Why Gathland Park is at Gapland
GAPLAND — The confusion created by the similarity of two separate names for a 140-acre park at the top of South Mountain has a good basis in history. Gathland Park at Gapland is historically appropriate.
Following his wife’s death in 1904 and his own debilitating struggle with diabetes, circumstances kept George Alfred Townsend away from his special retreat at Gapland, Md., along the Appalachian Trail. He spent most of the last 10 years of life away in Washington, D.C. On April 15, 1914, Townsend died in New York City.
Writing under the pen name of GATH, Townsend had been a prolific correspondent during the Civil War. Traveling throughout Europe, five separate trips, he helped interpret America’s conflict for publications there in addition to writing for a number of stateside publications. He focused on the soldier, the noncombatant citizens, the slaves and newly freed people.
“Katy of Catoctin,” written by George Alfred Townsend, was reprinted in 1959, as the country approached the 100th anniversary of John Brown’s Raid, which sparked the Civil War.
According to the introduction added by Harold R. Manakee, assistant director of the Maryland Historical Society, Gathland State Park is close to Frederick, Md. — no mention of its being really close to Boonsboro, Burkittsville, Md., and Rohrersville, Md., or on the line between Frederick and Washington counties.
Never having read the book, a copy found at the recent American Association University Women Book Sale was just too tempting to reject. It was one of two I found there that fit my particular book collecting habits. Here we are in the final two years of the 150th anniversary of these events. Even though Manakee’s less than enthusiastic review was a little discouraging, I thought it was about time.
After all, the Washington County Historical Society and the Historical Society of Frederick County, Md., collaborated to save what was left of the Gapland (what Townsend named his property) structures and, most importantly, the War Correspondents Arch that Townsend had designed and erected. The estate section, in Frederick County, is owned by the Department of Natural Resources, State of Maryland, and the arch, built in 1896 just inside Washington County, sits on federal land, owned by the National Park Service.
It was through strong advocacy from local voices that the two government entities finally decided to work together and preserve what Townsend perceived as his 100-plus acres of natural beauty. He found this spot while researching for the book, which looks at events of the Civil War associated with Crampton’s Gap and the John Brown Raid at Harpers Ferry, W.Va. The State of Maryland decided to honor the war correspondent by naming the park Gathland.
The long-accepted review of Townsend’s work, outside the purview of the news, is that he was a far better reporter than he was an author of romantic tales, to which he turned after the war. He covered Civil War battles in depth, sometimes scooping his colleagues, and his dogged coverage of the pursuit, conviction and execution of John Wilkes Booth conspirators was admired. His planning and building the quiet retreat where he would alter his vocation did not provide the critical acclaim he sought.
No doubt he needed the quiet after the din of war, but the noise of battle was a better stimulant for his work, according to every record of his life, including that of Manakee, who truly admired him. The historian testifies strongly on behalf of the estate Townsend built and his greatest contribution to history, the first and grandest War Correspondent Monument in the world.
There are 157 names inscribed in marble on the monument, one is his. Another local detail Manakee missed is that the firehall on Summit Avenue in Hagerstown reportedly inspired Townsend’s design, which Manakee described as “three Roman arches over a large Moorish arch.” Statues of Mercury and Electricity sit in niches on the monument, with Speed and Heed on tablets that include selected quotations from some of his colleagues. Other monuments have since been erected including a small monument to war correspondents that now exists in Arlington National Cemetery.
As Townsend later turned to prose and poetry with sketchy success, Katy was one of those efforts … the result of a promise made to himself at age 24 on viewing President Abraham Lincoln’s body while it was lying in state at The While House. He met Col. John Hay, who served as Lincoln’s private secretary and personal assistant, at that venue and the book is dedicated to him. Hay was also a journalist and author.
Three of Townsend’s books are specific to Maryland, “Tales of the Chesapeake,” 1880; “The Entailed Hat,” 1884; and “Katy of Catoctin,” 1886.
Unfortunately, Katy’s story didn’t give me much insight to Townsend, the man, other than to confirm that he did love that mountain top. It figures conspicuously in the opening chapters of the book. His introductory character, Lloyd Quantrell, decides that had he the resources he would like to take the mountain, and miles around it, and turn them into a personal preserve, estate or barony. In doing so he would disallow the German and Swiss inhabitants, for whom he seems to bear some prejudicial disdain, in the area to use it.
Quantrell makes the common mistake of the day, assuming that the use of broken English indicated total lack of education. What is likely is that these were literate people, but they practiced their reading and writing in the language of their ancestors, often turning to German bibles to hone their skills. My guess is that Townsend might have shared some of that attitude about the other residents on the mountain.
What Townsend created on the mountain was a complex of five buildings, each having a name, to serve a multitude of purposes. The first project was Gapland Hall, an 11-room house for his wife. Second was Gapland Lodge, primarily used for servants’ quarters. For himself he added a large Den and Library Building called Mount Gath, which included the library and 10 bedrooms for guests A smaller building, named Askelon, was built for his married daughter and a tomb for himself, which he never used. From this vantage point he could observe the Middletown Valley in Frederick County and Pleasant Valley in Washington County.
Only two of the original buildings, the Hall and the Lodge, survived when the state took over the property in 1949 to preserve the complex. It had gone through three other owners in the interim. The park uses the buildings today as a visitors’ center and museum, featuring the Battle of South Mountain and artifacts from Gath’s life.
New names were added to the monument for the first time in 2003, when four correspondents, who lost their lives in the course of covering the war on terrorism, were honored at the site. Those were David Bloom, Daniel Pearl, Michael Kelly and Elizabeth Neuffer. This event drew a number of well-known journalists and dignitaries including Tom Brokaw of NBC Nightly News, then Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and then Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. Brokaw gave the event national coverage on a subsequent broadcast.
Linda Irvin-Craig is executive director of the Washington County Historical Society. For more information, call 301-797-8782 or go to www.washcomdhistoricalsociety.org.
