"TROUT WALK" ...Not TRout Run

Earlier this week the Frederick News-Post featured yet another front page story involving Trout Run, a Catoctin Mountain property where the Church of Scientology hoped to open a Narconon treatment facility. The gist of this ongoing saga centers on the news that “a Frederick County judge will decide whether the Frederick County Council acted properly last year when six members voted against a sought- after historic designation.”  I have no opinion to offer here on this controversial topic, however I have to admit that I became quite fascinated with the history associated with this “non-historic” locale a few years back while performing research for a documentary on Thurmont.

I bring this up solely due to the fact that it’s only fitting that this be in the paper this week. While trying to come up with a subject for my second-ever edition of the “HSP Hump Day History” blog, I stumbled over a thought-provoking, front page story lost within vintage Frederick newspaper archives. It comes from the first week of January, 1916 (100 years ago). Instead of “Trout Run,” the article that caught my imagination was about “Trout Walk.”

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The Frederick Post of January 8 (1916) reported that Mr. John Trout, a local Civil War veteran, had walked 16 miles from his home at Park Mills to Frederick City and back in an effort to please his young daughter. The seventy-seven year-old set out to purchase a coveted doll, carried by a downtown merchant.  With help of a cane, Mr. Trout made the sojourn without aid of a horse or carriage. He successfully completed yet another life mission to the delight of area Frederick newspaper readers.

John Andrew Trout

Frederick Post (Frederick, MD), January 8, 1916

Battle of Monocacy by artist Keith Rocco, courtesy of Monocacy National Battlefield

John Andrew Trout was born in Buckeystown in January, 1842. He had served as a private in Company H, 1st Potomac Home Brigade, and saw action at the nearby Battle of Monocacy on July 9, 1864. By day’s end, he would be subsequently captured by Confederate forces, and embarked on a march of more than 16 miles en-route to prison camps in Danville (VA)and later Richmond. Here he spent a period of eight months before gaining release in February 1865. Trout returned to Frederick and continued in the successful fence-making business started by his father. He married Harriet A. Baker shortly thereafter and the couple went on to have eight children.

The January 8, 1916 article referenced earlier wasn’t the first newspaper appearance by the aged walker.  John Trout would become a local celebrity of sorts a few years prior. In the summer of 1912, a few months after the passing of Harriet (May 1912), Mr. Trout found himself incredibly lonely after losing his spouse of 44 years.  It was at this time that he concocted a remedy for his purgatorial state. He placed an advertisement in the Frederick Post (along with others in the region) looking for a new wife.

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Possessing the same allure as today’s television reality dating shows (eg. The Bachelor and The Bachelorette), readers immediately took interest in Mr. Trout’s “trailblazing” tactic to find/hire a spouse through the media.  He became labeled as “the wife hunter.”  Nine months of good natured coverage would follow, including eight near misses of Trout “hooking” his “matrimonial fish.” 

In March of 1913, he decided to call it quits to the dismay, and pity, of newspaper subscribers who had been slowly converted into a loyal fan base.  The cagey veteran would now concentrate on his work/hobby of bee-keeping. The following week, he announced that he would sell his house and possessions at auction.

All of a sudden, another prospective suitor stepped forward and willingly accepted John Trout’s unorthodox proposal.  This was Elsie Mae Burdette of Montgomery County, aged 27 (44 years Mr. Trout’s junior). Having the makings of a “poor-mans’  ”Royal Wedding,” the two strangers married immediately on April 12, 1913 amidst great media coverage. This union spawned six more offspring for Mr. Trout.

Grave of John A. Trout (Jan. 1842-August 8, 1927) Flint Hill United Methodist Cemetery

 


John Trout had certainly made a name for himself both here and in locations around the country where newspapers had carried his story.  He would also give impetus to copycat activity throughout the US, performed by widowed men and young bachelors alike.  John Trout had self-medicated his despair.  

Sadly, Mr. Trout would only have 14 years with his second wife, before his death on August 8, 1927. His long and interesting life ended by his own hand when he calmly concluded at age 85 years 7 months and 4 days that he had lived quite long enough. While Elsie was away on an errand, Trout ingested a quantity of a popular rodent poison called “Paris Green.” Friends and relations said he was in fine health and mental state for his age, but as was his unusual and eccentric personality, offered the rationale that John Andrew Trout had simply concluded that it was simply his time to go.

As far as I am aware, there have been no plans made for a centennial commemoration of the legendary January 1916 “Trout Walk.” However, you now will have something amusing to think about as the headlines continue in coming months as the Trout Run controversy continues to play out.

Special thanks goes out to Mr. Craig H. Trout who maintains the Find-A Grave Memorial for John Andrew Trout, a key source for this article.

Additional "copycat stunt" article from the Frederick Post (Frederick, MD) June 8, 1914