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Cemetery near Canal at Dargan

About

About
Possible canal workers' cemetery

Media Items

Media Items
Media Items
ItemID
wcco268
IDEntry
7090
Creator
Eugene Slatnick
Date
1976-03-13
Collection Location
Washington County Free Library
Coverage
Maryland, 1830-1940
Body

In Memory of
JOHN ADAMS,
native of Ireland
Who departed this life
Jan 6th 1833 in the
41st Year of his Age

This is the inscription on the single large cemetery near the canal near Dargan.

Unrau reports a cholera outbreak in 1832 There was the disastrous epidemic of Asiatic cholera in the Potomac Valley during the summer of 1832. The canal project had been plagued from its inception by the annual “sickly” season in the Potomac Valley causing the exodus of company officials, contractors, and laborers, but the 1832 epidemic proved to be the most devastating to occur during the construction period. The epidemic spread along the entire line of construction from Point of Rocks to Williamsport causing immense suffering, page 71.

Given John Adams' death at the time of a cholera outbreak among the canal workers, and that he was Irish as were many others employed there, this may have been a cemetery used to bury canal workers.