We were recently asked when the phone company in Elkton stopped using telephone operators. Here’s our response.
Once, most Cecil County towns had switchboard operators. But as the modern age of telephony arrived, consolidation occurred, and gradually, switchboards in smaller towns went dark as the larger central office in Elkton handled connections.
As the 1950s moved along, sufficient centralization occurred that the Chesapeake and Potomac Phone Company only maintained a switchboard in Elkton. Rising Sun had an independent phone company.
Before direct dialing arrived in Elkton in 1959, there were 30 operators. But after that happened the company reduced the workforce to 14, the remaining staff handling calls that required operator assistance.
As direct dialing came in, the need for operators in Elkton was greatly diminished. Finally, in January 1972, the Chesapeake and Potomac Phone Company announced that calls requiring assistance would be routed through Havre de Grace, and on a Sunday that month the ladies worked their last shift. That day, the switchboard employees on duty were Eunice Kilby, Betty Husfelt, Elaine West, and Bernice Eastridge. Ten operators had remained at Elkton until that point. Mrs. Husfelt remarked that since 1959 telephone operators had worked at the Railroad Avenue location, and when the building opened, there had been 30 full-time employees handling calls.
Operators on duty at the Elkton office for the last time were (L-R) Eunice Kilby, Betty Husfelt, Elaine West and hidden from view, Bernice Eastridge. (Source: Cecil Democrat)
Built by Jacob Tome around 1859, the grand solid granite mansion was the largest home in the town, according to the Maryland Historical Trust. In the 1870s, the Port Deposit banker, investor, and philanthropist, remodeled it in the grand Second Empire Style. The renovated structure included elaborate wrought iron balconies, a mansard roof, and a substantial tower, which housed the bank and Mr. Tome’s Office, the Maryland Historical Trust noted.
The Jacob Tome Mansion in the 1930s (Source: Library of Congress)
Tome lived here until his death in 1898. And fifty years after his death, the mansion gave way to the wrecking ball. That was in August 1948, and the community was making room for a swimming pool operated by the Port Deposit Lions Club. The process of “razing of the palatial, three-story granite block home” was underway the Cecil Democrat reported in its issue of Aug. 14, 1948.
The paper assured readers that Jacob Tome’s name would “far outlive the magnificent granite home that he built in Port Deposit.
While the Tome Mansion was lost in 1948, the Town of Port Deposit’s historic district has a strong inventory of historic structures. Two Tome structures remaining from this era are Tome’s carriage house and gas house.
A circa 1918 postcard of The former residence of Hon. Jacob Tome founder of the Jacob Tome Institute (Source: Cecil County History
For additional photos of the Tome Mansion, see this album on Facebook
On Aug. 1, 1948, a U.S. Army jet plane crash took place at Woodlawn near Port Deposit. The Air Corp jet struck Joseph Abrahams Store in Woodlawn at 4:10 p.m. The newest type of reconnaissance plane, the P-80, being piloted by 1st Lt. Glenn W. Jackson became separated from a flight of four aircraft traveling from Stewart Field, West Point, N.Y., to Langley Field, Va. It went out of control as the squadron approached Port Deposit and the Susquehanna River.
Lt. Jackson, parachuting from the diving jet as it spun out of control at 32,000 feet, watched as it missed the Abrahams’ house, struck the Jacob Tome Memorial Highway and careened into the family store. An explosion and fire occurred as the Water Witch Fire Company, assisted by units from Bainbridge, Perryville, Rising Sun, and North East rushed to the crash site. The store burned to the ground, but firefighters were able to keep the intense flames from spreading to the home.
The pilot touched down safely on the farm of E.D. Lambdin about an eighth of a mile from the scene, where he staggered to the farmhouse before collapsing from exhaustion, according to the Maryland News Courier.
The wreckage of the Joseph Abrahams Store as soldiers from the Aberdeen Proving Ground search the debris left by the jet plane crash of an Army reconnaissance Yet. (Source: Maryland News Courier, Aug. 6, 1948)
“In the house with Mr. Abrahams at the time were his two sisters, Cornelia and Virginia, and his daughter-in-law and three grandchildren,” the newspaper reported. No one on the ground was hurt.
“This was the second major plane crash in the section of the heavily traveled air lane, the other being the passenger plane that crashed near Battle Swamp last year, which is still the worst traffic air crash in U.S. history,” the 1948 article concluded, referring to the May 31, 1947, crash of Eastern Airline Flight 606 that killed all 53 people on board near Port Deposit.
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:
On a cold winter day in Port Deposit, the two steam engines of the Water Witch Fire Company answered an alarm.
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.”
A photo of the fomrer school in the late 1950s or early 1960s. (Source: Cecil County Maryland Public Schools, 1850 – 1958 by Ernest A. Howard)
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
This 1922 Sanborn Map of Elkton shows the “colored school” on the corner of Bethel and Booth streets. (source: Library of Congress:
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.
A circa 1950 photo of the structure that once served African-American school children before the modern school opened. (Source: Cecil County Board of Education Collection at the Historical Society of Cecil County)
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.
Once the 1954-55 school year go underway students reported to the new school (now the administration building). It is nearly complete in this photo. (Source: Cecil Whig, Aug. 19, 1954)
For Additional Photos of African American Schools in Elkton
Port Deposit Poice Chief Horace Boddy (an undated snapshot provided by Chief Boddy)
Port Deposit Police Chief Horace Boddy passed away on July 21, 2019, at the age of 95. Horace became an auxiliary officer on the Port Deposit force in the early 1960s. About 1966, the council promoted him to the top position. This made him the first African-American police chief in Cecil County once he took charge of the department. Although it was a part-time position, he was on call around the clock.
A Young Man’s Interest in Policing
As a 9 or 10-year-old growing up in town, the dream of becoming a police officer started one day during a snow storm, he recalled in an interview with the News Journal. He and a friend were making their way through the frigid winter blast to a store when a Maryland State Trooper from the Conowingo Post pulled up. The trooper told the pair to jump in, and he gave them a warming ride to their destination. During that ride on a long-ago winter day, the impressed youngster was enchanted by the helpfulness of the officer and “the excitement of the police car, especially its radio.”
After 16 years of service to the municipality, the chief contemplated retirement as the 1980s got underway. Finally, in February 1980, he stepped down as the town’s top lawman, but he wasn’t ready to completely retire.
Stepping Down as Chief
His second in command, 33-year-old Bill Waibel, became the chief, and Mr. Boddy stayed on as a member of the force. He told the News Journal that it was time to “let somebody else handle it. Twenty-four hours a day is pretty rough when you work at a job 16 years, I think that’s enough.” He retired completely from law enforcement in 1983.
It was a job well done. When he announced the decision to step down “mostly due to the increasing demands of the office and the pressing needs for more specialized training, which would best be filled by a full-time Chief, Port Deposit Mayor Donald Post remarked to the News Journal: “Officer Boddy is well-respected and known in the community for his friendly manner and civic pride and this unselfish act is a continued expression of that concern.
He had faithfully served as the Port Deposit Police Chief.
Port Deposit Police Department — The four members of the force posed for a picture as Chief Horace Boddy reminded everyone that “safety is always in season. Part of a calendar from the early to mid-1970s. (L to R) — Officer Cornelius Scott Sr., possibly Carl Ridgley, Chief Boddy, and Officer Edward E. Pierce. (Source Chief Boddy)
For Additional Photos of Chief Boddy and the Port Deposit Police Department, 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
E. R. Buffington & Sons, Rising Sun offered the automatic refrigerator in 1918 (Source: Cecil Whig, May 17, 1916)
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 19th 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.
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
The hundreds of Cecil County (Genealogical Research Guide for Cecil County, Maryland by Darlene Mcall & Lorraine Alexander, map drawn by John Livezey)
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
In 1800, the county was divided into four 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.
Skating on Howard’s Pond sometime in the Winter around the 1950s or 1960s
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)
