In the early 20th century, Port Herman was the place to be during the hot, humid summer months. The small waterfront community on the Elk River shore attracted city folks seeking to lighten the oppressiveness of the season by catching fresh breezes and enjoying the cooling water.
It all started in 1843 when Robert H. Thomas, an entrepreneur from Philadelphia, purchased a large tract along the Elk River from John Rawlings. He planned to develop the land that had been part of Augustine Herman’s vast Bohemia Manor estate and, in short order, improved his holding. Streets, such as Cherry, Front, and Second, were laid out, and the land was subdivided into building lots.
The Cecil Whig reported that the businessman also built a steam saw and plaster mill and began a large steam-driven cotton factory. Mr. Thomas’s involvement with steam and the capabilities provided by his sawmill must have created an interest in boat construction, for in August 1852, the Whig noted that he was having a steamboat built.
Port Herman’s “little steamer,” the John C. Groome, was launched that year. The vessel needed no pier because it was only 21 feet wide, and with a shallow draft, it was designed to run to Elkton, the Head of Sassafras, the Head of Bohemia, and other narrow tributaries inaccessible to larger steamers.
Working out of Port Herman, the vessel was running up the waterways at the head of the Chesapeake when the next sailing season arrived. An auxiliary boat, she connected with the Philadelphia and Baltimore boat, the Lady Wilmer, at Port Herman.
In the 1850s, Mr. Thomas sold his building lots to Thomas Marshall, James Van Horne (a steamboat captain), G. A. Thompson, and others. During his time, he built a few more boats. When the executors settled his estate in the late 1850s, one unfinished vessel was on his Port Herman property.
Area farmers used Port Herman and its facilities to ship crops to city markets. There was a wharf, warehouses, and a store on the 1877 Atlas of Cecil County.
The year the steamboat launched was a time for big happenings in Port Herman. A few months after that important event, the Postmaster General gave villagers a place to post and pick up mail. “Seventy inhabitants and fifty families living within two miles of Port Herman now had regular mail facilities, the Cecil Democrat observed.
According to government records, Thomas C. Mashall served as the postmaster. In his first half-year of business, the postmaster collected $3.17 and received $3.28 in compensation. Somehow, about two months before the pivotal, bloody Civil War battle at Gettysburg, the federal bureaucracy found time to shut down the little station (April 7, 1863).
A school, the Town Point School, opened in 1877, just outside the village. Located where the road branches off to Town Point, it was adjacent to the store of W. S. Way, Esq, on land previously owned by Col. Joshua Clayton. It superseded an earlier one listed in county records as being in Port Herman. The building was sold for $166 in 1938, according to “Cecil County, Maryland Public Schools 1850-1958.
A large boarding house or summer hotel, the Elk River House, opened in September 1888. Having rooms for 50 boarders, Thomas Griffin built it for Wm. J. Fears. Two years after the hotel opened, the Elkton Appeal editorialized that the number of city residents who could afford to spend summertime in the country was increasing. “This is seen in the numbers of people who have visited the few boarding places open the past summer along our rivers.”
Port Herman’s hotel capitalized on the growing vacation trend, becoming an annual gathering place for long vacations. A July 1919 advertisement said, “Elk River House Now Open – boarding by meal, day or week. Automobile and yachting parties taken care of – WM. FEARS.”
The year before World War I was a progressive one. Citizens formed the Town Point Improvement Association, which had better roads for the area as its chief goal. Everyone residing in Town Point Neck was invited to join.
On the Fourth of July 1916, the Improvement Association hosted the “first celebration” on the banks of the Elk River, surrounding the hotel.” Celebration-goers were favored with the finest weather, as several hundred visitors in automobiles and boats attended.
It was a great day in the village. In the morning, there was a parade, a patriotic speech, songs, and refreshments. After lunch, boat and tub races and a ball game were featured. Illuminations, fireworks, and a phonograph concert in the evening finished off a perfect day.
During a fierce wind and rain storm, ground was broken for the new Town Point. M.E. Church in February 1916. By September, residents were invited to participate in the “most important event in the history” of the village, laying a cornerstone of the new Methodist Church. Previously the church had met in a building that was either a vinegar mill or a blacksmith shop, old postcards indicate.
They wouldn’t miss a summer holiday that year before the Great War disrupted life. On Labor Day, the American Mechanics raised a flag and conducted a patriotic program at the school, which had been enlarged to accommodate the area’s increasing population. After the celebration everyone marched over to the church where a lawn party was held.
Today the Elk River House is on the market, according to a sign on Front Street. But in 1998, I had the pleasure of speaking with the elderly owner, Franconia Johnson. She recalled hearing older residents talk about the summer hotel. “The Ericsson steamer would bring vacations down from Philadelphia each Saturday during the summer, and the hotel would send its wagon down to the pier to pick up the guests.
After World War II, Mrs. Johnson recalled that Bob Fears had a public beach along the shore. He built a concession stand, a bathhouse, and summer cottages to accommodate guests. The cottages were rented for the season, she remarked. And each year, when the summer months rolled around, the village freshened up as guests looked forward to a vacation here. Dips in the river, crabbing, canoeing, rowing, and launching, all the favorite water sports were on the schedule. Of course, there were walks on the beach, dances, enjoyable meals, camping, music, picnicking, and much more at this breezy spot on the Elk River.
This picturesque, little riverside community preserves a unique part of Cecil County’s history.
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Great article on Port Herman! Keep up the good work.
Thanks Richard.
I can remember as a youngster my. Grandfather taking us to the different beaches, Charlestown, Charlestow. Manor, Port Herman. Seems we had so many beaches available! Some had little rides, picnic areas. Good times!
Thanks for sharing that memory.
In the mid 1950s my parents and my older 2 brothers visited Port Herman. I was probably 4 years old…at most 5. I remember talking about a pavilion they had. We may have stayed at one of the cottages. Anyone remember a pavilion? Are there any old pictures of it? I have visited Port Herman recently but don’t recognize anything from that early age. – Jeff
hi. i have been tracing my gordon ancestry for several years and today i stumbled apon port herman beach md, a place i never heard of but my older brother in law says he remembers his family vacationing there many times as a kid…i had been searching for the place my grandparents , roy n fannie gordon, had taken my older sisters in the early 50,s for vac. she remembers roy was buildind possibly a cottage so that may fit in with this location..my father philip must of been there too at a young..any gordons or leagers sound familiar..?thanku
Jeffrey, thanks for sharing this memory with us.