Wheat, Corn & oats, and Fruit of all sorts. We have 3 sons and 8 daughters-5 are able to turn the Spinning wheel and throw the Shuttle." There were many metal workers, particularly in iron and copper. At an early date Dirck Pennybacker, a grandson of Heinrich Pannebacker, one of the early settlers at Germantown, Pa., built an iron-works near Sharpsburg, but about 1781 it was destroyed by a freshet and he removed to Virginia. The coppersmiths were skilled workmen who fashioned various utensils, particularly the large copper kettles, which were beaten by hand from one piece of metal, and which were frequently made large enough to hold a barrel of cider. There were many other articles manufactured by the German settlers, and their descendants were not behind those of other nationalities in the products of their inventive genius. According to Scharf it was a Frederick county German, Joseph Weller, of Mechanicstown, who, in 1831, discovered the process and manufactured the first friction matches made in this country. 60 The Germans in Maryland did not establish any newspapers at a very early date. According to Daniel Miller, the first German newspaper in Maryland was established by Matthias Bartgis at Frederick, in 1785. In 1795 the publication of the Deutsch Washington Correspondent was started at Hagerstown by John Gruber. Gruber was born in Strasburg, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, about 1778. He learned the printing trade in Philadelphia, and in 1793 was in Reading, Pa., a member of the firm of Jungman & Gruber who published Die Neue Unpartheiische Readinger Zeitung. He did not remain in Read 60" Early German American Newspapers," in Proc. and Add. of the Pennsylvania-German Soc., Vol. XIX., p. 96. ing very long, as two years later he was located in Hagerstown. In 1796, in addition to his newspaper he began the publication of what has proved to be a monument to his memory which bids fair to last indefinitely: The HagersTown Town and Country Almanack. This almanac soon attained a very large circulation which it retains to this day, and in most of the homes in western Maryland and southern Pennsylvania it was regarded as a necessity. The farmers planted their crops according to the rules and signs given in it, and it was always consulted before any undertaking was begun. Until 1822 it was printed only in German, but in that year the English edition was begun. In 1836 Mr. Gruber obtained a series of crude wood-cuts appropriate to each month, and from that time to the present the "Almanack" has made its appearance each year exactly as its founder designed it over three quarters of a century ago. Der neue Nord-Americanische Stadt und Land Calender Auf das Jahr Chrifti 1797 Welches ein gemein Jahr ist von 365 Tagen. Datinnen, nebst richtiger Feftrechnung, die Sonn und Monds Finsterniffe, des Monds Gestalt und Blertel, Mondes Aufgang, Monde,Zeichen, Upecten der Plas peten und Witterung, Sonnen Auf und Untergang,. des Siebengestens Aufgang, Südplah und Untergang, der Benus Aufs und Untergang, Courten, Fairs, eine lihe Tafel und andere zu einem Calender gehörige Sachen zu finden. Nebst einer kurzen Beschreibung von Kentucky, u. f. r. Nach dem Baryländischen Horizont and Nordhike berechnet; befonders für die Mestlichen 3um ertenmal herausgegeben. Hägerstaun, gedruckt und haben bey Johann Gruber, nahe beym Courthäuft. Bie auch bey unterschiedlichen Exobchaltern und andern zu findes.. TITLE PAGE OF THE FIRST NUMBER OF GRUBER'S HAGERSTOWN ALMANAC. ITH the exception of Virginia, the English colonies planted in America during the seventeenth century were founded for the purpose of escaping religious persecution. The ruling powers having determined that the established church should be paramount, allowed no middle ground, and laws of the greatest severity were put into force against the Roman Catholics, Puritans, Dissenters, etc. The colony of Maryland was founded by Roman Catholics and until the beginning of the eighteenth century the members of that denomination were in the majority, yet a spirit of religious toleration prevailed such as was scarcely to be found in any other colony.61 This is the more remark 61 The excellent character which Cecilius, Lord Baltimore, is said to have always borne, would prompt us to impute this proceeding to the |