One of the Historical Society’s most experienced family history researchers and a past president of the Genealogical Society of Cecil County, Gary Burns, has worked several years transcribing tombstones at practically every known cemetery in Cecil County. From Bald Friar to Warwick, and every other place in between, he and helpers, have visited quite old country graveyards, as well as those in towns and villages, to record data found on the memorials. Once they collected the information, they entered it into an Excel Spreadsheet.
Gary has given the Historical Society this insightful work so it could be made available on the Web and it will be extremely helpful for researchers. As it stands now, it has just been expanded to contain over 30,000 entries for Cecil County Tombstones. It is still a work in progress and we will add additional data as Gary makes it available. By-the-way, when he first posted it online, it had 16,000 entries.
Thanks Gary for making this valuable update available online. Click here to go the records
Clay deposits played a major role in the economy of bygone Cecil County. Some were mined and shipped out-of-state while others provided the key raw material to potters and firebrick makers. Wheel-thrown redware and stoneware were fired in kilns at Rising Sun, Brick Meeting House, NorthEast and Rock Springs. Meanwhile, some Delaware and Pennsylvania potters relied on the county’s clays to turn their pots. The names of some potters like William Carter and Eli Haines were virtually unknown until this book traced the role this craft played in their lives. An exquisite harvest jug fashioned by Carter in 1847 survives today. Other names – Remmey, Grier, Hare, Magee, Brown and Schofield – are much more recognizable to today’s collectors and historians, yet in many cases, connections to Cecil County were unknown or incomplete.
Commercial firebrick operations were attracted by the abundance of kaolin-based clays. Some were short-lived while others carried on for decades. Most companies like Cecil, North East, Wakefield, Green Hill and United molded and fired these refractory bricks around the town of North East.
Potters and Firebrick Makers of Cecil County, Maryland, and Nearby is illustrated with over 100 images, nearly half in color. Spanning 140 pages and 8.5” X 11” in size, this book was built from numerous newspaper accounts, land records, family histories and pottery collections. It provides a valuable window to the past and deserves the widespread interest from fans of local history and pottery enthusiasts and collectors alike.
Available From History in Print, P.O. Box 185, Mendenhall, PA 19357, (610) 388-6836; fairhill3@aol.com$30.00
Click this link to view an album of photos from Dr. Koterski’s talk to the Archaeological Society of the Upper Chesapeake
Potters and Firebrick Makers of Cecil County, Maryland
Although a lot of time has passed since two members of the county’s fire service fell in the line of duty, it’s important to remember them. Perhaps someday a memorial can be created to honor those fire, rescue and EMS providers who lost their lives in the line of duty.
Richard L. Loller, 37 – On May 18, 1956, the Chesapeake City Fire Company responded to an urgent call to assist Galena with a fire at the Kent Oil Company. While battling the dangerous blaze with companies from throughout the area, several explosions rocked the tank farm, the final one coming about 8:30 that Friday morning. That last death-dealing explosion of a 6,000 gallon tank filled with gasoline sent part of the huge vessel soaring through the air. Flying debris killed two firefighters and the extreme heat from the flash burned a dozen or more people close to the scene. Richard L. Loller, 37, of Chesapeake City and Robert Harry Brice, 24, of Betterton were killed after being hit by limbs falling from a tree.
Steward W. Godwin, 56 — On a Sunday in December 1963, as lightning periodically illuminated the cold rainy night, five airliners flew in a holding pattern above Cecil County, awaiting clearance to land in Philadelphia. Just before 9 p.m. Pam American Airways Flight 214, carrying 81 passengers and crew was struck by lightning and exploded. A general alarm was sounded for all available ambulances. From the North East Fire Company, a unit rushed toward the cornfield just east of Elkton. On that dark stormy Sunday night, as fire company search lights illuminated the field, emergency responders searched the scene, looking for survivors. About 1:30 a.m. Steward W. Godwin, 56, of North East suddenly collapsed into the arms of Andrew Scarborough, another North East member, the News Journal reported. He passed away at Union Hospital, the death being attributed to a heart attack. He had been a member of the fire company for 18 months, according to the newspaper.
It’s important to make sure their sacrifice isn’t forgotten. If there are other fallen fighters who made the ultimate sacrifice, let us know so we can add their names to the list. Perhaps someday there can be a Cecil County memorial, a place to carve their names in granite as a permanent memorial to their service as they protected the people of Cecil County.
A firefighter stands near a crater where much of the impact occurred at the plane crash.
The annual volunteer firemen’s carnivals were popular summer events in Cecil County years ago. Each summer, as the event moved from town to town, large crowds would turn out for an evening of fun and entertainment. These two photos show the Singerly Fire Company carnival sometime in the 1950s.
An old Cecil County schoolhouse where African-American children were taught for nearly 80 years still stands on a quiet hillside outside Pleasant Hill. Benjamin Griffith donated the property for the Cedar Hill School on February 11, 1871.
His deed said “that in consideration of my regard for the education of the colored children of my neighborhood and the sum of one dollar,” he was granting the land. The nearby church, Griffith AUMP, was also built on land that was also donated by Mr. Griffith. The church was dedicated on June 7, 1874, at a service conducted by the Rev. E. W. Scott of Elkton.
Once the one-room school opened, generations of African-American children from the Cedar Hill community were educated there. But by 1948 the board of education reported that the building, which had served its purpose well, should be closed because of its physical condition. Within a few years, the building that had been a proud part of the small community closed and the children were transported to George Washington Carver School in Elkton. Integration of the county school system was still over a decade away.
Cedar Hill School in 2011
A 1921 list of African-American Schools shows that Miss Bowman is teaching at Cedar Hill (Source: Board of Education College at the Historical Society of Cecil County)
First Lines: How to Get Started Writing Your Story (and Publishing Your Work)Wednesday, March 16th at 7pm
Elkton Central Library
301 Newark Ave., Elkton MD 21921
In this workshop and discussion, local author David Healey will share ideas on how to get started on your creative writing project – whether it’s a novel, short story, children’s book or memoir. Also, David will discuss the first steps toward sharing your work with the world and the many avenues toward publishing. He is the author of three novels and two non-fiction books and will describe his experiences working with agents, editors, and publishers large and small.
Registration is required. To register, please stop by the library, visit our website at www.cecil.ebranch.info, or call 410-996-5600, ext. 481.
The Felton House at the Elkton Train Station around the 1920s
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Historical Society of Cecil County explored a captivating period in Elkton’s history during a weekend talk by Mike Dixon. While the nation faced the bleak days of the Great Depression, business thrived in Elkton for the “honeymoon express” arrived many times each day, and Elkton became the elopement capital of the east.
Its reputation as a place to go for quick marriages started about 1913, and for several decades, the place hummed because of the marriage industry. From just over 100 services a year at the turn of the 1900s, the county seat was soon working overtime. The parsons were doing “one marriage every 15 minutes,” which wasn’t “bad for a town of something like 3,000 people,” the News American reported in 1920. The ministers were cranking out some 12,000 newlyweds a year by the mid-1930s as the town in the northern corner of Maryland became America’s Gretna Green.
To accommodate the heavy trade, “marrying parsons set up parlors along the main streets, and competition for brides and grooms was intense during the mill’s heyday. Each time a train, the Honeymoon Express, arrived at the depot, the cabbies greeted arriving couples. Not much was required to get hitched in Elkton in those days. Twelve minutes and a few dollars were all you needed, the Baltimore newspaper reported. Although even the 12 minutes wasn’t altogether necessary. But the dollars were the reporter observed. Today, the Little Wedding Chapel on Main Street is Elkton’s sole remaining chapel, but several prospective brides and grooms still flock here each week for quick marriages.
It was a fast-paced talk that explored how and why the wedding racket developed in an unassuming Maryland town. It included many funny stories about the marrying syndicate, its leaders, and the taxi cab drivers. We also examined how the marrying preachers caused an international incident involving the Iranian government.
Marrying minister’s sign in Elkton, where quick marriages were performed
NORTH EAST, Md. – In recognition of the 2011 Black History Month theme of “African Americans and the Civil War,” Eric F. Mease will conduct a free presentation about African Americans from Cecil County who fought in the Civil War at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 23, in Room 106 of the Technology Center on Cecil College’s North East campus.
Since his first visit to Colonial Williamsburg with his parents in the summer of 1962, Mease has had an interest in United States history. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Penn State University, a paralegal certificate from the University of Delaware, and a master’s in liberal studies from UD. His master’s thesis, “Black Civil War Patriots of Cecil County, Maryland,” reported on the African-American veterans of the Civil War who were related to Cecil County.
Mease began his career in broadcast journalism in Williamsport, Pa. and then moved to a station in Wilmington, Del. Since 1990, he has been a paralegal with the DuPont Company specializing in intellectual property litigation. Mease is a member of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Historic Elk Landing Foundation, and Historical Society of Cecil County.
For more information, contact Laney Hoxter at 410-287-1043 or lhoxter@cecil.edu.
Last Memorial Day, USCT Troops from Kent County were remembered during a program at a cemetery in Chestertown.
Bailiff Biddle was commonly called the chief by many, including Elkton's newspapers.
Photographs of Elkton Police Chiefs line a wall at the town police station. Starting with the first, George M. Potts (1908-1935), there are images of many of the departments 20th century commanders.
But before the officer appointed to maintain law and order carried the rank of chief, the town lawman was known as the bailiff. During lulls in police work, these hard-working public servants took care of the streets, impounded animals, served as the lamplighter, and collected taxes. Some tasks, such as lamplighter and tax collector, varied over time, but a primary responsibility was keeping the peace and he was required to prowl the streets in a blue coat, brass buttons, and badge.
On the prowl for old photos and information on earlier leaders of the police department, we recently received a picture of George Collison Biddle. When he received his first appointment in 1896, his salary for 12-months was $500. The rookie officer had worked for the Singerly Pulp Mill and lived on East High Street.
Shortly after being sworn in, the Elkton officer received a call for backup from Sheriff Mackey. Several men were on a train refusing to pay so the sheriff called on every available lawman in the area for help with the free riders. In addition to the bailiff, that included Deputy McAllister. When the train pulled in one of the men jumped from the cars and started running up the railroad tracks. “But Elkton’s new officer was not to be outrun and soon the clutches of the law were upon the victim,“ a newspaper reported. The Mayor and Commissioners also had street work waiting for the bailiff, so when he wasn’t carting drunks off to jail in a wheelbarrow he worked to fix up the streets. He was “starting out well as an officer,” the Cecil Democrat noted. “May he not grow weary in well doing.”
To the consternation and dismay of Elkton troublemakers, the town council provided him with a bicycle in 1900 so he could more effectively whirl through the streets and alleys on his patrols. When thanksgiving rolled around that year, a local newspaper noted that “Officer Biddle was in good cheer “as he was thankful that the town council had armed him with a unit that allowed him to spin from point to point on his rounds.”
ticket to last hanging.
George Biddle served as Elkton’s thin blue line until 1903 when he successfully ran for sheriff. The last execution in Cecil County took place during Sheriff Biddle’s term, when John M. Simpers was hanged on October 20, 1905. In that era, the sheriff could only serve one term.
The 67-year-old Cecil County lawman passed away on April 26, 1929. He’d been born in 1861.
Deputy McAllister & Sheriff Biddle on the platform with Simpers.
One of the Historical Society’s most experienced family history researchers and a past president of the Genealogical Society of Cecil County, Gary Burns, has worked several years transcribing tombstones at practically every known cemetery in Cecil County. From Bald Friar to Warwick, and every other place in between, he and helpers, have visited quite old country graveyards, as well as those in towns and villages, to record data found on the memorials. Once they collected the information, they entered it into an Excel Spreadsheet.
