Singerly Volunteer Fire Company, of Elkton MD, will present their twenty-sixth annual “Paper Americana Show” on Saturday January 26, 2013, from 10 AM to 4 PM.
The show will feature over thirty dealers from several states who are offering for sale, antique books, postcards, newspapers, art prints, advertising & regional collectibles, photographs, and general ephemera.
The Singerly Fire Hall is located at 300 Newark Avenue Elkton, MD, near the intersection of Routes 213 and 279. From I-95 take Exit# 109 (Rt. 279 Newark, DE/ Elkton, MD) interchange toward Elkton approx. 3 miles on right.
Admission is $3.00 per person ($2.00 with this ad) – children under 12 admitted free of charge. Refreshments will be available by the Singerly Fire Company Ladies Auxiliary. For additional information contact ayersj@zoominternet.net or call 410-398-7735 or 410-398-7300 during show hours.
Elkton, Saturday. Nov. 24, 2012 — Low, gray clouds filled the sky over Elkton’s Main Street on this late November day. This nippy scene, on an old pike that has seen the passage of centuries of frosty seasons, served as a reminder that “winter’s coming on” and we should anticipate a cyclical spell of freezing temperatures, cold rain, falling snow and howling winds in Cecil County during the winter of 2013.
Elkton, Dec. 1, 2012 — On this busy Saturday in December, one crammed with plenty of special holiday events, things were hopping at the Historical Society of Cecil County as a number of activities were underway. Our research volunteers, Darlene McCall and Beth Boulden-Moore, aided about a half-dozen patrons looking for information on auto dealerships, land records, and genealogy.
When it appeared that things were winding down for our history detectives in the library, a Civil War Soldier showed up to talk to another crowd assembled in the gallery. It was Private James Elbert of the United States Colored Troops (USCT), and he talked about the burdens for African-American soldiers during the Civil War. The 24-year old Polktown farmer enlisted with C Company of the 8th United States Colored Troops in September 1863. After leaving his home just outside Delaware City, he trained at Camp William Penn and fought in many battles during the conflict.
The attentive audience listening to this hour-long program felt as if they’d been transported back through time as the old soldier followed orders from his sergeant-major to carry out a mission. His narrative included comments about the fears, the courage, and the extraordinary achievement of the soldiers.
After the performance, a group gathered around Private Elbert peppering the military man with lots of questions about his amazing tales. This outstanding dramatic portrayal was presented by Willis Phelps, Jr. It’s an excellent program and we thank Mr. Phelps for sharing a powerful performance about the USCT with the crowd. Mr. Phelps works as a historical interpreter at Fort Delaware and presents his programs in many venues including colleges and universities. Presented for the first time in Cecil County, this program is part of the Society’s annual speaker’s series.
As the nation commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, Cecil Community College is offering a continuing education course that examines the conflict from a Cecil County perspective. Taught by Eric Mease, a scholar who focuses on studying the contributions of local African-Americans during those troubled years, the course is available this spring. It starts on April 3, 2013.
Here is the course description: “Cecil County holds a unique geographical and political position as the only Maryland County that has the Mason Dixon line as both its northern and eastern border which left the county politically divided. Learn what the newspapers were saying, what soldiers were writing about it, and the African American contribution to the Union war effort.” Click here for additional information.
Elkton Town Hall, Nov. 14, 2012 – Home Partnership, Inc., was back before the commissioners to submit a new concept plan for a 50-unit elderly housing project on the old jail property on North Street. The revised proposal addresses feedback that was given to the developer by the town’s historic architectural review committee.
In a split decision, the board responsible for protecting historic resources rejected a plan last July that called for demolishing most of the old jail while saving the front facade. “We’ve actually preserved the entire jail facility, which addresses one of the major concerns the committee had,” Mr. Hodges, the company representative remarked.
“This is an important project because of how it will impact the town’s revitalization plans,” the developer noted as he asked for a resolution of support from the commissioners for the affordable housing nonprofit. The town administrator was instructed to draft the documents for consideration at an upcoming board meeting.
Commissioner Jablonski also noted the value of the project for downtown. “I love the project. It’s beautiful. They are keeping the historic jail. It’s going to be great for downtown, especially because there is a waiting list at the senior apartments we have now of about 25 people so it’s needed. I think it’s a great project.”
At the 81st annual meeting of the Historical Society of Cecil County, a packed house was on hand as Cecil’s heritage keepers presented George Reynolds with the Ernest A. Howard Award. This prestigious honor is given to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the preservation of the county’s historic resources and have faced huge challenges in trying to protect the built environment, preserve folkways, or save scarce relics.
Soon after George returned home from Navy duty in the Pacific during World War II, he became interested in regional Indian culture and archeology. That curiosity soon turned into a lifetime pursuit involving 60 years of extensive fact-finding, searching for artifacts that showed how people lived in the past. In the coming decade, the young combat veteran helped organize the Archaeological Society of Maryland and start the first local chapter.
When the state began talking about building an expressway across northeastern Maryland in the early 1960s, the proposal alarmed George. It wasn’t that he was against moving ahead, as he has always been a forward-looking person. He worried that once construction on the massive highway got underway, the big earth-moving machines, cutting a 300-foot wide path across Harford and Cecil counties, would destroy all evidence of prehistoric civilizations buried in the soil long before the European contact period.
So the Northeastern Chapter of the Archaeological Society of Maryland, led by George, set out to ensure the corridor was documented before progress obliterated all traces of earlier inhabitants. This involved building support with transportation planners, state officials, politicians, and residents, as well as raising money to support the project. George was successful, for he raised $500 from private sources, and with the help of a matching $500 grant from the governor, the group hired a Temple University professor to help them investigate the route.
This experience pointed out the need for the state to have an archaeologist. “We started a fight for a Maryland position,” George remarked. “It took two years of working with our delegates and senators, but we succeeded.” Tyler Bastain became Maryland’s first state archaeologist in 1964, as George served in leadership positions with the Archaeological Society of Maryland
There were plenty of other advocacy projects as his work was just beginning. In 1976, he helped organize the Elk Creek Preservation Society and was its president for the first ten years. The preservationist was involved similarly when the Cecil Historical Trust was formed and worked on the most current book on county history, “The Head of the Bay.”
The World War II sailor remarked on his strong passion for the past. “I went into Hiroshima, where they dropped the Atomic Bomb. We were riding on a Japanese truck as the ground was too radioactive to walk. The things I saw on that first observation round by the U.S. Navy were so unsettling. . . . I was uncertain about what the future held for the world, so I immersed myself in studying the past.”
George’s interest never diminished. Over the decades, he’s been involved in all of the major digs in the county, including the one at Elk Landing when the county detention center was being built. A Native-American burial site was discovered there. He has helped reveal much of what had been lost to centuries of time by being an advocate for archaeology and history in Cecil County. He also worked on the frontline, out there digging and studying the secrets of the soil.
The award is named after Ernest A. Howard, who was especially instrumental in helping build the strong Historical Society of 1,000 members, which serves the county today. Born in Childs in 1885, this organization’s benefactor was deeply involved in the successful revival of the nonprofit in the 1950s. He worked tirelessly to preserve local heritage and restored several old churches and buildings. In 1955, he was a central figure in establishing a modern headquarters for the Cecil County library and donated a wing to the library to provide a home for the Historical Society. Howard passed away in 1973.
George Reynolds, the energetic 90-year-old, becomes the fourth recipient of this honor.
Society President David Healey presents award to George Reynolds
The North East United Methodist Church was destroyed by a massive fire in May of 1911, the blaze threatening to engulf the entire town. In the middle of the night, the pastor was awakened by crackling and a glow and when he looked out his window he noticed flames spreading through a nearby dwelling.
North East faced a terrorizing sight that night over a hundred years ago as swiftly spreading flames hoped from structure to structure. Soon the largest building in North East, the church, was in flames as residents tried to stand their ground. Buckets in hand, feeling the hot flames of the fire consuming the doomed structures, they flung pail after pail of water onto the inferno while the mayor telegraphed to nearby towns with fire departments, urgently asking for help.
This coming weekend (Nov. 16 – 18), the church is hosting a number of activities that recall this difficult time in the congregation’s history. There will be activities stretching over the entire weekend, with things getting underway Friday evening as the Historical Society helps with part of the observance. At 6:00 p.m. the church will host a homemade soup supper with bread and desert and at 7:00 p.m. historian Mike Dixon will present a program about the 1911 fire and its impact on the community. Sunday will be a day for special services.
Church officials are inviting the public, and especially past members, to join events over the weekend.
In several areas of the county, there are places that were once thriving little hamlets but are now barely wide spots in the road. They might have a house or two, or perhaps a business to distract the modern traveler, while in their heyday they thrived. Once their reason for prosperity vanished, the passage of time slowly eroded away traces of the community. The story of a vibrant past was lost to the ages as memories faded and a new generation came on.
One of those spots, Bullfrog, is about midway between Elkton and Chesapeake City. When the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad passed through, it boomed. The name came about during the building of the railroad, according to the Cecil Democrat. “Probably a jolly Irishman, one of the workmen, noticing the great number of frogs that sported in the suburbs and the almost human cry of ‘more rum!’ announced to his comrades that the village thereafter should be known as the Bull Frog,” the paper speculated. Farmers, workers, and others for miles around were well supplied by a store, wheelwright, weaver, blacksmith, and cobbler. Workmen were always employed and there were six or eight dwellings.
Bullfrog Declines
Most of the buildings were in decay, except the home of ex-sheriff Denney, and the town was about to disappear by 1879, the Democrat added. Another paper, the Cecil Whig, remarked that “the frog began to hop away about the close of the [Civil] war.” First, one establishment closed up and then another; family after the family moved and the buildings began to disappear.
“The smith’s anvil became silent, and the merry tap of the cobbler’s hammer ceased. The large storehouse began to crumble and fall away . . . and a silence like death now broods over the once busy scene. … The frog indeed has hoped away,” the Whig added in 1881.
“If the spirits of some of the old heroes, who a generation ago gathered at the store to see the locomotive of the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad go by and drink corn whiskey, eat gingerbread, and flight chickens before going home could awaken and gaze at the present desolation of this once lively spot, they would turn from the scene with sorrow and return to their graves in sadness.,” said the Whig.
It’s a busy day in Bullfrog as cars rush by on the Augustine Herman Highway (Route 213).
The Frog still has one business, Sarge’s Market, and a few homes still exist in the spot, but hardly anyone knows it by its former name.
The speaker’s series for the 2012-13 seasons continues at the Historical Society of Cecil County with original programs designed to have popular appeal, introduce new research, or provide practical, how-to instruction. The talks take place on the first Saturday of each month at 2;00 p.m. at the Cecil County History and Genealogy Library at 135 E. Main Street in Elkton.
Here are the programs for the remainder of the season:
Dec. 1, 2012 — A Living History Program – Private Elbert of the United States Colored Troops — This living history presentation by Willis Phelps, Jr. portrays Private James H. Elbert of the United States Colored Troops (USCT). The Civil War soldier will share the story of African-Americans rallying to the colors as they fought for freedom. If you haven’t seen the performance before, you won’t want to miss this lively program.
Jan 5, 2013 — The Mason Dixon Line: Stories Behind a Geographic Boundary – On the 250th anniversary of the start of the line that was designed to settle the boundaries for Pennsylvania and Maryland, the Society sponsors this talk by historian Mike Dixon. It examines the stories behind the line.
Feb 2, 2013 – Vietnam Mailbag: Voices From the War — During the peak years of the Vietnam at conflict, from May 1968 through December 1972, a young reporter, Nancy E. Lynch, relayed the hopes and fears, the joy and the tears, of hundreds of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines from the region through the Vietnam Mailbag column she wrote in the Wilmington Morning News. Nancy kept all those letters, and the pictures sent with many of them. For this program Nancy reopens the Vietnam Mailbag, giving a new generation a fresh look at the first-person accounts of troops in the combat zone. In Vietnam Mailbag: Voices From the War, 1968-1972, she tells the story of troops at war — through the letters they wrote to her a generation ago and through a series of moving interviews with veterans who now share their views on how the Vietnam experience shaped their lives.
March 2, 2013 – Stealing Freedom Along the Mason Dixon Line – This talk by historian Milt Diggins examines the story of Thomas McCreary, an opportunist making whatever profit he could from the institution of slavery. Working out of Elkton, he was a slave-catcher who was active around the time the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed.
All talks are designed to be informative and enjoyable while concentrating on fresh, broadly engaging topics or subjects that help with their research.
Officer Hines checks out a broken window at the Elkton Junior High School in June 1963; Sources; Cecil Democrat
A few weeks ago, with the encouragement of Willis May, we stated working on the Elkton Police Oral History Project with a large group of retired Elkton Police Officers. The purpose is to carefully document the story of the force in the 1960s and 1970s.
As the preliminaries move along, we have spent a little time digging through aging old newspapers, in order to acquire supporting documentary data. That will help supplement the interviews as we get into gear to work on the recordings. Over time we will create a body of documented material around the time Chief Thomas N. McIntire, Jr. provided leadership to modernize the department, easing it out of the World War II era of policing.
Once we complete the oral history interviews and accumulate the material, we will make those resources available to the public for research and will hold a public reception to open this new resource to interested parties. That will provide a great chance to again get as many of the officers back together as possible and invite the public to a forum where everyone can mingle, talk about those days, and socialize.
Meanwhile, we will periodically share progress reports and some of the photos we cone across. Her are a few from today.
