Allegany County Maryland--History

Georges Creek Coal & Iron Company

by William Fugera

Years ago I lived in Cumberland, Maryland. I had heard of the Georges Creek area but never paid much attention to it. After acquiring Georges Creek Coal and Iron Company scrip, which was used in Farmington, West Virginia, from 1903 - 1909, I became curious about the company and coal mining in western Maryland. I decided to do further research.

This list may include duplicates as some of the handwriting was difficult to decipher. For example Thomas Beaman may be the same person as Thomas Beeman, but there appeared to be two different spellings. The inclusion of initials also added confusion. It is possible that J F Somerville, John Somerville and John F Somerville are the same person, but they are included here as three listings in case they are indeed three different people.

This photograph, taken in the fall of 1963 , depicts some members of the Allegany High School football team. Included are, front row, left to right: John Keiley, Allen Foley, and Fred Shank. In the back row, left to right are Pat Chorpenning, Larry Miller, Mike Miller, Don Saylor, and Danny Darr (Class of 1965). Darr also played on the State Champion Allegany High School basketball team.

This photograph of Allegany High School football players, taken on November 20, 1966 include,

Front Row: John Lange, George Lanigan, Mike Mason, Earl Paul, Moe Rosenbaum, Gary Robinette, and Kevin Sellars
Back Row, left to right: Terry Ashby (Class of 1968), Ralph Leasure, Tom Beyer, and Bob Sell

UPDATE: Terry Ashby was born in 1950 and passed away in 2018. The following is an excerpt from an obituary that appeared in the January 6, 2018 edition of the Cumberland Times-News:

MLK Day Jamboree packed with activities
All-day event set at Williams Street church

MARIA SMITH

CUMBERLAND —

Acknowledgements

A multi-award-winning regional amateur public historian, Albert Louis Feldstein has since 1980 successfully published over thirty books, prints, and videotapes depicting the history of all three western Maryland Counties - Allegany, Garrett and Washington, as well as nearby West Virginia. His works have focused upon such varied subjects as historic postcards, newspapers, floods, gravesites, coal mining, railroads, community histories, women's history, black history, and tour guides to historic sites.