FREDERICK COUNTY, MARYLAND
Frederick County is located in the north central part of the state, bounded on the north by the Pennsylvania state line, on the east by Carroll County, on the south by Montgomery County and the Potomac River, and on the west by Washington County. It is the largest county in Maryland, covering approximately 663 square miles, much of it fertile farm land. Two mountain ridges traverse the county from north to south: Catoctin Mountain, best known as the site of the Presidential retreat, Camp David; and South Mountain, the western border of the county. The famed Appalachian Trail runs along South Mountain. The county's many streams and creeks empty either directly into the Potomac River or into the Monocacy River which in turn flows into the Potomac.
Frederick County was created by an Act of Assembly which became effective on 10 December 1748. It included all of Prince Georges County lying west and north of a line running northeast from the mouth of Rock Creek to the Patuxent River, along the river to Baltimore County, then along the Baltimore County line to the northern boundary of the province. In 1776 all of Maryland west of South Mountain became Washington County, and the same year Montgomery County was formed from southern Frederick County. Part of eastern Frederick County was combined with western Baltimore County to form Carroll County in 1837. Since then the boundaries of Frederick County have not changed.
Settlement of the Frederick County area began about 1732. In March of that year the proprietor, Charles, Lord Baltimore, offered liberal terms for land to attract settlers to western Maryland. Wealthy men of the Maryland tidewater area acquired large tracts of this fertile land, and most of the early grants were to Englishmen. Only a small number of them, however, moved onto the land and those who did tended to stay in the southern part.
The northern and western areas of the county were settled largely by Germans who moved into Maryland from Pennsylvania. An industrious and thrifty people who first rented, then purchased, relatively small plots, they cleared the land, built homes, raised crops, and prospered. In contrast to the English planters whose extensive tobacco crops exhausted the soil, the German farmers respected the land, raised grains, rotated crops, and allowed the soil to recover. They were largely self-sufficient, for it was the custom that each son learn a trade as well as agricultural skills. Few owned slaves, depending instead on large families as their labor source.
The German settlers werereligious, but often built a school before a church because of their high regard for education. most were Lutheran or German Reformed and, in the absence of a resident pastor, the schoolmaster conducted religious services in the schoolhouse. The sacraments were performed by itinerant ministers who traveled from Pennsylvania through Maryland and to Virginia.
The first permanent settlement by the Pennsylvania Germans in Maryland was the village of Monocacy, located a short distance south of the present town of Creagerstown. Frederick Town was laid out in September 174S by Daniel Dulany on part of a large tract called Trasker's Chance. In 1750 the County Commissioners bought six lots for the Court House, and the one and a half story wooden structure was completed in 1756. In the interim Court sessions were held in the log church of the German Reformed congregation of Frederick.
By 1800 the county's agricultural economy was supplemented by a variety of industries. More than 80 grist mills edged the streams; the first glass factory in the United States was on Bennett Creek; there were two iron furnaces, two forges, two paper mills, a saw mill, many tanneries, and from 300 to 400 stills. In the twelve towns and villages master craftsmen produced everything from combs to clocks, stockings to hats, nails to wagons. Frederick was no longer a frontier but a thriving agricultural, industrial, and commercial county.