The land occupied by Wilderness Voyageurs was once the site of the livery stable for the Riverside Hotel. The house pictured above was the home of Captain Elijah Monroe Friend, grandson of Gabriel Friend, son of John Friend the first white settler in Garrett County. The home sat on his 300 acre farm on the west side of the river and along Water Street that used to extend
downstream to the Youghiogheny Iron Company Foundry.
Elijah Monroe Friend was born in 1836 and educated in the district schools. He enlisted in Company 1 Second Maryland Regiment of Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil War as a Private and served three years. He was promoted to Corporal, Sargeant and Sargeant-Major while in the field. In February of 1865, he was ordered to Cumberland to act as an enrolling officer and given the rank of Captain. He served until the fall of Richmond and was granted an honorable discharge.
In 1873, he helped take the census of the western part of Allegany County and divide it into Garrett County. For several years he travelled extensively around the country as a salesman and in 1879 returned to his home in Friendsville . He engaged in farming and in 1887 was elected to the Maryland Legislature. In 1890 he married Emma C. Shroyer, daughter of J.D. Shroyer and they had three children: Earl Morril, Ruth Adele and Ada Blanche.
In 1828, a large 3 stack iron furnace on Bear Creek called the Youghiogheny Iron Company was built to produce pig iron and a foundry was built down river from this site. Eventually, the difficulty of transporting the iron to the National Road could not compete with furnaces and foundries along the Ohio River causing this industry to close. The old Water Street extension reached the foundry which was later converted by Leslie Friend into a hydroelectric plant that in 1895 supplied electricity to the new electric Unique Mill in the center of town and Friendsville homes for 75¢ a month.
Looking towards town. Turn to water Street North visible on the left side. 1891 School (the big white building in the middle) with the addition dates this around 1895.
Pre 1888? Train tracks not visible.
