Boonsboro Reflections: Mayor Nyman Robbed

Certainly most soldiers of the Civil War were respectable men who served honorably.  But rogues unavoidably crept into the ranks and preyed on their fellow soldiers and innocent civilians, causing suffering and chaos through their misdeeds.  Local officials sometimes...

Boonsboro Reflections: Boonsboro’s First Physicians

The early settlers of Boonsboro and the surrounding areas faced the risk of injury and disease without the benefit of modern medicine.  Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur first established the germ theory of disease in 1870, 82 years after the founding of Boonsboro.   And...

Boonsboro Reflections: The Boonsboro Trolley

Thousands of years ago, what is now Boonsboro’s Main Street was a trail used by Eastern elk, woodland bison, deer and timber wolves as they ranged about the, yet undiscovered, New World.  Native Americans would later follow the same route.  Since the colonization of...

Boonsboro Reflections: The Roaring Twenties

Congress ratified the 18th Amendment on January 19, 1919, banning the manufacture, sale and transport of alcoholic beverages. But underground distilleries and saloons supplied bootlegged liquor to an abundant clientele, while organized criminal gangs fought to control...

Boonsboro Reflections: The Boonsboro Cemetery

In 1810, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church and Trinity Reformed Church (Church of Christ) joined together to consecrate a church building called the Salem Church on Potomac Street. Both congregations used the building for services and the surrounding land for...

Boonsboro Reflections: Dahlgren Chapel

As pioneers traveling to the western frontier passed through Turners Gap in the South Mountain range, they found rest and refreshment at an establishment now known as the Old South Mountain Inn.   In 1876, just 14 years after the Battle of South Mountain erupted at...

BOONSBORO REFLECTIONS: COLONIAL RECIPES

Maude Bomberger  (1868-1946) was born to Moses and Laura Brining Bomberger.  Her father’s first wife, Annie Smith Bomberger died in 1861 shortly after the 1860 birth of Harvey Smith Bomberger, the famous son of Boonsboro. Maude was an energetic, talented and...

Boonsboro Reflections: Over the Mountain

Folger McKinsey was known as the Bentztown Bard when he served as columnist, writer and poet for the Baltimore Sun.  A protégé and friend of Walt Whitman, McKinsey contributed his “Good Morning” column to The Sun five days a week from 1906 to 1948.  He was eulogized...

Boonsboro Reflections: Odd Fellows Hall

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows fraternal organization traces back to 17th Century England where the masses endured lawlessness, disease and poverty.  Well-meaning people from different trades and walks of life found it necessary to group together and contribute...