Long Distance Moving Service | Local Move in MD | Maryland Movers

Moving - Gettysburg, Maryland

If you are planning to relocate into or out of Gettysburg, MD, you need a company such as Movers USA. We are reliable, competitive and the best moving company in the Gettysburg, MD area. Just a click will deliver to you a free estimate of the cost of your move from our expert moving consultants. For a worry free move, trust Movers USA.

Please enjoy the brief history we offer on Gettysburg, MD.
A Brief History of Gettysburg, Maryland

The beginning of the recorded history of the northern Frederick County is closely tied to rivalry between England and France . When the first Europeans settled in the Emmitsburg area, in the early eighteenth century, the English government was casting a worried eye at French moves to claim the interior of the American continent. France's holdings there threatened to limit English influence to the coastal strip east of the Allegheny mountains, and thereby prevent English dominance of northern America.

To counter French encroachment, the English government began an active policy of promoting settlement of the wilderness. Settlers were organized into groups of hundreds. The first settlers, in the area under active research by the Greater Emmitsburg Area Historical Society, were collectively known as the Tom's Creek Hundred. Their settlement encompassed land from just north of present day Thurmont to the old Pennsylvania border, from the Monocacy to the Catoctin Mountains.

The Tom Indians, who occupied the Emmitsburg area, had by this time either moved westward or died from European diseases such as small pox. As a result, the land occupied by the Tom's Creek Hundred was nearly devoid of Indians and therefore ripe for settlement by the English.

While the Royal government opened the land to all settlers for a nominal fee, it favored a few select aristocrats by offering them large tracts of land in reward for their support of the Crown. One of the earliest land barons in the valley was John Diggs.

Diggs, a grandson of the Royal Governor of Virginia, was a wealthy Catholic who played a dominant role in the sometimes bloody border dispute between the Maryland and Pennsylvania governments. With ownership of the Chesapeake and the mouth of the Susquehanna, Maryland, pressed its claim of what is now Middle Pennsylvania. This remained a dispute that was not settled until the Mason-Dixon line was laid out.

Diggs believed his right to land, based upon his aristocratic standing, entitled him to most of northern and western Maryland . In 1732, Diggs formally claimed, though without any authority, all the vacant land on the Monocacy and its many branches, which included all of present day Emmitsburg. In July 1743, Diggs managed to receive title to three tracts of land in the Emmitsburg area. Diggs' land grabbing was quickly mimicked by others, albeit in a smaller fashion.

Unfortunately for the land speculators and the settlers, the race between the French and English for the interior of the continent soon got out of hand. In 1754, the English were not only fighting the French, but their Indian allies as well. While little fighting occurred in the Emmitsburg area, Indian raiding parties periodically moved through the area. As a result, many settlers withdrew to the relative safety of coastal cities.

With the end of the Seven Years War in Europe, in which France ceded sovereignty of the interior of North America to the English, settlers once again cast their eyes toward the wilderness. Some fled from severe religious persecution, others from the oppression of civil tyranny, and still others were attracted by the hopes of liberty under the milder influence of English colonial rule. But for the greatest part, the settlers flocked to the American continent in the hopes of abandoning the crushing poverty of their homeland and for the chance to own land and prosper through their own efforts.

Situated just north of the Monocacy Road, the major transit route for Dutch and German immigrants heading from Lancaster to settlements in the Shenandoah, northern Frederick County was ripe for settlement. Full of streams and rolling hills, its picturesque countryside reminded many settlers of the homes they left in Europe. The beauty of the land was further enhanced by its availability and low cost, and many settlers saw little reason to travel further.

The rapid influx of settlers quickly raised the cost of productive land, and soon many restless colonist sold their land holdings and crossed the Appalachians to settled in the fertile Ohio Valley. From there families quickly spread down the Mississippi valley and westward towards the Pacific.