Cumberland Road Project
Leaflet courtesy of Bob Lemmert

Text of Leaflet Promotiong the Frostburg Fireman's Convention, 1908

You are cordially invited to be present at the

Sixteenth Annual Convention

of the

Maryland State Volunteer

Firemen's Association,

to be held at

Frostburg, Maryland,

June Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth,

Nineteen Hundred and Eight.

Clayton Purnell,
J. Marshall Price,
Henry Mayer,
George E. Pearce,
William T. Kirby,
Committee.

FROSTBURG.

On the 20th day of June, 1818, Mr. Meshech Frost and Miss Catherine Majers were married near Mt. Savage, and on the same day began housekeeping in a new log cabin standing on the site of the St. Michael's Catholic Church property.

This cabin was the first building and this couple the first residents of what is now known as the town of Frostburg.

When other houses had been built the hamlet took and held for nearly twenty years the name or "Mount Pleasant,"but about the year 1830 the people, in honor of Meshech Frost, founder, called ii Frostburg.

In 1832 William Cullen Bryant, the great poet, making his first tour westward, merely mentioned the place as a village "by the way" but on his next tour, in 1860, he spoke of it as "the little town of Frostburg, where I passed the night— a place lying high among the mountain ridges, where the winter comes early and lingers late."

Frostburg is situated on a plateau which, extending from Dan's to Great Savage mountains, constitutes also "the divide" between the head of Jennings' Run and George's Creek.

In other terms, taking the Maryland coal region as a whole, it occupies the apex and centre, and from its altitude the eye easily takes in the region's outlines and circumference.

The altitude at the St. Cloud Hotel mile-post is 2,024 feet above tide; at Union street level, Hotel Gladstone, 2,066 feet, and at the summit of Federal Hill,2,200 feet.

The water supply comes mainly from the springs which constitute the sources of Savage river, in Garrett county. A reservoir and pumping system collects and propels the water across Great Savage mountain, whence, by gravity the town mains are filled.

The town enjoys favorable repute as a summer residence for city people seeking rest from business cares and heat during the year's warm months.

Frostburg is the seat of one of the states two Normal Schools, and other educational facilities are provided by a numerous corps of the State's best teachers under county auspices.

The population, now probably 6,000, in main part comprises the estimatable families whose labor sustains one of the State's greatest industries— coal mining, and from whose sturdy membership the Frostburg Fire Department is largely enlisted, heroes in a two fold sense.

A HOSPITABLE WELCOME

Will be extended to all, and assurance is given that Firemen and People will do all that genuine cordiality suggests to make till visitors feel at home. We have

A Beautiful Town and Fine Homes

MODEL MINING REGION OF THE WORLD.

$1,000 to $1,500

To be Awarded in Prizes Most Probably Some of Them to You- if you will—

COME TO THE MOUNTAIN METROPOLIS OF MARYLAND,

ENTER SOME OF THE CONTESTS.

KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE DATES- JUNE 10,11 and 12, '08,

With entire unanimity and unaffected sincerity the people of Frostburg unite with the Fire Department in extending this invitation to you to participate in the demonstration incident to the meeting here of the Maryland State Firemen's Association>

For this the Department offers three patriotic reasons:

1. We wish to impress upon our home people the magnitude of the State-wide system of organic co-operation which voluntarily dedicates its effort to saving life and property from destruction by fire;-

2. We wish to make precisely the same impression upon all our visitors—companies and individuals, and—

3. We wish to link our town and people with an occasion that will be widely memorable for many years.

NO MATTER, THEN, WHAT IN LIFE OUR WEALTH AND STATION, IT WILL NOT PAY US TO MISS THIS DEMONSTRATION.