In the Elkton Cemetery on Howard Street, a small stretch of grass alongside Howard Street has served as the fireman’s lot since 1892. Here is the story behind this little plot of land in the old burial ground.
The Singerly Fire Company incorporated on Jan.
22, 1892, and in early November of that year the department’s first
president, Richard Thomas, died. The Elkton firefighters promptly called
a special meeting to make arrangements for the funeral.
O.R. Chaytor
was appointed to serve as the marshal at the fire service funeral. The
company also draped the fire apparatus in mourning for 30 days.
Mr. Thomas, 73, a native of England had settled in Cecil County in 1842.
For many years, he was engaged in the lumber and canal boat business
at Port Deposit and in 1871 he was elected sheriff of the county,
filling the office for two years. He died suddenly of heart disease on
Nov. 1. 1892 while sitting in a chair at his home on Main Street
(Evening Journal, Nov. 2, 1892).
The men voted
to purchase land in the cemetery for $14 to serve as the final resting
place for President Thomas. The deed, made out to Singerly, notes that
Mrs. Thomas had the privilege of being buried beside her husband in the
fireman’s lot.
Mrs. Thomas was buried there in 1928.
A number of years ago, Ed McKeown of the Elkton Monument Company donated a monument to formally mark the fireman’s lot at the Elkton Cemetery.
On Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2019, at 7 p.m., Rein Jelle Terpstra will talk about Senator Bobby Kennedy’s Funeral Train, which passed through Cecil County on June 8, 1968.
Over four years, Professor Terpstra worked on his project “Robert F. Kennedy Funeral Train: The People’s View.” As part of his fieldwork, he visited Cecil County several times, collecting old snapshots, home movies, and memories of that sad, unforgetable day.
Late in the afternoon of June 8, 1968, the long-delayed funeral train carrying the body of Senator Kennedy to Washington passed through Elkton. It was around 6 p.m. and the train was about 4-hours late. Larry Beers, a 15-year-old, was taking home movies that captured the scene that hot June afternoon so long ago. This rare movie footage and many other Cecil County photographs of those sad, fleeting moments from the past will be discussed at the Newark Historical Society program.
This program will be of great interest to many Cecil Countians. Here’s the formal press release from the Newark History Center.
Charlestown bids farewell to Bobby Kennedy. (Sorce: Paul Fusco)
Newark History Center Hosts Robert F. Kennedy Funeral Train
This extensive project, Robert F. Kennedy Funeral Train-The People’s View by internationally renowned artist, Rein Jelle Terpstra, is about the Robert F. Kennedy funeral train and the memories of those who looked to this promising leader for a better future for themselves and how his tragic death profoundly affected them. The train rode from NYC to Washington, D.C. carrying the body of Senator Robert F Kennedy. About one million mourners stood along the tracks, paying their final respects.
Terpstra conceived the idea of
collecting both memories, amateur photographs and home movies from the train’s
onlookers along the train’s path. He accomplished this over a period of about four years. Terpstra’s Robert F.
Kennedy Funeral Train-The People’s View project has been shown
all over the world including, the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco,
International Center of Photography NYC, the Smithsonian Institute and The
Nederlands Foto Museum in Rotterdam. He has also just recently won the Gold Award
for the most beautiful book of the world, 2019.
It has been just over 51 years since the death of Senator Kennedy with the funeral train passing through Newark. Since many of the mourners stood on the steps of the Pennsylvania railroad station, now home to the Newark History Museum, the historical society deemed it appropriate and fitting to sponsor this event. As the 50th anniversary has just recently been observed, this moment is still very alive in the minds of many Americans. Many believe that Robert Kennedy’s ability to unite people would be of such worth in these days of political turmoil. Our vision is to invite not only the Newark community but also those communities, historical societies, government representatives and places of higher learning located along the path of the funeral train’s journey.
Keynote
speaker:
Governor
John Carney
Wednesday, October 23, 2019. 7pm-9pm
Newark Country Club
300
West Main St.
Newark,
DE. 19711
Free Admission; Light Refreshments
On Rein’s first stop in Elkton as he followed the path of Bobby Kennedy’s Funeral Train he stopped at the abandoned Pennsylvania Railroad Station in Elkton. Finding no one about to talk to, he went to Cecil Lanes and at the bowling alley met with Lois Inglisa.
PORT DEPOSIT — On Nov 10, 1960, Port Deposit resident, Patrica Taylor Stamps, 23, was rushed to Harford Memorial Hospital. There she was admitted to the segregated ward for African-Americans. Expecting to deliver her baby boy, Carlos, the doctor told her there were medical complications and the procedure needed to happen immediately.
On delivery, Carlos was in acute distress. A modern, state-of-the-art incubator, a piece of medical equipment that provided an oxygen-enriched environment for newborns was not available in the segregated area. With the baby struggling to breathe, a white nurse soon made a decision. She grabbed the newborn, rushing to the white maternity ward on an upper floor where had the special equipment.
But it was too late as Baby Carlos passed away. Patricia died soon hearing that her bay died.
George Thomas Stansbury (1922 – 1996), an African-American Physician in Havre de Grace, stayed with Patricia all night working to comfort her. Dr. Stansbury provided care for black residents in western Cecil and a large part of Harford County.
While dealing with his grief, Mr.
Stamps made an important decision. He decided that the thing to do was
to seek to end segregation at Harford Memorial Hospital. In 1963, a
year before federal laws caught up, the Havre de Grace Hospital agreed
and integrated. In 2018, the Upper Chesapeake Medical Center formally
acknowledged the 1960 family tragedy with a ceremony and mounted a
plaque on a wall in the lobby of Harford Memorial.
Last Wednesday (9/26/19) Mr. Willie Stamps visited Harford Community College to talk about this sad event and events throughout his life. The standing-room-only facility was filled with about 110 to 115 guests as faculty, students, and the community came to hear this untold story.
Some things, such as school integration, have received a good bit of attention in recent years in, but there are many unexplored aspects about Jim Crow in this era in northeastern Maryland that history publications and newspapers haven’t examined. And that is something Harford Community College is working to address.
Segregated Hospital
Most hospitals in Maryland and Delaware were segregated. African-Americans were admitted to a special ward as the law accepted separate but equal care. Of course, that standard was often ignored.
Also, African-American physicians had either no or very limited admitting privileges. In some places they could visit the “colored ward,” but in Elkton, they had to go to the white doctor when one of their patients needed in-patient care.
As brave people like Mr. Stamp took a stand, it gradually began to change to end to the segregated hospital in the northeastern corner of Maryland until finally, the federal laws caught up with everything.
A recent NBC News piece about a small town of under 1,000 people having a hometown radio station serving the rural community reminded us of when Elkton had a full-service outlet, WSER. With the station providing original daily programming for Cecil County, the broadcasters talked to the community. DJs played the hits and chatted up area happenings, a reporter had local news, and programming highlighted local people, things, and sports.
Elkton’s radio station, took to the airwaves on Thursday,
Aug. 22, 1963, at noon. As the
transmitter came to life with regular programming for Cecil County, listeners
heard a special opening ceremony. County and town officials were on hand, and
the Rev. Howard O. Van Sice, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Elkton, gave
the invocation.
For some 40 years from the studio on Maloney Road, it was
Cecil County’s daytime spot on the dial, the airwaves filled with conversation
about Cecil County in between the hits of the day. The station was a central part of the county.
On snowy days, families immediately turned on WSER to hear if the schools were closed. And the all too eager students jammed the phone lines at the station, calling to ask if the overworked morning crew had heard anything yet. On those snowy sunrises, the early morning announcer knew he had his work cut out for him as he would often remind students not to jam the lines so the Board of Education could reach the station. The announcement would hit the airwaves as soon as it was received, he assured young listeners.
Sometimes news bulletins interrupted the daily routine. For many here, the first they head that President Kennedy had been shot down in Dallas came from the network flash on WSER. On that November 22, 1963, the mid-day disc jockey worked the turntable playing the hits of ’63 when the network flash interrupted his entertaining routine. Once the first flash got everyone’s attention, listeners huddled near receivers at home, work, and in cars to hear the latest. As the hours unfolded, the network kept up a steady stream of bulletins and flashes. Soon afterward, the station informed its advertisers that all commercial spots were being pulled for a few days as the nation entered a period of mourning.
A few weeks later on Dec. 8, 1963, Pan American Airlines Flight 214 crashed in Elkton, 81-people perishing when the big jet exploded high in the sky over the town. The tragedy occurred around 9 p.m. on Sunday night. When the station signed on the air at sunrise Monday morning Elkton’s radio station kept local listeners informed as the painful recovery process got underway with the first light of day, the work continuing over several days.
On October 31, 1965, Chief Edgar Slaughter of the Singerly Fire Company ordered an urgent, mandatory evacuation of parts of western Elkton, after a train carrying hazardous material wrecked in town. The announcer working the Sunday morning shift at WSER interrupted the regular church programming which aired in that time slot, taking to the airwaves to broadcast emergency information to residents of west Elkton as National Guardsmen, police officers and firefighters went door-to-door to make sure people dearted immediately.
For many Cecil Countians, it was their spot on the dial in the daytime and It was all focused on Cecil County.
In late 1999, a Delaware-based religious group, Faith City Church, purchased the station from First Philadelphia Properties. Around this time it started simulcasting a remote feed, according to Wikipedia. Thus local programming was discontinued. The station changed its call letters to WXHL on Feb. 15, 2002.
Hear the latest news on WSER, Cecil County’s Radio Station, a 1960s advertisement from the Cecil Whig.
As we travel around, from Pilottown to Fredericktown and every place in between, we often encounter old landmarks and historic buildings in Cecil County that grab our attention for numerous reasons. Sometimes it’s the end of the line for an aged, neglected building, its days dwindling quickly as a wrecking crew gets to work. Other times, there is a sign alongside the road announcing that a faded historic home is being restored to something akin to its former state. But frequently it’s simply the uniqueness of the structure – architectural features or social history – that make us curious about the place that has survived the passage of centuries.
As naturally curious types, whatever it is we often stop to
look at the landmarks of yesteryear that dot our northeastern Maryland landscape
during our little history chases as we contemplate the passage of time at places
that provide direct links to the past. As
we ramble about we will share a few notes about our adventures in a special series
on old structures. Many will be humble
old buildings from another era in the countryside, but some posts will focus on
the architectural treasures around the county.
All have stories to tell.
We will begin this series in an upcoming post as we focus on an old structure on Main Street in Elkton, the former Cecil County Public Library Building, which has watched over Main Streets since the first half of the 19th century.
In a series of posts we will explore the history of historic buildings in Cecil County.
Here’s a link to our first post about 135 E. Main Street, the old bank building in Elkton.
ELKTON, Sept. 9, 2019 – On this Monday in late summer, first responders, friends, and family gathered to say goodbye to N. Keith Sinclair. The sixty-four-year-old, passed away suddenly Wednesday morning (Sept 4), while preparing to report for a duty shift at the Cecil County Department of Emergency Services. Keith was a 911 dispatcher, a position he held for 43-years.
For all of his adult life, Keith volunteered with county fire departments and worked in communications for Emergency Services. As a teenager, he joined the ranks of the Singerly Fire Company as soon as he was sixteen. Starting in May 1971, he worked his way up the ranks, becoming certified as an Emergency Medical Technician and serving as Elkton’s Ambulance Director. Later, he joined the Chesapeake City Volunteer Fire Company.
In 1978, he was a member of the first Cecil County class of what
was then known as paramedics. In those
formative years for Emergency Medical Services, the first ALS providers were known
as paramedics as training, and additional levels of certification were some
years in the future. That first class
composed entirely of Singerly members had been taught by Frank Muller,
Paramedic Instructor.
In 1976, he took a full-time job as a dispatcher at fire headquarters. In the mid-1970s, one dispatcher worked a shift, juggling calls and handling radio traffic for police and fire departments while also maintaining handwritten records of the activities. Dispatcher Sinclair grew with the job, as 911 came in, computers replaced paper logs, and the call volume increased dramatically. Now a full team of call takers, dispatchers, and supervisors provide the first contact someone has in time of an emergency.
Dispatcher Sinclair, a professional in every way, was a highly respected public safety colleague. He kept his officers safe on the streets, kept up with changing times, and was that calm, reassuring voice thousands of people heard when they needed help the most. From the first call he took in 1973 to the last one he handled a few days ago, he was a caring public servant. That could be seen today as tears were shed and people sorrowfully hugged each other on this sad, sad Monday in late summer.
Following services at Hicks Home for Funerals, police fire vehicles, paramedic units, and fire trucks led family and friends in a processional motorcade to the graveside service at Gilpin Manor. At Gilpin Manor the clouds gave way and the sky cleared as the mournful sounds of the bagpipe faded off into the distance while uniformed first responders carried the casket from the old North East Fire engine. In the final moments of the graveside service, the sound of a dispatcher broke the silence with the final call for Dispatcher Sinclair.
Keith Sinclair dedicated his life to emergency services and to serving the people of Cecil County. The friend, colleague, and public servant will be missed.
The old North East Fire Company Engine carrying the casket drives under the crossed ladders, a fire service tradition, on the way to Gilpin Manor Cemetery.
The idea of celebrating a holiday for workingmen caught on slowly in the United States. But eventually, the first Monday in September became a federal holiday in 1894, although many industrial communities around the nation observed the workingman’s day much earlier. One was Port Deposit in Cecil County, which held its first Labor Day in 1891.
Workers at the Armstrong Company Foundry around 1910.
On that Monday in September 1891, trains brought visitors from near and far to town at an early hour, the arriving visitors noticing that many homes were decorated with American flags. Weeks earlier, McClenahan & Bro’s Quarries, B. C. Bibb & Co’s Foundry, and Armstrong & Company Foundry, along with all the manufacturing interests, had decided to give employees the day off. 1
Since all work had ceased for the day, the parade promptly stepped off at 9 a.m. Serving as chief marshal James Rice of the Stonecutters’ Union of Port Deposit, led four divisions representing the different workingmen’s societies through town:
The Stonecutters’ Union with 75 men marching was
headed the Riverside Cornet Band and a float drawn by eight horses displaying
specimens of Port Deposit cut granite;
Iron Moulder’s Union No. 211 with 75 men wearing
blue badges and carrying canes.
Iron Moulders’ of Perryville No. 210 with float
and 29 men.
Drillers and Quarrymen of Port Deposit with 300
men headed by the Rising Sun Cornet Band.
This grand procession marched through town to Happy Valley where
addresses were made. James Duncan of
Baltimore, president of the Federation of Labor, spoke about the need for
laboring men to organize. William. J. T.
Cooney of the Typographical Union No. 12 of Baltimore advised the union to look
after nominees for Congress and the legislature and not to vote for men who
would not legislate for laboring men. Lewis
Garbie of New York addressed the audience in English and Italian, much to the
delight of many in the crowd.
In the procession were a large number of colored men and the .president in his address welcomed all nationalities and colors.
After the speeches, it was time to enjoy the afternoon. Gymnastic exercises involving throwing the hammer and ball, a sack-race, running races, running high jumps, girls’ race, fat men’s racing and running broad jumps received lots of attention. Afterward, there was dancing and music, which kept up to a late hour.
After President Cleveland established the federal holiday, the day received less attention elsewhere around Cecil County.
In 1895, the Midland Journal remarked that Labor Day in the Rising Sun area was generally observed. “Those who generally labor were hard at it, and those who never labor thinking it a government order making it obligatory on them to do something useful on that day made a show of working 2.”
On Labor Day 1898 in Elkton, the Cecil Whig remarked that “. . . . So far as its observance was concerned in Elkton it might have been just plain September 5. The banks, of course, were closed, and many people did not seem to realize just why they were closed. All-day long depositors strolled up the bank steps and seemed surprised when they found the door closed. They gathered in small groups and discussed the matter, and when they were told that it was Labor Day they went away scratching their heads and trying to recall why Labor was instituted (Sept. 10, 1898).
But to the industrial workers of Port Deposit, this was an important holiday.
One of the highlights of August for many people living in Cecil
County in the decades around the turn of the twentieth century was the
annual Woodlawn Camp Meeting.
The Woodlawn Camp Meeting around 1906.
For two weeks in the heat and
humidity of summer, many families vacationed there, escaping the chores
of farm life, socializing, and listening to worship services.
Established by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1871, the encampment
continued for more than 42 years, annually drawing people to the cool
shade of the grove. It was located on
what is now called Camp Meeting Ground Road near Woodlawn on a 15-acre
grove of tall timbers, which was purchased from F. Marion Rawlings and
Theodore J. Vanneman.
There
were two long avenues of tents extending on either side of the wooden
tabernacle, where a pavilion for preachers and benches were located.
While most campers resided in tents there were a few frame structures,
such as the boarding tent and ice cream and confectionery stand.
The local Methodist ministers took charge of the camp, and it was their
duty to provide preaching talent throughout the week. From morning to
evening, there was preaching, praising, and fellowship. Of course,
there was an active choir, supplemented by a fiddle and a coronet. “The
old hymns of the church were sung lustily and with great fervor,” the
Cecil Democrat reported.
The camp meeting also played an
important social role. The young people met to promenade up and down
the avenues on those hot, sticky August nights. Hopefully, they caught a
gentle breeze as they stopped at the picture gallery for photographs or
at the ice cream stand for refreshments.
Many of the campers
resided in tents, but there were two frame cottages. The boarding
tent, and ice cream and confectionery stand were also frame. The
boarding tent was under the managed of “Uncle Al Boyd,” a former baggage
master on the railroad and a former sheriff. The camp bell called
camp goers for meals and meetings and the “never failing pump” was a
popular spot.
With the arrival of the automobile and the accessibility of attractions at greater distances, camp days waned. The annual camp meeting went out style in Cecil County in 1913. The ground was sold by receivers in 1915.
A sketch of the Woodlawn Camp Meeting publish in the Atlas of Cecil County, 1877, Source: Library of Congress, available for free download https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3843cm.gla00034/?sp=32&r=-0.578,-0.004,2.155,1.276,0
Thomas H. Mogle., Jr. served as the sheriff of Cecil County from 1966 to 1970. When he was elected to the top law enforcement post in 1966, he assumed charge of an agency that was critically under resourced. Although the small force consisted of four deputies and no county provided police cars, he put an emphasis on professionalizing his command.
Sheriff Thomas Mogle talks on the radio at the Cecil County Jail.
The Cecil Democrat
published a 1967 piece about what was needed to move the agency forward. In this nearly 50-year-old chat with the Sheriff,
he sketched out the minimum needs.
The Department required at least 55 personnel to handle its
functions, including answering complaints, patrolling, serving papers,
providing court security, and maintaining the jail, Mogle noted. That force included 27 road officers,
with one assigned to each of the nine election districts, around-the-clock as a
patrol beat. “They would answer
complaints and could do a great deal to prevent crime.”
Eight men should staff the 100-year old jail so two deputies
would be on duty. “There are just not
enough people in this office. When four
phones ring and the office is full of prisoners being brought in, one man
behind the desk can’t handle it all. We
need a turnkey and someone on the radio and telephone.”
Judiciary related duties for the Circuit Court and the
magistrates required eight men to handle courts and serve papers. There was also clerical support.
One of his problems was hiring and keeping qualified
personnel. A deputy in 1967 made $1.50
an hour ($4,000 a year) while a clerk for a magistrate received $2.00 an
hour. The Sheriff estimated annual
starting pay should be between $6,000 and $7,000.
When the reporter asked if an annual budget of $279,000 for
staffing wasn’t rather high, the former Maryland State Trooper remarked, “it
isn’t cheap but nothing worthwhile is going to be free.” He also noted that there were other costs, as
there should be county owned cars and 13 were required.
Harford County had 24 men in their Sheriffs’ Department and
county owned vehicles, he noted. They
have “police running out of their ears; they have police departments in Bel
Air, Aberdeen, and Havre de Grace, they have the state police, and they still
hire 24 men for a county-wide police force.”
“Of course the county would be getting a lot better service
in return for the expenditures. With a
force similar to the one outlined we could almost wipe out crime in this
county,” the sheriff suggested. When asked what he felt his chances of getting
some of the men and equipment were, especially in light of the new economy
moves the commissioners were making, he said:
“Neither I nor the next six Sheriffs in this county will ever see this.”
He concluded that he wouldn’t run again unless drastic
changes were made for the “betterment of the people and the police force. I thought I could help the county. I didn’t realize what the situation was in
this office, I couldn’t. . . . ”
Continuing to remark about the situation, he said, “There
was nothing here when I came, not even a flag.
I’ve ordered a flag and pole now.
It will cost $55 and if the county refuses to pay for it I will.”
Samuel du Pont wrote the paper to support the “overworked
sheriff and his underpaid, overworked men” the next week. “Imagine, just five men to cover the entire
county, with its hundreds of roads and hundreds of square miles! This doesn’t mean five men per shift, but
five men altogether. Now, start figuring
three shifts a day. You want
around-the-clock police protection don’t you?
There are two few men and too much work — and then we have the gall to
criticize our sheriff and his deputies!
We don’t even provide our men with official cars, as most other counties
do. We’ll soon be expecting them to
shake tambourines on street corners for contributions, like the Salvation Army
folks. We have refused the sheriff
sufficient manpower.”
Mogle accomplish one objective the next year. After lengthy political wrangling between the county commissioners and the Sheriff, the Department entered the automobile age on July 1, 1968, when four marked police cruisers went in service. For the first time in the history deputies drove official vehicles. The county’s small law enforcement staff was catching up with Elkton, North East, Port Deposit, and Rising Sun, places that had long since provided police transportation.
Throughout the summer in the early 20th century, a showboat, a huge, scow-like wooden craft plying the Chesapeake Bay, called at Cecil County’s waterfront towns. Its arrival in Chesapeake City, Elkton, Fredericktown, North East, and Port Deposit brought great joy to the towns.
Once the tug had cautiously piloted the floating theatre up the river or the shallow twisting Big Elk Creek, the craft was moored at the town wharf. The arrival of the James Adams Floating Theatre in communities up and down the Bay was an exciting time as the show was about to begin. Each night during the stay, except Sunday, the curtain went up for a different play, as the cast kicked up their heels, and the performers and musicians entertained ticket-holders with a different show.
Before it moored at the community wharf posters prominently announced
the gala week, handbills were distributed, and the county newspapers
gave the upcoming entertainment plenty of play. The troupe was always
ready when curtain time came as the performers had repeated these plays
in water communities all around the Chesapeake. The crew, actors,
actresses, and musicians traveled with the boat during the season, so
there was plenty of time to rehearse.
After a week in port, the
barge made the slow trip back the creek or rivers, heading toward the
Bay, as it moved along on its annual circuit, and soon the activities
were repeated at some other shore town. In the autumn, as the season
turned, the floating theatre began to drift south toward Elizabeth City,
N.C., where it normally spent the winter.
But, residents in the
waterfront towns in Cecil County knew that sometime next summer the
eagerly anticipated cry, “Here comes the showboat” would ring out again,
as the tug pulling the floating scow steamed approached. And once
again, they would look forward to a show to remember as the troupe’s
acting, signing, and dancing entertained them.
The Adams Floating Theatre was launched around 1913/14 and it lasted until around the late 1930s.
The Adams Floating Theatre docked at Harvey Co, Wharf in North East. Source: Kermit DeBoard
