Window on Cecil County's Past

If you happen to be traveling along some of the old roads of Cecil County today, ease off the gas peddle just a little and look around for some cast-iron signs on metal pipes mounted near the rights-of-way.  They’re sort of small, but they have a distinguished looking man from the colonial-era riding atop a horse.  Right below the icon, written in cursive, it says G Washington traveled this road.

We have seen them in Elkton, Charlestown, Perryville and other places along what was once the Post Road, one of the country’s oldest routes.  But they’re elsewhere too.   For example, down in the lower part of the county, you might catch sight of one if you are traveling one of the paths Washington took when he came up across the bay from Annapolis.

 When he traveled up and down the colonies to attend great meetings and to lead armies into battle, it was well before the age of railroads and canals.  On many of his trips, the pace and hardship of travel often caused him to spend the night at the top of the Chesapeake.

 Most of these signs, designed to commemorate George Washington’s frequent travels through here, were put up by the Cecil County Roundtable some years ago.  They are replicas of ones put up throughout the state in 1932 to commemorate the bicentennial of his birth.

A Quick History Lesson on Mounted on Poles

Observe these markers, along with other larger gray and black ones planted near historic points of interest, and you will have a quick history lesson mounted on metal stakes for you and your family on this national holiday.

Here are a few we have noticed.  Not too long ago, on a late autumn afternoon, we stood on the east bank of the Susquehanna River in Perryville, a fading afternoon sun bathing a beautiful two-story fieldstone building, Rodgers Tavern, right near the edge of the water with a warm glow.  In a reflective mood, we contemplated the view, realizing that this was a scene our nation’s first president would easily recognize.  A roadside historical marker nearby said George Washington frequently stopped at the place between 1781 – 1798..

Suddenly, a rumbling sound coming from behind us broke the moment of contemplation as an Amtrak passenger train barreling through brought us back to the 21^st century.

After the engine and cars heading to Philadelphia whizzed through, we followed along, more slowly of course, journeying on an ancient road into Colonial Charlestown.  Surrounded by an environment that would have been comforting to our nation’s hero, we found a sign informing us that he recorded many visits to this colonial port on the North East River.

Continuing on our way east toward the Delaware State Line, staying with Route 7 (Philadelphia Road), which was an ancient route for travelers, we passed through North East and entered Elkton.  There were a number of other signs that caught our attention, including a few on Main Street in Elkton.

In the southeastern corner of Cecil, we found another cluster of signs providing yet more free lessons for this President’s Day.  One in Warwick let us know that the man who would serve as the nation’s first executive visited the village several times.

George Washington Slept, Ate & Traveled Our Roads

Yes, George Washington slept here, ate here, and traveled our roads.  And, if on this national holiday, you’re looking for a fun and educational thing to do, why not go out and look for these and many other signs.  Seeing some of the places where he once walked, right here at home, is a fascinating way to honor the father of our country and learn interesting aspects of the county’s history.

So while you are out and about this week, even if you don’t make a family day trip out of it, keep your eyes open as you zip past those gray and black roadside markers.

For additional photographs, see the album on Cecil County History on Facebook

Frederick Douglass, the famed abolitionist, social reformer, orator, and writer, traveled widely, speaking before gatherings across the United States.   Those travels brought him through Cecil County, and at least once, he spent a few hours in Port Deposit before boarding a train to Rising Sun, where he was on his way to speak to the Rising Sun Literary Society on Dec. 28, 1885.   (We have written about that previously.)

Some eleven years earlier, Anna Murray, Douglass’ first wife, visited the family of Gibson Valentine near Cherry Hill, spending two or three days there.  When she returned to Elkton to catch the train, it became generally known that she was at the Station.  There was “quite a flutter” and “a great curiosity to see her was manifested,” according to the Cecil Whig (Aug. 29, 1874).

Anna Murray was born in Denton around 1813. This strong, free-born woman moved to Baltimore to work as a domestic servant when she was 17 (Smithsonian Magazine). Murray helped Douglass escape, following him to New York City, where the couple was married in 1838. They had five children. She died from a stroke in 1882.

For photographs related to this post, see the album on the Cecil County History Facebook page.

Notes & Sources:

1. Cecil Whig, Aug. 29, 1874.  From the Library of Congress Online editions of the Cecil Whig, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
2. For more on Anna Murray Douglass see the Hidden History of Anna Murray Douglass. Smithsonian Magazine.   https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hidden-history-anna-murray-douglass-180968324/
3. After Anna passed away, Frederick Douglass remarried. His second wife was Helen Pitts Douglass, a suffragist, reformer, and abolitionist.  They married in 1884.  For more on this see Helen Pitts Douglass, Frederick Douglass’ Second Wife from ThoughtCo.  https://www.thoughtco.com/helen-pitts-douglass-biography-3530214

In 1911, Bishop Stephen Softer Ortynsky purchased 700 acres of land in the Chesapeake City area, encouraging Ukrainians to settle and farm the land. The order of St. Basil was headquartered in Philadelphia.  He also planned to establish a convent and orphanage and Chesapeake City.

These hard-working pioneers established homesteads, imported their traditions and built St. Basil’s Ukrainian Catholic Church around 1912/1920.\

For years, priests visited from other parishes, but in 1930 Father Stephan Chehansky was appointed to reside in the parish. In addition to working their parcels, many men worked for the Corps of Engineers on the C&D Canal expansion in the 1920s. St. Basil’s Ukrainian Catholic Church continues to serve as the spiritual and cultural center for this Ukrainian community in Cecil County. We visited this historic spot on a snowy Monday, Feb. 11, 2019

For photos see the Ukrainian Community at Chesapeake City

Notes:

Source: The Ukrainians of Maryland; Stephen Basaraba, Paul Frederick, & Others (1986) *

Votes for Women
Library Program – Cecil County LIbrary, North East Branch
Tues. Feb. 12, 2019 @ 6:30 p.m.
by Mike Dixon
Free

As the nation prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in 2020, the Cecil County Public Library is offering a program that takes a look at this historic struggle. The organizing, petitioning, picketing, educating, and politicking that went on will be presented in this lively program by Mike Dixon.

In addition to considering the brave women who fought for access to the ballot box, this program takes a special look at local happenings, including the time when the women’s suffrage army occupied Cecil County for a couple of days as they marched on Washington, D.C.

All the marching, protesting, and incarcerations pressured Congress, resulting in ratification of the 19th amendment. But for it to become the law of the land, at least 36 states needed to vote in favor of the Constitutional Amendment.

Maryland was not among those states, the Legislature voting against giving ladies equal access to the ballot box on Feb. 20, 1920. However, once the 36th state, Tenessee, approved the Constitution was amendeded, and the ladies voted in the 1920 presidential election.

It was not easy, but through committed action spanning generations, women had won the vote. Maryland’s lawmakers finally caught up with the times, ratifying the 19th Amendment on March 29, 1941. But somehow, someone in Annapolis forgot to certify the vote until Feb. 25. 1948.

As the library puts the spotlight on this narrative, learn about the times, the politics, and the culture of the movement at the Cecil County Public Library program.

Click this link for more information and to register for the program.
https://www.facebook.com/events/217858312481290/

This program takes place at the:
North East Branch Library
106 West Cecil Avenue
North East, MD
410.996.6269

The 1921 Voter’s Registration book for Cecil County shows the names of women on the voter rolls.

Source: Cecil County Voter Registration Books in the archives of the Historical Society of Cecil County.

The Rising Sun Herald kept Cecil County readers informed for over 30-years.  However, the Dec. 18, 2018 issue was the last one.  

The news of the closure of this fine, community weekly, which knew how to cover its beat, Cecil County and Rising Sun, saddened us.  Every week those densely packed pages full of local news,  sports, social happenings, photographs, and advertising were eagerly anticipated by readers across the county.  A small, productive staff, headed by Editor Lisa Tome, shared the things that were important to residents.  Stale news from the wire services or syndicated columnist, the stuff that is old news by the time it comes off the printing press, never managed to slip into print to fill up those pages.  No, that space was for Cecil County, and Lisa filled with interesting local, relevant matter. 

Regardless, the business models for distributing news and for advertising has changed in the 21^st-century, complex, disruptive forces such as the Internet, new advertising outlets, and the consolidation of local businesses altering the media environment.

It is a significant trend across the nation as publications are shuttered.  When a local publication vanishes, the community loses, as we all rely on our hometown publications to keep us informed about things. There will be municipal meetings, school activities, sports events, and social happenings that go uncovered now. 

It is a significant, accelerating trend across the nation as publications shut down.  For many years, the Herald also produced an eastern county edition, the Times of Elkton and North East.  For that matter, Cecil County once had nine newspapers hit the streets each week.  Four of those broadsheets were in Elkton, and all the major towns had one around the top of the twentieth century.  Of course, that was long before broadcast media changed things in the 20^th century, and slowly those small town weeklies were absorbed by larger publications.  Finally, by the 1960s the county was down to two strong, lively weeklies, the Cecil Whig and the Cecil Democrat.  Now that the Herald has stopped that leaves the county with one publication, the Cecil Whig.    

Here is a link to Editor Lisa Tome farewell editorial.

Almost everyone enjoys looking at old postcards from Cecil County. Several local and itinerant photographers were plying the trade to produce these tiny early 20th-century time capsules.

Ed Herbener

One of the most prolific was Edward Herbener, a Newark photographer. The Newark Post said in 1910: “Mr. Herbener is one of the pioneers in the postcard business.  He not only furnishes views of Newark, but makes views for the trade from New York to North Carolina. He has built up quite a business in this line. He also makes fancy cards.  And all this work is done in Newark. . . .”

Herbener, whose business flourished during the height of the postcard craze, produced many of the county’s photo postcards, and we are fortunate that he was such a prolific artist.  Many are over one hundred years old, and these old views provide a visual record of day-to-day life, solid visual evidence of the past.   In this era, photographers were few and far in between, and many people did not own cameras, so images were not as common as they are today.

Fifteen or twenty years ago, we met Mr. Herbener’s grandson.  He was a retired college professor living in Michigan at the time.  He gave us a copy of this card, a selfie if you will.  The self-portrait shows Edward Herbener at the East Newark Station on the B & O Line.  The real photo card was an advertisement mailed to alert customers that he would be in their area soon.

It read:  “I hope to get away from here soon and will be in your town in a few days with a full line of seasonable goods, including a nice assortment of local pictures.”

Many of his cards were what deltiologists (the formal term for postcard collectors) call “real photo” views. The bulk of cards of this era were produced in large quantities on a printing press. “Real photo” cards were not reproductions. They were black-and-white photographs printed on postcard paper, so a much smaller number of these were produced.

From Conowingo to Warwick

From Conowingo to Warwick, Ed Herbener traveled Cecil County, producing his real photo postcards. Probably, he printed just a dozen or so photographs for a customer in some village store in an out-of-the-way community such as Pilot or St. Augustine. The larger commercial shops tended to focus on places where they could sell hundreds if not thousands of their images, with pictures of the courthouse, churches, streets, and other public buildings in the county’s major towns.

Mr. Herbener’s postcards provide an over one-hundred-year-old visual record of day-to-day life in Cecil County, providing solid visual evidence of the past.

Ed Herbener at the East B & O Railroad Station in Newark. He is preparing to leave on a trip to taken pictures for postcards.

For additional Herbener photographs, visit this link on Cecil County History on Facebook.

Sources & Notes

1. Miller, G. Newark Historical Society — Newsletter. Vol. 1 No., 4. 1983, February. Edward Herbener: Newark Photographer. DE: Newark
2. Old postcards can be approximately dated by examining the card. Here’s a helpful site to provide some information on that. https://www.fortlewis.edu/finding_aids/images/M194/PostcardDating.htm
3. This is the first in a series on Cecil County postcards. Look for additional installments on other photographers, and dating postcards.

The Cecil Whig Christmas Edition for 1905 was issued on Dec. 16. This attractively produced number of the Elkton paper is a valuable resource for family and local history researchers. This handsome issue for 1905 was packed with enjoyable local content.  Also,  the Whig rolled out its best type for this print run. It was full of local news, features, photographs, and advertisements as the holiday approached.

Since it is such an informative item for those interested in Cecil County History, we have digitized our copy of the newspaper.

Click this link to go to a digitized, online copy of the full Cecil Whig Christmas edition. You may download it.

For a history of the Cecil Whig building click this link.

ZION — Cecil County once had many thriving villages, each with a cluster of homes, a few shopkeepers and tradesmen, a schoolhouse, a physician, and almost everything one needed for daily life.  While most of these places continued into the 21st century as residential communities, they no longer hummed with enterprising activity like they did in the past. 

On a chilly Wednesday in January, as snow briefly fell in northern Cecil County, we strolled one of those places, Zion.  Nineteenth-century homes dot the landscape, showing how the present fades into the past.  Out on Route 272, cars and trucks whizzed by, but on what was the old state highway before the Maryland State Highway Commission moved the road, only a passing school bus dropping off students interrupted the still of the winter afternoon.

Cecil County’s Youngest Village

It is one of the youngest villages, its history dating back only as far as 1849, when the place was barren, with but one or two buildings., the Cecil Star informed readers in 1893.  The former center of activity in the ninth election district took its name from the Zion Methodist Church.  It was a “thriving and pretty village, with comfortable homes, well-kept properties, enterprising businessmen and thrifty farmers.” the writer added.

Carhart & Company established the oldest business around 1850.  The well-stocked general department store attracted customers from as far away as Oxford and Newark.  A complete line of fresh groceries, provisions, dry goods, and hardware stocked the first floor.  Clothing, gent’s furnishings, balls, bats, caps, boots and shoes, ladies’ coats and wraps, carpets, wallpaper, and chinaware awaited customers from as far away as Newark and Oxford on the second floor (Cecil Star).

Carhart’s business was destroyed by a fire around 1922.  Dick Touchton purchased the property and, in 1946 and opened the first self-service store in the county, George Prettyman notes.  He retired from business in 1962, and Ernest Coulson, his clerk, became the proprietor. 

On the opposite side of the street was H. M. Cameron’s Store, which started around 1883.  You could find “pretty much everything usually kept in a first-class generally store, at the lowest prices (Cecil Star). 

The post office opened at Zion on March 19, 1849, and service was discontinued on March 31, 1903.   John Carhart served as the postmaster (Postal History of Delmarva Peninsula).  Mrs. M. E. Johns, widow of the late Rev. J. H. Johns, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, took care of the mail in 1893, having held the post for two years (Cecil Star).    

Tradesmen in 1893 included D. M. Rittenhouse, the blacksmith.  This shop was last operated by John Rittenhouse, who gave up the trade in the early 1930s (Prettyman).  Others included George A. Hall, wheelwright;  A. J. Mearns, butcher; John Astle, shoemaker; and Levi O. Cameron, contractor and builder (Cecil Star). 

The newspaper added that “a healthy, good, moral, and church loving and church going community Zion” could not be beaten.  There were two churches, two schools, and not a saloon “to mar the beauty of the place or to stain its reputation. The oldest, the Methodist Church, was established before 1849. The Presbyterian Church, a cozy-looking brick structure,” was founded in 1850 (Cecil Star).

The town school was located about one-quarter of a mile east of the village and was named the Grove School.   It was erected in the late 1880s or early 1890s. And remained active until the 1930s when pupils were transferred to Calvert (George Prettyman). 

In 1882, it had a population of 150 people, according to the Delaware State and Peninsula Directory.  Also, at one time, it had a practicing physician, Dr. David L. Gifford, while Dr. Miller resided a mile or two away. 

Zion, a Historic Village in Cecil County

While it is off the 21st century’s beaten path, with motorists rushing from here to there after the road moved, the crossroads settlement still retains significant traces from earlier centuries, and homes line the two streets.

See additional photos on Cecil County History on Facebook

Also of interest, Calvert an Old Village on the Mason Dixon Line

Sources & Notes

• The Postal History of Maryland, the Delmarva Peninsula and the District of Columbia;
• Chester M. Smith, Jr. and John L. Kay 1984 * Cecil Star (North East), Zion
• The Beautiful Village Named by the Methodist of the Forties: Sept. 16, 1893
• George Prettyman’s Rural Ramblings; Cecil Whig, More About the Village of Zion; undated, probably published in the 1980s
• Cecil Whig, Zion Insurance Company Has 112-Year History; 12-9-1987
• Maps Online from the Library of Congress and U.S. Geological Service; See each map for a detailed citation.

Cecil County HIstory on Facebook passed a new milestone on January 2, 2019 — 7,000 likes on Facebook. The mission of this page is to inspire curiosity, enjoyment, and understanding of the county’s past. Cecil County History on Facebook recently passed a new milestone, 7,000 likes. As the social media channels notes, this milestone, we want to thank those who stop by to spend a little time there. The visits to that space and the participation in the conversations make the effort worthwhile.

On Cecil County History you will find original and selectively curated posts about earlier times. Also, you will find old photos and news about the area’s past, historic preservation, heritage group activities,, and cultural resources.

Finally, the platform also shares current photos of Cecil County’s Landscape, historic buildings, old waterways, and heritage organizations. Whatever the case, the county’s beautiful cultural landscape, and history are the focus.

Again, thank you for following the page, engaging in social conservations, and contributing materials that are able to be shared.

To those that generously share their content, the page also say thank you. It always credits original contributions as it acknowledges the fine work of other content creators — their history posts and photographs. Too, it encourages you to share its material as social media channels benefits when content about the past is broadly shared.

Your interest makes the effort worthwhile.

Ceciiton: Chronicles of a Small Town in Rural America is a wonderful history written by Mary Haggerty in 1991. In this informative book, Mary produced a collection of memories from “people who have lived a lifetime in or near Cecilton. “It is a collection of stories about things which took place in a small town. We have tried to put dates, or least approximate dates, where ever possible but almost everything written here is oral history from the people who know it best — our senior citizens.” A large group of seniors from the greater Cecilton area contributed to the work.

We often consult this handy title when working on projects about the First District and Cecilton. A few weeks ago Mary called, to ask if we could place it on the Internet so those curious about the past in the area between the Bohemia and Sassafras rivers could have easy access to the volume. Of course, we were very pleased to do that. The book is also available at the Cecil County Public Library, which has circulating copies at the Cecilton and Elkton branches.

Mary has produced a few more books and we will share those shortly. Thank you Mary for documenting the past in the southern part of the county. This is a valuable contribution to the area’s history.