USA > Maryland > Maryland's colonial Eastern Shore ; historical sketches of counties and of some notable structures > Part 7
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Yielding almost every crop, fruit and vegetable known on the Eastern Shore in profusion and of the finest quality-with an abun- dance of oysters, fish, and wild-fowl at the very doors, with huge old trees and shrubbery of all kinds beautifying the spacious lawns; nature has lavished her gifts on the spot, making it an ideal place for a home. Far from the noisy haunts of men, reposing under the bright sunshine or the softened radiance of the moonlight-fanned by health- giving breezes, and breathing the spirit of elegant leisure-it is indeed, as its name suggests, a veritable haven of refuge for those "hackney'd in business, wearied at the oar."
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ELDON
GRANTED TO COL. THOMAS ENNALLS
W ASHED by the waters of the Choptank River, a few miles from Cambridge, and separated by its extensive acres from the State road leading to the upper section of Dorchester, lies "Eldon," one of the show-places of the county, and the home for generations of those who have been prominent in the social life of their times.
The original tract granted to Col. Thomas Ennalls, whose ances- tors came in the early part of the seventeenth century to Dorchester from Virginia, embraced what is now "Shoal Creek" and other adja- cent places, extending as far as Secretary. From the Ennalls are descended branches of the Goldsboroughs, Hoopers, Bayards, Steeles, Muses, and other influential families of the Eastern Shore, so that "Eldon" became associated in an unusual degree with the affairs of the county and State.
Its fame, however, was not confined to this locality, as it became in later years, through his marriage to Miss Ennalls, the property of one of the Bayards of Delaware whose distinguished relatives were frequent visitors there both during his proprietorship and after it
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became the property of James Billings Steele. At that time 3,000 acres were attached to the place.
James Billings Steele won for his bride the daughter of Robert Goldsborough, of "Horn's Point," and granddaughter of Dr. William Smith, first president of Washington College and first provost of the College of Philadelphia, thus connecting two of the most notable estates in the county. When purchased by Dr. Francis P. Phelps in 1836 there were 800 acres surrounding the manor house. The reputa- tion of their predecessors for unbounded hospitality was sustained by Dr. Phelps and his heirs. He was a noted physician, for several terms a member of the House of Delegates and twice State Senator.
The handsome old manor house was especially noted for the beauti- ful ball-room, where the beauty and chivalry of the county frequently gathered to "chase the glowing hours with flying feet." It was in this room that the attractive daughter of Dr. Phelps, Miss Annie Phelps, became the bride of James Wallace, a brilliant member of the Cam- bridge bar, who afterward became State Senator, and a colonel in the Civil War.
That house met the same fate as those at "Horn's Point" and "Weston," it having burned to the ground-St. Patrick's Day, 1846. Immediately thereafter Dr. Phelps erected upon the same site the commodious dwelling of the present day, its large parlors and spacious halls being admirably suited for upholding the traditions of the past. Surrounded on two sides by Hurst Creek, known in the earliest records as "Kitty Willis Creek," the lawn at "Eldon" is unsurpassed by that of any place in Dorchester.
Charles Goldsborough, of "Shoal Creek," (8 January-20 December, 1819), and John Henry, of "Weston," (28 November, 1797-14 Novem- ber, 1798), were two of the seven Dorchester Governors, The others have been Thomas King Carroll, (15 January, 1830-13 January, 1831); Thomas Holliday Hicks, (13 January, 1858-8 January, 1862); Henry Lloyd, (27 March, 1885-11 January, 1888); Phillips Lee Goldsborough. (10 January, 1912-12 January, 1916); Emerson C. Harrington, from 12 January, 1916.
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GLASGOW
BUILT ABOUT 1760
IN the latter part of the seventeenth century, or early in the eighteenth, William Murray, a cousin and ward of the then chief of the Clan Murray in Scotland, arrived in Maryland and became the owner of a large tract of land in Dorchester known as "Ayreshire," of which the estate of "Glasgow" is a part. William Murray was the grandfather of one of the most illustrious men Dorchester ever pro- duced-William Vans Murray, Minister to Holland, (1797-1801), and one of the negotiators of the French Treaty of 1800. Born in Cam- bridge in 1762, he studied law at the Temple in London, began prac- tice at Cambridge in 1785, served in the Second, Third, and Fourth Congresses as a Representative, and died at Cambridge in 1803, when only forty-one years of age.
"Ayreshire" was inherited by the sister of William Vans Murray, Henrietta Murray, who married Dr. Robertson, of Somerset County, but continued to live at "Ayreshire." One of the interesting features of the old house at "Glasgow" today is a window-pane upon which has been scratched, (evidently with a diamond ring), these lines:
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"Henrietta R. Robertson-October 14th, 1827. The last winter Henry is to attend lectures in Baltimore." Incidentally, it may be men- tioned here that this Henry was her son, who became a distinguished clergyman in the Protestant Episcopal Church, settled in Alabama, and founded a family which has since become large and influential.
In 1840 the estate of "Ayreshire" was purchased from Dr. Robert- son by Dr. Robert F. Tubman, a prominent physician of the southern part of the county. Some years later, desiring to divide the property between two of his sons, Dr. Tubman, in order to distinguish the divisions, called one "Glasgow" and the other "Glenburn." "Glas- gow" was the part of the estate upon which the house stood, and this became the property of Robert C. Tubman and "Glenburn" that of Benjamin Gaither Tubman. At the time of its purchase by Dr. Tubman, the whole place contained about 800 acres. At the present time there are 265 acres attached to "Glasgow." The growth of Cambridge in that direction has greatly enhanced the value of the property. In accordance with provisions made by Dr. Tubman the children of Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Tubman inherit the property after the death of their parents. Robert E. Tubman, president of the Robert E. Tubman Company of Baltimore is one of these heirs and is now in possession of the home place.
"Glasgow" adjoins "Hambrook." Many handsome bungalows and "shore" houses have in recent years been erected upon the beauti- ful sites of the "Hambrook" estate. The house at "Glasgow," from all accounts, must have been built prior to 1760. It is of brick, with walls a foot thick, and the floors throughout are of solid black wal- nut. It has massive doors, and the large wainscoted rooms are adorned with colonial mantelpieces and deep windows. The house contains sixteen large rooms, and it is an interesting fact that the former owner, Robert C. Tubman, and all his children were born in the same room. While modern conveniences have been added in recent years, the original house is unchanged. A boulevard connecting the town with "Hambrook." passes through the "Glasgow" estate. This beautiful old country home has been in the Tubman family and con- tinuously occupied by them for a period of nearly eighty years.
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OLD TRINITY CHURCH
BUILT ABOUT 1680
IN the latter part of the seventeenth century the English settlers, bringing with them from the old country their church devotion, had arrived in sufficient numbers on the Eastern Shore to necessitate the building of places of worship. One of the first of these, the original walls of which are still standing, dating back to about 1680, is situated in south Dorchester, near the little town of Church Creek.
Two centuries have elapsed since the doors of Trinity Episcopal Church, familiarly known as "The Old Church," were first opened for divine service, and while it has at times fallen into a sad state of decay, it has always been rescued by those who felt the silent and pathetic appeal of its crumbling walls.
The exact date of its erection cannot be determined, owing to the loss of the earliest records. The building was at first cruciform in shape, but in the middle of the nineteenth century one wing was removed, giving it a curious architectural appearance. At that time the interior was remodeled, and in the effort to improve it, many of its most attractive features were destroyed. The high-backed pews,
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the high pulpit with its sounding-board, and the gallery with steps leading up from the outside were all sacrificed to modern ideas. At the same time the tiled floor was covered with boards. When the church was repaired in the summer of 1914 it was the desire of those in charge of the work to restore the original tiles, but this had to be abandoned owing to the crumbling of the bricks. April 17, 1853, the church was reconsecrated by the Right Reverend Henry J. White- house, Bishop of Illinois, and first given the name of Trinity. Visitors to the church are shown with much pride a handsome red velvet cushion said to have been sent to it by Queen Anne, and upon which she is said to have knelt to receive her crown. It is of royal quality velvet and in a perfect state of preservation.
In 1914 this historic and venerated church was in imminent danger of collapsing, but a few of those who were deeply interested in its preservation succeeded in raising a fund to put it in perfect order so that it will now stand for another half century, at least. Those who wander around the cemetery surrounding the church find an un- written poem as perfect as Gray's immortal "Elegy in a Country Churchyard." It is the resting place of one of the governors of the State, Thomas King Carroll, and there stands the beautiful monu- ment erected by a grateful people to his son, Dr. Thomas King Carroll, notable as being the only one in this section of the country erected to a physician by the unsolicited offerings of his patients and friends. In a far corner are the graves of several soldiers of the Revolution, and scattered about are the graves of those who once wore the Blue and the Gray.
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REHOBOTH
BUILT ABOUT 1725
T INTIL 1684 Somerset County claimed "Nanticoke Hundred" in Dorchester. The dispute over the territory was finally settled by a commission, which decided that the northeast branch of the Nanticoke River was the boundary and not North-West Fork.
One of the most prominent families living in this vicinity were the Lees, allied with the distinguished Lee family of Virginia. A tract of 2,350 acres, known as "Rehoboth," was patented to Capt. John Lee in 1673, upon which fifty years later was built the quaint old brick house, which is unchanged and in a perfect state of preservation at the present time.
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Upon the death of Capt. John Lee the estate was inherited by his brother, Col. Richard Lee, of "Mount Pleasant," Virginia, who had large holdings in that State in addition to this property. Dying in 1714, he devised the place to his son, Philip, who then lived in Prince George's County, Maryland, and who died in 1744, leaving to each of his sons, Corbin, John, George and Francis, and to his grandson, Philip Lee, portions of the estate.
Thomas Lee, son of Richard Lee II, the father of Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee, both of whom were signers of the Declaration of Independence, owned 1,300 acres of "Rehoboth," which he left at his death in 1770 to his eldest son, and entailed it on his second and third sons. Thus Philip Ludwell Lee became the next owner of the 1,300 acres, but the record of his disposition of the estate has been lost.
Francis Lee was living upon his share of the original estate in 1745 when he was a member of the Assembly of Maryland; at his death in 1749 the property passed to his son, Francis Leonard Lee. The land records of Dorchester County show that Lettice Corbin Lee, sister of Philip, sold in 1787 "a tract of land of 200 acres called 'Rehoboth' " to John Smoot, which seems to have ended the owner- ship of the Lees.
The next owner of whom there is a record was Major Frank Turpin, who was first a captain in the militia of Dorchester County during the Revolutionary War, when the house was a rendezvous for many military men. Major Turpin, who died in 1829, was interred on the estate which has since been known as the "Turpin Place" and has had numerous owners.
Situated upon the banks of the Nanticoke River. the venerable old house is visible from both the little towns of Eldorado and Brook- view. Besides the usual carved wainscoting, high mantelpieces, and deep windows, indicative of the colonial period, it has a distinctive feature especially worthy of note. Over the mantels in the parlor and dining-room, built into the walls, are panel-paintings, which seem to be reproductions of some magnificent country estate of the old Eng- lish type, and "thereby hangs a tale" which. because of its antiquity, will doubtless never be revealed.
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CECIL COUNTY
1674
C ECIL County was named for Cecilius Calvert, the first Proprie- tary of the Province of Maryland, and was erected by proclama- tion the 6th day of June, 1674. Within the bounds laid down in this proclamation all of the present County of Kent was inadvertently included. The bounds given in the proclamation are as follows: "that from the mouth of the Susquehanough River and so down the eastern side of the Chesapeake Bay to Swan Point and from thence to Hell Point and so up the Chester River to the head thereof is hereby erected into a county and called by the name of Cecil County." This proclamation was met with such a storm of protest from the inhabi- tants of the lower part of the present County of Kent that the Proprie- tary in less than two weeks issued an order, dated June 19, 1674, giving back to Kent the territory she had held for so many years. Within the lines was part of Baltimore County, which at its creation in 1659 included all of the Eastern Shore north of a line in Kent County drawn from about the head of Fairlee Creek to the Chester River near where Chestertown now stands. Land records are to be found in the Baltimore City Record Office covering the sale of lands along the Sassafras River, and indeed along both sides of Worton Creek, prior to 1674.
In the erection of Cecil County it is quite possible that Cecilius Calvert wished to have a permanent monument bear his name. He was then getting to be an old man and had been Proprietary of the Province for forty-two years. Through the most difficult situations he had watched the varying fortunes of his favored land, Maryland. No doubt this opportunity to have his name perpetuated appealed strongly to him and strange to say he lived only a year after the proclamation erecting the county was issued. He died November 30, 1675.
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In striking contrast to the rolling and level lands of Kent, Queen Anne's and Talbot, Cecil's hills along the Susquehanna furnish the setting for as beautiful scenery as is to be found along the famous Hudson River. Hills are also to be found along the Elk and Sassafras and these rivers are indeed two beautiful bodies of water. There are many, many miles of water front to this delightful county and here have come since the founding of the Province men of distinction and fortune and set up their homes on Cecil's fair lands that overlook the waters of the Chesapeake, the Susquehanna, the Shannon, the Elk and the Sassafras. To these waters John Smith, in 1608, came on his voyage of discovery, having been sent up the Chesapeake Bay to make a map of it and its tributaries. His description of the country, of the Indian inhabitants, of the wild game and the wild fowl, furnishes most entertaining reading, and is said to be the earliest description of that part of Maryland now within Cecil County.
Years after John Smith had visited this country around the head of the Chesapeake one Bohemian, Col. Augustine Herman, came through the county on his way to St. Mary's City, then the capital of the Province, having been commissioned by the Dutch at New York to take up some business with the Proprietary. A few years later Augustine Herman entered into an agreement with the Calverts to make a survey of the Province and deliver to them a map setting forth the water courses, islands, Indian tribes and villages and other interesting data, in consideration for which the Proprietary was to give him a large tract of land on the Bohemia River. Upon the com- pletion of the map it was taken to London and there engraved and printed in 1672. Herman showed by this noteworthy piece of work that he was a skilled engineer and with it a very close observer. Copies of this map may be seen in the Library of the Maryland Historical Society. It is remarkable how closely it approximates the present shore lines of the State.
On his return from England in 1680, Charles Calvert, then Pro- prietary of the Province, brought to Maryland with him his kinsman, George Talbot, and had surveyed for him a grant of 32,000 acres and named it "New Connought." His cousin was described in the grant as "George Talbot of Castle Rooney in the County of Ross-
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common in the Kingdom of Ireland, Esq"." To this great tract of land Talbot afterward gave the name of "Susquehanna Manor" and his grant empowered Talbot to hold both courts baron and courts leet.
The first settlement in Cecil County was on Palmer's Island, now known as Garrett's Island, in the mouth of the Susquehanna River, in 1628, just twenty years after John Smith explored the Chesapeake Bay. This settlement, like the one on the "Kentish Isle," was one of Claiborne's trading posts and at that time was a part of the Virginia Colony's lands. The first permanent settlement in what is now Cecil County was at Carpenter's Point near the mouth of Principio Creek. During the years just after the erection of the county settlements were made along the water courses and when the Assembly author- ized the erection of some "necessary" towns in 1683, one was laid out on "Captain Jones' Creek," now erroneously called Cabin John's Creek, in Elk River. Here in Cecil, as in the other counties, the court was held at the houses of different men and for their enter- tainment the justices paid in tobacco each year when "the levy was struck." At Ordinary Point in Sassafras River a court house was standing in the year 1679. This is attested by a Labadist who was visiting in the Colonies at the time and describes his experiences in crossing the Sassafras River from Ordinary Point on his way to Kent County. Later on, 1717, the court house was taken to Court House Point, and the old court house at Ordinary Point was sold at public auction in 1719. The court was then held at Court House Point on "Bohemia Manor," but was later taken to Charlestown and thence, June 11, 1778, to "Head of Elk," a village at the head of Elk River. In 1786 the Assembly authorized the building of a court house at "Head of Elk" and in 1787 this village became incorporated and the name was changed to Elkton. Elkton is now a thriving town with a delightful farming country surrounding it and the modern improvements and luxuries are everywhere to be seen.
Charlestown was laid out in 1742 and contains many quaint old houses. It was supposed at one time that this location on the North- east River, sometime known as the "Shannon," would make a metropolis of Charlestown and that Baltimore would never be as large. Fredericktown on the Sassafras was laid out in 1736 and like Frenchtown and Charlestown was burned by the British in the War
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of 1812-14. It was to the country around Fredericktown that refugee Acadians came in 1755 and there are still some of their descendants living in the county. It was in Principio that iron was made as early as 1740 and shipped to England. Ore was found in the surround- ing counties as well as in Cecil and taken to the Principio Furnaces for reduction.
In the Act of Assembly of 1723, authorizing the establishment of a free school in each county, the commissioners named to purchase the 100 acres of land on which to build the Cecil School were Col. John Ward, Maj. John Dowdall, Col. Benjamin Pearce, Stephen Knight, Edward Jackson, Richard Thompson and Thomas Johnson, Junior. The land was bought on the south side of Bohemia River in Sassafras Neck. There is in the county a great school-the Tome Institute, founded through the generosity of one of Cecil's sons, Jacob Tome. This magnificent institution is beautifully located on the hills along the Susquehanna River above the thriving town of Port Deposit.
Another institution of learning in Cecil County is the West Not- tingham Academy, which was founded by the Presbyterians in 1741 for the preparation of young men for the ministry. Its founding is due to the Rev. Samuel Findley, who served as pastor of the Nottingham Presbyterian church seventeen years and who was a man of sincere piety and intellectual power. The school soon became widely known through- out the country and drew to it many students from a distance. Among those who received their education there may be mentioned Governor Martin of North Carolina, Governor Henry of Maryland, and Dr. Benjamin Rush, whose renown is in connection with the University of Pennsylvania.
The Presbyterians of Cecil County look back to the early days of West Nottingham, about 1724, with pride, for it was at that place and at that time the Scotch-Irish settlers in upper Cecil County laid the foundation of Presbyterianism in the county. Under the date of March 23, 1724, the following record appears in the minutes of the New Castle (Delaware) Presbytery :-
Ordered that Mr. Houston supply the people at the Mouth of Octoraro the fifth Sabbath of May, and Mr. Thomas Evans the third Sabbath of April.
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That congregation was later called Lower Octoraro and was a branch of West Nottingham. To the energy and personal magnetism of the Rev. James Magraw, D.D., born in 1775, more than to any other person is due the present strength of Presbyterianism in Cecil County. His work from 1801 to 1835 was especially effective in the Octoraro Valley and the northern part of the county.
St. Francis Xavier's Church near Warwick, one of the very early Roman Catholic places of worship in Cecil County, was erected by the Jesuits. It was in the school connected with this church that the first Roman Catholic bishop in Maryland, John Carroll, was educated. Bishop Carroll was the founder of Georgetown College, in the District of Columbia.
One of Cecil's sons who has taken his place among the famous men of America, James Rumsey, the inventor of steam-driven boats, was born near the head of Bohemia River.
The county responded early to the help of the struggling con- federation of colonies in their war against Great Britain in 1776. While no battles were fought on her soil, it was, however, due to her geographic situation that Cecil was the scene of great activities throughout the war. Three battalions of volunteers were raised in Cecil, consisting of about 750 men each. Col. Charles Rumsey com- manded the Second Battalion, Col. John Veazey, the Eighteenth, and Col. George Johnson, the Thirtieth. Col. Henry Hollingsworth was the recognized agent in Cecil for the Continental Congress. General Washington and that generous and distinguished Frenchman, General de La Fayette, were not infrequent visitors to Elkton and the county during the Revolution.
When the Church of England was established in Maryland in 1692 what is now known as St. Stephen's Parish was part of North Sassafras Parish, which was then coextensive with Elk, Bohemia and North Sassafras Hundreds.
Bury h. Constable 4
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BOHEMIA MANOR
GRANTED 1662
M ARYLAND was a British colony and the early settlers came from both England and Ireland. To Bohemia belongs the dis- tinction of being represented by the first person, Augustine Herman by name, who, because of his non-British birth, was obliged to obtain citizenship in Maryland by an Act of the Assembly. In his petition, 1666, for citizenship, he stated that he was born at Prague, in the Kingdom of Bohemia, and that his children were born at New York. He had gone to New York in the employ of the West India Company in 1633, and being a man of strong personality he soon became prominent in the affairs of the Dutch settlement on the Hudson River.
In 1659 he was sent by Governor Stuyvesant to Governor Calvert to "ask in a friendly way the re-delivery and restitution of such free people and servants as had taken refuge in the Province of Mary- land." It was while on this mission that he was first shown the beautiful lands, now in Cecil County but then in Baltimore County, that were later to become his own. Augustine Herman was an engi-
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