20070418 The passion thrill and magic of April

Westminster Eagle

“The passion, thrill, and magic of April”

April 18, 2007 by Kevin Dayhoff

The American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early nineteenth century, Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “The April winds are magical, and thrill our tuneful frames. The garden-walks are passional to bachelors and dames.”

Hopefully we won’t have an April this year as we had 110 years ago. The Democratic Advocate reported on April 24, 1897: “A blast from the North bore down on this section Monday night, sending down the mercury to 26 at 7 o'clock on Tuesday morning… This has been the coldest April for twenty years.”

To look back in Carroll County history, any given month of the year provides an historian with a cornucopia of thrilling stories to explore, but April has always been especially fascinating.

Perhaps one person in Carroll County history who may have opted for a less passionate month was the editor of the Western Maryland Democrat, Joseph Shaw.

Mr. Shaw was lynched in Westminster at the corner of Anchor and West Main Street for an editorial that he had published in the paper just days before President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14^th 1865.

It might be important to mention at this point, that these days, murdering editors is on the disapproved behavior list in Westminster.

The mid-1970s was not a good time for planning reservoirs. It was in April 1973 that yet another proposed reservoir was on its way to being forced off the drawing board by public outcry. Remember, a $5 million reservoir proposed by Westminster on Big Pipe Creek in Union Mills was shot-down in September 1976.

The Carroll Record published an editorial on April 12, 1973: “Again—To the concern of many and to the dismay of hundreds more, in Carroll and Frederick Counties, the Sixes Bridge Dam and Lake Project (on the Monocacy River) is back on the front burner again… (A) new report entitled, Potomac River Basin Water Supply, coupled with vocal action by citizen groups… fearing a water shortage, has again alarmed area residents.” The proposed, but never built, $32 million reservoir was going to be paid for entirely by the federal government.

On another public safety and welfare note, the American Sentinel reported on April 11, 1896, the cornerstone for the new Westminster fire hall on Main Street was set with great pomp and ceremony by the Door to Virtue Lodge No. 40.

“The event had long been anticipated with interest, not only by the firemen, but by citizens generally, and drew to the scene a large assembly of people… It was preceded by a parade of the Westminster Band and the firemen, in full dress uniform… under charge of the marshal, Ex-Mayor Joseph D. Brooks; E. J. Lawyer, president and F. K. Herr, chief.”

Ten years later, on April 6, 1906, the fire company only to go next door to spring into action. According to the American Sentinel, a fire destroyed the “Palace livery stable and residence of Mr. Harry H. Harbaugh, on East Main Street, with nearly (all) their entire contents, consisting of 22 horses, 45 vehicles… The stable was a large frame structure… between the Firemen's Building and the residence of Mayor O. D. Gilbert… The rear of the stable bordered on St. John's Catholic Cemetery.”

On the bright side, the Democratic Advocate reported on April 2, 1948, that the American Legion in Westminster installed their first TV set. “Television is still in its infancy; however it is particularly well adapted to sports events. Each night a major sport is televised. This large television set was installed by J. Stoner Geiman.”

On another positive note, the Carroll Record reported on April 5, 1973, “Friday morning started grey and rainy, much to the dismay of local residents of the Union Bridge area. (It) was the day that Sergeant Peter Edward Drabic (finally returned) to his hometown after four and one half years of captivity in Vietnam.”

Hopefully Mother Nature has remembered to schedule spring this year. We’re overdue for “passional magic to thrill our tuneful frames.”

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.

E-mail him at: kdayhoff AT carr.org

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