Sunday, March 3, 2013

TIME MACHINE ... 1895, 1910, 1953, 1977, 1949, 1934

 
(Reader-friendly viewing of newspaper archives material)


 
February, 1895
(Peninsula Enterprise- Accomac)

Onancock.

Much duck shooting is being indulged in about the air holes in the ice on our waters.

Steamers Pocomoke and Eastern Shore are iced in at Crisfield, Md.

The skating here has been fine. Our creek is entirely ice-bound. Ice out on the bay as far as one can see.

Sleigh bells jingle all the time on the streets. The Accomac sleighing party, that visited our town the other evening in a boat drawn by four horses, lost the bottom of their boat near Pennewell's, on Main street, and had to walk home. A party of 21 sleighers from Locustville, in large bateau drawn by six horses visited out town Monday night.

 
July, 1910
(Eastern Shore Herald- Eastville, Va.)

Automobiles seem to be numerous in this county. One can hardly go a mile without meeting a machine or two.

June, 1953

Sale was announced of Pocomoke City's weekly newspaper The Worcester Democrat and The Ledger Enterprise from the estate of Dr. Edward A. Clarke to Elmer M. Jackson Jr. of Annapolis, a veteran newspaperman who was currently general manager of the Annapolis daily newspaper and four Southern Maryland weeklies. The sale included all publishing equipment and the Vine Street property of the Pocomoke paper. Miss Alice R. Young, with 25 years service, was to continue as Associate Editor and a general manager was to be named by Jackson. The Pocomoke newspaper was said to be one of the most successful large weeklies in the state.
 
Footnote: Alice Young remained with the Worcester Democrat until her retirement in March of 1963. During her career with the Pocomoke newspaper she also had served as business and advertising manager.


  
January, 1977
(The Salisbury Times)

Employees AT Wallops Are Given Awards

WALLOPS ISLAND- A Parksley man was recently given a cash award by the National Aeronautics And Space Administration for his idea and design of a new concept of meter movement testing.

Williams H. Parker, whose new concept is presently being used in the daily check of electronic volt meters used in the process of pyrotechnic-no-voltage checks at the NASA installation here, and which has resulted in cost savings, was presented the award by the flight center director, Robert L. Krieger.

Mr. Krieger also presented honorary certificates and emblems of service to seven Wallops employees for service totaling 200 years.
They are: Charles B. Shields, New Church; Richard R. Johnson, Accomac; Abraham D. Spinak, Pocomoke City, Francis Ross, Chincoteague; Mrs. Jean F. Hall, Pocomoke City; Lloyd C. Hickman, Snow Hill; and Lavern R. Weichmann, Snow Hill.



April, 1949 (Time Machine Archive) 

At a meeting of the Medical And Chirurgical Faculty Of Maryland Dr. Norman Sartorius Jr. of Pocomoke, a Faculty delegate, spoke out against a compulsory health insurance plan proposed by the group. Dr. Sartorius said his Worcester County group opposed the plan and termed it an appeasement of federal efforts for a compulsory health insurance program.


 
April, 1934
(Eastern Shore News- Onancock, Va.) 

Aged Man Tells of Early E. Shore Life

(PART 1)

The material of this article was gotten from an interview with Benjamin F. Scott, a ninety-six year old Civil War veteran of Chincoteague Island. Beginning with his birth he has given us some interesting highlights of his life, which acquaint us with the conditions of former days.

Mr. Scott was born on the 8th of May, in 1838 at Hog Island. He was named for Benjamin Franklin, the eminent statesman. Mr. Scott also added that Franklin tried to sail to the North Pole, but his ship wrecked — thus not succeeding. The writer was not aware that Franklin had tried this.

Mr. Scott was hired out at the age of fourteen to work for his blind mother. And he worked from the 8th of March until Christmas for $10. The man who employed him was Tom Mears, an old sailor and sea captain, a former West Indies trader, who had settled in Northampton county. The next year he received $30 per year, and worked for a Mr. William Matthews.

Mr. Scott relates of his experience with one employer:

He had to get up at the crack of dawn and feed horses. When the o'clock a boy came out in the field to begin work immediately. About nine o'clock a boy came out in the field to him with a bit of fat meat and a bit of corn bread on a tin plate. Mr. Scott had to eat sitting on the plow beam and if he took longer than was thought necessary he got a sharp reproof. When he wanted water he could go to the corner of the fence and get it from a jug sitting there. On cold, frosty mornings when his feet where cold, he drove the cattle up from the spot in which they had been lying and stood there to warm his feet.

Hired help in those days were allowed one pair of shoes, one shirt, one pair of pants, and a jacket a year by the farmers. Mr. Scott earned his "holiday money" and money for his other clothes by cutting wood at night for fifty cents a cord.

Mr. Scott said that the poor whites of that time were worked like slaves — the girls till they were eighteen and the boys till they were twenty-one.

(NEXT WEEK.. PART 2)

Do you have a local memory to share with PPE readers.. such as a big snow storm, a favorite school teacher, a local happening, something of interest your parents or grandparents told you about. It can be just a line or two, or more if you wish. Send to tkforppe@yahoo.com and watch for it on a future TIME MACHINE posting!

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