BGuthrie Photos: MD -- Hagerstown

MD -- Hagerstown:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. HAGER_080203_009.JPG: "The Wall of Generations", 1996. Artists: Lyle Kissack Gerald Ross Sponsors: City of Hagerstown Washington County Arts Council Maryland State Arts Council The town mural had chipped a lot since I had seen it the previous year.
2. HAGER_080203_018.JPG: City Hall dates from 1937.
3. HAGER_080203_020.JPG: First Battle of Hagerstown Vicious Fighting in the Streets -- Gettysburg Campaign -- Combat raged here in the town square and in adjoining city blocks for six hours on Monday, July 6, 1863. Holding Hagerstown was crucial to Gen. Robert E. Lee's retreat to Virginia after the Battle of Gettysburg. If the Confederates lost this crossroads town, Lee's access to the Potomac River would be seriously hampered. The Federals recognized Hagertown's importance, and just before noon Gen. H. Judson Kilpatrick's cavalry division galloped north on Potomac Street. It charged into three Virginia brigades, and each side fed reinforcements into what became a wild melee of mounted charges and dismounted duels. The fighting lurched from street corner to street corner, and ultimately into dismounted assaults from house to house, yard to yard, doorway to doorway, churchyard to churchyard, and gravestone to gravestone. The arrival of Confederate infantry - Gen. Alfred Iverson's North Carolina brigade - finally compelled the Federals to abandon their efford to seize Hagerstown. Monday, July 6: "Afternoon. At this moment fighting is going on in our very own town and the balls are whizzing through the streets. ... Oh God, of Heaven, have mercy upon us and deliver us from this terrible war." -- Louise Kealhofer diary "The cutting and slashing was beyond description; here right before and underneath us the deadly conflict was waged in a hand to hand combat, with the steel blades circling, waving, parrying, thrusting, and cutting, some reflecting the bright sunlight, others crimsoned with human gore; while the discharge of pistols and carbines was terrific, and the smoke through which we now gazed down through and on the scene below, the screams and yells of the wounded and dying, mingled with cheers and commands, the crashing together of the horses and firey flashes of small arms presented a scene such as words cannot portray." -- W.W. Jacobs, civilian eyewitness
4. HAGER_080203_023.JPG: Second Battle of Hagerstown Custer Captures the Town -- Gettysburg Campaign -- Six days had passed since the Federals had failed in their first attempt to seize Hagerstown as they pursued Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederate army retreating to Virginia after the Battle of Gettysburg. On Sunday morning, July 12, 1863, a decisive event occurred - the Union army determined to secure its northern flank. The mission to capture Hagerstown was assigned to Gen. George Armstrong Custer and his Michigan cavalry brigade. Custer's Wolverines rode into town from the east, scattering and capturing stunned Confederates, seizing almost 100 prisoners, and setting free nearly 40 Federal soldiers, missing after the fighting of July 6. Local citizens sympathetic to the Union cause has been sheltering these men. After the victorious Custer led his column through town, doffing his hat to handkerchief-waving ladies, XI Corps commander Gen. Oliver O. Howard climbed into a church steeple and for the first time viewed the extensive Confederate fortifications located west and south of town. Difficult days remained ahead. "[Hagerstown was] a hornet's nest of sharpshooters armed with telescopic rifles, who could pick a man's ear off half a mile away. The bullets from their guns had a peculiar sound, something like the buzz of a bumble bee, and the troopers' horses would stop, prick up their ears and gaze in the direction whence the hum of those invisible messengers could be heard." -- Capt. James Kidd, Custer's Michigan Cavalry Brigade. Tuesday, July 14: "Sunday (July 12) was a day of intense anxiety. The Yankees came and took possession of the town. The Rebels had all gone. Yesterday all the streets were crowded with horse and no one could go near the door as the street was used as a stable. ... It is reported that the Rebels have crossed the river but we know nothing. Oh this dreadful suspense. ... I fear we've seen the very last of the Rebels." -- Louise Kealhofer diary
5. HAGER_080203_031.JPG: Little Heiskell: One of the most recognizable symbols of the city of Hagerstown is the weathervane known as "Little Heiskell." Named after the German tinsmith who crafted it in 1796, it stood atop the Market House first and City Hall second for a combined 166 years. It was moved from the Market House to City Hall in 1824. During the American Civil War era, the weathervane gained its characteristic bullet hole from a Confederate sharpshooter. Finally in 1935, the original was retired to the Museum of the Washington County Historical Society, later to be moved to its present display in the Jonathan Hager House. An exact replica has replaced it atop City Hall.
6. HAGER_080203_067.JPG: Fire station (1852)
7. HAGER_080203_083.JPG: John Wesley United Methodist Church (1885)
8. HAGER_080203_098.JPG: Zion Evangelical and Reformed Church (1867)
9. HAGER_080203_125.JPG: The grave of Jonathan Hager
10. HAGER_080203_150.JPG: Graveyard at the Zion Reformed Church. The grave of Jonathan Hager, the town's founder, is one of the taller markers near the church.
11. HAGER_080203_183.JPG: Mount Prospect: Nathanial Rochester House This is the original site of "Mount Prospect," also known as "The Rochester House." Nathanial Rochester built the house in 1789 on ground which once belonged to Jonathan Hager, the founder of Hagerstown. The home was used as a "way station" during the Civil War for battlefield casualties from both the North and South. One of the wounded soldiers treated there was Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., who fought at the Battle of Antietam. He later became a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Rochester, formerly a colonel in the Continental Army, was the owner of a nail and lock factory, the first president of the Hagerstown Bank, a member of the state legislature, a postmaster, a sheriff, and a Judge of the Washington County Court. In 1810, he left Hagerstown leading a caravan of settlers to the Genesse Valley where he founded Rochester, New York.
12. HAGER_080203_216.JPG: The Miller House
13. HAGER_080203_218.JPG: Discovery Station at Hagerstown, Inc
14. HAGER_080203_224.JPG: Washington County Courthouse
15. HAGER_080203_288.JPG: Maryland Theatre
16. HAGER_080203_297.JPG: First Hagerstown Hose Co
17. HAGER_080203_308.JPG: Washington County Free Library..
18. HAGER_080203_337.JPG: The original Washington County Free Library.
19. HAGER_080203_359.JPG: Bench Mark "A": "In October 1877, Bench Mark "A" was cut on the water table of the recently rebuilt courthouse in Hagerstown, Maryland," reads the report of the coast and geodetic survey to President McKinley. This was the beginning point of a transcontinental level line which by way of Williamsport and then along the C&O Canal reached Hancock in one month but it was not until 1904 that the line extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. Bench Mark "A" is not just of historical interest, but has been included in leveling surveys conducted in 1931, 1941, and 1979,. It has remained very stable in relation to other nearby marks. This mark was chosen to be part of a leveling project completed in 1988.
20. HAGER_080203_363.JPG: Bench Mark "A"
21. HAGER_080203_368.JPG: Crossroads of History: Route 40 & 11 Cross at this Point: In the court house that stood on this site, Confederate Gen. John McCausland was given $20,000 in cash and all of the suits, hats, shoes, boots, shirts and socks that could be found as ransom upon his threat to burn Hagerstown in July of 1864. Over the Old National Trail in front of this court house passed thousands of settlers on the way west by wagon, horse, and foot in the first half of the 19th century before the building of railroads across the mountains. The street to the west was once an Indian trail. The armies of the Union and the Confederacy used it as the tide of the Civil War ebbed back and forth across the Potomac.
22. HAGER_080203_371.JPG: Washington County Courthouse: This is Washington County's third courthouse. When the county was established in 1776, the first courthouse, a combination building that served also as a market house, was built in the middle of the town square, one block east of here. It proved too small to house the government and too big an obstacle in the square. The county's affairs were moved to a new courthouse, built on the site of the present building 1818-22. That building burned in December 1871. The cornerstone of the present building was laid on October 9th 1872. The design was by H.A. and J. P. Simms of Philadelphia and the construction was by Robert C. Thornburg. Just over a year later, on January 2nd, 1874, the County Commissioners accepted the completed courthouse and held their first meeting here. The Italiante style architecture of this building is unusual for this part of Maryland. An annex, attached in the rear, was added in 1963.
Wikipedia Description: Hagerstown, Maryland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hagerstown is the county seat of Washington County, Maryland, United States. The population of the city proper as of a 2006 estimate by the United States Census Bureau is 39,008 , and the total 2000 urban population is 120,326 (~80,000 in MD). It is Western Maryland's largest city. Hagerstown is also Maryland's sixth largest city, but if the urban area was incorporated, it would be Maryland's second-most populous city.

Hagerstown is on the northwestern edge of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The city also has its own metropolitan area: Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV MSA. The population of the Metropolitan Statistical Area in 2000 was 222,771 and the 2006 estimate is 257,619 (U.S. Rank 169). Hagerstown is the fastest growing metropolitan area in the State of Maryland and among the fastest growing in the United States.

Hagerstown, due to the large number of roads and other transit that cross in the city, is known as the "Hub City." The nickname may also be applied to Hagerstown's status as the commercial and industrial hub for the Tri-State Area which includes much of Western Maryland, South Central Pennsylvania, and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.

History:

Founding:

Hagerstown was founded in 1762 by Jonathan Hager, a volunteer Captain of Scouts during the French and Indian War. Hager has been called the "Father of Washington County" due to his having laid the groundwork for its separation from Frederick County, Maryland in 1776 and the subsequent creation of Hagerstown as the county seat.

Civil War:

Hagerstown's strategic location at the border between the North and the South made the city a primary staging area and supply center for four major campaigns during the Civil War.

In 1861, General Robert Patterson’s troops used Hagerstown as a base to attack Virginia Rebels in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign.

In the Maryland Campaign of 1862, General James Longstreet’s command occupied the town while en route to the Battle of South Mountain and Antietam.

In 1863, the city was the site of several military incursions and engagements as General Lee’s army invaded and retreated at the Gettysburg Campaign.

In 1864, Hagerstown was invaded by the Confederate Army under General Jubal Early. On Wednesday, July 6, Early sent 1,500 cavalry, commanded by Brigadier-General John McCausland, into Hagerstown to levy a ransom for $200,000 and a large amount of clothing, in retribution for Federal destruction of farms, feed and cattle in the Shenandoah Valley. McCausland misread the amount, and instead only collected $20,000. This is in contrast to neighboring Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, which McCausland razed on July 30 when the borough failed to supply the requested ransom of $500,000 in U.S. currency, or $100,000 in gold.

Throughout the Civil War, private physicians and citizens of Hagerstown took care of men from both the North and South in a number of locations including the Franklin Hotel, Washington House, Lyceum, Hagerstown Male Academy, Key-Mar College, and a number of private residences.

The spread of smallpox from returning soldiers to their families and friends was a substantial problem during the war. The Bethel Methodist Episcopal Church volunteered the use of its church as a smallpox hospital when an epidemic spread throughout the town.

Following the war in 1872, Maryland and Virginia cooperated to re-enter Southern Confederate dead from their impromptu graves to cemeteries in Hagerstown, Frederick and Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Roughly 60% however, remained unidentified. In 1877, 15 years after the Battle of Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, approximately 2,800 Confederate dead from that battle were re-entered in Washington Confederate Cemetery and in Rosehill Cemetery in Hagerstown.

Railroads:

Hagerstown's nickname of the "Hub City" came from the large number of railroads (and roads) that served the city. Hagerstown was the center of the Western Maryland Railway and an important city on the Pennsylvania, Norfolk and Western, Baltimore and Ohio, and Hagerstown and Frederick Railroads. Currently, the city is a vital location on CSX, Norfolk Southern, and the Winchester and Western Railroads.

Hagerstown was formerly served by the Hagerstown & Frederick Railway, an interurban trolley system, from 1896 to 1947.

Little Heiskell:

One of the most recognizable symbols of the city of Hagerstown is the weathervane known as "Little Heiskell." Named after the German tinsmith who crafted it in 1796, it stood atop the Market House first and City Hall second for a combined 166 years. It was moved from the Market House to City Hall in 1824.

During the American Civil War era, the weathervane gained its characteristic bullet hole from a Confederate sharpshooter.

Finally in 1935, the original was retired to the Museum of the Washington County Historical Society, later to be moved to its present display in the Jonathan Hager House. An exact replica has replaced it atop City Hall.

The weathervane has also been depicted in the city's annual Mummers Day Parade by Mr. Charles Harry Rittenhouse, Sr. sporting all of the necessary accoutrements of a German Mercenary Soldier.

Aviation heritage:

From 1931 to 1984, Fairchild Aircraft was based in Hagerstown, Maryland and was by far the area's most prominent employer. The importance of the company to the city and the country as a whole earned Hagerstown its former nickname "Home of the Flying Boxcar."

Fairchild moved to Hagerstown in 1931 after Sherman Fairchild purchased a majority stock interest in Kreider-Reisner Aircraft Company of Hagerstown in 1929. Among Fairchild's products during World War II were PT-19/PT-23/PT-26 (Cornell) and AT-21 trainers, C-82 "Packet" cargo planes and missiles. At its height in World War II, Fairchild employed directly and indirectly up to 80% of Hagerstown's workforce or roughly 10,000 people.

In the postwar era, Fairchild continued to produce aircraft in Hagerstown such as C-123 Provider, Fairchild F-27 and Fairchild Hiller FH-227, FH-1100, C-26 Metroliner, UC-26 Metroliner, Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, and the T-46 jet trainer. However, all production ceased in Hagerstown in 1984 and the company moved elsewhere. Presently, the company is based in San Antonio, Texas and after a series of mergers and buyouts, is known as M7 Aerospace.

The Hagerstown Aviation Museum shows many of these original aircraft. Among the ones on display are: 1939 F24/UC-61C, 1945 C-82A, 1943 PT-19A, and the 1953 C-119. The museum is located near Hagerstown Regional Airport in the airport's former terminal.

Hagerstown is also the birthplace of Salisbury, Maryland-based Piedmont Airlines which started out as Henson Aviation. It was founded by Richard A. Henson in 1931. Today, Hagerstown Regional Airport-Richard A. Henson Field is named as such in honor of the airlines' founder.

Today, only small to mid-size aviation companies remain in the area. Two notable names include Northrop Grumman California Microwaves, which manufactures airline equipment in its Hagerstown facility, and Sierra Nevada Corporation, a defense electronics engineering and manufacturing contractor.
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