Maryland, Carroll County, Union Bridge
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Elmer A. Wolfe High School
was built just east of this site
in 1931. The building was
demolished in 1996 and
replaced by the present
Elmer A. Wolfe Elementary School.
(Education • Man-Made Features) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Born on this site, April 6, 1853, the son of John Gatewood, Publisher of the Shenandoah Herald, Charles
received his basic education in Woodstock and Harrisonburg, and was teaching school in Harrisonburg
when he received his appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He
graduated in the upper third of his class in 1877, and was commissioned Second Lieutenant and assigned to
the Sixth U. S. Cavalry. He was posted at Fort Wingate, New Mexico, and at Forts Bowie and Apache in Arizona Territory.
Formed from
Pioneer ranchers began to settle Hale County in the early 1880s. Land was plentiful and cheap, but life was hard. Many settlers lived in dugouts. Supplies were freighted from Colorado City until the railroad reached Amarillo. Cattle roamed the free grazing land until round-up time, when they were separated according to brands. Ranchers earned extra income by selling buffalo bones for fertilizer, working on the railroad, or hiring out to larger ranches. Many worked at the Circle Ranch of Col. C. C. Slaughter, which covered land in four counties. Other significant ranches included the Callahan, Barton, and Norfleet ranches.
Organized religion in Hale County can be traced to 1883, when Methodist minister Horatio Graves and his family became the first permanent settlers of the area. Their home became a community gathering place, school, and Union church. A post office was established under the name Epworth in 1884. A second community, Hale City, was established two miles away, and in 1893 the two settlements combined to form Hale Center.
In the late 1880s Swedish born Nils Akeson moved from Iowa to this sparsely populated area of north Texas. As an officer of the Hale County Townsite Company Nils helped establish the town of Hale Center. He worked for the famous XIT Ranch from 1893 to 1899 and served as Hale Center's postmaster from 1900 to 1907. He helped bring the Santa Fe Railroad through Hale Center in 1909 and established the town's first mercantile business. As mayor, land developer, church administrator and school trustee Akeson played a prominent role in Hale Center's early development.
First settlement in county. Established as a post office in 1884 by Horatio Graves of New York, a Methodist minister. Then only county resident, he planned to found religious colony here; named place for Epworth, England, birthplace of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.
Son of a rancher and Texas Ranger, J. Frank Norfleet was born in Lampasas County. With little schooling, he grew up working on ranches. He served as foreman for 20 years on the Spade Ranch.
Born in Illinois, Mennonite minister and farmer Peter B. Snyder (1864-1948) was living in Minnesota when a search for inexpensive land led him to Texas. In 1906, he bought property in Hale County from John H. Buntin and urged other Mennonites to join his colony. Snyder and his family traveled by train to Plainview in 1907. They lived briefly in tents before erecting a house in 1908.
The Haller Fountain was brought to Port Townsend by resident Theodore N. Haller to honor his deceased father and brother. After the dedication speech, Mr. Haller read a poem about the Greek sea nymph, Galatea, and the statue has been known by that name ever since. Once planted as a flower bed and even used for performing trout shows, the fountain was eventually damaged beyond repair. After a community fundraising campaign, the fountain was re-cast in 1992. Galatea was unveiled in a public ceremony where she reclaimed her status as one of Port Townsend’s favorite landmarks.
Begun in 1892 by Port Townsend pioneer Joseph A. Kuhn, this building represented the latest ideas of the time in architecture. Construction was directed by Jonas Guise, then the best known contractor in the area. Bricks came from the yards of Eisenbeis & Tucker near Point Wilson.
In 1887 Joseph B. Leach and his brothers, John and Dee, immigrated to this area from Liberty, Kentucky. Joseph filed on a 160-acre homestead and built a half-dugout and sod house and a windmill. The Leach brothers often hauled freight for Plainview merchants.
Commemorating Capt. George Vancouver’s discovery, landing & naming of Port Townsend in honor of the Marquis of Townshend, May 7, 1792.
Mrs. Susan Wissler, on May 9 1911, was elected mayor of Dayton, Wyoming, then a community of about 175 people. She served two terms of two years each. Her administration was marked by civic improvements and community betterment as her campaign promise to curb gaming and regulated the operation of saloons was, in a measure, fulfilled. 
410 Bridge Street 
Site of 
