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We recently received a press release from Chester County Parks & Recreation  advising that the organization is sponsoring a lecture on the 1851 kidnapping of Rachel Parker, an African-American. A slave catcher from Elkton, Thomas McCreary, was involved in the abduction, which alarmed Pennsylvania and galvanized popular opinion against the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.  —————— In…

Making A Difference, a video for a Cecil College photojournalism class, was produced by Robert Moreland.  In this production, the videographer takes a look at the Historical Society and the county’s heritage.  Thanks Robert.  We enjoyed watching this creative work.  It’s good to see a new generation starting to use new media to present the county’s story.  This is the future medium for sharing history and…

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American military aviators in the United States Armed Forces.  In the ranks of that famed group was one Cecil Countian, 2nd Lt. Calvin Theodore Warrick.  He was born in Chesapeake City in 1921 and graduated from the George Washington Carver High School in Elkton. After graduating, he worked…

This quaint house on Route 213 south of Cecilton intrigued Baltimore Sun photographer Richard Stacks so in 1966 his picture of it made the cover of the paper’s Sunday magazine.  It was occupied by June Washington.  After the photo was published Lilly O. Ferguson, the property owner, wrote to say that while there while were many beautiful homes in the area, none…

Public safety officials used ten-codes as a precise, concise way to communicate information on the county’s public safety radio network in the past.  When someone wanted to say okay, it was 10-4.  That universal shorthand worked fine, but an automobile accident was a different story.  Fire & EMS dispatchers intoned 10-10 on the radio when…

By Katy Ciamaricone kciamaricone@cecilwhig.com Cecil Daily In its heyday, the United States Naval Training Center at Bainbridge was a 1,200-acre, full-fledged military base where nearly 40,000 recruits at a time went through boot camp and other training to prepare for war. After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the United States’ involvement in World War…

This week the Cecil Guardian reported that the Maryland Military Department has placed the “armory in Elkton” on a surplus property list.  This historic structure, one of only four structures on the National Register in the county seat, was built of light gray granite in 1915 as part of the state’s expansion of the National…

When the state started talking about building an expressway, part of the interstate highway, across northeastern Maryland in the early 1960s, the proposal alarmed a group of local history enthusiasts It wasn’t that they were against moving ahead, as these progressive-minded citizens knew the region urgently needed I-95, the proposed fast route without one traffic…

Cecil County is rich in transportation history and full of stories of people who came to this land seeking freedom, fortune, and a place to grow roots and raise families. Years ago, slaves traveled the Underground Railroad to the Susquehanna River, only to find the crossing a major obstacle in their effort to seek freedom….

News From the Historical Society of Cecil County In the late 1980s, the Judge McCauley diaries were donated to the Society. The 46 volumes, covering day-to-day activities in Cecil from 1851 to 1897, span an important period in the county’s history. On those pages, you will find Judge McCauley’s notes about the passage of life,…