The Fair Hill Natural Resource Center opened one of Cecil County’s surviving one room schools to the public Saturday. Located in the center of the state park, the structure was restored by the Elk Creeks Preservation Society about a decade ago.
Built about 1830, the fieldstone schoolhouse predates the establishment of the county school system in 1850. It was a subscription school, a place built by local residents to educate their children but in 1852 Center School was incorporated into the county system. Classes were held here until it closed about 1920.
The restored Center School on a Saturday in October and (below) the school in 1962.
A ticket to the 1905 execution. After the 1879 hanging, the sentences were carried out behind the jailhouse walls and only a small number of witnesses were admitted
Death sentences were carried out in the counties until 1923 when Maryland centralized executions in the state penitentiary. Consequently from the county’s founding in 1674 until the law changed, at least seven convicted murderers made the final walk to the gallows here in Cecil. The county’s executioner, the sheriff, got ready to perform the grizzly deed on the appointed day, as crowds gathered to witness the doomed convict’s final moments.
As many as 5,000 people watched some of the executions, but by 1893 when Alfred Stout was executed the law required the sheriff to execute death in as private a manner as possible. So for the first time, the execution took place inside the jail yard. The Baltimore Sun hoped that the Elkton hanging wouldn’t be a repetition of the turbulent scene which attended the recent hanging in Chesterton, in direct disregard of the law. It was not for just his legal and spiritual advisers, law enforcement personnel, and a few other people stood inside the old jailhouse yard for the deathwatch.
The last public execution took place at the Alms House in Cherry Hill and Medford Waters was the doomed man. Here is a description of the day a mile-long line of carriages made the trip from Elkton to Cherry Hill, and a crowd of between 1,000 to 1,500 assembled on the poor house property.
On the morning of December 5, 1879, Elkton was stirring at an early hour. It was to be a memorable day in town history for the resident were to be treated to a spectacle the likes of which they would never be permitted to witness again. A man was to forfeit his life on the gallows for the crime of murder and his execution was to be public. The central figure in the proceedings was an African-American youth named Medford Waters who was not yet 18 years old. He worked on a farm near Cecilton.
On November 25, 1878 he and another man were husking corn when a quarrel erupted between them. Waters got a pistol and fired two bullets into the other man, killing him instantly. He fled to Queen Anne’s County and after hiding for two nights was arrested by lawmen there and turned over to Sheriff William T. Boulden. Having been indicted for murder, his trial started on Jan 6, 1879. A verdict of murder in the first degree was returned.
Friday, Dec., 5th the date set for the execution having arrived, the Groome guards assembled at the armory at 8 a.m. and marched to the jail under command of Capt. Wm. G. Purnell who formed them in marching order to lead the procession to the Alms House, which had been selected as the place of execution. The gallows, with a platform eight feet from the ground, had been framed in Elkton the previous day.
At 10 o’clock the sheriff accompanied by the prisoner and two deputies, Eli W. Janney and John S. Cooling, came out of the jail and entered the carriage which was to convey them to the Alms House. A squad of soldiers led the procession, then came the officers and prisoners, followed by the remaining soldiers and a long line of carriages. The gallows was reached at 5 minutes after eleven, and the sheriff accompanied by the prisoner and Mr. Janney, who had some experience at an earlier execution and Mr. Cooling ascended the platform. Mr. John Perkins and the Rev. C. H. Williams also ascended the platform, where Mr. Williams at the request of the prisoner read the 15th chapter of the book of Revelations and Mr. Perkins offered a fervent prayer, and the entire audience joined in singing a hymn.
Waters then made a speech to the crowd, admonishing them to restrain their tempers and expressed the hope that none of them would come to an end like his. Mr. Perkins then sang another hymn to conclude the exercise. The prisoner asked the sheriff to lengthen the rope, which he did, and at 11:35 severed the cord and the drop fell. The number of spectators was estimated at from 1,000 to 1,500.
The table below is a registry of identified capital punishment cases, prior to centralization.
Table 1. Capital Punishment Registry, Cecil County Prior to 1920
Click here to go to the article on the 1905 execution, the last one carried out in Cecil County.
Earleville resident Jenifer Grindle Dolde will be giving a talk about her book and oral history project, “Cecil’s Soldiers: Stories from the World War II Generation,” at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 19, at the Chesapeake City Library. The book was published by the Historical Society of Cecil County and provides an insightful look at how the war shook up sleepy little Cecil County. Dolde, a Washington College graduate and alumnus of the University of Delaware’s Museum Studies graduate program, was formerly a museum curator and now works as a historian and museum consultant.
Earlier we posted a piece on Robert F. Kennedy’s Funeral Train passing through Cecil County and there has been a lot of interest in that subject. Here’s a photograph of the image published in the Cecil Whig that June day in 1968. Here is the link to our earlier post.
Wilbur D. Jones, Jr., the author of “Football! Navy! War! How Military ‘Lend-Lease’ Players Saved the College Game and Helped Win World War II“ will speak about his new title and sign books at the Historical Society of Cecil County on Sunday, Oct. 4 at 1:00 p.m. While highlighting the Navy’s role in preserving the game and football’s impact on national morale and the war effort during the 1940s, it has a significant local angle. One of the star players, “Choo-Choo” Charlie Justice trained at the Bainbridge Naval Training Center.
During World War II, the U. S. military and colleges joined forces, fielding competitive teams to prepare men for combat. The book highlights the Department of the Navy’s role in preserving the game and football’s impact on national morale and the war effort through their “Lend-Lease” to colleges of officer candidates, including All-America and professional players. It describes wartime college and military football.
From a local perspective, the book features details about the powerful Bainbridge Naval Training Center teams of 1943-45, whom Jones rates as the No. 1 military wartime team. Bainbridge opened in 1942 as a boot camp and advanced training station, and closed in early 1970’s. The center was located at the Jacob Tome Institute at Port Deposit. This is a major previously unpublished work on the history of Cecil County and region during WWII.
“Exciting military games were a diversion from war’s horrors and sacrifices, and they helped boost bond sales and home front morale for civilians and the military,” Jones writes. His book covers such games as Great Lakes Navy’s final-minute 19-14 upset over perennial power Notre Dame in 1943 (though the Irish won the national championship anyway). Featured in previously unpublished detail is the sport’s wartime star, teenaged halfback Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice, a kid among the All-Americas and NFL players at Bainbridge Navy and a postwar superstar at North Carolina.
Admiral James L. Holloway III (Ret).., 20th Chief of Naval Operaitons and Chairman Emeritus of the Naval Historical Foundation said Football! Navy! War! “is an untold story about the relationship of America’s great game with the armed forces – especially the United States Navy – during this struggle against the Axis powers. As one who fought alongside many of the outstanding athletes that Wilbur Jones portrayed, I can testify how the smash-mouth tactics of the gridiron were applied in the waters and archipelagoes of the Western Pacific. The book is a must-have for any patriot and fan of the sport.”
Don Jenkins of Sports Illustrated said: “I’ve been waiting for somebody to do this book and preserve these treasured college football memories, and now Wilbur Jones has done it – and done splendidly.”
The author, Wilbur D. Jones, Jr., is a retired Navy captain with four decades of service. He spent several days in Cecil County working on this project. This free program takes places at the Society’s headquarters at 135 E. Main Street in downtown Elkton. Light refreshments will be served.
Click here to read a full review of this title in the Star News Online (Wilmington, NC)
A program, “The Almighty Oyster: Food, Fighting and Sensibility,” will be hosted by the Perryville Branch of the Cecil County Public Library on Wed,, October the 14th, at 7:00 p.m.. John Wennersten, former Professor of History and author, presents the history of the oyster industry in Maryland from the colonial period through the twentieth century, including the “Oyster Wars” and the effects of over-harvesting.
Crystal Beach was a favorite place to head to enjoy summer weekends at the top of the Chesapeake Bay. Especially when the long holiday weekends of the season rolled around, such as the one we’re enjoying right now, folks looked forward to some time at the Beach. I’ve posted a few pieces here about the subject, but a few days ago I had a nice virtual exhibit about this place pointed out to me. Debbi, the publisher of that product, has created a nice virtual display for the Crystal Beach Reunion. It contains a lot of photos from decades ago, as well as postcards from earlier in the century. Check it out for you will enjoy surfing over those pages as you glance at the images.
Dr. James L. Johnson’s service to the citizens of Cecil County is not well documented, so I’ve added this post as my first attempt to publish information about the respected healthcare professional. Please share your memories about the Doctor, and I’ll work to gather more information about his service to the profession and the community.
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When Dr. James L. Johnson started practicing medicine in Elkton in the middle of the Great Depression, the county’s healthcare system was segregated, just like every other aspect of life in Cecil. Union Hospital had separate wards for African-Americans, and the young physicians didn’t have admitting privileges. If one of his patients required hospitalization, he arranged for admission through another doctor in the area. As integration made inroads in areas such as public accommodation and education, an entire generation of black doctors worked with others to bring an end to racially segregated health care across the nation. The system of separate wards here appears to be have been eliminated in the mid-1960s and prior to that time the doctor had been given admitting privileges at the hospital
The young man from Baltimore, a 1928 graduate of Lincoln University, went to Nashville, TN to complete his medical training at Meharry Medical College, a school the Freedman’s Bureau established in 1876 as a college for African-American physicians. After returning to Baltimore to complete his internship at Provident Hospital, he opened his office on East High Street in Elkton in 1934.
For his many contributions to the community, the respected doctor was recognized as the citizen of the year by the Chamber of Commerce in 1971. He was particularly proud of his effort to build a modern school for children in the African-American community at Booth Street during the separate but unequal period of the county’s past. Into the 1970s, he maintained a busy medical practice, keeping his office open five days a while, visiting patients at Union Hospital seven days a week. His days often began before dawn and ended well after sunset. Jim Cheeseman, the Cecil Whig photographer, said in 1971: “The one picture I’d really like to shoot is a silhouette of the good doctor rushing to Union Hospital in the early morning before dawn like I’ve seen him do so many times.”
Dr. Johnson passed away on Feb 24, 1978, at the age of 73. He practiced medicine in Elkton for 43 years.
As the 1962 holiday season gets underway, Santa passes the 1870s Cecil County jail (Source: Robinson Collection at the Historical Society of Cecil Count)
When the contractors finished his work in 1871, the sheriff’s home and jail was hailed as a state-of-the-art monument to law and order, a credit to the county. Considering that it replaced “a so-called jail” where notorious types were “chained to the floor,” it probably wasn’t hard to make that claim. That first prison in Elkton (about where the People’s Bank stands on North Street), had been built about 1791 to house murderers, horse and chicken thieves, debtors, drunkards, and the unruly. Eventually, the county seat’s first facility for inmates became so “unfit as a place of detention” that Civil War era courts threatened to send prisoners to Baltimore and charge the county for the expense. The county thus decided it had to build a new sheriff’s home and jail.
Twenty years ago, the old, shabby Cecil County Jail on North Street in Elkton was abandoned for the modern detention center that now serves the county from its location on Landing Lane. The passing of the old jail was largely unnoticed, it routinely having been maligned as a lockup that somehow managed to outlive its usefulness in just 128 years. That old prison has an interesting history, one that evolved from the days of gallows and whipping posts.
There were few sad faces at the demise of the old jail. Passing by, as heavy sledges “were wielded by strong men” tearing down the building, the Cecil Whig’s editor wrote that he felt like saying, “peace be to its remains,”
For those who ran afoul of the law, there were 20 cells at the new prison, surely enough to “accommodate any demand that Cecil County culprits” could place on it, said the Whig. Sheriff Thomas, the first official to turn the key and swing open the wide heavy grated iron door, let in his “house guests.” In the years to come, those cells would have their own stories to tell and the jailhouse walls would stand as silent witnesses to more than a few tragic scenes.
In 1905, the jail’s yard was used for its last execution. (Source: personal collection)
Out in the old jailyard, more than one man would draw his final breath at the end of the hangman’s noose. The last hanging occurred where the Buckworth Senior Center is today in October 1905. Calvin Merritt, “who had built all the scaffolds used there in the past thirty-five years,” erected the gallows on the south side of the jail yard, said the Elkton Appeal. Sheriff George Biddle and Deputy Wes McAllister ascended the platform with the inmate. On the stand, the sheriff placed the noose around the doomed man’s neck and a black cap over his head. The trap door fell open, the body shot downward and his neck was broken. The man, who had been convicted of murdering a prominent Elkton judge, Albert Constable, had paid the full penalty for the crime. There were also hangings in 1893 and 1895.
The first whipping in Cecil County since colonial times happened in 1896, according to the Whig. The cat-o-nine tails were plied by Sheriff Harvey Mackey to a prisoner who had been convicted of beating his wife. Nearly a hundred people witnessed the lashing in the north jail yard, where the whipping post was set up.
One early spring day in 1912, as the county felt the first tentative nudge of the approaching season’s warmth, a cold-blooded shooting in the outer yard snuffed out the young life of a Cecil County Sheriff. The incident took place when Sheriff J. Myron Miller attempted to take a pistol away from a trustee who had refused to obey an order. As the officer forcibly tried to take the weapon, the inmate, Antonio Ducca, placed the muzzle of the guan against the sheriff’s side and fired the fatal shot. Bystanders, running to aid the stricken officer, overpowered Ducca and got the gun away from him.
Not satisfied with life behind bars, a few inmates escaped jail. Deep into a July night in 1919, a chicken thief held at the jail began to unlock doors. Being careful not to make a sound that might alert the sheriff and his family sleeping nearby, he first sawed off the lock on his cell. Then, down the dark corridor, he crept to make short work of a few more iron-barred doors. Long before good light, the man and six other prisoners were over the jail yard wall.
A modern detention center started sprouting out of a cornfield at the edge of town early in the 1980s. Then, in January 1984, in a secret nighttime operation, Sheriff John F. DeWitt moved inmates from the Cecil County Jail in the center of Elkton to Landing Lane. Steel-barred doors opened and closed electronically, and the moves were remotely monitored by deputies in a secure control center while the inmates settled into their cells. An era had ended.
On the evening of June 30, 1976, a gloomy group of regulars gathered
at the Winchester Hotel in Port Deposit to say goodbye to Chief Petty
Officer Stephen Kowalski, the last staff member assigned to the
Bainbridge Naval Training Center. “Chief Ski” had come to the base in
January 1974 to serve as a first lieutenant in charge of maintenance.
As such, he was the last member of the closure force to check out when
the base was disestablished June 30. After seeing all his Navy friends
off to bases in Orlando and New Orleans Kowlaski said he finished
closing the base and headed for the bar at the Winchester Hotel. “I had
to have a Bloody Mary. I couldn’t stand the pain,” he told the Cecil
Whig.
As a 17-year-old from Schenectady, NY, the Navy officer had started
his basic training in the winter of 1954 at Bainbridge and here he was
22 years later closing it down. Joking with the customers he knew so
well, he said: It’s the softest duty I’ve ever had – two and half years
of putting up with farmers,” he joked with the customers at the bar.
Kowalski was not the only one who was going to miss the base. John
Malloy, the owner of the Winchester, said losing the base has really
knocked down the business.
Reflecting on the matter, Kowlaski noted that “being the only official naval personnel in the area presents problems for a man used to living on bases and ships. I feel like I’m lost. I’ve really got no place to go.
John Malloy, the owner of the Winchester Hotel is presenting “Chief Ski” with a plaque commemorating the “last detail.”
Source: From the Jim Cheeseman Collection at the Historical Society.
Editor’s Note: The Winchester Hotel recently reopened as Jacob
Marley’s. See our blog posts on the new establishment in Port Deposit
by clicking here.
the Historical Society of Cecil County on Sunday, Oct. 4 at 1:00 p.m. While highlighting the Navy’s role in preserving the game and football’s impact on national morale and the war effort during the 1940s, it has a significant local angle. One of the star players, “Choo-Choo” Charlie Justice trained at the Bainbridge Naval Training Center.
covers such games as Great Lakes Navy’s final-minute 19-14 upset over perennial power Notre Dame in 1943 (though the Irish won the national championship anyway). Featured in previously unpublished detail is the sport’s wartime star, teenaged halfback Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice, a kid among the All-Americas and NFL players at Bainbridge Navy and a postwar superstar at North Carolina.
