Frizzelburg

Frizzelburg is a very small community on Rt 832 (Old Taneytown Road), named after Nimrod Frizzell, a blacksmith who settled there in 1814. It is 31.9 miles northerly from Baltimore and 4.2 miles westerly from Westminster, MD. Frizzelburg does not appear on many maps. But in 1952, when a thunderstorm started a fire that led to the destruction of Pappy Berwager's home, the entire community got involved in the construction of his new house and the Baltimore Sun ran a large spread about the event, though the Carroll Countians regarded it as just being a good neighbor. In 1982, the story was revisited as a 30-year anniversary of the event.

 

Frizzelburg was named after one of its early inhabitants, a blacksmith named Nimrod Frizzell, and the oldest house in the area dates back to before 1800. Frizzelburg, which is often also spelled as Frizzellburg, was also the home of what was known as the Plank Road, a toll road made of wooden planks, designed to keep wagon wheels out of the mud. Passengers traveling along this stretch of raod might stop for the night at one of the small local inns, though they might have to share the accommodations with the turkeys roosting in the nearby trees. Frizzelburg was a convenient stopping place for the herdsmen who were walking their turkeys to the markets in Baltimore.

 

Rhoten's Store in Frizzelburg was a local small grocery store for many years, and only closed down finally in 1988, but had been serving the locals for about 44 years. Lottie Rhoten, who oversaw the store for years, retired at age 89, but the store had been in existence for at least 50 years when she and her husband took it over in 1944.

 

Though there is little business activity in Frizzelburg today, it is home to an active Bed and Breakfast where an inn served travelers long, long ago. The nearby business centers of Taneytown and Westminster are close enough to serve the local residents handily so they may enjoy their peaceful little town as it is.