The Franklin family first appeared in the area in 1760 when Thomas Franklin (1732-1797) bought 108 acres called Sheredine’s Range from Thomas Sheredine. By the time of his death, Thomas Franklin owned 329 acres that stretched south of Taylorsville along present-day Route 27 between Gillis and Gilbert roads. He left the land to sons Charles and Rezin who buried him and their mother, Lois Ann (Shipley) Franklin, in a small family cemetery that still exists on Gilbert Road.

In 1800, Charles and Rezin began selling their father’s land south of Taylorsville. Charles (1759-1840) bought 220.5 acres called Resurvey on Hall’s Range, which lay west of Taylorsville along the well-traveled Liberty Road stretching from Baltimore to Frederick. The southern end of that land became the location of Franklinville. It is believed Charles, his wife, 10 sons and two daughters were living there before 1819. Charles Franklin showed up in the Frederick County 1825 tax records. His property included a tavern – one of many taverns accommodating travelers between western Maryland and the growing port of Baltimore.

Ten years later, the 1835 Frederick County tax records showed Charles owned a stone house. By 1837, when the area had become part of Carroll County, Charles was taxed for a stone house as well as a barn and the records actually mentioned the existence of Franklinville.

Joshua Franklin, son of Charles, inherited the 220 acres of Resurvey on Hall’s Range when his father died in 1840. The inventory of Charles Franklin’s estate included two bar room tables, and four benches valued at $3.50 plus two bar room stoves and pipes worth $11.50. He also owned a cider mill. Altogether his household furnishings, animals, farm equipment and five enslaved persons were worth over $1,300. Very likely the tavern continued to operate after Charles died because Liberty Road saw plenty of traffic. Charles Franklin and his wife Susanna (Gilbert) Franklin were buried in the family cemetery on Gilbert Road.

In 1865 when Joshua Franklin died, the 220 acres of Resurvey on Hall’s Range passed into the hands of Thomas C. Porter although many Franklin descendants continued to live in the community and surrounding countryside. Joshua Franklin (1784-1865) and his wife Elizabeth (Porter) Franklin (1789-1860) were buried in a different Franklin family cemetery – this one near the intersection of Franklinville Road and Sams Creek Road. In the late 20th century, Porter descendants exploring the area found a few gravestones in a small hillside cemetery in what remained of the village. Burials in the two Franklin cemeteries and the Porter cemetery are included in Volume 6 of Carroll County Cemeteries published by the Carroll County Genealogical Society.

In a Nov. 22, 1983, Carroll County Times article, staff writer Matthew Bowers reported on his visit to the village of Franklinville. He photographed Charles Franklin’s original stone house and tavern and interviewed a number of the older residents living in the area. By that time the gas station, store, hotel, and tavern that once represented a thriving little community had disappeared or gone out of business. Joseph Hooper, age 93, recalled the tavern bore the quaint name “The Speckled Guinea.” Joseph’s father, Jefferson Hooper, raised his family in Charles Franklin’s stone house, ran the store, the tavern and operated a threshing business plus a sawmill. “The Speckled Guinea” likely closed in the 1950s. By that time the bar room tables, benches, stoves, and pipes had probably served tavern customers for well over 100 years.

The United States Geological Survey topographic map covering the Franklinville area still showed the Old Liberty Road in its original location in 1943, but sometime after that date Liberty Road was straightened leaving Franklinville nearly invisible on a two-block remnant of the old highway. The elderly residents Matthew Bowers interviewed more than 40 years ago are likely gone, but the stone house and tavern still stand and are well-maintained. Details relating to the early deeds mentioned in this article as well as a copy of Matthew Bowers’ original story are on file at the Historical Society of Carroll County under “Franklinville.”

Guest columnist Jeff Duvall is a frequent contributor to historical research in Carroll and Frederick counties.

Facts such as the land on which a person lived, people identified in a photograph, and town, creek, or road names are a few examples that have been found to be incorrect. A recent example appeared in this column on Nov. 23, 2018. The writer stated that Westminster had never been called Winchester and referred to William Winchester’s original map where he named his town Westminster. A different picture emerges upon looking further into the story.

When Westminster was laid out in 1764 (Frederick County Deed L-473) it was, indeed, named Westminster by its founder. But then jump to an entry in the 1791 Laws of Maryland where Chapter 82 authorizes layout of a road “from the Baltimore county turnpike road at Winchester-Town, thru Taney-town and Emmitsburgh to the Pennsylvania line…”

Jump forward another 22 years. The Maryland legislature passed a law in 1813 relating to the Westminster General Meeting House whose trustees were “sundry inhabitants of the town of Westminster, in Frederick county…” Then, in 1819, Maryland’s General Assembly decided “that the three adjoining towns, now railed and known by the names of Westminster, New-London, and Winter’s Addition to Westminster, shall for ever hereafter be called and known by the name of Westminster.”

Nevertheless, the following is what appeared in an 1898 newspaper detailing Westminster’s history: “For years it bore the name of Winchester, and would perhaps still bear it but for the fact that the name was duplicated elsewhere [Winchester, Virginia] which caused some confusion in the mails.”

Am I disparaging past historians? No. If they had access to the information and the technology to retrieve it that we have today, they might have made fewer errors.

There is also the issue of making statements without sources to back them up. When writers provide no sources or documentation, or if their sources date to a bygone era, this should raise a red flag. Nobody likes to be told he is wrong and some people take more offense than others. The bottom line is — do you want to convey correct information?

Don’t dismiss all early material. Use it as a starting point. Can what those early writers said be proved or not?

Expand your search if various sources contradict each other.

Make use of your local library and historical society. They contain so much information not widely available.

One day all of their material will be available electronically, but for now plan a road trip and see how many times you will be surprised at what you can discover.

Take the time to research an issue and if no direct information is found, don’t jump to a conclusion. Allow others to decide for themselves or continue researching. No one person has all the answers. Clues lead to additional areas to check that you may know nothing about.

Who was B.F. Clarkson and how much of the story turned out to be true? Having a name was the starting point.

Maryland’s 1870 census showed a Methodist minister named Benjamin F. Clarkson, age 35, living in Baltimore County with his wife, Laura. So far, so good. He was the right age to have served during the Civil War. A 1923 obituary mentioned that Clarkson taught school for one year after leaving the army and then entered the ministry on trial in March 1866 in the East Baltimore Conference. He eventually served in several Methodist circuits in the Baltimore area.

The next stop on the search was the internet site “Find A Grave.” That provided a photo and a lengthy obituary stating Benjamin Frank Clarkson was born in 1841 in Huntington Co., Pennsylvania, and was buried in Druid Ridge Cemetery, Baltimore County, upon his death. His wife was Laura Kelly Clarkson, daughter of James and Margaretta Kelly, of Manchester, Carroll County.

According to the obituary, Benjamin served in Company D, 49^th Pennsylvania Infantry, from 1861-1864, being discharged due to an eye injury.

An 1897 regimental history of the 49^th included the following information: “June 29, 1863, marched toward Westminster and halted near Jewsville [Jewsburg was an earlier name for Marston, a community near New Windsor]. June 30, 1863, 6 a.m. begin the march passed thru Jewsville and on to Westminster.”

Clarkson’s infantry unit was part of the Union Army’s 6^th Corps that followed part of the Buffalo Road along the western edge of Carroll County and camped the night of June 29 around Bethel Church at the intersection of Buffalo and Sam’s Creek roads. The church, nearly new in 1863, was surrounded by a cemetery that included many older gravestones. One can only imagine the scene as thousands of soldiers paused for rest on their way to the bloodiest battle in U.S. Civil War history.

During his research, Dan Hartzler located a poem posted on the back of an old photo in the home of a Unionville (Frederick County) resident. The poem, titled “The Flag of Cemetery Hill,” was written by B.F. Clarkson and followed an earlier one, “The Sword of Bunker Hill.”

Clarkson did return to speak at Bethel Church sometime after the war. He also became a Comrade of Baltimore’s Dushane G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) Post and served as a chaplain in the G.A.R. Department of Maryland.

Some local stories turn out to be true, some not, but the search for the truth can lead you down many new paths with other discoveries along the way. All of your efforts add to the richness of local history and your appreciation of what took place here.

Not long afterwards Nancy sent word to Samuel Hoff that she wanted to relate her connection to the stone house that he had recently purchased. Samuel sent his son John to hear her story. As recounted by John’s son Edwin, Nancy explained why she came to Sam’s Creek from Montgomery County:

“She told Dad that when the house was built she was a slave girl of fifteen years. She said that she used to cook for the stone mason’s slaves and that she drove the oxen, which were hitched to a lizard (a forked tree), for the stone mason. Stones, used to build the house, were rolled onto the lizard from the hill above the house. The oxen then pulled the stones (on the lizard) to the house, and the stones were used to construct the walls of the house.”

“My Dad asked her how the slaves put the large field stones on the walls of the chimney. The old slave lady said that they piled logs up next to the house. These logs were used to fill the small valley between the house and the hill. As the stone walls were built higher, the stack of logs was increased. This enabled the stone mason and his slaves to build the high walls of the house and chimney, by driving the oxen and lizard over the stacks of logs to the house. The slave lady told Dad that it took two years to build the stone house. The old slave also told Dad that she would be 115 years old this year.”

In the November 4, 1882 edition of the Democratic Advocate the following notice appeared:

“Nancy Saunders, an old colored woman residing near Sam’s Creek postoffice, died on the 25th of October, supposed to be 110 or 112 years of age.”

There is no known record of where Nancy is buried. Her daughter Polly and sons George and Enoch are buried in the Mt. Olive cemetery off Parsonage Lane near the Carroll-Frederick border. Undoubtedly, Nancy and her husband, Timothy, are also buried there, especially since he was a guiding force in establishing the cemetery.

Without a gravestone what physical evidence remains of Nancy’s life, besides stories of her age? The house where she lived with George stands immediately to the right of Md. Route 31 just after it crosses into Frederick County, sadly empty of human life today. The stone house, the reason she was brought from Montgomery County, still stands on Hoke Road and is a silent reminder of her long life in the valley of Sam’s Creek and in the Hills above.

Most importantly though, there are the children of her children and their descendants.

Timothy Saunders was born a slave. On Nov. 26, 1819, a slave named “Tim” turned 32 and was freed by Jacob Landis. There is little doubt that this was Timothy. Just six years later he bought half an acre in the Hills, with another adjacent acre given to him in 1828 by the Landis family in recognition of “services rendered” to Jacob’s late father, Henry Landis.

If the age at freedom is correct, this would mean that Timothy was born in 1787. In the 1850 census for Frederick County he was enumerated as 70 years old, thus born circa 1780. Nancy, listed as Anne, was 68 years old. Timothy was also listed that year in the Carroll County census in the household of Jacob Landis, where his age was 68. Apparently, he was still employed by the Landis family and divided his time between Jacob’s household and his home with Nancy

The same year as that census, Timothy Saunders and six other trustees purchased one acre of land in the Hills “for the use of the colored people as a public burial ground and … to be erected or built thereon a house or place of worship. …”

It would be called Mt. Olive M.E. Church. Saunders was the first listed on the deed, most likely a statement that demonstrated his commitment to provide a place for prayer and rest for free and enslaved African-Americans along the Carroll-Frederick border. This church and cemetery solidified the Hills as a community for African-Americans in the years before and the century after Emancipation.

Timothy wrote his will in 1854. It was probated in 1857. Nancy was left the majority of his estate. However, each of his living children, Mary (Polly) Wappins, Mariah Thompson, Harriet Nelson, Alexander, George and Enoch, were remembered. Even the two daughters, Laura and Sarah Jane, of his deceased son, Timothy, were carefully included. Thomas Devilbiss, described as “my Friend,” was the sole executor.

Following her husband’s death, Nancy lived with Enoch’s family in the Hills, where her age was apparently mistakenly recorded as 67 in the 1860 census. Ten years later she was listed as 90 years old, but now was living with George and his wife overlooking the old Landis mill, then called Englar’s Mill.

In the final installment, the reason for Nancy’s settlement in Sam’s Creek is revealed.

“Amy Bell, colored, familiarly known as “Aunt Amy,” died in Taneytown, on the 23d of January, and was supposed to be about 112 years of age. She was owned by the Six family, and the oldest inhabitants of Taneytown and vicinity say she was called “Old Aunt Amy,” when they were children. She was employed as a servant by one of the officers of the American army and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis, at Yorktown, in 1781.”

In that same edition is another reference to a Revolutionary-era person as written by the newspaper’s New Windsor correspondent. He listed the residents of his area who were age 70 and older. Of the 28 persons listed, the oldest was “Mrs. Nancy Sanders (colored) 110.”

This was not the first time that Nancy Saunders (often spelled Sanders) had been mentioned in the paper. The Sam’s Creek area correspondent wrote in the July 27, 1878 edition the following:

“Nancy Sanders, colored, living about one mile from this point, on the Creek in Frederick county, is 103 years old. Her eldest son, if living would be 83, her youngest son, aged 50, lives with his mother. She enjoys good health, and dislikes to be called old, or to talk of her age.”

Needless to say, her age was all that the paper would print about her in the future. Seventeen months later in the Jan. 29, 1881 edition, the same correspondent elaborated:

“We recently paid a visit to Nancy Sanders, an old colored woman, residing at Landis’ Mill. After a few inquiries, the following was related by her: ‘I belonged to Mr. Geo. Robeson, way down in ‘Gomery county, and about the same time the first wa’ with the Englands (Revolutionary War) closed I came to Carroll county on Sam’s Creek: then I was 16 years old. In a few years there was another war with the English (War of 1812), and just as Mr. Peter Naill, Lud. Greenwood and Massa Clemson Skyles were about to start to jine the army the English captain (Major General Robert Ross) was killed down near Baltimore, and then the war stopped.’ Judging from her account, she was born in 1767, was 16 years of age when the Revolutionary war ended — in 1783 — and is consequently 114 years old now. She says if she was not in such a bad state of health she could do more work than any woman in the county. She claims that her age does not hurt her; for she can thread a needle, and laughs at her youngest son George, who is 60, because he wears spectacles. Her mind seems clear on all subjects, except she thinks some one has put a ‘spell’ on her.”

Our second installment will further examine Nancy Saunders and her family.

Before his death, John Steele owned property on the old line dividing Baltimore and Frederick counties. The Baltimore County 1798 tax list showed Steele with 30 acres of the tracts Hawkins Fancy and The Spike including a log house and a tavern. In 1814, James Denning bought the property from James and Robert Steele, heirs of John.

By 1819 enough people lived in the area to establish a post office. Notice of it appeared in the March 26, 1819 edition of The Westminster Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser. J. Denning at Denning’s Post Office was listed as an agent for this very early newspaper.

Sometime after 1825 Denning built a two-story stone house to replace the earlier one of logs. In talking with the late Billy Yohn, who was born in the house and owned it up until his death earlier this year, I tried to ascertain if the stone house was built around the original log one. He said he had found no indication of that.

There is a date stone in the chimney, but all that can be seen is “J D 18__.” The house, with its back toward Marston Road, is near St. James U. M. Church. Driving by you may wonder, “Why does that stone house face the other direction?” When built by Denning it faced the heavily used Diggs Wagon Road established in the 1740s to haul copper ore to Baltimore. Later that road became known as the Road from Baltimore to Fredericktown, the Road to Libertytown, and the Old Liberty Road. In the 1930s this section was relocated, straightened, and called Marston Road.

When James Denning died, his estate inventory indicated he kept a store with items ranging from cloth goods to hardware to dinnerware. The final inventory showed a balance of $3,289.98. He was buried in St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Cemetery in Libertytown beneath a large flat stone reading “Sacred to the Memory of James Denning, a native of Donegal county, Ireland who departed this life Oct’r 15, 1827. Aged 65 years.” Mary (aka Elizabeth) Steele Denning, who died in 1843, was buried with her first husband, John Steele, in the Evans Family Cemetery located on the Yohn Farm.

James and Mary Denning had two children, Charles and Nelly. Nelly first married William Demmitt who died in 1837. Demmitt was also a store keeper according to his estate inventory. Nelly then married Thomas G. Kelly who appeared in the 1850 Carroll County census as a farmer. On the portion of the 1877 Carroll County atlas accompanying this article, the properties of T.G. Kelly and C. Denning appear near the Dennings post office and store. At some point between 1819 and 1877, the post office was relocated from Denning’s stone house to the intersection of Marston and Dennings roads.