With the beginning of women’s suffrage in the autumn of 1920, the ladies of Charlestown promptly exercised their full responsibilities of citizenship by voting in the national election. And when the annual Charlestown election came around for the town on January 13, 1921, they took to the polls in large numbers, casting more than one-half…
Presidents’ Day — Many Came to Cecil County
It’s not exactly a big family holiday unless everyone gets together to sharp for bargains, but today is Presidents’ Day. To celebrate this occasion, we are looking back at a few times when the nation’s chief executives came our way. We’ve done this before, but since Cecil County has always been on the highway of…
Cecil County Freedmen’s Bureau Teacher Stands Up for Civil Rights in 1866
This new local history blog, “History Surrounds You,” by Kyle Dixon takes up the subject of a largely unknown Cecil County Civil Rights Story from 1866. The Freedmen’s Bureau had assigned teachers at Elkton, Port Deposit, Rowlandsville, Cecilton & Chesapeake City, and one, Ella Jackson, challenged discrimination under the new Civil Rights Act of 1866…
Cecilton Electric Light & Power Company
One night late in 1917 or early 1918, the electrical age arrived in Cecilton. As darkness descended, current flowed through wires causing lights to flicker on in businesses and homes, while lamps on poles illuminated streets. The Cecilton Electric Light and Power Company had launched this important undertaking in July 1917 when the investors told…
Railroad Tracks on Ice on the Susquehanna River
Now that a blast of cold Canadian air is moving in, we started thinking about another time that an arctic blast held a tight grip on the area for an extended period. It was the winter of 1852, the coldest in many years, and the temperatures dipped far below zero each night. This caused the…
The Rising Sun Hotel
On the long journey between Philadelphia and Baltimore in the 19th-century, travelers looked forward to arriving in Rising Sun. There, the Maryland House provided some of the finest accommodations to be found in northeastern Maryland. Recently an inquiry about a hotelier, S. C. Konigmacher, who briefly operated the Maryland House in the 1870s, had us…
North East Theatre
Catching a show at the North East Theatre on Main Street was a popular thing to do for generations of people in central Cecil County during the middle third of the 20th century. The first movie in town was owned by Albert J. Roney, Sr. and initially shows were projected at the GAR Hall, according…
Pivot Bridge, a Lost Cecil County Village
Around 1824, before the first shovel of earth was moved to dig the C & D Canal, there was a flourishing village a few hundred yards from the Delaware State Line called Bethel or later Pivot Bridge. It clustered around an old church with an ancient graveyard. Before Chesapeake City, its neighbor two miles to…
Pinkerton Detectives Investigated Chesapeake City Murder in 1886
The murderously battered body of William Green, an old man living on a barge on Back Creek at the edge of Chesapeake City was discovered on March 18, 1886. Incoherent and urgently needing medical attention, people carried the insensible fellow to George Whiteoak’s home in town, where he lingered for a few days. As news…
Opposition to Daylight Savings Time in Cecil County
As spring rolled around in 1946, a petition circulated in Rising Sun favoring the establishment of Daylight Savings Time. Once a majority of the businesses signed the circular, the municipality went on what some called “fast time” on Monday, April 29, 1946. As most people inside the corporate limits retired on that Sunday evening, they…