"Civil War Serindipity" Dameron by grandmaR

City: Dameron
Zip Code: 20628
Latitude: 38.148114
Longitude: 76.359651

Thomas Leroy Dameron was a Confederate soldier from Virginia who was wounded during the battle of Gettysburg and was taken and held prisoner by the Union at Point Lookout prison. When he was released at the end of the Civil War, he remained in the county, married a local girl and opened a country store in the community of Trapp.

In the early 1900s, he applied to open a post office in his store. But there was already another community named Trapp in Maryland (on the Eastern Shore), so he had to think of another name. Since the post office was to be located in his store, he decided to name it after himself. His son, James Dameron became the first postmaster in 1913, and the position of postmaster stayed in the family until July 1988 when the last Dameron descendant (Velma Effler) retired. The present post office building was constructed in 1969 and was designed by Richard Effler, T. I. Dameron's great grandson.