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Jun 09, 2023

100 Years Ago

Aug. 30, 1923

Washington, Aug. 29 — The story Lee Houser, Samples Manor, a village in Washington County, Md., laborer, told of having unearthed a tin box of gold while working on a road near Hagerstown is a “clear-cut fabrication,” it was reported here today by three Department of Justice investigators who returned from a two-days’ inquiry into the “treasure-trove.” The detectives submitted their report to William J. Burns, their chief, declaring that the story of Houser was a hoax intended as a joke on the villagers. They place not the slightest credence in his tale, they said.

Jewelry, including several watches, two diamond rings, diamond stickpin, cameo ring, clothing, about $50 in cash and other articles of value about $500 were stolen in a raid on six homes in Middletown early Wednesday morning. The thief or thieves ransacked several or more rooms in each house and departed without leaving the slightest clue as to their identity. The robberies occurred, it is thought, between 2 and 4:30 o’clock in the morning. All of the houses were entered through first floor windows.

An auto jack was baffled in his attempt to steal the machine of Lewis Hardy, Mt. Pleasant, in this city, Wednesday evening at about 6 o’clock. He escaped. Hardy came to Frederick early in the evening. He left the machine parked on Market Space on the south side of the City Opera House and forgot to lock his machine when he left. When he returned to his machine, he found a man sitting in his machine trying to start it. The man jumped out of the automobile when he saw the owner coming and made good his escape.

50 Years Ago

Aug. 30, 1973

The temperature sweltered at 97 degrees in Frederick Wednesday, almost hot enough to fry an egg on Market Street. The tropical sun may broil the county even more today under a predicted 100 degrees. As the pavement sizzled in yesterday’s mid-afternoon heat, a News-Post weather watcher tried the egg trick at the corner of North Market and Church Street. “Don’t forget the salt and pepper,” one hungry onlooker advised. The egg sat unchanged on a manhole cover. Sidewalk supervisors recommended moving it to the macadam street, the concrete sidewalk, a cast-iron cellar door or “a car that’s been sitting in the sun all day.” Word spread of the great experiment. A Hagerstown daily newspaper sent a reporter all the way from that city to snap a picture. After more than 20 minutes, the egg, still mostly raw, was scooped up and disposed of.

Attorney Richard Zimmerman, spokesman for numerous developers, issued a “Zimmerman Population Forecast” this week that predicts a maximum of 247,064 people in the county by 2000. Six percent of Frederick’s 1972 population equals 5,531 people, Zimmerman figures. He multiplies that number by 28, the number of years to 2000, and arrives at the county’s growth. Adding that to the present 92,000 people, Zimmerman announces a maximum of 247,000 people. However, notes the county, Zimmerman’s figures are not compounded, a tedious process that was used by a recent report placing the county’s 2000 population ranging between 299,000 to 868,000. Whatever the county uses as a population projection Zimmerman points out that factors such as tight money, demand for housing, increasing use of birth controls and limited sewerage facilities will limit growth to a reasonable figure.

25 Years Ago

Aug. 30, 1998

This date was a Sunday. The Frederick News-Post did not publish a Sunday edition at this time.

(Editor’s Note: The News-Post does not have access to archives from 20 years ago for April 16 through December 2003. The “20 Years Ago” summary will return Jan. 1, 2024.)

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