History of Western Maryland. J. Thomas Scharf

it was like or unlike any of the automatic rakes of the present day, but the cutting apparatus was the same in principle as those now in use on the best reapers, mowing in the same shears-like manner, which has been universally approved and adopted as the best method of cutting grain, and differing only in the manner of attaching the knives to the sickle-bar. In modern machines the knives are short and broad and riveted fast to the sickle-bar, while in Thomas' machine the knives were longer and pivoted in the middle, and attached to the sickle-bar by a pivot at the rear end. Thomas was extremely sensitive, and unable to bear up against and overcome the incredulity and ridicule consequent upon the partial failure of the machine, and it was never finished by him. He afterwards built a factory for the manufacture of flax into linen, but it did not prove remunerative. He subsequently removed to Baltimore, where he kept the Globe Inn, on Market Street, and then to Frederick City, where he kept the City Hotel, and afterwards to Point of Rocks, on the Potomac River, where at the time of his death he was engaged in the construction of a steam canalboat invented by himself. Obed Hussey, the pioneer in the manufacture of practical reaping-machines, was a cousin of Jacob R. Thomas. They were intimately acquainted, and Hussey afterwards perfected Thomas' invention, and from that McCormick's, and all others cutting on the same principle, were framed. The pathetic story of Jacob R. Thomas is the same so often repeated in the lives of inventors and discoverers. The spark of genius went out amid the vapors of poverty, while his quick-witted imitators reaped the golden showers which should have been poured into his own lap. The region of country afterwards known as Carroll County now grew apace. The lands were cleared of their dense forests, the magnificent water-courses were utilized for mills and manufactures, towns sprang into existence, and the inhabitants, following the motto of the commonwealth, increased and multiplied. Taneytown, Westminster, Manchester, Hampstead, Union Bridge, Middleburg, and New Windsor became prosperous villages. At the close of the last war between Great Britain and the United States agricultural products commanded excellent prices. Wheat-flour was sold in the Baltimore markets for fourteen dollars per barrel, and other commodities realized proportionate prices. The value of land had greatly appreciated. In April, 1814, Peter Benedune sold out all his land in the vicinity of Union Bridge at prices ranging from one hundred to one hundred and twenty dollars per acre, and removed to the Valley of Virginia. About this time also the spirit of progress was abroad. The Westminster Fire-Engine and Church Lottery was drawn in Frederick City, July 10, 1813. A bank was established in Westminster, and it is learned from the newspapers of the day that the old martial spirit, fanned into a flame during the Revolution, and rekindled in 1812 by the invasion of the British, was still active and vigorous. Under date of Oct. 13, 1821, the Frederick Herald says, " At a meeting of the Columbian Independent Company, commanded by Capt. Nicholas Snider, of Taneytown, and the Independent Pipe Creek Company, commanded by Capt. Thomas Hook, at Middleburg, in Frederick County, . . . information of the death of Gen. John Ross Key was received."

      The people were virtuous and God-fearing. The corner-stone of the German Reformed and English Presbyterian church was laid in Taneytown, Sept. 5, 1821. It was about this date also that the inhabitants awakened to a sense of the value of regular postal communication, and a postal service on horseback was established from Frederick City to Westminster via Union Bridge and back once a week. The people were gradually becoming sensible of the overgrown bulk and unmanageable interests of the immense counties of Frederick and Baltimore, and the leading men residing in either county in the vicinity of Westminster began to take an active interest in politics. Joshua Cockey became a prominent politician in this end of Frederick County, and represented his constituents in the Senate and House of Delegates. Isaac Shriver also represented the county several times. William P. Farquhar and John Fisher were also members of the House of Delegates. Peter Little and Elias Brown, of Freedom District, represented the Baltimore District in Congress between the years 1818 and 1828. In 1832 the feeling, which had been gaining strength for years, that a new county was absolutely needed for the convenience and prosperity of those dwelling in the eastern portion of Frederick and the western portion of Baltimore Counties culminated in a memorial to the Legislature of Maryland petitioning for a division of these counties and the establishment of a new one to be called " Westminster."

      When the area and population of Frederick and Baltimore Counties are considered it seems extraordinary that this movement should have been so long delayed or that it should have met with such decided opposition when inaugurated. The two counties contained nearly one-filth of the territorial area of the State, and, exclusive of the city of Baltimore, they possessed a population of upwards of eighty-five thousand inhabitants, or very nearly one-fifth of the whole number of inhabitants in the State. The bounds of the new county, as proposed by the memorialists, were as follows: " Beginning at Parr's Spring, at the head of the western branch of the Patapsco River, and running with said branch, binding on Anne Arundel County, to the north branch of said river; thence running up said north branch, excluding the same, to the old mill on Dr. Moore Falls' land, including said mill; thence north seventeen degrees east to the Pennsylvania line; thence, binding on said line, westwardly to Rock Creek, one of the head-waters of the Monocacy River; thence with said creek and river, excluding the same, to Double Pipe Creek; thence with said creek, and with Little Pipe Creek and Sam's Creek, including their waters, to Maurois' mill, excluding said mill, and thence with a straight line to Parr's Spring, the beginning."

      It was estimated that the new county would contain about twenty-five thousand inhabitants. The town of Westminster, beautifully situated in the valley between the head-waters of Little Pipe Creek and those of the north branch of the Patapsco, on the road leading from Baltimore to Pittsburgh, generally known as the Reisterstown turnpike road, and containing a population of seven hundred souls, was to be the county-seat. The people in some of the districts were now thoroughly aroused. Complaints were frequent and vehement of the distance to be traversed to reach the seats of justice in Baltimore and Frederick Counties respectively, and the difficulties and delays encountered because of the overcrowded dockets of the courts. The Star of Federalism, a newspaper, was established at Uniontown, and at different periods three papers were published at Westminster by George Keating, Mr. Burke, and George W. Sharpe, all strenuously advocating a division. The latter afterwards removed to Frederick and established the Frederick Citizen. The support of these papers was small, and they were soon discontinued. Although the sentiment in favor of a division was general, the people were very much divided in opinion as to how it should be done. Some favored a division of Frederick County alone, some were in favor of separating Baltimore County from the city and locating the seat of justice at a central point, while the inhabitants of Westminster and its vicinity, which was on the dividing line between the two counties, were anxious to take a portion of each of those counties and form a new one with Westminster as the county-seat. The memorial mentioned above was presented to the Legislature of Maryland in 1833, and referred to a committee of which William Cost Johnson, of Frederick, was chairman. Mr. Johnson was a man of great ability and popularity. He introduced a bill into the Legislature which created a county with the metes and bounds prayed for by the memorialists, and it was mainly through his efforts that it passed both houses. It had been the original intention of the petitioners to give the name of Westminster to the new county, but the bill as passed named it " Carroll," in honor of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, then recently deceased, a man who in character, ability, patriotism, and usefulness has never been surpassed in Maryland.

      The act of Assembly was clogged with a provision requiring its submission to the vote of the people who lived in the sections of the two counties proposed to be cut off, and further exacting a majority of the voters in its favor in each segment. The vote was to be taken viva voce, at the October election in 1833. The people were now fully alive to the importance of the question, and the issue was fairly joined. Col. John K. Longwell established the Carrolltonian at Westminster, June 28, 1833, a journal whose aim was to advocate the division and educate the people up to a full knowledge of the advantages likely to accrue from the creation of the new county. The paper was conducted with marked ability and zeal, and the division, which occurred four years later, was measurably due to its unflagging energy and fidelity. As the fall election approached public meetings were held in the districts interested and the merits of the proposed division very thoroughly discussed. A very large meeting was held at Westminster and an able address issued, which was published in pamphlet form in the English and German languages and very freely circulated in the counties. A committee composed of the following-named gentlemen was appointed to further