Category: Uncategorized

We were recently asked when the phone company in Elkton stopped using telephone operators. Here’s our response. Once, most Cecil County towns had switchboard operators. But as the modern age of telephony arrived, consolidation occurred, and gradually, switchboards in smaller towns went dark as the larger central office in Elkton handled connections. As the 1950s…

Built by Jacob Tome around 1859, the grand solid granite mansion was the largest home in the town, according to the Maryland Historical Trust. In the 1870s, the Port Deposit banker, investor, and philanthropist, remodeled it in the grand Second Empire Style. The renovated structure included elaborate wrought iron balconies, a mansard roof, and a…

On Aug. 1, 1948, a U.S. Army jet plane crash took place at Woodlawn near Port Deposit. The Air Corp jet struck Joseph Abrahams Store in Woodlawn at 4:10 p.m. The newest type of reconnaissance plane, the P-80, being piloted by 1st Lt. Glenn W. Jackson became separated from a flight of four aircraft traveling…

Firefighters share several stories about how the Water Witch Fire Company of Port Deposit got its name, so a company officer asked Cecil County History to investigate the matter. Supposedly the town purchased an engine that had the name Water Witch already on it so the organization decided to change the name of the company…

A number of 19th-century schools are still standing these days, and one of those is the Jackson Hall School. Located on Jackson Hall Road, a short distance from Cowentown, this school was built in 1870. The second floor was used as a Sunday School and a community meeting room. The first floor contained a large…

On Booth Street between the George Washington Carver Leadership Center and Wright’s A.M.E. Church, there stands a small, nondescript masonry block building. On this parcel by 1892, there was a frame schoolhouse for African-American children in Elkton, according to Board of Education Minute Books and Sanborn Maps. Keys and Miller Lumber Company, of Elkton, and…

Last week, the soaring mercury made it hot, humid, and miserable around Cecil County. These sweltering conditions cause many people to scurry off to the shore, mountains, a pool, or theatre – anywhere to escape the steamy tropical days.  For an extended period this month, the daytime temperatures hovered just shy of the 100-degree mark. …

Today Cecil County is divided into nine minor political subdivisions called election districts (EDs). But in the earliest times, the equivalent intra-county areas were known as hundreds. Hundreds in Cecil County Having its origin in Saxon history, the name was derived from the concept of having a territory that could provide a hundred men to…

As we endure the oppressive heat of July, we’ve been examining the old ice dealers of Cecil County. Following our earlier posts on this subject, a reader asked how Howard’s Pond on East Main Street at the Big Elk Creek got its name. Here’s a little more information on this. Jacob A. Howard decided to…

As the nation marked the 78th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, we paged through newspapers and listened to broadcasts to see how Cecil County stayed informed as allied troops fought on the beaches of Normandy. Those critical late spring days in 1944 marked the start of the campaign to liberate Western Europe from Nazi…