Window on Cecil County's Past

When Pan American Flight 214 Crashed in Elkton, news media outlets rushed to get a flash out on the story first. In line with demonstrating the effectiveness of the AP at covering rapidly unfolding events, the global wire service had a weekly newsletter where editors spotlighted AP breaking news coverage, and it focused on the accident.

For the Dec. 4-10, 1963, issue, the AP Log wrote, “The speed and thoroughness with which the Associated Press” moved into and surrounded “a spot-break major news story through member cooperation, stringer sources, and staff mobilization . . . was demonstrated dramatically” on three fronts, giving the wire service a 24-minute head start.

Within moments of the Sunday crash, two radio members — WSER, Elkton, and WASA, Havre de Grace — telephoned Baltimore AP while the Wilmington Morning News called the Philadelphia Bureau. With a head start, their stringer sources in the area covered developments until Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington staffers arrived.

Jim Hungate telephoned from WSER in Elkton first. (WSER, a daytime station on 1550 AM had just gone on the air three months earlier. “That was followed almost immediately by another call from Lee Robbins of WASA.

In Philadelphia, at almost the exact moment, Night Editor George Esper got the same information on a tieline from Harry Themal of the Wilmington Morning News, quickly supplemented by relay of that newspaper’s story, take by take.”

“Philadelphia newsman Stan Benjamin and photograph Bill Ingraham were the first to reach the rain-drenched disaster scene, reinforced shortly afterward by newsman George Bown and photographer Bill Smith from Baltimore, reporter Larry Osisu from Washington and news photo editor Bill Achatz from Philadelphia.”

“Most AP coverage was filed by Baltimore, where Night Editor Lou Panos quarterbacked the early hours of the operation. When the Wilmington Morning News was first with identification of the airline, which Philadelphia quickly inserted into Baltmore’s running story, the New York Bureau checked out the exact casualty total and went to work on the passenger list. Even before this, New York had filed some descriptive information on the accident, obtained by reporter Junius Friffin on a volunteered call from an eye witness, Arnold Turkheimer of the Bronx. In Philadelphia, staff James V. Lamb went to the airport for the story of relatives and friends of passengers awaiting the arrival of the plane.”

In addition, broadcast outlets rushed to northeastern Maryland. One of the newsreel producers covering the tragedy was Universal International. Here’s the link to their footage

Another company, British Pathe, also provided a clip for its subscribers.

At WDEL Radio in Wilmington, Broadcast Journalist Joe Mosbrook had a preliminary bulletin on the air soon after the crash. 

The plain concrete block building in the rear of the old county jail on North Street in Elkton was built in the middle of World War II. Elkton needed a building to serve as a center for Boy Scout activities, so troop leaders looked around and located some unused county land just off North Street.

Representatives of the Kiwanis Club asked permission to erect a one-story structure with a basement on the county-owned space. The commissioners agreed and the Scout headquarters was dedicated on Oct. 10, 1943.

In 1957, as the Cold War heated up, the county needed a headquarters for its new Civil Defense agency, which had responsibility for coordination operations in the event of a nuclear attack. So the building was handed over to the disaster agency as the basement provided the best option for a control center.

Once Civil Defense moved to the courthouse in the second half of the 1960s, the structure served the county in other ways.

It was used in the 1970s as a live-in/work-out facility for inmates who worked during the day. This helped relieve the badly overcrowded jail, and later it provided office space for Cecil County’s Purchasing Dept.

Having gone from the Scout building to the headquarters for Civil Defense, the building was demolished in 2013 after the county sold the property to the North Street Senior Residences, an apartment complex for seniors.

ELKTON, November 10, 2023—On a somber, gray, rainy day, hundreds of people gathered at the Newark Avenue firehouse to pay their final respects to Chief Frank W. Muller, Jr. The 68-year-old emergency services leader, who dedicated his entire adult life to serving the community, passed away on November 7, 2023.

Following the service, the funeral procession made its way to Gilpin Manor Cemetery with the 1921 American La France Fire Engine from North East carrying the casket. “Old 38” was joined by a long procession of emergency vehicles escorting the cortege to Gilpin Manor Cemetery. There, with full fire department honors, he was laid to rest.

The route to Gilpin Manor took the procession past the courthouse and his former fire station in the center of Elkton.  As the motorcade eased beneath the crossed ladders of aerial units from Perryville and Rising, a majestic American flag atop the towers fluttered in the damp breeze. 

At the graveside, the mournful strains of the bagpipe gradually faded off into the distance as uniformed first responders stood at attention. Toward the end of the service, the somber silence was interrupted by the crackling of a dispatcher’s voice transmitting the final call for Chief Muller over the radio.

Frank’s fire service career began as a 16-year-old in 1971 when he entered the ranks of the service as a probationary member with the Singerly Fire Company. This starting point 52 years earlier suddenly seemed very distant as mourners honored a life of remarkable service.

Frank headed to Ocean City to work as a “paid ambulance driver at the Maryland Shore,” after graduating high school. While rushing patients to the hospital on those busy summer days in the 1970s, the resort offered him an opportunity to become an advanced life support  (ALS) provider, a new initiative across the state. He became certified, and as ALS demands grew at the Shore, Ocean City Mayor “Fish” Powell asked the young man to return to the class to become the fire department’s ALS instructor.

He eagerly jumped at the opportunity and started training generations of ALS clinicians.  As the decade drew to a close, Frank returned home to Elkton, returning to his old volunteer role with Singerly Fire Company. In 1978, Frank taught the first class of advanced life support providers in Cecil County.

He also worked as a road deputy with the Cecil County Sheriff’s Office. As a certified law enforcement officer, Frank pioneered another innovation — the Deputy-Medic Program. Deputies were on the road 24/7, so why not have the officers certified as ALS providers support the volunteer ambulance crews, he reasoned.

With his extensive experience as a field caregiver and instructor, Cecil County hired him in 1988 to establish a paramedic program staffed by county employees. In 1997, Frank was appointed Director of Cecil County Emergency Services. The chief retired in 2007.

When Chief Frank Muller started with the department, it was primarily a Cold War agency, dispatching volunteer fire companies and planning how to protect Cecil County from a nuclear attack. Over the decades, he guided the department through significant changes as it took on many more responsibilities as public safety grew increasingly complex. After the September 11 attack, its work was significantly transformed.

As an innovator and leader, he guided the agency through tremendous growth, moving from primarily a dispatch and emergency coordination center to a government unit providing the full spectrum of public safety initiatives, including responding to natural disasters, hazardous material incidents, and attacks.

His unwavering commitment to the community, spanning six decades, will not be forgotten. During a distinguished career, the innovator established Cecil County’s EMS system and the modern Department of Emergency Services agency. Chief Frank Muller, a friend, colleague, and public servant, influenced many lives.  He will be missed.

For additional photos of the service, see this album on Facebook.

ELKTON — In the spring of 1883, William Singerly purchased ground along the Big Elk Creek for his pulp mill and wharf. But atop the hill that sloped gently down to the waterway stood the old family burial ground of the Hollingsworth and Partridge families, containing some eighty graves.

As the contractor dug away at the hillside just west of Bridge Street and alongside the creek, he discovered that it was necessary to remove the graves of people interred there, some over 100 years ago.

Singerly immediately hired a contractor to begin moving the Elkton cemetery. This involved establishing plans to move the remains, securing the permission of the relatives to relocate the graves to two large lots he purchased in the Elkton cemetery on Howard Street. There was sufficient room to accommodate all the reburials from the old family graveyard and surrounding ground, according to the Cecil Whig.

Superintended by Henry Wood, the excavation work revealed many graves, according to the newspaper. When the workmen discovered graves, they carefully removed as much of the remains of each individual as possible, placing them in strong, neatly made boxes, mostly for reinternment in the Elkton Cemetery.

If there were head or foot stones, Mr. D. Sloan, Elkton’s monument dealer, gathered them up and put them up at the Howard Street Cemetery.

Outside the enclosure of the old family graveyard, many people were buried without stones or slabs to tell who they were or when they were placed there. They were removed with the same care; the only distinction was that separate boxes were not given to them.

On March 27, 1883, the first day of the work, seven or eight graves were moved. Over the next few weeks, the work continued as the remains of some of Elkton’s earliest residents were moved. The oldest grave in the family burial ground was in 1740. The remains of the Rudulph family were taken to the Presbyterian cemetery for reburial. Charles R. Sewell, son of James and Ann Maria Sewell, was moved to the Sewell Family Burial Vault on South Bridge Street.

Within a week or so, the work of moving the Elkton cemetery was completed.

For Additional Photos – see this Album on Facebook — Vacating an Old Family Burial Ground

For More on the Elkton Cemetery, see the Fireman’s Plot

For the 20th anniversary of the inauguration of the United States Airmail Service, Postmaster General James A. Farley and President Roosevelt created a week-long event to commemorate the occasion. As part of the celebration, the postal service made a commemorative first-day cancellation for National Air Mail Week, May 15-21, 1938.

The Post Office Department formally established domestic U.S. airmail service on May 15, 1918, with the inaugural route taking the planes up the east coast between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York, according to Wikipedia. After the service started, aircraft carrying express mail passed daily over northeastern Maryland.

For the local celebration in 1938, Postmaster J. Mercer Terrell arranged for an airmail plane piloted by Dr. A. L. Trussell to make the first stop in Elkton to pick up mail from the local post office. The aircraft landed at Elk Landing to collect a sack of letters containing the special cancellation.

The cachet with the headline ELKTON, MARYLAND showed an old stagecoach carrying mail over the old post road and an airplane flying overhead. A press release for the day called it “the fastest method of fast mail service.”

Source: personal collection

On Dec. 10, 1947, residents in northern Cecil County welcomed the latest in entertainment as the new modern Rising Sun Theatre opened at 11 E. Main Street.

A large crowd eagerly purchased tickets to watch “Dear Ruth” despite icy, hazardous conditions prevailing across northern Maryland.

Capable of seating 400 ticket holders, upholstered red leather seats with spring cushions provided comfortable seating in the auditorium. Also, modern projection and sound equipment in a fire-resistant projection booth presented the latest in the movie-going experience.

After the grand opening at the “Sun Theatre,” patrons throughout the area had a first-run movie theater of their own right in the heart of town.

William Buck owned the entertainment business, and a week earlier, he had closed the old theater in what was called “firemen’s hall” at the corner of Queen and Cherry streets. According to the Maryland News Courier, he had operated the town motion picture house for five years at the location, having acquired the enterprise from others.

“Firemen’s Hall” had been built in 1871 by the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, and over the decades, it had housed various businesses, including the picture shows. This building was demolished around 1964 to make room for a new firehouse.

The old Sun Theatre building still stands on Main Street a few building east of the town hall.

NOTES

Information about the opening of the Rising Sun Theatre from the Maryland News Courier Dec. 12, 1947, & Dec. 5, 1947.

Rising Sun, MD, 150th Anniversary Celebration (2010)

For additional photos from the Sun Theatre see this Facebook album

For more on other theatres in the county see this post: The Cecilton Theatre; the North East Theatre

CROSSROADS TO FREEDOM WALKING TOUR

CECILTON – SEPT, 10, 2023 @ 1 p.m.

WALKING TOUR FOR INTERNATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

MONTH

ABOUT ONE HOUR

FREE

For International Underground Railroad Month, enjoy this walk through Cecilton as we explore the story of the Underground Railroad in the land between the Bohemia and Sassafras rivers. During this casual Sunday stroll in the fine, historic community, gain an understanding of the area in the antebellum period, hear about freedom seekers in southern Cecil County, and visit Union Bethel AME Church, a historic house of worship.

Along the way, you will hear about Edward Richardson, Bishop Levi J. Coppin, and Private George Douglass, a Civil War Soldier.

The free tour, led by Historian Mike Dixon starts at the town hall., 117 West Main Street. To reserve your space, register by calling the town at 410-275-2692

This Underground Railroad Tour is brought to you by the Town of Cecilton, Union Bethel AME Church, and Cecil County Tourism.

With William Singerly’s business ventures growing in Elkton, he erected a handsome three-story, ten-room “cottage” just a few blocks from the railroad station. The structure, known as the Singerly Cottage, faced an as-yet-unnamed street in a developing section of town, some papers calling it Maple Street. But today, it is known as Cathedral Street.

Work on the residence got underway in May 1885. In August the Cecil Whig remarked on the progress at the Singerly Cottage: “It is well worth a walk around to Maple Avenue to see the fine residence about being completed for Mr. Wm. M. Singerly of Philadelphia. While the style of architecture is new to most of our people, it is generally admired by all.”

The home provided for his use when he visited Elkton was finished around October of 1885. This handsomely furnished home cost about $17,600 to build.

The Philadelphia businessman died in 1898, and in May 1906, Union Hospital purchased the cottage. Soon after that, considerable remodeling was underway, fitting up Mr. Singerly’s home for use as a hospital.

For an additional photo, see the Facebook post

In 1929, President Herbert Hoover’s administration started searching for a location for a summer White House. President Calvin Coolidge had recommended Mount Weather, near Bluemont, Va. But Herbert Hoover wanted an area accessible by both car and the presidential yacht. He also favored a place where good fishing and other outdoor recreation could be enjoyed.

The Eastern Shore Association had several; suggestions; one was the Kitty Knight House on the Sassafras River in Georgetown. It provided convenient access to the presidential yacht and excellent fishing.

In Elkton, business interests pitched “Creswell Hall.” It was once the home of Postmaster General John Creswell and was offered to the national government as the summer home. The current owner, William Selby, met with government officials in Washington to interest them in taking over the property built in 1840, the Morning News reported on April 3, 1929. The Cecil Whig favored the idea, noting that the selection of Elkton would be a great advantage to the town.

Another location was eventually selected to serve as the summer white house.

Click on this link for an album of additional photos

One of the most interesting and architecturally distinctive buildings in Elkton’s old business district was the Cecil Whig Building. It was located at 125 North Street, next to PNC Bank.

The newspaper, established on Aug. 7, 1841, by Palmer Ricketts, was originally published out of a log cabin. As the weekly grew, it needed more space so in 1876 Edwin Evans Ewing built this attractive, narrow brick building to house the growing publication. The job and newspaper printing presses were located in the back of the building; the editorial and business offices fronted on North Street.

The front facade was particularly interesting, and in 1882 Henry R. Torbert added the attractive tower. It had a colonial revival door on the ground floor and a multi-panel window above. A recessed panel extended up the entire tower. At the top, the panel was inscribed with the dates 1841 and 1882.

In 1960, the Cecil Whig moved to a modern printing plant and building on Bridge Street. The grand-old building was demolished around 1985 to make way for an expansion of what was until recently PNC Bank.