Area History
Talbot County — A Brief History
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"Island Blossom" |
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Talbot County, with more than 600 miles of tidal shoreline, has
been water oriented since earliest times. Ringed by such rivers as the
Choptank, Tuckahoe, and Wye, it looks out on the west to the Chesapeake
Bay, and is transected by the broad Miles, the beautiful Tred Avon, and
countless smaller creeks and coves.
The quality of Talbot life
has long reflected this maritime flavor. Its first settlers, arriving
in the 1650's traveled by sloop, barge, priogue and Indian Log canoe.
Its first town, Oxford, developed as a port-of-call for English
merchants whose ships traded finished goods for tobacco directly at the
plantation wharves. Its shipbuilding center, St. Michaels, created the
swift, sharp-hulled sailing vessels which became famous as the "Baltimore Clippers" of the War of 1812.
Founded in 1661 and named for Lady Grace Talbot, sister of the second
Lord Baltimore, the county has ever since been the geographical and
spiritual heartland of the Eastern Shore. Its county town, first called
Talbot Court House and later Easton, was known as the "East Capital" of
Maryland because the Eastern Shore's courts and governmental offices
functioned there. Easton has the Shore's first bank, it first
newspaper, it first federal offices, its first hotel.
Talbot's early settlers were noted for independence and love of
personal freedom, which remain hallmarks of the county's population
today. Many were Quakers, seeking a haven from persecution; their Third
Haven Meeting House, completed in 1684, still is in active service as a
house of worship. Others were Puritans driven from Cavalier Virginia,
or Irish and Scottish rebels transported to the colony as Indentured
servants. The county's blacks coming as slaves, produced Frederick
Douglass, the nation's greatest 19th century exponent of freedom and
justice for Negroes.
In colonial times Talbot politics and society were dominated by
aristocratic families, the Lloyds, Tilghmans, Goldboroughs, Hollydays
and their marital allies, who had their principal seats of residence
here. Their charming Georgian plantation houses, built on the
waterfront, remain as graceful echoes of a vanished way of life.
Talbot citizens played key roles in the events leading to Maryland and
American independence, and a citizen army headed by Gen. Perry Benson
repelled a British attack on the town of St. Michaels in the War of
1812. In the Civil War the county was deeply divided. Post Civil War
times found the county gaining national note as a site of summer homes
for wealthy Northerners and a vacation resort for less affluent "summer
boarders" from the nearby cities.
Along with products of the Bay, agriculture has always provided
Talbot's chief source of income. First tobacco, then wheat, later
tomatoes, fruit and truck crops, and in recent years corn, soybeans and
poultry have sustained its basic population of sturdy family farmers.
Today retail trade and small industry are increasingly important, but
much of the rural and maritime atmosphere of an earlier era still
lingers on. Easton is the Mid-Shore region's principal shopping center,
but retains its mid-Victorian charm. Its splendid hospital, fine
library and the county's excellent schools, public and private, make
Easton one of Maryland's most attractive places to live. Oxford and St.
Michaels are favorite ports of call for the world's yachtsmen, Tilghman
Island is home base for one of the last oyster-dredging skipjack fleets
on the Bay. Trappe districtis an area of lovely homes tucked away on
secluded coves.
Rooted deeply in the past but looking progressivly toward the future,
Talbot County is proud of a way of life which seeks the best of both
yesterday's and tomorrow's worlds
More Information about Talbot County History can be found at the Talbot County Historical Society web site.
Dorchester — Why Not Explore It?
Dorchester County, rich in history and natural beauty, lies midway down the Delmarva Peninsula in the very heart of Chesapeake Country.
Three centuries ago many of its meandering byways were Indian trails, but most Native Americans disappeared by the middle of the eighteenth century, leaving behind scattered shell middens, stone and clay artifacts, and names such as Nanticoke, Choptank and Chicamacomico.
Dorchester, or Dorset as it was originally called in honor of the 4th Earl of Dorset, was a political entity by 1669. Cambridge, the county seat, is a good place to begin your exploration.
Visiting hours for the Dorchester County Historical Society’s museums on Greenway Drive are Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturdays by appointment. The Meredith House (circa 1760) is furnished with antiques and features a collection of dolls and toys along with memorabilia from the seven Maryland governors who resided in the county. Also situated on the society’s grounds are the Neild Museum, housing artifacts of Dorchester’s agricultural and maritime industries and a collection of Native American artifacts; a colonial-style herb garden; an old stronghouse; and the Goldsborough Stable (circa 1790).
A walk along brick-paved High Street carries visitors past the county courthouse, ten 18th-century homes, and another sixteen residences dating to the 19th century. View the current gallery exhibit and browse a well-stocked gift shop at the Dorchester Arts Center, 120 High Street. Stroll the quiet grounds of Christ Episcopal Church, among the graves of early settlers, war heroes and four Maryland governors. Stop at the Richardson Maritime Museum on the corner of High and Glasgow, a repository of Chesapeake Bay wooden boat memorabilia and history. The museum is open April through October from 2 to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Otherwise by appointment.
Sharpshooter and entertainer Annie Oakley lived several blocks west of High Street at 28 Bellvue Avenue, a private residence. “Once she moved away,” boasts the county tourism office, “we became a major wildlife refuge.”
The Brannock Maritime Museum at 107 Hayward Street is dedicated to Dorchester’s maritime heritage and showcases a variety of nautical artifacts from the county, the Chesapeake Bay and beyond. The museum is open 10 a.m. to noon and 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, and from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sundays. Other times by chance or appointment.
Dorchester’s bays and rivers provide endless opportunity for fishermen and crabbers. Those without a boat will find more than ample space to cast a line or drop a crab pot from the Choptank River Fishing Pier, parallel to the Frederick Malkus Bridge.
For hunters, Dorchester is a veritable Mecca. Small game and waterfowl abound, and the county is home to the state’s largest herd of whitetail deer and the only free roaming population of sika deer in the nation.
Numerous marine facilities stand ready to serve the visiting boater, or, in case you left your yacht at home, cruises and charters are available on Nathan of Dorchester, the county’s ambassador skipjack, Dorothy Megan, a reproduction turn-of-the-century paddlewheeler, or Cambridge Lady, a classic yacht.
Bikers find the flat, winding, rural roads throughout the county much to their liking. In 1995 Bicycling Magazine chose Dorchester as one of their top ten rides.
African American heritage tours are available through the Harriet Tubman Organization and can be arranged by visiting the Underground Railroad Gift Shop, 424 Race Street in Cambridge. Harriet Tubman was born near Bucktown on Green Briar Road. Historic Bazel Church stands nearby on Bestpitch Ferry Road.
A few miles west of Cambridge, on Horn Point Road, the University of Maryland operates the Center for Environmental and Estuarine Studies on the former duPont estate. Visitors may tour an aquaculture hatchery, an environmental education center, or walk one of several nature trails.
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Harriet Tubman |
Beyond Horn Point, six miles west of Cambridge on MD Route 343, is Spocott, once a self-contained village and today the site of the only post windmill used for grinding grain in Maryland. An eighteenth century tenant house, a Victorian school and a country market create a museum setting to showcase local history.
On Bucktown Road, Brooks Barrel Company, the sole remaining slack cooperage in Maryland, continues to manufacture barrels from native pine. Tours are by appointment.
Six miles southwest of Cambridge, Church Creek straddles Rt. 16. Here, Old Trinity, the oldest Episcopal church in the United States, was constructed around 1675 and has been meticulously restored. In the church yard, among the shaded graves of generations of Dorchester residents, the curious will discover heroes from all of America’s wars, a Maryland governor and his daughter, Anna Ella Carroll – advisor to Abraham Lincoln, and the enigmatic “miller’s grave.”
A few miles beyond Church Creek, Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge sprawls across more than 23,000 acres of tidal marsh and mixed forest. At the peak of the fall migration, visitors can view thousands of geese and ducks. Shorebirds and warblers assume top billing in spring. The refuge is also home to the endangered Delmarva fox squirrel and is the best location in the East to observe bald eagles. A visitors’ center with exhibits, films and gift shop is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from 9 to 5 on weekends. A wildlife drive and walking trails can be entered from sunrise to sunset.
Roads south of Cambridge lead the adventurer to Taylors Island, perhaps the county’s earliest settlement, or to the quaint watermen’s villages on Hoopers Island. Take a different turn and encounter the scattered hamlets of Andrews, Crapo, Wingate, Toddville, Bishops Head and Crocheron.
Two other historic Dorchester towns are best experienced by walking tours: East New Market was first settled in the second half of the 17th century. The town’s historic district contains many of the early founders homes: Friendship Hall, House of the Hinges, Smith Cottage, Edmondson House, New Market House and Little Manning House to name a few. Buckland, a New England salt box design, is unique to the area.
Vienna was founded in 1706 but existed prior to 1669. It was known by other names in early years: Emporers Landing, or simply Town on the Nanticoke. The Calvert family apparently intended that it be called Baltimore. The original customs house stands at the south end of Water Street, next to Nanticoke Manor House. “Something the damn Yanks can’t burn,” boasted Captain James Lewis when he built his home of brick in 1861. Other historic structures include the former home of Governor Holiday Hicks, the Tavern House, Captain C. E. Wright House, Thomas Higgins House and the Ferry House. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is one of the oldest houses of worship in Dorchester County.
The Vienna Heritage Museum is home to the last mother of pearl button machine equipment in use in the U.S.
North of Vienna, Indian Town Road bisects what was once the largest Indian reservation in Maryland. Chicacone was abandoned by the last of the Nanticokes in the eighteenth century.
If you’d like to witness a primitive salt marsh at its best, drive south from Vienna on Elliott Island Road. At the end lies a sleepy hamlet isolated by miles of marsh and open bay waters. Once home to nearly 600 inhabitants, Elliott today has less than a hundred.
In the community of Reliance in the northeast corner of the county, at the point where Dorchester meets Caroline County and the state of Delaware, stands Patty Cannon’s House. The old tavern, now a private dwelling, is the only physical reminder of an early nineteenth century gang of kidnappers, robbers and murderers that conducted one of the most brutal and wide-spread criminal operations in the history of our nation.
For additional information about Dorchester County, stop at the Visitors’ Center next to the Choptank River bridge in Cambridge. Also, three kiosks containing material of interest to tourists are located in front of the courthouse on High Street, at the park and ride in Church Creek, and in front of Old Salty’s on Hoopers Island. Dorchester County Tourism has also produced a book called “Birding in the Heart of Chesapeake Country.” The guide contains five trails, maps and is in full color.
Tilghman — Bay Hundred
“Great Choptank Island” was granted to Seth Foster in 1659. Thereafter it was known as Foster’s Island, and so on through a succession of owners until Matthew Tilghman of Claiborne inherited it in 1741. He and his heirs owned the island for over a century and it has been Tilghman’s Island ever since, though the northern village and the island’s postal designation are simply “Tilghman.”
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Dogwood Harbor - Tilghman Photo By Bill Thompson |
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For its first 175 years, the island was a family farm, supplying grains, vegetables, fruit, cattle, pigs and timber. Although the owners rarely were in residence, many slaves were; an 1817 inventory listed 104. The last Tilghman owner, General Tench Tilghman (not Washington’s aide-de-camp) removed the slaves in the 1830s and began selling off lots. In 1849, he sold his remaining interests to James Seth, who continued the development.
The island’s central location in the middle Bay, giving access to many creeks and the Eastern Shore’s largest river, is ideally suited for watermen harvesting the Bay in all seasons. Farmers too were attracted, for the soil is fertile and without a stone. The years before the Civil War saw the influx of the first families we know today. A second wave arrived after the War, attracted by the advent of oyster dredging in the 1870s.
Hundreds of dredgers and tongers operated out of Tilghman’s Island, their catches sent to the cities by schooners. Boat building, too, was an important industry.
The boom continued into the 1890s, spurred by the arrival of steamboat service which opened vast new markets for Bay seafood. Islanders quickly capitalized on the opportunity as several seafood buyers set up shucking and canning operations on pilings at the edge of the shoal of Dogwood Cove. The discarded oyster shells eventually became an island with seafood packing houses, hundreds of workers, a store, and even a post office. It is now a marina and yacht club.
The steamboats also brought visitors who came to hunt, fish, relax and escape the summer heat of the cities. Some families stayed all summer in one of the guest houses that sprang up in the villages of Tilghman, Avalon, Fairbank and Bar Neck. Although known for their independence, Tilghman’s Islanders enjoy showing visitors how to pick a crab, shuck an oyster or find a good fishing spot.
In the 20th century, Islanders pursued these vocations in farming, on the water, and in the thriving seafood processing industry. The “Tilghman Brand” was known throughout the eastern United States, but as the Bay’s bounty diminished, so did the number of water-related jobs. Still, three of the few remaining Bay ‘skipjacks’ (sailing dredgeboats) can be seen here, as well as two working harbors with scores of power workboats.
©2008 Tidewater Times
