The Rise of Mechanicstown

THURMONT The Rise of Mechanicstown

Thurmont got its start as a village in the middle of nowhere, originally named Mechanicstown

Homesteads in the northern Monocacy area are evident from 1736, when the first of about ten families started arriving from Pennsylvania. The notion of a defined village is dated at 1751, which is what Thurmont now claims for its anniversary. A substantial majority of the immigrants into the Monocacy area were Germans. The original settlers were Lutheran and Reformed, and the earliest confirmed evidence of church worship is 1742. The Lutheran and Reformed congregations built a log church to share in the 1760s on land donated by Peter Apple, and they called the structure Apples Church. In 1826, the congregation laid the cornerstone for the current stone structure. Weller United Brethren Church emerged in 1830; it was the first church constructed within what became the original town footprint.

The farmstead was the dominant form of living in the community, and many families remained farmers for generations. However, a handful of artisans had begun to establish enterprises adjacent to Hunting Creek. Two narrow, intersecting wagon trails existed in the vicinity of the rushing waterway, and Lawrence Creager, a son of an original settler, and his son, John, laid out 50 lots along the two main roads in 1803 on land from their family tract.

Various remembrances described the area then as densely forested. Nevertheless, the artisans and “mechanics” – people who made and fixed things – became the engine that drove the development of the emerging village, which the Creagers named Mechanicstown.

In 1793, Daniel Rouzer established a tannery to convert animal hides into raw leather that would become products like saddles, bags, and boots. In 1805, Jacob Weller built what is believed to be the first tavern and hotel in the community on what we know today as West Main Street. This is the same Weller family that gave its name to the church; the land on which it sits was part of the Weller family tract. The first general store in town is dated 1806, owned by Jacob Firor. Jacob Weller also became SPRING/SUMMER 2022successful as a blacksmith, and he ı GATEWAY 29

usually attached BS to his name to distinguish him from others who shared the same name. In 1811 he established a tool factory, using the energy of Hunting Creek to create edged implements, like shovels, axes, and chisels. Around 1817 a woolen mill opened west of town and stayed active for at least 40 years.

One long-time resident recalled that about 300 people were living in the town in 1831; increasing population density created economies of scale. People close together could exchange goods and services more efficiently; a community with a barrel maker, tool maker, blacksmith, potter, tailor, and so on becomes a marketplace. Throughout its first 60 years, farming and church defined the settlement. But, starting in 1793, for the next 30 years Mechanicstown experienced an explosion of industrial progress.

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