7hstorr Trails Baltimore County Histrical Society Agriculture Building 9811 Van Buren Lane Cockeysville, Md. 21030 ISSN 0889-6186 Editors: JOHN W. McGRAIN and WILLIAM HOLLIFIEED VOL. 26 AUTUMN 1991-WINTER 1991-92 NO. 1 & NO. 2 The Romantic -ynn's Falls Valley George E. Tack Introduction The following article about the Gwynns Falls Valley appeared in the August 1907 issue of MarylandMonthly Magazine, published by Henry Quarles Nicholson. At that time, much of the Gwynns Falls Valley was in the city of Baltimore, acquired from the county as a result of the annexation of 1888. The county line was just west of the intersection of Franklintown and Wetheredville Roads. After Tack's article, in 1918, the boundary was again moved westward and more of the Gwynns Falls Valley, including the village of Dickeyville and Leakin Park, was incorporated into the city. George E. Tack was born in 1873 and lived most of his life, at least up to 1918, in West Baltimore. In 1900 he lived with his parents, two brothers, and a sister. His father, born in Germany, was a clerk. George was then a clerk for a steamship company. Baltimore directories show a variety of occupations for him: frame maker (1893), solicitor (1898-1900), painter (1901), nurse (1903), clerk (1910, 1913), and nurse (1916-1918). Interestingly, he was listed as a poet in 1911. His interest in poetry is reflected in his style of writing and his inclusion of Folger McKinsey's poem at the end of the Gwynns Falls Valley article. An example of his own poetry, about a winter rainbow over Glyndon, had appeared in Maryland Monthly Magazine earlier in 1907. It can be found reprinted after his Gwynns Falls Mount Holly Inn, Walbrook, from a postcard of ca. 1910. The Valley story. inn burned December Z 1920. The small structure at the Henry E. Shepherd in his Representative Authors of bottom was the "Witch's House, "actually the gatehouse of the Maryland(1911), wrote of George E. Tack's work that he Jesse Lazear estate, Windsor Grove. It apparently survived was into the 1960s. a diligent and versatile contributor to the the contemplation of nature in her calmer poetical columns of more than one leading and serener moods. In the best sphere of his journal and periodical. His range includes production in verse he is, perhaps uncon- the patriotic, the devotional, the romantic sciously, a disciple of Wordsworth. Digres- features of contemporary life and develop- sions or excursions into prose do not reveal ment. His purest inspiration proceeds from Mr. Tack in his most attractive light. His PAGE 2 HISTORY TRAILS AUTUMN 1991 work, when seen in its congenial forms, displays vigor and grace, in conception as well as execution. His frequent contribu- tions in diverse fields seem to indicate a growth of productive faculty as the years increase. Though Shepherd considered Tack's prose inferior to his poetry, the Gwynns Falls Valley article is inter- esting and even amusing. Who today would think to describe a House of Refuge, or reformatory, in this way? "Here are placed for certain periods of time the wayward boys who refuse to heed the injunctions of their fond parents." The Gwynns Falls Valley would have been easily accessible to people living in West Baltimore. So would Ellicott City and other parts of Howard County. George E. Tack wrote a similar, shorter article, "A Ramble -Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore through Howard County," which appeared in the July Walbrook Mill on Calverton Mill Lot No. 2 in the chain of Five 1907 issue of Maryland Monthly Magazine. Mills, about 1899. The same structure was depicted in a line drawing in the American of January 20, 1895. George E. Tack was not listed in city directories after 1918, and careful searching has not produced any early morning; and afar in the east the trembling light information concerning his later activities or his death. seeks its way through the dense curtains of the early - William Hollifield day. The sky flushes once more, in the joy of its freedom from the embrace of night, and the herald of day THE ROMANTIC throws a bright lance straight up the sky. Swiftly now GWYNN'S FALLS VALLEY the shadows depart, and the forests and trees upon the hillside seem to be embossed in dark green upon the GEORGE E. TACK light verdant slopes, and the opaline sky. Along the Far up the valley the blue sky flushes and reddens hillside are white daisy paths that lead up to the as the summer sun rolls down behind the towering summits and over to the groves, where the birds are woods. The crimson clouds, some long, and some banked pouring forth their enraptured songs of joy and praise. high, like far-off mountain ranges, slowly change their The mists slowly roll up from the valley, and the sun colors to purple, and softly glow in the tremulous flashes bright beams along the meadows and streams, twilight, like enchanting fields of fairyland; transform- revealing the precious sparkling jewels that deck the ing their shape, and then softening into deep violet ere garments of the fair flowers and bushes. the light wanes and dies. The solemn hush of evening Afar on the hills the grazing cattle are now seen, and descends, and silently the stars heliograph their mes- the faint tinkle of the bells are heard as they wend their sages from the far-off worlds, as if to tell the dwellers way along the slopes and down to the murmuring on this planet that "God's in his heaven, all's well with brooks in the vales. The Gwynn's Falls glitters as it rolls the world." A little season of starlight, and then the along over the rocks and sand; and the waters, as they radiant lamp of night gleams overhead; and through glide by the overhanging rocks and trees, reflect so the darkened heavens there rolls a flood of glorious perfectly their shape that it is sometimes difficult to light that changes the hills into burnished cathedral tell where the objects end and the reflections begin. domes and sends the frightened shadows far down into Softly the cool morning breeze flows over the hills and the vales and through the darkened groves, where they vales in refreshing waves, and lightly caresses the lurk like thieves. awakening woods, that tremble with delight at its The waters flow down through the hills, rippling touch; and thus another day has dawned upon the and gleaming in the silver light; while through the beautiful Gwynn's Falls Valley. quiet air is borne the fragrant odor of blossoming This valley is indeed a romantic one. All through it woodbine; and from the sleeping vale below there are places around which cluster the memories of the uprises the damp odor of the stream and the pasture far-past years, when its mills and villages were the fields of clover. The silence of the night is weaving its rendezvous of men of wealth; and of the farmers and spell over all things, when there comes with startling ranchmen from the western states, who brought their resonance the shriek of a locomotive, as it winds its herds of cattle through the mountains of Ohio and way along the rock embankment, where the big quar- Maryland, over the dusty winding Frederick road; and ries reverberate the sound with mocking echoes that after they had disposed of them, hand their money finally die away somewhere along the murmuring across the gaming tables with a free hand. waters of Gwynn's Falls. The night slowly wings its A little below the Frederick road, in fact below flight unto the daylight, through the dark hours of Wilkens avenue, which takes its name from the late WINTER 1991-92 HISTORY TRAILS PAGE 3 A little above the quarry, we get a fine view of the Edmondson avenue bridge, and before us are the cur- tain-like rolling waters of the falls, that flow down upon the dark rocks with ceaseless rythm; and over at one end of the dam they fall and tumble over the rocks with such force that they break into beautiful foaming spray. Amid the ceaseless roar of these waters many reckless persons have been ushered out of this life, who came here to enjoy a refreshing plunge into the cool depths below. To the right is the lock of the old mill race, whose waters once turned the wheels of the big mills down the valley. From here on up to the valley the landscape grows more beautiful, and we now behold the lofty hills that range far up the country, where they meet the mountain ranges of the Blue Ridge, of which they are Walbrook Mill in a drawing from the American, January 20, the foot-hills. The placid waters here and above the 1985' the illustration was based on an 1893 photo by Dr. bend, much frequented by bathers, reflect the graceful Theodore Hinrichs, "taken from Franklin Road." The mill was willows and the various objects along the bank with shown for the last time in the 1906 edition of Bromley's atlas. wonderful clearness. We will rest here awhile on this grassy bank, with William Wilkens, whose hair factory is still in opera- the broken rocks and the big oak grove to protect us tion on the Frederick road, are the Union Stock Yards, from the sun's rays, and reflect awhile upon the history where the cattle are brought in great numbers from the of these vales and hills, and the people who once lived west, and the best are sent over the various railroad amid their quiet precincts.