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April 8, 2012 — As gas prices hit an all-time high in Cecil County today, slipping past the $4.00 mark for regular for the first time, those posted amounts called to mind the 1970s energy crisis.  The spike occurred at the John F. Kennedy Highway Service Center, but most spots around Cecil offered a gallon for a few pennies or a nickel below that price.

The difference between today and nearly forty years ago is that the current supply is plentiful.  It’s just sky-high prices now, so as long as drivers empty their wallets to fill ‘er up things are fine. 

When the nation faced the first energy shortage in 1973-74 following an oil embargo the Federal Energy Office developed an allotment system to help balance out the distribution of the nation’s supply. In the spring of 1973, the retail gas price for a gallon of regular was around 38-cents.  By June, it had shot up to a shocking 55 cents a gallon.  A second energy crisis occurred in the wake of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. At that time the price got up to around 99-cents a gallon.

The allotment wasn’t enough to keep pumps from running dry as long, long lines formed at gas stations all over Cecil County in 1973-74. With so many motorists rushing to keep their tanks topped off at all times and worry that the shortage was accelerating, lines of cars snaked through the streets of towns, cars idling for an hour or longer waiting for the pump.  Frequently tempers flared during those tedious, wasteful waits and stations closed once the big underground tanks were pumped dry.

On most days during the height of the energy emergency, the line at the North Street Exxon Service Center, owned by Jack Fears, jammed up traffic in downtown Elkton as vehicles stretched down North Street.  Over on High Street motorists idled their engines waiting for a turn to fill the tank with the Firebird brand at Charles R. Browns.  Chief Thomas McIntire and his officers monitored the jam up each day until the pumps ran dry, keeping things orderly while also making sure people didn’t get too impatient.  Similar scenes occurred at other stations around the county.

Since the gas lines steadily lengthened and the number of closed stations increased, the state implemented an odd-even rationing system.  Drivers of vehicles with licenses plates having an odd number for the last digit filled up on odd-numbered days, while drives with even-numbered tags got their ration on even days. This seemed to help as lines were shortened in the days after the system was implemented.

Conservation procedures were also needed.  Buildings turned off extra lights, thermostats were turned down, and sweaters were worn inside.  Outside street lamps were darkened and during the Christmas of 1973 few decorative lights brightened the holiday as Cecil Countians worried about heating supplies for the cold winter ahead.

But after the shortage disappeared and the supply met demand once again, the energy crisis of the 1970s was forgotten.    However, that expensive gasoline out on I-95 today brought to mind another time when shortages and costly gasoline shocked the nation and called for urgent action.

Here’s a note we received from the Upper Bay Museum about an upcoming event to honor museum founders.  Since our readers will find the message of interest, we’re posting it as a regular piece.  Thanks Upper Bay Museum for letting us know and keep up the good work.

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Hello All,     I am contacting you to inform you about an event the Upper Bay Museum, North East, MD, is hosting a dinner benefit to honor their past founders and supporters Nick DeMond, Stewart DeMond, Gene Howell, and Allan Purner. As you may know, the museum has been preserving the life style of our local heritage since 1975. I was hoping you would be interested in writing an article about these men and their contributions to the community.   The Upper Bay Museum hosts,  ” A Night on the Town” a fine dinner/auction/dance at the North East Banquet Hall (VFW) on May 19th to honor past founders and supporters Nick DeMond, Stewart DeMond, Gene Howell, and Allan Purner.    5:00 P.M Cocktail hour begins.   $20 ahead of time $30 at the door.   Questions? info@upperbaymuseum.org   Thank you for your time.

Nichole B. Gillis

Secretary of the Upper Bay Museum.

The personal, detailed records  from the 1940 census, having been sealed for 72-years in accordance with confidentiality restrictions, were  made available online Monday for free at a number of websites. Although the National Archives was the first to post digital images of the entire census on the web at www.nara.gov , the interest in the schedules was so great that the federal website suffered from a “virtual traffic jam,” according to a spokesperson.  Today most of those problems seem to have been resolved as we were able to surf through the pages.  In addition, many state schedules were available at www.ancestry.com.  Delaware, for example, was posted online, but those searching out family roots in Maryland were going to need to wait just a little longer, as the Old Line State enumerations weren’t up as of noon today.  But they’re coming.  Virtual indexing tied to the images is going to take a little longer, but a number of groups are moving quickly with that so it won’t be too much longer before we’re able to search this valuable source for new insight into our past.  But as you wait, you’re able to scan through the pages, as you had to do when earlier releases were made via micorfilm.

http://youtu.be/aYHjXVDkr0Y

Charlestown, March 29, 2012 — At the Cecil County Tourism Partners Breakfast at the Wellwood Club, I was pleased to run into my old friend Zebulon Hollingsworth, Jr.  (aka Gordy Johnson).  Now Zeb is what you might call a real old-timer as he’s been around Cecil County for centuries.  Born in the 1730s, the gentleman passed away in 1812, just before the British invaded the Upper Chesapeake Bay.  But Gordy, an exceptional performer, brings him back to us for occasional visits as an actor with the Heritage Troupe.

When we started Elk Landing in 1998, taking on the enormous challenge to raise funds for the nonprofit, Gordy eagerly took on the role of the owner of the Landing, making visits to the historic spots lots of fun for visitors.  I immediately noticed Gordy’s special talent for engaging an audience in an entertaining, humorous way, while making history fun.  It was a valuable asset for the start-up organization.

We have plenty of serious lecturers and you can bet they’re able to belt out the facts.  But having Gordy and all the members of the heritage troupe support us as we got started was so valuable.  It was good to run into Gordy again and get updated.  It was also good to be reminded that nonprofits in the county have the support of the Troupe, a valuable Cecil County Tourism asset.

The Heritage Troupe, a volunteer group sponsored by county tourism, formed in the late 1990s to entertain and inform audiences in a different way by taking them back in time to centuries-old happenings right here in northeastern Maryland.  During lively skits, they tell the county’s story theatrically through pieces about the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and much more as engaging scenes unfold for attentive audiences.  The Troupe does an excellent job and has great performers, taking visitors on fun-filled and enjoyable trips to the past.

What was North East to do with vagrants, drunks, disturbers of the peace, and other unruly types in the 1880s?  Although a bailiff enforced the law, the town officer didn’t have a place to detain offenders after arrest.  Placing prisoners on one of the P.W. & B. trains running through town and carting them off to the county jail was one option, but that required a long, costly trip to Elkton.  An appearance before a magistrate and a fine could set things straight for some offenses.  Of course, if the violator was drunk or disorderly, that was another matter.

Yet, like any other community, North East had its share of troublemakers and occasional outbursts of drunkenness and disorder.  One of the more serious law-breakings occurred when a crook broke into Chas’s home. E. Haley.  (And those fish wagons were running through town on Sunday, which shouldn’t be tolerated, one newspaper scribe said.)

After the town lawman busted two troublemakers in 1885, he had to care for the wrongdoers since there was no place to detain them.  Perhaps that was why town commissioners voted to build a lockup.  Certainly, for the Cecil Whig’s North East correspondent, that was sufficient reason for him to declare the town needed a place for those who indulge in disorderly conduct.

Soon enough, the town fathers spent money acquiring a lot from Walter Armstrong on Cecil Ave. Then, they hired architect Levi O. Cameron to draw up plans, and once that was done, they gave the contract for building the place to Mr. Haddock.  When it was finished, the building had drained nearly $1,200 from the public purse.

October 1885 marked a turning point for law enforcement in North East.  The next time the municipal officer cracked down on a notorious type, he had a substantial lockup, with all the modern conveniences for containing the wrongdoer.  Later the scofflaw would face the police magistrate, George McCullough.

In Rising Sun, the editor thought that some “misapplied taste” was involved in this public project as the “artistic kind of lock-up” was a little too ornamental.  Such places “should be gloomy horrid looking structures with death head and cross bones over the entrance to frighten evildoers and tramps away,” the Midland Journal advised.

While we don’t know who first occupied the cell, the perpetrator certainly heard the clang of big keys as iron-barred doors slammed securely shut in the town of 1,000 inhabitants.  As for how many violators were detained in the town jail or when it stopped housing them, it’s hard to say, for the written record is mostly silent on that subject.  But we do know that in 1887, the town newspaper, the Cecil Star, bragged North East had a “good lock-up that is seldom used.”

Former North East Mayor Ulysses Demond (he served his first term in 1957) and his wife Lucia recalled hearing a story from an earlier generation of residents about someone being put behind iron bars.  Years ago, an elderly lady told Lucia, “Once they put the town drunk in the cell, and by morning, he was gone.”  The iron bars were removed during World War II, Ulysses recalled.

When Marshall L. Purner became the police chief in 1957, the place no longer had a holding tank for wayward types.  But his headquarters was here — all he had was one drawer in a desk in the building, he says.  Although Purner never heard of anyone being put behind bars in the two-story brick jail, as a child growing up in North East, he had another memory about the place.  “On warm summer evenings, they kept all the windows open in the lockup, and I could hear them [the town band] practicing.  North East’s band was one of the best in the land, and their room was on the 2^nd floor.”

Regardless of the little fortress-like structure, the old North East Lockup, with its three-pronged turrets and bars on the windows, must have served as an incentive for those notorious types wandering about to stick to the straight and narrow in the little town at the head of the North East River.

For additional photos of the North East Lockup, see this post on Facebook.

Press Release – Cecil County Public Library

Date: 3/31/2012 Start Time: 1:30 PM End Time:4:30 PM

Library: Elkton Central Branch Location: Meeting Room Contact: Elkton Central Library Contact Number: 410-996-5600 x.481 Status: Openings

Date: 3/31/2012 Start Time: 11:00 AM End Time:12:30 PM

Library: North East Branch Location: Meeting Room Status: Call 410-996-6269 to register. Contact: North East Branch Library Contact Number: 410-996-6269 Presenter: Katie Moose

Press Release – Cecil County Public Library

The 2^nd Maryland, Company H invades the Perryville Branch of the Cecil County Public Library!  This reenactment group will set  up camp, conduct drills and demonstrations and provide a glimpse into the life of Civil War soldiers.  This event is open to the public, free of charge and no registration is required. A great event for families and history enthusiasts.

When:  Saturday, April 14 from 10am – 5pm.

Where:  Perryville Library

For more information, please contact the Perryville Branch Library 410-996-6070.

Route 1, crossing the Susquehanna at the Conowingo Dam, is the only free passageway in Maryland for motorists. But for nearly a century, this trip involved paying a toll to a private company.

A covered bridge was built just north of the dam by 1820, but after a flood swept it away in 1846, the Legislature authorized the creation of the Conowingo Bridge Company. That money-making enterprise opened its span to the public in 1859. So, to pass safely above the rushing water, you forked over cash to the toll-keeper, which ended up in the company’s coffers as the profits rolled in for stockholders.

During subsequent decades, floods and ice jams periodically damaged the company’s assets.  If the forces of the raging waters weren’t destructive enough, about midnight one June in 1907 flames burst through the roof of the wooden structure.  Before anything could be done, a large part of it was consumed by the blaze.  The burnt-out sections were replaced by iron spans.  Finally, the State of Maryland bought the highway bridge in 1911 for $88,000, bringing an end to the practice of a private company charging for passage here.  The structure fell one final time when it was dynamited in 1927 to make way for the new hydroelectric dam a short distance downstream.

For a more detailed article on the bridges at Conowingo, visit Maryland Covered Bridges.

“Return to Hollingsworth Farm” is the subject of a talk March 21^st, 2012, at 7 p.m. at Greenbank Mill near Price’s Corner.   The program is sponsored by the the New Castle Chapter of the Archaeological Society of Delaware.

Former Delaware State archaeologist Ron Thomas wrapped up an extensive investigation on this parcel in 1980 and this May the Archeological Society of Maryland’s Northeastern Chapter (ASMNC) continues Ron’s investigation during the 2012 Tyler Bastian Field School.  In preparation for the school, which runs from May 25^th to June 5^th, the ASMNC recently rebagged and recataloged over 4,000 Hollingsworth Farm artifacts, from the 1980 investigation.  Dan Coates, the ASM chapter president will review Ron Thomas’ data and describe the field school at Elk Landing.

Dr Jim Gibb (co-principle investigator for the field session), Peter Quantock of University of Denver and about a half dozen members of ASNC, were at the Hollingsworth Farm and Elk Landing today using  ground penetrating radar and metal detectors to make a preliminary survey of the historic land as the group finalizes details for the field school.

From the ASM Website

The Annual Tyler Bastian Field Session in Maryland Archeology is one of ASM’s most popular programs. Named after Maryland’s first State Archeologist who began the Field Session in 1971 as a weekend field testing project, it has grown to today’s 11-day field and lab training program, complete with lecture series, workshops, and meal/camping facilities. The Field Session is held in cooperation with the State Office of Archeology.

The purpose of the Field Session is to introduce lay persons to archeological methods and to teach Maryland’s past through hands-on involvement, while making meaningful contributions to the study of Maryland archeology. Sites are selected for their research potential, endangerment (e.g., from erosion, development, etc.), and for their suitability as a training site. The program has worked well in that it provides a structured, professionally-directed excavation project for students and lay people, and provides the Office of Archeology’s professional staff with an eager, well-trained cadre of volunteer assistants.

The Field Session has investigated 28 different sites in 13 of Maryland’s 23 counties, ranging from prehistoric camps and villages to historic mills and plantations. It has fostered a tradition of cooperation and camaraderie between amateur and professional archeologists, putting Maryland at the forefront of nationwide efforts to involve present generations in our shared archeological past.