RESIDENTS OF Uniontown gathered recently in the town's one-room schoolhouse to swap stories and share artifacts.
Richard Blacksten, who lived outside town, recalled his find when he was removing a low ceiling from his house.
"I purchased a house just outside of Uniontown in 1969," Blacksten said. "I was taking the plaster out and these letters fell out."
Turned out they were love letters dated from 1867 to 1868 from Keiner C. Billmyer, a local contractor of sorts, to Martha "Mattie" Smith, who had lived in Uniontown. Smith was living temporarily in a boarding house in Baltimore and working at a bonnet factory.
Blacksten read several of the letters, in which the young man professed his ardent love. Unfortunately for him, Mattie married the boy across the street, Hamilton Singer.
Blacksten remarked about the differences between then and now. He noted that Billmyer was a contractor working on a school in nearby Middleburg. But travel was difficult between Uniontown and Middleburg then. He had to stay temporarily in Middleburg. The distance between the two towns is about five miles.
Dottie Fritz, 80, recalled that she and her friends would sled from the top of the hill on the west end of Uniontown and slide all the way to the former bank.
"Of course, you can't do that today because of all the traffic," Fritz said.
Fritz said she and one of her friends, Carolyn "Toots" Devilbiss, would play games of "I spy" and "hide and go seek."
"We would hide in her father's icehouse," Fritz said. "And, boy, he made the best ice cream. My favorite was the frozen custard."
She mentioned stores that used to be in Uniontown, including Walter Robertson's store and gas station and Myers Englar's garage and gas station. The post office was in Devilbiss' General Store. Town residents spent long hours there telling stories.
Residents used the store as a place to catch up until it closed a couple of years ago. And, Wimpy Halter's barbershop was a fixture.
Fritz also recalled World War II with blackouts and air-raid drills.
"And we had a nice group of Minutemen [today's National Guard], and they would drill in the back of the elementary school," Fritz said.
She said they were led by the Rev. Paul Warner and Clarence Lockard, a World War I veteran.
Fritz wasn't the only one with stories to tell.
Miriam West, 90, whose mother, Mary Fogle, taught many of the longtime residents at the elementary school, talked about the days when phones were scarce.
"I imagine most everyone has a phone these days," she said. "But years ago we had to go to the store where Nick Vincent lives to make our phone calls."
One resident brought an advertisement for the Academy, the one-room schoolhouse. The flier boasted, "No pains will be spared on the part of the principal to make this institution what every one ought to be, a place of moral and intellectual improvements. Nothing of a party or sectional nature shall be admitted in the school, yet every opportunity will be seized to make impressions favorable to religion."
Times have changed.
One of the more interesting artifacts was a flier printed on canvas that detailed the cost of Uniontown's tolls at each end of town. One had to pay to go out and get in. The cost to go through the toll at one point was 3 cents for 20 head of sheep or 20 head of pigs, according to the flier.
Robert Harrison, a Uniontown resident and member of the Carroll County Historic Preservation Commission, which approves changes to historic properties, organized the gathering. He said the meeting served two purposes.
"One was to combine longtime residents and new residents to get together and share histories and artifacts related to Uniontown," Harrison said. "The other was to allow residents who live in this town to meet commission members. We wanted to show people we are more than names who sign applications."
'Arsenic and Old Lace'
Francis Scott Key High School drama students are putting on the play Arsenic and Old Lace this weekend.
Director Suzanne Summit, who teaches math, said the students have been working on the play for the past nine weeks.
"We have three rehearsals a week," Summit said. "That gives students a chance to be involved in other things."
Summit said about 25 students are in the production, from cast members to stagehands.
The play is set in the early 1940s and is about a family living in Brooklyn, N.Y. Two elderly aunts are Victorian types. The aunts have three nephews.
"One is a thug, one thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt and one is a drama critic," Summit said.
The aunts are poisoning lonely old men and burying their bodies in the basement.
"They view them as mercy killings," she said.
Summit said she wanted to do a play that had a dark side. She said she chose this play, which the school did in 1991, because she felt the students this year had the right talent for it.
Performances will be at 8 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday. The cost is $4 for adults and $2 for students and senior citizens.
Information: 410-751-3320.
Holiday decorating
Taneytown Heritage Committee will again sponsor its Christmas door and home decorating contest.
The competition will be judged the week of Dec. 15. All homes and businesses must be decorated and lighted by 5:30 p.m. each day during the week.
Entry forms are available at the library and at Every Bloomin' Thing at 9 York St. from today until 3 p.m. Dec. 11. Residents also may register by phone.
Information: 410-756-2572.
Jean Marie Beall's Northwest neighborhood column appears each Thursday in the Carroll County edition of The Sun.