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ITS ORIGIN AND TOWN LIMITS
TOWN LIMITS
GROWTH, CHANGE OF NAME, ETC.
MERCANTILE ASPECT
MANUFACTURING
TRADES ETC.
SHIPPING INTERESTS
EASTERN SHORE STEAMBOAT CO.
SHIP BUILDING ETC.
HOTELS, LIVERY STABLES, ETC.
PHYSICIANS
LAWYERS
POST OFFICE
PRINTING OFFICES
SOCIAL ASPECT, ETC.
MORAL ASPECT
TEMPERANCE CAUSE
SCHOOLS
CHURCHES
Note: In duplicating this material for publishing on The Pocomoke Public Eye we have made minor adjustments to correct some of the spelling, punctuation, etc. We believe the errors were not in Rev. Murray's original writing but occurred in the process of formatting the material to a digital format for viewing online.
MERCANTILE ASPECT.
In presenting the Mercantile aspect of New Town,
now Pocomoke City, I shall give with it, a brief sketch of
the lives of many who have been and are still engaged in
the sale of goods.
I have no information of any merchant in New Town
earlier than 1790 or 1800.
During that period, there was a Frenchman, by the
name of Boozee, who settled in New Town, and com-
menced the sale of goods.
He lived on the lot which faces on Market, Front and
Willow Streets; his store was on the corner of Market
and Front Streets.
How long he was engaged in the trade I have no
information; he was a man of some wealth, and when he
died, Colonel Levin Pollett settled his estate. He had a
wife and one child, his wife died some time after him;
they were both buried on the lot where they lived. What
became of the daughter I have no information.
In 1803 Michael Murray settled in New Town, and
commenced the sale of goods; his dwelling and store
house both were on the lot where William J. S. Clarke now
lives. He was also engaged in the shipping business. He
sold goods until 1818 when he retired from mercantile
life. He accumulated considerable property. For several
years after he retired from the busy whirl of mercantile
life, he served as Post-Master for New Town.
In 1827, he moved to the City of Baltimore, where in
1831, he died, being at the time of his death sixty-nine
years of age.
Somewhere near 1803, Edward Stevenson settled in
New Town, and commenced merchandising. He lived on
the lot where Mrs. Mary Merrill now lives. His store-
house was on the Hargis lot adjoining William Redden's
House. Afterwards he built the store house, where Town-
send and Stevenson sell goods, at the corner of Front
Street and Public Square; here he continued store keep-
ing until he died, which event took place in 1816.
Sometime after he came to New Town, he built the
dwelling house now occupied by his grandson, Jacob-
Stevenson, and lived in it until his death. He left a widow
and six children. He also amassed considerable wealth,
and left each one of his children a handsome property.
His tomb is in the Methodist Episcopal Church burying
ground, of this place, with the following inscription upon,
the marble slab that covers his remains:
" In memory of Edward Stevenson, who was born,.
February 14th, 1771, and died the 22nd day of September,
1816, aged forty-five years, seven months and eight-
days."
During the time aforesaid, there were several other-
stores in New Town, kept by Jesse Henderson, Stephen
Redden, Joshua Sturgis, and a young man by the name of
Bounds; but Michael Murray and Edward Stevenson were,
the leading merchants of their day.
The articles of merchandise, by the leading stores, were
the finest dress goods, such as silks, satins, cambrics, Irish:
linen, broad cloths, cassimeres, together with all other dry-
goods, hardware, crockeryware, and a general stock of
groceries and spirituous liquors.
The other stores dealt in groceries, liquors and the more-
common dry goods.
As Jesse Henderson, Stephen Redden and Joshua
Sturgis were old citizens of New Town, it is but just to
their memory that the following tribute should here be
inserted :
Jesse Henderson was a ship carpenter by trade; when
he commenced the sale of goods, and how long he was
engaged in it, I have no knowledge. With him, his wife,
daughter and grandchildren, I have been most intimately
acquainted. He was an honest, upright man in his deal-
ings, very retired in his disposition, and highly respected
by the entire community. He was great grandfather to
Edward H. Clarke and Mrs. Mary Quinn. He died in
1832 or'33, and his remains rest in the old Long Burying
Ground, on the farm now occupied by William W. Quinn,
where the most of the Long family, who have deceased,
are buried.
His wife, aunt Polly Henderson, for so we used to call
her, was a most exemplary woman, I knew her well from
my infancy to the time of her death.
While I am giving some account of her husband, I feel
it due to her name to say that she was my ideal of a model
wife. She was a keeper-at-home, no gadder-about, no
tattler, no busy-body in other people's business. I never
heard her speak an unkind word of anyone; always had a
pleasant word and pleasant face.
She died in a good old age, and was buried in the
Methodist Episcopal Church Burying ground, of this
place.
Stephen Redden sold goods, in New Town, for many
years, and, although his stock in trade was not so exten-
sive as the heaviest merchants, yet his business yielded
him a comfortable support. He raised an intelligent
family of children, one of which was considered to be the
smartest young man in New Town, in his day; I allude to
his son, George S. Redden, whose history will be given
under another heading.
Stephen Redden was a good citizen, peaceable, inoffen-
sive, and full of fun; he was somewhat beyond middle life
when he died. He was buried in the Methodist Episcopal
Church burying ground, in New Town.
Joshua Sturgis was one of the best of men, and his wife
was equally as good as he was. They were the salt of the
earth in all that was good and great; great in the sense of
natural and mental gifts, for they raised a family of boys,
whose talents for mathematics have never been excelled
by any boys raised in New Town. They both passed
away, at a good old age, as ripe shocks of corn ready for
the garner.
CONTINUES NEXT SATURDAY HERE AT THE POCOMOKE PUBLIC EYE.
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