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In the early 1800's George McCausland and another friend migrated from Dublin, Ireland. They acquired property here and established a small settlement in Harford County. He named his new home for his birthplace in Ireland; Dublin. The first record of this village, Dublin, is found in the Act of Assembly Districts of 1800's, which divided the county into election districts and designated Dublin the vote place for the Fifth district, 196 years ago. Martenet's map of 1878 shows McCausland built a home on one side of Route 440 and a tavern or inn on the other side. The tavern on the southeast side was a long two story building that was very close to the road. The building had a porch on the first and second stories. I remember it as a two family house. In old records reference is made of of Mt. Ararat Lodge of Masons, which moved its meeting place in 1809 from a tavern in Delta, Pennsylvania to George McCausland's Tavern in Dublin. The lodge remained there until 1826, then moved to the old Masonic Lodge on Bond Street in Bel Air. On the northeast corner of Routes 440 and 136 was a small log house, with a short circular stairway and a fireplace. My grandmother always called it the "academy" and she said she went to school there. As with several of the older homes, it burnt in 1971. In 1858, the town had ten houses and places of businesses. Among the owners were McComas, Gallion, James, Rausey, J. Dougherty and Jones. Dublin also had a post office in 1878, one of the first in Harford County. The town now boasted of two stores, a blacksmith shop, a wheelwright shop, a church, a school and two taverns. Dublin school was a part of the public school system in 1867 with a one room building on Route 136 across from the present school. In 1800 Charles beavers donated land for a Methodist house of worship (on Route 136). We believe a log structure was first erected and then later a clapboard one room was built to serve the Congregation until 1939. There is also information that the Methodist Bishop sent a deacon to start a church in Dublin. The deacon was visiting Bush Chapel, on the Bush River, and came up here to the Greenstone area, now on the Baltimore Boy Scout land. That area was well populated with strong Methodist and also by being on the river and several mining ore mills. The area was very thickly settled. Several stones can be seen which are believed to be part of the foundation the deacon started. He never returned and later years a church was started in Dublin. Dublin has long been known for the incident of "The Headless Peddler." This occurred in 1763 on John Bryarly's farm on a stream called Rock Run. After this event, the stream name was changed to Peddler's Run. The end of the story wasn't closed until 1843 on James Warner's farm. The road, Route 440 through Dublin, was known as Dublin, Stafford Road. This was the main road to Bel Air and the Susquehanna River where the commercial life was. The travel pattern of the county was from Bush River up to Churchville, into Dublin and to the Susquehanna River, there was no Route 1 until later years. Dublin has two very old cemeteries, a north and a south. The South is on Deerfield Road and at one time a small church was erected for the slaves and Southern sympathizers. You can still make out the foundation lines of the Church. The oldest tombstone is dated 1820, possibly there are older unmarked slaves graves. The other cemetery is with the Dublin United Methodist Church on Route 136. On the Martenet's map of 1858, the village was not spread out but in a small area. The Indians had mostly vacated this area by 1700's but they had left the land very poor and barren for crops. The area was known as Arabin Petra, tract of about 5,000 acres (or hundredth as was used in those days). This land was originally acquired by Dr. Charles Carroll. Usually when a settlement was made of a town, the first three things established were a church, schooling and a jail. So far I haven't found a jail for Dublin. But the story goes, if you didn't live in Dublin, you better have your business in town settled by dark or else the locals would "send you packin'." This information has been collected by Jean Caulford Day through various newspaper articles, C. Milton Wright's Our Harford Heritage, Preston's History of Harford County and 1953 Harford County Directory. Some was obtained through Harford County Historical Society and Archives of Harford County. Also some stories related by family that have lived in the area for many years. |
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