RESEARCH TIP — CECIL COUNTY DEATH CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE ONLINE — Here is some exciting news for historians and genealogists from the Maryland State Archives. The State has started digitizing Maryland death certificates. The first batch for the counties is now online. This batch runs from 1898 to 1910, but more will be added in the…
Principal Helen Harris Opens the Levi Coppin School
The Board of Education purchased land for this building from Jesse & Rachel Hevelow for $10 in 1950, and the brick schoolhouse for African-Americans opened in 1952. Dr. Thomas G. Pullen, State Superintendent of Schools, and Mrs. Helen Harris, principal, spoke at the dedication that May. Once the modern facility opened, the former community schoolhouse…
Effort to Save Levi Coppin School Continues as State Reopens Review Process
CECILTON – September 2, 2020 – The demolition plan for the Bishop Levi Coppin School in Cecilton is being reassessed as a “post-review discovery” under section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, according to the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). Some months earlier, a determination had been made that the demolition…
Ice was a Summer Luxury
On hot, sweltering summer days in the years before electric refrigerators, the iceman was a welcome sight in Cecil County towns. Plowing through dusty streets on a wagon, people could hear the clip-clop of the horse’s hooves, as the deliveryman approached. Making his way slowly along the street, the deliveryman stopped at virtually every household,…
The Birthplace of Confederate General William Whann Mackall: Correcting the Record, Again
GENERAL WILLIAM WHANN MACKALL WAS NOT BORN IN CECIL COUNTY. WILNA WAS HIS BOYHOOD HOME, BUT NOT HIS BIRTHPLACE. A guest column by Milt Diggins Pardon the excessive capitalization, but killing myths is tough work. When serving as the Cecil Historical Journal editor for the Historical Society of Cecil County (HSCC), I had the opportunity…
Remembering Cecil Whig Editor Don Herring
ELKTON, May 20, 2018 — We were saddened to hear that Don Herring passed away on May 12, 2018, at the age of 87. A journalist of the first order, he was associated with the profession throughout his entire adult life, including over 30-years in Cecil County. He took over as the managing editor of…
Cecil County’s Oldest Firehouse
Many times each day, sirens blare out in Cecil County as volunteers dash straight for a nearby firehouse. Within minutes, emergency vehicles, sirens screaming and lights flashing, rush out of a station en route to a blazing inferno, a serious accident, or some other emergency. This scene has been happening here for centuries. Many times,…
Pharmacists and Drug Store Clerks Were Essential When the Spanish Flu Hit
As the Spanish Flu caused death and havoc across Cecil County in 1918, essential workers toiled away day and night, struggling to alleviate the suffering. In this troop of people delivering critical services, doctors and nurses stood on the front line. Alongside these bedside caregivers, the druggists played an equally essential role as the virus…
Guest Editorial: Cecilton’s Levi Coppin School Should be Saved
A Public Letter to Cecilton Town Officials — A Guest Column April 26, 2020 Dear Cecilton Town Officials: I am writing to you to strongly urge you not to demolish the historical Levi Coppin School. While scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed on Sunday, I was surprised to read about the town’s newest project to build…
Nurses were the Heroes of the Day When Spanish Flu Hit
During the first seventeen years of the 20th century, Cecil Countians lived tranquil lives, far removed from growing tensions in Europe and the terrible devastation of a deadly pandemic. However, one group of young ladies preparing to become healthcare professionals at the end of the horse and buggy era in medicine, had their careers minted…