The first Carroll County Board of Commissioners met on Friday, January 27, 1837
by Kevin Dayhoff Posted February 2, 2011
The recent celebration of Carroll County’s 174th birthday brings to mind several columns that I have written in the past about the early days of Carroll County…
The full-length version on my Explore Carroll Eagle Archive column, “DAYHOFF: Greetings to the new '
Levy Court,' a.k.a. the Board of County Commissioners,”
http://tinyurl.com/285shup, published on December 5, 2010, may be found below…
All that remains of the Thanksgiving turkey dinner are the leftovers, and many Carroll County residents have now turned their attention to Christmas -- and, oh, yes, the new Board of County Commissioners.
This year, there are no leftovers in the commissioners' office.
In November, the president may have pardoned a turkey for the Thanksgiving holidays, but in our county family the gobbler did not survive and neither did any of the incumbent commissioners.
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DAYHOFF: The first board of commissioners
Eagle Archive By Kevin Dayhoff for publication: 12/05/10
All that remains of the Thanksgiving turkey dinner are the leftovers and many Carroll Countians have now turned their attention to Christmas – and, oh, yes, the new board of commissioners.
This year, there are no leftovers in the commissioners’ office. In November, the president may have pardoned a turkey for the Thanksgiving holidays, but in our county family the gobbler did not survive and neither did any of the incumbent county commissioners.
At 2 p.m. on Monday, Carroll County gets an early Christmas present when the first five-member board of commissioners will be sworn into office. Of the new faces - Robin Frazier (1st District), Haven Shoemaker (2nd), Dave Roush (3rd), Richard Rothschild (4th) and Doug Howard (5th) - only Frazier has served before.
Taxes, waste-to-energy, the airport, police protection, and the economy are some of the many leftovers the new commissioners will find on their plates.
One thing that will not be on the plates of our new county leadership is the Christmas tree in front of the Center Street office building. The Grinch-economy stole it and county spokesperson Vivian Laxton drew the short straw to explain that not only was the tree done away with but the county did not even have money to buy Christmas cookies...
It will be interesting to see how well our county government functions with five instead of three commissioners. Of course, when the first Carroll County board of commissioners met at the Union Meeting House on Church Street on Friday, January 27, 1837; there were not three – not five, but count them - nine county commissioners.
Long-range forecasts indicate that the weather on Monday is expected to be cold. In 1837, according to Nancy Warner’s history of Carroll County:
“The town (of Westminster,) of less than five hundred residents welcomed new county citizens and strangers alike, but the bitter cold and deep snow were inhospitable, changing the parade as planned … into an assembly in Union Church located in the Westminster Cemetery.”
From 1837 until 1853, the county commissioners were appointed to two-year terms by the governor. Today one of the reasons we celebrate Thanksgiving in Carroll County is that the commissioners are no longer selected that way. Thank God for small favors.
In 1837 the commissioners were called the “Levy Court” because the main function of the “commissioners of the tax” was to levy taxes for the construction and maintenance of the county’s roads.
It was not until the Maryland Constitution of 1851 was adopted on June 14, 1851, that the commissioners were elected. That date ought to be a county holiday. From 1853 to 1891 we elected three commissioners for a two-year term.
The first board of commissioners in 1837 included: William Shepherd, Sterling Galt, John Erb, Joshua C. Gist, Joseph Steele, Jacob Reese, John Lamotte, Nimrod Gardner, and Harry S. Brinkman.
