1877 Atlas of Cecil County from Library of Congress showing area of Fort.
Since we’re hearing a lot about the War of 1812 this week during the Sailabration in Baltimore, I’ve been thinking about some of the really old, local narratives I’ve examined. The conflict that found the enemy sailing up the Elk River has fascinated generations born long after the enemy sailed away. Terrestrial and underwater archaeologists have arrived in the skirmish field to dig in the ground and jump into the river, searching for clues to that time so long ago. Treasurer hunters have scoured the soil looking for relics from that frightful April in 1813. And scribes penned recollections about visiting the Fort in an era when there were no longer any first hand memories and the stories were getting passed down through the ages. Whatever the case, those earthen redoubts garrisoned by local militia have intrigued curious types since the British sailed away from our waters.
Let’s look at one the accounts, that of a Boy Scout visiting the defensive position in 1912. In 1976 F. Rodney Frazer drew a sketch of the location of Fort Defiance as he recalled the visit from the top of the 20th century as a tenderfoot scout. The Owl Patrol, “a unit of the first troop of Boy Scouts in Elkton,” went on an expedition to the bend in the Elk River to scrutinize the Fort Defiance site “and the place where the chains were placed across Elk River to thwart the British.” It was May when these excited youngsters floated down the calm waters from Elkton in Scoutmaster Standley Evans’ boat, the Wabum. “Opposite Fowlers’ shore we waded in mud on the banks of the thoroughfare to where three decaying piles remained and I sawed off a section for evidence.”
According to Frazer, a deed from Eli Pierson to David Short in 1856 said in part: “A parcel of land on the northward side of the Elk River, a short distance . . . from an old fort known by the name of Fort Defiance, which is contained within the following courses and distances. The 30 foot bluff overlooking Elk River, as indicated on accompanying map and now owned by Robert L. Campbell was the site of Fort Defiance,” the local historian recalled in 1976.
Such were the recollections of youth from an old man who visited the Fort that saved Elkton from the fate of Frenchtown, Havre de Grace, and Georgetown. F. Rodney Frazer, a local historian, was born in 1897. He wrote an Elkton history, “Parts of Elkton In 1918 As I Remember It.”
The Fort Defiance Marker was erected in the 1960s. Based on his visit to the Elk River fort in 1912, Rodney Frazer questioned the placement of the modern marker.
1976 drawing by F. Rodney Frazer recalling a visit in his youth.Google earth map showing the area sketched by Rodney Frazer
Where: Elkton United Methodist Church, Main Street, Elkton
This year’s theme is the War of 1812. Each day a historical figure is portrayed by an actor/historian who will speak “in character” about their life during the War of 1812. Following the performance, audiences will have the opportunity to interact with the character in a question and answer session. Friday features Francis Scott Key, Saturday is Rosalie Stier Calvert, and Sunday presents Mary Pickersgill.
For information and profiles of these historical figures, visit the website.
A team of archaeologists and university students has brought new life to Elk Landing over the past week as they have been excavating the property in the 41st annual field session.
Jim Gibb, head investigator of the war of 1812 project, Robert Wall, a professor of archaeology and physical anthropology and Dan Coates, president of Archeological Society of the Northern Chesapeake chapter have worked with the Historic Elk Landing Foundation President Josh Brown to excavate the Elk Landing Peninsula.
“This was very exciting to me,” Brown said Wednesday. “They wanted to do this big dig, they were opening it up to the public, for the students to come, it’s a learning program… they don’t do it every year, they probably won’t be here for another four decades.”
The peninsula, where the Little and Big Elk creeks merge, was home to the site of Fort Hollingsworth, a 300-foot long semi-circular breastwork fort with a large ditch and parapet, said Gibb. It created a surface to place cannons and men to ward off attacks. The fort no longer stands, because the farmers plowed it down after the war, Gibb said.
Seeking out colonial-era maps of Elk Landing local archaeologist, George Reynolds, stopped by this week. The Archaeological Society of Northeastern Maryland is sponsoring a summer field school at the Landing and George is preparing for the opening talk, as he conducted the first study on that historic parcel in the early 1980s. To flush out the lecture, George was searching for maps showing Rochambeau in Elkton so we scanned two of them (see below).
During the American Revolution French troops under Jean-Baptist de Rochambeau passed through Cecil County in 1781. As the army marched through the area, the general’s cartographer sketched out the advance.
Here are two included in the excellent reference, The American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army, which also contains a published journal detailing the movement. Anyone studying Cecil’s history during the Revolutionary War will find this title of interest. These 1781 maps show a cluster of nine structures at Elk Landing. They also show structures in the vicinity of North and Main streets in the center of Elkton (Head of Elk), as well as the placement of French military units.
Those interested in this subject will find this title helpful, as it’s one more method we’ve used to develop evidence-based interpretations of Cecil County during the Revolutionary War.
Rochambeau in Elkton as shown in a 1781 mapRochambeau in Elkton.
For all the arresting folklore and history connected with Elkton’s past two brothers who lived here 200-years-ago provide one of our best sources for gleaning insights about the high drama that took place 0n the winding Elk River when a British raiding party attacked in 1813. The sons of Captain John Sample, a veteran of the war and the Battle of Baltimore, spent their boyhood years growing up in Elkton, while playing along the Big and Little Elk creeks.
The father, a carpenter, moved the family out west, settling in Indiana around 1819. Both became judges and pursued high profile public service careers. In their dwindling years, the one brother, in particular, enjoyed reliving the memory of the many unforgettable scenes and incidents of their early life.
The elder son, The Hon. Samuel Caldwell Sample, was born in Elkton on August 15, 1796, and served in the militia at Fort Hollingsworth (Elk Landing). Once the family settled in Connersville, Indiana, he read law, passed the bar exam, and commenced practicing in South Bend. Over time the lawyer held a number of public offices and was sent to Congress in 1843 as a Whig. He died on December 2, 1855.
Thomas Jefferson Sample, the prolific writer, recalled many scenes and incidents about “how the red-coats beat up our quarters so often in Elkton.” He was born in the town on November 4, 1800, and also became a judge. Although the aging man never returned to the place of his youth, he displayed an interest in the old town throughout his long life. “Days of my boyhood are long vanished and gone” but “I often go back in memory to old Elkton and visit the places once so familiar” he told the Cecil Whig as the paper brought back memories of former names and spots he knew very well. He died in New Albany, Indiana on July 7, 1882.
Recalling the Horrors of War
British warships sailed into the Chesapeake in early 1813 as England wanted to bring the heavy hand of war to vulnerable towns, ports, and plantations in the region. When the fleet dropped anchor near the mouth of the Susquehanna River, the entire area was thrown into a state of alarm as residents living near the waterways knew they were in for trouble.
Thomas wrote about sixteen letters, portions of them recalling this time when the Chesapeake was infested with “marauding parties” and accessible villages were in danger. “I was too young when the War of 1812 occurred to perform military duty, but I contributed to aid and comfort our brave boys who served. . . . Elk River came in for a full share; also Sassafras and all other accessible rivers and streams.. They burnt Havre de Grace. I saw distinctly the smoke ascending from the burning. . . . Elkton would have been burnt, only for the measures taken by our authorities to prevent it. They had early in the war erected at the Landing an earthen-work just below the two story-story stone house standing yet. . .”
The enemy’s first major expedition in Cecil took the invaders up the Elk River. On the morning of April 29, about 150 marines and five artillerymen rowed toward Frenchtown. As the county seat had to fend for itself, the citizens erected defenses at strategic points, incuding Frenchtown and Elk Landing. At a spot on the west side of the river, about a mile below Elkton, a fortificaiton called Fort Defiance was thrown up.
The old man, reflecting on incidents that took place nearly seventy years earlier as the enemy rowed up the river, described the defense of Elkton. There was, he said, an earthen fort with six cannons and a barrier thrown across the river at Thomas Point. “They were cowardly dogs and that barrier and that battery saved Elkton from the fate of Havre de Grace,” he noted. “I remember doing one day’s work for my country at Frenchtown, helping to build a log battery on the wharf. The piratical bands . . . burnt several of Mr. Henderson’s line of packets at Frenchtown.”
Fort Hollingsworth, the Elk Landing fortification, was often part of those unforgettable memories deeply impressed on a youngster’s mind. The redoubt was near the stone house, where a tavern was kept in the early days, he said. When a cannon blew-up during the celebration of peace, a large piece of the gun was “thrown into one of the windows of the stone house which stood near-by.”
Cemetery where the Hon. Samuel Sample is buried in South Bend, IN. Source: www.findagrave.com
In the Dead of Night
The brothers weren’t going to forget the terrifying experience of fleeing the enemy in the dead of the night as the hue and cry rang out that the British were coming. It created a big scare in Elkton, as a letter penned a generation earlier, possibly by Samuel, explained. “The roads leading north were filled with people, principally women and children . . . carrying bundles of every description. . . . Our sanctuary was usually at Mr. John Thompsons’ near Newark. . . . These British troops act the part of freebooters or pirates. They used to land on gentlemen’s estate and rob and ravage and burn stacks of grain and farm houses, and they called this civilized warfare.”
After overrunning Frenchtown, the Royal Marines tried to approach Elkton by way of the river and land. The defenses they met forced the advancing unit to the abandon the attempt. Ending their effort to conquer this territory, the British sailed away from Fort Defiance, Cedar Point and Fort Hollingsworth and rounded Turkey Point.
“I have no good feeling for the English nation and never can have, for I remember with feelings, amounting almost to wrath, how we suffered the depredations of the English and can not to this day determine why they were warring with us. I wish I could, at this distant day, understand why.” Samuel concluded months before his death.
Consisting of about eighteen letters in total, these old pieces penned so long ago by eyewitnesses, provide one more fascinating sources, allowing us to attempt to understand the most stirring events that occurred on the Elk River, a time when the enemy was on our shores. As we look for evidence based conclusions about one of the biggest historic events in the local sources, they provide one more source for us to consider. They’re also very helpful for understanding Elkton during the first two decades of the 1800s, as they are richly detailed with information and remembrances about the town and the people. The letters are found in the newspaper files at the Historical Society of Cecil County.
Judge Sample talks about the redoubt being near the old stone house, which still stand at the Landing. Photo Credit: Ben Cooke
Editor’s Note: The map of Elk Landing is a 19th century deed showing the Landing, including the lower wharf and the old stone-house. Source: Cecil County Land Records.
“They were a wretched, cowardly set of marauders, going only to those points which were unprotected.” That’s how Judge Thomas Jefferson Sample described the British sailors and Marines who attempted to invade and burn Elkton 199 years ago this coming weekend.
On Saturday, April 28th you’ll have a chance to hear more from Judge Sample as he reminisces about his days at Elk Landing and his firsthand account of events there from April, 1813 when the British met their match at Forts Hollingsworth and Defiance.
Begin your trip back in time this Saturday with a welcoming from Elk Landing proprietor Zebulon Hollingsworth himself, as the gates open at 10 a.m.
At 10:45, it’s show time, featuring fifth grade students from Holly Hall Elementary School performing their skit, “The Invasion of Frenchtown” highlighting the British capturing and burning of the Frenchtown hamlet just a mile or so south of Elk Landing in 1813. The skit also recognizes the heroics of 20 year old slave woman, Hetty Boulden, for misdirecting the British and leading them into the guns of Fort Hollingsworth at Elk Landing.
The Hollingsworth House and our Stone Structure (both present for the original battle) will be open for tours. Refreshments will also be offered for sale. Admission to the event is free as is ample parking just outside the gates to the grounds.
For all the arresting folklore and history connected with Elkton’s past two brothers who lived here 200-years-ago provide one of our best sources for gleaning insights about the high drama that took place 0n the winding Elk River when a British raiding party attacked in 1813. The sons of Captain John Sample, a veteran of the war and the Battle of Baltimore, spent their boyhood years growing up in Elkton, while playing along the Big and Little Elk creeks.
