Introduction

Early Years: (1804-1834)

Laurel Years (1835-50)

A Life in Transition

1851-1859

Civil War (1860-65)

Department of Agriculture (1866-1871)

Japan (1871-1875)

Final Years (1875-1885)

Credits & Acknowledgements

Resources

The Laurel Years:  1835-1850
A Monumental Cornerstone and
a Presidential Visit

A Monumental Cornerstone

Horace Capron, who was then a member of the Maryland Militia, attended the laying of the Washington Monument Cornerstone on July 4, 1848. The monument would not be completed until February, 1885 after construction was interrupted during the Civil War.

A Presidential Visit

President Zachary Taylor visited Laurel in July, 1849. His visit was supposed to be a vacation, but he was discovered by the press, and office seekers descended on the town. Taylor visited Capron's farm and the mill. The community threw a Grand Ball in his honor in the Assembly Rooms, attended by Laurel's leaders and mill workers "Turning to me he [the President] remarked...that he understood...he was to meet the operatives of the place....I assured him that every individual present...he had witnessed the day before engaged in some part of the work he had inspected. " Horace Capron Autobiography p. 74.