USA > Maryland > The book of Maryland: men and institutions, a work for press reference > Part 29
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He was married to Miss Marion De Witt. of Frostburg. Maryland, on February 22. 1917. They have one son, JJames De Witt Sloan.
Business address, Liberty Trust Building.
THOMAS F. SMOUSE.
Thomas F. Smonse, extensive Imber operator with head- quarters In Cumberland, is one of the pioneer lumbermen operating on a large scale in Bedford County, Pa., Garrett County. Md., Grant and Preston Counties, W. Va.
Mr. Smouse was born in Bedford, Pa .. December 23. 1857. His parents were George and Maria Smouse. His family Is a large one and the reunions which it holds regularly are among the most interesting in this section.
He attended the Public School of Bedford County and the Bedford Normal School. Mr. Smouse became an instructor in the Bedford County Public Schools when he was seventeen years dd and taught in these schools during six terms until he was twenty-three years old, working during the summer months on a farm.
Mr. Smonse ended his school work when he was twenty-three years old to engage in the manufacture of lumber and has continued in this business until the present. During the last five years he has developed an extensive wholesale business in connection with his manufacturing activities. His principal product has been sold to practically all of the eastern lines of railroads and the principal boat yards in the vicinity of New York as well as for other commercial uses.
Mr. Smouse was elected at large for City Commissioner of Cumberland but refused his second nomination.
Ile was married to Miss Anna Rebecca Beegle on December 20. 1882. Two children were born of this union, Thomas Ralph Smouse and Cora Elizabeth Smouse, was married to E. W. Van Horn, of New Enterprise. Pa.
llis residence is at 105 Harrison Street.
Business address, 36-37 Third National Bank Building.
FRANK MINIUM WILSON, M. D.
Dr. Frank M. Wilson, one of the leading physicians of Cum- berland, is the son of Dr. J. Jones Wilson, one of the most prominent physicians of Western Maryland, and Maria Josephine McCormick Wilson.
Dr. Wilson was born in Cumberland on November 7. 1890. lle attended the Allegany County Academy. the University of Virginia, and was graduated from I'niversity of Maryland Medica! School in 1914.
Upon the completion of his college work Dr. Wilson entered St. Alexis Hospital. in Cleveland, Ohio, where he took post- graduate work for one year. He then returned to Cumberland and began the practice of medicine and surgery, which he con- finned until 1917, when he entered the service of the Army.
Dr. Wilson entered active service on August 4. 1917. and was sent to Camp Greenleaf. Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, as First Lientenant. On September 10, 1917. he was assigned to the 307th Infantry with the 77th Division. On April 12. 1918, he sailed for France with the 77th Division, He was assigned to the 306th Ambulance Company on July 20, 1918. On December 28. 1918, he was assigned as Personnel Adjutant Headquarters 302nd Senitary Train. Dr. Wilson returned from France on May 6. 1919, and was discharged on May 20th. He was pro- moted to a Captaincy on February 17. 1919.
He is a member of B. P. O. E. No. 63. Fort Cumberland Lodge No. 211. A. F. & AA. M., and the Cumberland Country Club.
Dr. Wilson was married to Miss Fannie Curtis Roberts on June 16. 1920.
Ills business address is 15 S. Center Street.
Residence, 211 Washington Street, Cumberland, Md.
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THE EASTERN SHORE BY GENERAL FELIX AGNUS
N the first year of the Civil War, I camped with my regiment, the 165th, New York Volunteers, Second Duryee Zouaves, on the north side of Hampton Roads, where the great fight between the Monitor and Merrimac was to take place later. Our camp was in an old corn field. There were probably a few houses in view but my recollection of the country was that of desolation and lonesomeness. Not long ago, I visited the same place. Where we camped is now covered by a wonderful industrial city, Newport News, growing by leaps and bounds and launching every year some of the finest ships that float. All around Hampton Roads and along the James and Elizabeth rivers has come a great settlement of industry, shipping and trade. The population has grown to hundreds of thousands and what has been done is only an earnest of what is to be.
That is the live story at the other end of the Chesapeake Bay.
A number of years ago when General Joseph B. Seth was commander of the State Fishery Force of Maryland, I was his guest for almost a week on his flagship. a comfortable little steamer which could poke its nose into the most charming of river nooks. We saw the great Chesapeake Bay in its many moods and its amazing variety of interests .. We enjoyed oysters fresh from their beds, fish right out of the water and saw sunrises and sunsets that were as fine as any Naples has to offer. But the pleasantest memories are those of delightful river towns and people. General Seth was an ideal host and so I met the people under the best conditions. Then I understood fully why the Eastern Shore is a happy Eden and why Eastern Shore people have an attractiveness of their own.
In 1906 as chairman of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Commission, I had the opportunity to meet and know the people of the upper part of the Eastern Shore. The War Department pro- vided us with a yacht and an automobile so that we could thoroughly examine the country covered by the several routes under consideration. Thus it was that my colleagues and I had many felicitous experiences and gained many friendships that linger to this day.
In other visits and in my life as a publisher I made every effort to know more about the Eastern Shore and the Eastern Shore people and it has all been worth while.
We can not even talk about the Eastern Shore without appreciating the marvelous kindness of nature when she gave the Chesapeake Bay and the fertile lands along its shores. Think for a moment what this Bay means to us. Think of what has taken place in a lifetime in sight of the cornfield where I camped, and think of the new growth that is to come to the upper part of the Eastern Shore when we have a sea level ship canal connecting the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. Great industries will line the banks from one bay to the other, and this is only a small item in a list of many possi- bilities. In other words, I see a future prosperity to the Eastern Shore far beyond anything any part of it has known. Of course Newport News and its neighbors are neither Maryland nor Eastern Shore towns, but I use them to press my point of predicting a development of extraordinary propor- tions along the Chesapeake Bay.
I mentioned my experience on the canal commission in relation to the upper part of the Eastern Shore. But there is more. Look at the new town at Perryville. with its fine hospital; look at the new growth at Port Deposit with the splendid Tome Institute, and then, although it is not the Eastern Shore, we may glance across the Susquehanna and realize the importance of the Government's im- mense proving ground stretching across the western head of the Bay. And all in between the far limits of this picture, from the mouth to the head of the Bay, are towns increasing in size, lands · increasing in value, new industries, more than ten thousand vessels of one kind or another and goodness only knows how many automobiles. And in the picture we may place a score of steam- driven boats crossing and recrossing the Bay and carrying thousands of passengers.
My friend Captain Wright calls the Chesapeake Bay the Mother of Waters yielding more for the sustenance of the human race than any body of its size on the entire earth. No wonder Eastern Shoremen live well and make us grateful for the fine things they send us in Baltimore.
It often seems a pity that the whole Maryland and Delaware and Virginia Peninsula does not belong to Maryland. Of the three States Maryland has shown the most progress and has reached the highest values. But, as it is, Maryland has about three-fifths of the Peninsula. There are nine Maryland counties with an area of 3.519 square miles, a combined population of about 200,000 and taxable wealth of upwards of $150,000,000.
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The Eastern Shore glories in an exceptionally fine, healthy climate and proof of this is found in the fact that many rich people are coming from the West and North to make their homes on the Eastern Shore. According to observations made under the auspices of the Maryland Weather Service during the past twenty years, the counties bordering upon the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean may count upon a growing period of from 190 to 210 days. Several crops a year from the same soil are frequently made.
Most of the Eastern Shore is less than 26 feet above water. Its alluvial soil will raise almost everything from cereals to figs and pomegranates, including apples, peaches, pears, strawberries. raspberries, potatoes, all kinds of truck, practically everything that the markets and the tables demand, and there are easy transportation facilities and quick services to take all these products to cities over night. Maryland leads in canning and the Eastern Shore has built up its prosperity on the tin can which is known around the world. A large part of the tomatoes come from the Eastern Shore, which also contains the greatest strawberry patches in America. The able and conservative estimate of the Maryland Geological Survey says, "The Eastern Shore includes the counties that lie on the eastern side of the Chesapeake Bay. The extremes of climate are tempered by proximity to the ocean and the bay, and lands have proved their special adaptability to early fruits and vege- tables, in addition to the staple crops of wheat, corn, oats and hay. In the northern part of the Eastern Shore are fine wheat and corn lands, the wheat lands being rich loams which overlie clay loam subsoils. They are easy to cultivate and can be made exceedingly productive. In the lower counties are large acreas of stiff, clayey soil. There are also large areas of rich, sandy loams that are suited to growing vegetables and all kinds of small fruits, and especially in many sections the canning industry has been enormously developed. The excellent transportation facilities allow all perishable fruit to be shipped to all of the larger northern cities, where it finds a ready sale. In some sections farming in recent years has undergone a complete revolution-the old staple crops have been given up and the more lucrative truck and fruit crops introduced. There are large areas of tidal marsh lands. Thousands of acres of fertile land could be reclaimed at comparatively little expense. Lands that have been reclaimed are exceedingly fertile and will produce for an almost indefinite period." Here it is seen that in reality the Eastern Shore has its greater fruitfulness in front of it.
Let me emphasize this point-that the Eastern Shore is coming into a far larger prosperity than it has known. The population of Maryland is about 140 per square mile, but the population of the Eastern Shore is less than 70 a square mile. This shows the opportunities in the Eastern Shore counties for good men and women to live close to nature and obtain their sustenance and happi- ness from the soil.
Every year the Eastern Shore produces from 9,000,000 to 10,000,000 bushels of corn, 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 bushels of wheat, over 3,000.000 bushels of potatoes, 100,000 tons of hay and forage. many million dollars worth of fruits and vegetables, over 200,000 head of live stock and over 700.000 head of poultry.
The Eastern Shore could support richly a population twice its present size and the production could be more than doubled. Of the farm land of the Eastern Shore from 20 to 30 per cent. is not used. Every acre of it is valuable.
In 1607 an April storm blew into the Chesapeake capes Captain Christopher Newport's fleet of three small vessels. After that the settlement of the Eastern Shore began. In 1628 William Claiborne made on Kent Island a settlement which he maintained was a part of Virginia and this settlement in 1632 was represented in the Virginia House of Burgesses. The Eastern Shore, therefore, had settlers before the Ark and the Dove with Lord Baltimore's first expedition reached St. Mary's River. There was a fight between the colony and Claiborne. One of Claiborne's boats was captured and its cargo sold. Then Claiborne sent out the armed Cockatrice which two vessels of Lord Baltimore captured. Several men were killed and wounded and this has been called the first naval battle that took place in the new world. The little war went on for some years and Lord Baltimore finally won and Claiborne was driven from Maryland and the Chesapeake.
The settlement of the Eastern Shore was fairly rapid and in 1694 there were five counties- Somerset, Dorchester, Talbott, Kent and Cecil-Kent being the oldest. The other four counties,- Worcester, Wicomico, Caroline and Queen Anne's-were erected afterwards. Let us take a journey up the Shore through the nine counties. stopping at the main towns.
Worcester touches all the Atlantic coast of the State of Maryland and includes in its 487 square miles Chincoteague, Sinepuxent, Isle of Wight and Assateague bays, all bodies of water that have
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fine fishing and oyster resources. From one town as many as thirty thousand barrels of oysters are shipped annually. Fine fish are sent to northern markets. The industries are agriculture and lumber. The county has two thousand farms and their value has risen in recent years. In Worcester is Ocean City, one of the most delightful summer resorts along the coast, visited by tens of thousands every year. Bayard Taylor pronounced its beach ideal. Snow Ilill, the county seat, one of the "towns and ports of trade" erected in 1686, was settled by business men from the Snow Hill district of London, and most of its people are of English descent. It is at the head of navigation of the Poco- moke river and has direct steamer connection with Baltimore. It has important banking interests and manufactures millions of baskets and crates for fruits and berries. Berlin is an attractive town with active enterprises and near it is one of the finest enterprises of the whole country, the very extensive and wonderfully kept Harrison Nurseries. They draw people from every land and their trees, plants and seeds enjoy an international reputation. Newark is a smaller town but it has progressive citizens and a pleasant life. In the western part of the county is Pocomoke City, which has come to the front as a thriving and progressive community with excellent banks and successful industries, including shipyards.
Somerset was erected August 22, 1666, in the name and as the act of the Lord Proprietary "into a county by the name of Somersett County in honor to our Deare Sister the lady Mary Somersett." Princess Anne, the county seat, is a charming place with attractive people. It is the center of prosperous agriculture and small fruit growing. The main town, however, is Crisfield, founded over fifty years ago by John W. Crisfield. It is the capital of crabdom and the greatest oyster port in the world. It has been built by oysters and on oyster shells-the Venice of the Eastern Shore. Here one sees every kind of craft that sails the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. It has extensive industrial and commercial interests and has in reach a good agricultural country. Crisfield once had a weather-beaten look but in recent years it has grown in architectural attractiveness. Somer- set County has supplied many prominent men to the public life of Maryland and it feeds the tables- of great cities from its waters rich with oysters. crabs. fish, terrapin and game.
Coming north we reach Wicomico County, named for the river that flows through its central section and that gives it regular steamer service with Baltimore. The biggest thing in Wicomico is Salisbury, the county seat, one of the largest centers of population on the Eastern Shore. Salisbury is the head of navigation on the Wicomico, a very important centre of the railroad travel of the peninsula. the strategic point on the highways of Maryland, within an hour of the Atlantic Ocean, and in all respects the leading metropolis of the lower peninsula. It is modern with the pulsations of progress and with new life spilling out in new streets and new homes. It dates back to 1732. It has large banking interests, big lumber industries, ship building, a fine wholesale trade, is a city of automobiles and contains handsome new buildings, including a general hospital, Young Men's Christian Associa- tion, State Armory and fine churches. Its high school stands well. It has an able bar and its business men work along front lines of efficiency. Salisbury is one of the livest and most substantial cities in America. On the banks of the Nanticoke river in Wicomico County is Sharptown, whose shipyard is long established and successful. In Wicomico (then Somerset) County Francis Makemie estab- lished a Presbyterian Church before the formation in 1706 of the American Presbytery in Phila- delphia and is called the founder of the Presbyterian Church in America.
Crossing the Nanticoke river we now enter Dorchester, the largest of the Eastern Shore counties, having 610 square miles. It dates from 1669 and its name comes from the Earl of Dorset. Myriads of wild ducks frequent its marsh lands and its yields of oysters, crabs and fish amount to millions of dollars. It raises tomatoes and corn for the packing houses which also put up great quantities of oysters. It has over two thousand farms on which are raised cereals, hay, vegetables, fruits and truck of all kinds. Cambridge, the county seat, is one of the loveliest towns of America. It has a picturesque situation on the Choptank eighteen miles from its mouth and is the home of a most delightful social life. Within a generation Cambridge has furnished three governors to the State and many other men to prominent offices. In fact one of Dorchester's biggest crops is its politics. It gives the life of the whole county a unique distinction. Cambridge has many historic attractions. but its new progress has become its main interest. Its buildings include the interesting old court house, the new State armory, and the new hospital. There are handsome residences. It has pro- gressive financial institutions, large canneries, shipyards and other industries. It is also the home of a great fleet of oyster vessels. One of Dorchester's historic towns is Vienna, which built good
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ships when the white oak forests of Dorchester still supplied the best material for shipbuilding, an era that preceded thie coming of iron and steel in naval construction. Hurlock is another Dorchester town that is worth seeing.
Caroline is the most inward of Eastern Shore counties. Its area is 320 square miles. It has commerce with the Chesapeake Bay by the Choptank river, navigable to Denton by steamers from Baltimore. On the 1,800 farms of Caroline, wheat, corn, tomatoes, peaches, fruits and berries are raised in profitable quantities. There are large packing interests, including branches of Chicago houses at Ridgely. One feature of Caroline County is the number of factories in every part of the county. Denton, the county seat, was first called Ed ntown after Governor Eden, and it dates from 1773. The county was named in honor of Lady Eden. Denton is an attractive town with hospitable people. It has prosperous banks and successful industries. Federalsburg is a fine town. Historically Caro- line is proud of the "Caroline Resolutions of 1774" pledging resistance to the arbitrary action of Parliament. Caroline gave fine service to the Revolutionary War and to all other wars of the Republic.
Crossing the Choptank river we enter Talbot, a great county full of interest and delightful people. It was named after Lord Talbot and it has an area of 285 square miles, much of which is water, for it is cut up by rivers and creeks and is famous for its landscapes and its beautiful water views. The loveliness of the county has drawn well-to-do people from other sections and they have made their homes here. Talbot has been noted for its public meu. It was the birthplace of John Dickinson, the home of the father of Robert Morris and of Governors. United States Senators, and of Philip F. Thomas, Secretary of the Treasury, and of many officials of other ranks. The Talbot bar has always stood high. Here lived Tench Tilghman, the member of Washington's staff who made the memorable ride carrying the news of the triumph of the Americans at Yorktown to the Congress in Philadelphia, riding at breakneck speed through the peninsula, telling that Cornwallis was taken, and calling "A fresh horse for Congress." This ride has been immortalized in song and story. Easton. the county seat, is in the midst of a fine agricultural country, with its harbor a mile away but with all its approaches attractive. It is a little city of great dignity and of pleasant history. It has very old homes running back to the eighteenth century and the new part is well-built and neat. It has modern sewers, a water supply, a modern hospital, excellent banks, factories, milling interests, can- neries. It is the seat of a Protestant bishopric, with a fine pro-Cathedral. The town is surrounded by evidences of culture and prosperity and within a ten mile radius are some of the most attractive homes in America. Oxford and St. Michael's are two picturesque and prosperous towns of Talbot.
Next we come to Queen Anne's County, a place of fertile fields, rural homes, kind people and romance. It was erected in 1706 and it has an area of 376 square miles, including Kent Island, which after two and a half centuries is more fertile than ever. It has also 46 square miles of water. Here we find some of the finest productivity in the land. Its fifteen hundred farms produce wheat, corn, truck, fruits, berries, vegetables in great abundance and these are taken to Baltimore across the Bay or to the northern cities within easy reach. Centreville, the county seat, is a fine town. On the bayshore is Queenstown, a county seat in colonial times. Queen Anne's had a distinguished colonial life, with its great estates and the big way of living and some of this is found in its hospitality to-day. Its industries include flour mills and canneries. It packs a large quantity of vegetables. The biggest thing in Queen Anne's, however, is its agriculture.
When the settlers from Kent in England saw the verdure and level country of the upper Eastern Shore they named their new county after their old home. Kent is the oldest of the Eastern Shore counties and its settlement dates from 1628. This county is a peninsula and it has eighty miles of coastline, one result being various lines of boats that give it ready access to Baltimore and Philadel- phia. It has an area of 315 square miles and in its two thousand farms it raises the standard crops and much fruit. Throughout the county are canneries and mills. No town in Maryland, or in America for that matter, retains more of its colonial beauty and atmosphere than Chestertown, the county seat. The whole region is full of history and beauty. Chestertown was laid out in 1706 and the custom house dates to that century. Calvert considered it for the capitol of his new colony. It is fifteen miles below the head of navigation and a sail to its wharves is an unforgettable expe- rience. It has a Main Street full of business and a Main Square full of historical associations, with every vehicle from oxcarts to the latest automobiles. The owners of the old homes have shown fine taste in restoring them without ruining them. It is a town of Doric porches, of Georgian fronts, and it has Washington College, now in its 140th year, whose corner stone was laid by Washington
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himself. Chestertown also has fine banks, paper, basket and fertilizer factories and other plants. In the Revolution Kent had its own tea party. In 1812 it repulsed a British attack. To all the wars it contributed brave men. Other fine Kent towns are Betterton, growing all the while as a summer resort, Rock Hall, Galena. Millington. Still Pond and others.
Most northerly of the Eastern Shore counties is Cecil, erected in 1624 and named in honor of the second Lord Baltimore. It has an area of 360 square miles, some of it under water. On its sixteen hundred farms are raised wheat, coru, tomatoes, hay, potatoes, buckwheat, and it sends dairy and creamery products to the near-by cities. It has solid banks, quarries and mills of many kinds. Fromn the earliest times this was the land of plenty. It, waters swarmed with wild fowl. The father of Charles Carroll. of Carrollton, wrote him when he was a student in London to fetch over to this country a skilled huntsman to be stationed in Elk Neck to furnish deer, wild turkeys and ducks to the table of Carrollton. Cecil has fine water power and mills for paper, iron, cotton, phosphate, flour, kaolin and flour-spar. In other years it had iron furnaces. In Cecil settled Augustine Her- mann, first lord of Bohemian Manor, on his great estate of 20,000 acres, and John Fiske says he was the first alien naturalized in what is now the United States. From this county also came Jolin Fiske. David Davis and other noted men. Cecil furnished governors, cabinet officers and senators, Elkton, the county town, dates from 1787. It has a fine industrial prosperity, including fertilizer works, ship- yards, pulp mills. hosiery mills. Its banks are solid and progressive. The county has an unusual educational record and the West Nottingham Academy has a unique fame. Elk river rivals the Hudson in beauty and Cecil has much scenery that draws travelers, especially the Susquehanna. At Perryville is the new town and the new government hospital. The banks of the river at Port Deposit reach 200 feet. Port Deposit was once a ferrying point, but was developed by lumber and stone and now it is the site of the great Jacob Tome Institute, perhaps the finest secondary school in the world. There are many quaint places in the county, and along the Sassafras. Fredericktown, named after Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, dates from 1736, and on the opposite bank is Georgetown, named after George Il, both quaint and full of historical associations. Here the State highway has come and new life is seen. Fredericktown was a ferry place and some of the Arcadians of Nova Scotia, told about so graphically in Longfellow's "Evangeline," sought temporary refuge here after their depor- tation. The Maryland Legislature aided them. From toe to top Cecil is full of interest. fertility and beauty. In the Revolutionary War a British fleet ascended the Elk River above Turkey Point.
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