This Month In Frederick County History

June

From John Ashbury's - '... and all our yesterdays'

June 7

Benjamin Tasker made a profit on the land patent he received which he called "Tasker's Chance." But it pales when compared to the fortune the man to whom he sold the land in 1744.

Tasker surveyed what is today Frederick in 1725. Two years later, on June 7, 1727, he received his patent for the land. His tract began near the junction of the Monocacy with Beaver Creek, now Carroll Creek. Fourteen years later Tasker sold the 7,000 acres to Daniel Dulany for what amounted to about $8,400.

People thought Dulany the fool when he sold large portions of this tract to farmers for far less than he paid. His profits came when he laid out Fredericktown in 1745.

The 340 lots, 60 feet wide and from 350 to 400 feet deep, were sold to individuals on a novel and innovative plan. The purchasers paid four or five pounds for their lots depending on the desirability of the location.

The innovation was ground rent. This required the buyers to pay Dulany, or his heirs, one shilling per year for the first 21 years, and two shillings a year thereafter – forever. Some ground rents were higher, as much as 3 shillings a year for 21 years, and six shillings a year perpetually.

The Dulanys profited handsomely for generations. The practice of ground rents still exists, although most land in the state is free of this fee today.

June 14

Francis Scott Key could not have foreseen the monuments that would be erected to his patriotism. The last such memorial was dedicated on Flag Day, June 14, 1922, at Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor near the spot where he had witnessed the huge flag still waving after a furious bombardment of the fort by the British in September 1814.

President Warren Harding was the main speaker at the 4 p.m. ceremonies, which were broadcast live to all parts of Maryland over the facilities of the Baltimore American.

At the base of the memorial is inscribed: "To Francis Scott Key, author of `The Star-Spangled Banner,' and to the soldiers and sailors who took part in the Battle of North Point and the Defense of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812."

In citing Key's patriotism, President Harding said: "No concern for self narrowed his thought. No glorification of the individual marred his vision. No pursuit of fame set his soul ablaze. No personal advantage hindered his pen. His country and his concern for its safety were combined in his all-consuming thought; the Nation was the great uplifting and exalting love. In this impassioned, anxious, self-sacrificing, exalting, and exulting love of country, transcending all else, Key reached the sublime heights, and wrote the poetic revelation of an American soul aflame."

It wasn't until nearly nine years later that Congress passed the law making Key's words our national anthem.

June 21

At its regular meeting on June 21, 1922, the Frederick County Board of Education employed W. K. Klingaman as the new principal of Frederick High School. He was the first principal of the combined Boys and Girls high schools as a co-educational institution.

Klingaman was born April 6, 1891, in Jacksonville, PA, was a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College, in Lancaster, and took post-graduate courses at Columbia University in New York.

He taught school in Bel Air, which was already co-educational, in the 1921-1922 school year.

Charles Remsburg, who had been principal of the Girls High School, was selected as the vice principal of Frederick High. G. Nevia Rebert, who had been principal of Boys High School, resigned from the county teaching staff to take a position as head of the Department of Education at Hood College.

Klingaman served as principal of Frederick High School for three years at which time he resigned to become Western Maryland Supervisor of High Schools for the State Board of Education. Though he was only in Frederick a short time he made a lasting impact.

During the 1924-25 school year he coached the Cadets to their first ever state basketball championship. He returned frequently for alumni banquets, and often stopped to visit friends on trips to and from his Hagerstown home.

On February 19, 1934, while a patient at Phipps Clinic in Baltimore, he was killed when he deliberately walked into the path of a Pennsylvania Railroad train at a street crossing. He was survived by his wife and one son, William Klingaman.

Six months after the appointment of Klingaman, the school board authorized Hahn & Betson Contractors to build a new high school for "colored students" at a cost of $23,000. This was the Lincoln School.

In 1938, the Board of Education awarded a contract to Calvin Owens of Bethesda, to build a new Frederick High School for a price of $369,500.

[A new Frederick High School, at a cost of $15 million, has replaced the 1939 structure. And The Lincoln School is now Lincoln Elementary.]

June 28

The war was not going well for the Union in early 1863. Moral was low. And Confederate forces were marching north through Maryland headed for Pennsylvania and the fateful Battle of Gettysburg.

General Joseph Hooker had taken his post as commander of Union forces from General Ambrose Burnside on January 26, 1863. An overconfident Hooker was badly defeated by General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia at Chancellorsville in early May. His disagreements with another general over war strategy led eventually to Hooker's request of Lincoln to be relieved of command.

Gen. George G. Meade relieved Hooker, who was encamped near Prospect Hall on the outskirts of Frederick, on June 28, 1863.

In General Order #65, Hooker said: "In conforming with the orders of The War Department, dated June 27, 1863, I relinquished command of the Army of The Potomac. It is transferred to Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, a brave and accomplished officer, who has earned the confidence and esteem of this army on many a well-fought field. Impressed with the belief that my usefulness as the commander of the Army of The Potomac is impaired, I part from it, yet not without deepest emotion."

Hooker remained in the army and commanded Union forces at the Battle of Lookout Mountain. He died in 1879 and was buried in Cincinnati.