cone-shaped buhr, resembling the ordinary grist buhr in its mode of action; it was then "scutched" with an oval-shaped, two-edged, wooden hand-knife, and finally "hackled," the instrument used in the latter process resembling a rake fastened to a bench with. the teeth turned upward. At this point the spinning-wheel was brought into requisition to convert the product into thread, from which a variety of fabrics could be woven. There were once two hemp-mills in Leitersburg District. That of John Byer was operated in connection with his grist-mill and by the same waterpower. The other was situated on Little Antietam a short distance above the present residence of Levi Hartle.

Another branch of textile manufacture was that pursued by Jacob M. Good on Little Antietam less than half a mile south of Leitersburg near the Smithsburg road and on the farm now owned by Joseph and John B. Barkdoll. This was a carding-mill, operated in a stone building, of which the foundation walls may still be traced. Here the manufacturing process, as in the case of hemp, was preparatory to the spinning-wheel. Good purchased this property from Barnhart B. Light in 1822 and operated it until his death. At an earlier date a carding-mill stood on the farm of Curtis Fogler, near the public road that forms the eastern boundary of the District. The power was derived from the stream that flows through this land.

A gun factory was once located on Little Antietam creek, probably where Freeland W. Anderson now lives. Here Frederick Bell, Jr., built a saw-mill and clover-mill. Nails were once manufactured at a long stone building on the Sprigg estate. About the year 1850 Lewis L. Mentzer conducted the business of coachmaking one mile north of Leitersburg near the Ringgold road.

CHAPTER III.

LEITERSBURG.

EARLY HISTORY-THE TOWN PLOT-THE VILLAGE IN 1830INTERESTS-SECRET SOCIETIES-MUNICIPAL IN

BUSINESS

CORPORATION-POPULATION.

THE site of Leitersburg is embraced in The Resurvey on Well Taught, a tract of thirteen hundred acres granted to George Poe in 1754. In 1762 he sold 362 acres to Jacob Leiter, who died in 1764, having devised it to his youngest sons, Jacob and Peter, by whom it was subsequently divided. As the site of the village was convenient to the Leiter residence it was doubtless reduced to cultivation at an early date and apparently promised no advantages apart from its value for agricultural purposes. There were no indications of future village growth. The nearest public highway was the old Nicholson's Gap road, on the opposite side of the Antietam a mile to the west.

Regarded as a sociological phenomenon, the growth of a village is due to the same causes and subject to the same limitations as that of a city. Its population is attracted by the advantages it offers as a place of residence or business. Great cities are usually situated at the sea, on navigable rivers, or at the convergence of important routes of inland travel; public roads are the corresponding factor in the growth of a country village. In 1802 the Nicholson's Gap road was changed to its present location, and in 1807 the road from Greencastle to the South mountain was opened, intersecting the former a short distance southeast of Antietam creek. In contemporay legal documents the former is also described as "the main road from Hagerstown to the Borough of York in Pennsylvania" and the latter as "the road from Greencastle to Baltimore." In 1811 Andrew Leiter purchased from Jacob Leiter, his father, the land adjacent to the intersection of these roads, and here in 1815 he laid out the town of Leitersburg.

At that date the immediate vicinity of the village was already well improved. Jacob Leiter had died in 1814, but his family still lived at the log house that stands on the farm of Joseph Barkdoll, a short distance west of the village. Near the Antietam creek on the road to Hagerstown stands a stone mansion, built by

George Lantz, who died in 1802; in 1815 this was the residence of his son-in-law, Frederick Ziegler. On the opposite side of the creek were the tannery of Captain John Byer and the mill built by Christian Lantz thirty years before. Christian Russell's mill, now owned by Samuel Strite, had been in operation since 1798, and on the opposite side of the Greencastle road lived the family of George Ziegler, while the residences of William and Joseph Gabby were a short distance farther up the creek. In 1803 Andrew Bachman purchased 103 acres of land along the Smithsburg road adjacent to the Leiter lands and here he was engaged in farming and blacksmithing. The first house on the site of the village was a long, one-story stone building, situated at the northwest corner of the public square where the hotel now stands. There can be little doubt that it was built by Andrew Leiter, who resided there in 1812.

THE TOWN PLOT.

The plot of the village shows fifty-three lots, located as follows: Nos. 1 to 14, from the public square to the foot of Water street on the north side; southeast of the square, Nos. 15 to 25 on the north side of the Smithsburg road and Nos. 40 to 50 on the south side; Nos. 33 to 39, southwest from the public square on the west side of the turnpike, and Nos. 51 to 53 on the opposite side; Nos. 26 to 32, northeast of No. 1 on the west side of the turnpike. "The road from Hagerstown towards York," now the turnpike and the main street of the village, is fifty feet wide; the "road from Greencastle towards Baltimore" is sixty feet wide.

The following persons received deeds for lots from Andrew Leiter:

Isaac Clymer, September 15, 1815; No. 28, $90.

Jacob Kessinger, September 16, 1815; Nos. 4, 5, $200; 16, 17, 18, $395; 26, 27, $200.

Lewis Weaver, September 16, 1815; Nos. 7, 29, $174.
Casper Fulk, September 16, 1815; No. 14, $50.
Jacob Houser, September 16, 1815; No. 3, $132.
George Kessinger, August 24, 1816; No. 14, $120.
Adam Lantz, August 24, 1816; No. 6, $100.
Daniel Lowman, August 24, 1816; No. 26, $100.
John Reynolds, August 25, 1816; No. 19, $110.

Joseph Gabby, January 11, 1817; No. 39, $50.

Henry Barnhart, January 11, 1817; Nos. 30, 31, $160.
John Garvin, May 3, 1817; No. 11, $200.

Samuel Myers, October 4, 1817; No. 16, $200.

William Gabby, February 21, 1818; No. 5, $65.

Samuel Houser and John Light, February 21, 1818; No. 2, $200.

George Shiess, April 1, 1818; No. 24, $26.

Henry Shamhart, April 1, 1818; No. 30, $100.
Barnhart B. Light, April 1, 1818; No. 4, $70.
George Kessinger, April 1, 1818; No. 18, $74.
Henry Myer, April 1, 1818; No. 12, $40.
Henry Barnhart, May 13, 1818; No. 1, $900.

Andrew Leiter died in 1818, practically insolvent. He had secured advances from the Hagerstown Bank and The Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Greencastle which he was unable to repay, and in the litigation that ensued a number of lots in Leitersburg were sold at sheriff's sale.

THE VILLAGE IN 1830.

In 1830 Christopher Burkhart conducted a hotel at the present residence of David Barnhart, a substantial two-story stone building. Charles A. Fletcher, merchant, and Adam Lantz, laborer, lived on the opposite side of the street, their residences corresponding to the present properties of Joseph Barkdoll and Jacob Creager. Both were one-story log structures. These were the only improvements on the village plot west of the public square; the old Leiter homestead at the extremity of the village was owned by George Poe, blacksmith, and Samuel Leiter, carpenter, lived on the opposite side of the turnpike.

In 1830 Fletcher & Stonebraker's store was located in the substantial brick building at the southeast corner of the square in which Josephus Ground now resides, and John Lahm conducted a hotel at the present residence of Mrs. Charles A. Armour, then a two-story log building. The stone building at the corner of the square in which Andrew Leiter lived in 1812 was still standing and here the Cross Keys Hotel was conducted in 1830. North of this the succession of improvements was as follows: A two-story log building, erected by Daniel Lowman, distiller, and now in

corporated in the residence of Mrs. Laura K. Ziegler; a two-story log house in which Isaac Clymer, cooper, resided; a one-story log house, the residence of Mrs. Kessinger, a widow; a log house one story and a half high, the present residence of Mrs. John Wolf; a two-story log house, the present residence of Mrs. John Harbaugh; a two-story stone house in which Dr. James Johnson lived and which is now the residence of Jacob B. Mentzer.

On the west side of Water street there was a log building a story and a half high, now the residence of Frank Minor. In 1830 this was the cooper shop in which Amos Dilworth made barrels for Lewis Ziegler's distillery. Mrs. Barbara Leiter, widow of the founder of the town, lived in a one-story log house at the present site of Samuel Minor's; Daniel Lowman, distiller, at the present residence of William Johnson, a one-story log house; Siekman, a weaver, at the present residence of Henry Minor, a log house one story and a half high; Daniel Sheetz, post-fence maker, at a twostory log house at the site of Mrs. Lousia Ziegler's present residence; Frey, a weaver, at Hilary Unclesby's present residence, a one-story stone house; Samuel Light, a shoemaker, at the onestory stone house owned by Freeland W. Anderson.

On the south side of the Smithsburg road John Beckman, blacksmith, and Jacob Martz, wagon-maker, occupied the respective residences of Wilfred L. Flory and Upton Bell, and east of the latter was the Lutheran church. James Slick's residence was occupied by John Beaver, a school teacher. Christian Lantz, tanner, lived to a one-story log house, now the residence of John Lowman; John Fry, a weaver, whose family was remarkable for height, at the present residence of William Shiess. On the opposite side of the street the improvements in 1830 included a log house a story and a half high now incorporated in the residence of Dr. Charles W. Harper; the present residence of Mrs. Catherine Rohrer, a one-story log house; Joseph Leiter's residence, directly opposite the Lutheran church; the residences of Mrs. Ann Leiter and Elizabeth Repp, both log houses a story and a half high; the former was the residence of the late Samuel McDowell and in the latter Daniel J. D. Hicks now lives.

It is evident from the preceding enumeration that the village was composed almost entirely of log houses in 1830. The only brick building was the present residence of Josephus Ground;