A Short Cumberland History
Cumberland, Maryland, the seat of Allegany County, is not unlike hundreds of similar sized cities across the United States. The history of the region tracks the history of the nation, in microcosm.
The earliest European explorers visited the location where Will's Creek enters the Potomac River around 1728. Native American villages had occupied the site for some time. The map from Lord Fairfax's expedition of 1736 shows the area with an abandoned village. Thomas Cresap established a settlement east of this area in 1740. The Ohio Company built a storehouse there around 1750.
Fort Cumberland was built by the British Army, and Maryland and Virginia militia sometime before 1755. General Braddock's expedition reached there in May of that year. The fort was in hostile territory during the French & Indian War. Abandoned in 1765, it was in ruins when General Washington visited the area in 1794.
In 1783, Thomas Beall from Washington County to the east had a town laid out on the west side of Will's Creek. By 1786, there was a village in place. A charter was granted by the legislature in 1787. The City was incorporated in 1818.
The National Road, a project of President Jefferson connected Cumberland to Wheeling, WV in 1818. It was extended eastward to Baltimore. In the 1820's, coal was shipped from Cumberland to Georgetown down the Potomac on flat bottom boats.
The telegraph reached town in 1854. During the civil war, the City was garrisoned by Union Troops. A bored Union General, Lew Wallace, penned the epic novel Ben Hur while serving there. The town did surrender to Confederate troops in 186x, when the Union troops were redeployed to New Creek (Keyser). There was a military hospital nearby in Clarysville. In a dramatic but inconsequential action McNeill's Raiders kidnapped Union Gererals Kelley & Crook from their hotel in Cumberland near the end of the war.
The B&O built the Queen City Hotel in 1872. The railroad and the shops, including the rolling mill, were major employers. The spectacular Academic of Music, also housing city offices and a farmers market, was built in 1876, but burned in 1910.
During the period 1890 to 1930, the population of the City tripled. The railroads and local industry provided a steady, dependable employment base, and immigrants flocked to the region.
On top of Will's Mountain, the Will's Mountain Inn provided a spectacular vacation resort. It was later converted to a sanatorium, and burned in 1930.
Major manufacturing employers in the Cumberland area, besides the railroads, included the Kelly-Springfield Tire Company, set up in 1917, the Celanese Corporation, Footer's Dye Works, several breweries and bakeries, Pittsburgh Plate Glass' Float Plant, Allegany Ballistics Laboratory, and the nearby Westvaco papermill.
References
Feldstein, Albert L. Downtown Cumberland 1950-1980, 1994, Cumberland, MD:Commercial Press.
Feldstein, Albert L. Tour Guide to Historic Sites in Allegany County, Maryland, 1990, Cumberland, MD:Commercial Press.
Hunt, J. William. The Story of Cumberland, Maryland, 1965, Allegany County Historical Society, Cumberland, MD.
Lowdermilk, W. H. History of Cumberland, Md., 1878, Washington, DC, reprinted, Regional Publishing Co., 1976, Baltimore, ISBN 0-8063-7983-9.
Schwartz, Lee G.; Feldstein, Albert; Baldwin, Joan H., Allegany County, A Pictorial History, 1980, Virginia Beach, Va:The Donning Co.
Thomas, LL.D., James W., and Williams, Judge T. J. C. History of Allegany County, Maryland, 1923, reprinted 1969, Baltimore: Regional Publishing Co.
Stegmaier, Harry, Jr., et al. Allegany County - A History, 1976, Parsons, WV:McClain Publishing.
Weaver, Joseph H. Cumberland 1787-1987 A Bicentennial History, 1987, Cumberland, MD: Precision Printing Co.
