In 1821, Martin Myers chose a site straddling a clear spring at the foot of Fairview Mountain and laid out a village he called Myersville. Fifteen years later, the town was called Clear Spring, and its 700 inhabitants prospered by providing services to travelers on the National Road. As many as twenty-four stagecoaches passed through each day, and seven hotels offered food and lodging, with a bed shared by three strangers costing twelve cents a night. Twenty-five shoemakers, six tailors, four blacksmiths, three wheel wrights, three wagon makers, three saddlers, and many storekeepers stayed busy as the National Road flourished. In the early 1900s, J. Franklin Clopper hauled goods between Hagerstown and Clear Spring, delivered ice in summer to housewives churning butter or making ice cream, and in 1914 sold his horses and wagons to buy a two-ton Brockway truck, the first truck in Clear Spring.