Editing Barnesville, Maryland (section)

==History==
[[File:Railroad Tower Barnesville Maryland from Baltimore & Ohio Employes Magazine April 1914 Vol 02 No 07 Page 89.jpg|thumb|left|Railroad Tower, Barnesville, Maryland, circa 1914]]
The Maryland General Assembly chartered the town of Barnesville in 1811 and named it in honor of its earliest settler, Williams Barnes.<ref name="auto">{{cite book|last1=Scharf|first1=J. Thomas|title=History of Western Maryland|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwestern21scha|date=1882|publisher=Louis H. Everts|location=Philadelphia|page=728}}</ref> In its early years, the village developed as a regional center for industry and commerce, with two taverns, a blacksmith shop, and a resident physician, a Dr. Lisle.<ref name="auto"/> In the 1830s, Barnesville Academy operated on the Hays Farm under the leadership of Irish immigrant Thomas Carr Lannan.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Scharf|first1=J. Thomas|title=History of Western Maryland|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwestern21scha|date=1882|publisher=Louis H. Everts|location=Philadelphia|page=729}}</ref> Jesuit Ministers from [[Frederick, Maryland|Frederick]] first held mass in Barnesville and led in the creation of St. Mary's Church in 1807.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Saint Mary's Parish|title=A Brief History of St. Mary's Parish|url=http://stmaryonline.com/SMB_history.html|access-date=October 21, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206215211/http://stmaryonline.com/SMB_history.html|archive-date=February 6, 2016|url-status = dead}}</ref> The church yard contains several graves from immigrant workers who died of cholera while building the [[Chesapeake & Ohio Canal]]. Barnesville Baptist Church was organized in 1871 and still worships in its original frame building on the east side of the town.