​The large frame building at 210 East Main Street has an intriguing history. Like many of its neighboring structures in the eastern half of Burkittsville, it has been both a residence and a place of commercial activity. The earliest documented owner of the building was Leah Fink. Upon her death in 1857, her executors sold the building to the Karn family who owned it for the next 65-years. George and Ellen Karn lived in the house from 1879 until their deaths in 1905 and 1931, respectively. During that time, the couple operated a store on the property offering general merchandise, groceries, and liquor. It is likely during this period, prior to 1900, that the house was expanded with a purpose-built storeroom on its eastern side. However, between 1900 and 1905, the business transitioned to a saloon, according to George Karn’s obituary. Whether Ellen continued to operate this business after George’s death is not known.

Rosa Huffer continued to operate the Hotel Ahalt for a couple years, and the establishment in this time was remembered as “Rosie’s Place.” Yet another scuffle occurred in the tavern in February 1950 when a customer was struck in the head with a billiard ball and a fight broke out. Rosa also faced trouble renewing the liquor license in the summer of 1950. Again, Burkittsville residents expressed their discontent with the Hotel Ahalt. The business closed for good before Rosa Ahalt died in January 1955 and the property was sold. ​

The March 24, 1912, edition of The Baltimore Sun carried the headline “Snowdrifts do not daunt this girl mail carrier” and an article telling the story of Julia Shafer. This native of the Burkittsville area drew quite a bit of attention from the press in the early years of her career as one of the first female mail carriers to serve a rural delivery route in the United States.

Julia May Shafer was born on September 14, 1885, to Thomas Koontz Shafer and his wife, Elizabeth (Karn) Shafer. Her family resided on the farm of Thomas’ father, Hamilton Josephus Shafer, along Catholic Church Road between Burkittsville and Petersville.
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Julia’s family had several connections that led her to a career with the postal service. Her father, Thomas, was one of the first appointed rural delivery carriers in Frederick County, serving the Knoxville route, which was one of the longest in the state. At the age of 14, Julia began working as her father’s substitute. Her uncle, William Z. Main, who was married to Thomas Shafer’s sister Delphina, was the postmaster of Knoxville from 1898 until his death in 1914.

In a story of her career published by Brunswick’s Blade Times newspaper in March 1959, Julia related that after a couple of years working as her father’s substitute, she decided she would go to Baltimore in search of a job. Soon after, her father sent a letter expressing his desire to step down from his carrier position and encouraging her to consider applying for it. Thomas wrote “if you want the job, if the work is honorable, and if you feel you are fitted for it, go ahead and try to get it. You are well and strong. You know you can handle this work as well as any man.” Perhaps to lend a little more encouragement, Thomas offered to continue as his daughter’s substitute should she take the position.
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Julia Shafer decided to go for the job, which first required that she pass a civil service examination. She later recalled that not only was she the only woman to take the exam on her appointed day, but she was also the only one in her cohort who passed. In 1904, the now 18-year-old Julia Shafer began her official appointment as the mail carrier on the Knoxville Rural Delivery Route.

An article in Frederick’s The News from December 1911 noted that since she had started the job, Julia Shafer had “traveled over 60,000 miles, worn out three buggies, killed two horses, and she adds ‘herself nearly.’ But no one would believe it by the active manner in which she distributes and collects the mail during all seasons of the year.”
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Having been interviewed a few times by various newspapers due to the curiosity at a female mail carrier, Julia Shafer’s sense of humor is preserved in her recounting of adventures along her delivery route. In a 1912 interview with The Baltimore Sun, Julia quipped “I have lots of trouble with pigs, cows, and the like. Frequently, I pass through barnyards, and in spite of all I can do, pigs and cows get out and I can’t get them back. I have often tried to head them off, but invariable they outrun me.” In another article from The News, she recalled “one winter I was almost put in jail for cutting down a man’s new post fence in order to get through the snow drift.”

Earlier that year, First Methodist Church announced plans for a significant expansion of their building with the construction of a new educational annex and fellowship hall along with a complete renovation of the earlier 1907 sanctuary. Such an undertaking was a courageous effort in a small town like Brunswick, but even more so in consideration of events that were impacting the world in 1941. When the ​Blade Times announced the groundbreaking for the building project on May 15, 1941, the same issue carried full-page coverage of the war in Europe and speculation about the United States’ entry into the global conflict. Offerings were being collected at churches across the area to support victims of famine, soldiers in training, and aid organizations seeking to help those in war-torn Europe. By August, with excavation completed at the building site, the shortage of steel forced a halt in the building project that delayed further progress for several weeks. Ultimately, the building project stretched on for ten months, during which time the Methodists worshiped in Brunswick’s Imperial Theater on West Potomac Street.

Born in 1883 in the city of Utena, Lithuania (then a part of the Russian Empire), Himan Werntz immigrated to the United States in 1902 and became a naturalized citizen on January 8, 1909. He came to Brunswick in 1903 and initially worked for another Jewish businessman, Victor Kaplon, who operated a department store. Kaplon was also a refugee from Russia who came to the United States in 1885. In 1907, Werntz struck out on his own, opening his business with his brother-in-law. He became a Sochet, trained in preparing kosher foods for local Jewish families. In 1917, Werntz, along with Victor Kaplon, became a founding trustee of Brunswick’s Beth Israel Synagogue. 

​Throughout the 1930s, residents of the Middletown Valley, like the rest of the United States, read the disturbing news of the actions of the Nazi regime in Germany. As early as 1934, the Blade Times was reporting on concentration camps and the arrests of Jewish peoples and others amid the growing horrors of the Holocaust. In his 1941 letter, Werntz spoke to this reality, declaring “the foundation of the world’s greatest democracy was laid by our forefathers on the principles of religious freedom and equal rights. They were persecuted in the old country, they were prohibited to worship God according to their tradition and wishes, and therefore have made great sacrifices by abandoning their homes and all they owned in order to find a free land where they could worship God according to their own desire and find freedom for the spirit also.” 

800 people attended the dedication services for the newly expanded First Methodist Church on March 8, 1942. The ​Blade Times covered the dedication services, reporting “a high point in the afternoon service was the presentation of the pulpit Bible by the Kaplon family. Mr. Myer Kaplon, at the request of Rev. Trott, spoke to the congregation, expressing appreciation for the friendship that existed between the Church and his family, and further stating that we must look to men of religious faith to keep the lights of tolerance and good will and helpfulness from being extinguished by the forces of evil unleashed upon the world.”

Saint Mark’s Parish was established in 1800 when portions of southwestern Frederick County and southeastern Washington County were separated from All Saints Parish. In the mid-nineteenth century, the parish had two places of worship: the Parish Church of Saint Mark in Petersville and Saint Luke’s Chapel in Brownsville. At the end of the Civil War, the chapel in Brownsville was a burnt-out ruin, having been used as a hospital for wounded soldiers. In 1869, Saint Luke’s Chapel was restored to active use.
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The decades after the Civil War saw opportunities for growth in Saint Mark’s Parish. In the 1880s, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad established a massive yard in the small canal town of Berlin. Within a few years, the community, renamed Brunswick, exploded with growth. Grace Chapel was established in 1890 and a church built on a lot donated by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

On July 28, 1896, the Vestry of Saint Mark’s Parish obtained a deed for a lot on West Main Street from William and Henrietta Graham. The frame chapel was completed by mid-September 1896. The first service was held in Saint John’s Chapel in October 1896 with over 100 people in attendance. The total cost for the new chapel was $1,500.00. Through the efforts of Rev. Helfenstein, the parish paid off the indebtedness of the new chapel within a year. On November 23, 1897, the Right Reverend William Paret, the sixth Bishop of the Diocese of Maryland, consecrated Saint John’s Chapel.
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The Brunswick Herald newspaper described the new chapel as follows: 

​Despite an auspicious beginning, Saint John’s Chapel’s existence was to be short. By 1910, the Chapel had only four communicant members and services were only held one Sunday a month. There were still periodic services at Saint John’s in 1915 when an article in Frederick’s The Citizen newspaper reported that the Rector of Saint Mark’s Parish, Rev. Edward E. Burgess, preached five sermons in one day. His services included all four of the parish churches and a memorial address at the Knights of Pythias Hall in Brunswick. Diocesan records state that the last service was held in Saint John’s Chapel in 1928. 

On July 5, 1935, the chapel was deconsecrated, and the Parish Vestry authorized to dispose of the property. Ironically, the person who authorized this action was none other than the Rev. Edward Trail Helfenstein, who had founded Saint John’s forty years earlier. By this time, Rev. Helfenstein was serving as the eighth Bishop of the Diocese of Maryland. After the closure of Saint John’s Chapel, the building was purchased by the Hemp family who lived in the neighboring residence. For over twenty years, the chapel was used as an antique shop by Lawrence Way who also served as Mayor of Burkittsville in the 1970s. More recently, the chapel has been utilized as an artist’s studio.

Though more than ninety years have passed since the last services were held in Saint John’s Chapel, the building still retains much of its original architectural detailing. 

The school officially opened on October 15, 1866 and was granted a charter by the Maryland General Assembly the following spring. Soon thereafter, the seminary moved into a spacious new three-story brick building on West Main Street. The new seminary building was one of the largest structures in town and consisted of lecture rooms on the first floor, sleeping quarters for the school's boarding students on the second and third floors, and sleeping quarters for school faculty in the attic level. The basement contained a large kitchen and the rear ell wing housed offices and the school's library. A cupola atop the school afforded a panoramic view of the village, South Mountain, and the surrounding Middletown Valley. ​

In its early years of operation, the seminary was directly administered by St. Paul's Lutheran Church. However, as the institution grew, it became an independent operation and in 1869, Rev. Wire resigned his pastorate at St. Paul's to become the school's full-time principal. The growth of the institution was not always sustained by its income. In the mid-1870s, public stock was sold to supplement the income from student tuition. ​The school enrolled over 100 students in 1872 and the 1874 graduating class included 64 students.  

​Rev. Wire retired from the school in 1878, after which Rev. H.G. Bowers, Rev. J.H. Turner, Rev. M.L. Heisler, and Thomas J. Lamar successively served as the seminary's administrator. Many of the seminary's graduates went on to become teachers and professors. Mollie E. Hightman taught in Burkittsville's Elementary School in the late-19th century. Another alumna, Mamie Horine Lamar, became a professor at Hagerstown's Kee Mar Female Seminary. Graduates also used other skills they obtained from their time at the seminary including Belle Frey Ausherman who became an artist. Nora Margaret Shafer employed her musical instruction to become organist for St. Mary's Catholic Church in nearby-Petersville. ​

The town of Knoxville was settled on the eastern outlet of the water gap where the Potomac River passes through South Mountain. A turnpike road leading from Frederick to Harpers Ferry (today's MD Route 180) passed through the village which grew rapidly in the late-1830s after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal were constructed along the river bank below the town. The convergence of these transportation networks connecting the Maryland Piedmont with markets and ports on the Chesapeake Bay encouraged the growth of industries including mills and an iron furnace as well as commercial establishments.

In 1853, William Newton, Manasses J. Grove (founder of the MJ Grove Lime Company), Henry Kefauver, Ezra Willard, Robert McDuell, trustees appointed from the Burkittsville Church, acquired Lot 19 on the hilly western section of Knoxville known as "Rhode's Addition," named for the Rhodes family who owned and developed the neighborhood. Already standing on the site by this time was a stone foundation which later became the basement of the Knoxville Reformed Church. 

Documentation indicates that the congregation struggled financially and may have experienced periods of dormancy in the 1850s and 60s. The church building was not finished at this time and in 1856, it was leased to the county school district for use as a schoolhouse. On the 1858 Isaac Bond map of Frederick County, the building is noted as “Ch. G.R. & P. Sch. 102.”

During the Maryland Campaign of 1862, the church was used as a hospital under occupation of the United States Army, likely housing soldiers wounded in the battle at Harpers Ferry. This was attested to in 1908 when the United States Congress awarded $410.00 to the “Consistory of Grace Reformed Church of Knoxville, Maryland.” The docket reads, in part “during the late civil war the military authorities of the United States took possession of the building and grounds of Grace Reformed Church of Knoxville, MD, and used and occupied the same as a hospital for a considerable period, and its property was greatly damaged thereby…”

At the end of the Civil War, the Knoxville Church rebounded under the leadership of its founder, the Rev. George Lewis Staley. He had returned to Frederick County after spending several years in Baltimore serving as the principal of Mount Washington Female College. In 1864, Rev. Staley bought the nearby Tyrconnel Farm and established Saint John's Female Seminary. In 1867, the Knoxville congregation was reported as active at the meeting of the Synod under the leadership of Rev. Staley. He set to work raising funds to complete the still unfinished church. In 1870, a part of the church property was laid out in lots and sold to form a cemetery, the beginnings of the present Knoxville Reformed Cemetery. The sale of these lots was used to benefit the completion of the Reformed Church and Rev. Staley reported in 1876 that this was accomplished. When the building was dedicated that year, the church was referred to as “Saint Stephen’s Reformed Church.”

The name “Grace Reformed Church” appears to have been chosen later and it was in use in 1908 when the congregation filed its claim for compensation from the Federal Government under the Tucker Act. This change may have occurred in 1886 when the congregation went through another reorganization during the pastorate of the Rev. Henry Irving Comfort, pastor of the Burkittsville Charge. Rev. Comfort was succeeded by the Revs. J. M. Mickley and W. C. Sykes, who also served Knoxville in the capacity as pastors of the Burkittsville Charge.
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The congregation appears to have enjoyed its greatest period of prosperity in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. There was a Ladies’ Missionary and Aid Society at Grace Reformed Church that held benefits to support the church and missionary work. In 1891, the church was repaired including the replacement of its roof and the addition of a belfry to house a bell donated to the congregation by Mrs. Eliza J. Grove Inskeep of Moorefield, West Virginia. Mrs. Inskeep was a sister of Manasses J. Grove and had grown up in Broad Run and attended Resurrection Reformed Church in Burkittsville.

The Knoxville congregation were early supporters of creating a Reformed Church in Brunswick. In 1892, an effort to raise enough funds to secure a lot from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was made but failed to garner the requisite funds to support the project. The effort continued for the next decade until 1906 when First Reformed Church of Brunswick was organized (this congregation worshiped in the building that is now Beans in the Belfry).
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On June 14, 1914, Grace Church of Knoxville and First Church of Brunswick became congregations of the new Brunswick Charge. The ministers who served this charge included Rev. L. Nevin Wilson, Rev. William B. Werner, Rev. Robert L. Bair, and Rev. R. Franklin Main, who served the longest tenure from 1919 until 1935. Soon after his arrival however, the classis received report that the Knoxville congregation had disbanded. Its members joined First Church in Brunswick and the old Grace Church in Knoxville was sold in 1924. At this time, the cemetery was separated from the church lot and placed under the management of its own board of directors.

In its ninety-year history, the Burkittsville Reformed Church grew to include four congregations: Resurrection in Burkittsville, Grace/St. Stephen's in Knoxville, First in Brunswick, and Faith in Petersville. Of the three daughter congregations, Knoxville was the longest lasting.

According to U.S. Census Data, Moses Stewart was born around 1830 in Ohio. Virtually nothing is known about his childhood until 1849 when he was admitted to the German Reformed Seminary at Marshall College in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. While Moses was attending Marshall College, this institution was at the center of a debate in the German Reformed Church and the birthplace of theological movement which later had a significant impact on the Burkittsville Reformed Church.

In 1844, two professors at Marshall College, Rev. John Nevin and Rev. Philip Schaff, began publishing essays urging the Reformed Church to restore certain ideas and worship practices to the denomination's doctrines. Most significantly, their movement called for a reimagining of the doctrine of transubstantiation, or the "real presence" of Christ in the Eucharist (Holy Communion), an idea which was decried by their opponents as papist and heretical. Nevin and Schaff saw the embracing of these ideas and the restoration of liturgical practices to Reformed worship as a means of concluding the Protestant Reformation. In the end, they desired greater unity and ecumenicalism between Protestants and Catholics around the world. These ideas became known as the Mercersburg Theology and they formed deep divisions within the Reformed Church in the United States throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century. 

The first three ministers to serve the Burkittsville congregation after it became a separate charge in 1846 were all graduates of Marshall College and students of  Rev. Nevin and Rev. Schaff. Both of Moses Stewart's predecessors, Rev. George Lewis Staley and Rev. Samuel Philips, appear from surviving records to have been sympathetic to the Mercersburg Theology. In a biography of Rev. Staley published in 1909, he was described as "a strong advocate of liturgical worship" and that he "had much to do with the making of the liturgy and the order of worship which was adopted by his denomination." So when the Consistory of the German Reformed Church in Burkittsville called Rev. Stewart to assume the pastorate, they were most likely aware of the Mercersburg Theology and agreeable to having a third minister oversee the church in accordance to its teachings.  

The first mention of Rev. Stewart in the records of the Burkittsville congregation is the baptism of Sarah Ellen Sontman which occurred in the church on February 18, 1856. At the time of his arrival, the Burkittsville church had enjoyed several years of growth, one report showing the congregation having 173 members. The church building, constructed in 1829/30, was still jointly owned and used by the Reformed and Lutheran Churches. This would change just three years after Rev. Stewart arrived in Burkittsville when Saint Paul's Lutheran Church was built next door to the Reformed Church Parsonage. This change required the Reformed congregation to pay the Lutherans the sum of $600.00 to buy out their half ownership of the old Union Church. 

Despite the evidence of a growing and healthy church, the first controversy involving Rev. Stewart came just two years after he began his pastorate. In March 1858, Rev. Stewart brought charges of slander against Daniel Gaver, a tailor living in Burkittsville with his family.  The case revolved around remarks made by Gaver concerning Rev. Stewart's wife, Elizabeth. The case was tried in Frederick and the court awarded Rev. Stewart $10,000.00 in damages for the attack on his wife's character. 

The impact of the court case appeared to be minimal. In the following year, with the Lutheran congregation moving into their new building, the Reformed Church under Rev. Stewart's leadership embarked on an ambitious rebuilding project. In 1860, the south wall of the old church facing Main Street was taken down and the side walls extended over ten feet to lengthen the building. A new facade featuring a grand portico with two Ionic order columns was erected. Inside, new pews were installed in the nave and galleries and a new pulpit was created within a recessed chancel which sported two elaborate Corinthian order columns.

The Mercersburg Theology and Rev. Stewart's commitment to it can be seen in the fabric of the church building following the 1860 renovations. While many Reformed Churches built up to this date and after were conservative in their decoration and configured to allow for "low church," non-ceremonial style of worship, Burkittsville's newly-improved church featured two noticeable changes. Unlike the aforementioned low churches which generally had two separate aisles, the Burkittsville church featured a broad central aisle leading from a large central doorway. Many Protestant churches had abandoned this layout because of its association with the formal procession of clergy that was considered a relic of the Catholic tradition that had no place in reformed worship.

​The other element of Burkittsville's 1860 renovation that reflected the impact of the Mercersburg Theology was the incorporation of Gothic architectural elements into the building. The renovations included the addition of lancet arches to the tops of the windows in the nave and also a lancet tympanum over the front door. Records from the time also indicate that Gothic arches were painted on the wall behind the pulpit. While other churches had begun to experiment with Gothic Revival architecture beginning in the early-nineteenth century, its use in a rural Reformed church was uncommon. The Gothic style was associated with the medieval, Catholic church, and thus became popular as Protestant churches began to restore elements of liturgical and ritual worship practices. 

The use of a central aisle and Gothic architecture for a Reformed Church was not without precedent, because Trinity Church in Mercersburg, which stood just outside the gates of Marshall College, also employed these elements. As the church closest to the leaders of the Mercersburg Theology, it is evident that the ideas of this movement impacted the design choices that were made when Trinity was built in 1845. Rev. Stewart was certainly familiar with the unique design of Trinity Church having lived nearby to it when he was a student at Marshall College. 

The sixth year of Rev. Stewart’s pastorate at Burkittsville was marked by the destruction of war. On Sunday, September 14, 1862, the Sixth Corps of the Army of the Potomac under General William B. Franklin, numbering some 12,800 men, clashed with 2,100 Confederate soldiers under the command of Brigadier General Howell Cobb on South Mountain within a mile of the village. During the hours that the battle raged, Burkittsville’s residents fled to surrounding communities as artillery rained down over the village. By the evening, the Union Army had pushed the Confederates into retreat down the west side of the mountain, taking possession of Crampton’s Gap and the road leading into Pleasant Valley. By nightfall, wounded soldiers of both the north and the south were being carried into Resurrection Reformed Church.

​According to a 1938 history of the Maryland Reformed Churches by Rev. Guy Bready, Rev. Stewart “resigned when the Government took charge of the building, but when the congregation regained possession of the church, Stewart withdrew his resignation.” For four and a half months, soldiers were treated inside Resurrection Reformed Church. The pews and carpet that had been installed in the church during the renovations of 1860 were removed and piled in the churchyard. Amputations were performed on an operating table placed within the chancel of the sanctuary. The frescoed walls were splattered with blood, as were the floors of the church. Eyewitness accounts of the destruction, related in a 1907 war claims case for the church speak to the devastation that occurred. When the army relinquished the church back to the congregation on January 31, 1863, the people of Resurrection Reformed Church faced a long road to full recovery.

Rev. Stewart led Resurrection Church for another four years after the battles of 1862-63. He ministered to a congregation that was in the process of healing, both the physical consequences of the war and the emotional trauma of witnessing the gore and tragedy that unfolded in their house of worship. The congregation was also heavily in debt, owing money to pay for the 1860 renovations and the repairs following the use of the building as a hospital. Rev. Stewart's pastorate concluded in 1867 when he resigned from the Burkittsville Charge. He was succeeded by Rev. Henry Irving Comfort. His feelings towards Rev. Stewart and the Mercersburg Theology were made clear in a brief statement he wrote for the December 1868 issue of The Reformed Church Monthly, which criticized his predecessor for his "high-churchism." 

The exact circumstances which precipitated Rev. Stewarts resignation are not definitely documented in surviving church records. What is known is that he and his wife began the process of converting to Catholicism. Reformed Church publications and local newspapers reported that on January 23, 1867, Rev. Moses Andrew Stewart and his wife Elizabeth were received into the Catholic Church in Hagerstown. One article stated that "rumor had it that such a transition had taken place in this case, and to those who have been familiar with his idiosyncrasies for years past, the event will not occasion surprise." Another article conveyed this sentiment: "All we have to say is, we wish him no harm, but hope he has at last found his proper spiritual home and will be happy in it." The Burkittsville Church appears to have moved swiftly on from Rev. Stewart's pastorate, the Rev. Comfort remaining with the congregation for the next five years. 

Little is known about Rev. Stewart after his conversion and departure from Burkittsville. The census indicates that he moved to Baltimore by 1870 and a newspaper article concerning a court case relates that Stewart was working as a publisher for a German language Catholic newspaper in the city. The court case, which occurred in 1875, was between the owners of the newspaper and a prospective buyer, Rev. Stewart having failed to pay a note he had made to the owners in order to purchase the newspaper for himself. The last mention of Rev. Stewart appears in a catalog of alumni from Marshall College in 1903, which simply lists his name as a member of the class of 1852 and that he had died. 

The examination of the life of Rev. Moses A. Stewart and his impact on the Burkittsville Reformed Church is a unique example of the ways philosophical movements can impact the built environment. Under his leadership, the Burkittsville Church was redesigned to accommodate a new mode of worship in a time of steady transition among American Protestantism. 

Tyrconnel Farm is situated along the base of South Mountain roughly halfway between Burkittsville and Knoxville along MD Route 17. For nearly two decades, this farm became the campus of Saint John's Select Boarding School for Young Ladies, also known as Saint John's Female Seminary. Rev. George Lewis Staley [1823-1908] was the principal and owner of the school throughout its operation, and he was well known in the community long before the first students were welcomed to Saint John's School in 1866.

​Born in Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia), George was the son of the Rev. Stephen Staley and Ann Mary Leiby Staley. He studied with his father and private tutors before attending Marshall College and the Theological Seminary at Mercersburg, graduating from the latter in 1845. Once ordained, Rev. Staley was assigned to the pastorate of the newly-formed Burkittsville Charge of the German Reformed Church. He remained in Burkittsville from 1846 until 1849 when he was called to serve a congregation in Philadelphia. In 1853, Rev. Staley resigned his charge and returned to the Burkittsville area and founded a school for boys. This school was first operated at a farm named "Linwood," but quickly outgrew this location and moved to Barleywood Farm at Petersville. The Barleywood Academy was short-lived, only operating for three years, but it set Rev. Staley on the course for the remainder of his career in education.  

In 1856, Rev. Staley moved to Baltimore and opened the Mount Washington College for Young Ladies. The school was operated on the model of the female seminary, a course of higher learning which began in the United States in the 1830s and emphasized the importance of a classical education for women. Many women who attended female seminaries became teachers. Rev. Staley remained engaged in the activities of the German Reformed Church whose leaders believed in supporting female education. The Mount Washington College for Young Ladies closed during the Civil War, prompting Rev. Staley to once again return to the Burkittsville area. 

On June 18, 1864, Hannah Garrott Staley, wife of Rev. George Lewis Staley, signed the deed to acquire Tyrconnel Farm from C. Oliver O'Donnell at a cost of $8,000.00. Within two years, Saint John's School was in operation and admitting young women to study and live at Tyrconnel. Rev. Staley placed advertisements for his school in The Baltimore Sun, proclaiming the institution to be "in one of the most beautiful and healthy districts of Western Maryland." 

At the October 1866 meeting of the General Synod of the German Reformed Church, held in York, Pennsylvania, a committee appointed to inspect female seminaries reported on their visit to Tyrconnel. "This institution is more of the character of a private seminary, the building and grounds being in the possession of the principal [Rev. Staley]. The building and grounds are most beautifully situated, and are well adapted in every way for the purposes of a female seminary." The committee's only suggestion for improvement at Saint John's was "in order to meet the pressing wants in the case, its buildings need to be greatly enlarged." The committee resolved that "the select school for young ladies, known as Saint John's, under the care of the Rev. George Lewis Staley, and located at Tyrconnel, Frederick County, Md., as an institution true and faithful to the spirit and genius of our Church." 

Rev. Staley took the recommendation of the committee and worked to expand the school's facilities over the next few years. The original Tyrconnel farmhouse was a nearly-square brick building of two full stories and an attic. In 1876, a wing was built onto the north side of the original house adding twelve rooms and expanding the school's enrollment capacity. Unlike the nearby Burkittsville Female Seminary which enrolled day and boarding students, Saint John's only enrolled students who lived at the seminary during their studies. The new addition provided a hall for assemblies as well as dormitory rooms for the students.

In the mid-1870s, the school's name changed to Saint John's Female College, though it never attained degree-granting status. An 1875 advertisement in The Baltimore Sun requested applicants for a music teacher who was fluent and able to teach French and German. The Daily Evening Express of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, published a description of the college's closing exercises on June 20, 1876. The writer described Tyrconnel thusly: "The buildings are of modern style and are complete in all their appointments, whilst the location itself is all that could be desired, commanding a beautiful view of the surrounding country." Of the ten students referenced by name in the article, nine were from Pennsylvania and one was from Virginia. The students gave a musical performance in the hall of the college before sitting down to dinner with their families. On the next morning, the diploma ceremony was held at St. Stephen's Reformed Church in Knoxville, which Rev. Staley had founded over twenty years earlier when he was serving as pastor of the Burkittsville Charge. The 1876 article describes Saint John's at the height of its operation. 

The Staley's advertised Tyrconnel as a summer boarding house in 1877, offering accommodations for $8.00 to $10.00 per week during the months of July and August. By the early-1880s, the college was in decline. No date for the closure of the college has been identified, but it is likely that either the 1892 or 1893 graduating class was the last for the institution. A newspaper article from The News in Frederick on January 1, 1884 refers to Tyrconnel as "the delightful country home of Rev. Dr. George L. Staley." Later that year, Tyrconnel was sold to Oscar P. Crampton of Burkittsville.

​In the same year, Rev. Staley accepted the appointment to become principal of the "Colored High School" in Baltimore. In this position, Rev. Staley advocated for an improved facility for the higher education of African American students, which resulted in the construction of a new school building on Saratoga Street in 1888. This school was the forerunner of today's Frederick Douglass High School. Rev. Staley retired from this last position in 1900. He died on February 15, 1908 at the home of his son Edward in Baltimore at the age of 84 years. His obituary referred to Rev. Staley as "one of the best-known ministers of the Reformed Church in this city, who was instrumental in founding the Colored High School in this city and of a female seminary at Mount Washington." 

Henry Burkitt divided and sold 24 lots from his "Friends Goodwill" farm between 1807 and his death in 1836, forming much of the eastern half of the present-day village of Burkittsville. The westernmost lot on the south side of Main Street in his plat for the town was designated "Lot 6," now designated as 8 East Main Street. In 1839 when Burkitt's estate was arbitrated by the equity court, Lot 6 is listed as having been sold to David Arnold at a cost of $250.00. When compared with other lots in the town, the price indicates that a structure already existed on the property at the time of its sale. 

One clue to the early existence of this structure is found in the traditional origins of St. Paul's Church. According to at least two written accounts of the church's history, the Rev. Martin Stockman preached the first Lutheran services in Burkittsville beginning in 1815, first in a wagon shop owned by Ezra Karn (located in the vicinity of 204 East Main Street), and later in a storeroom "now occupied by Mr. T.J. Maught." Thomas J. Maught owned the property at 8 East Main Street in 1860 when the census records his household and lists his occupation as a "merchant." This small fragment from the history of St. Paul's indicates that there was a structure on the property at 8 East Main Street at least as early as the 1820s, which is conducive to the log construction of the buildings standing on this site today. The 1860 census also records another intriguing tie between the church and this property. Among those members listed in the Maught's household is the Rev. George Nixdorff, pastor of St. Paul's from 1858 to 1865 who oversaw the construction of the present church in 1859. (St. Paul's Lutheran Church did not erect its parsonage at 4 East Main Street until the mid-1870s). ​

Apart from these fragments, it is difficult to trace the early history of 8 East Main Street before the eve of the Civil War. The property was owned by Thomas and Sivila Maught in 1858 when the Isaac Bond Map of Frederick County was published. Two years later, the 1860 census records Thomas and Sivila as merchants and also lists among their household a store clerk, Adam Dixon. The property was valued at $5,000.00, real estate and contents, indicating that a thriving business was already present at the time. In 1861, Thomas Maught was appointed as postmaster of Burkittsville. His time in this position overlapped the Civil War and he would have handled many letters over the winter of 1862/63 from wounded soldiers staying in the town's field hospitals writing to their families at home. His appointment concluded in 1864 and two years later in 1866, the Maught's sold the store to Peter Willard and relocated to Frederick, operating a grocery store on North Market Street until the late-1880s. Though the Maught name is not found in Burkittsville today, the family was among the earliest permanent settlers in the community, originating from John Maught, who came to the colonies as a Hessian soldier during the Revolutionary War. 

Just after the Civil War in 1866, Peter Willard took over the operation of the business at 8 East Main Street from the Maught's. However, he died four years after purchasing the property in 1870, leaving his wife Elizabeth with the business. She is labeled as the owner of the property in 1873 on the Titus Atlas of Frederick County.  Peter and Elizabeth's grandson, Arthur Lee Willard (1870-1935) rose to the rank of Admiral in the U.S. Navy, serving with distinction in the Spanish-American War and World War I, receiving the Navy Cross and French Legion of Honor among other honors. He garnered national fame after he led a landing party into Cardenas, Cuba, on May 11, 1898, becoming the first person to plant an American flag on Cuban soil during the Spanish-American War. 

Elizabeth Willard died in 1877 and her heirs sold the property the next year to the Slifer Family. Milton Border Slifer was born in Burkittsville in 1847 to the Rev. Emanuel Slifer, pastor of the Broad Run German Baptist Church (today known as Pleasant View Church of the Brethren) and his wife, Sarah Biser Slifer, the sister of town physician Dr. Tilghman Biser. The Slifers lived in the house on the town square at 1 East Main Street (next door to the South Mountain Heritage Society). Milton was educated in Burkittsville and apprenticed with his father who operated his tailor shop in the small brick building standing between the family's house and the neighboring Resurrection Reformed Church. Milton was fifteen years old when the Battle of South Mountain took place on September 14, 1862. For the next four months, he was likely a frequent witness to wounded and dying soldiers housed in the field hospitals setup inside the Reformed and Lutheran Churches as well as the schoolhouse all located next door to his home. When Milton purchased the property at 8 East Main Street from the heirs of Peter and Elizabeth Willard in 1878, he assumed the general merchandise business they had started and added his own tailoring services to the enterprise. Milton and his wife, Eliza had at least four children before his death in 1905. ​

​Irvin Conard Magaha was born in 1879 in Waterford, Loudoun County, Virginia. His family moved to Burkittsville by 1905 when he opened his first general store in the old Thomas Hightman Store (303 East Main Street). In 1914, Magaha was appointed Burkittsville's twentieth postmaster. At the same time, he purchased 8 East Main Street from the heirs of Milton Slifer and relocated his business to the center of town. Irvin and his wife, Katie, operated the store and post office for thirty-two years until 1946 when they sold the property and business to Samuel Luther Brown, Sr., and his wife, Helen. In addition to the groceries, hardware, feed, and coal that Magaha had carried in the store, Brown added two gas pumps out front along Main Street. Samuel Brown also became the postmaster in 1946, a post which he held until retiring in 1969, after which he was succeeded by his daughter, Betty. In 1968, George Karn, Jr. assumed the management of the general store and operated it for the next eight years. On July 10, 1976, Karn's Store closed its doors, ending over a century of general stores operating on the property. Two years later, the building was renovated to serve the sole purpose as the town's post office, which to that point had only occupied a small corner of the building.

On December 18, 1824, Joshua Harley was appointed as the first postmaster of the newly-established "Harley's Post Office." A veteran of the American Revolutionary War, Harley settled on the west side of the intersection of two ancient trails which form today's Main Street and Route 17. When Harley first came to this area, there were just a few homesteads scattered along the "Conococheague Trail" (today's Main Street), including his closest neighbor, Henry Burkitt, to the east. Harley established himself as the first merchant in the growing community, building a store near the intersection around the year 1821, an advancement which set in motion the creation of the post office three years later. Harley remained postmaster long enough to see the community that was initially named for him become "Burkittsville" when the post office was officially renamed on January 7, 1828. Harley retired the commission on May 21, 1829, two years before his death. From the time of its creation until the eve of the Civil War, the post office is believed to have remained in its original location at Harley's Store, sold by the family in 1851 to Broad Run-born entrepreneur Manasses J. Grove (future founder of the M.J. Grove Lime Company). When Grove sold his business to the Horine Family in 1859, the post office likely moved across the street to the Willard Store, which was sold to John Hightman in 1864 at which time he was appointed postmaster. ​

The turn of the twentieth century ushered a period of turbulence into the history of the post office, both in Burkittsville and across the nation. 1901 marked the widespread introduction of Rural Free Delivery, a system of delivery routes which for the first time allowed people to retrieve and send mail at their residences as opposed to traveling to the nearest post office. Though the idea had been passed into law by the U.S. Congress in 1893, many storekeepers and private mail carriers opposed its implementation due, prolonging its rollout by nearly a decade. When Frederick County's routes were announced in the fall of 1901, several post offices were deemed obsolete and closed, including Burkittsville. The town's post office was suspended on November 14, 1901 and for the next three years, mail was delivered to town by the Gapland post office located two and a half miles west across South Mountain. Area residents complained bitterly of the decreased access to mail service and the postal service restored Burkittsville's post office on January 30, 1905, reinstating John W. Hilleary as postmaster (a position he had served in from 1897 until 1901). 

Less than a decade after Burkittsville's post office was reinstated, the office relocated again, moving from Huffer's Store at 1 West Main Street to 8 East Main Street with the appointment of Irvin Conard Magaha as postmaster in 1914. A century later in 2014, Burkittsville's last postmaster, Audrey Stadnick, left the commission, followed by two briefly-appointed officers-in-charge appointed that year. On October 14, 2014, the post office at Burkittsville was placed under the administration of the Brunswick postmaster. The post office remained in operation at 8 East Main Street until fire ravaged the historic structure on December 29, 2019. Restoration of service occurred on January 2, 2020, when the Burkittsville Post Office began operating from a temporary trailer behind St. Paul's Lutheran Church. For the next two and a half years, post services were conducted from the temporary trailer by the dedicated work of Kenneth Boone. In the summer of 2022, the reconstructed post office opened its doors at 8 East Main Street, returning the service to the location it has occupied for over a century. ​

There have been twenty-five postmasters of Burkittsville between 1824 and 2014 and six officers-in-charge. The longest serving postmaster, Irvin Conard Magaha, held the position for 32 years (1914-1946). Six of the postmasters and officers-in-charge have been women, including Betty Brown (1969-1992) and Audrey Stadnick (2000-2014). Two families, the Hightmans and the Browns, have held the position of postmaster over two generations. 

​Postmasters and Officers-in-Charge of the Burkittsville Post Office

Joshua Harley* - Appointed January 7, 1828 
John Fink, Jr. - Appointed May 22, 1829
Adam Custard - Appointed March 10, 1830
Ezra Willard - Appointed June 14, 1845
Thomas Biser - Appointed July 5, 1849
Joseph L. Sigler - Appointed January 22, 1852
Ezra Slifer - Appointed February 17, 1852
John Bechtol - Appointed May 28, 1852
George W. Howe - Appointed May 24, 1853
Ezra Willard - Appointed September 30, 1854
Manasses J. Grove - Appointed December 29, 1856
Grafton Hammond - Appointed December 23, 1859
Thomas J. Maught - Appointed April 20, 1861
John Hightman - Appointed August 18, 1864
Martin L. Hightman - Appointed November 17, 1875
William C. Karn - Appointed August 13, 1885
David E. Hilleary - Appointed June 6, 1889
William Graham - Appointed December 11, 1893
John W. Hilleary* - Appointed November 12, 1897, Re-Appointed January 30, 1905
Irvin C. Magaha - Appointed April 30, 1914
Samuel L. Brown - OIC February 28, 1946, Appointed July 1, 1947
Betty L. Brown - OIC June 27, 1969, Appointed July 31, 1971
Wanda M. Poffenberger - OIC September 30, 1992
Mark E. Bradstreet - Appointed January 23, 1993
Tinna Hartle - OIC August 6, 1993
Larry A. Ott - Appointed November 27, 1993
Angela Hackley - OIC February 2, 2000
Audrey E. Stadnick - Appointed May 20, 2000
Thomas Miss - OIC May 2, 2014
Jennifer Kramer - OIC September 4, 2014

OIC - Officer-in-Charge
(*) Harley was appointed postmaster of Harley's Post Office on December 18, 1824.​