Window on Cecil County's Past

For decades, there have been stories about ghosts haunting the jail on North Street in Elkton.  Most were sort of vague as people reported out-of-place creaking noises, foot-steps in unoccupied hallways ways, and things like that.  But about two years ago a person whom I know to be reliable came to me with astonishing, never before told story about spectral sightings and voices of jailbirds of long ago inside those strong fortress-like walls.  While I don’t know what she saw and heard, she experienced something that frightened her.

What more likely spot for spirits than a place filled with more than century of tragedy, a long obsolete lockup that managed to outlive its usefulness as a the county pen in just 113-years. In this 19^th century structure a sheriff was killed in the line of duty, five people spent their last night’s on earth before meeting the executioner and many a hardened criminal passed their days behind that heavy iron-barred door.

It’s an interesting, previously undocumented story of the type that I’ve never done before in the Oct/Nov. issue of Maryland life.  If you’re interested in these sorts of pieces, pick-up a print copy and check out the Ghost of Prisoners Past: Spectral Sightings at the Cecil County Jail in Maryland Life.

For more on haunting the jail

They say there are ghosts in the jail

GUEST SPEAKER – DR. RALPH ESHELMAN

“WAR OF 1812 IN THE CHESAPEAKE”

and A LIVELY SKIT BY KITTY KNIGHT

The October Dinner Meeting of the Historical Society of Cecil County will be held on Monday, October 18, 2010 at 6:00 P.M. at the Chesapeake Inn Banquet Room, 605 2nd Street, Chesapeake City. The guest speaker will be Dr. Ralph Eshelman who has recently had the book “War of 1812 in the Chesapeake” published by Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Eshelman spent years investigating sites connected with the conflict in Maryland so as the bicentennial of this chapter of our past approaches, we are pleased to have the opportunity to hear this distinguished historian. His presentation will focus on the campaign in Maryland and our general area. “No state has more battlefields, graves or sites associated with the War,” he noted in a Washington College lecture. “Elkton and St. Michaels share the distinction of turning the British back twice.” 

Dr. Eshelman was the director of the Calvert Marine Museum in Maryland from 1974 to 1990. In 1974 he received his Ph.D. in geology and vertebrate paleontology from the University of Michigan. He is currently a research associate at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. He is widely published and lectures on maritime and military history, popular exploration and paleontology. Also, he served as a consulting historian on the War of 1812 on the Chesapeake for the Maryland Historical Trust and the National Park Service. 

Dr. Eshelman will have his book for sale at the special discounted price of $60.00 and will be happy to autograph your copy. He accepts cash or check. 

The cost of the dinner is $30.00 per person for members and $35.00 per person for non-members. You may select between Crab Cake or Chicken Marsala. Your meal will include salad, coffee or tea and dessert. 

To attend please send your check to Paula Newton, HSCC, 135 E. Main St., Elkton, MD 21921. Please make your check payable to the Historical Society of Cecil County. The deadline for reservations is October 8, 2010. This is a catered dinner making it impossible for us to take late reservations or walk-ins. If you have any questions, please call the Historical Society at 410-398-1790. In your reservation be sure to indicate your meal choice and include a telephone number.

Port Deposit Chamber of Commerce Press Release —

September 1, 2010, Historic Port Deposit, MD – The Port Deposit Chamber of Commerce is proud to announce a brand new event coming to Marina Park in historic Port Deposit on Saturday, October 16 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m – Smokin’ on the River Port-B-Q.

To kickoff the event, festivities start Friday night (October 15) in the center of town with a car show and music.  Cars will be parked in the post office parking lot, near the Susky River Grille and up along Tome Highway. 

Smokin’ on the River is a tailgate style bbq competition for those who think they make the best backyard BBQ around! BBQ contestants are limited to 50, registration fee is only $50 and ribs are provided.  Cash prizes and trophies will be awarded.  Rules and regulations will follow those of the Kansas City BBQ Society.

For those who prefer not to cook, they can come out to enjoy other free festivities.  There will be crafters, vendors, live music and beer garden to enjoy.  Local restaurants will be onsite providing food for sale to enjoy during the event. 

Come spend a day on the beautiful Susquehanna River in historic Port Deposit, Maryland!

The mission of the Port Deposit Chamber of Commerce is to promote economic opportunity through business and community leadership and to enhance the social and civic environment of Port Deposit and surrounds. The mission of the Port Deposit Chamber of Commerce is to promote economic opportunity through business and community leadership and to enhance the social and civic environment of Port Deposit and surrounds.  To accomplish its mission, the Chamber relies on the efforts of our members, our Board of Directors, the Town Council, volunteers, and the generosity of companies who sponsor our events.

For more registration, vendor or event information, please contact Deidre Garoutte of

Plan Ahead Events at 410-287-0123.

Horses wait patiently outside Allee & Shepherd in the center of Rising Sun about 1911.  The postcard photographer was Ed Herberner of Newark and the card was mailed on Nov. 14, 1911.

Here’s  another opportunity to enjoy Port Deposit.  On Saturday, Sept. 18th the old town square is going to come alive while the folk-bluegrass duo, Cold Springs Road, performs as dusk settles on the historic river town.  There’s going to be lots of fun, food and special drinks available from vendors and outlets around town.  The event is sponsored by the Port Deposit Chamber of Commerce.  We’ve got it on our calendar as Port Deposit becomes one of our favorite destination spots.  Adding these sorts of entertainment opportunities strengthens a Main Street as a community pulls together to support its small businesses while drawing on cultural and natural resources.  Congratulations to Port Deposit and the local chamber for continuing to add these types of products. 

Over the past few years, we’ve carefully watched as Port Deposit has become a regional destination spot for fine dining.  As a result we often head that way to enjoy exceptional meals coupled with the ambiance of an attractive historic river town that is ideal for sidewalk and riverside dining, as well as strolling.  But just when we thought one of our favorite towns couldn’t get any better, along comes another establishment to complement the cluster of other fine dining spots one has to consider.    

The Hidden Bean opened in a 19^th century building on the historic town square (8 South Main Street), about two weeks ago.   The owners, Pat & Kevin, discovered this attractive riverside community several years ago, and soon decided to locate the Hidden Bean right here in Cecil County.  We first met Kevin while he was working on rehabbing another historic residential structure on Main Street so we were pleased to find him busy on the cafe up the street. 

The Hidden Bean, a java joint, specializes in coffee, muffins, and bagels for the morning trade and a creative mid-day menu for lunchtime.  That’s what we’ve checked out several times since they opened, while enjoying dining outside on the town square on these comfortable sunny days.   There are tasty Quiches, Greek Salads that are unmatched in the county, and some of the finest, creative sandwiches this side of the Susquehanna.  A house specialty is a tasty, toasted Cuban sandwich, a Miami favorite, but we also find the Pastrami to be the best around.  Oh there are plenty of desserts so we checked out the Chocolate Cheesecake.  It was unbelievable.  

Pat and Kevin have worked hard to make the Hidden Bean the kind of coffee café where customers will become regulars and want to linger.  This premium coffee-house is a nice addition and adds another Port spot that is now on our regular list since we’ve discovered such tempting offerings accompanied with attentive service.  Why don’t you head down to the town square in Port soon and check out this cozy little spot for yourself?

It’s great to see the revitalization that is going on in this old Susquehanna River town as new business that pull in visitors from a wide region locate here.  It certainly caused us to become Port Deposit regulars in recent years.

 Check out this PreservationNation Photo site on flicker for another photo of the Hidden Bean and it’s owners.  They’re open until 3 p.m. 7 days a week.  Here’s their phone number if you need more information 410-378-3783.

Since a large part of the county’s 20^th century history was documented and recorded in sound and moving images, the Historical Society started preserving collections of these artifacts.  When the appeal first went out for help in capturing these largely forgotten treasures a few years ago, a range of new contributions came in.  There was the magnetic tape containing the emergency communications radio dispatching from the 1963 plane crash, provided by Rosemary Culley.  The news director of Elkton’s full service radio station, Jane Bellmyer, located 1970s radio shows that aired on the station and someone else allowed us to copy a 1950s broadcast from the Holly Tree.  Using modern digital recording equipment, we rescued these fleeting sounds of history, creating audio files that are played on modern listening equipment and the Internet.  . Recently we rescued two additional groups of audio recording from the 20^th century. The first was a series of 1980 cassette tapes of Ruth Ann Johnson interviewing her mother Ruth Crothers Ewing.  Mrs. Ewing passed away at the age of 97 in 1993.  She was a 1913 graduate of Calvert Agricultural High School and a 1918 graduate of the Drexel Institute of Technology.  Her professional career included work as a dietician in Philadelphia and teaching at the high school in Calvert.  On those four tapes, Mrs. Ewing vividly recalls life in Cecil County through most of the 20^th century.  There are memories of Woodlawn Camp Meeting Ground, Rising Sun, World War II, Calvert Agricultural High School, family and lots more.  It’s one thing to read historical accounts of these local events, but to hear Mrs. Ewing actual voice recounting the experiences of a lifetime, is priceless from the standpoint of understanding earlier eras. The other one was a large stack of long-playing vinyl albums that were recorded during graduation ceremonies at the Calvert Agricultural High School in the late 1930s and 1940s.  In those old records, the school principal, George E. Gifford, teachers, guest speakers, and members of the class approach the microphone to say goodbye to their beloved high school and offer remarks about the future.  These young people from the greatest generation facedunsettled times for the recordings started in the middle of the Great Depression and continued through World War II.  Thanks to Mrs. Alberta May for giving us the opportunity to digitize those recordings.  We still have some restoration work to do on these aging audio, but while we work on that click here to hear an audio outtake with this post.  This sound is from the class of 1939 at Calvert High School.  All the recordings will be posted on the Historical Society website as soon as we finish this work. Before the 1900s our history was largely silent, but in the 20^th century sounds and movies became common, as events were recorded on magnetic tapes, vinyl records, 8mm film, and aluminum discs.  As time, deterioration, and technological obsolescence put these fleeting sounds at risk of being lost, we’re trying to save these sounds of the past before they’re permanently silenced as the last century grows distant.

Since the area Archeological Society is hosting a talk on the British raids on the Upper Chesapeake, we’re posting this brief piece on some of the extensive research on the Elk River. 

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Two graduate students finishing advanced degrees in archeology, part of a team exploring the sunken mysteries of the Elk River, spent several weeks here in the autumn of 1999 looking for history submerged under the waterway.  Michael Plakos, the East Carolina University scholar, told the Cecil Whig, “It is part of history that hasn’t been written yet.  . It’s very exciting for us,” he continued as he spotted the hull of an old ship on his sonar.  The researchers dove down to the wreckage to map it and retrieve artifacts.  Mike Hughes was the other student involved in this project. 

When the British came up the Elk River to Frenchtown on April 29, 1813, the local militia retreated after firing a few shots from a small battery.  The enemy started burning the village, destroying quantities of flour and military goods.  Two vessels moored in the river were also destroyed.  One was run aground and burned.  The other, a Baltimore-Frenchtown packet, was burned. 

The next year, Stephen Bilicki, the assistant underwater archeologist for Maryland, came back to complete a phase I survey of the Upper Elk River.  These types of studies identify archeological sites and resources in a designated area.  

“Walk the Line” with author William Ecenbarger as he tells some of the many stories he gathered while researching his book. The presentation will cover the history, geography and human impacts of the Mason Dixon Line.  Also, the author will relate how important local libraries were to him as he performed his research.

Monday, Sept. 20th at 6:30 p.m. at Chesapeake City Branch.  Registration Required

Kingsville, MD, August, 30, 2010 —The Eclipse Base Ball Club of Elkton won its 4^th straight Maryland 19^th Century Base Ball State Championship on Sunday, August 29^th at Jerusalem Mill in Kingsville, Maryland.  After clinching the regular Maryland State Championship title with a 10-1 record, the Eclipse went in to the tournament as the number one seed for the 3^rd straight year.  This year, a record six clubs participated in the single elimination tournament.  Elkton was joined by the Arundel Excelsiors, the Chesapeake Nine of Baltimore, the Havre de Grace Dauntless, the Potomac Base Ball Club of Washington and the Talbot Fair Plays. 

In the first round, the Talbot Fair Plays defeated Arundel 12-0 while Chesapeake downed Havre de Grace 11-10 in 10 innings in the best game of the day.  The semi finals saw Talbot down the second seeded Potomac Club 9-2 while Elkton knocked off Chesapeake 14-6.  This set up the same championship match that has taken place the last 4 years- Talbot vs Elkton.  The same result was had as the previous three years.  

Elkton started the match scoring 1 run in the top of the first but Talbot came back with 2 in the bottom to take the lead.  It was the last lead the Fair Plays would have all day.  Elkton quickly came back and tied it at 2 after 2 innings.  In the third, Elkton scored 5 runs and broke the spirit of the Fair Plays who were playing their 3^rd game of the day.  Elkton added on more runs and pulled away for a 19-6 victory to retain the pennant for a 4^th straight year. 

Tom Duffy from Elkton was the winning pitcher pitching a complete game to pick up his 20^th win of the season.  The victors chose Brian Howarth from Newark as the tournament MVP.  Also playing a great match included Tim Bower from Rising Sun, Erik Myers from North East, Mike Phelan and Lee Donelson from Baltimore, Bruce Leith from Elkton, Ryan Gannon from Wilmington and Glyn Richards from Mt Ephraim, NJ.  Other members of the champions include: Greg Rodenbaugh and Bill Freeland from North East, Jon Killpatrick, Roberto Soto and Jason Bromley from Oxford and Antoni Sekowski from Warwick.

 The Eclipse will be playing in the Mid Atlantic Vintage Base Ball League’s Championship Tournament on October 3^rd at Ft Mott, New Jersey and will be the league’s number 1 seed.  (See www.mavbbl.com for more details).  Elkton’s next match will be September 25^th at 3:00pm at the Rising Sun American Legion grounds for the Rising Sun 150^th Anniversary Celebration as they take on the Bohemia Eurekas.