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 newspaper archives material)
April, 1969
Evening Capital (Annapolis, Md.)
Renowned Mansion Destroyed
BERLIN, Md. (AP)- The mansion on an estate where the great racehorse Man O'War trained burned to the ground today.
Richard Ketterman, caretaker for the 1,500 acre spread, said the three-story frame house with at least 21 rooms was a total loss. He estimated the loss at $500,000 since the house was filled with antiques and at least 100 paintings of famous racehorses.
The estate, between Berlin and Ocean City, now called Winchester, was bought by the late Samuel D. Riddle in 1917, the same year that Man O'War was born.
Most of his horses had been transferred from the estate to Garden State Park by Trainer Oscar White. The flames did not reach any of the stables.
Ketterman said the fire in the house started around 7 a.m. and two hours later it was in ruins. Firemen from four towns were hampered by the lack of water, having to pump it from a creek one-quarter of a mile away.
Footnote: The property encompassing the estate has been developed as the Glen Riddle new homes community in recent years.
November, 1905
The Washington Post
OYSTERMEN RAIDED COURT
Mob Released Prisoner and Made Magistrate Revoke Sentence.
Held Him A Captive Until He Yielded.
Paraded Crisfield, Md., in Triumph.
Threatens Planters.
Special to the Washington Post.
Crisfield, Md., Nov. 29- A mob of several hundred oystermen this afternoon attacked the courthouse, rescued Ralph Nelson, just convicted of raiding oyster beds, and captured Justice G. W. Kennedy, whom they released only after they had forced him to revoke his decision.
Nelson was arraigned on the charge of raiding oyster plantations of the Tangier Packing Company, in Tangier Sound, and it was alleged that he and his friends had been defying the law for a long time. After trial to-day, he was pronounced guilty by the magistrate.
The announcement of the verdict was a signal for an attack by the oystermen, who throunged the court. A rush was made, in which the prisoner was taken from the court officers, and the magistrate was captured.
For about an hour Justice Kennedy was held prisoner by the mob, before he was induced to revoke his verdict, declaring he would never try another oyster case.
Nelson and his friends then paraded the streets in triumph. The mob declared there shall be no planting of oysters, and threatens to raid and tear up the beds that already exist in these waters.
March, 1977 (Time Machine archive)
A health care clinic was being readied to open in Pocomoke City in the former school building at Fourth & Walnut Streets. A fund drive for the clinic's start-up operation was underway and the City Council was making a $5,000 contribution. A physician assistant, Theodore Holt, was hired for the clinic's operation.
(Correct reference would be "Smith Island.")
October, 1937
The Daily Mail (Hagerstown, Md.)
Smith's Island Soon Will Have Paved Road
SMITH'S ISLAND, Md., Oct. 7. (AP).- Smith's Island motorists-all twelve of them- soon will be able tlo whiz up and down a paved road, as least as much as it is possible to whiz on a three-mile stretch.
Whizzing is not possible at all now. The only roads now on this Chesapeake Bay isle are little more than trails, with occasional spaces wide enough for cars to pass one another or turn around.
But the Somerset county commissioners over on the mainland about ten miles away voted $800 to surface the road from Ewell to Rhodes Point.
The County commissioners opposed the appropriation at first on grounds their were no traffic problem(s). Islanders replied:
"Without roads how can we have a traffic problem?"
May, 1960 (Time Machine archive)
(The Salisbury Times)
Pocomoke Kiwanis Entertain Team
POCOMOKE CITY- The Pocomoke Kiwanis Club had as their guests on Monday evening the varsity basketball team of the Pocomoke Boys Club.
Ben Cohen introduced the leaders of the club, Avery Smith and Dave Wagner. Mr. Smith introduced the boys to the club and praised them on the excellent way they played during the season. He then awarded a trophy to the most improved player. This award went to Jerry Smith.
(A visitor to Chincoteague writes his observations.)
August, 1903
The Times Dispatch (Richmond, Va.)
PART 1
CHINCOTEAGUE ISLAND, ACCOMAC COUNTY, VA., August 7.-Many attempts have been made to tell the outside world of Chincoteague and its inhabitants, and all that I have seen have failed. I came to the island with very hazy ideas concerning the nature and appearance of the people and their manners and customs. I cannot say that I have learned all there is to know concerning Chincoteague and the Chincoteaguers in the course of my stay, but I have learned enough to make me look forward with anything but pleasure to the time tomorrow morning when I must board the Franklin City boat and say good-bye to Chincoteague, probably for good, for though this old world is small it is very busy.
I do not believe that one-half the boys and girls of Virginia, who are studying geography, could tell where Chincoteague is if asked the question offhand. The other half would say it is an island off the coast of Virginia, inhabited by about 3,000 people and wild ponies. A few of the older generation who have come here would tell stories to illustrate the primitive way in whlch the people live. A smaller number, imbued with the ladder day spirit of commercialism, would tell of the money the people make off the oysters and clams, and the fish and crabs, and would speak of the number of stores on the island, and the volume of business done.
After spending some days on Chincoteague I find it impossible to give any of the descriptions I have given above. It may be the air, but I think it is the people; at any rate, I have found in Chincoteague that which makes me hate to leave. The island is so contradictory. It is up-to-date in many ways; it is fifty years behind in others. There is a railway terminus only six miles away, but three hundred or four hundred ponies run wild on the island, and men with money in their pockets walk along the main streets of the town in their bare feet, and nobody thinks of looking at the feet. Those facts seem to me to state in a satisfactory way the contradictory conditions on Chincoteague.
Chincoteaguers are amphibious, living on an island half a mile wide and seven miles long, those three thousand islanders have occasion to know much more of the sea than of the land. Only a very small fraction of the vegetables eaten on Chincoteague are grown on the island, and more than six hundred vessels of various sizes are owned in Chincoteague and call Chincoteague the home port. An average of one sailing craft for every five of population is probably greater than at any other sea town in the country.
(More from this article next Sunday.)
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