Sunday, August 3, 2014

TIME MACHINE ... 1914, 1965, 1909, 1939, 1870, 1902

"Friendliest Town On The Eastern Shore."  Our tradition runs deep.  Excerpt from a letter to the editor from a visitor to Newtown, (former name of Pocomoke City) published in the Baltimore Sun, April 28, 1847.

This place (Newtown) is a pretty snug little village, containing about 500 clever and hospitable inhabitants; is has good wide streets, quite clear of that "eye sore," known mostly over the Peninsula by the name of "deep sand"; the houses, though built of frame, are generally built substantially and with some discretion and taste; there are two neat, new, and quite handsome frame churches in it; as for the merchants of the place, suffice it to state that they are very clever and hospitable.  F. Mezick, Esq., the landlord with whom I stopped, and his very obliging and jolly assistant, are richly deserving of a passing notice, for the good treatment and the extension of the many civilities to "the stranger."

(Reader-friendly viewing of news archive/historical archive material)

July, 1914
The Washington Post

FARMERS WILL GET MILLIONS

Stream of Gold Flowing Into Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Salisbury (Md.) Dispatch to Philadelphia North American.

A steady stream of gold is flowing into the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Starting out with the first crops of the season, such as spinach, kale, and other greens, every crop that has been planted has yielded largely and prices have been the best for years.  One farmer had 8 acres of onions and cleared about $8,000. The white potato crop is the best known for years and the price has been high, starting at $6 a barrel. The present crop averages $3 a barrel.  The New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad has been taxed to its utmost to haul these potatoes, and as many as four trains an hour, averaging 50 cars to the train, pass through this city daily, bound north. Last Sunday over 600 carloads passed through. Many thousand barrels have been shipped by water also.   

Banking institutions in that section are simply bulging over with money from farmers and truckers (crops to be shipped).  In one institution in Accomac county over $500,000 was deposited in two days. It is estimated by produce men that farmers and truckers from Salisbury to Cape Charles will receive over $7,000,000 for their crops this year.

June, 1965
The Daily Mail (Hagerstown, Md.)

(Excerpts)

Pocomolke City Woman Wins State Golf Championship

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP)-  Mrs. Robert Mason of Pocomoke City has won the Maryland Woman's Golf Championship.

Mrs. Mason, the former Jane Schiller of Salisbury, won the title Saturday by defeating Mrs. Richard Canney, of Chantilly, Va.,  2 and 1 in the 18-hole final at the Argyle Country Club.

Mrs. Mason, who has been the Delmarva Peninsula women's champion for 10 years, was five over par for the 17 holes of the match, while Mrs. Canney was nine over par....

This was the third time the 26-year-old Mrs. Mason reached the finals but was her first victory.

July, 1909
The Washington Post

TEACHERS SUE FOR MORE PAY

School Board Claims To Be Without Funds for Enacted Increase.

Special to The Washington Post.

Snow Hill, Md., July 21.-  The teachers of Worcester County have retained council, who will sue for additional salary due them under certain conditions. There are about 60 teachers who are entitled to an increase for 1908 and 1909 under the act of the legislature of 1908, providing that white teachers with first-class certificates having taught for a period of three years in any of the public shools of Maryland should receive not less than $350 a year, and after a period of five years not less than $400.

The school board, while expressing a willingness to pay the amount, claims that a sum sufficient to meet the requirements has not been appropriated. In the levy for 1909 the county commissioners have appropriated $22,000, and this, the board declares, is not sufficient to meet the obligation.

November, 1939 (Time Machine archive)
(The Salisbury Times)

NEW SPEED SIGNS ERECTED IN STATE

Baltimore, Nov. 15-(AP)-  One third of the 6,000 signs that will apprise Maryland motorists of  the new speed limits that went into effect last June have been erected on the highways, Robert M. Reindollar, assistant chief engineer of the State Roads Commission said today.

Reindollar said all the black and white signs would be posted by the end of the month.  The markers are placed at one-mile intervals on the Washington boulevard and the Philadelphia Road and will be augmented by warning signs.

The new law raised the speed limit on dual highways from 45 to 55 miles an hour and set it at 50 M.P.H. for ordinary roads.

March, 1870
Urbana Union (Urbana, Ohio)

ELIKZABETH CORDERY, of Tyaskin District, Somerset County, Maryland, was born a mute, and was never known to utter a syllable, until Saturday of last week, on which day she was fifty years old. She had been confined lo a bed of sickness for some time, when, on the day mentioned, to the great surprise of her family and friends, she began talking fluently, and from then to the hour of her death, which occured on the following day, she prayed almost unceasingly, in an audible voice, and understandingly.  The lady had two sisters and a brother also mutes.

August, 1902
The Times (Washington, D.C.)
(Continuation of Tangier Island article from last week)

And so with the little canal running to the back yard of each house, and with each householder provided with one or more boats, the use of horses as beasts of burden or for purposes of pleasure seems to be fully supplied by the boats. But to the stranger the spectacle of a boat passing through what, at a distance, seems to be a fiat meadow is one which Is full of novelty and a constant source of amusement. 

The landing stage at which the steamers land passengers and freight for Tangier is fully a mile from the nearest point of the island, and here you will find, upon the arrival of the steamer, a motley collection of boats waiting, some of them for passengers, others are waiting for freight- for there are five stores on the Island; and others come from motives of curiosity, for there is no railroad station to interest the idle, and an old fashioned stage coach would probably cause as much excitement as a circus parade, with its gayley-decorated wagons, causes in rural communities.

But this is without doubt the haven of perpetual rest. Jealousy has never been awakened by the advent of a caved in pulled down Panama hat, the quiet has never been disturbed by rag time music, the hand organ with its accompanying monkey is but a tradition on this peaceful island; soda water except the bottled kind, is unknown, ice cream is served on Saturday nights, the real gala night of the island, and the children lull their dolls to sleep with the music of gospel hymns.

And yet I would not have anyone think that the people are not musical and that the children have no joys. To the contrary, nearly every home possesses an organ, and the children are the gladdest, happiest children I have ever seen, and while it is true they do not have the same kind of toys used by the children of the mainland, every boy has his crabbing net and his flat bottomed boat to pole about the shallow waters of the sound, and the triumphal return of a small boy along the main street with an edible crab in his net, closely followed by a crowd of admiring urchins of smaller growth is a common sight at Tangier.

(More of this article next Sunday)


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!


"Somewhere over
the rainbow
Bluebirds fly..."
Flying on for JMMB



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