Since we’re hearing a lot about the War of 1812 this week during the Sailabration in Baltimore, I’ve been thinking about some of the really old, local narratives I’ve examined. The conflict that found the enemy sailing up the Elk River has fascinated generations born long after the enemy sailed away. Terrestrial and underwater archaeologists have…
Affordable Housing Group to Present Plans for 140 Year Old Jail in Downtown Elkton
A non-profit affordable housing group, the Home Partnership, Inc., is interested in purchasing the old 1870s Cecil County Jail from the county for $400,000. The developer wants to transform the building into 50 affordable apartments for seniors in downtown Elkton, the Cecl Whig recently reported.A reprsentative of the group will appear before the town’s Historic District Review Board on June 27th at…
Cecil County’s Last Civil War Soldier Passed Away 75 Years After Conflict Ended
The last direct link to an important period in Cecil County’s past was lost when 93-year-old Henry Jackson died at his home outside Perryville on a cold November day in 1939. As a teenager he ran away from home to serve in the Civil War, enlisting in the Union Army for three years with Snow’s Battery. After surviving the…
The Smithsonian’s Journey Stories Coming to Cecil County July 13
Cecil County Arts Council, The Historical Society of Cecil County and the Cecil County Library are partnering to host a national Smithsonian Exhibit, Journey Stories, from July 13 -August 24, 2012. The Maryland Humanities Council has chosen the Arts Council as one of f…ive sites to host Journey Stories, which will travel throughout Maryland until January…
Maryland and the War of 1812 – Living History Performances Coming to Cecil County in July
From Cecil County Tourism Chautauqua – July 07, 08 & 09, 2012 When: 4pm – 6pm Where: Elkton United Methodist Church, Main Street, Elkton This year’s theme is the War of 1812. Each day a historical figure is portrayed by an actor/historian who will speak “in character” about their life during the War of 1812….
Cecil County’s World War II Generation Remembered in Oral History Project
From the Historical Society of Cecil County In honor of the 68th Anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy during World War II, the Historical Society is making the full text of the 2005 publication “Cecil’s Soldiers: Stories from the World War II Generation” available online. With support from the Maryland Humanities Council, the Society…
Keep Up With Cecil County History on Twitter
The Historical Society of Cecil County started tweeting last week as part of an initiative to tap into a cluster of additional social media outlets. Twitter, a micro-blogging platform, allows the volunteer group to send out brief notes up to 140 characters in length at any time. This, coupled with our other new media outlets, including the web, blog,…
Archaeologist Search For War of 1812 Fort at Elk Landing
Dozens of people from the Archeological Society of Maryland were at Elk Landing on this beautiful Sunday afternoon working to dig up new clues about Fort Hollingsworth and the pre-historic period at a strip of land located at the confluence of the Big and Little Elk creeks. The former farm and Chesapeake Bay port bustled…
Archaeologist Bring New Life to Elk Landing
From the Cecil Whig A team of archaeologists and university students has brought new life to Elk Landing over the past week as they have been excavating the property in the 41st annual field session. Jim Gibb, head investigator of the war of 1812 project, Robert Wall, a professor of archaeology and physical anthropology and…
After Decades of Legal Wrangling Elkton Marriage Mill Started Grinding a Little Slower
The Elkton marrying parsons and their employers, the taxi syndicate, were miserable in the autumn of 1938. These entrepreneurs fretted that Maryland voters might halt “weddings without waiting.” The threat came just as things boomed for the cabbies, as their chief interest was the wedding business. At one company, the Rev. C. M. Cope worked…