This Bier Is Not Funeral-Related, Probably
The Allegany County community of Bier, population 173, is notable for its mournful name. As every undertaker knows, a bier is " a stand on which a corpse or coffin is placed" or " a coffin together with its stand," per Merriam-Webster. Funeral bier, temporarily unoccupied. Most likely, the place name Bier comes from the German surname Bier. The current county phone book, however, lists no Biers, only three Biermans. Even better, perhaps, bier is the German word for beer, so whenever I drive through Bier -- on U.S. 220 midway between Cumberland and the Germanically-named Keyser -- I think of the song "I Love Louisa," from The Band Wagon : How I love a glass of beer. (More beer!) Beer goes very good with beer. (More beer!) Alas, Hamill Kenny's otherwise invaluable The Place Names of Maryland is no help with Bier, which appears neither in the index nor in the alphabetical main text. Page 42 goes straight from Bew (Beau) Plains in Prince George's Cou...