First Lines: How to Get Started Writing Your Story (and Publishing Your Work)Wednesday, March 16th at 7pm
Elkton Central Library
301 Newark Ave., Elkton MD 21921
In this workshop and discussion, local author David Healey will share ideas on how to get started on your creative writing project – whether it’s a novel, short story, children’s book or memoir. Also, David will discuss the first steps toward sharing your work with the world and the many avenues toward publishing. He is the author of three novels and two non-fiction books and will describe his experiences working with agents, editors, and publishers large and small.
Registration is required. To register, please stop by the library, visit our website at www.cecil.ebranch.info, or call 410-996-5600, ext. 481.
The Felton House at the Elkton Train Station around the 1920s
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Historical Society of Cecil County explored a captivating period in Elkton’s history during a weekend talk by Mike Dixon. While the nation faced the bleak days of the Great Depression, business thrived in Elkton for the “honeymoon express” arrived many times each day, and Elkton became the elopement capital of the east.
Its reputation as a place to go for quick marriages started about 1913, and for several decades, the place hummed because of the marriage industry. From just over 100 services a year at the turn of the 1900s, the county seat was soon working overtime. The parsons were doing “one marriage every 15 minutes,” which wasn’t “bad for a town of something like 3,000 people,” the News American reported in 1920. The ministers were cranking out some 12,000 newlyweds a year by the mid-1930s as the town in the northern corner of Maryland became America’s Gretna Green.
To accommodate the heavy trade, “marrying parsons set up parlors along the main streets, and competition for brides and grooms was intense during the mill’s heyday. Each time a train, the Honeymoon Express, arrived at the depot, the cabbies greeted arriving couples. Not much was required to get hitched in Elkton in those days. Twelve minutes and a few dollars were all you needed, the Baltimore newspaper reported. Although even the 12 minutes wasn’t altogether necessary. But the dollars were the reporter observed. Today, the Little Wedding Chapel on Main Street is Elkton’s sole remaining chapel, but several prospective brides and grooms still flock here each week for quick marriages.
It was a fast-paced talk that explored how and why the wedding racket developed in an unassuming Maryland town. It included many funny stories about the marrying syndicate, its leaders, and the taxi cab drivers. We also examined how the marrying preachers caused an international incident involving the Iranian government.
Marrying minister’s sign in Elkton, where quick marriages were performed
NORTH EAST, Md. – In recognition of the 2011 Black History Month theme of “African Americans and the Civil War,” Eric F. Mease will conduct a free presentation about African Americans from Cecil County who fought in the Civil War at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 23, in Room 106 of the Technology Center on Cecil College’s North East campus.
Since his first visit to Colonial Williamsburg with his parents in the summer of 1962, Mease has had an interest in United States history. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Penn State University, a paralegal certificate from the University of Delaware, and a master’s in liberal studies from UD. His master’s thesis, “Black Civil War Patriots of Cecil County, Maryland,” reported on the African-American veterans of the Civil War who were related to Cecil County.
Mease began his career in broadcast journalism in Williamsport, Pa. and then moved to a station in Wilmington, Del. Since 1990, he has been a paralegal with the DuPont Company specializing in intellectual property litigation. Mease is a member of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Historic Elk Landing Foundation, and Historical Society of Cecil County.
For more information, contact Laney Hoxter at 410-287-1043 or lhoxter@cecil.edu.
Last Memorial Day, USCT Troops from Kent County were remembered during a program at a cemetery in Chestertown.
Bailiff Biddle was commonly called the chief by many, including Elkton's newspapers.
Photographs of Elkton Police Chiefs line a wall at the town police station. Starting with the first, George M. Potts (1908-1935), there are images of many of the departments 20th century commanders.
But before the officer appointed to maintain law and order carried the rank of chief, the town lawman was known as the bailiff. During lulls in police work, these hard-working public servants took care of the streets, impounded animals, served as the lamplighter, and collected taxes. Some tasks, such as lamplighter and tax collector, varied over time, but a primary responsibility was keeping the peace and he was required to prowl the streets in a blue coat, brass buttons, and badge.
On the prowl for old photos and information on earlier leaders of the police department, we recently received a picture of George Collison Biddle. When he received his first appointment in 1896, his salary for 12-months was $500. The rookie officer had worked for the Singerly Pulp Mill and lived on East High Street.
Shortly after being sworn in, the Elkton officer received a call for backup from Sheriff Mackey. Several men were on a train refusing to pay so the sheriff called on every available lawman in the area for help with the free riders. In addition to the bailiff, that included Deputy McAllister. When the train pulled in one of the men jumped from the cars and started running up the railroad tracks. “But Elkton’s new officer was not to be outrun and soon the clutches of the law were upon the victim,“ a newspaper reported. The Mayor and Commissioners also had street work waiting for the bailiff, so when he wasn’t carting drunks off to jail in a wheelbarrow he worked to fix up the streets. He was “starting out well as an officer,” the Cecil Democrat noted. “May he not grow weary in well doing.”
To the consternation and dismay of Elkton troublemakers, the town council provided him with a bicycle in 1900 so he could more effectively whirl through the streets and alleys on his patrols. When thanksgiving rolled around that year, a local newspaper noted that “Officer Biddle was in good cheer “as he was thankful that the town council had armed him with a unit that allowed him to spin from point to point on his rounds.”
ticket to last hanging.
George Biddle served as Elkton’s thin blue line until 1903 when he successfully ran for sheriff. The last execution in Cecil County took place during Sheriff Biddle’s term, when John M. Simpers was hanged on October 20, 1905. In that era, the sheriff could only serve one term.
The 67-year-old Cecil County lawman passed away on April 26, 1929. He’d been born in 1861.
Deputy McAllister & Sheriff Biddle on the platform with Simpers.
After years of arguing over whether the Sheriff’s department should have county-supplied police cars, the agency finally started patrolling in official vehicles in 1968. In opposition to the plan, one commissioner said that if we give cars to those deputies, they’ll just go out and ride all over the county. Others argued it would cost too much money to provide four squad cars. Those people said the system that paid officers ten-cents a mile to use their own transportation was adequate.
Year after year, the commissioners would never agree that it was less costly to provide county owned autos or that having a visible law enforcement presence prowling the roads was a good idea. As things stalled with the commissioners refusing to allocate funds in the budget, the state delegation finally got involved, passing legislation requiring the county to purchase vehicles.
For the first time in the history of the agency, Sheriff Thomas H. Mogle, Jr., and his four full-time deputies drove county supplied police vehicles in 1968. It was none too soon for the small law enforcement agency, but at least they were catching up with other departments such as Elkton, Newark, North East, Chesapeake City and others. Those small municipalities started purchasing police vehicles for their lawmen as early as the 1920s. The squad cars were fully equipped with a police radio, official markings, lights, and a siren.
Having caught up with other law enforcement agencies in one area, Sheriff Mogle set out to help improve the underfunded and understaffed agency’s manpower. He’d inherited a department with four full-time deputies to maintain law and order, oversee the jail, answer police calls, serve court papers, and provide courtroom security. The Sheriff argued that the force should be doubled to eight-men, but that argument went around and around. So the state delegation once again stepped in to resolve things, passing legislation that increased the size of the force.
At Wright’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, a standing-room only crowd gathered early this Monday morning to celebrate the life and legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. This was the 21st annual celebration, the Cecil County observance having been started by Commissioner Charles Givens and Robert Davis to honor the civil rights leader locally. Rousing music from the church choir started the morning service as members of the congregation came forward to offer reflections on Dr. King’s legacy. By the time the Rev. Brian Thomas came forward on pulpit, the enthusiastic audience was completely engaged in service and the minister’s inspiring, “Are We There Yet?” A lively choir, great hospitality, and a powerful message from the Rev. Thomas are things we’ve learned to look forward to each year, as we pause to reflect and honor Dr. King on his birthday.
Allee & Shepherd, near where the town was talking about building a lockup in 1907
RISING SUN POLICE IN 1900 — In the hours before sunrise on a peaceful Sunday morning in December 1910, a barking dog disturbed the tranquility of Rising Sun. The incessant yapping, as the animal furiously yanking on its chain, roused Rising Sun’s Town Officer, Nathan Britton, who had been sleeping soundly at home.
The bailiff, (the title of a municipal lawman), wanting to quiet the animal, grabbed his gun. He fired a shot in the direction of the commotion, expecting to “frighten the object of the animal’s wrath away, supposing it to be another dog,” the Midland Journal reported. But with the disturbance continuing, the occupant of another nearby house fired off two more shots in the general direction of the commotion.
Since that didn’t stop the disturbance, the bailiff grabbed a lantern and went out into the predawn darkness to investigate. He found a much befuddled drunk leaning against a fence, near where the dog was tied. So “hopelessly bewildered was the victim of John Barleycorn, who had a narrow escape from being shot but didn’t realize it, that the bailiff took compassion on him. He hauled him off to the town lockup and gave him a comfortable berth for the night so he could sleep off his jig.” He released the man later in the morning.
The town bailiff, a position similar to that of a constable, performed a number of tasks for the town. Beyond keeping order, Officer Britton served as the lamplighter and took care of the streets. Rising Sun’s 100th. anniversary booklet said he was our “lamplighter. Every morning he made the rounds to clean the globs and fill with kerosene all the town’s street lights, and then at dusk, he would make another trip with his little ladder under his arms climbing each post. . . Mr. Nathan Britton was the only person on the town’s payroll. In addition to taking care of the street lamps seven days a week, he was the effective bailiff that kept the town in order, and with a wheelbarrow and sometimes a horse cart (total equipment of the street dept.) he would keep the roads in repair . . .”
“Wearing his silver star of authority and in his plain Quaker language, he would admonish the boys – “If thee doesn’t stop riding thy bicycle on the sidewalk, I will have to put thee in the lock-up for an hour. Even though he weighed no more than 125 pounds, he was the law and the boys all feared him – in those days backtalk to the law was unheard of,” the centennial booklet concluded.
In 1907, the town newspaper announced that the commissioners were erecting a building for council meetings. The plot of ground was going to be leased from Allee & Shepherd on West Main Street and a building 12 X 16 erected to contain a council room and lockup, with an annex for a storage room and tool house.
The brilliant blue sky that followed a light dusting of snow in Cecil County caused us to grab our camera and head out to grab a few images as the day highlighted the attractiveness of some of Elkton’s historic structures. These two photos show the Providence United Methodist Church, one of Elkton’s old congregations, the structure dating from the first half of the 19th century.
To the consternation and dismay of crooks, felons, and troublemakers, the Elkton Town Council decided to provide its tiny police force with greater mobility in Nov. 1900. At a council meeting that month, the town purchased a bicycle for $10, allowing their lawman to pedal rapidly around the municipality. Once it arrived, Bailiff George Biddle, the only officer, whirled quietly through the streets, alleys, and roads of the growing community, performing his duties with greater efficiency,
The fact that Elkton mounted a wheeled patrol caught the attention of other communities. The Chestertown Officer, Mr. Simpson, said if the town furnished a police bicycle, “he might consider it, but he had no hankering to become a mounted policeman.” By the time Thanksgiving rolled around, Officer Biddle was in good cheer, a local newspaper reported, as he was thankful that Mayor McQuilkin and the councilmen armed him with the unit, allowing him to spin from point to point on his rounds.
Chief Biddle of the Elkton Police Department. The titles were in transition during his tenure of office. (source: personal collection)
This was the same year the automobile started showing up in town, but the arrival of a patrol car was nearly thirty years away for the force. But with the town council in such a progressive mood, there was talk of purchasing a pair of horses for street work. They could also be used to pull the steamer of the Singerly Fire Company. Nothing ever came of that idea.
In addition to the Elkton Police Bicycle Patrol, see this article on another transportation innovation in law enforcement when the Cecil County Sheriff’s Office received its first patrol cars in 1968
Located a short distance from Havre de Grace is the Perry Point VA medical center. The primary function of the Perry Point VA is treatment of mental health. The hospital was created in 1919 and has evolved over the years to the significant role it now provides veterans. Living in Havre de Grace I can see the hospital from my house and have visited the campus on several occasions. The facility sits on land located at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay providing visitors with extraordinary views of the areas local beauty. Some of the property was sold over to the local town of Perryville to create Perry Point Community Park. Situated on the old property, which is now a park, is a thick wooded area that is home to some astonishing historical documentation.
