Origins of Common Names Throughout Garrett County

This article is based off the autobiography of Meshach Browning, who lived in Garrett County during the late 18th Century and 19th Century. If you haven’t read about Meshach and his incredible stories, read them here: https://www.outdoorsmaryland.net/blog/meet-the-daniel-boone-of-western-maryland-meshach-browning

Based off of Fourty-Four Years, The Life of A Hunter.

Meshach Browning provides us with many accounts of how famous features in Garrett County got their names. From family names to rivers and famous mountains, the names we know today have been in usage since even before the time of Browning.

The first is Meadow Mountain. This is the mountain at Deep Creek Lake State Park and the one I-68 crosses over near Grantsville. Meadow Mountain runs from the border with Pennsylvania down to Deep Creek Lake. The mountain’s peak elevation is around 3,000 feet, and this presented a formidable challenge in Browning’s day. Meadow Mountain was one of his preferred hunting grounds, known for its glades and chestnut forests that provided ample food for game, but it was also one of the most easterly points he travelled due to the challenge in crossing it. It was of note in Browning’s day for its rattlesnakes. He also frequently hunted bears in the spring here as they emerged from large boulder fields on the mountainside. Browning says the mountain got its name from a large meadow on its western slope.

At this time, Allegany County included what is today Allegany and Garrett County. Garrett was split from Allegany in 1872, a decade after Meshach’s death. Browning provides the geographical boundaries of Allegany County, but he is also spot-on in his proposition to split the county in half. He describes the eastern part as full of ridges and valleys, while the western part extending from Dan’s Mountain is colder and more elevated. Browning was only one ridgeline off, as Garrett County’s border is one mountain to the west on Savage Mountain.

One of the first places Browning visits in Garrett County is an area he refers to as “Blooming Rose.” This name isn’t used today but is likely a valley southwest of Friendsville close to the West Virginia border.

The only two towns explicitly written about are Selbysport and Accident. Oakland, the county seat today, had not yet had its railroad boom. Selbysport is described as critical to the county as the easiest crossing of the Youghiogheny River, though he is especially effusive for Accident, calling it “decidedly the best part of the county.” The settlers were “an industrious and enterprising class of farmers” living among “the best wheat-growing sections in Maryland.”

Negro Mountain, also crossed by I-68, has received some spotlight recently for its name. It my be changed in the future. The story goes that General Braddock was retreating from a loss in the French and Indian War when a scouting party was ambushed by Native Americans. A free black man was wounded and laid under a rock until the rest of the group could fetch help. Fearing the Native Americans, the party never returned. Interestingly, the woods around the mountain are said by some to be haunted.

Visitors to Garrett County may notice today that many town names in Western Maryland are German. The region’s earliest settlers were mostly veterans of the Revolutionary War, both American and foreign. The British hired mercenaries, paid foreign soldiers, from other countries to fight on their side, most of whom were German. Some of these soldiers were among those who received plots of land in Garrett County following the conclusion of the war.

Many of Meshach’s neighbors and friends have recognizable names. He mentions a Daniel Cresap, the namesake of both Cresaptown near Cumberland and Dan’s Mountain in Allegany County. He was the first man to settle the area. He stays a night in a house owned by Dr. McHenry, who more than likely was related to James McHenry, the namesake of McHenry and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He also spends a night with George Drane. Today, the Drane House is the oldest standing building in Garrett County, built in 1791 in the town of Accident.

One of his most frequent hunting partners was James Cunningham, a man from Frederick County. He was more than likely a relative of the namesake for Cunningham Falls, also in Frederick County.

One of the most common geographical markers in the book is Little Crossings. Today, this is the area where I-68 crosses the Casselman River in Grantsville. The exact spot is in Casselman Bridge State Park. The Crossings was where Selbysport is today on the Youghiogheny River. The Casselman River used to be referred to as the Little Youghiogheny, so its main crossing point became known as Little Crossings.