The above photograph depicts the class of the public school in Frizzellburg, Carroll County, MD, in May 1932. I bought it from an antique store in Baltimore, MD. The teacher at the school in 1930 was Marian Ruth McAllister (1910-1987) who taught in the Carroll County Public Schools for 31 years. I am assuming that’s her in the center of the back row and hoping someone will confirm that. She married John Clifford Schaeffer, Sr. (1899-1987) in 1937 and they had four children. The following Evening Sun (Hanover, PA) photograph shows Marian in July 1973 when the Carroll County Board of Education presented her and other retired teachers and administrators with engraved silver bowls:

There isn’t a lot of Frizzellburg history to be obtained online when one is confined to the home office, so I’ll borrow a short history from the Historical Society of Carroll County Facebook page:

A bit of history from Frizzellburg – – On April 17, 1814, Nimrod Frizell married Ann Fischer Frizell and moved into the area. He first built a home and opened a blacksmith’s shop. A short while later he built another house, this one large enough to house his family as well as serve as an inn and a small general store. Frizell’s Tavern was one of the few places along the way to western Maryland that accommodated travelers. It lay on the road that linked the bustling Baltimore area and the rural towns west of it. The Frizell family became so active in local affairs that the settlement became known as ”Frizzells” (with an added Z). The name was formally changed to Frizzellburg later. This road is said to have been made of 2″ x 10″ x 14′ planks, placed crossways on heavy beams or timbers as supports in the soft dirt of the highway.

The photos show that Frizell’s Tavern stands today and is very closely restored to its appearance in 1818. Next door stands a fieldstone house which was the later home of the Frizell family when they moved from the second floor of the tavern. Nimrod and Ann Frizell are buried in the Westminster Cemetery.

Alfred Warner built a general store fronting the road in the 1860’s to serve the needs of the community. It’s now the Frizellburg Antique Store and stepping inside is like stepping back in time. Frizzellburg was also the home to a handsome brick school shown in an 1888 photo from the collection of the Carroll County Genealogical Society.

In 1997 when a feature article was written about Frizzellburg in the Baltimore Sun, about 70 families resided in the heart of the community, living in homes built seemingly to last forever. Typically, a Frizzellburg home has a log structure hidden behind modern walls which are meticulously maintained down to the neatly trimmed flower beds and backyard vegetable gardens.