Lorenzo Thomas Dow Yoder - Yoder Family Information

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charter member of the Oakland Lodge, No.530, Free and Accepted Masons where he participated in their good works. Another favorite project was the organization of the Home for Working Girls in Pittsburgh, which ultimately was absorbed by the Young Women=s Christian Association. He was also a charter member and active aid in the management of the Industrial Home for Boys at Oakmont, Pennsylvania. In 1881 he participated, with four other like-minded men from Wheeling, West Virginia - all prominent Methodists - in the establishment of a Chautauqua-type resort in Mountain Lake Park, Garrett County, Maryland, to be conducted as a Methodist religious summer colony.The founders of Mountain Lake Park incorporated themselves in 1881 as the Mountain Lake Park Association and issued stock, initially fifteen shares at $1,000. As investors in the Park they were firm in their resolve that their resort should have a high moral tone. The charter they drew up had restrictions against dancing, card-playing, drinking and gambling whether in public or private homes. These bans were written into the deeds for the sale of land in the Park and a violation of any of the bans could, in theory, lead to forfeiture of the property. Whatever the intent of the original developers, not all of the cottage owners maintained the desired level of sanctity. One cottage was reputedly a link in a moonshine distribution chain. Another was leased one winter by its unwitting owner to bootleggers who allowed the residue from their labors go down the drain and into the river. Their presence was discovered when some cows in a down-stream meadow were discovered upside down and drunk! Further, a madam from Baltimore brought her girls to the Park for several summers until their activities were uncovered and stopped. Finally, at <strong>Lorenzo</strong>=s insistence, these bans were modified after a letter written to his fellow stockholders in which he said: AA great many good Christian people are averse to building and living in a community with such rigid laws.....if we expect to see the Park grow, we must have the laws so framed that they will meet the reasonable wishes of the people. I am not in favor of any radical change but no doubt some of the rules stand in the way of the growth of the Park@. - 15 -
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad which served the area daily brought mail, freight and passengers. The Park was placed on the Chautauqua Lecture Circuit which drew many to the resort needing accommodations. In 1892, in recognition of the increase in summer population, <strong>Lorenzo</strong> purchased land and built the Mountain Lake Park Hotel. In addition he purchased several Acottages@ (there were no Acabins@) including one of his own. The cottage was built in 1885 and still stands on AI@ Street immediately across from where the hotel once stood (The Hotel was sold in 1914 and ultimately torn down). This ample cottage was Victorian in style and contained a living room and formal dining room, a music room, 4 bedrooms, a full bathroom, and both a winter and a summer kitchen. It comfortably housed his wife, children and assorted maiden aunts and guests in the summer. The family traveled by horse and buggy from Pittsburgh, some one hundred and ten miles south to Mountain Lake Park, crossing the Allegheny foothills and Summit Mountain near Uniontown, PA. In later years, his daughter Elcy recalled walking up Summit Mountain with her sister Elizabeth in order to spare the horses a long haul with a full load. - 16 -
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Page 21 and 22: Academy in Virginia. He died at age
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Lorenzo Thomas Dow Yoder - Yoder Family Information

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