TIME MACHINE ... 1909 Properties For Sale, Land Mystery South Of Pocomoke, Houdini!

June, 1909

Pocomoke area properties were being marketed in Harrisonburg, Va., by The Valley Realty Company. Advertising in The Daily News of Harrisonburg the company stated they were.. "making a specialty of securing farming lands for colonization purposes, and after a careful investigation of the Eastern Section of the United States, making a study of the soil, climate, and all natural advantages of the various localities investigated, have selected the Eastern Shore, or Peninsula of Maryland, and Piedmont section of Eastern Virginia, all things considering, offering the greatest inducements to home seekers, and have purchased some of the finest tracts of land in these most favored sections, and are subdividing same to suit purchasers, and offering for sale at very reasonable figures, and on long and easy terms of payment."

Eastern Shore properties listed included the following:

A good comparatively new eight-room frame dwelling, with good stable and two and one-quarter acres of land, located on Market St., extended in suburbs of Pocomoke City, Md., with good Macadam road in front of property leading two miles into the most beautiful section of Worcester Co. This is a very attractive home, and in the best section of Pcomoke. Price, $5,000.


A very attractive fertile farm, in a beautiful section of Maryland, containing one hundred and sixty-four (164) acres, ten acres in good woodland and one-hundred and fifty four (154) under successful cultivation. This farm is located on the main public road down the Peninsula, in sight of public school, and is bounded on the west by the N.Y.P.&N. Railroad. Price, $6,000.


A good, productive 120-acre farm, adjoining Arden Station, Somerset County, Md., seven room dwelling and all necessary out-buildings. Price, $5,000.


This is a part of the well-known Stewart Farm of Somerset Co., Md., and contains 287 acres of as good quality of black vegetable loam soil as can be found east of the mountains, that yields as high as three and one-half tons timothy hay and seventy-five bushels shell corn to the acre. Good eight room dwelling, barn, granary cribs, tenant-house, etc. The property can now be bought for $7,500.


A good 450 acre farm, half cleared and half in thrifty pine timber. Improved with six room brick dwelling, and ordinary out-buildings. This land is adapted to mixed farming and grazing and is within two miles of R.R. station in Somerset Co., Md. Price $20.00 per acre.


This 187-acre farm is located within two miles of railroad town, Worcester Co., Md., graded schools, churches, etc., about one-half under successful cultivation, balance in young, thrifty woodland. Is improved with comfortable five room dwelling, barn and all necessary out-buildings. We can sell this property cheap. Price, $4,700.


Box and crate factory, saw-mill, store, dwelling, etc., and the good will of a well and profitable established business, together with two acres of land upon which same is located. and on the public road from Old Dublin to the county seat of Somerset Co., Md. Over two thousand acres of standing timber are accessible to this factory and can be bought at a reasonable price. Price, $4,000.


May, 1909

(Trenton Evening Times- Trenton, N.J.)

LAND WITHOUT AN OWNER

NEW CHURCH, VA., MAY 20 - There is a strip of land of considerable area lying between here and Pocomoke City, Md., that for more than a century truly has been called "No Man's Land." It is not within the recollection of the oldest resident of Accomac County, Va., or of Worcester County, Md., that anyone ever has laid claim to it, nor are there any records of it in the courts of either county. Even the question as to which of the two states the land belongs has been considered seriously.

Not a few of the older residents hold the opinion that the land does not even belong to the United States, some of them going so far as to say that, if it belongs to any country at all, it is England's as the mother country owned everything down this way before the Declaration of Independence changed ownerships, and they think it more than likely that, in dividing up, Maryland and Virginia overlooked "No Man's Land," leaving it out in the cold and making of it a miniature territory unto itself, without a ruler.

There are between 300 and 400 acres of virgin soil in the tract that could be made to produce bumper crops, but no one cultivates it, and, so far as is known today, there is no one who has any desire to do so. For some unaccountable reason it does not appeal strongly to the farmers and truckers of this section, and they always take good care to steer clear of the apparently hoodooed land.

ACROSS THE USA

January, 1906

Houdini Mixes Things Up at the United States Jail

(Condensed from The Washington Post)

Two condemned murderers, four others under indictment, and two noted criminals were released from the United States Jail yesterday and for a brief time tasted a counterfeit liberty.

Harry Houdini, the international prison breaker and handcuff king, as he is styled, was the hero of a sensational exploit. On the invitation of Warden Harris and the jail authorities he ravaged locks and bolts.

Houdini escaped from the cell in which Charles J. Guiteau, the assassin of President Garfield was confined, released all the other inmates on the murderers row cells, and transferred each into some other cell then the one to which he was originally committed.

All these cells are brick structures with their doors sunk into the walls fully three feet from the face of the outer corridor wall. When the heavily barred door is closed, an arm-like bar runs out to the corridor wall and then angles to the right and slips over a steal catch which sets a spring that fastens the lock. The latter is only opened by a key, and there are no less than five tumblers in the lock. One key opens all the doors in the corridor.

Footnote: The news article stated that Houdini was "stripped to the skin," thoroughly searched, and locked in a cell, and was free from the cell in two minutes. Without the knowledge of the waiting officials who had retired from view he ran to the cells of the other prisoners. The article stated "To each occupant the unclad cell-breaker seemed like an apparition from another world, and the astonishment he created when he commanded each to come out and follow him can be better imagined than described." The entire episode occurred in 21 minutes and Houdini emerged fully attired; his clothes had also been locked in a cell. The warden issued a certificate to Houdini verifying the authenticity of his actions and stating there was no chance for collusion. "The experiment was a valuable one in that the department has been instructed as to the adoption of further security which will protect any lock from being opened or interfered with. The act was interesting and profitable and worthy of study. Mr. Houdini impressed his audience as a gentleman and an artist who does not profess to do the impossible."

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