Sunday, October 28, 2012

TIME MACHINE ... Blizzard's Saloon on Fox's Island.

(Reader-friendly viewing of newspaper archives material)


October, 1886

(The Boston Sunday Globe)

"BOTTLED LIGHTNING,"

And How Maryland and Virginia Prohibitionists are Fighting it.

Baltimore, Md., Oct 9.- The Prohibitionists of both Maryland and Virginia have tried in vain to reach with the law the flourishing saloon of John B. Blizzard on Fox's island. The only house on this little tract of land, which is located seven miles from Crisfield, is the residence and saloon of Blizzard, who is reaping a fortune on his sale of "bottled lightning" to the oystermen. The spot is partly in Maryland and partly in Virginia, yet is amenable to the laws of neither state. On the mainland all around the island in Virginia and Maryland, local option exists. The house is situated partly in Maryland and partly in Virginia, but its exact location cannot be arrived at, as it is not included within the lines of any county or district. Smith's island and Crisfield district lie adjacent to the island, put no portion of it is included within the limits of either of these districts. The proprietor has no license to sell liquor, and not being in any county, as far as the existing lines show, and being unable to locate himself he has no source from which to produce a license, and consequently goes without.

In absence of an authority to grant license there can be, of course, no authority to prohibit him from selling without a license, and not being within the jurisdiction of any county he is not subject to the existing local option laws of the bordering counties. His bar-room, previous to the passage of local option laws in the neighboring counties of Virginia, was located on the Virginia side of the line, but after the passage he has removed it a few feet and over the line, and now conducts his business in Maryland. On this peculiarly situated island a man can stand with one foot in Maryland and the other in Virginia, and drink to the health of both states and defy the authorities of each.

Footnote: The following item was reported in the Peninsula Enterprise of Accomac in May, 1885: Mr. John B. Blizzard of Crisfield, Md., has moved to Foxes Island, this county, which he lately purchased of Mr. Planner Crockett, and proposes to engage largely in the planting of oysters and the soft crab business there, and at no distant day will open a first-class summer resort. 


 October, 1897

(The Denton Journal)

Things That Maryland Can Produce

(Excerpts)

A recent dispatch to The Sun from Easton, Md., told of a scheme of some farmers on the Eastern Shore to plant almond trees. There have been possibly from early in colonial times almond trees in Eastern and Southern Maryland. In the lower Western Shore counties the almond seldom bears fruit. It blooms very early in the spring and the fruit is killed by frosts. On the lower Eastern Shore counties, perhaps, this difficulty does not exist, and if it does not almonds would be a most profitable crop. The almond is a native of Barbary and is extensively grown in Southern Europe. It is nearly allied to the peach, and the nut is surrounded by a fruit which dries up when the almond becomes ripe and falls to the ground.

Fig trees grow well in Southern Maryland and on the Eastern Shore and produce large crops with great regularity.


 
March, 1902

(The Denton Journal)

The Pocomoke Telephone Company of Worcester County has been incorporated, with a capital stock of $15,000. 


 
November, 1949

(The News- Van Nuys, California)

(Excerpts)

Richard Nixon Announces For U.S. Senator

Declaring that the issue in next year's election is "simply the choice between freedom and state socialism," Congressman Richard Nixon (R) of Whittier announced his candidacy for United States Senator from California at a Thursday dinner meeting in his honor at the Ebell Clubhouse in Pomona.

Nixon told a capacity audience: "We will tell the people the truth... we will raise a banner of freedom which all people, regardless of party, can follow. If we do this we cannot help but win".



June, 1974

(The Journal- Lincoln, Nebraska)

Professor, Former POW Nominated

Winners Say Watergate Issue

From News Wires

(Excerpts)

A former prisoner of war from Maine, a law professor in Arkansas, and two men in Virginia who want to see Richard Nixon impeached, won Democratic nominations to Congress Tuesday.

Bill Clinton, a law professor on leave from the University Of Arkansas-Fayetteville, won an easy victory in Arkansas' 3rd district run-off against State Sen. W. E. (Gene) Rainwater, 49, of Greenwood.

Clinton will face a fourth-term incumbent, 51-year-pld John Paul Hammerschmidt, of Harrison, in November.

 
 September, 1941

(The Cumberland Times- Cumberland, Md)

Pocomoke City, Nov. 15.- Governor O'Conor has been invited to address a joint ladies night dinner of the Pocomoke City Lions Club and Pocomoke City Rotary Club here, Nov. 25, said L. Paul Ewell, program chairman.




November, 1894

(The Salt Lake Tribune- Salt Lake City, Utah)

John W. Crisfield, of Princess Anne, Md., is one of the oldest practicing lawyers in the United States. He sometimes appears before his son, Judge Henry Page, who dropped the paternal name many years ago. Mr. Crisfield has lived to see the odd little amphibious town that he founded and named for himself about thirty years ago, grown into the most important place on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake.



 
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