Category: Uncategorized

January 21, 2012 — On the first day for an accumulation of wintry precipitation this season, a reflective silence surrounds the old Cecil County Cemetery and Poorhouse as freshly fallen snow blankets the almshouse on a Saturday morning in January.  The Potters Field, the final resting place for paupers who couldn’t afford a burial, is located across from Mt. Aviat Academy.

On the grounds of what was the county poorhouse, it contains some 150 to 200 unmarked graves.  The Almshouse opened about 1776  and closed in 1952 when the county put the property up for sale.  It was purchased by Elk Paper Manufacturing Company and the new owner donated part of the tract to the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales for Mt. Aviat Academy, a Catholic Elementary school.

The order, founded in Troyes, France, opened its first convent in the United States at the old Poorhouse in Childs.  Since then, they have ministered at Mount Aviat Academy and several schools in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.  They maintain the Potters Field, and members of the order are buried there today.

In this rapidly expanding world of online information, lots of helpful data is often just a few keystrokes away.  The amount is exploding exponentially as a number of for-profit digital publishers, such as Ancestry and GenealogyBank, have taken the lead in making vast amounts of material available instantly.  Beyond these excellent data aggregators, there are some free, open source repositories which are helpful too.  Since they’re not as well-known, we thought we’d mention a few here in case you’re struggling with fee-based research overload.

Maryland Newspapers – The Early State Records Online repository at the state archives website has started creating digital images from the Maryland Newspaper Project microfilm done in the early 1980s.  If you visit the site, you’ll see listings from Baltimore, Cambridge, Elkton, Centreville, Easton, Chestertown, and elsewhere.  Right now the Cecil Whig is available from 1870 to 1874 but it is not a searchable database.  Users scan through it, reading the pages just as one does when using microfilm.  Still it’s nice to have it available at your fingertips and more will be added as time goes  on.  Also on this site are many other state records, such as the minutes of the legislature, the Maryland Laws, and lots more.

Family Search – This vast online repository is a most valuable resource for genealogical researcher.  It actively gathers, preserves and shares genealogical records worldwide and patrons my freely access resources and services online.  While there are many exciting databases there, one that is particularly helpful for us local involves probate records.  FamilySearch is currently digitizing the records of the Maryland Register of Wills and that work is going in a number of counties.  Right now, you may surf over and access digitized copies of probate records into the early decades of the 1800s.   There are lots of other resources, including census and death records, worth checking out so be sure to visit this valuable online resource.

The Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage Program – This site is a collaborative, statewide digitization program headquartered at the Enoch Pratt Free Library Resource Center in Baltimore.  Its goal is to partner with Maryland libraries, archives, historical societies and museums to digitize and provide free online access to materials relating to Maryland.  Since the program began in 2002, the collection has grown to over 5,000 items, such as maps, manuscripts, photographs, artwork, books and other media.

Library of Congress, American Memory — A portion of the vast resources of the Library of Congress has been digitized and there’ll you find photos, maps, ephemera, advertising, and so much more.  One we often use involves the Great Depression Era photographs of old strucutres, as they were documented for the Historic American Building Survey.  You’ll find plenty to keep you busy there so just check it out.

There are many more and we’ll provide a post on additional free resources later.

Except for an early brush with an unusual October snowstorm that blanketed parts of the northeast with up to 20” of snow, we haven’t seen much of the typical winter around Cecil County.  As for what the remainder of the season holds, the Delaware Climatologist notes that there’s a high probability of continued warmer weather.  Of course, we haven’t forgotten those recent heavy snows, including the big blizzard of 2010.  So while we hope winter doesn’t return with a vengeance in the months ahead, here is a photo of a snow day of yesteryear for readers.  A team of horses pulling a plow struggles to clear Elkton’s West Main Street in the vicinity of the Howard Hotel.  This image is probably from around 1890.

The newest addition to Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of America series is Perryville from local author Alan Fox. The book boasts more than 200 vintage images and memories of days gone by.

From the early days—when Perryville was known as Lower Ferry and John Rodgers hosted George Washington and other Founding Fathers in his tavern on the bank of the Susquehanna River—to the present, Perryville has seen boom and bust, war and peace, and triumph and tragedy. The Susquehanna and the Chesapeake Bay have always shaped the growth of the town, providing jobs, transportation, food, and recreation.

By the 1860s, the emergence of the railroads as a dominant commercial force ushered in an era of unprecedented prosperity for Perryville. A new commercial and industrial base emerged in the 19th century. Spurred by the proximity of the river and the railroads, this brought good jobs and decent wages to the town. Perryville illustrates a century of progress through vintage images, documenting the citizens of Perryville and the town they lived in.

Author Alan Fox is a longtime resident of Perryville and local history enthusiast. This volume offers a unique glimpse at the changing face of a town that has been witness to a wealth of history. Using photographs from museums, archives, and local citizens, Fox brings a human face to the history of Perryville.

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at www.arcadiapublishing.com or (888)-313-2665.

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States. Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places. Have we done a book on your town? Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com.

Celebrate black history month and join us as Eric Mease presents a program on the lives of Cecil County African-Americans who served with the Union forces during the Civil War.  Over 130 served their county in segregated black regiments.  Find out what life was like for them and the struggles they faced and successes they achieved in this fascinating program at the Elkton Branch of the Ceicl County Public Library on Feb. 8 at 7 p.m, 2012.

Commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War through unique programs and learning opportunities at your library this year! Through May 2012, all Cecil County Public Library branches will feature events and activities centered around the greatest conflict in our nation’s history. From reenactments to special programs on the role of women and local African Americans in the war, not to mention children’s activities and book discussions with local authors, there’s something for everyone–and everywhere!

Here is the February schedule.

• Cecil County African-Americans in the Civil War; Eric Mease speaker; Wednesday, February 8 @ 7pm; Elkton Central Library
• Freedom Quilts for Kids (Grades 3-6); Wednesday, February 22 @ 3:30pm; Elkton Central Library
• Follow the North Star Workshop for Kids (Grades 3 -8); From the Banneker-Douglass Museum; Wednesday, February 22 @ 3:30pm; Perryville Branch Library
• A Copperhead Looks at the Civil War; Monday, February 27 @7pm; Rising Sun Branch Library;

Registration is required for all programs.

The life of a Waterman, a video documentary examining the work of Cecil Countians commercially fishing the Chesapeake, recently came to our attention.  It was completed by Megan Moore, a Cecil College student, for a class project.  Thanks Megan for sharing this excellent work.  Hopefully we’ll see more of these creative products, as other videographers document how life is changing so quickly in the 21st century in Cecil County, and hopefully we’ll see more from Megan.  Check it out.  It’s a fine piece of work, profiling one aspect of the area’s culture and heritage through new media.

Sylmar draws its name from its location on the state border, taking the second syllable of Pennsylvania and first syllable of Maryland.   Its growth came about after the Philadelphia and

Baltimore Central Railroad built a line through the area in the mid-1860s.  In 1877, the company erected a depot and freight house at the spot, calling the station State Line.  That was soon changed to Sylmar.   By 1902, the population had reached 50 people, according to Polk’s Maryland Directory.  It had an undertaker (W. N. Brown), a blacksmith (Amos Whiteman), an auctioneer (S. H. Dowland), a general store (Kimble S. Howard), and several other business interests that year.

With the railroad depot, freight house, and siding creating growth, the U.S. Post Office opened a station here on March 26, 1886.  Amid the Great Depression, the facility closed on Dec. 30, 1933.

Several postcards exist of this northwestern Cecil County town, located just a few miles northeast of Rising Sun.  The two below show the railroad depot and the post office and store.  Other community images include shots of the church, school and additional views of the railroad.  These cards are from about 1912.

Additional Sylmar photos