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IMAGES
From
Nostalgiaville |
NOTE: A Click of your Mouse on most of the pictures will enlarge them for better viewing
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C & O CANAL, Maryland (Near Hagerstown, MD) |
| WESTERN MARYLAND RAIL TRAIL |
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| Wild Flowers explode along the trail |
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MILLSTONE AND MOFFET STATION A small community originally called Millstone Point, but later changed to just Millstone, grew up along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Andrew Jackson (General and later U S President) met a committee from Hancock here. Harpers Monthly relates the following incident: "Some excavations were being made in the neighborhood and several blasts were fired in honor of the occasion as "Old Hickory" approached. "Didn't the detonations alarm our horse, general?" inquired a solicitous committeeman. "No sir," said Jackson emphatically' "My horse and I have heard a similar sort of music before." |
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During the Civil War several companies of the First Regiment Maryland Infantry were stationed at Millstone Point to protect the C & O Canal from Confederates. In 1909 Millstone was reported to have a population of 100 and a general store and post office, a harness maker, distiller, mason, several carpenters, a teacher and a blacksmith. There were also numerous farmers in the area. The Moffet Station was constructed nearby when the Cumberland Extension of the Western Maryland Railway came through this location. |
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ERNSTVILLE ROAD BRIDGE The Ernstville Road Bridge was constructed in 1930 to carry motor vehicles on Ernstville Road safely over the Western Maryland Railway. From 1904 until the construction of the bridge, vehicles traveling the road between Ernstville and Big Pool has to cross the Railroad tracks at grade, which was very dangerous. The one lane, metal girder Ernstville Road Bridge rested on two concrete piers and had a wooden plank deck. In its time, the bridge was considered a great safety improvement. Its metal and concrete construction was stronger and more maintenance-free than a traditional all-wooden bridge would have been. |
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With time, however, the metal corroded and the wooden planks deteriorated. Ernstville Road Bridge was no longer safe to use and had to be replaced. The present concrete culvert overpass was constructed in 1997 as part of the development of the Western Maryland Rail Trail. It has been faced with stone to resemble traditional railroad tunnels seen throughout Western Maryland. |
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PARK HEAD LEVEL GRAVEYARD Near this site is located a graveyard that dates to the early 1800's. Some of the family names found there are Bryan, Long, Moor and Snyder. These families settled and lived in the area called Park Head. The most recent visible tombstone was erected for Susan Long who died on December 24, 1838. There are numerous unmarked graves and graves that are marked with plain field stone markers. |
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A brewing thunder storm hastened the turn-around point. There were 13+ more miles left on this great trail. |
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| FORT FREDERICK STATE PARK |
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FORT FREDERICK... A Witness to War Built by the Maryland colony in 1756 during the French and Indian War, Fort Frederick's stone walls surrounded three large buildings. The colonists abandoned the frontier fort in 1759, when the threat of Indian raids subsided. During the Revolutionary War, the fort confined hundreds of British prisoners. The state auctioned the fort and about 100 acres in the 1790's. |
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The property changed hands several times; in 1860, Nathan Williams a free African American bought the place and farmed the land. By then, time and scavengers had demolished the buildings. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the area around Fort Frederick again became strategically significant. The U S Army acted to protect the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal a quarter-mile south of the fort and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad across the Potomac River in present-day West Virginia. |
| The 1st Maryland Infantry (U S) under the command of Colonel John Kenly arrived in December 1861 to guard the canal and the fords and ferries between Four Locks, to the east, and Cherry Run, to the west. Company H occupied Fort Frederick. On Christmas Day 1861, the regiment skirmished nearby with Confederate raiders who tore up the railroad. Company D relieved Company H here in January 1862, then crossed the river at the end of February to protect the railroad while it was under repair. In October 1862, a 12th Illinois Cavalry picket guarded the canal "immediately south of old Fort Frederick," and other Federals later occupied the area. |
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NATHAN
WILLIAMS... A Prosperous Farm Nathan Williams was the son of Samuel "Big Sam" Williams, a slave who in 1826 bought freedom for himself, his wife, and his four children. In 1839, the elder Williams purchased a farm near Four Locks, about 3.5 miles east of Fort Frederick. |
| There, Nathan Williams fell in love with a slave named Ammy on an adjoining farm and bought her freedom for $60 in 1847. In 1860, just before the Civil War, the couple acquired the Fort Frederick tract for $7,000. When the 1st Maryland Infantry (U S) garrisoned the fort in 1861 - 1862, officers occupied the Williams house, which was located near the present park gift shop, and Ammy Williams cooked their meals. Nathan Williams sold produce to the soldiers here as well as to the Confederates across the Potomac River. He justified his fraternization with the Confederates by passing information to the Federals. |
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After the war, Williams dismantled most of the fort's northwest bastion to construct a barn. Inside the fort he built animal pens and planted grapevines, vegetables and a small orchard. He also cultivated the fields outside and bought more land to expand his farm as he prospered. In 1884, Nathan Williams died and the farm passed to his family. By the 1890's, public sentiment in Maryland spurred efforts by the state to require the fort. In 1911, the Williams family sold 189.5 acres with the fort. The state bought it in 1922 to create Fort Frederick, Maryland's first state park. |
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LITTLE POOL Little Pool was part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal which connected Cumberland to Georgetown and ran parallel to the Potomac River. The principal cargo hauled on the canal heading east was coal. Westbound boats hauled various cargoes such as furniture, produce and fertilizer. The canal operated until the flood of 1924 forced its abandonment. Little Pool is nearly one mile long and was formed by transferring the towpath from the mainland to an island in the Potomac River. A stop gate was located at the lower end of Little Pool so that it did not have to be drained during the winter. |
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BIG POOL JUNCTION The eighteen miles of rails between Hagerstown and Big Pool were the business of the Western Maryland Railway. It was here in 1892 that a connection was made with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad across the Potomac River at Cherry Run, West Virginia. The Big Pool Train Station was constructed in 1892. By the turn of the century other structures were added including a siding, a storage building and company houses. |
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In 1904 the building of the Cumberland Extension began at Big Pool. The Western Maryland reached Hancock by December of that year and Cumberland by March two years later. In 1906, a coal chute 758 feet long and 37 feet high was constructed to empty coal from the trains coal cars into the steam engine's tender. A water tower was also built to fill the steam engine with the water that would be converted to steam. A freight station and a train order office were also located here. The train order office operated until March 1, 1977. |
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| McCOYS FERRY |
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| FOUR LOCKS |
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FOUR LOCKS Here the Potomac River makes a meandering four-mile loop around Prather's Neck. To avoid the bend in the river, the canal engineers cut the canal one-half mile across the neck. Because of the rapid elevation change these four locks were necessary to lift the canal boats a total of 33 feet. |
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A small but busy community grew up here. Children dallied on their way to the one-room schoolhouse still standing just down the road. In the barn just ahead mules rested after long canal miles. Canal boats loaded and unloaded cargo at the warehouses at Locks 49 and 50. Other boats were repaired at the dry-dock at Lock 47. |
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Four locks was once a thriving community with houses, barns, stores and a post office. Residents carried on the activities of their lives centered around the canal and the farms nearby. Just behind Lockhouse 49 is the foundation of a house typical of the area. Probably built in the early 1860's. the Lewis Fernsner House was a two-story weather-board, six room building. That house burned in 1872 and was immediately rebuilt by Fernsner. |
| Lewis Fernsner was a carpenter who repaired canal boats at the dry-dock at Lock 47. In addition, he was a boat owner, listed as a boatman in the 1880 census. One of Lewis' sons, Samuel, operated a general store at Lock 48 in partnership with Jacob "Jake" Snyder. Jake Snyder married Sam's sister Lela and also lived in this house before moving to Big Spring. The house was removed in the early 1960's due to advanced deterioration. |
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| Lockhouse 49 |
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MULE POWER A mule, a cross between a male donkey and a female horse, combines the size and temperament of a horse and the strength, endurance, and ears of a donkey. |
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Normally, a boat captain had four. Two worked while two rested in their stall in the front of the boat. Captains usually cared for mules as if they were part of the family. In the canal's peak years, the 1870's, there were about 3,000 mules working on the canal. |
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| Here at the Four Locks mule barn, mules rested during the winter months. Boat captains left their mules here, paying a mule tender to care for them. Often the mules grew thin because the keeper did not feed the mules as well as their owners did. Mules were the "engines" for the canal boats. |
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| NEAR THE PARK |
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LANCELOT JACQUES A French Huguenot who in partnership with Thomas Johnson in 1768 built "Greenspring Furnace." He and Johnson dissolved partnership in 1776 when Johnson became the first Governor of Maryland. Jacques' house built about 1776. |
| Mt Carmel UM Church |
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