TRAVEL ALERT

The lower Eastern Shore may escape the heavy snow that's forecast for other areas within our travel range but please reconsider any plans for traveling during this weekend's predicted storm.

Snow Emergency Plans For All Counties Beginning Friday At Noon

January 21, 2016

For Immediate Release

Contact: SHA Office of Customer Relations and Information (410) 545-0303

                                                                  MSP (410) 653-4200

MARYLAND STATE POLICE AND STATE HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION

TO DECLARE SNOW EMERGENCIES FOR ALL COUNTIES

BEGINNING FRIDAY AT NOON

Snow Emergency Plan Restricts Parking on Snow Emergency Routes and

Permits Maryland State Police to Tow Vehicles

(January 21, 2016) – The Maryland State Police and Maryland Department of Transportation’s State Highway Administration (SHA) are proactively announcing that snow emergency plans will go into effect at noon Friday in advance of the predicted severe storm expected Friday and Saturday.  The Statewide Snow Emergency requires vehicles restricts traveling on all highways designated as snow emergency routes be equipped with chains, snow tires or all season radials.  Additionally, special hauling permits for commercial vehicles are not valid during snow emergencies.

The snow emergency plan also allows the Maryland State Police (MSP) to call tow companies to remove abandoned vehicles in the road or on the shoulder and restricts all parking on designated snow emergency routes.

“It is important for all Marylanders to heed Governor Hogan’s warning about the coming storm and to make every effort to refrain from travel through the weekend,” Maryland State Police Superintendent Colonel William Pallozzi said.  “Implementing the snow emergency plans in every county is an indication of the serious nature of this storm and the statewide impact it will have.  Our goal is to keep citizens safe and this is one of the many steps we will be taking to do that.”

Significant snowfall, high winds and treacherous driving conditions are expected from late Friday, all day Saturday and into Sunday.  If forecasts materialize as expected and more than two feet of snow falls, cleanup will take several days and extend into early next week.

“Please avoid traveling during the storm to allow our crews the space needed to plow the roads,” said SHA Administrator Gregory Johnson. “Our goal is to keep one travel lane open and passable on major highways for emergency vehicles during the storm and focus on plowing all lanes once the snow stops.”

Commercial vehicle drivers have the option to wait out the storm at one of Maryland’s 17 designated safe haven ridesharing lots in order to avoid travel during hazardous conditions.

SHA maintains the numbered roads in Maryland’s 23 counties with the exception of toll roads (i.e. the ICC, I-95 north of Baltimore City, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Fort McHenry Tunnel etc.)  Click here to obtain information for county roads departments.

MD511 provides tools that you can use for traffic information, weather conditions, or traffic information.  Customers may also follow SHA on Twitter @MDSHA and “like” us on Facebook.

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TIME MACHINE.. Franklin City, 1890.

"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; it 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 archives/historical archives material)


In its day Franklin City was a bustling Eastern Shore town..a major oyster shipping center for the east coast. But that began to change with the opening of the Chincoteague causeway in 1922. Franklin City's economic decline along with erosion spurred by mother nature has virtually erased all evidence of the once thriving community. 

But this was the Franklin City of a bygone era.


May, 1890
The Sun (New York)

Curious Virginia City

BUILT ON STILTS IN AN ACCOMACK SALT MEADOW.

Much Wealth Amid Odd Surroundings -- The Tide Cleans the Streets -- Water from Beneath the Sea -- The Wild Fowl.

FRANKLIN CITY, Accomack, Va., May 6. --
For time out of mind before the year 1877 the extreme northeast corner of the State of Virginia had been the possession of the Franklin Family. It was not a very valuable corner as seen by the observer. There was a narrow strip of low-lying arable land, nowhere more than ten rods wide, a half a mile wide salt marsh, and then the bay, not named on the maps, but now called Jinkatig Bay by people hereabouts because Chincoteague Island lies in the bay and Jinkatig is the way they pronounce the name of the island. But though of little value as dry land, the Franklin estate under water was a possession worth owning, because the bay affords some of the finest oyster planting beds to be found anywhere, and for more than 200 years the people of Virginia peninsula have resorted to the natural beds found there for oysters.

Since the days of reconstruction following the war the system of planting seed oysters has been adopted with great success, and up to the year 1877 already mentioned hundreds of sloop loads of oysters gathered in that bay were every year carried out to sea and away to the great oyster market, which in those days could be found at the East River and Broome street, New York, but now is situated in two blocks along North River at West Tenth street. It was a great business even then, but subject to one drawback that it does not now suffer from. In those days the sailing vessels were often becalmed or got aground for just a long enough time to spoil the oysters, and the cargo was lost, for there was no marine insurance business around the bay.  In 1877, however, the oyster business got a lift. Capitalists who owned lines of railroad on the peninsula saw the sloop and schooner traffic in oysters and with covetous eyes, and eventually surveyed a route from Harrington, Del., down along the coast to a point on old Judge Franklin's swamp in the northeast corner of the State of Virginia. The Judge welcomed the railroaders, and in consideration of their locating the proposed road there gave them half his swamp.

Thereupon the track was laid and a pier built into the bay from the edge of the swamp. The track across the swamp was laid on a cow trestle. Then a few piles were driven in the swamp at the shore end of the pier, a little one-room shanty was brought down the road on a flat car and set upon the piles, and then, in honor of the former owner of the marsh, it with the pier, was named Franklin City. The boom in Franklin City was on from that day, for Judge Franklin at once laid out his part of the marsh in building lots and sold them for improvement. On an average two houses have been built there every year since, and none has been destroyed. Franklin City now contains nearly two and a half score of houses but it is only fair to say that the larger part of them has been erected within three years.
Franklin City is one of the oddest cities to be found anywhere, it is a city set on stilts. Every house stands on piles, and is from three to four feet above the surface of the ground. There is a huge frame hotel that towers above the surrounding houses like a bay barn above a cow shed on a New York farm. There are two avenues and two cross streets, ungraded and unworked, of course.

There are houses, including one dwelling built on piles out over the bay. There are pig pens and stables set on piles like the dwellings, and elevated board walks run from the houses to the outbuildings. A dozen of the dwellings are low, neat cottages. The rest are shanties of various sizes. But the one most notable characteristic of the place is the oyster shell. The railroad where the low trestle once stood is ballasted with oyster shells. Looked at on a hot day, as it lies gleaming white on dark green marsh, the roadway is enough to five a nervous man the headache. The bulkheads along shore are filled in with oyster shells. The more enterprising citizens are gradually making land by filling in their lots with oyster shells, and by and by, where now only walks on piles are found, there will be substantial, but not-to-be-cultivated land.

There is neither sewer nor drain in Franklin city, but for two very good reasons, a doctor is rarely called for. One reason is that, whenever a southeast gale rages out at sea, and the ocean is piled up on the long sea wall, called Assateague Beach that keeps the waves from rolling in on Franklin City, the tide rises so high that Franklin City gets a bath. The tide sweeps across the lots and through the streets and flushes them out. The other reason is that the drinking water is excellent. Some of the wells are sunk in the bay itself, and sweet water is drawn up so to speak, from the bottom of the sea. They use driven wells, and every well draws water in an inexhaustible quantity from sixty feet below the surface.

Equally interesting with the city are its people. They are a curious mixture of Jersey and Maryland families. Every soul there is more or less directly connected with the oyster business, save only the trainmen employed by the railroad. The men dress in long-legged rubber boots, twilled cotton overalls, and jackets, sou'westers, which they wear on their heads at this season with the flannel or lining side out. They are all expert boatmen, boat builders, and sail makers; they can and do tong, dredge, and cull oysters to a man. They wear their beards full, their faces are red, their hands hard, and their manners bluff. They never lock their doors at night, because there is not a man there who would steal money, though they do say that unaccountable mistakes are made when gathering the oyster harvest, by which under-water farm lines are crossed and the reaper gathers where he did not sow. The women dress in calico and they wear sun bonnets made of the same low-priced material. They are a handsome lot, however, old or young, calico or no calico.

To look at the people, men and women, as they go about the streets, a stranger would say they were a contented lot of laborers working at a dollar a day or thereabouts. Their dress and their homes are about like what may be found among American laborers in New England villages.

But let the stranger go into the store of Postmaster Bill Gibbs after the passenger train arrives at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and watch the distribution of the mail. It is an astonishing mail for such a looking town. A dozen men in their rough clothes are awaiting it, and the letters are passed over the counter as they answer their names. They open the envelopes, which have the names of well-known wholesale oyster dealers in New York and Philadelphia printed on the corners and from half of them out drop checks and statements comforting to look upon. When the mail has been delivered and the men have hurried away, a talk with Mr. Gibbs shows that for a dozen men who have been there in brown-twilled overalls and long-legged boots, the average income is not far from $7,000 a year.

Franklin City does not grow, because its sole source of income is now fully developed. Every inch of ground that can be planted to oysters is now occupied. There is but one chance for an addition to its population, and that would be but a fleeting addition. The waters of the bay and the creeks about here swarm with wild fowl in the season, and the traveler who leaves New York city at 9 o'clock in the morning gets here early in the afternoon. New York sportsmen might buy a patch of marshland and build a club house on it and, coming here at anytime between Nov. 1 and April 1, have no end of sport. Canvasbacks are scarce, but red heads, black heads, geese and brant well make up for the lack. Then there are the flocks of quail back in the country and from April 1 well on into June snipe and shore birds in quantities fit to make a sportsman's hair curl. The fishing in the bay, too, is superb, the catches of weakfish with hook and line often running into the hundreds. It is a land of low prices for home products, and the sportsman even of slender means who could not enjoy life here is not worthy of his title.

A Curious Virginia City 
Spears 
John R. 
Sun 
New York 
May 7, 1890


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Second Community Meeting Scheduled

CITIZENS FOR A BETTER POCOMOKE

COME OUT AND JOIN US FOR THE SECOND COMMUNITY MEETING OF THE 2016 NEW YEAR

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2016 7:00pm SHARP

NEW MACEDONIA BAPTIST CHURCH

SIXTH AND YOUNG STREETS

POCOMOKE CITY, MARYLAND

** Try to be prompt and bring a friend

Meeting Highlights

Monna Van Ess of Citizens For A Better Pocomoke reports this information from the January, 11 Community Meeting: 

Sheila Nelson will be running for the Council seat for District 1.  Also, a suggestion was made to form a volunteer group to save the Armory (old police station) and make it a war museum. 

TIME MACHINE.. 1845, 1946, 1931.

"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; it 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 archives/historical archives material)


1845..  A writer's view of the lower Eastern Shore.

April, 1946 (Time Machine archive)

School news reported by students in the "PHS Speak's" column in Pocomoke's Worcester Democrat newspaper included items about a month long competition among home room classes for cleanest rooms...the annual Commercial Day program under the direction of Miss Mary Emily Matthews...an Easter Party being planned by Miss Pearl Bratten's 5th and 6th grade classes...a victory garden project under the direction of Mrs. Wilson...a fried chicken dinner for faculty and Chef Club members, directed by Miss Mable Jones...the organization of an Aviation Club to make model airplanes and collect information about important flights, under the direction of Mrs. Mae Taylor...and the organization of a Camera Club under the direction of Mrs. Cutright. 

1931.. Look what's new.

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The Return Of WBOC Radio

Something old is new again.

When the company that owned WBOC television and radio sold the stations in 1980 WBOC radio..on the air for 40 years at that time.. was purchased by a separate owner.

 A new radio era is now underway for WBOC with the launching of its 102.5 FM station from the very studio that was once home to radio personalities such as Lanny Layton, Geoge Hack, Tom Maguire, and Ralph Pennewell . 

Complimenting the music and live local DJ's will be the resources of the WBOC-TV news and progamming departments. 




(WBOC photo.)

Meeting Scheduled

         CITIZENS FOR A BETTER POCOMOKE 

COME OUT AND JOIN US FOR THE FIRST COMMUNITY

 

MEETING OF THE 2016 NEW YEAR

THERE WILL BE A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT MADE BY

 PRESIDENT RONNIE WHITE

JANUARY 11, 2016, 7:00pm SHARP

   NEW MACEDONIA BAPTIST CHURCH

SIXTH AND YOUNG STREETS

POCOMOKE CITY, MARYLAND

 

** Try to be prompt and bring a friend 

UPCOMING POCOMOKE EVENTS

Friday, January 8

7:00pm

 Movie at the MAR-VA Theater

Saturday, January 9

7:00pm

 Movie at the MAR-VA Theater

Friday, January 15

6:00pm

 Night at the Museum

Saturday, February 6

5:30pm

 Wine Making Workshop

Friday, February 12

6:30pm

 Valentine Cabaret

Limited seats available for the Valentine Cabaret. Call early for tickets 410-957-4230 or visit marvatheater.com .  For details on any of the avove events visit: http://www.cityofpocomoke.com/calendar.html

NEW YEAR'S DAY 100 YEARS AGO..

JANUARY 1, 1916

The Monroe News-Star, Monroe, La.

TIME MACHINE ... New Year's.

"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; it 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 archives/historical archives material)


1884.. The railroad becoming a reality in Worcester County took a big step forward on New Year's day when ground was broken for the railroad bridge at Pocomoke City.

1905.. On New Year's day patients were to be transferred to the new $90,000 Peninsula General Hospital building.

1941.. Town Tavern in Pocomoke City had Slim Marshall's Orchestra for informal New Year's Eve dancing; 75-cents per person admission.

1964.. The Carousel Hotel in Ocean City had a Gala New Year's Eve party including party favors, buffet, bottle of champagne, breakfast, and an oceanfront room for $42.00 a couple.

1966.. Choppy Layton and Wayne Powell were masters of ceremonies at a New Year's Eve "Chop Hop" at the Pocomoke armory, with music by the Midnight Walkers.

1966.. The New Years Eve party at Twin Towers south of Pocomoke City featured dinner for two, cocktail, music by Greg Sterling, breakfast, and motel room for $25.00 a couple. 


January, 1903..

                                                             

The Topeka Daily Capital (Topeka, Kansas)

Do you have a local memory to share with PPE readers or something of interest your parents or grandparents told you about? Please send to tkforppe@yahoo.com .

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TIME MACHINE ... This Sunday's Preview

Local notes on New Year's Eve/New Year's Day from years past, and Thomas Edison's predictions for the new year 1903.

It's this Sunday right here at The Pocomoke Public Eye!

Do you have a local memory to share with PPE readers or something of interest your parents or grandparents told you about? Please send to tkforppe@yahoo.com .


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TIME MACHINE ... Christmas.

"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; it 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 archives/historical archives material)

December 24, 1897 (Time Machine archive)
Woodland Daily Democrat (Woodland, California) 

              

December 25, 1924 (Time Machine archive)

The Lubbock Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas)

(Excerpts) 

Childhood's Christmas Memories

"Backward, turn backward, Oh Time in your flight, Make me a child again just for tonight."

How many of us tonight are wishing that old poem might come true just once more in our lives?  Of all the days in our childhood, none stand out so vividly in our memory as those mysterious Christmas times.  There is something about our Christmas memories that reach the heart of every one of us who were so fortunate as to grow up in a happy home.  We did not say a big, luxuriant home, but a HAPPY HOME.  A home where sympathy and LOVE, and a family understanding of one another's hearts fills the atmosphere of the whole home.  A home where each member of the family believes in and rejoices with every other member of the family in their ambitions and their hopes and their accomplishments.  That's the kind of home we mean when we say a happy home.  It may be a humble little cottage or it may be a mansion.  It is the spirit in the house and not the shell in which we live that makes happy homes. And it so happens that most of our happy homes are humble homes because we have so many more humble homes in America than any other kind.

What are your first memories of Christmas?  Can you bring them back through the long years and tell them over again to the children?  There is nothing children love to hear so well as Christmas stories of their own fathers and mothers. "What did Santa Claus bring you when you were a little boy Daddy?"  "And what did he bring to mother?"  "Did he travel then just as he does NOW?  And what kind of toys did little girls and little boys send for in those days?"  

It is the unusual, the impossible, and the mysterious belief that it will happen that puts the thrill of expectancy into the heart of the little child at Christmas time.  It is their faith in the spirit of Santa Claus that is so beautiful.

But if the memories of Christmas time in the old home far away are among our most treasured memories of childhood, what is our greatest privilege at Christmas time now?  Is it not storing up other Christmas memories in the lives of our children to be recalled a generation from now when we are no more and other little ones yet unborn are begging for Christmas stories of long ago?  This is one of our greatest opportunities and privileges for Christmas, 1924.  Creating Christmas stories and Christmas memories to be retold by the generations of fathers and mothers in 1950, 1975, and even up to 2000 after the first Christmas story was ever produced.

...fill the childish hearts and childish minds around you with those Christmas memories you would be proud and happy to have them carry through their lives and tell over and over at the Christmas tides of the future to the little heads nestled near their hearts.

Do you have a local memory to share with PPE readers or something of interest your parents or grandparents told you about? Please send to tkforppe@yahoo.com .

When you're clicking around the Internet remember to check in with The Pocomoke Public Eye.  We strive to be a worthwhile supplement to your choices.

TIME MACHINE ... This Sunday's Preview.

Journeying back to the Christmas' of 1897 and 1924.

It's this Sunday right here at The Pocomoke Public Eye! 


Do you have a local memory to share with PPE readers or something of interest your parents or grandparents told you about? Please send to tkforppe@yahoo.com .


When you're clicking around the Internet remember to check in with The Pocomoke Public Eye.  We strive to be a worthwhile supplement to your choices.

TIME MACHINE.. Old Christmas Catalogs

"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; it 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 archives/historical archives material)

Thumb through the pages of Christmas catalogs from the 1930's through the 1980's! Here's your link:

http://www.wishbookweb.com/



1885.. Letter From Santa

(Peninsula Enterprise)

Do you have a local memory to share with PPE readers or something of interest your parents or grandparents told you about? Please send to tkforppe@yahoo.com .



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TIME MACHINE ... This Sunday's Preview.

View pages from dozens of Christmas Catalogs from the 1930's through the 1980's! 

It's this Sunday right here at The Pocomoke Public Eye!

Do you have a local memory to share with PPE readers or something of interest your parents or grandparents told you about? Please send to tkforppe@yahoo.com .

When you're clicking around the Internet remember to check in with The Pocomoke Public Eye.  We strive to be a worthwhile supplement to your choices.

Pocomoke CC Award Nominations..

Please take a moment and consider nominating a person for one of the Pocomoke Area Chamber of Commerce’s three awards recognized yearly at our Annual Dinner. This year the event will be held on Saturday, January 23, 2016. The three award categories are Business Person of the Year, Community at Heart Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Nominations are due at the Chamber office no later than Monday, January 4, 2016.

Download nomination forms at www.pocomoke.com .

Pocomoke Holiday Event!

TIME MACHINE ... 1895, 1896, 1904, 1917, 1950's/60's.

"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; it 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 archives/historical archives material)

December, 1895..

December, 1896..

December, 1904..

                                                                                           

(Above ads published in The Peninsula Enterprise)

December, 1917 (Time Machine archive)

In a 1967 "Scratch Pad" column Salisbury Times Editor Dick Moore related a letter received from Mrs. George E. Bonaville of Accomac who recalled a stormy Christmas Eve trip by boat to visit relatives in Chincoteague in 1917. "We went three days and stayed three weeks."  The freight and mail boats at Franklin City were frozen in, and finally some people walked over the ice to the mainland.  The column also mentioned a note from Scott Brewington who remembered driving his Model T on the frozen Wicomico River, the date not recalled.



1950's & 1960's (Time Machine archive) 

During the Chrstmas season the Coffman-Fisher clothing store at the northwest corner of Second and Market Streets in Pocomoke City set up a large toy department on an upper level of their store.  Chidren of that era may still recall climbing the flight of stairs above the balcony level of the store to visit the once a year large display of toys.  In Salisbury, "Jolly Jack's" toy department at the R. E. Powell clothing store was a favorite visit for the kids.


Do you have a local memory to share with PPE readers or something of interest your parents or grandparents told you about? Please send to tkforppe@yahoo.com .

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TIME MACHINE ... This Sunday's Preview.

In Pocomoke City it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas.. in  1895, 1896, 1904, 1950's/60's; And, the weather outside was frightful for a 1917 Christmas Eve trip to Chincoteague.
.
It's this Sunday right here at The Pocomoke Public Eye! 


Do you have a local memory to share with PPE readers or something of interest your parents or grandparents told you about? Please send to tkforppe@yahoo.com .


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Pocomoke Christmas Event..

                                           

TIME MACHINE ... 1914, 1954, 1956, 2004, 1890.

"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; it 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 archives/historical archives material)

March, 1914 (Time Machine archive)
(The Evening Times- Cumberland, Md.)

PLAN TO BUILD CHURCH BY MAIL

Bricks Will Be Sent To Site By Parcel Post

MATERIAL TO BE DONATED

President Wilson And Members Of Congress Asked to Send One Brick Each- 

Name Of Donor On Each Brick.

Baltimore, March 23-  Congressman David J. Lewis, father of the American Parcel Post system, in his most roseate dreams never contemplated the coming of the time when so bulky a package as a brick church could be sent through the mails.

Yet a project is on foot to do this very thing.  The mails will be burdened with the church brick by brick, however, and the thousands of them required to erect the edifice will each be stamped and addressed to "Methodist Church, Wenona, Somerset County, Md."

The Representative from Western Maryland will be asked to be among the senders of the first bricks.  President Wilson also will be requested to mail a brick or two. 

The congregation of Wenona Church desires to rebuild the edifice, which was destroyed by fire March 1 during a terrific wind storm.  Wenona, by the way, is on Deals Island, Chesapeake Bay, where the oyster is the chief subject of conversation and the chief source of income.  It is 26 miles from Princess Anne, the county seat.

It took years of effort for the congregation to build the first church, which was a frame structure.  No insurance was paid after the fire, for the blaze started from an exploding gasoline lamp, and this absolved the insurance company from financial obligation.  The accident was felt throughout the whole community, for the nearest place of worship of another Methodist congregation is miles away.  The Wenona church had 800 men, women and children in its flock. 

For the last two or three weeks the communicants have been discussing ways and means, and finally some of them hit upon the unique plan of "building the new church by parcel post."  The idea "took" immediately, and Denwood W. White, treasurer of the congregation, indorsed the project and now it is a well-defined campaign.  

No effort will be made to have all the bricks of a uniform size, shape, weight, or color.  Any variety will do, from the white enameled kind that they use to build mantels to the heavy paving brick.

An interesting thing will be the memorial feature of the undertaking.  The sender of each brick is requested to write his or her name on the surface.  This side will be turned inward and the edifice, when completed, will be a mammoth roster of donors.

The contributors will doubtless be persons from all over the country, although Marylanders are expected to be the first to send bricks.  And among the "foreigners" looked upon as possible patrons are the various Representatives and Senators who supported the Lewis bill.

In the meantime Postmaster Vetra, of Wenona, is making arrangements to store the bricks upon their arrival until a sufficient number have accumulated to make possible the beginning of building operations.  The bricks will go to Princess Anne, and must be carried by rural route all the way to Wenona. 

Footnote: Anyone know what became of this project?  My search didn't turn up any further info.- tk


April, 1954 (Time Machine archive)

Daniel Shaw was elected Pocomoke City mayor.  He was former president of the city council and unopposed to succeed Mayor Crady Matthews.  Clayton Lambertson, a former Pocomoke mayor and councilman in the 1940's, was unopposed for one council seat that was on the ballot.


November, 1956..

(Above items from Salisbury Times television and radio listings.) 

December, 2004
The Somerset Herald (Princess Anne)

(Excerpt)

CRISFIELD - Consultants are within days of unveiling the latest findings of a Crisfield ferry feasibility study, a report that is expected to name potential
terminal sites and boat operators, members of a ferry review committee said.

Early December is the completion target for the release of second-phase findings of the study that could decide whether the committee moves forward with a proposal to establish a ferry link between Crisfield and Reedville, Va.


1890..

Do you have a local memory to share with PPE readers or something of interest your parents or grandparents told you about? Please send to tkforppe@yahoo.com .


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