The Founding of Emmitsburg

People were living in this valley long before there was a town with a name. Settlers reached the area in the 1730s, and in 1757 Lutherans led by pastor George Bager built a church here that they shared with a German Reformed congregation until 1798.

The town itself dates to 1785. The settlement that preceded it was remembered under earlier names — Wikipedia, following its sources, gives "Silver Fancy" and then "Poplar Fields"; the Emmitsburg Area Historical Society's own research uses the singular "Poplar Field". The town was laid out on land the Emmit family held: Samuel Emmit patented 2,250 acres here on May 17, 1757, and in August 1785 he deeded 35 acres to his son William. The town is named for William Emmit — though the Maryland Manual's municipal entry says the town was named for Samuel Emmit — the Samuel claim is shown here attributed, not smoothed over. The Historical Society's corrective history, "Setting the Record Straight", argues the case from that deed of August 1785: the Society's history dates the deed August 12, 1785, while a 2011 town account of the Society's evidence dates it August 18, 1785 — we show both rather than pick one silently. The Society also notes March 5, 1785 as a more historically correct founding date, and in December 2011 the Town formally recognized 1785 as the founding year.

Emmitsburg was incorporated in 1825. It sits just 0.3 miles south of the Mason–Dixon line, at the foot of the Catoctin Mountains — close enough to the Pennsylvania line that its story has always run in both directions.