction with his friend, Jacob I. Cohen, undertaken to publish. Having in time accomplished this and settled upon his farm, he soon became identified with, and earnest in the promotion of, every material interest of the county. In a short time, such was his popularity, he was constantly chosen to represent the interests of his district in the Democratic County Conventions, and frequently in the State councils of that party. In 1874 he was appointed by Governor Groome one of his aide-de-camps, with the rank of colonel. He was nominated in 1875 for State senator by the Democratic party, and elected after a most active and exciting campaign. In the Senate he was chairman of the joint Committee on Printing, and did good service to the State by reducing the expenditures of the same twenty thousand dollars. This position he retained in the second session of the Legislature, in which he was equally successful in his efforts to secure economy in that department. At the assembling of the Senate he was unanimously chosen president of the temporary organization, and was very often called to the chair during the absence of Col. Lloyd, the permanent president. It was mainly through the efforts of Col. Lee that the endowment of twenty-six free scholarships was obtained from the State for the Western Maryland College at Westminster. His children are Arthur F., Sarah J. Fenner, and Stephen Howard Lee.
History of Western Maryland, by Louis H. Everts, 1882, Chapter 39A, p. 830-.)
Transcribed by Carol C. Eddleman.