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| Garrett County History | ||
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“Changing Pattern’s In Garrett County” |
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Wilson Settlement |
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| Challenging the claim of the Drane House as oldest inhabited one in the County is the two story log cabin of the Wilson family. Located on the South Fork of Crabtree Creek , the cabin dates back to 1796; however, according to family tradition, the Wilson family did not occupy the cabin continuously until about 1805. The family originally came from the New Creek area and built the cabin the first year they owned the property. At the same time they began clearing the land for farming but only spent the summer months in the cabin, returning to their farm at New Creek for the winter months. Finally, about 1805, they could grow enough food on the Crabtree Creek farm to sustain themselves during the winter months, and they began living in the cabin continuously winter and summer. | ||
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Ingman’s Tavern |
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By 1789, a road had been completed over Backbone Mountain from the
Potomac River to the Youghiogheny River which followed the old Glades Indian
Trail. It was hailed as an outlet for merchandise to be transferred in and out
of the southern part of Garrett County and across the state border into West Virginia.
Soon after the road was opened, a man named John Hays built a large house along it in the Green Glades area, and began to operated it as a tavern.Ownership of the building changed hands several time during the years that it existed. Around 1809, Henry Ingman, a son-in-law of one of the owners, took over the tavern operation. Although Ingman never owned the property, it was known as Ingman’s Tavern for a number of years. The tavern was the center of activity in 1824 when a Potomac River Canal crew spent most of the summer in the area. They were trying to map a route to bring a canal over the mountains to connect with the waters of an Ohio River tributary. Visiting the crew while they stayed at Ingman’s Tavern was the famous John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War at the time. Ingman’s Tavern was torn down in the 1890’s, but some small trees in a field mark its general location along the Steiding Church Road. |
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Lumbering Industry |
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John W. Garrett turned out to be a civilian hero during the Civil War because he kept the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad running in spite of the Confederate soldier’s destruction of
bridges and tracks. However, Garrett was supported by an able supplier of bridge timbers and
cross ties, Henry Gassaway Davis, one of the first large-scale timber operators in Garrett
County.
Henry G. Davis built a tramroad from Deer Park to the present Deep Creek Lake area. He had a large saw mill in the Thayerville area. The Davis tramroad followed the general route of the Deer Park – Sand Flat Road; faint traces of its existence can still be found in some places. Davis was soon followed by a number of timber cutting operators and the Garrett County forests with their giant oak, chestnut, and evergreen trees began to disappear. Meadow Mountain Lumber Company was one of the largest timber operations in the north central part of the County; Kendall Lumber company cut trees in the southern part; and Savage River valley had several large companies which cut trees in that area. |
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West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railroad Western Maryland Railway |
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Late in the 1800’s, H. G. Davis and his brothers began timber cutting in the Potomac River
Valley. At first, they floated the logs down the river to a saw mill near Piedmont, W. Va. In
1881, Davis began pushing the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railroad up the river
valley, with small branch lines running up the hollows of the tributaries of the river.
As the railroad progressed up the river, Davis built additional saw mills at strategic
locations along the railroad. The railroad crossed and re-crossed the river many times in its
route to the headwaters of the river; thus, some saw mills were in West Virginia others in
Maryland. Eventually, the railroad passed the “springing point” of the river and went all the
way to the present city of Elkins, W. Va.
On November 1, 1905, the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railroad was sold to the Western Maryland Railway company. |
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Tanneries |
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| One side-industry that developed from the timber cutting in the mountains, was the tanning of hides into leather. Following the Civil War, the nation’s railroads westward expansion meant the flow of merchandise back to the East Coast. Among the items moving in this direction were hides from the great stock yards of St. Louis and Chicago. Large and small tanneries were constructed in the general area of the saw mills, where a large supply of oak tree bark was available. A large tannery was built at Gormaia, W. Va., and the buildings were there until the 1930’s. The tannery operation, itself, slowed to a halt as timber cutting gradually decreased in the Potomac River watershed. (Note: There was also a large tannery at Hutton, Md.; it ceased operation about 1925.) | ||
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Vindex |
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Located on Three forks Run, a tributary of the North Branch of the Potomac River, Vindex was
typical of small communities in Garrett County which started as a town for a lumber mill,
became a coal mining town, and then disappeared.
Shortly after World War I, timber cutting began in the Three Forks Run area. In 1924, the Chaffee Railroad Company was organized to build a standard gage railroad from Vindex to the Western Maryland Railroad downstream from Kitzmiller. Unfortunately, the lumber company business in Vindex only existed for a year or so after the standard gage railroad was built; however, Johnstown Coal and Coke Co. opened up an excellent seam of coal and Vindex flourished as a coal town. Finally, in 1950, the coal company went out of business, the mine closed, and Vindex became a ghost town. Today, only a few concrete steps and house foundations attest to the fact that a town once existed there. |
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Kitzmiller |
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Located on the North Branch of the Potomac River, the town was named for Ebenezar Kitzmiller.
He was the son-in-law of Thomas Wilson, who built a grist mill there in 1802. Years later,
Ebinezer opened a woolen mill and the town was eventually given the name Kitzmillersville;
later, it was shortened to Kitzmiller.
The town had a steady growth after the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railroad was pushed up the Potomac River. First it was enlarged by timber cutting and later became a center for local coal mining. By 1908, there were four major coal mines in the Kitzmiller area, providing employment for hundreds of miners. An interesting part of the mining operations was the aerial transport of coal across the river. As the railroad progressed up the river, sometimes it was easier to build the tracks on the West Virginia side; other times on the Maryland side. As a result, the railroad crossed and re-crossed the river several times. To get their coal to the railroad’s loading tipples, the management of the coal companies would use a cable car system, or construct a trestle high above the river. One example of the cable car was the Hamill Coal and Coke mine downstream from Kitzmiller which transported its coal via a cable car system across the river to a tipple on the West Virginia side. Upstream above Kitzmiller, the Garrett County Coal Mining Company transported its coal across the river on a trestle. |
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Shallmar |
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The town of Shallmar received its name by reversing parts of the name Marshall to become
Shallmar. Mr. W.A. Marshall was the first superintendent of the Wolf Den Coal Company which
built the town. (In 1927, the name of the operating company was changed to the Shallmar Mining
Corportation.) Unlike nearby Kitzmiller, Shallmar was a planned “company town” with all of the
houses built on the same pattern. They were constructed beside a long street which follow the
top of the bank of the Potomac River.
The mines in the Kitzmiller and Shallmar area slowed production to almost zero when the coal market slumped in the mid-1920’s; eventually most of them went out of business during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Today, most of the company houses in Shallmar are privately owned and the old company store building is still there along with the Marshall house. |
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Eagle Rock |
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| Known as the “cap stone” of the mountains, the hard Clarion sandstone forms much of the ridge of Backbone Mountain. In many places it is cracked and broken, producing large blocks which stand by themselves. One of the many such blocks along the mountain ridge is Eagle Rock. This massive block was accessible by horse and buggy for visitors from the Deer Park Hotel. It was a popular place to visit because of the tremendous views it afforded. | ||
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