Monocacy was a
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
in
Frederick County, Maryland
Frederick County is located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Maryland. At the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 271,717. The county seat is Frederick.
Frederick County is included in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV ...
that was located along an old Indian trail known as the
Monocacy Trail that ran parallel to the
Monocacy River
The Monocacy River () is a free-flowing left tributary to the Potomac River, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean via the Chesapeake Bay. The river is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data ...
. The trail was known as the
Great Wagon Road
Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements
* Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size
* Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent
People
* List of people known as "the Great"
*Artel Great (born ...
by colonial travelers; it went to
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
and later was renamed Monocacy Road. Early surviving historical records indicate that Monocacy was the oldest settlement in Western Maryland. The town is believed to have been located near present-day
Creagerstown, but never has been precisely located after its complete
abandonment in the early 19th century. There are signs of the town's existence going back as far as 1730.
History
From the earliest historical records, Monocacy, Maryland is considered the oldest settlement in Western Maryland founded in the 1720s.
The town was settled near the Monocacy Trail, an old Indian trail that ran along the
Monocacy River
The Monocacy River () is a free-flowing left tributary to the Potomac River, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean via the Chesapeake Bay. The river is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data ...
.
According to some sources the name of Monocacy was not linked to a definitive town but to the settlement area of the Monocacy Valley where
Moravian Germans
German Bohemians (german: Deutschböhmen und Deutschmährer, i.e. German Bohemians and German Moravians), later known as Sudeten Germans, were ethnic Germans living in the Czech lands of the Bohemian Crown, which later became an integral part of ...
coming from the
colony of Pennsylvania
The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn after receiving a land grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania ("Penn's Woods") refers to Wi ...
had arrived. If Monocacy was referring to the valley of the same name, it encompassed the region of 18th century
Frederick County, Maryland
Frederick County is located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Maryland. At the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 271,717. The county seat is Frederick.
Frederick County is included in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV ...
settlements, which included
Frederick Town founded in 1745.
The earliest Monocacy settlement that was recorded most likely existed between 1721 and 1732 and was composed of European-American traders from the
colony of Maryland
The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S. state of Maryla ...
who ran a trading post and who co-existed with the local
Native American tribes in Frederick County, Maryland.
In 1729, German settlers arrived in what later became Frederick County in 1748 then a part of the British colonial
Province of Maryland
The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S. state of Maryland ...
. The first settlement created by the settlers of the county was Monocacy,
which was founded between 1725 and 1730,
making it the oldest settlement in Western Maryland.
The town was settled nearby the Monocacy Trail, an old Indian trail that ran along the Monocacy River.
In 1730, the Monocacy Trail was made into a wagon road.
In its early days, Monocacy was the main settlement within the region of early Frederick County. The early dominance of the town of Monocacy or the other Monocacy settlements in the Monocacy Valley eventually was overtaken by the later founding and rapid growth of Frederick Town, now present-day
Frederick, Maryland
Frederick is a city in and the county seat of Frederick County, Maryland. It is part of the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. Frederick has long been an important crossroads, located at the intersection of a major north–south Native ...
.
Other sources state that between 1732 and 1734, a church known as "the Log church" was built in what may have been the single town site of the early German settlement of Monocacy.
Moravian Church
The Moravian Church ( cs, Moravská církev), or the Moravian Brethren, formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination, denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohem ...
missionaries visited the area regularly, and many of the people of "Manakasy," referring to the Native American tribe as the Moravians spelled it in their records, often visited the Maryland Moravian Settlements from nearby Pennsylvania.
By the time the log church was built, the village of Monocacy was somewhat important to the area. The town had a number of taverns and other places to sleep. "As late as 1747, it possessed accommodations better than those of Frederick."
Sometime between 1760 and 1770, the nearby town of Creagerstown supplanted Monocacy because it was a better location for a town, being at the crossroads of a number of early Maryland roads, which gave easier access for stagecoach travelers and enabled town growth.
By 1808, Monocacy Road was
macadam
Macadam is a type of road construction, pioneered by Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam around 1820, in which crushed stone is placed in shallow, convex layers and compacted thoroughly. A binding layer of stone dust (crushed stone from the o ...
ized creating a more reliable heavily traveled highway.
Search for town site
As early as 1896, knowledge of the location of the town had been lost. In 1896, Rev. George A. Whitmore, a resident of
Thurmont, wrote upon interviewing two residents of Creagerstown who were in "bordering on 80 years" about the location of the Log Church, he had been told that Creagerstown was built on the old location of the church. Whitmore mentions that one of the people he interviewed, Mr. W.L. Grimes Sr., actually helped tear down the Log church so that the new church could be built in its place.
Whitmore goes on to say that traditional lore states though that the town of Monocacy was located to the southeast of Creagerstown, at the intersection of Monocacy Road and Poe's Ford, near by Hunting Creek. Both Whitmore and his contemporary Mr. Schultz investigated the site and found flat land with a few dwellings. In a history of Frederick County, Mr. Schultz is quoted as saying that the location to the southeast of Creagerstown "agrees in every particular with the data that we have heretofore been able to obtain and I therefore believe that the few old houses and the graveyard are all perhaps that remain of the ancient village of Monocacy."
In the late 1960s, Charlotte Hearthly, then a senior in high school, mounted a search for the site.
Many locals believe that their land parcels were the site of Monocacy.
Much of the evidence for where Monocacy is located has been destroyed. Spencer Geasey speaks of a location where there was a school, a cemetery, and some other log buildings. He states that the area was developed and that a dig in this location would not prove useful.
There is no doubt that the town existed.
In August 1756,
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
mentions Monocacy in a letter.
Two different riding ministers both wrote about the log church at different times. They were riding trails about 10 miles north of Frederick. During the
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...
, the site was mentioned in the ''
Maryland Gazette
''The Gazette'', founded in 1727 as ''The Maryland Gazette'', is one of the oldest newspapers in America. Its modern-day descendant, ''The Capital,'' was acquired by The Baltimore Sun Media Group in 2014. Previously, it was owned by the Capita ...
''.
In 1729, a complaint was filed by a Mr. Carroll with the Pennsylvania government that referenced Monocacy.
The complaint was filed because the area was under dispute by Maryland and Pennsylvania.
The town was located near Creagerstown and Jimtown. According to Paul Gordon, one expert has stated that the
Sebastian Derr house may have been a church and might be the old site of Monocacy.
The site of Monocacy never has been conclusively located.
There is a lot of evidence that the settlement existed, but not a enough tangible evidence as to where the town was actually located.
In the media
In 1999, a documentary film about the region, titled ''Monocacy'', chronicles the history and pre-history of the area and the town. The documentary was produced by Chris Haugh for GS Communications.
See also
*
Creagerstown, Maryland
*
List of ghost towns in Maryland
The following is an incomplete list of ghost towns in Maryland. Ghost towns can include sites in various states of disrepair and abandonment. Some sites no longer have any trace of civilization and have reverted to pasture land or empty fields. ...
References
{{authority control
Populated places in colonial Maryland
Ghost towns in Maryland
Frederick County, Maryland