The Carter’s Mill School, an octagonal school was also known as the eight-sided schoolhouse was built in 1820 by Robert Carter at Carter’s Bank. The stone schoolhouse was replaced in 1886 by a two-room frame building located on the west side of Singerly Road at Andora. William Spratt built the Andora School for $275.
It is uncertain when the octagonal school building was lost, When the Cecil Whig visited the location in 1971 all that remained were some building stones. Mrs. Leonard Spratt informed the reporter that she had lived in the area for 30 years and the school was gone when they moved to the area..
One African-American boy the son of Gibson Valentine, an employee at Carter’s Mill attended classes at the octagonal school.
As for why an eight-sided structure, the History Center provides some insight: “The philosophy of octagonal-shaped school buildings can be traced to a Quaker tradition brought over from the old country. The concept is based on the idea that an octagon shape was conducive to a better learning environment because the instructor could be placed in a prominent position within the space and be the focus of the students. It was also beneficial because the octagonal shape provided more square feet of inside space than either a rectangle or a square. Ventilation and lighting were also pertinent issues of the times, and an architectural structure with eight sides allowed for an opening in all sides of the building. The building’s thick walls helped it to retain heat during the cold months, which also helped provide insulation against the heat in the warm weather.”
Notes and Sources * Cecil County Maryland Public Schools, 1850-1958 by Ernest Howard 1970_
* Cecil Whig , Stones Only Marker to Forgotten School, March 17, 1971
For nearly three centuries, Cecil County’s destitute, elderly, sick, and mentally ill, as well as other cast-asides from society who couldn’t make it on their own, found help at the county almshouse poorhouse. Today, this institution, on the road between Childs and Cherry Hill, is home to Mt. Aviat Academy. However, until the 1950s, it served as the place where local government cared for the less fortunate, with nowhere else to turn.
Early Cecil County map shows the location of the poorhouse (Source: Cecil County Road Books at the Historical Society of Cecil County)
Before the advent of social security, Medicaid, and homeless shelters, this was the safety net for indigent men, women, and children. In the taxpayer-funded residence, paupers were housed, fed, and buried. Those that were able worked the farm to help raise crops and livestock for the residents. For many of these forgotten people, their final resting places were across the road in the Potter’s Field, the county cemetery.
The Cecil County Almshouse or poorhouse around 1900, showing the men’s dormitory and the caretaker’s house & women’s dormitory. (Source: Cecil Whig, June 21, 1968)
The Maryland Legislature directed the commissioners in each county to create an almshouse in 1768. For a while, Cecil used some temporary arrangements. But in 1788, the county purchased about 174 acres, on Childs Road, from Henry Hollingsworth. Within a few years, a dormitory for the unfortunate was built on the farm.
The annual report for 1855 provided some details on the operation of the almshouse. Seventy-one inmates lived there at the farm and aided in producing wheat, corn, oats, potatoes, turnips, pork, and beef. Most of the products from the farm were consumed on the premises, but the commissioners made $125 in excess product sold to the public.
The County’s last public execution occurred at the almshouse. Large, disruptive crowds typically showed up to watch hangmen do their work. As a result, Sheriff Boulden moved this execution outside of Elkton. On the appointed morning, December 5, 1879, the county seat was astir as a mile-long line of carriages made the trip from Elkton to Cherry Hill with the condemned man, Medford Waters. According to the Cecil Democrat, a crowd of nearly fifteen hundred assembled at the paupers’ burial ground to watch the man forfeit his life on the gallows for murder.
An Execution at the Poorhouse
The sheriff had a squad of the local militia, the Groome Guard, escort the group on the trip. When the procession reached the gallows, the sheriff, accompanied by the prisoner and Deputies Janney and Cooling, ascended the platform. Following some prayers, the entire crowd joined in singing a hymn. At 11:35 A.M., the executioner severed the cord and the drop fell. At the next meeting of the Trustees of the Poor, the trustees voted never again to allow an execution at the poorhouse. The next hanging occurred inside the walls of the jail on North Street.
By the 1880s, Cecil County was searching for a more cost-effective way to meet the needs of the mentally ill. Some ended up at the jail in Elkton. Others wound up at the poorhouse. The most acute patients went to “insane asylums” around the region. Considering the growing number of people needing institutionalization at distant facilities, the expense for the county was becoming a burden. Consequentially, the commissioners decided to build the Cecil County Insane Asylum.
After examining other institutions around the region, the commissioners approved the erection of a substantial three-story brick building on the grounds of the county almshouse. The $5,942 contract was awarded to C. A. Walt & Son of Westminster. The asylum had apartments for thirty-one inpatients. The structure was across the road from the poorhouse, near the Potter’s Field.
One day in August 1887, thirteen patients scattered around the state were brought to their new home. Sheriff Robert Mackey, helped by ex-Sheriff Wm. Boulden, went to Frederick to get three people confined there. Elkton’s bailiff, Mr. King, and poorhouse trustee, E. W. Janney, took the train to Baltimore to pick up patients from Spring Grove, Monevien, and Mount Hope. All of them were brought to Singerly Station on the B & O Railroad and taken, from there, to the new asylum in carriages without incident.
According to Dr. William Lee, the Secretary to the State Board of Lunacy, the new institution was a “credit to the county.” He suggested it would be well to take patients from other areas at the expense of those locations since there was plenty of capacity.
By 1893, two counties supported “hospitals for the insane, independent of the almshouses,” according to Maryland, its Resources, Industries and Institutions. Allegany County’s Sylvan Retreat, near Cumberland, had sixty inmates. The Cecil County Insane Asylum in Cherry Hill had twenty-seven inmates.
When the American Medico-Psychological Association, the forerunner of the American Psychiatric Association, met in Baltimore in 1897, Elkton’s Dr. C. M. Ellis, the president of the state medical association, addressed the group. This is an era “of renewed interest in the general welfare of our insane,” he remarked. He noted that much needed to be done as our “almshouses and jails are still tenanted by the idiotic and distraught… Some effort is being made to awaken the state’s conscience to its further duty toward those of the insane who are deprived of the opportunity for betterment in wards of well-equipped hospitals,” The Baltimore Sun reported. “Every insane man, woman, or child whatever their condition… should be entitled to certain minimum provisions within the confines of hospitals or asylums sustained by the state for their care or their cure.”
Gradually, the state assumed responsibility for providing inpatient mental health. In May 1915, the Eastern Shore Hospital for the care of the insane opened in Cambridge. That month, twenty-six patients took the long ride to Dorchester County, where they were admitted into the new institution. A few months earlier, nine African-American residents of Cecil’s asylum were transferred to the “state hospital for the colored insane at Crownsville, Md.,” the Cecil Democrat reported. The county’s insane asylum was torn down, in 1935, when C. B. Van den Huevel was paid $50.25 to remove it.
The poorhouse, once a refuge for those with nowhere else to turn, survived well into the twentieth century. However, in 1940, Governor Herbert R. O’Connor decided it was time to close these institutions.
Cecil County Almshouse Sold
In 1952, the 175-acre county farm and almshouse went up on the auction block, marking an end in Cecil County to one method of caring for indigent people. This ended one of the oldest county institutions and closed one of the few remaining almshouses in the state. It was purchased by Daniel Bathon for $36,200. Bathon donated the property to the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales, which opened a school.
The Cecil County almshouse is now part of Mt. Aviat Academy. This building is shown in the older photo above.
Soon, weeds and vegetation took over the abandoned paupers’ field where perhaps two hundred people, destitute, insane, vagrant, criminal or transient, were buried. John Beers, who had grown up in the neighborhood, launched a project to have the cemetery cleaned and marked with a marble monument.
The job of memorializing those unknown persons who rest there, many having spent their final days inside the poorhouse, and commemorating the burial plot was completed in 1968. The marble stone read, “Potter’s Field, 1776 – 1950, may their soul’s rest in peace.” Today, the sisters bury members of the order in the graveyard.
By the mid-1950s, the days of the county poorhouse had ended due to the modernization of social services, advances in treating the mentally ill and the social safety nets provided by various governmental programs. Only the small cemetery with many nameless graves and the exhibit maintained by the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales remind the twenty-first-century citizen of the many people who lived and died there. —CSM
“In Potters Field” — a Poem
A memorial for the Potter’s Field at Childs. John Beers spearheaded the task of making sure those poor at the county burial ground would be remembered. (Source: Cecil Whig photo in the collection Jim Cheeseman Collection at the Historical Society of Cecil County).
We will bury them in potters’ field, the criminals and the unknown.I hear the B & O Freight train coming in on the siding and see the hoboes heading for a warm night’s sleep in the county home.
On my way to the little schoolhouse by the tracks, I count them one and all.
We will give them coffee for the road for I know they will not return. We have had a burial in potters’ field today; he was found floating in the Bay.
When his widow arrives from New York she will identify him as her own, for he was a millionaire without a home.
I see my brother Lawrence Beers passing on the freight, for this was his line of duty for the B & O.
—Johnny “Cash” Beers
A recent photo of the potter’s field at the county farm or poorhouse.The 1870 census lists residents living at the poorhouse
History Program Life in the Past Lane: Country Roads in Cecil County Date: 5/7/2019 @ 6:30 p.m. Cecil County Public Library — The Perryville Branch Contact Number: 410-996-6070 Presenter: Mike Dixon Free
Historian Mike Dixon will explore the character, ambiance, and history of country roads in Cecil County.
In the 21st century, many of Cecil County’s back roads — the scenic routes — and the small hamlets and villages clustered around those once-well traveled corridors are overlooked. This program explores the character, ambiance and history of some of these lesser-traveled roads, routes that once were main corridors of travel between Philadelphia, Baltimore and other nearby points. These historic roadways are much more than just a line on the map so come along for an enjoyable trip as we hear intriguing narratives about life in the past lane in Cecil County where discover awaits you.
Join us to find your road in this intriguing exploration of these lesser traveled roads today in the modern age. Many were once the main corridors of the 17th and 18th century.
FALLEN NORTH EAST FIREFIGHTER RECOGNIZED – Fifty-five years ago, on December 8, 1963, a sudden life-shattering tragedy occurred in a cornfield at the edge of Elkton. On that stormy Sunday night over a half-a-century ago, Pan American Flight 214 circled in the night sky, waiting for orders to descend into Philadelphia International Airport. Moments before 9 p.m., lightning struck the plane, and in in a few unimaginable, horror-stricken seconds, the big jet exploded in mid-air. All 81 people aboard the doomed aircraft died when it struck the ground. So many lives and families were shattered in those few moments.
On December 8, 2013, the Cecil County community, first
responders, and Flight 214 family members gathered at the Singerly Firehouse on
Newark Avenue for the Flight 214 Remembrance Program to mark the passage of
fifty years since the tragedy struck. This
program honored the memory of those who died on the plane, and it honored the
emergency personnel who answered the alarm that night. None of the firefighters and police officers
will ever forget that rain-soaked night as they desperately searched for
survivors in the debris scattered in the cornfield and other areas in the
vicinity of Delancy Road in Elkton.
Sadly, one more tragedy occurred that night as a North East
Fire Company first responder fell in the line of duty. Steward W. Goodwin, 56, rushed to the scene
on the North East Ambulance as a general alarm went out for all available
ambulances in Cecil County and nearby Delaware.
While searching the crash scene for survivors, he suddenly collapsed into
the arms of a fellow North East Firefighter about 1:30 a.m.
Now over fifty-five years later Firefighter Godwin’s ultimate sacrifice is being formally remembered. On Friday, May 3, during the 34th annual Fallen Heroes Day at Delaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Timonium Firefighter Goodwin and six other first responders were officially recognized. North East Fire Chief Michael Miller was on hand to receive a proclamation on behalf of Mr. Godwin.
George Hollenbaugh, Vice-President of the North East Fire
Company, developed the nomination for the company, working to make sure this
fallen Cecil County firefighter will be remembered. Chief Engineer Jeff Isaacs assisted him.
It is important that we never forget those who made the
ultimate sacrifice serving our communities. Thank you Chief Miller, Vice-President
Hollenbaugh, and Chief Engineer Isaacs for working to make sure future generations
of first responders and the citizens of Cecil County remember Mr. Godwin’s
sacrifice for his community.
Stewart W. Godwin and other members of the North East Fire Company stand beside the company’s new ambulance. (Cecil Whig Photo)
Many times, each day alerts go out in Elkton for an emergency and first-responders dash straight for a nearby Singerly Fire Station. Within minutes, emergency vehicles, sirens screaming and lights flashing, roll out of a firehouse, rushing to a blazing inferno, a serious accident, or some other emergency. Scenes of this type have been happening here for centuries and the stations that protected Elkton have an interesting legacy.
The first one went up long before the current department was formed as a simple town-owned shed quartered buckets, ladders, and two creaky old hand pumpers, all the essentials for an up-to-date pre-Civil War protective force. This old engine shed was erected about 1828 when the town purchased its first used piece of firefighting apparatus in Philadelphia. In 1859, the size of the force was doubled as a second pumper, one from Baltimore was squeezed into the shed.
After decades of debate about the need for an expanded council hall, the town-fathers finally got around to constructing a grander, much needed municipal building at a cost of just under $3,000 in 1890. The two-story brick structure with a bell tower, was turned over to the commissioners in February of 1891. Once the Singerly Fire Company was incorporated in 1892, the first floor housed Singerly’s steam engine, hook-and-ladder, and two hose carts while the upper story served as the municipal office.
In a town that had
relied on two stubborn old hand-pumpers for over 60 years, it was a modern
advancement as the latest in firefighting equipment packed the first floor of
the town hall. Remarkably only one
complaint was heard about the new headquarters, as it was going up. The “doors were too narrow to allow the steam
engine the town was going to get to come out at full speed,” a youngman in the
insurance business observed.
The old engine shed that for over sixty years had protected equipment against the weather wasn’t going to be missed. As it was torn down and removed, the Cecil Whig reported that it had exceeded all sense of fitness for its purpose and was now going to be used as a hen roostery. “From the only town building to a hen roost! How have the mighty fallen!” the Whig wrote.
In the 20th-century Elkton experienced enormous growth as the town expanded and developments began springing up in the cornfields outside the municipality. Also, the technology changed as steam engines soon gave way to motorized fire trucks so the need for more space became urgent.
To help with that the town turned the entire building over to Singerly as municipal offices moved next door to a new structure that had been built just before World War II broke out. But space shortages continued and the next modern Singerly Fire Station, located one block up North Street was dedicated on May 27, 1950.
Singerly’s first station, once filled with hose and fire engines is quiet now since it used for other purposes by the town of Elkton. The old alarm bell no longer clangs with an urgent appeal and shiny red fire trucks don’t bolt out the door.
Singerly’s first fire station early in the automobile age. This is a postcard circa 1918 The fire station in a postcard (circa 1910). The steam engine can barely be seen inside the station.
ELKTON STOCK FARM — William M. Singerly, an industrialist and newspaper publisher in Philadelphia, bred and raced standardbred and thoroughbred horses on farms he held in Kentucky and Montgomery County, PA, according to Wikipedia.
In 1888, he purchased 300 acres on Blue Ball Road about 2½ miles northwest of Elkton, which he called the “Elkton Stock Farm.” The farm was owned by Fred H. Racine, but had previously been known as the Simpers property. When Singerly purchased this acreage, he owned 14 “high blooded young stock” in Lexington Ky., and desired to have them trained near Philadelphia, the Cecil Whig reported on Sept. 3, 1892.
In pursuit of this goal, he first purchased Holly Hall, but this proved inadequate so he acquired the much tract northwest of Elkton. On the Blue Ball Road property outside of childs , he erected a dwelling for the use of his superintendent, R.T. Crouch. The land was bordered by the Little Elk Creek
Here
is the MPT preview about “The little-known but fascinating story of the
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, a critically-important 14-mile long trade
route used extensively by international shipping. It’s called
“Baltimore’s back door” because it’s a money-saving shortcut between the
port of Baltimore and points north via the Atlantic Ocean.”
The Trojan Boat Company opened a manufacturing plant on Oldfield Point Road, a short distance below Landing Lane in Elkton in the spring of 1965. The Lancaster PA company had acquired 26 acres of land at the top of the Elk River for its 30,000 square-foot industrial structure, which was built by a Philadelphia firm, Trobo Realty. When it opened plans called for 40 to 50 men to be employed at the Elkton operation, according to the Cecil Whig. A 42-foot leisure boat, as well as 31- and 36-foot craft, were to be built there. While smaller boats were also manufactured in Lancaster, Elkton was the only location where the 42-foot boat was made.
Trojan launched its first “pleasure craft” into the Elk River on July 30, 1965. The plant and launch area were on the River a short distance below Elk Landing and the river had been dredged in that area to accommodate launches. Several members of the Economic Development Commission were on hand for the occasion as the commission was instrumental in bringing the industry to Cecil County.
The original Trojan Boat Company of Lancaster, PA ended production in 1992, hampered by a new luxury tax on boats, changing customer preferences, and modernization of the industry. The Elkton plan closed at the end of 1989. It has also been hampered by silting in the river.
A Sea Voyager, the first boat launched into the Elk River from the Trojan Boat Company on July 30, 1965.
Source: Cecil Whig
Harper Hull, executive VP of Trojan Boat Company, talks to Robert Boyd, an Economic Development Commissioner Member who was largely responsible for securing the company’s investment. Joseph Holzwarth, Jr. the director of industrial relations for Trojan listens to the conversation.
WMAR-TV, the first station to sign on in Baltimore, started broadcasting on Oct. 27, 1947, and soon after that sets appeared in Cecil County. For example, on Jan. 15, 1948, MacMillan and Sons in Elkton invited the public to visit the North Street Hotel to see the large screen television in operation there. It was sold, serviced and guaranteed by the retailer. By the time Christmas rolled around that year local appliance dealers advertised an array of consoles.
Jim Nicholson, whose family established the North Street Hotel, remembered the dawn of television here. This popular Elkton spot was the first place in town to have a television he noted, and that shortly before they installed a receiver the Swiss Inn outside town on Route 40 had hooked one up for patrons. Nicholson remarked that he was charged with looking out for the big set and taking care of the complex adjustments. It brought a crowd and Saturday night was a big one as boxing was on the air. People from throughout the community came to see this new source of entertainment on the screen, he recalled..
The Korean war slowed the advancement of televisions in homes, but as soon as the war was over retailers across the county acquired a fine selection of consoles for customers to consider. This signaled a big shift in entertainment as more homeowners bought a black and white sets for the family to gather around in the evening. Although the signal might fade in and out sometimes, they were getting the picture. As for the old radios, they were retired to the attic or some less central place than the living room.
Soon RC started manufacturing color sets and cable arrived with more channels for the living room, each of these innovations marking another important milestone in modern entertainment. Shows like The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, Ozzie and Harriett, and Andy Griffith filled the airwaves.
Cable TV in Elkton & North East
Suburban Cablevision, a subsidiary of Suburban Propane Gas Corp of New Jersey brought the first pay community access television network to Elkton and North East in February 1971. And soon subscribers were able to tune in to a slightly larger array of information and entertainment channels. For Washington’s Birthday, Suburban had a deal, 12 channels including one dedicated to time and weather for $5.45
Supplementing this small cluster of broadcast channels, a local show started producing original, Cecil County programming, going live from its studio in downtown Elkton on Sept. 5, 1973. The county’s first television show, produced and aired by Head of Elk Productions Inc., was on the air one hour a day in black and white. Soon color was added and local programming increased.
Harry Shivery, the founder and president, was, according to Morning News reporter Robin Brown, a “television star; a newscaster; often a newsmaker; a scriptwriter; set designer and builder; ad salesman and producer; cameraman and crew; programmer; and handyman. He was everything a studio needed, but his versatility was a matter of necessity.”
On that first show “Mary Maloney was worried about her lipstick, and Harry Shivery forgot to take the coffeepot off the burner, but otherwise things moved along just fine when local television came to Cecil County,” the News Journal reported on Sept. 5, 1973. Things went so well that it wasn’t a minute after the first local “telecast had become history that one of the county’s true celebrities, Rodeo Earl Smith, called in his congratulations.” Maloney, then the president of the Board of County Commissioners, “came off like an old pro on camera,” with Shivery introducing her “as the First Lady of Cecil County,” according to The News Journal.
For the 2,500 customers in the two towns, the flood of uninterrupted movies, 24-hours news weather, and sports, and endless reruns of old, old shows was still years in the future. But the industry had started convincing people to pay for what had once arrived over the airwaves for free. They were connected and plugged in and the channels would grow.
CEDAR HILL — Griffith AUMP Church stands on a quiet hillside near Pleasant Hill in northeastern Cecil County. Here, just a few miles south of the Mason Dixon Line, African-American settled in the years before the Civil War and in time a church and schoolhouse were erected.
Benjamin Griffith donated the property for the Cedar Hill School on Feb.11, 1871. The nearby church, Griffith AUMP, was also built on land donated by Mr. Griffith. The cornerstone of the church was laid on Sunday, June 7, 1874. during a service conducted by the President of the Southern District, the Rev. E. W. Scott (Cecil Whig, June 6, 1874).
The formal dedication was planned for Dec. 6, 1874, and the choir of the Providence Church would be assisting in the service, the Cecil Whig reported (Dec. 5, 1874). That Sunday the church that still stands on this Cecil County hilltop was dedicated in the presence of a large crowd, according to the newspaper. The president of the district, the Rev. Charles Williams attended and Rev. E. W. Scott of Elkton was the minister in charge. Also, the Rev. G. V. Peterson of Elmira, NY was introduced and he raised $117 in contributions for the church. This house of worship, measuring 24 X 40, was built by Mr. A. Miller.
When Benjamin Griffith died on March 24, 1885, in the 77th year of his life, the Cecil Whig wrote: The “deceased was a leading man of his race in Cecil and during his lifetime did a great deal towards elevating his people. He owned considerable property and gave freely of it for charitable and religious purposes. He donated an acre of land upon which Cedar Hill A.M. P., Church was built as well as giving liberally toward the erection of the church. He also gave the lot upon which the schoolhouse near the church stands. His funeral took place on Friday, the 27th instant. The service was held in the church, the Rev. E. Scott officiating, and the remains were interred in the burial ground attached “(Cecil Whig, April 4, 1885).
Cecil Whig, April 4, 1885, from the Library of Congress Online Collection (free access)https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016348/1885-04-04/ed-1/seq-3/
Cecil Whig, Dedication of a New Church at Cedar Hill, Dec. 5, 1874, p.3https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016348/1874-12-12/ed-1/seq-3/#
Cecil Whig, Dedication, Dec. 12, 1874, p. 3.
US Geological Survey Map 1942, Free Online Access (see map for details)
