History buffs team up to document Turkey Foot Road's past
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History buffs Lannie Dietle, Michael McKenzie and Nancy E. Thoerig discovered they have something more in common than a passion for the past.
"We're related," Ms. Thoerig said. The connections among their families came to light while Mr. Dietle and Mr. McKenzie were researching and writing a book about the Turkey Foot Road, one of the earliest routes through the Allegheny Mountains. Ms. Thoerig was project editor.
"In Search of the Turkey Foot Road" has just been released in print and CD versions by the Mount Savage Historical Society. Mount Savage, a town of about 2,300 people in Allegany County, Md., is at the foot of the mountain for which it is named.
- Copies of "In Search of the Turkey Foot Road" are available through the Mount Savage Historical Society.
- They can be ordered online at www.mtsavage.info or by mail at Mount Savage Historical Society, Box 401, Mount Savage, MD 21545. Copies of the CD are $20 plus $3 shipping and handling. The book-CD combination is $55 plus $5 shipping and handling.
- More information is available by contacting Becky Korns, secretary of the historical society, at 1-301-707-1114 or by e-mail at bkorns@mtsavage.info.
"I'm the pivot," Ms. Thoerig said, laying out the genealogy.
Michael McKenzie is des-cended from Gabriel McKenzie. He was one of the earliest residents of Mount Savage, when the area was known as Arnold's Settlement. One of his descendants, Drucilla Ann McKenzie, married Samuel K. Weimer. Their son, Ozias, was Ms. Thoerig's great-grandfather. Ozias married Elizabeth Rose Breig, a descendant of Martin Weimer. Martin Weimer, who built the first house in Salisbury, Somerset County, closes the circle: He is Mr. Dietle's ancestor.
George Washington makes the first written references in 1754 to "Turkey Foot," an old name for the area around present-day Confluence, in his journals.
First Published January 2, 2011 12:00 am
