As the mercury rose and fell each day and rain-drenched Cecil County every so often one person carefully observed the changing Elkton weather. That gentleman, H. Wirt Bouchelle, trudged out to the backyard of his home at 6 p.m. each evening to check the temperature, note the day’s highs and lows, and read the rain gauge. The…
Nov 7 at Elkton Library: The 101st Screaming Eagles, a Walk With Heroes
Local veteran Joseph Lofthouse was a radioman and paratrooper for the 502nd regiment and participated in such major events as D-Day, Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge, and the occupation of Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. Hear his first hand experiences of an extradordinary time and events that changed the work at the Elkton Central Library…
Cecil County NAACP Organized in 1962
As the Cecil County NAACP prepares to celebrate 50 years of civil rights advocacy a Window on Cecil County’s Past has checked the old newspapers for that year for information. The Cecil Democrat carried a front page story, but nothing was found in the Cecil Whig. ——– In February 1962, the Cecil Democrat announced the…
Cecil County Chapter of NAACP Observes 100th Anniversary of the National Civil Rights Organization
The Cecil County branch of the NAACP gathered for its annual banquet Saturday evening in Perryville. The national civil rights organization is observing its 100th anniversary this year and the local chapter will mark 50 years of advocacy in 2012. The evening’s keynote speaker was Major General (retired) Joseph McNeil. On Feb. 1, 1960, General…
Meeting To Explore John Smith Heritage Trail in Havre de Grace Thursday
Four hundred years ago Englishman John Smith and a small crew of adventurers set out in an open boat to explore the Chesapeake Bay. Between 1607 and 1609 Smith mapped and documented nearly 3,000 miles of the Bay and its rivers. Along the way they visited many thriving Native American communities and gathered information about…
Library Friends Host “Shipwrecks on the Chesapeake” Program
The Friends of the Cecil County Public Library will host an exciting historical program, “Shipwrecks on the Chesapeake Bay,” on Wednesday, November 4, at 7 p.m. at the Elkton Central Library. The Chesapeake Bay is a key feature of Maryland’s geography, but less well known as a graveyard for ships, passengers, and their crews. More…
An Old One Room Schoolhouse Opened to the Public
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. …
The Hangman’s Gallows in Cecil County
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 grisly…
Cecil Observer: Q&A with ‘Cecil Soldiers’ author Jenifer Grindle Dolde
From Cecil Observer 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…
Robert F. Kennedy’s Funeral Train
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.