In 1731, Meridith Davis received a patent for a tract of land called “Good Luck” on which the future village of Buckeystown developed. The fertile, mostly flat land and
Monocacy River were enticing to European immigrants and settlers moving west into the newly opened Monocacy Hundred territory. The river is a major tributary of the Potomac River that plays a significant role in the local Piedmont plateau ecosystem. Among these earliest settlers in the region were Henry Ballenger and Josiah Ballenger Sr.,
Quakers who moved into the
Province of Maryland from the
Colony of New Jersey. Members of the Ballenger family as well as the Davis Family who were also Quakers organized a Society of Friends at “Monoquesey” [Monocacy] and Meridith Davis donated land from his “Good Luck” tract on which to build a meetinghouse in 1739. Though the meeting at Monocacy was short-lived, with many of its early members moving into the
Colony of Virginia to join larger Quaker communities there, the Society of Friends near Buckeystown was among the first religious organizations effected within present-day Frederick County and western Maryland. During the
Revolutionary War period, brothers John and George Buckey settled on the old “Good Luck” tract and initiated commercial and industrial establishments which led to the formation of the village. Much of the town's growth in the 19th century was supported by the Baker family who purchased the Buckey
tannery in 1832 and later founded the town's
cannery, Methodist Church, and an industrial school for boys. ==Geography==