"Then, again, I have found traces in two instances, plain and unmistakable, of the old Monocacy Road, passing just below the village, in a southwestern direction and crossing Hunting creek where, according to tradition, there was an old tavern, and where there are now three or four old dwellings. Tradition also says the Monocacy Road crossed the river at Poe's Ford, which has not been used for over a century. The road on both sides of the creek lies in timber land of old sturdy oak."

At this late day it is impossible to determine the cause of the decadence of the town of Monocacy and its passing out of existence, but it is very probable that the laying out of another town a short distance away and on land that had a higher elevation, was one of the chief causes. Schultz says: "John Cramer, a German, or a descendant of a German, between 1760 and 1770 laid out a village on grounds belonging to him, which was named in his honor, Creagerstown. The site selected was a few rods north of the old log church and little less than a mile from the first settlement. The site selected for the new village was on more elevated ground, which fact doubtless caused it to expand to the detriment of the older village." That the existence of Monocacy as a town was well known is shown by the following letter addressed to Benjamin Tasker, esquire:

LONDON, July the 9th 1752. Sir: By the ship "Patience," Captain Steel, a number of Palatines are embarked for Maryland to settle there, which being notified to me, and a Recommendation to you desired of me, in favour of Messieurs F. & R. Snowdens & D. Wolstenholme, to whose care they are consigned and recommended.

I therefore desire you will give such necessary Assistance to the People on their Arrival, to forward them to Manockesy (which I

understand is in Frederick County) or where else they shall want to go to settle within the Province, as in your Power, and that they may be accomodated in a proper manner; But the charges attending any such service to them must be done in the most moderate manner in respect to the Proprietor and to answer their requisites necessary to their service. The increase of People being always welcome, your prudence would have supplied this Letter in a kind Reception of them; nevertheless as particular occasions may require your Favour I conclude my recommendation of them, in giving them all possible satisfaction relating to the manner and Place they shall choose to settle in Maryland. I am, Sir, Your most obedient servant, CAECILIUS CAlvert.

Washington in one of his letters also speaks of Mono

cacy.

Another very early settlement was the village of Conococheague, near the present site of Clearspring. This was a well-known place and is mentioned by Washington and other letter writers of that period. Until after the French and Indian War this was the most westerly settlement in Maryland. One of the early settlers in that locality was Jonathan Hager, who afterwards laid out Elizabeth-Town, now known as Hagerstown. Jonathan Hager was unquestionably a Pennsylvania-German. All writers on the subject say that it is impossible to find out just when he came to America, and Scharf says:41 "Capt. Hager came from Germany about 1730." Yet the Pennsylvania Archives*2 and Rupp's "Thirty Thousand Names "43 both give the time of his arrival in Pennsylvania as 1736. According to these records among the passengers on the ship 41 "History of Western Maryland," Vol. II., p. 1059.

42 Second Series, Vol. XVII., p. 122.

43 Second Edition, p. ror.

Harle, which arrived at Philadelphia September 1, 1736, was Jonathan Heger, whose age is given as 22. The first record of his being in Maryland was when he obtained a patent for two hundred acres of land near the present site of Hagerstown. This was on December 16, 1739, so that it is probable that he spent about three years in Pennsylvania. According to Scharf, "the earliest information of Jonathan Hager, Sr., is found in the statement that he received a patent of certain land on which a portion of the city of Philadelphia now stands," but, unfortunately, Scharf rarely gives authority for his quotations. After his settlement in Maryland, at various times until 1765, Hager obtained patents to different plats of land until his holdings amounted to almost twenty-five hundred acres. He laid out the town of Elizabeth-Town (Hagerstown) in 1762. This was apparently a very successful undertaking, for ten years later, under date of September 7, 1772, Eddis writes: "About thirty miles west of Frederick-town, I passed through a settlement which is making quick advances to perfection. A German adventurer, whose name is Hagar, purchased a considerable tract of land in this neighborhood, and with much discernment and foresight determined to give encouragement to traders, and to erect proper habitations for the stowage of goods, for the supply of the adjacent country. His plan succeeded: he has lived to behold a multitude of inhabitants on lands, which he remembered unoccupied: and he has seen erected in places, appropriated by him for that purpose, more than a hundred comfortable edifices, to which the name of Hagar's Town is given, in honor of the intelligent founder."45

44 "Letters from America," p. 133.

45 Jonathan Hager was born in 1714. In 1740 he married Elizabeth Kershner. He died November 6, 1775, from the effects of an injury, a log

The town of Frederick was laid out in 1745. The territory had been settled ten years before by a party of colonists under the leadership of Thomas Schley, who was their schoolmaster. There is nothing on record to show whether Schley and his party came to Maryland by way of Pennsylvania or not, and it has been assumed that they landed at Annapolis. The fact that their names have not been found in the Pennsylvania records does not prove conclusively that they did not come to that colony first, as did most of the emigrants of that period, for those records are admittedly incomplete.

It is a fact that cannot be controverted that of the thousands of Germans who settled in Maryland prior to 1760 and entirely changed the character of that colony, with but very few exceptions they were Pennsylvania-Germans. In fact, although there were some notable exceptions, the number who came directly to Maryland from Germany can be regarded as a negligible quantity. It is unfortunate that there was no record kept of the arrival of emigrants at the ports of Annapolis and Alexandria, such as was kept at Philadelphia; or, if there was such a record kept, that it has disappeared, for owing to the absence of a record of this kind there is no way of telling just what number of Germans came directly to Maryland without first stopping in Pennsylvania. It is true that all writers who have touched upon this subject, and they are not a few, state that, according to the records of the port of Annapolis, from the year 1752 to 1755 German emigrants to the number of 1,060 arrived at that port, but the evidence presented is not sufficient, in my opinion, to prove

rolling on him and crushing him at a saw-mill where he was superintending the preparation of the lumber for the German Reformed church, in the building of which he took a great interest.