Mathias Bartgis Paper Mill & Burial Ground

In Scharf’s History of Western Maryland is a section on Mat(t)hias Bartgis (German American Printer). Bartgis is credited with printing numerous newspaper, government and legal documents. Scharf’s book stated “He died at his residence near the old paper mill on Tuscarora Creek in 1825 and was buried three miles northwest of Frederick in the old Trout (now Cronise’s) burying ground”.

Nothing remains of the paper mill today. The Trout/Cronise Burial Ground is now known as the BloomfieldClemson Cemetery in Names In Stone and Find A Grave. No one by the name of Trout or Cronise show on the list of 8 names. The persons listed were residents from the surrounding area. It appears it was a community burial ground with an unknown number of tombstones lost to time. The burial ground is 3 miles from Frederick, and located on the 1746 property of Henry Trout.

The Carroll County Times published the following excerpt on April 10, 2020:

“A large part of the population in what is now Carroll County were German-speaking farmers who depended on Frederick newspapers to get their news. Some of the most widely read newspapers in Frederick were published by Mathias Bartgis who had established the first broadsheet in the area in 1786.
In 1802 another Shriver brother, Abraham, collaborated with Bartgis to publish the Hornet — a newspaper dedicated to the Republican cause. Knowing the audience, Bartgis published the paper in both English and German. Abraham Shriver wrote what was essentially the opinion page and had his brother Andrew translate the pieces into German. The paper became known for its hard-hitting political content, with the slogan “To true Republicans I will sing, but aristocrats shall feel my sting!” Federalists complained that the German-language materials published by Bartgis were different from the English ones, “containing the most barefaced and outrageous falsehoods.”