Dr. James L. Johnson’s service to the citizens of Cecil County is not well documented, so I’ve added this post as my first attempt to publish information about the respected healthcare professional.  Please share your memories about the Doctor, and I’ll work to gather more information about his service to the profession and the community.

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When Dr. James L. Johnson started practicing medicine in Elkton in the middle of the Great Depression, the county’s healthcare system was segregated, just like every other aspect of life in Cecil.  Union Hospital had separate wards for African-Americans, and the young physicians didn’t have admitting privileges. If one of his patients required hospitalization, he arranged for admission through another doctor in the area. As integration made inroads in areas such as public accommodation and education, an entire generation of black doctors worked with others to bring an end to racially segregated health care across the nation. The system of separate wards here appears to be have been eliminated in the mid-1960s and prior to that time the doctor had been given admitting privileges at the hospital

The young man from Baltimore, a 1928 graduate of Lincoln University, went to Nashville, TN to complete his medical training at Meharry Medical College, a school the Freedman’s Bureau established in 1876 as a college for African-American physicians.  After returning to Baltimore to complete his internship at Provident Hospital, he opened his office on East High Street in Elkton in 1934.

For his many contributions to the community, the respected doctor was recognized as the citizen of the year by the Chamber of Commerce in 1971. He was particularly proud of his effort to build a modern school for children in the African-American community at Booth Street during the separate but unequal period of the county’s past.  Into the 1970s, he maintained a busy medical practice, keeping his office open five days a while, visiting patients at Union Hospital seven days a week. His days often began before dawn and ended well after sunset. Jim Cheeseman, the Cecil Whig photographer, said in 1971: “The one picture I’d really like to shoot is a silhouette of the good doctor rushing to Union Hospital in the early morning before dawn like I’ve seen him do so many times.”

Dr. Johnson passed away on Feb 24, 1978, at the age of 73. He practiced medicine in Elkton for 43 years.

For additional photos see this album on Facebook

Posted on October 5, 2013 by admin

Also see Remembering Dr. James L. Johnson, a respected Cecil County Physician

When the contractors finished his work in 1871, the sheriff’s home and jail was hailed as a state-of-the-art monument to law and order, a credit to the county. Considering that it replaced “a so-called jail” where notorious types were “chained to the floor,” it probably wasn’t hard to make that claim. That first prison in Elkton (about where the People’s Bank stands on North Street), had been built about 1791 to house murderers, horse and chicken thieves, debtors, drunkards, and the unruly. Eventually, the county seat’s first facility for inmates became so “unfit as a place of detention” that Civil War era courts threatened to send prisoners to Baltimore and charge the county for the expense. The county thus decided it had to build a new sheriff’s home and jail.

There were few sad faces at the demise of the old jail. Passing by, as heavy sledges “were wielded by strong men” tearing down the building, the Cecil Whig’s editor wrote that he felt like saying, “peace be to its remains,”

For those who ran afoul of the law, there were 20 cells at the new prison, surely enough to “accommodate any demand that Cecil County culprits” could place on it, said the Whig. Sheriff Thomas, the first official to turn the key and swing open the wide heavy grated iron door, let in his “house guests.” In the years to come, those cells would have their own stories to tell and the jailhouse walls would stand as silent witnesses to more than a few tragic scenes.

Out in the old jailyard, more than one man would draw his final breath at the end of the hangman’s noose. The last hanging occurred where the Buckworth Senior Center is today in October 1905. Calvin Merritt, “who had built all the scaffolds used there in the past thirty-five years,” erected the gallows on the south side of the jail yard, said the Elkton Appeal. Sheriff George Biddle and Deputy Wes McAllister ascended the platform with the inmate. On the stand, the sheriff placed the noose around the doomed man’s neck and a black cap over his head. The trap door fell open, the body shot downward and his neck was broken. The man, who had been convicted of murdering a prominent Elkton judge, Albert Constable, had paid the full penalty for the crime. There were also hangings in 1893 and 1895.

The first whipping in Cecil County since colonial times happened in 1896, according to the Whig. The cat-o-nine tails were plied by Sheriff Harvey Mackey to a prisoner who had been convicted of beating his wife. Nearly a hundred people witnessed the lashing in the north jail yard, where the whipping post was set up.

One early spring day in 1912, as the county felt the first tentative nudge of the approaching season’s warmth, a cold-blooded shooting in the outer yard snuffed out the young life of a Cecil County Sheriff. The incident took place when Sheriff J. Myron Miller attempted to take a pistol away from a trustee who had refused to obey an order. As the officer forcibly tried to take the weapon, the inmate, Antonio Ducca, placed the muzzle of the guan against the sheriff’s side and fired the fatal shot. Bystanders, running to aid the stricken officer, overpowered Ducca and got the gun away from him.

Not satisfied with life behind bars, a few inmates escaped jail. Deep into a July night in 1919, a chicken thief held at the jail began to unlock doors. Being careful not to make a sound that might alert the sheriff and his family sleeping nearby, he first sawed off the lock on his cell. Then, down the dark corridor, he crept to make short work of a few more iron-barred doors. Long before good light, the man and six other prisoners were over the jail yard wall.

A modern detention center started sprouting out of a cornfield at the edge of town early in the 1980s. Then, in January 1984, in a secret nighttime operation, Sheriff John F. DeWitt moved inmates from the Cecil County Jail in the center of Elkton to Landing Lane. Steel-barred doors opened and closed electronically, and the moves were remotely monitored by deputies in a secure control center while the inmates settled into their cells. An era had ended.

On the evening of June 30, 1976, a gloomy group of regulars gathered at the Winchester Hotel in Port Deposit to say goodbye to Chief Petty Officer Stephen Kowalski, the last staff member assigned to the Bainbridge Naval Training Center.  “Chief Ski” had come to the base in January 1974 to serve as a first lieutenant in charge of maintenance.  As such, he was the last member of the closure force to check out when the base was disestablished June 30.  After seeing all his Navy friends off to bases in Orlando and New Orleans Kowlaski said he finished closing the base and headed for the bar at the Winchester Hotel.  “I had to have a Bloody Mary.  I couldn’t stand the pain,” he told the Cecil Whig. 

As a 17-year-old from Schenectady, NY, the Navy officer had started his basic training in the winter of 1954 at Bainbridge and here he was 22 years later closing it down. Joking with the customers he knew so well, he said:  It’s the softest duty I’ve ever had – two and half years of putting up with farmers,” he joked with the customers at the bar.  Kowalski was not the only one who was going to miss the base.  John Malloy, the owner of the Winchester, said losing the base has really knocked down the business. 

Reflecting on the matter, Kowlaski noted that “being the only official naval personnel in the area presents problems for a man used to living on bases and ships.  I feel like I’m lost.  I’ve really got no place to go.

Editor’s Note:  The Winchester Hotel recently reopened as Jacob Marley’s.  See our blog posts on the new establishment in Port Deposit by clicking here.

For the young athletes on the George Washington Carver Junior League Baseball Team 1960 was a great year.  Here they pause, trophy in hand, to have the team photo taken.  From the left: Andrew Duren (deceased); Larry Jones, Charles Boardley (deceased), Leon Banks (deceased) Maurice Byrd (deceased), Alexander Stewart, Alfred Harris and Taswell Byrd (deceased); back row starting from left is Leon Braywood, Harry Minor (deceased), Clarence Jones (deceased), Marvin Williams and Don Jones.  The adults, standing in the 3rd row areVernon C. Rossman, Gen Secretary of the YMCA, Clarence Jones, Manager of Carver’s Team, and Frank Williams, YMCA board chair. (note:  Thanks to Commissioner Charles Given for Elkton with identifying the youngmen.)

A new title, “Football! Navy! War!” How Militiary “Lend-Lease”players saved the College Game and Helped Win World War II is out.  While highlighting the Navy’s role in preserving the game and football’s impact on national morale and the war effort during the 1940s, it has a significant local angle.  One of the star players, “Choo Choo” Charlie Justice, trained at the Bainbridge Naval Training Center. 

The author, Wilbur D. Jones, is a retired Navy captian with four decades of service. He spent several days in Cecil County working with the Bainbridge Museum and others while doing his fieldwork.

According to the Star News, “Growing up in Wilmington, Jones idolized Charlie “Choo-Choo” Justice, the legendary tailback who led the UNC Tar Heels to three bowl games and (briefly, at least, in 1948) the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press college football polls. Well, Justice, was just out of Asheville High School when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and headed for Bainbridge Naval Training Station, near Port Deposit, Md., where he became part of the Fighting Commodores, one of the Navy’s top teams, and one of the top-rated football squads in the nation, period.

Click here to read a full book review from the Wilmington, NC Star News Online.

A new title, Edge Effects: The Border-Name Place, by Dr. Robert D. Temple focuses on border towns. The author provides a fascinating and entertaining look at more than eighty north American border towns in Edge Effects. With an adventurer’s heart and a historian’s keen eye, Temple explores life on the edge and how these places have made their place in history. One of the chapters examines Cecil County’s own little border village, Sylmar.   In 1902, Sylmar, which is located on the state line northeast of Rising Sun, a population of 50 people, as  well as an undertaker (W. N. Brown), a blacksmith (Amos Whiteman), auctioneer (S. H. Dowland), a general store (Kimble S. Howard, and a number of other interests. 

Other border villages examined in our region include, Pen Mar, Marydel, Delmar and Mardela Springs.  The author talks about finding these 80-s0me places, the adventure in exploring them, by highway, four-wheel-drive, boots, and kayak, and in encountering memorable locals: historians, farmers, waitresses, cops, forest rangers, railroaders, and ne’er-do-wells. But even

more, he says, these places lead us to investigate concepts of borders, boundaries, frontiers, margins, and marginality, as well as survey lines, battle lines, picket lines, and color lines. Edge Effects reveals how edges shape local history-and our lives. With an outstanding chapter on Sylmar, it’s a title I’ve ordered for my personal library.

Here’s a link to more information on the title

Chief Inspector James Tiano of the Philadelphia Police Department and his staff are trying to locate the relatives of Officer George Barnett, who was shot and killed in the line of duty on Nov. 28, 1910. A plaque-dedication honoring his sacrifice is set for July 22 at 42nd and Pine streets, West Philadelphia, where he died. Anyone with information about any family members is asked to call Inspector Tiano at 215-685- 3655.

Policeman Barnett was shot and killed while attempting to question a suspicious man he suspected of being involved in a burglary. The officer, who was in plainclothes, approached the man and told him to take his hands out of his pockets. As the man complied he suddenly produced a revolver and shot the officer. Despite being mortally wounded, the policeman returned fire and shot and killed the suspect.

The Philadelphia Police Department has developed the following information: George’s death certificate lists his parents as George and Annie. When George’s son Harry registered for the draft during World War I, he reported that his father was born in Rowlandsville. The 1870 census lists a family group in “Rowland ville” that is probably his family — a year before he was born: George Barnett, 32, laborer, born Penna; Ann Barnett, 27, keeping house, born Penna; Mary Barnett, 5, born Maryland; and William Barnett, 1, born Maryland

There were several Barnett families in the vicinity of Rowlandsville and we lose trace of the above-listed family after 1870.

Officer George Barnett’s death certificate lists his name as “George Mc. Barnett.” Plaque dedication information:

Chautauqua 2009 – “Rights & Reformers” – July 10, 2009

When:4 pm – 6 pm

Where: Perryville Outlet Center, Heather Lane, Perryville, MD

Description: Performers bring important historical personalities and their accomplishments to life, in live, free, summer presentations. This year’s theme is “Rights and Reformers”. On Friday the 10th, listen to Woody Guthrie celebrate the life of working people in his songs, poetry and prose. On Saturday the 11th, hear how Jackie Robinson dealt with being the first black player in major league baseball. And on Sunday the 12th, see how Eleanor Roosevelt changed both our nation and the world through her commitment to social activism.

On the 40th anniversary of the passage of RFK’s Funeral train down the northeast corridor, through Cecil County, we posted a piece on some recollections of that sad day as many Cecil Countains stood along the tracks to honor the fallen leader.  A few days ago, a documentary producer reported that they are looking for people that were there that summer day.   That caused us to go over to You Tube where there’s a video showing some of the scenes on that day in 1968 and we thought readers of this blog might enjoy seeing this excellent piece of video work.

The newest area blogger, the Cecil County Observer, has published an interesting historical piece on the an earlier flu Epedemic in Cecil County.  We’re clipping the introduction here.  Click on the link at the bottom of this post to go to the full piece.

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Flu fears are beginning to subside in Cecil County and surrounding areas as the so-called H1N1 virus or “swine flu” shows itself to be less deadly than when it surfaced in Mexico.

Yet flu remains something to take seriously, officials warn, especially when the historical record indicates that the world is overdue for a dangerous pandemic. The Spanish flu that struck worldwide in 1918-19 is often cited as the deadliest outbreak of the disease in modern times. An estimated 20 million to 50 million people died of the flu or complications such as pneumonia.

Even rural Cecil County was affected, with Spanish flu hitting hardest in the fall of 1918 into early 1919. All told, the Spanish flu or the pneumonia that was a secondary infection killed 157 Cecil County residents.

According to an article by Greg Birney in the Fall 2003 Cecil Historical Journal, Spanish flu became so rampant that the Cecil County Board of Health ordered all public gatherings suspended. Schools around the county, including West Nottingham Academy, were closed. Nearby Delaware College (now the University of Delaware) was turned into a hospital, according to Birney, with 135 cases of flu among the 425 students. (Interestingly, several cases of the most recent flu were reported at UD.)

Article Continues on Cecil Observer