Window on Cecil County's Past

Firefighters share several stories about how the Water Witch Fire Company of Port Deposit got its name, so a company officer asked Cecil County History to investigate the matter. Supposedly the town purchased an engine that had the name Water Witch already on it so the organization decided to change the name of the company rather than replace the gold lettering already on the steamer.

Here’s what we uncovered:

In the spring of 1873, the town of Port Deposit decided that the municipality’s old hand pumpers had become obsolete, so they proceeded to Wilmington, Del., to purchase one whose “motor was newer.” A deal was made with Wilmington’s Water Witch Fire Company to acquire its used steam engine.

Steam Fire Engine Arrives

Papers frequently referred to this pumper as the “Water Witch.” For example, in April 1874, the Democrat reported on a blaze, noting that soon the “Water Witch” was manned, and down the street, it came, the fire being kindled as it went. The fire was quickly controlled as George Wilson and William Johnson manned the nozzles.

In early May 1873, when the Delaware fire engine arrived in town, a large crowd greeted its arrival at the depot, the Cecil Democrat reported. Once it was unloaded, it was taken down the street rapidly until it reached the park in front of Jacob Tome’s residence. There the boiler was filled with water, and it was ready for action in less than five minutes. The engine cost $1,300. The Democrat added that members of the Delaware fire company visited Port Deposit to give lessons in using the new apparatus.

“Some of the city firemen would, I think, be thrown the shade if they were to see our Port boys handle fire with the aid of the Water Witch. She does her work nobly,” the Democrat concluded on April 24, 1875.

Second Steam Engine for Port Deposit

The association with the Wilmington firefighters continued into another decade. One April morning in 1884, a fire broke out in the center of town and the flames were spreading rapidly to other structures. The Cecil Whig wrote that “Port Deposit has but one fire engine but fortunately, the ‘Water Witch engine of Wilmington’ was there for a trail. Both engines were put to work, extinguishing the blaze.

On April 19, 1884, the Cecil Whig reported that the Town of Port Deposit had acquired the second steam engine from the Water Witch Company of Wilmington for $2,250 and now has two of those machines.” By the time the current organization was established in Port Deposit, newspapers frequently referred to the “Water Witch.”

Additional Photos

Additional Port Deposit Fire Company Photos

See this album on Facebook.

A number of 19th-century schools are still standing these days, and one of those is the Jackson Hall School. Located on Jackson Hall Road, a short distance from Cowentown, this school was built in 1870.

The second floor was used as a Sunday School and a community meeting room. The first floor contained a large classroom, a coal bin, and a vestibule where wraps and a water bucket were kept.

Miss Libbie M. Hayes taught here for 27 years. Other teachers were Ruth A Tuft; Helen Hasson; Emma Henderson; May West; Bertha Biddle; Edith Robinson; Nora Finley; Evelyn T. Kimble; Ethel Reynolds and Etta Bouchelle.¹

As autumn arrived in 1945, the doors at the old schoolhouse didn’t reopen and the classroom was silent. The last teacher, Miss Sadie E. Savanaugh, had been transferred to the Principio Furnace School to serve as the principal.²,³

The Board of Education advertised the school for sale on January 30, 1946. In a public auction, Patrick Morgan purchased the parcel as it adjoined his land.⁴

For Additional Information on Jackson Hall School

See this album of photos on Facebook

Endnotes

1. Howard, E. A., Cecil County Maryland Public Schools, 1850 – 1958[↩]
2. Teacher Resignations and Appointments, Midland Journal, Aug. 24, 1945[↩]
3. Sale of School Properties, Midland Journjal, Jan 25, 1946[↩]
4. School Buildings Sold, Midland Journal, Feb. 8, 1946[↩]

On Booth Street between the George Washington Carver Leadership Center and Wright’s A.M.E. Church, there stands a small, nondescript masonry block building. On this parcel by 1892, there was a frame schoolhouse for African-American children in Elkton, according to Board of Education Minute Books and Sanborn Maps. Keys and Miller Lumber Company, of Elkton, and Strawbridge and Clothier, of Philadelphia, made contributions to help improve this facility.

In 1917, Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, wanted to make a difference in education for young people in needy, segregated communities, so he established a foundation that encouraged the building of up-to-date schools in the south.

The Rosenwald Foundation donated $1,300 toward a $7,600 project in 1926, which significantly expanded the school on this parcel. This larger facility had classrooms for five teachers, according to Fisk University records. It was used to educate Black children until 1954.

When the new academic year got underway In 1954 there was a modern, mid-20th century school — now the Cecil County Public Schools central administration building — to serve the needs of 300 African-American students across Cecil County. The Carver School was formally dedicated in January 1955.

.Just after the Civil War (1867), the county had started considering arrangements for African American Schools in Cecil County. While they mulled things over, churches in Elkton served as classrooms, but at some point in this post-Civil War era, there was a building that was used until the 1892 structure was built.

For Additional Photos of African American Schools in Elkton

See this album on Facebook

Last week, the soaring mercury made it hot, humid, and miserable around Cecil County. These sweltering conditions cause many people to scurry off to the shore, mountains, a pool, or theatre – anywhere to escape the steamy tropical days.  For an extended period this month, the daytime temperatures hovered just shy of the 100-degree mark.  If that escaped you, perhaps the fuss by Baltimore TV newscasters had you sweating. They spent a lot of time telling us the temperature neared triple digits, though it felt a good deal hotter because humidity saturated the air.

Whatever the case, the heat was on, although the all-time record for the northern part of the peninsula did not tumble.  The weather service records, maintained in nearby Wilmington since 1895, show a blistering August 7, 1918, when the mercury halted its climb at 107 degrees. .

In the time before electricity to power fans and refrigerators, and air conditioners it was hard to beat the heat.

Heatwave of 1901

Take the heat wave of 1901 as an example. That July, long before there were energy-sucking air conditioners, a wave of tropical air gripped the area. Men and horses suffocated under what was then described as the worst heat wave on record, according to county newspapers. It was so hot that mercury in a thermometer in the Port Deposit foundry was ready to burst from its tube. So workers took the instrument outside to let it cool off and then returned to the superheated foundry.

The scorcher caused people to slow their pace and go to extremes for comfort. Farmers working in fields suspended work until a cooler hour, according to the Whig. “The sound of mower and binder made merry music in the soft moonlight.” Later, after hours of tossing and turning in overheated houses, many folks spent restless nights trying to sleep on porches and in hammocks.

Heading to the Beach

Packing up and heading to the beach to escape sweltering days is not a new thing. As far back as the 19th century, vacationers would climb aboard a steamboat for a leisurely trip to one of the Chesapeake’s bathing resorts, such as Betterton or Tolchester.  Others would take extended August breaks in Cape May, N.J.

Ice made by machinery did not arrive here on blazing summer days in the 19^th century.  No, when cold weather failed to produce an annual harvest in January 1890, an Elkton dealer purchased the “artificial” item from Wilmington, the Whig reported. A local plant to manufacture the sometimes hard-to-obtain frozen commodity was built in the county seat in 1909.

Electric Fans, Refrigerators & AC

Refrigerators for homes were introduced to consumers in the 1920s, and “mass production … began in earnest after World War II,” reports History Magazine. “By 1950, more than 80 percent of American farms had one.”

In the 20th century, struggling air conditioners tamed our summers, making indoor working and sleeping comfortable. Before that, table and ceiling fans kept warm indoor air moving. A patent for the electric fan was issued in 1882, and those breezy devices started showing up in the county. When J. J. Newberry’s opened its department store in downtown Elkton in 1941, it had six fans suspended from the ceiling, newspapers observed.

After World War II, air-conditioning systems became increasingly common. When a modem theatre, the Elk, opened in the county seat in 1949, moviegoers attended shows in air-conditioned comfort. In the 1950s, magazines such as Popular Mechanics pushed the idea of “made-to-order” climates for the home and in increasing numbers, homeowners agreed, causing sales to skyrocket in the 1960s.

Well, it’s summer on the Eastern Shore and the heat is on. During these trying days, some of the hottest and most humid, we have many ways to cope with stifling conditions. Perhaps you will be off in search of delicious ice cream, a climate-controlled building, or the refreshing beach.

For more on beating the heat in Cecil County See

Here’s the Scoop for These Hot July Days: Ice Cream

Ice was a Summer Luxury

Today Cecil County is divided into nine minor political subdivisions called election districts (EDs). But in the earliest times, the equivalent intra-county areas were known as hundreds.

Hundreds in Cecil County

Having its origin in Saxon history, the name was derived from the concept of having a territory that could provide a hundred men to serve in the militia. In the colony, it was used as an administrative area for local government management, which included the work of tax assessors and the appointment of constables. In 1798 the General Assembly enacted a law requiring the division of the then nineteen counties of Maryland into EDs in the place of the antiquated hundred. Cecil County was divided into four EDs in 1800.

We often get questions about the general location of those early civil units, especially the hundreds. Darlene McCall and Lorraine Alexander produced the best reference to answer that question several decades ago. They published a most helpful title, the “Genealogical Research Guide for Cecil County, Maryland.” It included a map drawn by Jon Harlan Livezy, which showed the fully developed system of hundreds in Cecil County in the late 1700s.

Produced long before the digital revolution helped open up access to traces of the past, this particular title has been out of print for several years. But it has always been a helpful source for anyone researching Cecil County families and topics. We occasionally consult our copy for insights shared by these excellent researchers and genealogists.

The nine EDs of Cecil County are the minor political subdivisions of the County. Their evolution from the original four districts created in 1800 to the present nine was legislated as follows:

Creation of Election Districts

• 1800 — Four Election Districts established

• 1835 — Seven election districts laid out

• 1852 — An eighth district, Conowingo, created

• 1857 — A ninth district (Calvert), the last district, was created.

For some 165 years now, the nine districts have remained largely unchanged. With this data as a reference, it is possible to locate the general area where a person lived if the hundred or election district is known.

For additional illustrations on the election districts See this album on Facebook

As we endure the oppressive heat of July, we’ve been examining the old ice dealers of Cecil County. Following our earlier posts on this subject, a reader asked how Howard’s Pond on East Main Street at the Big Elk Creek got its name.

Here’s a little more information on this.

Jacob A. Howard decided to build an ice pond on his meadow at the east end of town in 1867, and the project was completed in December. While the principal purpose was to provide an annual supply of ice, the pond also made a fine skating park, providing a “long-needed place of amusement for the young folks in winter,” the Whig reported.

Over the next few months, he filled his ice house so that when the season of “annual scarcity arrived,” Elkton was well supplied with the sought-after commodity. When the harvest wasn’t underway, it could be used for skating. “The juveniles have been looking over the banks of the new park with wistful eyes on the broadsheet of glassy ice and hope Mr. Howard gets that ice house filled when the embargo on their skating upon it would be removed,“ the paper observed that winter.

At the time of Jacob’s death in February 1901, the Whig noted: “Mr. Howard was extensively engaged in the ice business in Elkton and only five days before his death had finished filling his large ice house at the east end of town.”

After he passed, Harry George and Andrew Rambo purchased the ice business from his widow, the Whig reported on Nov. 8, 1902. In 1911, it was reported that Andrew Rambo sold his ice supply business to Henry H. Mitchell (Cecil Whig, Jan 28, 1911)

Much later in the 20th century, the Town of Elkton acquired Howard’s Pond. Then in the decades after World War II, it was used for ice skating in the winter.

(Source: photo Rodney Frazer Collection at the Historial Society of Cecil County)

As the nation marked the 78^th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, we paged through newspapers and listened to broadcasts to see how Cecil County stayed informed as allied troops fought on the beaches of Normandy. Those critical late spring days in 1944 marked the start of the campaign to liberate Western Europe from Nazi Germany.

Radio Flashes Alerted the County

Once people awoke that Tuesday morning, great unease settled in as they heard the news. During the wee hours of the night, General Dwight D. Eisenhower took to the airwaves to announce that the invasion had started.  After that, broadcast journalists delivered periodic updates as people worried that Elkton’s National Guard Unit was in the thick of the fighting.  Word spread quickly on that June morning as people stirred, families anxiously huddling around radios hour after hour, listening for bulletins.     

Later that day, churches held special D-Day services, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a prayer on the networks. In charge of the Elkton services, Rev. John J. Bunting of the Methodist Church prayed for the safety of sons, husbands, and neighbors on the frontline, the Democrat reported ¹.

Meanwhile, editors of city newspapers in Philadelphia and Baltimore scrambled to put out special editions and update afternoon papers.  When they arrived at train stations and newsstands, people snapped them up.    

As the fighting stretched into days, parents whose “boys” were on the battlefront listened most intensely to broadcasts. But all across the county, no one wanted to leave the radio.  ².

One soldier, from a foxhole somewhere in France, dashed off a hasty letter, Sgt. Donald S. Preston of North East told his family that he and his brother were O.K.  It arrived in North East on June 13³

County Newspaper Struggled to Provide Local Context

The county weeklies struggled to provide the local angle.  In those early days, hometown news from the front was scarce so papers offered up a few lines of reassuring editorial matter. For example, a Whig columnist noted that these two days would go down in history – Dec. 7, 1941, with the attack on Pearl Harbor and June 6, 1944, the invasion.  Now “we need two more days of note – Surrender of Hitler and the wiping out of Japanese,” the writer added. ⁴ 

Many Cecil County boys were with the 29^th division invading France, the Whig informed readers.  “They are on the firing line driving inland.  It will be tough going as the days lengthen into weeks and the weeks into months.  Parents are on the anxious bench.  .  .”⁵

On June 24, over two weeks after the invasion began, the Democrat had some news directly from the front.  Sgt. Charles D. Racine had been slightly wounded in action in France.    

Rough Going For Cecil County Soldiers

As those difficult days stretched to weeks of intense combat, the going was rough for the 29^th Division, and four Cecil County families received sad news. Their sons had been killed.  Staff Sgt. Charles T. Creighton of North East was killed in France on June 18, just weeks after receiving the Silver Medal “for gallantry and heroism.”  The 24-year-old was with the 29^th Division, Company E. 115^th infantry when he was killed somewhere in France.  He was 24.⁶ 

 Also killed in France were two Elkton men, PFC Preston L. Dean on July 11 and Sgt. Willard P. Heverin, 34.  ⁷  Finally, the War Department reported Pvt. Luke J. Onizuk was killed in France on July 22. An expert sharpshooter, Private Onizuk was 19.⁸

The efforts of the troops deserved to be remembered and honored on D-Day.  More than 4,400 allied soldiers, including these four men from Cecil County, lost their lives on D-D Day.  Many more were wounded.

For More on the 29th Division

For more on Cecil County’s World War II generation, see the Historical Society’s “Cecil’s Soldiers: Stories from the World War II” Generation. The author is Jenifer Dolde. The central story follows the men of Company E of the Maryland National Guard, who met at the Elkton Armory and were federalized following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. While some of the men went on to serve as paratroopers and specialists, a core group battled their way from Normandy to St. Lo to Brest and finally to Bremen at the end of the war. 

Endnotes

1. D-day services held, Cecil Democrat, June 10, 1944[↩]
2. “D-Day Services Held,” Cecil Democrat, June 10, 1944[↩]
3. “Home and Abroad With Our Men on Land and Sea,” Cecil Democrat, July 1, 1944[↩]
4. “Comments,” ((“Comments,” Cecil Whig, June 8, 1944[↩]
5. Comments, Cecil Whig, June 6, 1944[↩]
6. Killed iN Action, The News, Federick, Md. Aug 22, 1944[↩]
7. Obituary,  Reburial Arranged for Preston L. Dean, News Journal June 8, 1949.[↩]
8. “War News Saddens, Cecil County Homes,” Morning News, Aug 7, 1944[↩]

In the middle third of the 20th century, many Cecil County towns had theaters. One of those enjoyable places was the “Cecil,” the Cecilton theatre, where nightly shows (except Sundays) were offered in air-conditioned comfort on a beautiful, wide-screen.

The theater had been built as a school, but the property became surplus property once the George Biddle High School, opened. So the School Board sold the structure to James D. and Catherine Stradley for $3,100 in 1944. After they remodeled and renovated the facility, one-half was converted into a hardware store and the other side become a movie house.¹

Their work included installing 35-millimeter projectors, theatre seating, and air conditioning. In the Feb. 14, 1948, edition of the Cecil Democrat an advertisement said the “Cecil Threatre” with the finest in motion pictures and best in sound was opening very soon.²

The curtain went up for the inaugural screening on Monday, Feb. 23, 1948, as Black Gold entertained an excited audience from throughout the lower part of the county. After that, the marquee advertised first-run shows for moviegoers.

Robert Moore operated the hardware store and John Deere business on the other side. About 1961, the Gerhart family purchased the hardware business, along with the building from Mr. Stradley and the lights went out as the Cecilton Theatre closed.³

For Additional Photos of the Cecilton Theatre see this album on Facebook

Endnotes

1. Mary Haggerty, “Cecilton: Chronicles of a Small Town in America,[↩]
2. Cecil Democrat, Feb. 14, 1948[↩]
3. Upper Shoreman, May 1979[↩]