Category: Uncategorized

Originally Published Dec. 8, 2016

Charlestown, a charming place nestled on the shore of the North East River, has a fascinating past.   Its surviving centuries old structures make it distinctive at a time when big-box outlets and convenience stores dominate the landscape.  But here, a stroll along colonial pathways reveals a distinctive community, which has embraced and preserved its heritage.

This didn’t happen by chance.  In the early 1970s, civic leaders became the force behind the “past-way to the future,” shepherding in an expansive preservation movement.  Colonial Charlestown, a nonprofit formed, and in quick succession things happened.  At the urging of residents, the municipality decided in 1974 that the “town needed a facelift, choosing “restoration as its pathway to improvement,” the News Journal reported.

The next year, the town put zoning regulations in place to safeguard the cultural landscape.  Also, with assistance provided by the Maryland Historical Trust, the community was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as 18th century structures were restored and successful colonial fairs drew crowds to town.  These progressive steps guaranteed that historical and architectural resources would be protected.

A number of preservationists facilitated activities that saw the county’s oldest municipality evolve, becoming the most active center in Cecil for heritage activities.  Nelson H. (Heise) McCall guided the formative process, becoming the first chairman of the town-appointed historic district commission in 1975.  He passed away in 1997, and Rebecca Phillips, assumed leadership of the commission.  In September, the 94-year-old stepped down from the presiding position, making Ron Edwards the third chairman.

We recently talked to Rebecca about the history of the community and heritage-related activities.    The civic leader’s devotion to history comes through in the many things she has been involved in.  Beyond the commission, she was the president of the Historical Society of Cecil County, and there were leadership roles in the Daughters of the American Revolution, Colonial Charlestown, and the Cecil Historical Trust.

After talking to Rebecca and her husband, Bob, 94. we drove around the quaint town, as they pointed out historic structures and their stories.  Rebecca proudly notes that she has lived “in the garden spot of the world” all her life.  Bob was born in Childs as his father worked for the B & O Railroad, but they soon moved to Mechanics Valley.  Rebecca attended Charlestown’s two-room school and they met when both started attending the upper grades in North East.    

Along the way, we discussed multiple facets to preservation success in Charlestown, while hearing about the strong connection between the past and present.   The municipality has capitalized on its history, safeguarding local heritage while being a good steward of what was inherited by the current generation.  Colonial Charlestown, the nonprofit, fosters pride in the past and operates the 107 House.

“We accomplished a lot.  People got involved and from the time Heise got us organized, they started fixing up old properties,” the retiring chairwoman reflected.

Charlestown has identified, protected, enhanced, and promoted those places that differentiate it, and it is one of the best examples of how historic preservation creates a strong viable place.  And community civic leaders were the catalyst.

For additional photos on our visit to Charlestown in Nov. 2016 click here.

Also see:  Enjoying the Past in Charlestown’s Historic District from 2013

Notes:  Mrs. Phillips passed away on Dec. 18, 2018.  Click here to read the obituary

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J. J. Newberry Store in Elkton — This report, which has been prepared for Main Street Renaissance, LLC examines the past of a commercial property in downtown Elkton, 106 E. Main Street. It consists of a brief overview of Elkton’s formative years, an examination of extant records, a timeline, and an analysis of the findings. Located in the heart of the central business district of this ancient colonial town, the parcel is on the south side of Main Street, right where North Street begins its journey toward the fringe of the municipality. Until recently, it was occupied by the J. J. Newberry Company, a retailer that opened the store at this location following a fire on Main Street in 1947. The company operated at this location for over half a century.

Click the link below to read the full report about the J. J. Newberry building in Elkton.

Maryland-Delaware Line, Between Glasgow and Elkton — By June 1941, the final segment of the “Philadelphia Road,” the new dual highway designated as Route 40, was completed. All along the 47-mile road, from Baltimore to the Mason Dixon Line, portions of the highway had opened as work was completed.

But with the completion of this final part, a modern dual system road now extended from the limit of Wilmington to the entrance of Baltimore, so it was time for a formal dedication ceremony. That important event took place at the State Line between Elkton and Glasgow on June 26, 1941.

The governors of Maryland and Delaware, Herbert R. O’Conor and Walter W. Bacon., cut the ribbon signaling that the Maryland part of the highway was joining the Delaware link. As high ranking officials of both states and a crowd of almost 100 people looked on Governor O’Conor split the orange and black ribbon, representing the colors of Maryland. A portion of it was given to Governor Bacon so it could be placed in the Delaware Public Archives.

The project had cost $7,300,000. The Maryland governor emphasized the importance of the 47-mile highway link in national defense. Construction of this modern, fast-route converted the old single lane Philadelphia Road into an expansive double traffic artery, the Wilmington News Journal reported.

After the ceremony, officials attended races at Delaware Park. Governor’s Day was being observed.

In May 1944, the Philadelphia Road was rededicated as the Pulaski Highway. “The dual highway was given the name of the Polish patriot and friend of Revolutionary America at the 1943 session of the General Assembly,” the Baltimore Sun noted.

For additional photos of the old route designated Route 40, visit Cecil county History on Facebook.

As preparations got underway early in 1824 to start building the C & D Canal, John Randel, Jr., the engineer who received the contract to construct the eastern half of the waterway advertised in Wilmington newspapers for 300 carts with horses and 500 men not addicted to profanity or intemperance. He promised to pay liberal wages, and by June, work hands, many of whom were Irish, labored tirelessly with pickaxes, shovels, wheelbarrows, and carts removing the dirt and obstacles on the route.

Workers received tokens as payment for their arduous, muscle straining work related to moving earth between the waters of the Chesapeake and Delaware. Occasionally, these small copper tokens about the size of penny show up here and there.

The National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form reports that there was a bank in mechanics row at Glasgow, and Francis A. Cooch in Little Know History of Delaware and Environs refers to Randel’s bank being located there.

By Sept of 1825, company reports show that in the field on the eastern end Randel employed a workforce of 700 men and 154 teams of horses. Randel’s work on the canal was terminated that autumn and other contractors picked up the work.

Sources of Information

* The National Waterway: A History of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal 1769 – 1985 by Ralph D. Gray, (1989)

* The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, 150th Anniversary, 1829 – 1929 by Edward J. Ludwig, III (1979)

* Pencader Heritage Area http://www.pencaderheritage.org/landmarks/phland_p26.html

ST. AUGUSTINE SCHOOL — A quiet country intersection south of Chesapeake City once hummed with activity during the school year. But today, only an occasional passing vehicle interrupts the sounds of nature in an area surrounded by horse farms and fields.

A school was built here by John Conrey, who received a contract of $488 from the Cecil County School Board on Nov. 13, 1880. The structure was sold to Myrtle B. Wilson on Nov. 14, 1923, for $300. On April 26, 1966, the Teachers Association of Cecil County erected a marker on the old building, designating it as a typical rural one-room schoolhouse in the county. Some time afterward, the structure was lost, but a new historical marker was placed here to mark the location.

Teachers at St. Augustine School included: Addie C. Ford (1876); Clara McCoy (1881); Arrie A. Duhamell (1894); Evelyn Kibler; Helen Larzalere (1899); Ethel Vinyard (1901); Eva S. Dean (1902); Stella N. Bishop (1901); Katie Loveless (1917) and Ada Davis

Notes
Information from Cecil County Maryland Public Schools, 1850 – 1958 by Ernest A. Howard (1970); published the Cecil County Classroom Teachers Association.

Additional Information.

For additional information, see our photo album of pictures from the school on the Cecil County History on the Facebook page.

For an article on an old school at Fair Hill, see this link –– An Old One Room Schoolhouse Opened to the Public.

Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon arrived in Philadelphia to begin surveying the Mason Dixon Line on Nov. 15, 1763. Two hundred years later on Nov. 14, 1963, President John F. Kennedy, Governor Elbert N. Carvel, and Governor Millard F. Tawes stood on a platform situated on the historic line. The president and many other officials were on the state line to dedicate the Northeastern Expressway and the Delaware Turnpike.

After Mr. Kennedy and others made remarks to the warm, welcoming crowd of about 2,000 people, the president, flanked by the governors of Maryland and Delaware, walked down a wooden walkway and snipped a symbolic ribbon opening the Interstate. They then moved along the planks to a place where a 600-pound replica of a Mason and Dixon Marker had been placed in the median strip. There they unveiled the maker, which had on one side of the stone the coat of arms of the Baltimore Family and on the Delaware side the coat of arms for the Penn Family. It was limestone and had been carved in Milford.

For More on Mason Dixon Markers See

A Fallen Mason Dixon Monument

For photos related to President Kennedy at the Mason Dixon Line visit our Cecil County History page on Facebook

During the first fifteen years of the 20th century, most Cecil Countians lived tranquil lives, far removed from growing tensions in distant Europe and the terrible impact of deadly epidemics.  However, one group of young ladies preparing to become healthcare professionals at the end of the horse and buggy era would soon learn about these disturbing things.

In 1908, Union Hospital opened and a Canadian nurse, Maida Campbell, became the superintendent.  The trained medical professional managed all facilities, while also supervising a small staff of aides and orderlies.  By 1911, it was decided to establish a nursing school to supply more skilled caregivers.        

Young, unmarried women twenty to thirty years old with one year of high school could apply for admission to the inaugural classes.  Once accepted into the three-year program that led to a nursing diploma, students received lectures, practical experience, and room and board, along with a monthly stipend of $5.  There was no charge for tuition as the ladies exchanged their labor for the clinical experience.

The first six students enrolled in October 1911, and three years later the Cecil County News observed that an “event in local history” had taken place in June 1914, when the first class of credentialed nurses graduated.

At the ceremony, Alice Denver, Stella Graves, Mary King, and Georgia May Miller proudly dressed in white uniforms, received the coveted Union Hospital caps and diplomas while standing on the stage of the Elkton Opera House.

However, for several of these people, troubling, distant matters would have a dramatic impact on their lives.  About the time they graduated, war was spreading across Europe, and in 1917 the United States entered the conflict, fighting alongside European Allies.  Of course, with the casualty rate growing nurses were needed to staff battlefield hospitals in France.  Some from Union Hospital responded, caring for fallen soldiers on distant fronts.

World War I

One was Miss Campbell.  In 1918, the superintendent resigned, enlisting as a nurse in Canada’s Military Hospital Service.   The year before, she received word that her brother, who was a member of the Canadian troops, was killed in a battle and a second brother had a leg amputated.  Alice Denver also answered the call.  She had taken a position at the Rockefeller Institute in New York after graduating.  However, in 1918 Miss Denver volunteered for war duty in France, nursing wounded and sick soldiers.  She returned safely home in May 1919.

Stella Graves’ life took a different path.  She married Dr. Victor L. Glover in 1914 and they resided in Inwood W. VA., where the physician practiced medicine.  She died on Nov. 14, 1917, of tuberculosis, a disease she contracted while assisting the physician.  The 1918 annual report of Union Hospital noted that two graduates had died “of disease contracted in their professional work.”  Research hasn’t identified the other person yet.   

With the passing decades, the memory of field hospitals, trench warfare, mustard gas, and rumbling artillery on the French Countryside, as well as dangerous epidemics, grew a little dimmer, although the world had changed in startling ways.  Surely, the remaining two members of the class of 1914 never forgot their colleagues and friends.  As young ladies growing into adulthood in a gentler time, they collectively faced the challenges of becoming degreed nurses in a newly emerging profession, but they also confronted grave, new risks.  Some of them gave their lives in the service of others.

Union Hospital School of Nursing

For additonal photos of the nurses check out our album on Facebook album on Cecil County History

For an additional article see –  Thoroughly Modern Early 20th Century Nurses Meet the Old Civil War Surgeon

The Graduates of the Union Hospital of Cecil County School of Nursing 1914 – 1926

By Ed Okonowicz

Rising Sun Outhouse, an article by Ed Okonowicz — At a lot of places on Mischief Night, teenagers playfully soap car windows and toss corn at neighbors’ homes. But years ago, according to one long-time resident, during Halloween week in peaceful Rising Sun, “All hell would break loose.”

To hear Cecil County old-timers tell it, the shenanigans started around the turn of the last century in the early 1900s.  Townsfolk used to head out into the countryside and pickup farm machinery, porch furniture, rocking chairs, corn husks and loads of manure.  Then they’d dump it all right smack dab beneath the town’s lone traffic light in front of the National Bank of Rising Sun.

As years passed the practice changed a bit.  Town residents would wait by their front windows for the late Mischief Night or early Halloween morning arrival of one or more outhouses.  That’s right, private-outdoor toilets.  For decades, unidentified pranksters delivered these stolen structures with a dependability that would put most Federal Express couriers to shame.

Some say the tradition, from assorted purloined goods to old-fashioned Johnnys On the Spot, began in the 1920s.   In olden days when there were lots of outhouses available, teenage boys would haul them into Center Square up to five nights in a row.  In later years, the mysterious events occurred on October 30 or the 31^st or both.

Ask area elders if they were involved in this rite of passage and you’ll get a wink, a sly grin or a boastful and heavily embellished tall tale.  But hazy historical records cannot negate the fact that outhouses appeared each autumn with regularity and the stories associated with this wacky custom could fill a fair sized ledger.

One year the town drunk used one of the outhouses as a bathroom, while it was sitting under the traffic light.  One fella had one fall on him as he was trying to move it, and another unlucky soul slipped and fell headfirst into the sewage pit while trying to shake an outhouse loose of its foundation.  A cagey farmed locked himself inside his privy and allowed the boys to carry it all the way into town.  When they deposited the structure its owner stepped out, displayed his shotgun, and said, “All rights boys, let’s take it back.”

The autumnal adventure got so far under the skin of one mayor that he hired an off-duty Wilmington (Some say Baltimore) detective to end the matter.  The challenge inflamed the local boys who flattened the strangers’ car tires and ran the hired gun out of town.

During some years, police gave the phantom perpetrators and their pilfered privy a light-flashing escorted, as residents and out-of-towners lined the streets holding cameras to capture the scene.  More recently, however, town officials and law enforcement personnel decided things were getting a bit out of hand, and they established curfews to discourage the practice.  According to former Mayor Judy Cox, as the area became more congested and traffic increased, the event became a safety concern.  The arrival of modern plumbing also reduced the availability of outdoor toilets, as the lack of interest contributed to the demise of the distinctive small-town custom.

Today an outhouse appears intermittently in late October, placed by an individual or small group to commemorate the quirky custom.  But those in the know say it’s a pale reminder of the practice’s heyday, when farm implements, porch furniture, and yes, a purloined privy or two, would be piled “sky high in Rising Sun’s town square.

For more on the Rising Sun Outhouse, including photos visit our Facebook page

Source: By Ed Okonowicz and republished with permission; published in Haunted Maryland: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Old Line State

By Ed Okonowicz

The tiny peninsula that formed where the Little Elk Creek and the Big Elk Creek meet southwest of Elkton is an interesting geographical and historical site. The land near the convergence of the two streams attracted the attention of the Cecil County government, which decided to build a new detention center on the marshy wet­lands in the early 1980s.

Some folks, however, believed the location had been a popular site for centuries. A group of area archaeologists arranged to make exploratory digs before construction began to determine if the long held belief that an Indian village had been located there was correct.

When members of the Northeast Chapter of the Archaeological Society of Maryland and the staff of Mid-Atlantic Archaeological Research did excavations on the thirteen-acre site, what they found was interesting. Their efforts uncovered hundreds of pieces of American Indian pottery, more than one hundred arrowheads, and, about four feet below the surface, a skeleton in a grave. The human bones were sent to the Smithsonian Institution, which returned a report dating the remains to be from about AD 1400.

Encouraged by their success, the archaeological team continued its efforts and found more gravesites. Their locations were logged in, noted, and left undisturbed.

Their exploration verified that the small peninsula had been the site of a large Indian village and burial ground. Even hundreds of years ago the convergence of the two creeks was recognized as being a good location to establish a settlement, for it was easier than other open spaces to defend, and the water routes encouraged accessibility and trade. Also, years later in the early 1800s, the area was the site of Fort Hollingsworth, which served as both a trading post for settlers and a military outpost for the Maryland militia. After the archaeological procedures were completed and documentation recorded, construction on the new jail began.

Indian Ghosts at the Jail

In the summer of 1984, the Cecil County Detention Center, operated by the Cecil County Sheriff’s Office, wasofficially opened. It was common knowledge that the prison was built in the vicinityof an Indian burial ground. In fact, for some time the main wing of the newbuilding had a display of arrowheads and Indian tools and pottery found in thearea.

In the last few months before the prison was ready to accept its first occupants, correctional staff were assigned to stay overnight to maintain security and keep the curious away.

Jane, who has worked for the sheriff’s office, heard stories from night shift workers who said they were bothered by unexplained footsteps, saw lights go on and off, and heard howling sounds that seemed to be rushing through the halls of the empty center. It was during the early days at the new facility, when the prison population was well below its 128-person capacity, that Jane learned of a very unusual experience.

With only about eighty-five prisoners, each inmate was able to have his own four- by eight-foot cell. Mike, a small-time criminal serving time for a light offense, was assigned during the day to out­=of-cell duty cleaning offices. “This guy was no wimp,” Jane said, thinking back on the incident. “He was in his mid-twenties, used to associate with bikers, and he was a big guy, six foot and two hundred pounds. He came into the office and looked scared. I said, ‘What’s wrong, Mike?”‘

She said that he looked around, as if he wanted to make sure no one could hear him. “You’re not going to believe this,” he told Jane, and then went on to explain.

After the usual 11 P.M. lockdown the night before, Mike said he fell asleep and was awakened in the wee hours of the morning. While his eyes adjusted to the dark, he noticed that he couldn’t move his arms. They were pinned down, tight against his body, by the hands of an Indian chief who was straddling the prisoner’s body and pressing down hard against him.

“Mike said the Indian was wearing a bonnet full of feathers and war paint,” Jane said. “He tried to move and wrestled with the spirit, and said he ended up struggling with the ghost for most of the night, until daylight. He said there never was any talk between them. But he was really afraid, to the point that he asked to be moved into a different cell with another guy. He said he felt better at night with someone else around.”

Jane said Mike never saw the Indian again, and no one else admitted to seeing the warrior either. It was so real to him,” she said. “When people say, ‘He looks like he’s seen a ghost!’ that was the case, here. He was so pale, and it was obvious that he had a rough night. was hard, really something, for him to admit what happened. He wasn’t the kind that wanted anybody to think he was afraid. I don’t think he ever went into that cell again. It didn’t bother him to walk by it during the day, but at night, he wouldn’t go near it.”

The Elk River

Not far from the prison, Oldfield Point Road runs along the Elk Kiver. Until recently, it was a quiet, unnoticed area of the county, a bit off the beaten path-visited by boat people in the summer and home to only a few year-round residents who lived in small cot­tages by the water’s edge. Now, passersby can see growing areas of residential development as more commuters discover the scenic setting and the calming, picturesque views of the nearby Elk River/

What rests nearby or even beneath some of the newer properties is questionable. Residents of certain homes in the area have reported seeing circles of fire and hearing chanting in the late evenings. No logical explanation has been found. Rumors and hearsay, however, suggest that the answer may be that some home sites are located uncomfortably close to more undiscovered Indian burial grounds. It’s not an impossibility.

Reprinted with permission of the author;  From Opening the Vestibule, Aug. 1996

Sam Goldwater of Elkton has been named as the new Chair of the National Fire Heritage Center Board of Trustees.  The National Fire Heritage Center is the nation’s archive for historic documents, and other perishables related to fire protection.  These perishables include

• Art and artifacts
• Audio
• Books
• Charts and graphs
• Documents
• Maps
• Photography
• Reports
• Video

The non-profit Center based in Emmitsburg, Maryland, at the National Fire Academy, named Goldwater as Chair on October 8^th after the National Firefighter Memorial Weekend held in Emmitsburg.  Thousands of firefighters from all 50 states attended the Memorial Weekend to commemorate the passing of nearly 100 firefighters who died in the line of duty in 2017.  Senior staff members from the National Fire Academy, FEMA, and Fire Service Dignitaries were on hand to celebrate the retirement of several Board Members and Trustees, and the installation of new Board Members and Trustees.

The Singerly Fire Company Member, and former Cecil Whig staffer, is a graduate of Elkton High School (’73), Cecil Community College (now Cecil College, ’75), and the University of Maryland (’77).  Goldwater is a former staffer of the International Fire Service Training Association-where he served on their Board, and is currently the Vice President of Business Development for the KFT Fire Trainer Company, a worldwide producer of fire training facilities.  Sam is also a member of the College Park Volunteer Fire Department and the Society of Fire Protection Engineers.

According to Bill Killen, former Director of Navy Fire Protection and President of the National Fire Heritage Center, “Goldwater brings a unique set of skills and knowledge base which will strengthen the organization, allowing us to meet the new challenges of the future.”