Family Ties
Brielle Thames, a 10th grader at Barbara Ingram School for the Arts created the sister city logo.
Residents in Hagerstown, Maryland, share valuable bonds—and heritage—with our (little) sister city Hagerstown, Indiana
By Lisa Gregory
Hagerstown resident, Michael Keifer was just curious one day. “I was sitting at the computer and wondered if there were any other towns named Hagerstown,” he says. There was. One.
“I saw only two, one in Maryland and one in Indiana,” says Keifer. “I thought to myself, ‘As big as this country is and there are only two towns with that name.’”
Keifer did a little more digging and even reached out and spoke to Bob Warner, the town manager at the time of the small town, which numbers under 2,000. Through Warner, Keifer learned that the two places shared more than just a name.
“I found out that the folks who settled in Hagerstown, Indiana, actually came from this area,” he says. “That really got my blood stirred up. Hagerstown, Maryland, was first named Elizabethtown after Johnathan Hager’s wife,” says Keifer. “It was Elizabethtown first. And when Hagerstown was first developed in Indiana it was called Elizabethtown also.”
Given the more-than-likely family ties that already existed, Keifer came up with the idea of the two becoming sister cities. Hagerstown and the city of Wesel in Germany have been sister cities since 1952. And Xinjin in China is also a sister city with a signed proclamation in 2016.
“I’m thinking, what the heck is going on here?” says Kiefer. “We have a relationship with Germany, which is clear across the Atlantic Ocean. And here we have a town that was named after Hagerstown, Maryland. And we don’t have any kind of relationship with those folks at all. Why not? “
In 2013 Keifer went to the mayor and city council with his sister city suggestion. That same year mayor David Gysberts signed a special recognition certificate establishing the sister city partnership between the two. And it has been a good relationship for both, says Kiefer.
“We have had folks from each town visit the other,” he says. “We have hosted bus loads of students from there on their trip to Washington, D.C.”
The purpose of the relationship, says Keifer, is “first, to learn the history of each area. Next, is having folks from both come together and discuss ideas for economic development and growth.”
Chris LaMar, current town manager for Hagerstown, Indiana, agrees.
“It’s a good exchange of ideas and solutions for handling situations,” says LaMar. “It’s interesting because Hagerstown, Maryland, is several times larger. But we still have some of the same problems and issues. We have a housing shortage, and we have issues of substance abuse. It’s interesting though to be able to see how Hagerstown, Maryland, is handling those situations. And I think likewise, the people who have come here from Hagerstown, Maryland, find it interesting to see how we’ve tried to deal with some of those situations.”
Residents from both have readily embraced each other. “My wife and I have been to Hagerstown, Maryland, three times,” says LaMar. “I think the first time was in 2014 and we were in the Mummers Parade, and we were just overwhelmed with how friendly and courteous the people of Hagerstown were.”
He adds, “And when we’ve had guests form Hagerstown, Maryland, they say the same thing about our residents.”
Hagerstown, Maryland, residents have also shown up in unique ways for their sister city. “Two years ago, the team in Hagerstown, Indiana, found their way to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania,” says Kiefer. “I took a small group of folks from our Hagerstown up there to root the team on.”
Keifer, for one, has enjoyed learning about Hagerstown, Indiana, and natives like Ralph Teetor. He was a blind inventor responsible for the invention of the technology we now know as cruise control for automobiles.
“He’s responsible for everybody who has a vehicle with cruise control in it,” says Keifer. “This man built himself his own car when he was 10 years old, completely blind, and drove it around Hagerstown, Indiana.”
Keifer felt that Hagerstown, Maryland, should honor Teetor for his accomplishments as well and petitioned the mayor and city council to name a small alleyway near his home, Ralph Teeter Way.
In continuing to cement the bond between the two places, Keifer is looking to the younger generation and their involvement.
“I am currently working with the school systems to develop a pen-pal relationship with their only elementary school,” he says “As well as, maybe starting a student exchange program between their only high school and our high schools here.”
Keifer has also established a scholarship for a graduating senior from Hagerstown, Indiana. “I wanted to do more,” he says of the scholarship and the town he has come to grow quite fond of.
Other sister city projects include Keifer recently going before the city council to propose a design for a sister city flag.
No matter the project or effort, Keifer is proud of his part in all of it. “It’s wonderful,” he says. “It’s my legacy.”
All because of a curious mind and a computer search.