All across the area people have been out and about enjoying the extended Independence Day Holiday. But right on schedule, Historical Society volunteers reported for duty, opening the Cecil County History and Genealogy Library for those digging back through layers of time. Hard at work, fielding whatever came their way on this hot, sweltering first…
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Society Seeks Information on Civil War Chaplain Detained at Libby Prison
By Eric Mease — Cecil Whig, June 22, 2013 You know those black and white prisoner of war flags you see flying in the area from time to time? They have a white outline of a man on a black background with his head bowed superimposed on a watch tower also in white. It’s an ominous…
An Old Elkton Weathervane Knows Which Way the Wind is Blowing
High atop a perch on the old brick firehouse in downtown Elkton, a 128-year-old weathervane has pointed out the direction of the blowing wind for centuries. From that central location or the nearby courthouse where it originally claimed a spot, it swung in changing breezes, gusts, and gales always serving as a steady sentinel —…
The Cecil County “Library on Wheels”
The times were changing for readers after World War II and Cecil County kept up as it organized a county library system. The first step was to hire a professional librarian, Ruth Miller, and she made the establishment of a “library on wheels” a priority. Filled with shelves, the bookmobile started rolling down the road in…
Cecil County New Deal History Found on WPA Today
WPA Today, a website published by Brent McKee, contains an interesting virtual exhibit of WPA projects around Maryland. He has drawn on Great Depression era photographs and art work in the collection at the University of Maryland College Park Archives and added his own current images to it as he travels around the State. The Maryland exhibits…
Singerly Station 14 Shines on the Last Day of Spring 2013
As Cecil County anticipates the arrival of summer, the Singerly Fire Company Station in Kenmore was looking fine in the late afternoon sunshine on the last day of spring 2013. Station 14, some seven miles from Elkton, opened in 1978 to serve the far northern part of the fire protection district. It serves Fair Hill, Providence, Lewisville, Appleton, Cherry Hill,…
Meet Local Auithors at Elkton Central Library , June 22
Press Release – Cecil County Public Library Sixteen local authors will share their latest work at the Elkton Central Library on Saturday, June 22, 2013, from 1-4pm. Meet and greet your favorite local authors and have the opportunity to discuss the writing process, explore inspiration, and check out some of their latest work! Listen to…
The Sassafras River Drawbridge in 1968
The old Sassafras River Drawbridge, the vital link between Georgetown and Fredericktown, had been around for 51 years in 1968, when a Whig photojournalist did a piece called the “The Keeper of the Bridge.” The tenders that June were D Raymond Hill of Kennedyville on the dayshift and Harry Redding of Galena on nights. They were responsible for raising and lowering the structure during that…
Passage of Centuries Transforms the Land at Fair Hill Natural Resources Management Area
The current issue of Cecil County Life, a Chester County Press publication, has an informative article about a historical investigation focused on understanding centuries long transformations on the land at the Fair Hill Natural Resources Management Area. Emily Kilby decided to make a scholarly, in-depth study of this place in northeastern Cecil County, a couple…
Washington Post: 45 Years After RFK’s Death, Recalling the Kennedy Funeral Train in Cecil County
Forty-five years ago, on Sat., June 8, 1968, Robert F Kennedy’s Funeral train made a long journey from New York City to Washington, DC. As it passed through Cecil County, thousands of people lined the tracks, and when the train rolled through North East, 15-year-old Michael Scott was there with his mother. His father elected…