Between 1736 and 1738, Robert Owings was assigned to "cut a new road as Christopher Gist had marked it" south from Connewago (now Hanover, Pennsylvania) to a point about halfway to Fort Garrison in Baltimore County. The village of Spring Garden became a stage-line stop on the new road and later became the town of Hampstead. The first settlers to the area were English immigrants who made their way west from the Port of Philadelphia. They were followed by Scots and Germans.
