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Dr. Ralph Eshelman, one of the authors of a newly published Johns Hopkins University title, the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake, was the guest speaker for the annual Historical Society of Cecil County meeting on October 18th.  The War of 1812 scholar spent years investigating sites connected with the conflict in Maryland, including Cecil County sites.  

In a lively and engaging talk, the distinguished historian shared his findings about the history of the War of 1812 in Cecil County with the 80 members attending the annual event At the Chesapeake Inn.  No theater of war suffered more than the Chesapeake Bay region, where 11 battles, 63 skirmishes, and 86 raids took place, he remarked.  Several of those incidents took place right here in Cecil County.  “Elkton and St. Michaels share the distinction of turning the British back twice.”  He highlighted some of the history we don’t recognize here in the county as he continued, while also swiftly dispatching a few our cherished myths.

Dr. Eshelman was the director of the Calvert Marine Museum in Maryland from 1974 to 1990. In 1974 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. The widely published maritime and military history lecturer was also a research associate at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.  In addition he served as a consulting historian on the War of 1812 on the Chesapeake for the Maryland Historical Trust and the National Park Service.

Authored by the regions foremost scholars on the war, Dr. Eshelman, Scott S. Sheads, National Park Service Historian, and Professor Donald D. Hickey, this title will serve as the definitive work on the war in the Chesapeake region, including Cecil County. The research in this encyclopedia title surpasses any body of material brought together on this matter and it is supported by primary documents including diaries, journals, and newspaper articles.  The Society has added this well researched title to our library for it’ll get lots of use as planning continues for the celebration and it gives us a comprehensive volume of verified facts.    Page after page is loaded with facts about incidents in Cecil and Harford counties, as well as throughout the state.

While this title is going to earn its keep in the library, there are a number of other works that are helpful too.  But one additional manuscript is in the works.  Authored by Ron Turner, it specifically deals with the War of 1812 on the Upper Chesapeake.  Ron, a professional writer and journalist, wrote the draft a few years ago for the Roundtable and we’ve had an opportunity glance at this fine piece which focuses on Harford and Cecil.  It is our understanding that this local title will be published and available to the public as a detailed local source of information, as the celebration nears.

You’ve probably heard that Verizon is talking about doing away with phone books as we know them.  The delivery of these works virtually marked the arrival of fall, as the latest annual directory arrived at mailboxes throughout Cecil County.  Those directors, averaging more than 300 pages of names, information, and advertising for people and businesses in Cecil County in recent years were once frequently referred to in area homes while being used to obtain phone numbers, check the spelling of names, locate addresses, or find business services.

While these directories have experienced declining routine use, these annually published works have noteworthy potential as a source for historical and genealogical research.  The books have been published for over 100 years in the mid-Atlantic, says Stephanie Hobbs the spokesperson for the Verizon Superpages, and “from the very beginning someone always wanted to advertise in them.”  Granted the early ones were thin affairs, but they spoke volumes about what was happening in Cecil County the year they were published.

Early in 1900, as the Diamond State Phone Company was busy installing instruments for J. Harvey Grove, Thomas Freeman, Ed Taylor, G. W. Biles, and A. G. Brown, it published a directory in the Cecil Whig.  This, the first local listing of subscribers that we have located, was a simple register of individuals who had the latest instrument of communications and their phone numbers.  Most were clustered in Elkton (70) and North East (12), but there were “talking machines” in, Childs, Bay View, Providence, Singerly, and Chesapeake City.  There were even “public pay phones” in some of these places.

With each passing year the content in the publication grew.  By 1908, as the Peninsula was becoming a “network of wires” and the instrument was coming more and more into general use, the Cecil Farmers’ Telephone Company in Rising Sun issued an eight page publication.  Its exchanges, Port Deposit and Rising Sun, had 182 subscribers.   By 1945, the Chesapeake and Potomac publication contained 48 pages and included yellow pages with headings that are recognizable today.

In addition to phone company publications, there are city directories.  Companies such as R. L. Polk and Con Survey published these works here, and they contain more information.  A listing in one of these valuable volumes lists the adult family members living in the house, it provides the exact street address, and it contains occupational information.  These special publications contain what is called a “reverse” street directory, which lists streets alphabetically with the names of people residing at each address.

To help researchers, the Historical Society of Cecil County, some years ago, started acquiring directories, and today we have a collection.  Take, for example, the one for 1942.  It had 60 pages and lists numbers for places such as the Jail (Elkton-64), the Rising Sun Hotel (Rising Sun-132), and the Water Witch Fire Company (Port Deposit – 2871).  Oh, by-the-way, a toll call from Port Deposit to Perryville was five cents that year.  Or consult the 1945 book for a list of theatres:  the New Theatre in Elkton; North East Theatre; Riverside in Port Deposit; Rio in Chesapeake City; and Sun in Rising Sun.

Some months ago, someone wanted help identifying the precise years the duBose Funeral Home was located on North Street in Elkton.  Well, the phone books were the way to answer that question for as we let our fingers do the walking through the yellow pages and were able to quickly determine the years the listing started and stopped.

Here is a tip for developing dating clues from this source.  Into the 1950s, telephone numbers were listed by naming the exchange and three or four digits for each connection.  The Cecil Theatre was thus listed as Cecilton – 3551.  However, starting in the mid-1950s, the exchanges switched to various names, which involved dialing two letters and five numbers so, for example, Keetley Motor was DRake 5-5481 in 1956.  Port Deposit was the first exchange to switch to this modern dialing convention, but others shortly followed.  Elkton’s exchange was know as EXport 8.  By 1964, the Bell Network eliminated exchange names since it was a source of dialing errors so by 1965, the number for Union Hospital was 398-4000 (not EXport 8 – 4000).  You may consult the directories for specific years to see when the various exchanges changed dialing conventions.

Such ordinary, everyday things as phone books, when they are published annually for over 100 years here, can be a particularly valuable tool to unearth genealogical and historical data.

As evening arrives on this autumn day in 2010,  and another November 22^nd slowly begins to fade into the past, it’s hard to believe it’s been 47 years since the county’s tranquility was disturbed by broadcasters sorrowfully announcing “From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard time. . . .”  Practically everyone alive remembers those unforgettable moments as shock turned to sorrow while radios carried a near continuous stream of bulletins. 

Most people immediately recalled that it had been eight days earlier that President Kennedy had been in the county to snip a ribbon, marking the ceremonial opening of the Northeastern Expressway (I-95).  As the sun sank behind the western Cecil horizon on that joyful day, he lifted off in his helicopter.  With those memories fresh on everyone’s mind, news that an assassin’s bullet had struck down the President was even more shocking.    

The late November day got off to a foggy, mild start in Elkton as Police Officers Jerry Secor & Thomas Dunford reported for the day-watch.  During an uneventful morning, by law enforcement standards, the handwritten police blotter, providing a cops-eye view of activities that unforgettable day, shows they escorted a  DuBose Funeral Home detail, arrested a man for shoplifting, and recovered a stolen car.

The patrolmen dutifully scrawled notations on the blotter, all largely unremarkable, but the entry at 1:30 p.m. was jarring as it marks a change for the Eastern shore and the nation.  In a careful hand in the official police record for the county seat, one of the men wrote,  “President Kennedy shot and killed in Dallas Texas.” For the remainder of that heartbreaking day, there is something about the unsettling quiet reflected in the complaint register as a deep dark, sadness penetrates the town and few calls come in for the remainder of the evening on that dark, dark night nearly 50 years ago.

Elsewhere, one of Rising Sun’s telephone operators recalled a slow morning as the new automatic dialing system for the Farmers Telephone Company handled the few calls that came over the system  that Friday morning.  But suddenly, there was an enormous surge, as people used to talking to the operator or needing assistance with long distance connections called to ask if the ladies had heard the news.  As the entire system lit up, she recalls she’d never seen anything like it.  People were saying have you heard, President Kennedy was shot or something like connect me with my husband in California, Massachusetts, or some other place. 

In Chesapeake City, a couple living along the canal, said they’d never forget the day.  Just before the news broke from Dallas, two federal men in dark suits visited their home.  Representing the Army Corps of Engineers, they were there to discuss the purchase of their property in Bethel as the canal was being expanded.

Back in the county seat, H. Wirt Bouchelle, the county’s weatherman, dutifully recorded Friday’s metrological conditions, confirming the observations of the Elkton police as they started the 8:00 a.m. shift.  The temperature climbed to an unseasonably high of 63 degrees F., while sinking back to 40 overnight.  There was no precipitation on that gloomy day in Elkton.

Since it was the middle of the workday many people first received news from the radio. At Elkton’s top 40 AM Station, WSER, the mid-day disc jockey worked the turntable playing the hits of ’63 when a network flash interrupted his entertaining routine.  Once the first flash got everyone’s attention, listeners huddled near receivers at home, work, and in cars to hear the latest.  As the hours unfolded the network kept up a steady stream of bulletins and flashes.

This Sunday evening, there’s a bright Blue Moon rising over Cecil County.  This term means it’s the third of four full moons in a single season or the second full one in a calendar month, according to the website earthsky.org.   So on this beautiful evening stroll outdoors for a few moments and enjoy the gentle glow that is softly illuminating this late November evening, as darkness descends on Cecil County.  The opportunity only comes around “once in a blue moon.”

While Cecil County once had dozens of one-room schoolhouses serving rural areas and small villages, many have disappeared in recent decades. The most recent one, the old Cherry Grove School near Sylmar, was leveled during the past week.  Built in 1881 for $680, it closed on October 24, 1931, when pupils were transferred to Calvert.  For years it served as a private dwelling.

We were first informed that it would be demolished in August,  and over the past weekend, we drove down Little New York Road to check on the old place.  It had been razed.  Click her to see what we wrote about it in August.

If you are interested in looking for your family roots, you will definitely want to attend Genealogy Detectives: Tracing Your Family Roots, a “how-to” primer on many of the resources available for tracing your family tree, Wednesday, November 17 at 7pm at the Elkton Branch of the Cecil County Public Library. Emilie Braeuning will discuss how to use the Census, vital statistics records and online resources as well as give tips on other organizations that might provide insight into your family roots. This event is free and open to the public. To register for this event, call 410-996-5600.

Hear about the Mason Dixon Line, the Story behind a Geographic Boundary in a free program at the Rising Sun Library at 1:00 p.m., on Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010

Born as a result of a bitter territorial dispute over royal land grants, the Mason-Dixon Line was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 to settle the boundaries for Pennsylvania and Maryland. After 1820, when the Missouri Compromise
created political conditions which made the line important to the history of slavery, it became associated with the division between the free
and slave states. Today the line is still seen by many as a symbolic dividing line for regional attitudes and customs.

Historian Mike Dixon will explore
the stories of the line, which runs through our land and our history, along with the perceptions that have developed about the boundary.

Registration with the Rising Sun Library is required.  Phone 410-685-4025.

J. Polk Racine, an Elkton native, served four years in the Civil War. Some thirty years after those trying times, he wrote “Recollections of a Veteran or Four Years in Dixie,” telling about what an old veteran saw while serving in the Army of the Potomac. He was illiterate when he enlisted but Col. I. D. Davis took Racine on as a willing pupil and soon he was an accomplished reader and writer. In addition to the fact that the private witnessed such well-known battles as Gettysburg, his account is appealing for its sidelights. Also since the writer talks about familiar places locally, his account intrigues readers in Cecil County.

Join an evening book discussion of this title at the Rising Sun branch of the Cecil County Public Library on October 13 at 7:00 p.m. Historian Mike Dixon will lead the discussion.  Books are available from the Library and call the branch for additional information at 410-648-4025.

Thousands of these dusty, time worn, old newspapers were published here beginning in 1823.  In addition to the Cecil Whig, titles included serials such as the Midland Journal of Rising Sun, the Chesapeake Chesapike of Chesapeake City, the Perryville Record, the Port Deposit Rock, and the Cecil Star of North East.  In addition to the Whig, Elkton had the Cecil County News, the Appeal and the Cecil Democrat as well as a dozen of smaller titles.  

This week-by-week record of happenings, all from a Cecil County perspective, is invaluable since a newspaper with a dateline from another century is a voice from another time.  Fortunately, there were over 40 of these voices here.  All the incorporated towns, except Charlestown and Cecilton, had one or more commercial publications.  

When you’re researching something don’t just rummage through the Elkton papers for the other small town weeklies covered their beat thoroughly in their day, producing a four page broadsheet full of local content about Rising, Perryville, North East or other towns.  Also don’t forget the weeklies from other nearby points.  Those publications often covered corners of the county more systematically than the distant papers in the county-seat.  One example is the Middletown Transcript, which had lots of content from the first election district around  Cecilton, Warwick, Earleville and other places south of the canal.  It is available at the Corbitt Calloway Library in Odessa. 

The Oxford Press is particularly important as it covers northern Cecil County and its smaller villages in detail with weekly columns filled with social happenings and smaller news pieces.  Special correspondents wrote in from Sylmar, Liberty Grove, Rowlandsville, Calvert, Port Deposit, Rising Sun, Fair Hill and other villages, making sure virtually nothing was missed.   But in addition to the village social goings on, there’s a strong weekly column of local news from south of the Mason Dixon Line.  I find that especially helpful when investigating political topics or sensitive matters since the distant paper may cover the issue more openly.  This product is available at the Oxford Library from 1866 to 1970s and its local Cecil County news content is particularly strong. 

Finally, don’t forget the Havre de Grace Record.  That broadsheet covers the Perryville, Port Deposit and Susquehanna areas carefully and it is available at the Historical Society.