Mount
Officers for 2008 President Dennis Lashley |
June 14, 2008
Mount Savage Community-Wide Yard Sale
8 am to ?
September 20
& 21, 2008
Iron Rail Days
Mount
10 am to 5 pm
October 4, 2008
Mount Savage Community-Wide Yard Sale
8 am to ?
October 25, 2008
Artists in Our Village
December 6, 2008
3 pm
to 8 pm
Meetings: Third Sunday every month,
7:00 PM the Old Bank on Main Street.
Letter from the President.
Spring has come to the mountains,
bringing lots of new and exciting projects.
The big news is Main Street. Eight buildings on Main Street are gone. In their
place will be a large area of grass and a parking lot which will hold about 20 cars.
County officials have told us they will be supplying the gravel for the parking area along
with shrubs and small trees for the grass area. Plans are also in the works for the corner
lot by Mrs. (Beal) Norris. She has contacted the county for permission to maintain that
lot. We as an organization will be getting a letter from the county allowing us to regrade
and plant the remaining area. As for upkeep of the area, nothing has been decided about
that, but we will be working with other groups in the community to come up with a solution
in the near future.
Old Row Park has seen some changes also. Recently about 300 ft of fencing has been
installed along Allegany Creek. It had become
dangerous for our school tours. With the addition of this fence, we are now secure in
their safety. The cabin is also going to get a new roof. Our members along with the local
Boy Scouts, under the direction of Jim Dickle will be installing the roofing. Our thanks
to the Lighting Committee. They have undersigned these two projects by completely funding
both projects.
I’d like to thank all the members for
renewing their membership for the 2008 year. And, a special thanks to those who included
extra money as a donation to our organization. Your
continued support is much appreciated.
Work continues on the Furnace project with the removal of brush and trees from the top section of the
property. All that remains is about 7 large trees. These will be the most difficult to
remove because of their location and close proximity to overhead power lines. The park area will continue to be cleaned and plans
for some additional landscaping looked into as the summer progresses. Other work will be
done as time and volunteers are available.
The Old Bank building will be the next costly project. The ceiling will need some
major repair along with being completely repainted. We have discovered some repairs that
will need to be done to the chimney before we
can do the ceiling work.
Hopefully this year we will see a fresh coat of paint on the Old Jail. It’s
starting to show some wear and tear. Maybe a color change is on the agenda?
The Union Mining Building now has an office space equipped with a computer, scanner
and printer. Work on this was completed over the cold months of Jan. and Feb. It can now
be used for our proposed Genealogy library along with the sorting and storing of
historical documents. Since it’s a small enclosed space it can be used summer or
winter. Future project will be the addition of hand rails and installation of the
remaining (Name Bricks) in front of the
building.
See You
Around Town
Dennis L. Lashley
Webmaster
History of Profit Sharing U.S. 1888
The
principle attempts at the system have been in coal and iron mines, and in iron foundries.
Texas, Alabama and Georgia can furnish several instances in their newly developed mining
industries. In Maryland there exists one notable case in the management of the Union
Mining Company
at Mt. Savage. Through the kindness of the president, Mr. James S. Mackie, I have obtained
a minute account of this newly started experiment.
To anticipate and avoid a strike among their employees, strikes having occurred in
neighboring mines, the company determined to inaugurate a profit-sharing system in their
works.
The
employees accepted and the scheme went into active operation January 1, 1886. The
provisions of the agreement were, in brief, that the directors pledge themselves to pay to
their employees, annually or semi-annually, an amount equal to ten per cent. on every
dividend made to the shareholders; the said percentage to be pro-rated according to the
earnings of each man on the pay-rolls for the time covered by the dividend. Salaried
employees were excluded.
St. Georges Church
May
24, 1853
Baptisms
— infants, …………….................9
Communicants connected with the Church ..15
Added …………………………….............1
Present number…………………...............16
Funerals…………………………............... 6
Sunday School — Teachers………...............8
The
undersigned assumed the charge of this Church late in the month of February last, and
after it bad been several months vacant. He has since been necessarily absent for some
weeks, and his report is therefore very imperfect and only dates from the commencement of
his labors. The
population of this place, owing to the resumption of the iron-business, is again on the
increase; and, with it, the Church congregation is steadily increasing. Through the
kindness of the President of the " Mt. Savage
Iron Company," a small but comfortable house has been secured to the clergyman.
P. MANNING STRYKER.
MOUNT SAVAGE IRON WORKS.
The repairs to the Rolling Mill and other works of the
Mount Savage Iron Company at this place are going on rapidly; and it is supposed that in
two weeks the manufacture of rails will be again commenced. In the mean time the Company
has laid in an immense stock of ore for future consumption. It was obtained from Messrs.
Percy & Co... The lands of the Frostburg, Borden, and New-York Companies, from Wills
Creek, from Braddock's Run and the vicinity.
The ore is said to be the best hematite, and the stock is supposed to be large enough to
supply the mill for more than a year and a half. We see no reason why the splendid works
of the Mount Savage Company should not manufacture
all the rails that will be needed by the various railroads that are in process of
construction in all this region of country. —Cumberland
Journal. 1853
The
Varnum House
The
Varnum House was the first hotel, first boarding house, and so many other firsts. A large
red building named after the man who built it for the Maryland and New York Coal and Iron
Company, it contained fifty-five rooms and a large ball room. Heated with pot-bellied
stoves, lit with candles and later with coal oil lamps. Every bedroom had a wash bowl and
pitcher and slop jar instead of a bathroom. A beautiful spiral staircase wound from the
first floor to the fourth. A large sign across the front, painted black and white, read
VARNUM HOUSE. The hotel that housed many an aristocrat, blacksmith, boilermaker and
machinist when the C & P Railroad Shops built their engines. Where Old Doc Hawkins,
Doc Quarrels and Doc Brown all had their offices on the first floor. Where the plant Supt.
Henry Shrines stayed. Where merchants plied their trade in large store rooms on the first
floor. Where McMullen Brothers' store gave bags of candy, cigars, enough gingham or calico
to make an apron for paying one's store bill in full. Where traveling salesmen could stay
over night for $.50 for a bed, $.25 for breakfast, and food and shelter for their horse in
the stable for $.25 extra.. Where Mrs. Ryland, Mrs. Hergott and Mrs. Cook dispensed
hospitality as the hostesses. Where its reputation as a summer resort was known all along
the Eastern Seaboard. Where all the men about town came to meet the guests and hear their
praises of the beautiful hills and valleys.
No doubt the admiration of these guests inspired one of our own citizens, Mr. Charley Geatz (sp?) to write and have published a beautiful song about these hills. It was called "Mid the Rugged Hills of Maryland".
The Varnum House was torn down in 1924, and a Mt.
Savage landmark passed into history.
"A
Time To Remember"
Gladys & Carl Pressman
“Days
Gone By will not soon be forgotten”
Fourth Graders Town Tour
May 28, 2008~Fifty-five fourth graders from Mt. Savage School are entering the Union Mining Company Building as part of the third annual tour of the Mt Savage historical sites. Sites visited include First National Bank on Main St, Mt Savage Jail, Union Mining Building, Community Park and Vet’s Memorial, Old Row Park and Museum and for the first time, a trip to the Old Iron Furnace.
MOUNT SAVAGE IRON COMPANY
We do not think the efforts of this Company to develop the mineral resources of Allegany County are sufficiently understood or appreciated. When the splendid works at Mount Savage were purchased by the present Company in 1847, their railroad was only nine miles in length. In a few years they extended it to Frostburg, a distance of five miles, for the accommodation of the coal trade, which previous to that time employed a horse road as far down as Mt. Savage. The construction of this extension alone cost the Company $110,000, with an additional sum of $72,000 for equipment, in locomotives, etc. But in addition to these expenditures they have, during the last few years, made a connection with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal at the Cumberland connection has cost them, for right of way, construction, and other improvements, $35,000 more. Continued above
MOUNT SAVAGE IRON COMPANY
continued
They
have also been obliged almost entirely to reconstruct the road from Mt. Savage to
Cumberland, at an expenditure of $133,000, including bridges, engine houses, etc., of
which sum more than $40,000 have been spent at the Narrows, in cutting down the slope of
the mountain and widening the road bed so as to permit the laying of three tracks. Two of
these tracks are now completed, and the third is graded and is now being laid with iron. Thus it will be seen that
the Mt. Savage Iron Company have since 1847 expended not less than $300,000 in affording
facilities for the coal trade of Allegany County. The Company mine no coal whatever,
except for their own use, but carry to market the coal of the Frostburg Coal Company, the
Borden Mining Company, the Allegany Mining Company, and the Parker Vein Company. But not
content with this, the Mt. Savage Company intend to push their enterprise further. They
are now negotiating with Messrs, Aspinwall, Cunard and others, of the Ocean Steamship
Company, who have lately purchased a very valuable coal property, in the George's Creek
Valley, for the extension of the Mt. Savage road into that valley, so as to bring their
coal to market by the Jenning's Run route. These negotiations bid fair to result in a
satisfactory arrangement. So much for the facilities for the coal trade afforded by the
Mt. Savage Company. Of this regular business some idea may be formed from the fact that
they employ more than 1,000 hands at their works, and consume in their various
manufactures more than 75,000 tons of coal per annum.—
Cumberland Journal. 1854
The repairs to the Rolling Mill and other works of the
Mount Savage Iron Company at this place are going on rapidly; and it is supposed that in
two weeks the manufacture of rails will be again commenced. In
the mean time the Company has laid in an immense stock of ore for future consumption. It
was obtained from Messrs. Percy & Co... The lands of the Frostburg, Borden, and
New-York Companies, from Wills Creek, from Braddock's Run and the vicinity.
The ore is said to be the best hematite, and the stock is supposed to be large enough to
supply the mill for more than a year and a half. We see no reason
why the splendid works of the Mount Savage Company should not manufacture
all the rails that will be needed by the various railroads that are in process of
construction in all this region of country.—Cumberland
Journal. 1853
Ramblings in Mt Savage 1849
THE R O A D.
The shrill whistle of the locomotive wakes them up several times day in the neighborhood
of the hotels and the rail-road depot. Then the cars come and go from and to Baltimore,
and, in connection with them, go and come a host of stage coaches to and from Wheeling, on
the national road. Then there is a strapping on of trunks, a swearing of stage-drivers, a
bustling of ostlers, and a barking of dogs, that is sufficiently animating. All who come
into the town seem to be anxious at once to get out of it. The town of Cumberland, in the
County of Alleghany and State of Maryland, is one of those dull, dusty, unfinished-looking
spots, which are always going to be great, but are very slow in achieving greatness. For
fifteen years it has been in annual expectation of a boat-connection with the ocean, by
means of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the Erie of this region; and, though there is now
a fair prospect that the hopes of its people will be realized, the long period of hope
deferred has almost made their hearts sick, and they seem to look with comparative
indifference on the troops of Irishmen who are scooping out a basin for the waters of the
Potomac.
On the western side of the town a gap in Will's Mountain opens just wide enough to
accommodate Will's Creek, the National Road, and the rail-road of the Mount Savage Iron
Company, down which a huge locomotive draws about three hundred tons of coal daily, in
large circular iron cars, which are carried on to Baltimore by another engine. Precipitous
palisades, down which they slide lime-stone, crags of flint-stone, such as once was made
into glass about here, mountains and hills on both sides,
And now let me tell the reader that we are on a visit to Bruce Hill, where there is a
pleasant family to welcome us. There are, besides ourselves, two other adults, and a pair
of stairs of children, beginning with a little boy four years old, called Walley : I
mention these particulars because when people are reading letters from abroad they like to
know exactly how their correspondent is situated. Bruce House is a spacious mansion of two
stories high, and some seventy feet wide, with plenty of room in it for us all, and
abounding in all that is essential to comfort. From this place we propose to visit the
greatest mineral region in the United States, and I shall first look at the coal-mines, as
that is the staple. Excuse me if I sometimes talk in the past, and sometimes in the
present tense; sometimes in the first, and sometimes in the third person; and in a very
desultory manner about all sorts of things.
More
Ramblings next time. Coal industry will be talked about.