Paul Leibe’s Enterprise article from 2004 describes how several areas of St. Mary’s were named. One of my favorite descriptions in the article is how Dameron got its name. Confederate Army prisoner marries a local girl, opens a country store and ends up having a place named after him. Not too shabby. The article states:
“During the Civil War, Thomas Leroy Dameron had been a Confederate soldier from Virginia. He was wounded during the battle of Gettysburgh, taken prisoner and was held prisoner at Pt. Lookout. When Dameron was released at the end of the Civil War, he remained in the area, married a local girl and eventually opened a country store in the community of Trapp. In the early 1900’s he applied to open a post office in his store to accommodate the residents of Trapp. The postal authorities reported that there was already a town named Trapp in Maryland and, if his request was to be considered, the name of the post office had to be another name. Since the post office was to be located in the family store, it was decided to name the post office Dameron. James Dameron, T.L.’s son, became the first post master in 1913, and the position of postmaster stayed in the Dameron family until 1988 when Velma Effler, a descendant, retired. The Dameron post office building was built in 1969 and was designed by Richard Effler , T.L. Dameron’s great grandson.“
I did 12 years of Catholic school with Greg “Cricket” Dameron but never knew that his ancestors also had a country store in their past. Like Earl Weaver’s book title says “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”