Window on Cecil County's Past

After Eva Muse retired from a long career in education, she started formally documenting Cecil County’s African-American History. Over several decades, Eva assisted patrons visiting the library and served as vice-president of the heritage organization. She graduated from the “Elkton Colored School” in 1942 and went on to receive a Bachelor’s degree in teaching from…

Posted on January 3, 2019 by admh “A Black History of Cecilton” is an informative title written by Mary Haggerty in 1993. Mary collected stories from African-Americans who lived in the Cecilton area, recording their memories and recollections of things that had happened or the stories they heard from older people in the community. Over…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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. …

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…

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…