An Audio Journey into Chestertown’s Past

The C. V. Starr Center at Washington College has developed an exciting new heritage tourism product, which provides a journey into Chestertown’s past. A self guided audio tour, it highlights the history of the waterfront while introducing “participants to the true stories of the people who once lived and worked along the waterfront, including Revolutionary leaders, British soldiers, convict servants, and fugitive slaves .” Researched and written by the faculty and students, the tour includes narrative, music reenactments and firsthand accounts of life in a colonial port town. The audio tours are available Friday afternoons from 12 to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with the exception of college holidays.

This is the second exciting new technology product for heritage tourism that’s been announced on the Eastern Shore in recent weeks and we’ll get down to Chestertown to check this one out soon. Meanwhile click here to go to the C.V. Starr press release on the waterfront history tour.

New History of Chestertown by Joan Horsey & Carrie Schrieber

Chronological History of Chestertown, Maryland, 1900 – 1993 is a fascinating little title, which I’ve just added to my library. The work abstracts data from the minutes of the Chestertown Town Council and two local newspapers, the Enterprise and the Kent County News. It also includes a narrative chapter called shared memories from 1949 to 1955 and lots of photographs. I received the title Friday, after locating it on Amazon and I’ve enjoyed thumbing through the title. It is loaded with fascinating information and will be a valuable Eastern Shore reference in my collection. Thanks to the authors, Joan O. Horsey and Carrie E. Shreiber, for producing this helpful book.

Freight Train Plunges into the C & D Canal

On a Monday evening in May 1890, the regular northbound freight, Train No. 20, from Lewes, Delaware was running about a half-hour late as it neared Mt. Pleasant and the draw bridge over the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. Traffic on the canal that spring evening as the 8 o’clock hour neared was heavy, so the operator opened the bridge to allow a tug boat pulling five barges of coal and two schooners to pass through the draw. As the delayed locomotive pulling 23 cars freight cars and the caboose neared the bridge, the engineer failed to notice the red danger light, the train running out onto the open draw. The falling cars struck one of the barges, but the railroad men jumped to safety as the cars started tumbling into the water. With the wreckage of engine # 60 and its freight cars filing the waterway, the canal was blocked for 3 days. Theodore Touchton of Wilmington was the engineer and John Lucas was the fireman. W. W. Dawson was the conductor. (source, Cecil Democrat May 24, 1890)

Nearly thirty years earlier, a similar accident happened at the drawbridge over the canal, but in that instance the engineer and firemen were killed.

Other Posts on Canal  

Reading an Old Diary From the Canal (1864)

This schedule is for the Delaware Road, the one traveled by the delayed northbound freight from Lewes, but it governed traffic on the road nearly 30 years earlier. Still it gives you idea of the stations along the route.

From Claiborne to Ocean City on the Red Star Coach

 The Red Star Motor Coach company provided transportation around the Delmarva Peninsula in the decades before World War II.  The company was apparently headquartered in Salisbury, Maryland.  This brochure for the route between Clairborne and Ocean City shows that the bus met the Claiborne Annapolis Ferry for its run down to the beach.   With stops at Salisbury, Snow Hill,  Berlin and other places, the brochure points out historic vistas along the roadway. 

Main Street Has Stories To Be Told

To compete in the 21st century economy, Main Streets must draw on a community’s past, its unique heritage and architecture. A range of cultural resources combine to create an ambiance that helps make old town centers a destination in the era of Big Box and Internet retailing. The successful ones we see are utilizing these opportunities and developing quality products in a significant way.

The Princess Anne Main Street Partnership is one fine example. They’ve created an excellent, leading edge product, which utilizes the rich heritage of the community by creating a driving tour of the town. While that’s an outstanding idea, the Partnership has taken it to a higher level by producing an audio driving tour that’s delivered over your cell phone. The tour highlights over 300 years of the community’s history from the colonial era to the arrival of the talking picture show. .

Here’s what they say: “Visitors to Princess Anne can now experience the authentic Eastern Shore in Princess Anne – the rich heritage of our historic community using their own cell phones. Hear the stories of freemen and slaves, innkeepers, merchants and more. The tour highlights over 300 years of Princess Anne history from the Colonial era . . . to arrival of the “talking” picture show.

We thoroughly enjoyed this outstanding product, which caused us to make Princess Anne a destination for an enjoyable afternoon. Throughout the tour, 68 stories at 40 sites are presented in a dramatic, theatrical style, full of music and other sound effects. Check it out next time you’re down that way. It’s a quality piece of work from the Princess Anne Partnership and it’ll help make Main Street a destination. Kudos to the Princess Anne Partnership.

The tour is brought to you by the Main Street Princess Anne Partnership, and was funded, in part, through a State of Maryland Main Street Improvement Program Grant.

Chestertown Remembers: The Day the Defense Plant Exploded

On a sweltering July in 1954 a devastating explosion rocked Chestertown’s tranquility. Abruptly at 10:30 a.m. chaos erupted in the Eastern Shore town of 3,200 people when a blast jolted the county seat. Stunned people, many thinking the Russians had bombed the defense plant or the gas plant blew up, reacted. As they worried about the safety of friends and family, the telephone switchboard buzzed to life, many of the tiny signal bulbs lighting up all at once.  The fire siren joined in, wailing out a most urgent plea for aid. Terror stricken people called the operator to say a bomb had gone off or to inquire about the blast. In minutes, a second, larger detonation ripped through the humid morning air shattering windows downtown.

At Kent Manufacturing, a company that made detonators and military fireworks for the government, the accidental blast sent the roof of one building into the sky. Shrieking workers ran for their lives while fireworks shot aloft and burst in the air.  In town, the Associated Press reported that hundreds, including mothers wheeling baby carriages, fled across the Chester River bridge to safety in Queen Anne’s County.  Firefighters prepared to fight their way into the blazing ruins of the plant to rescue injured workers.

The aging memories of the greatest calamity to ever occur in Kent County, an ordeal that affected the entire community, were shared in a Historical Society of Kent County program. With the Labor Day Weekend getting underway Friday evening over 100 people packed the Episcopal Church Hall to hear a panel tell their first-person stories. Lots of people from the audience joined in too.

Plenty of people will never forget this searing incident from that summer day 54-years ago. With the greatest clarity, it was clearly imprinted on a generation of Kent’s residents as remarks such as “I’ll never forget it” were frequently heard.  A jet plane had just flown over, causing us think an attack was underway, one lady remarked.   ”We thought it was out 9/11.”

Several speakers struggled while retelling sad stories they’d rather forget, but will never be able to as aging emotional wounds remain as if they were yesterday.  They’ll never forget where they were or what they were doing at that moment their lives changes. The explosions, the sudden deaths, people fleeing to escape the danger, the rescue effort and the gruesome recovery, these are all things that are seared into their memory.

This was an outstanding program and the Society is undertaking a valuable preservation project by making sure this aspect of Kent’s past is permanently archived. The program was videotaped and will be added to the oral history collection of the Society.

September Jubilee at the Prince Theatre

On this Labor Day weekend, songs that celebrate seasons of emancipation, restoration, and triumph performed by a choir of musicians and friends under the direction of Kent County’s beloved songbird Karen Somerville. Enjoy her gospel, blues, jazz, and a cappella stylizing as she brings another level of versatility to the stage with Lester Barrett Jr., Jerome McKinney, Music Man Andre’ Sisco, keyboard, and percussionist, Slate Gaymon. Drawing from a pool of local singers, Somerville delivers a jubilant chorus with songs that include original and Broadway tunes, and other pieces from such gospel greats as the Edwin Hawkins Singers, the Staple Singers, to Paul McCartney, and Bob Dylan. Benefit St. George U.M. Church – Worton, MD.

Delaware City Celebrates Fences – July 18

To commemorate the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit Between Fences in Delaware City, the creation of a permanent fence in Delaware City’s Battery Park was undertaken by over 20 artisans. Delaware City’s resident blacksmith Kerry Rhoades of Forged Creations www.forgedcreations.com gathered the talents of 18 blacksmiths from 6 states, from as far away as New Mexico, to participate in creating 21 artistic forged iron pickets and donated them for our community fence. Timber framers, from the local Challenge Program, which is a nonprofit Construction Training Program www.challengeprogram.org split rails while the community looked on. Brick masons from Paul’s Pointing, a historic masonry company, www.paulspointing.com carefully constructed a brick pillar in the center. Blacksmiths came from NY, MD and PA to help assemble and install the fence. All in all the installation took about 9 hours. All the artists and craftsmen who participated donated the labor, materials and their time for this remarkable piece of public art. The fence will open dialogue for passersby and those strolling through the park on how fences affect our everyday life.

On July 18th, 2009 at 3:00 PM, Mayor John Martin of Delaware City will join the Between Fences artisans and the community on our city’s most famous and exciting day; Delaware City Day, to commemorate this artistic fence as part of Delaware City’s successful Smithsonian exhibit and to promote this piece of public art as a symbol of Delaware City’s move toward revitalization of the downtown and commitment to the arts. During the commemoration, 2 plaques will be placed on the fence, one noting the fences’ role in the exhibit and another with the names of over 20 artisans.  The commemoration will take place at: 3:00 PM Battery Park, Delaware City Delaware City Day, July 18th 2009

Mardela Springs, Delmar, & Marydel Examined In New Title About Border Towns

1902-02 Maryand State Gazetter entry for Mardela Springs; Publish by Polk Directories

A new title, Edge Effects: The Border-Name Place, by Dr. Robert D. Temple focuses on border towns. The author provides a fascinating and entertaining look at more than eighty north American border towns in Edge Effects. With an adventurer’s heart and a historian’s keen eye, Temple explores life on the edge and how these places have made their place in history.

On the Delmarva Peninsula the author examines Marydel, Delmar and Mardela Springs, while on the Pennsylvania/Maryland border he looks at Pen Mar and Sylmar.  The author talks about finding these 80-s0me places, the adventure in exploring them, by highway, four-wheel-drive, boots, and kayak, and in encountering memorable locals: historians, farmers, waitresses, cops, forest rangers, railroaders, and ne’er-do-wells. But even more, he says, these places lead us to investigate concepts of borders, boundaries, frontiers, margins, and marginality, as well as survey lines, battle lines, picket lines, and color lines. Edge Effects reveals how edges shape local history-and our lives. With an outstanding chapter on Sylmar, it’s a title I’ve ordered for my personal library.

Here’s a link to more information on the title

African-American Schoolhouse Musem Documents 20 Stories & Records 17 Performances

At Saturday’s event at the African-American Schoolhouse Museum in Worton Point, the Museum documented 20 Story Gatherings and recorded 17 music performances of traditional and original music from Kent County, MD artists.  They project March 2010 as the release date for the CD containing these records. The lead song will be “Stand on the Mountain”, written by Kent Countain, Pam Ortiz. Pam shares a very moving story prior to the recording of the piece, saying that it was written in honor of a friend, Maurice Miles from Gaithersburg, MD., who in 1963 (despite challenging circumstances), made his way, with much determination, by bicycle from Rock Creek Park to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. to hear Martin Luther King, Jr. delivery that national address; I Have a Dream.

Miles being so moved by the experience he spoke of it to his church congregation again and again for several years. Ortiz was also a member of that Church, before moving to Kent County with her family. She copyrighted the song in 1997, originally in the folk genre. In Saturday’s rendition singer Jerome McKinney of Butlertown, MD. delivered a soulful and stirring version arranged and performed by Sombarkin’, a powerful trio of singers lead by the Schoolhouse Museum’s founder/director Karen Somerville; Ortiz accompanied on keyboard.

The list is already long for request copies of the yet to be titled CD. Anyone interested in getting on that list can leave a request for the Schoolhouse Museum compilation by leaving their contact information at the museum site www.aasmhc.org, send and email to somersinger@peoplepc.com or call 410-810-1416 ext. 1.