Editing Frederick, Maryland (section)

===Colonial era===
[[File:Evangelical Lutheran on East Church Street - panoramio.jpg|thumb|upright|Evangelical Lutheran church in Frederick, built in 1752]]
The earliest European settlement was slightly north of Frederick in [[Monocacy, Maryland]]. Monocacy was founded before 1730 (when the Indian trail became a wagon road) and was abandoned before the [[American Revolutionary War]], likely due to the river's periodic flooding, hostilities predating the [[French and Indian War]], or simply Frederick's better location with easier access to the Potomac River near its confluence with the Monocacy.

[[Daniel Dulany the Elder|Daniel Dulany]], a land speculator, laid out what was initially called Frederick Town by 1745.<ref>See for example the ''Overall history of Frederick'', pp. 2–6</ref><ref>NRIS F-03-039 at section 8 p.2 available at http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/stagsere/se1/se5/010000/010400/010482/pdf/msa_se5_10482.pdf</ref> Three years earlier, [[All Saints Church (Frederick, Maryland)|All Saints Church]] had been founded on a hilltop near a warehouse/trading post.<ref>Herb Wolf III, Houses of Worship in Frederick, Maryland: a 250 Year History 1745-1995 (Baltimore: Gateway Press, Inc., 1995) p. 3</ref> Sources disagree as to which Frederick the town was named for, but the likeliest candidates are [[Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore]] (one of the proprietors of Maryland<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/ftfrederickhistory.html|title=Fort Frederick State Park History|publisher=[[Maryland Department of Natural Resources]]|access-date=October 7, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071005164303/http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/ftfrederickhistory.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=October 5, 2007}}</ref>), [[Frederick, Prince of Wales|Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mdmunicipal.org/cities/index.cfm?townname=Frederick&page=home|title=Frederick, Maryland|publisher=Maryland Municipal League|access-date=October 9, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071021105716/http://mdmunicipal.org/cities/index.cfm?townname=Frederick&page=home|archive-date=October 21, 2007}}</ref> and [[Frederick the Great]], King of Prussia.

In 1748, Frederick County was formed by carving a section off of [[Prince George's County, Maryland|Prince George's County]]. Frederick Town (now Frederick) was made the county seat of [[Frederick County, Maryland|Frederick County]].<ref>Louis B. O'Donoghue, Gazetter of Old, Odd & Obscure Place Names of Frederick County, Maryland (Historical Society of Frederick County, Inc., 2008) p. 85</ref> The county originally extended to the Appalachian mountains (areas further west being disputed between the colonies of [[Colony of Virginia|Virginia]] and [[Colony of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]] until 1789). The current town's first house was built by a young [[Calvinist|German Reformed]] schoolmaster from the [[Palatinate (region)|Rhineland Palatinate]] named Johann Thomas Schley (died 1790), who led a party of immigrants (including his wife, Maria Von Winz) to the Maryland colony. The Palatinate settlers bought land from Dulany on the banks of [[Carroll Creek (Maryland)|Carroll Creek]], and Schley's house stood at the northwest corner of Middle Alley and East Patrick Street into the 20th century. Schley's settlers also founded a German [[Reformed Church]] (today known as Evangelical Reformed Church, and part of the [[United Church of Christ|UCC]]). Probably the oldest house still standing in Frederick today is [[Schifferstadt (Frederick, Maryland)|Schifferstadt]], built in 1756 by German settler Joseph Brunner and now the Schifferstadt Architectural Museum.

Schley's group was among the many [[Pennsylvania Dutch]] (ethnic Germans) (as well as [[Scotch-Irish Americans|Scots-Irish]] and [[French people|French]] and later [[Irish people|Irish]]) who migrated south and westward in the late-18th century. Frederick was an important stop along the migration route that became known as the [[Great Wagon Road]], which came down from [[Gettysburg, Pennsylvania]] and [[Emmitsburg, Maryland]] and continued south following the [[Great Appalachian Valley]] through [[Winchester, Virginia|Winchester]] and [[Roanoke, Virginia]]. Another important route continued along the Potomac River from near Frederick, to [[Hagerstown, Maryland|Hagerstown]], where it split. One branch crossed the Potomac River near [[Martinsburg, West Virginia]] and continued down into the Shenandoah valley. The other continued west to [[Cumberland, Maryland]], and ultimately crossed the [[Appalachian Mountains]] into the watershed of the [[Ohio River]]. Thus, British [[Edward Braddock|General Edward Braddock]] marched his troops (including the youthful [[George Washington]]) west in 1755 through Frederick on the way to their fateful ambush near [[Fort Duquesne]] (later [[Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)|Fort Pitt]], then [[Pittsburgh]]) during the [[French and Indian War]]. However, the British after the [[Proclamation of 1763]] restricted that westward migration route until after the [[American Revolutionary War]]. Other westward migrants continued south from Frederick to Roanoke along the Great Wagon Road, crossing the Appalachians into [[Kentucky]] and [[Tennessee]] at the [[Cumberland Gap]] near the Virginia/North Carolina border.

Other German settlers in Frederick were [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America|Evangelical Lutherans]], led by Rev. [[Henry Muhlenberg]]. They moved their mission church from Monocacy to what became a large complex a few blocks further down Church Street from the Anglicans and the German Reformed Church. Methodist missionary [[Robert Strawbridge]], who accepted an invitation to preach at Frederick town in 1770, and [[Francis Asbury]], who arrived two years later, both helped found a congregation which became Calvary Methodist Church, worshipping in a log building from 1792 (although superseded by larger buildings in 1841, 1865, 1910 and 1930).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.calvaryumc.org/about-us/our-building |title=Calvary United Methodist Church › Our Building |access-date=June 15, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715074906/http://www.calvaryumc.org/about-us/our-building/ |archive-date=July 15, 2014}}</ref> Frederick also had a [[Roman Catholicism|Catholic]] mission, to which Rev. [[John Dubois|Jean DuBois]] was assigned in 1792, which became [[St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church (Frederick, Maryland)|St. John the Evangelist Church]] (built in 1800).

To control this crossroads during the [[American Revolution]], the British garrisoned a German [[Hessian (soldiers)|Hessian]] regiment in the town; {{as of |2011 |alt=the war (the stone, L-shaped "[[Hessian Barracks]]" still stand).}}