History of Frederick

From these early beginnings, Frederick grew to an important market town, but by the first third of the 19th century, the town had also become one of the leading mining counties of the United States, producing gold, copper, limestone, marble, iron and other minerals. As early as the American Revolution, Catoctin Furnace near Thurmont had been a significant site for iron production. In 1831 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) completed its Frederick Branch line from the Frederick or Monocacy Junction off the main Western Line from Baltimore westward to Harpers Ferry, Cumberland, the Ohio River, and eventually Chicago and St. Louis by the 1850s.

When the first wave of Irish refugees from the potato famine settled in the city in 1846, one of the leading members of the Schley family married into the Wilson family from Ireland. Consequently, many of the Schleys converted to Catholicism, and residents of Frederick began to speak English for the first time in the town's history — up until then, the language had been German. Frederick was known during the nineteenth century for its religious pluralism, with one of its main thoroughfares, Church Street, hosting half a dozen major churches. The main Catholic church, St. John's, was built in 1800, and then rebuilt in 1837 (across the street) one block north of Church Street on East Second Street, where it still stands. Together, these churches dominated the town, set against the backdrop of the first ridge of the Appalachians, Catoctin Mountain. The abolitionist poet John Greenleaf Whittier immortalized this view of Frederick in his poem to Barbara Fritchie: "The clustered spires of Frederick stand / Green-walled by the hills of Maryland."

Civil War