Harold W. Hurst - October 2011

City on the Chesapeake

A Brief Glance at Cambridge's Past

by

Harold W. Hurst

Books and travel literature describing Maryland’s Eastern Shore generally focus on the history and quaint charm of Chestertown, Easton, St. Michaels, Oxford and, perhaps, Princess Anne and Snow Hill. Cambridge often gets less attention. Yet the town on the Choptank has a rich past, many interesting landmarks, and a substantial historical district. The eventful and kaleidoscopic saga of Cambridge is well worth reviewing.
Founded in 1684, Cambridge, the county seat of Dorchester, soon became a leading tobacco exporting center on the Eastern Shore. Tobacco (sot-weed) plantations owned by the Carroll, Dorsey, Ennals, Goldsborough, Henry, Hooper, LeCompte, Sewall, Trippe, Tubman and other prominent families, shipped their crops to Cambridge, where they were inspected and stored in the town’s warehouses and later shipped to Annapolis, Philadelphia and points north.
Tobacco was the “gold” of the Chesapeake region as the “sot-weed” became the chief source of wealth and the principal medium of exchange. Taxes and salaries were paid in tobacco. The inspector at Cambridge, for instance, was paid 9,600 pounds annually for his services in the 1760s. The courthouse in Cambridge, erected in 1687, cost 26,000 pounds of tobacco.
Maryland’s Eastern Shore was a place of relative calm during the American Revolution. Few important battles took place on Peninsula soil. However, Dorchester County organized the Sixth Independent Company under the leadership of Thomas Woolford. Numerous militia companies were raised in the area, ostensibly for the defense of the region against enemy attacks. In 1781, two militia battalions were founded by Bartholomew Ennals, Jr. and Charles Staplefort, both from prominent local families.
After the Revolution, tobacco declined as the chief crop of Dorchester County and the Eastern Shore region. Corn replaced tobacco and cattle growing was introduced. Wheat was also grown, some of which was ground into flour by windmills. By 1850, Dorchester County’s 1,049 farms were raising a wide variety of crops, including 597,252 bushels of corn and 137,479 bushels of wheat per year.
Throughout the nineteenth century, shipbuilding was an important industry in Cambridge. Vessels were built from wood found in the oak and pine forests of Dorchester, Caroline and Somerset counties. Schooners known as Baltimore Clippers were constructed in large numbers in the local shipyards.
An early steamboat assembled in 1813 by Captain Edward Trippe was the Chesapeake, a 130-foot ship that cost $40,000 – a large sum for this period. This was the first steam-propelled craft to sail in Chesapeake Bay waters. An atlas published in 1877 lists the Davis and Johnson Company as ship builders and proprietors of the Cambridge Marine Railway.
In 1860, Cambridge had about 1,200 inhabitants, making it one of the three largest towns on the Eastern Shore, the other two being Chestertown and Easton. The racial composition of the town mirrored that of slaveholding Dorchester County. Slaves constituted 39 percent of the town’s population; free blacks 17 percent; while whites made up approximately 44 percent.
The turbulent Presidential election of 1860 found Cambridge a divided community, much like the rest of Maryland. John Bell, the candidate of the neutralist and conservative Constitutional Union Party, won 211 votes in Cambridge while John Breckinridge, the pro-slavery and secessionist nominee, received 209 votes. The Northern Democratic Party represented by Stephen Douglas took eleven votes; the Republican contender, Abraham Lincoln, secured a mere five votes. In Dorchester County, the at-large vote was: Bell, 1,263 votes; Breckinridge, 1,185; Douglas, 31 and Lincoln, 34.
Throughout the ensuing Civil War, the majority of the residents of Cambridge and Dorchester County, like most of the rest of the Eastern Shore, remained loyal to the Union, although their true sympathies were with the South. In brief, they were conservative unionists who opposed the war policies of the Lincoln administration.
Most able-bodied men from the county served in the First Eastern Shore Regiment of Infantry, Maryland Volunteers, which was organized in Cambridge in September of 1861. This unit served at Gettysburg and later was partially consolidated with the Eleventh Regiment of Infantry, Maryland Volunteers.
Some men from Cambridge, however, served in the Confederate Army. One was Dr. Thomas W. Williams, who was a surgeon and later Assistant Surgeon General of the Confederate Sates of America. Another was James L. Woolford, who joined the Confederate Army in November 1862 and was later wounded at Gettysburg. Captured by the Federal Army, he was imprisoned at Fort McHenry and later exchanged for Federal prisoners in 1864. Colonel Woolford established an oyster packing firm in Cambridge after the Civil War.
Change came to Cambridge after the Civil War. The Dorchester and Delaware Railroad, incorporated in 1866, connected the town with Seaford, Delaware, in 1868. A telegraph company was established in 1868. During the same year, the Cambridge Harbor Internal Navigation Wharf Company was organized to dredge the harbor, making it more accessible to shipping activities.
The railroad and new improved harbor facilities stimulated trade in Cambridge and other port towns in the county, as records show that large amounts of grain, crabs, oysters, fish and fruits moved through the area in 1869 and 1870. The first large manufacturing company was founded in 1869 on the east side of Cambridge Creek by J.W. Crowell and Company. This firm provided flour and lumber, supplying white oak timber for the cars of the Central Pacific Railroad.
Local progress was temporarily halted on July 30, 1892, when a terrible fire wrought destruction on the growing town. The blaze started in a livery stable and spread rapidly through the commercial district. Unfortunately, the town’s single fire engine was laid up for repairs and there was no way to pump water for several hours after the fire started. Mayor Warren Mundy telegraphed Salisbury and Wilmington for help. By the time the fire engines from Salisbury arrived, the fire had destroyed fifteen buildings, including two hotels, two newspapers, the National Bank and several stores and residences. The estimated loss was $80,000, a large sum for this period.
Cambridge quickly recovered, however, as exports increased and new industries were established. In 1900 the population was 5,747, making it the largest town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Salisbury was second in population with 4,277, while Chestertown, Easton and Crisfield each had a little over 3,000 residents.
During the first half of the twentieth century, the canning and packing industries were the mainstay of the local economy. As early as 1870, James Wallace and Company, oyster and fruit packers, was a trail blazer in the industry. Located on Cambridge Creek, their facilities included two buildings, one 95 by 50 feet and the other 95 by 145 feet. Both were located on a wharf with several hundred feet of frontage.
But the real “movers and shakers” in the local canning and packing industries were Albanus and Levi Phillips who, together with their partner, William G. Winterbottom, organized the Phillips Packing Company. Originally an oyster packing company, they later diversified their activities by canning tomatoes. During the 1920s, Cambridge was known as the “tomato-canning capital of the world.”
In World War II, the Phillips Company worked their employees day and night to produce C rations for the armed forces. The employment force reached an all-time high of 2,000, a large number for a small city like Cambridge.
The Phillips brothers, like other members of the American socio-economic elite of this period, played a dominant role in the social, political and economic life of their community. Albanus Phillips, in addition to managing his own business, was a vice president of the Cambridge Peoples Loan, Saving and Deposit Bank; a director of the Cambridge National Bank; and president of the Cambridge Hospital, established in 1908. An organizer of the Cambridge Yacht Club, he was also a Mason and actively involved in Republican Party politics.
Levi Phillips was a banker and a director of the Dorchester Water Company. His other interests included several fraternal organizations and the local Zion Methodist Church. An avid fisherman and hunter, he was also a member of the Cambridge Yacht Club. The hand of the Phillips brothers was felt in every nook and cranny of Cambridge society during the early decades of the century.
The 1960s witnessed an economic decline as one of the city’s largest packers laid off 1,200 workers, or about one-third of the local labor force. During the decade, racial strife occurred when African Americans demonstrated against segregation in schools, restaurants and jobs. Violence ensued, and the National Guard was called. Passions erupted again later in the decade as the civil rights activist H. Rap Brown delivered a provocative speech inciting more rioting. Since this period, desegregation and increased employment for blacks have resulted in improved race relations.
Economic progress followed the expansion of the city harbor facilities by the Maryland Port Authority in 1973-74. Vegetable and shellfish processing continued as important industries, and a variety of small business firms now supplement the town’s economy. As in other Eastern Shore communities, hunting and fishing activities and tourism put dollars into the local cash registers.
In 2006, Cambridge faced yet another crisis placing the town at a critical point in its history. The Blackwater Resort Project, a real estate development company, proposed a massive housing and retail project that would include 3,200 houses, a conference center, retail complex, golf course and tennis courts on 1,080 acres of open land near the town. Local opponents claimed the development would place added burden on the infrastructure and the public school system, while the project’s proponents argued that the plan would provide jobs for the town.
The Cambridge City Council, in August of 2006, approved the proposed project. However, the Maryland Critical Area Commission rejected the planned development. They later authorized a much scaled-down version of the original project.
An article in the Spring 2005 issue of the Delmarva Quarterly (not presently in publication) included an engaging description of the renaissance that Cambridge has enjoyed in the last few years, noting that “arts and entertainment are playing a leading role in the revival of a classic Eastern Shore community that once ranked as the commercial capital of Delmarva.” No doubt, Cambridge’s picturesque harbor, historic district and well-provided museums will draw thousands of tourists and history lovers in the years to come.