Existing comment:
Burkittsville: Henry Burkitt's Town
The first settlers in this area cleared their farm land and raised their families along two Indian trails that crossed here. Joshua Harley, one of these pioneers and a veteran of the American Revolution, started the settlement's first dry goods store. In 1824 Harley's store became Harley's post office. Henry Burkitt moved here from Pennsylvania about 1825 and laid out a town along the east-west trail, subdividing larger tracts bought from his neighbors. In 1829, Burkitt donated property on Cemetery Hill to the Reformed Germans, who built a church on it. The Resurrection German Reformed Church, originally called "Union Church," was shared by the Lutherans until they built St. Paul's next door. The cemetery behind these churches was known as "Union Cemetery," because both congregations buried their dead there. Burkitt died before he finished his town, but the village grew and became known as Henry Burkitt's Town. Joshua Harley, the community's first store keeper and postmaster had been forgotten. At the time of the Battle of South Mountain, Burkittsville had approximately 50 houses and 200 inhabitants. |