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For a significant part of the 20^th century, legislators in Annapolis struggled to get laws on the books to help curb Elkton’s efficient “marriage mill.”  Striking legal blows in many directions, right in the middle of the Great Depression, the lawmakers managed to keep well paid attorneys and lobbyist working overtime for special interests.

Senator Harold E. Coburn knew about these troubles first hand for in trying to fulfill a 1935 campaign promise to “wipe out the marrying parsons” he found that he was up against powerful interests as so much money and influence was thrown into the fight.  His bills often lost out or were overturned by the courts.

But a nearly perennial measure, aiming to put competition into cupid’s profitable Elkton wedding business by legalizing civil marriages, really caused trouble.  As early as the 1920s, measures to deal the “marring parsons a death blow economically by taking away the need for their service” were getting drafted and defeated.

The General Assembly finally passed one after decades of legal wrangling so couples tying the knot could be married at the courthouse beginning on January 1, 1964.  The first deputy clerk to step into the hasty matrimonial business was E. Day Moore, who was hired by Andy Seth to perform the ceremonies.  It was busy from the start and three weeks after his first day on the job, Moore married actress Joan Fontaine and Alfred Wright, Jr.  They were couple number 440 and author John O’Hara was a witness, the Baltimore Sun reported.

The court was “horning in on the town’s wedding chapels,” the newspaper said in 1966.  But business was so good that a major renovation of the courthouse included plans for the “county’s own wood-paneled wedding chapel.”  Of course, the private weddings mills, including the Little Wedding Chapel and the Wee White Chapel where Rev. R. J. Sturgill officiated, “were less than overjoyed about it.”

The first court official to fill that role retired eighteen years later.  On his final days on the job as “Cecil County’s Marrying Sam,” he’d united 63,729 couples, according to the newspaper.  While the marriage mill was grinding much slower, Cecil County still ranked second in the state for the number of licenses issued, ahead of all other jurisdictions except Baltimore City in 1964.

As Elkton continues it decades long effort to revitalize what the Cecil Whig characterizes as a once bustling “’bygone’ Main Street,” that “seems deserted most days,” an editorial in the paper notes that what is most needed is “town leadership willing to make unpopular choices — men and women willing to take a risk towards making real, immediate change.”    This column came about following a discussion at a town workshop about the need to do something about “the vacant or blighted buildings dotting the town.”  The decline is multifaceted but in particular the impact of county government moving out-of-town and the economic collapse of the past five years are sources of the problem, the Whig wrote.

Commissioner Charles Hicks, taking note of conditions around the municipality, urged his colleagues to not worry about a “popularity contest” and make decisions that protect the community.  “Something needs to be done. I think it’s about time.”  The Whig agreed, saying that the paper hopes his passion is a sign of things to come.

The status of Elkton’s attempt to reinvigorate Main Street and improve the central business district has been the subject of in-depth reporting and editorials periodically for a long time now.  Seven years ago, the editor said something similar in an opinion piece titled “County Seat Due a Major Overhaul.”  Here’s part of what they said in that old column.  “Elkton continues to have a problem with abandoned building sites . . . that hamper efforts to revitalize the town.  . . County government officials are working on a plan for relocating some county offices.  It’s a shame some of the abandoned building properties in Elkton cannot be utilized for future county government office sites.

June 16, 2012 — On a beautiful late spring Saturday, the Callisto of Rochester, VT. Is serenely moored in the C & D Canal anchorage basin at Chesapeake City.

Cecil County Public Library, Aug. 4, 2012, 7:00 p.m.

Join us for a celebration of the famous Appalachian folksinger and songwriter, Ola Belle Reed! Ola Belle’s son, David Reed, and other local musicians will play her music and tell her journey story from the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina during the Great Depression north to Cecil County looking for work. This remarkable woman was honored by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Smithsonian Institute and the Library of Congress for her contribution to American music before her death in 2002. Come and hear great music from one of Cecil County’s own, Ola Belle Reed.

Location: Chesapeake City Branch Library 2527 Augustine Herman Hwy Chesapeake City, MD 21915
For more on the Ukrainian community in Chesapeake City see this post on the orphanage

Native Cecil Countian, Bernard Purdie, will share his musical journey story. Mr. Purdie was the first African American to enroll at Elkton Public High School. He then went on to an internationally renowned music career and is the world’s most recorded drummer, having worked with such music greats as Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis and B.B. King. Mr. Purdie will share his stories and his music during this one-of-a-kind evening.

The Historic and Architectural Review Committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday, June 27, 2012 has been cancelled due to a lack of a quorum.  The meeting will be rescheduled for early July, the Town of Elkton announced.  We’ll update readers once a new date is announced.

A non-profit affordable housing group was on the agenda to discuss plans for the old 1870s Cecil County Jail.  Click here for more information on that project.