Mistakes happen. On August 3, 1868, an incident occurred which immediately aroused the sympathy of Frederick citizens and initially maligned the reputation of a local pharmacist.

The daughter of H. F. Steiner was ill with cholera in mid-summer that year. The doctor was summoned and he issued a prescription to the child's mother. She took it to the pharmacy of Holbrook and Walter.

When told it would be some time before it could be filled, Mrs. Steiner said she had to return home to attend the child and would send her 8-year-old son to pick it up later. When the boy arrived at the pharmacy later, the prescription was still unfilled, but the pharmacist immediately set about making it up. When he finished, he discovered that the boy had left the store.

Several days later it was realized that the boy had taken a vial of Fowler's Solution of Arsenic, which had been prepared for another customer. A few doses of the solution was administered, but the little girl's condition grew worse. The doctor was again summoned. Shortly afterward she died.

A week or so after the little girl was buried it was learned that another Steiner child had also taken the Fowler's Solution of Arsenic but had suffered no ill effects. The pharmacist received a letter from the Steiner family absolving him of any blame in the matter. The worries of Fredericktonians over the competence of the pharmacist were thus relieved.

The youngest man to ever serve as Governor of Maryland was a native son of Frederick County, who lived on East Second Street and practiced law here.

Enoch Lowe was born on the family farm in 1820. When but 9 years old he entered St. Johns College in Annapolis. In the 1830s he went to Ireland to attend Clongore's College and later went to England to study at Stoneyhurst. After graduating he made a grand tour of Europe and returned to Frederick to study law.

He was admitted to the bar in 1842. He quickly became an eloquent and persuasive speaker and gained wide recognition. In 1845 he was elected to the House of Delegates, where he was a great reformer, championing the revision of the state's criminal code.

In 1850 he was nominated by the Democrats for Maryland Governor even though he had not yet attained the required age of 30 years, though he celebrated his 30th birthday prior to the election. He was elected with a majority of only 1,492 votes. It was during his administration that the state's Constitution was rewritten.

After his term as governor, Lowe became a strong advocate of the Southern cause and attempted to get Maryland into that camp. He moved to Richmond and continued his efforts to get his native state to secede. "The final defeat of the Confederacy brought a gloom to his soul."

He returned to Maryland but found he could not support his wife and 11 children, so he moved to Brooklyn, where he died in 1892, of complications following surgery for gout.

On the evening of August 17, 1911, more than 1,500 people gathered near the intersection of West Church and North Court Sts. to honor one of Frederick's pioneers.

Marie Diehl had devoted much of her adult life to the care and protection of all sorts of animals. She was the driving force, and the organizer of the local chapter of The Society for The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

On this hot August night, a fountain, with drinking bowls at numerous levels, including one almost at ground level, was dedicated to her memory. It was made of brass and stood 18 feet high. The various bowls provided a place for animals to get a drink of water.

Joseph Baker offered appropriate remarks. He cited her devotion to her family and particularly, her kindness in the care of animals. He said that she always had a smile for everyone, no matter their station in life.

"Even through those years of her own struggle, she had in her heart and mind that great quality of mercy that was not only displayed toward her fellow beings, but which reached down to the animal creation, and her devotion to duty as she saw it in looking after the interests of the society which she so ably represented, showed a courage and devotion which must have made an impression in this community that not only today sends forth its light, but will be handed down to others who will follow us."

"Miss May,'" as she was called, had taken care of her ailing mother for years and had failing health herself. When she left Frederick just months before her death, she knew her time was short, but she still displayed a brightness and cheerfulness. It is to her memory that we today unveil this fountain that is to furnish refreshing drink especially for the animals of the town of Frederick, and nothing more appropriate could have been done as a memorial to her than the erection of this beautiful fountain which we here dedicate to her memory," Mr. Baker concluded.

One of the real jewels in Frederick County is located just south of Emmitsburg is Mount Saint Mary's College, founded by Father John Dubois, who was born in Paris in 1764.

As the French Revolution progressed, all priests were required to take an oath of allegiance to the crown. Father Dubois found this impossible and he fled his native land for America. He carried with him letters of introduction from the Marquis de Lafayette, and quickly found friends on the shores of the New World.

In 1794 he was appointed the pastorate in Frederick. Because his pastorate covered all of Western Maryland, Father Dubois travelled a great deal, particularly into those areas where Roman Catholics had settled. It had been a fond wish of Father Dubois to establish a college and a seminary. On September 24, 1808, Mt. St. Mary's College opened for the first classes.

In 1826, Father Dubois was asked to take over the Catholic Church in New York, and on October 29 that year he was consecrated its bishop. Before leaving Frederick and Emmitsburg, Father Dubois, on behalf of the college, signed an agreement whereby Mount Saint Mary's became the diocesan seminary for New York for five years. In this manner he guaranteed the survival of his school.

Father Dubois only returned to his beloved Mount Saint Mary's once after his consecration as bishop in 1826. Of his summer of 1842 visit it has been written: "The whole population of the country around poured forth to welcome their benefactor and to ask a Father's blessing from him. It was as if a patriot were returning in triumph to his country."

On November 24, 1790, John Schley, who is credited with building the first house in Frederick Town, and who is also credited with being the father of the first white child born in Frederick Town, died.

To him a great deal of gratitude is owed. For it was John Schley who laid the foundation for the remarkable community that grew up with him and after him.

According to The Key, a newspaper published in the late 1700s in Frederick Town, Schley "had the satisfaction of seeing a dreary wood, late the habitation of bears, wolves, deer, etc., and the occasional hunting ground of the dreary savage, converted into a flourishing town surrounded by a fertile country, smiling with yellow harvest and comfortable farm houses, interspersed with handsome seats, the happy reward of enterprising, persevering industry."

Schley was a school teacher and very active in his church, The German Reformed. He actively worked for the construction of the house of worship we call Trinity Chapel today.

The Reverend Michael Schlatter, a noted German Reformed missionary and church organizer, said of him: "It is a great advantage to this congregation that they have the best school master I have met in America. He omits neither diligence nor labor in teaching the youth and edifying the congregation with all his ability by singing and reading the Word of God and printed sermons on every Lord's Day."

From this passage, many historians have assumed that Schley was the town's first choirmaster as well as school teacher. It has also been assumed that Schley filled the role of minister to the congregation when the parish was without one.

When he died in 1790 at the age of 78, he was buried in the graveyard at the rear of Trinity Chapel. But when the graves there were relocated, his could not be located. Thus, John Thomas Schley rests today in the middle of the town whose remarkable success for 253 years could truly be called of his making in its formative years.