USA > Maryland > Kent County > History of Kent County, Maryland, 1630-1916 > Part 12
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Time, the destroyer of all things, has broken down these shells, and reduced them to a state of imper- fect calcination ; and being intermixed, not in alter- nate strata, but irregularly through the whole mass, with a rich mould, they form a manure which ex- tensive experiments have proved to be of a superior quality.
To the residents of this Bay Shore the encroach- ments made upon their lands by the bay have been remarkable. One of the best examples is to be found on "Ellendale," owned by Smith Bros., midway be- tween Rock Hall and Tolchester, a half-mile race track was made between the house and bay some years ago, but today the water has encroached to within a few yards of the house.
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH DISCOVERS "TOCHWOGH" (SAS- SAFRAS) RIVER.
Capt. John Smith (he of the Pocahontas story known to every school child), after discovering the Susquehanna river (1608) sailed down from the mouth of that river along the eastern side of the bay. Upon reaching the river now known as the
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Sassafras he gave it the name of "Tochwogh" in honor of the tribe of Indians of that name he found living on its southern banks. In his report of his voyage up the bay he states: On the eastern side of the bay is the river Tochwogh, and upon it a people that can make one hundred men (warriors) seated some seven miles within the river, where they have a fort very well pallizadoed and mantelled with barkes of trees. Entering the river Tochwogh, the savages all armed in a fleet of boats, after their barbarious manner, round invironed us; so it chanced one of them could speak the language of Powhatan, who persuaded the rest to a friendly par- ley-they conducted us to their pallizadoed towne mantelled with the barkes of trees, with scaffold like mounts brested about with breasts very formally.
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CHAPTER XXXII.
"MONOMAC"-AN INDIAN TALE. By P. Wroth, M. D.
In pursuing my professional vocation, I often visited that locality (in Kent County) where the Churn and Still Pond Creeks, by one common estuary, empty their waters into the Chesapeake Bay. On one of those visits I remember to have walked to the high bluff which looks down on the bay and to have stood under the shade of a ven- erable oak which stood near the edge of the bluff. Towards the south the eye took in the wide expanse of water to the mouth of the Patapsco River-on which the city of Baltimore is built-and north- ward to the mouth of the noble Susquehanna.
I sometimes indulge in a trip to the regions of Fancy, and on that ocasion my thoughts took a backward range and embraced the time when the Susquehannas, the Chesapeakes and the Nanti- cokes, numerous and powerful tribes of the aborig- ines, ranged over this extensive region as Lords of the Soil.
The spot where I stood was near one of those immense shell banks which, doubtless, had been the site of a large Indian town. It is known that the aborigines drew their subsistence entirely from the woods and waters by the chase and taking fish and oysters, but many hundreds of years must have been required for the accumulation of those masses of shells.
This venerable tree, I could not doubt, had shel- tered the heads of the Indians from the rays of the
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sun more than 500 years ago; and Fancy carried me back to the time when their council fires had blazed under perhaps this very tree. I fancied my- self present at one of these councils about the time when Colonel Clayborne settled Kent Island with a colony from Virginia, which some years before
NÁŘ
"SHEPHERD'S DELIGHT," A PART OF CAMELL'S WORTHMORE, BUILT ABOUT 1682 AND NOW THE HOME OF DR. SEWELL S. HEPBURN. LOCATED NEAR STILL POND STATION.
had been colonized from England. I thought that I saw the Grand Sachem of the Chesapeake rise in all his native dignity, and heard him thus address the assembled warriors :
"BROTHERS !
"More than ten thousand moons have waxed and waned since the Great Spirit-the God of our Fathers-brought us to these hunting grounds. Our fathers had disobeyed his commands by worshipping
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idols-gods made with hands-and He drove our fathers from that bright and pleasant land, where the sun casts his first and brightest beams, to this western wild!
"Brothers and braves! Our fathers repented- and the good and great Spirit commanded the sun to melt the snows which covered the Alleghany Mountains which lie towards the setting sun.
"From these snows, as from a fountain, flowed the beautiful Susquehanna River. He planted the bottom of this wide water at our feet-the noble Chesapeake-with delicious oysters and animated it with fish. He caused the raccoon, the bear, the elk and the deer to fill our forests and cover the grassy plains.
"Thus the land of our exile became even more plenteous than the first home the Great Spirit had given to our fathers.
"Braves and brothers! Our hearts have become proud and ungrateful-and we too, like our fathers, are doomed to be driven from these loved hunting grounds !
"Brothers and braves! Last night I was resting under this tree after the fatigue of the chase, when the voice of the Great Spirit came over the dark water and said 'Monomac-Monomac-stand up! Look towards the island over which the sun stands at midday.' I arose and looked through the shades of night-when the heavens were clothed with a black mantle and the lightning flashed through the sky, and I saw mighty canoes, with wide-spread wings, flying swiftly through the air towards our shore like a hungry eagle on his prey! The canoes
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were filled with beings like ourselves-but whose skins were white as the snow which covers these hills in winter! I spoke and said, 'Are these the messengers of good or evil?' The terrible voice re- plied, 'Of evil to you; for they will drive you from these hunting grounds far beyond the mountain which looms up toward the setting sun ; but of good to generations yet unborn !'
"Braves and brothers! I believe the words of the Great Spirit-the God of our Fathers. Let us pre- pare to wander where destiny calls us. There, if we are humble and grateful, we may find the deer, the bear, and the buffalo to feed us with their flesh and clothe us with their skins."
In imagination I saw the big tears welling down their manly faces as they drew near to their be- loved Sachem who had never turned his back to his enemies! And-at this moment returning from my excursion to the region of Fancy, and looking toward the country where once roamed the savage wild beast and the still more savage red man, now covered with the golden harvest and other evidences of civilization. Plain prose now took the place of poetic fancy ; the facts of everyday life could not be thrown aside, and I remembered that not one red man had been in these forests for more than 2,000 moons !
I left the shade of the magnificent and venerable oak-which had braved the storms of seven or eight hundred winters, and mounting my sulky, drove rapidly away.
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CHAPTER XXXIII.
Some Recollections.
Kent County can point with pride to the health- fulness of its climate and to the longevity of life of many of her citizens. A good example is found in "Aunt Mary" Thomas. "Aunt Mary" was visited at her home at the Cliffs, the lower part of Quaker Neck, by the writer when she was rounding out her ninety-sixth year.
She remembered with vivid distinctness the vast strides of progress in many departments of life. She recalled to her interviewer a few of them, as follows: From cutting wheat with a sickle to self-binders ; from the slow old stage coach of our "daddies," of six miles an hour, to the express train of sixty miles ; from six months to get a letter from Europe to six days, and the telegraph and all electrical in- ventions and improvements ; diamond-back terrapin at five cents each to $80 a dozen, oysters for the picking up to a hard time to get a mess, fish so plen- tiful that they would almost bite you if you went in swimming; from the old packet line of schooners to an excellent and efficient steamboat service. Twenty years ago there were seven gates to open or bars to let down to get to Mrs. Thomas' home from the main road, now there is a good road to the water's edge. Then her nearest neighbor was a quarter of a mile off, now houses are within calling distance.
Mrs. Thomas says that she taught the first pri- mary school in the county, at the forks of the roads leading to Rock Hall and Pine Neck, in a house
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called "Solomon's Temple," owned by Capt. Solo- mon Marine. It was difficult at that time to get teachers, and Mrs. Thomas was prevailed upon to teach the young idea how to shoot, receiving $300 per annum. Col. Fred Wilson, James Adkinson and her father were the trustees. She had 32. small
*
MRS. MARY THOMAS, 96, AND HER HOME NEAR THE CLIFFS, IN QUAKER NECK.
scholars and a number of larger ones. General Reed's daughter was an intimate friend, and the "young school marm" was in the habit of making fun of the General's large iron candlestick, saying that so wealthy a man should have silver or gold. He (the General) told her he would send this candle- stick to her for a wedding gift, and to her surprise the General's daughter sent her the candlestick after her marriage.
Another remarkable citizen was Mr. Henry Davis, father of Mr. Harry Davis, at Still Pond, a former
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County Commissioner. This venerable man was 97 years of age and retained every faculty unimpaired. It was no uncommon thing for Mr. Davis to "take a little outing" of four miles on foot "for his health."
One of the most remarkable women living in Kent County today is Mrs. Carolene Hynson, the widow
MRS. CAROLENE HYNSON'S RINGGOLD FARM HOUSE-1780- OCCUPIED BY J. B. JACQUETTE, IN PINEY NECK.
of Richard Hynson. She is in her ninety-eighth year, and has a most retentive memory and keeps in close touch with her varied farm and business in- terests. She converses interestingly of events which occurred before the memory of the average citizen began. She lives on Water street, in the old Hyn- son homestead. As an instance of her business abil- ity, although 97 years of age, she planned and con- tracted for the erection of the elegant home now
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occupied by her son's widow and children. This home lies opposite Mrs. Hynson's residence.
Possibly the oldest colored person living in Kent was Sarah Wilson, who, according to authentic rec- ords, was 105 years of age. She died near Melitota on January 24, 1893, and was buried near Green Point.
The late R. T. Turner says that Clara Waters, who died near Still Pond on June 8, 1885, was 101 years old. Miss Caroline Thompson, a most interesting resident of Chestertown, died here on July 11, 1885, aged 99 years 4 months.
KENT'S SILVER MINE.
In or about the year 1813 valuable and pure silver was found near Galena. Mrs. M. H. Nickle of Bal- timore says: "Sufficient quantities were taken out to be carried to Philadelphia and manufactured into knee buckles, spoons, casters, and other such arti- cles." The then open mine or valuable deposit was closed, as it was owned by very ignorant white and colored people and they were advised to close it, as it was about the time the British came to George- town, a place only two miles distant. They were told that if the English knew of this mine they would claim it. They never made any more effort to open it and the war and natural excitement which succeeded the war prevented others from taking hold of it, who otherwise would have done so. Two or three years ago some specimens on this tract were picked up and taken to Prof. W. Leslie Rumsell, analytical chemist, and examined by him. They
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proved to be horn silver, very pure. The present owner says she is too poor to have it properly mined.
In November, 1878, local option was adopted in Kent County by a vote of 1,984 for prohibition to 1,394 against, giving a majority of 590. Another vote was taken later upon petition of the liquor advo-
OLD BUNGY SCHOOLHOUSE ON BUNGY HILL, WHERE PROF. CLARK TAYLOR TAUGHT, NOW A KITCHEN, IN PINEY NECK.
cates, but the prohibitionists won by over a thou- sand majority, since which time there has been no agitation for another test.
A GREAT PRIZE FIGHT.
Wednesday, February 7, 1849, Rock Point, mouth of Still Pond Creek, was the scene of a great na- tional prize fight. The weather was intensely cold
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and the fight was the talk of society refined and un- refined for months beforehand. The participants were Tom Hyer, who stood 6 feet 21 inches and weighed 185 pounds, and Yankee Sullivan, 5 feet
KENNEDYVILLE HIGH SCHOOL-1915.
101% and an avoirdupois of 155 pounds. The stake was $10,000. The daily papers contained lengthy accounts of the fight. The principals, with their backers, were chased hither and thither about the Chesapeake Bay in order to prevent the fight. Fi- nally they landed at Rock Point and pulled off the fight. Hyer on the sixteenth round caught Sulli- van's head under his right arm and punished him
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until he was satisfied, when he was forcibly taken from the ring by his friends, Hyer claiming the victory.
"CROW HILL."
About equal distance between Black's Station and Chesterville is a settlement called "Crow Hill." It
Old doorway
AT THE CHAMBERS HOUSE, ON WATER STREET.
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HISTORY OF KENT COUNTY, MARYLAND
was given this name many years ago because of the fact that all the crows within a radius of fifty miles assembled there every day at dusk to spend the long, cold nights of the winter. It is a barren spot. save for the scattered trees which serve as a roosting place for the birds. On a cold winter day its ap- pearance is the very extreme of desolation and dis- comfort, and one naturally wonders why our friends of the sombre raiment did not select a more shel- tered spot. Here they have been gathering, however, thousands upon thousands, from time immemorial.
Just now the place is uninhabited, because in the early spring the crows pair off and take to the woods, where they build large, bulky nests of sticks, and lay greenish eggs heavily spotted with dark colors.
NEGRO SUPERSTITIONS.
For weird mystery and a something that is past finding out it is the proneness of many Kent negroes to superstition. While the supernatural plays a prominent part in all that he does or thinks, this is peculiarly the case as regards the weather. For in- stance, if rabbits in the fall show a tendency to bear to the left when they are routed from their beds by the huntsman or his dog, the winter is certain to be "perishing cold." If, on the contrary, he turns to the right, a mild winter must result. For the winter, 1899, the fall maneuvers of the Kent County cottontails indicated "an awful winter, sir, fur, please de Lawd, dey turned almos' clean around to de lef.' "
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Then, too, those time-honored weather forecasters, the immaculate little muskrats, instead of building the walls of their "Noah's ark of the marshes" high and thick-forwarned, as it were, by some unknown power of a desperately cold winter, an old "ratter"
HOUSE BUILT IN 1687 ON "DUNCAN'S FOLLY," NEAR LYNCH, OWNED BY J. W. CHAPMAN AND OCCUPIED BY S. J. LEE.
states that they burrowed into the high river banks, far above the reach of tides and ice. Corn-husks were thick, hornets' nest close to the ground, chest- nuts abundant, the bark of trees rough and heavy, and still a winter of phenomenally high tempera- tures prevailed.
The negro mind, in a vast number of instances, clings to the superstitions of centuries back. In the pockets of many of them may be found two moles' feet, neatly tied together, or a round, white stone,
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taken from some abandoned fish-hawk's nest, known as the "luck stone." A dried eelskin is considered a prevention against cramp, and a leather string around a child's neck will drive back the whooping cough. Of course, the foot of a graveyard rabbit means unfailing "good luck."
THE PALMER HOUSE ON HIGH STREET, CHESTERTOWN, OCCUPIED BY MRS. ARAMINTA BURKE-201 YEARS OLD.
One of the most widely-known and successful fishermen never thinks of setting a net, or placing a trap on the marsh, without adorning them with a bunch of rags or a little bag possessing some mysterious power to woo the coveted game. Even the eel trap on the muddy flats is given this little bag as a talisman of good luck. What these bags contain, no one but the weather-beaten old trapper
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knows, but his faith is like that of a little child, as interesting and unfailing.
The weird dreams of the negro mind in the realms of superstition would fill columns and these dreams mark a most interesting phase of negro character. But there is now a tendency, even on the part of the colored people, to repudiate their former blind faith in ghosts and ghostly things, but in many cases this is only a make-believe, for while the old fellow says, in faltering tones, that he used to believe in spirits, he has "kind a lost faith," his pocket may then be stored with moles' feet, luckstones and amulets of many kinds. Many farmers are firm believers in the effect of the moon, and never fail to consult their almanacs as to the moon in planting corn or pota- toes, as well as in butchering their porkers.
JUDGES SECOND JUDICIAL CIRCUIT
CONSTITUTION OF 1776.
James Tilghman, Queen Annes County-1791. Chief Judge-died 1809.
Richard Tilghman Earle, Queen Annes County. Chief Judge-vice Judge Tilghman-1809.
Edward Worrell, Kent County. Associate Judge-1806.
Lemuel Purnell, Talbot County. Associate Judge-1806. Robert Wright, Kent County. Associate Judge, 1822- vice Judge Worrell, deceased.
Philemon B. Hopper, Queen Annes County. Associate Judge, 1826-vice Judge Wright, deceased.
John B. Eccleston, Kent County. Associate Judge, 1832- vice Judge Purnell, deceased.
Ezekiel F. Chambers, Kent County. Associate Judge, 1824-vice Judge Earle, resigned.
CONSTITUTION OF 1851.
Judge Eccleston, Associate Judge, Court of Appeals.
Judge P. B. Hopper, Circuit, Kent, Queen Annes, Caroline and Talbot Counties.
Judge R. B. Carmichael, 1858-vice Judge Hopper, deceased.
Judge Jas. B. Ricaud, March 1, 1864-vice Judge Car- michael, resigned.
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HISTORY OF KENT COUNTY, MARYLAND
CONSTITUTION OF 1864.
Second Judicial Circuit-Kent and Queen Annes.
Judge John M. Robinson.
CONSTITUTION OF 1869.
Judge John M. Robinson, Chief Judge.
Judge Joseph A. Wickes, Associate Judge.
Judge Frederick Stump, Associate Judge.
Judge Geo. M. Russum, Chief Judge, January 14, 1896- vice Judge Robinson, deceased.
Judge James A. Pearce, Chief Judge, December 4, 1897- elected November, 1897.
Judge Wm. R. Martin, Associate Judge, December 4, 1897. Judge Edwin H. Brown, Associate Judge, October 4, 1901 -vice Judge Stump, deceased.
Judge Wm. H. Adkins, Associate Judge, September 22, 1906-vice Judge Martin, deceased.
Judge Austin L. Crothers, Associate Judge, March 29, 1906-vice Judge Brown, deceased.
Judge P. B. Hopper, Associate Judge, July 31, 1907-vice Judge Crothers, resigned.
Judge Albert Constable, Chief Judge-elected November, 1912.
OLD PUBLIC SCHOOL AT KENNEDYVILLE.
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HISTORY OF KENT COUNTY, MARYLAND
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The Old Court House-To Kentland's Green Gardens.
THE OLD COURT HOUSE. BY PERCY G. SKIRVEN.
The administration of the affairs of a county re- quires a building in which the judicial body of the
THE OLD COURTHOUSE-BUILT 1698.
county can hold its sessions. In addition to this requirement there should be a place in the building for filing the records of these meetings. Provision must be made for the meeting of the Orphans' Court and the filing of papers pertaining to the work of this Court-wills, inventories of estates and admin-
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istration accounts. Further provision must be made for the meeting of the County Commisioners, which is the administrative body handling the financial affairs of the county. In the same building are kept the records of all transactions pertaining to the transfer and mortgaging of lands within the limits of the county. These records are in the care of the officer known as the Clerk of the County Court.
Such are the requirements of a building designed to take care of the administrative affairs of that division of a state known as a "county."
When Kent was made a county of the Province of Maryland in 1642, the Governor appointed the Commissioners of Justice. Giles Brent was made Chief Judge in all matters civil and criminal. The official document reads as follows :
"To Mr. Secretary,
These are to will and require you to draw a commis- sion to Mr. Giles Brent to be Commander of the Isle of Kent; and for Mr. William Luddington and Mr. Richard Thomson to be joined with him in Commission.
LEONARD CALVERT, GOUT."
August 2nd, 1642.
Prior to that time the Isle of Kent had been a "hundred" of St. Mary's and Capt. John Langford was the sheriff, he having been appointed in Feb- ruary, 1637. He was reappointed in 1642 and the Isle of Kent now became a county with the neces- sary officers to govern it as such.
There arose the question of a place for the Jus- tices to meet to hold Court. As the center of the population of the new county was on the lower end of the present Kent Island, it was decided in 1639 that Court should be held at the old Kent Fort.
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HISTORY OF KENT COUNTY, MARYLAND
That place soon gave way to one more convenient on Broad Creek. It, too, soon fell into disuse and the sittings of the Court were held at the houses
"ELLENDALE," ON CHESAPEAKE BAY, OWNED BY LOUIS E. SMITH.
of some one of the prominent colonists whose dwell- ing was large enough to provide for the accommo- dation of the Justices. For that accommodation and use of the house the host was paid in tobacco.
In 1674 Charles Calvert, then Governor of the "Province," appointed the Justices for Kent County as follows: Thomas South, Joseph Wickes, James Ringgold, John Hinson, Henry Hozier, Arthur Wright, John Wright, Tobias Wells and William
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HISTORY OF KENT COUNTY, MARYLAND
Lawrence. On the back of the commission was written by the Governor :
"I do hereby Order that the place for holding your County Court be in some part of the Eastern Neck and not upon the Island (meaning Eastern Neck Island) as formerly.
Given under my hand the 2nd day of July, 1674.
CHARLES CALVERT, Govr."
For several years prior to this order the Court had been held on Eastern Neck Island at the home of one of the Justices, Mr. Joseph Wickes. His plantation was known as "Wickcliffe," and is today one of the finest estates in Maryland.
At that time, 1674, the Provincial Assembly sit- ting at St. Mary's passed an act providing for the erection of court houses in each of the counties, and in 1679 the Commissioners used a Court House which they had built on the land of James Ringgold at the town of New Yarmouth on Gray's Inn Creek. In 1680 James Ringgold deeded the lot of land (about half an acre) on which the Court House stood to Charles Calvert, then the third Lord Balti- more. There was also a jail standing on the lot and it, too, had been built by the County Justices.
The Court for Kent County was held in the Court House at New Yarmouth for sixteen years, but the increasing population of the county made it im- perative to hold court in a more convenient place. The Commissioners were authorized by the Assem- bly to buy a piece of land on the Chester River at the present location of Chestertown. Court was held in 1696 at the house of Mr. Isaac Caulk and he received 1,020 pounds of tobacco "for expenses" in entertaining the Justices.
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HISTORY OF KENT COUNTY, MARYLAND
At the meeting of the Justices on October 30. 1696, to levy tobacco to pay the current expenses of the county and to meet the bills authorized at the previous Court, 2,000 pounds of tobacco was placed in the sheriff's hands to pay for the land on which
"TRUMPINGTON," DOWN THE COUNTY, THE HOME OF MRS. JULIA A. RINGGOLD.
to build the Court House. The entry in the old book, known as the Court Proceedings, now in the Court House at Chestertown, says : **
* the tobacco to remain in the Sheriff his custodie until the right owner approved that can give a sufficient and good title to the county for the same or till the Justices of this county shall otherwise order the said tobacco." There evidently was some defect in the title to the land.
Simon Wilmer, then surveyor for the county, was paid 200 pounds of tobacco "for laying out the land for the Court House and recording the same."
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HISTORY OF KENT COUNTY, MARYLAND
A contract was made with John Sutton, with Col. Peter Sayer as his bond, for building the Court House, and at this session of the Court (October 30, 1696) 6,000 pounds of tobacco was appropriated to
L
COURTHOUSE, CHESTERTOWN, MD.
pay for the house when completed-the sheriff to keep the tobacco in his hands until authorized to pay it to the builder.
As the next Court for making the levy was held at the house of Mr. Isaac Caulk on the Sth of Novem- ber, 1697, it is evident that the Court House was not then finished. At that session of the Court Morgan Brown was paid 700 pounds of tobacco to build a chimney on the Court House, and the "Plasterer"
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HISTORY OF KENT COUNTY, MARYLAND
1,600 pounds of tobacco for plastering the Court House. To Simon Wilmer's negro James 190 pounds of tobacco was paid "for hairs used in plastering the Court House," and to Godfrey Pener 85 pounds of tobacco "for more nails for the plasterer." There
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WM. JANVIER'S HOME NEAR TURNER'S CREEK-ONE OF THE OLD LANDMARKS.
were also appropriated 400 pounds of tobacco to be paid to Mr. William Bladen "for drawing the Bill preferred to the House of Assembly for the Court House land."
The land on which the Court House was built was like all other lands in the province, subject to a yearly quit rent to be paid into the treasury of the Lords Baltimore and in the Debt Book of the Prov- ince for the year 1757 the following entry appears : "Kent County to part of 'Stepney,' Court House
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HISTORY OF KENT COUNTY, MARYLAND
land, 2 acres, Rent due at Lady's Day (March 25th, 1757) 1/2 pence." As the rent was payable at the two most principal feasts of the year-the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, March 25th, and the Feast of St. Michael the Arch-
THE JUDGE CHAMBERS HOUSE, ON CHESTER RIVER, OWNED BY W. W. HUBBARD, COLONIAL AND BEAUTIFUL-PROF. MARK CREASY'S NEW HOME ON HIGH STREET.
angel, September 29th-the total rent for the year paid by Kent County was one pence!
This interesting record shows that the land on which the Court House was built and in fact the whole of Chestertown was laid out was part of a grant of land known as "Stepney" and a deed for 100 acres from Rebecca Wilmer recorded in the land records for Kent County, under date of 23d of Sep- tember, 1690, further confirms the fact.
HISTORY OF KENT COUNTY, MARYLAND
219
From Md.'s Colonial Eastern Shore. COMEGYS HOUSE, CRUMPTON, KENT, BUILT ABOUT 1708.
Commanding a splendid view of the upper Chester River and the surround- ing country, this rare example of Dutch architecture that has been handed down to the present generation is now the home of Dr. F. N. Sheppard. It is one of two such houses now standing in this State. The other is in Fred- erick County. Each of the houses was built by the son of an emigrant from Holland. William Comegys, who built this house, was the second son of Cornelius Comegys, who emigrated to Virginia from Holland and who came to Maryland from Virginia about 1666.
The house is built of old-style English brick, and is an addition to an old log house still in good repair which first served to shelter William Comegys and his family when he took up the land on which it stands. At the time (1708 ?) William Comegys built this house there was a ferry at that part of the Chester River now called Crumpton, then known as McAllister's Ferry. On the Queen Anne side of the river William Crump took up a large tract of land, and it was for him that the village was called Crumpton.
For years there had been a well-established route of travel from William- stadt (now Oxford), Talbot County, to Philadelphia and the Northern settle- ments. This route led past the old Wye Church in Talbot to Crumpton, over the Chester into Kent; across that county to Georgetown and Fredericktown.
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HISTORY OF KENT COUNTY, MARYLAND
As will be seen by the accompanying picture of the old building a very substantial addition was made to it, but just when this occurred I have not been able to determine. The search of the proceed- ings of the Court should show the date it was built and the cost.
The old Court House was the scene of many notable events that occurred through the years from its completion in 1698 down to the time when the increased population of Kent County demanded its removal to make room for a larger building. It was found totally inadequate to meet the requirements of the Court in the years just preceding the Civil War and in 1860, that old Colonial relic was torn down to make room for the building now standing.
TO KENTLAND'S GREEN GARDEN. BY FOLGER MCKINSEY.
Over the bay on the B. S. Ford, Over the bay to the garden of the Lord Planted in Kentland with beauty and gleam Of meadows and orchards in mirrors of dream- Rock Hall and Queenstown and Bogles and Cliffs, And then the green wheat, and the inbetween whiffs Of locust and honey-my heart is a sailor,
Over the bay with my friend, Captain Taylor. Ho! her cut-water Away on the Ford To Kentland's green garden, The dream of the Lord!
Quaker Neck landing as twilight shuts down: Rolph's and then the home stretch to sweet Chestertown; High street just dabbling its feet in the river And rising far off to the sky, where the Giver Of good and all goodness set here with his hand The cream of all rivers; the rose of land, To glimpse through blue vistas of beauty and bloom Till hearts sink no longer in shadow and gloom. All aboard, shipmates! The Chester's loved stream, Like a ribbon of rose, Binds the heart in its dream.
Her nose tickles Deep Point and rippling we go By Ashland and Wilmers, where willows bend low, And catbirds are calling, and over the way They're frying fresh herring from loved Lankford Bay; And Bookers is dreaming and yonder they wait To take us to supper at Chestertown's gate, Where the bridge over Chester walks many a span
To smile and shake hands with its neighbor, Queen Anne. Here's the last bay buoy, The Ford has steamed over Unto the green wheatlands Of Kent and her clover!
Ah, but my heart, how it sings like a sailor, Over the bay with my friend, Captain Taylor! The shy lights of twilight just quivering down In love light and dove twilight o'er fair Chestertown- And there, the old mansions, where fancy still sees Before the fair daughters, till ear speaks to eye Of field jumps and ditches, with hounds in full cry. Water street, dreaming; Ah, wake not the spell Of the loved days of Kent That the Lord loves so well!
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