Taneytown was mainly a free population, with only seven households including slaves. Barnabas McSherry, who kept the old stone tavern, had four. Benjamin Price, former captain in the 3rd Regiment of the Maryland Line, had three as well as John Usher Charlton (who later moved to Frederick) and Adam Stump. Perhaps white indentured servants are included in the above number.

The town’s earliest available tax assessment dates to 1798 and shows forty-one individual property owners. Thirty-five of the town lots were built on by that date and 37 were vacant. The most valuable properties were owned by Thomas Adams (lot #27), Ann Adams (lot #24), John Trucks (lot #5), Eli Bentley (half of lot #2), Adam Good (lots #8 and #21), and John Hughes (lots #78/#80 and half of lot #2).

Almost all of these buildings were likely made of wood or stone. Stories of bricks imported from England are doubtful given the transport costs from Maryland’s tidewater, but a deed of 1768 mentions that Peter Hoofman had a brickyard on the north side of Baltimore Street. In 1785, his son Adam, by then a potter in Frederick, sold the brickyard to John McAllistor. Very likely the yard continued to operate because one appears at that location (near the old railroad crossing) on the 1877 Carroll County atlas.

The Historical Society of Carroll County’s library files contain a variety of valuable information supplied by Louis Dielman, a noted historian from New Windsor. Several of his findings appeared in a March 1939 issue of The Carroll Record. The first appeared under the headline: "Taneytown Data in 1802, Names of Citizens Given as of that Date." Another communication from Dielman, who spent years researching at Baltimore’s Peabody Institute, is of interest to anyone curious about Taneytown’s antiquity. He wrote, "I have recently secured a long run of the Frederick-Town Herald, from the beginning in 1802 to 1832." He was always willing to share with the newspaper "such items as I think may be of antiquarian interest, which you may print or discard at your pleasure." He was especially curious about the location of "Millersburg" because of the "races" he saw mentioned in an advertisement as having been held there "near Little Pipe Creek bridge." In return Dielman hoped to gather clues from readers of The Carroll Record and wondered if anyone could shed light on "Millersburg" and the "races."

We have Louis Dielman to thank for the following clipping from the Frederick-Town Herald which he contributed to The Carroll Record.

"Mr. Thomson in the Hornet of the 21st. inst. published by Mr. Bartgis of Frederick Town it is stated, that a publication signed by U. Bruce respecting the resolution introduced into the last session of Assembly, calculated to bring to account those who held public money in their hands under a law of 73 and 74, intended for the improvement of roads &c., &c., had been stuck up at some of the taverns of Taney Town. We the subscribers inhabitants of Taney Town, do hereby certify that no such publication as the one signed U. Bruce and published in the Hornet, was stuck up at or in any of the public houses in Taney Town, and we do declare the said assertion to be an absolute falsehood. Taney Town, Sept. 27th, 1802.

Signed : George Grove, Christian Houk, Joseph Little, Joseph Taney, Jr., John Harritt, John Sawyer, William Kelly, Jacob Myers, Henry Swope, Amos England, John Black, Ludwick Sharrer, Jacob Cress, Joseph Shunk, Adam Good, Peter Shunk , Jos. Sim Smith, John Shunk, John Coskerlee, John Burk, Thomas Gibson, Hugh Thompson, John Hughes, John Shoner, John M’Kellip, James Wood, Philip Creamer, Casper Snarr, Eli Bentley, William Walker, Joseph M’Kaleb, John Fisher, John M’Kaleb."

Note that the name Eli Bentley, the famous clock-maker of Taneytown, appeared in the above list and confirmed he resided there in 1802. That had been something in question until Dielman found that old copy of the Frederick paper. Equally helpful to historians are the 33 names of men from the Taneytown area at the turn of the nineteenth century.