If in dealing with the history of Patapsco Council we are to make it complete, and if we are to safeguard the authenticity of whatever we find of an historical nature surrounding it, we must include the many facts concerning the ground or property upon which our building now stands.

In so doing, let us go back tot he time when the Susquehannock Indians roamed over the countryside west of Baltimore Town, before our Council was ever thought of, before there was even a Catonsville.

Let us begin with Charles Carroll of Carrollton, who, in the early part of his life visited this section in quest of a site upon which to build his home, and later acquired an extensive tract of land, part of which is not owned by our Council.

It was soon after this that Richard Caton, an Englishman, came to this country in 1785, and a year later married Mary "Polly" Carroll, eldest daughter of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. Her illustrious father did not approve of the suitor of "Polly," as she was known at home and in intimate circles. He considered him a handsome penniless adventurer. Polly's father favored the suit of one Daniel Carroll, a cousin. On one occasion her father asked her who would take handsome Richard out of prison, should he be arrested. Polly answered, "These two hands." Finally Charles Carroll realized his daughter's happiness was at stake, and consented to her engagement. They were married at Annapolis in May 1787.

Upon her marriage, Charles Carroll gave his daughter an estate which embraced the present Catonsville and Carrollton. Richard selected a site about 50 yards west of our present home and built for his sixteen-year-old bride a rambling stucco house, containing 28 rooms, and called it Castle Thunder. A picture of Castle Thunder appeared in The Sun on November 26, 1905, as well as one of our present home. In general outlines the buildings where strikingly similar. Castle Thunder stood until 1910, when it was torn down and the resident of Arthur C. Montell, then Cashier fo the Catonsville Bank, was built on its site. The ground, however, upon which our home now stands, was originally a part of the Castle Thunder estate, before Beaumont Avenue was cut through the property of the late Mr. Edwin J. Farber, and continued in the possession of Mary Carroll Caton's descendants until 1887 when it was sold to Henry J. Farber by Virginia Mactavish, a great-granddaughter of Mary Carrol Caton. Richard Caton laid out the plat of Catonsville in 1810.