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The Amish Community in Grantsville


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The Amish Community At Grantsville

By

IVAN J. MILLER

The American pioneer could usually be divided into three classes: The monied speculators who took up land to sell later as the community's economy developed, the roving trapper or hunter and the substantial settlers who acquired their lands where they lived with their families and developed useful farms, homes and business. In this last class belong the industrious Amish people who moved into this area west of the Allegheny mountains when this land was acquired by the colonies from the Indians through the treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768. Most of them came from settlements in eastern Pennsylvania where they had come from Europe. They were attracted to Pennsylvania by the religious liberty offered by William Penn to the oppressed minority groups of Europe. The first Amish settlers along the Castleman river arrived in the decade preceeding the war of the Colonies with England.

The two arteries of travel into the area were the Braddock Road (National Trail) now U. S. Rt. 40 and the Forbes Road now U. S. Rt. 30. Both of these roads were neglected, washed-out military roads when the first Amish came over them. Those coming from eastern Pennsylvania came over the Forbes Road and then found their way south through Somerset county, Pennsylvania into the Meyersdale, Pa. — Grantsville, Md. vicinity. Those landing at Baltimore traveled the Braddock Road. Most of the peace loving Amish and Mennonites coming to America landed at Philadelphia because of their confidence in the Quaker government of Pennsylvania. Thus the first Amish in the area came through Somerset county Pennsylvania and took up land about five miles southwest of Meyersdale, Pa. and ten or twelve miles north of Grantsville, Md. Evidently one of the first to secure land along the Castleman was one Micheal Buechley who owned two tracts of land in 1772 and bought a third in 1773. He later joined the Church of the Brethren and the family name, variously spelled, is widely found in that and other denominations today. Peter Livengood, who brought the first covered wagon across the Alleghenies, came .in 1775. (See p.. 29, Vol. I, No. 2 of Tableland Trails.) The Sellers (Saylors) had preceded them. About this time the Yoders and



ID:
gctg107

Creator:
Ivan J. Miller

Date:
1956

Collection Location:
Ruth Enlow Library, Oakland

Original Size:
22 x 15 cms

Subject:
Maryland, History

 Coverage:
Western Maryland, 1750-1963

  
 
Western Maryland Regional Library
100 South Potomac Street
Hagerstown, Maryland 21740
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