Joseph S. Gitt was a self-taught civil engineer and politician from Pennsylvania. After an unsuccessful career as a newspaper publisher, Gitt went back into railroading, estimating that in his career, he had conducted 31 different railroad surveys for a total distance of over 300 miles in his career Gitt either surveyed or engineered most of the railroads constructed in Frederick and Carroll county, Maryland and Adams county, Pennsylvania in the 1855-1885 period with the exception of the civil war.
Life
Joseph S Gitt was born on September 9, 1815, the oldest of the eleven children of Daniel and Lydia Gitt in Conowago township, Adams County, Pennsylvania. He studied at Gettysburg college receiving a degree of Fellow of Philosophy. He married on March 31, 1841, to Miss Anna M Baughman, daughter of David Baughman, of Hanover, Pennsylvania. They had four children, one of whom Maria Louisa Gitt, married William Gardner Smyser a civil engineer for the Santa Fe Railway living in Topeka, Kansas. Gitt was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics, he was a democrat in his youth and later a republican, as well as a prohibitionist and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In 1862, Gitt was nominated by the Union party ticket for county surveyor. In 1895, Gitt was nominated by the local Prohibitionist party to run as county surveyor for Adams county, Pennsylvania.
Newspaper Work (1839 to 1851)
1839: Starts publication of the Hanover Herald in Hanover, Pennsylvania.
1842: Starts publication of another newspaper in Hanover, the Democrat and changes that title in 1844 to the Planet and Weekly News which he sells and moves to Carlisle, Pennsylvania
1846: Starts publication of the Statesman, a self-labeled "democratic paper" and in 1847, changes that title to the American Democrat and in turn closes the paper and moves back to Hanover.
1848: starts publishing the Regulator as well as managing a book store and bindery thru 1852.
Surveyor
1836: Gitt worked as a rodman on the railroad surveys being conducted by Herman Haupt for locating the route of the "old tapeworm" railroad near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Gitt was identified as the architect for the newly forming cemetery association in Hanover that he ultimately be buried in, namely Mt. Olivet Cemetery.
Gitt also conducted highway and local road surveys in his late career as the Streets committee for the borough of New Oxford performs surveys and route locations for local roads and highways up to York Springs near Harrisburg, PA. he also performed work for the East Berlin, PA.
Gitt mapped out the borough of New Oxford, Pennsylvania and produced a new plat map at its request identifying boundaries and streets.
Gitt was Engineer for the Gettysburg railroad from 1855 to its opening on February 11, 1856. He then became chief engineer for the Littlestown railroad, a railroad from Hanover to New Oxford in Pennsylvania which opened on January 6, 1858.
Western Maryland Railway
After the civil war, Gitt surveyed and prepared cost estimates for the extension of the Western Maryland Rail Road Company from Union Bridge, Maryland its terminus in 1865 to Hagerstown, Maryland a route distance of 42.75 miles along the line of Pipe creek towards Mechanicstown, Frederick County proceeding on towards Sabillasville and from there in a southwesterly direction, Hagerstown at an estimated cost, net of right of way of $1.25 million in US$,1865.
In 1867, Gitt located a route for the Frederick and Pennsylvania Line Railroad. Unlike the 1865 survey for the Western Maryland, Gitt made a fourteen-day reconnaissance in the field on horseback for the proposed road and did not supplement that information with instrumental surveys. The major feature of Gitt's proposed route was that from Woodsboro south into Frederick, it was located between the Woodsboro and Frederick Turnpike, now Maryland Route 194 and Israel creek. Aside from diverting in Walkersville, the road continued south along the eastern side of the turnpike, crossing over at the toll house and crossing the Monocacy just north of what is today Route 194 at Ceresville, Md.. The first route south of Walkersville terminated opposite the Court House, at Church Street, in Frederick, Md. A second route started on the east-side and headed due north to Worman's mill and intercept the first line near the river crossing.
Gitt then briefly became Chief engineer for the European and North American railroad from Bangor, Maine to New Brunswick, Canada for the extension from Saint John westward.
On January 22, 1901, Gitt died in New Oxford Borough, Adams County, Pennsylvania and was buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Hanover with the rites of the Odd Fellows.
Legacy
Gitt estimated that in his career, he had conducted 31 different railroad surveys for a total distance of over 300 miles in his career Gitt either surveyed or engineered most of the railroads constructed in Frederick and Carroll county, Maryland and Adams county, Pennsylvania in the 1855-1885 period with the exception of the civil war. Five years after his death, Gitt was eulogized in the same paper as a man of means and a civil engineer of some repute who was willing to fore-go his work at any time to offer gratuitous support for public education for as the editor put it.. "if there was one thing Joseph Gitt loved above all else, it was to write for the papers."
