Let Us Pause To Savor Dung Hill Road

 One of my favorite place names is that of Dung Hill Road, which runs east-west between Foxtown Road and Bittinger Road, south of I-68 in Garrett County.

I don’t know whose dunghill the name commemorates, but I know a surprising amount about dunghills in general.

A dunghill was common on old-time farms. Before the advent of store-bought fertilizers, the livestock made the fertilizer, in the time-honored way of ingestion, digestion and excretion. Hence, the economic value of a dunghill.

Whoever was tasked with replenishing the dunghill was also a good indicator of where that person stood in the farm’s hierarchy that day.

Of course, like the words “sty” and “pigpen,” the word “dunghill” centuries ago left the farm to become a popular metaphor for anything “repulsive or degraded” (Merriam-Webster), “repugnantly filthy” (Dictionary.com), “vile” (YourDictionary.com) or “foul” (American Heritage Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary).

As the folks at New Testament Baptist Church (710 Dung Hill Road) could tell you, examples of this metaphor abound in the King James Bible.

He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory. (1 Samuel 2:8; edited version, Psalm 113:7)

They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets; they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. (Lamentations 4:5)

If ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. (Daniel 2:5)

Salt is good: but if the salt has lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. (Luke 14:34-35)

In an age when capitalists stamp the landscape with resolutely upbeat, vapid, generic place names, I value the continued existence of Dung Hill Road and salute all who live on it.

Online tax records show 10 property owners with Dung Hill Road addresses, including one whose real estate is valued at $177,800. Not too shabby for a dunghill!

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Sources:

Abel, Florence Harris. The Beitzel Family. Baltimore: Gateway P, 1986. Many references to Dung Hill Road throughout.

Bible Gateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

“Dunghill.” Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/dunghill. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

“Dunghill.” The Free Dictionary. https://www.thefreedictionary.com/dunghill. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

“Dunghill.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dunghill. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

“Dunghill.” Oxford Languages via Google. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

Real Property Data Search. Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. https://sdat.dat.maryland.gov/RealProperty/Pages/default.aspx. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

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