"By most
accounts, Robert and Elizabeth Wilson were the first
family to settle in Emmitsburg area.
Sometime prior to 1733, they emigrated
to the area, choosing for their
homestead, land that lay in a gently
slopping valley on both sides of Flat
Run, which today is known as the Emmitsburg
communities of
Emmit's Gardens and Silo Hill.
They called their homestead: ‘Wilson’s
Fancy'.
The soil was rich from years of
seasonal flooding, and with Flat Run
providing a reliable source of clean
fresh water year round, the Wilson’s
had all any frontier family could ever
hope for.
In one of the ironies one can only
appreciate through the hindsight
history provides us, two religious
sects, Catholics and Presbyterians,
followed the Wilsons to the area, and
settled in close nit communities. Back
in their old countries, the two groups
were engaged in bitter persecution and
blood shed. But in this valley, these
two groups, as well as other members
of other religious groups lived in peace and
harmony, finding common cause in the
daily battle to survive on this then
remote edge of the frontier.
By the mid
1750s, most of the land in the Emmitsburg
area had been sold by
the royal trustee, Lord Baltimore, to the
pioneers who first called the
Emmitsburg area
home. Each in turn, provided
colorful names to their land, such as:
Alexander's
Prospect,
Arnold’s Delight,
Benjamin's Good Luck,
Better Then I
Expected,
Harris's
Delight, and Settled in Peace,
which provide us today a glimpse into
their hopes and goals.
In 1785, William Emmit laid out and
founded a town, which today bares his
name. Emmit's town attracted an
industrious people, and with its
plentiful supply of streams to power
mills, it quickly became a major
center of commerce and industry.
Selected and fortified by the Union in
1863 as the best location to stop
General Lee's advance in the north, it
missed becoming the turning point in
the civil war to its immediate
neighbor to the North, Gettysburg.
Following the Civil
War, Emmitsburg continued to grow and prosper. The decision
in 1880 by the Western Maryland Railroad not to build its
line through Emmitsburg, however, marked the beginning of
the end of independent prosperity. Like many small town's in
America, beset with failing farms and the closures of local
industries, the town's prognosis for survival seemed gloomy.
The development of the
interstate highway system in the 1950's brought about an
expansion of the Washington & Baltimore metropolitan
commuting areas, and in doing so, reversed the
decline of Emmitsburg's fortunes.
Today Emmitsburg is a
growing bedroom community for these two great metropolitan areas.
It is a Mecca for scholars, professionals, artists,
craftsman, equestrians, and bicyclists seeking refuge from
the hustle and bustle of city life. It claims for its
own nationally ranked Mount St. Mary's College, and Saint
Elizabeth Ann Seton the first American
born saint.
It's roots of religious
tolerance and piety still hold sway in almost every
aspect of community life today, and are manifested in the
beautifully maintained homes and stately churches that dominate
its breathtaking skyline.
Histories of
Emmitsburg Churches and Organizations
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