TIME MACHINE ... An 1880 Real Life Soap Opera Plot In Pocomoke City!

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June, 1880

(The New York Times)

TRIED ON A DISHONORABLE CHARGE MADE BY A POCOMOKE WOMAN- A CASE WHICH CAUSED MUCH GOSSIP.

SNOW HILL, Md., June 3.- The inhabitants of Pocomoke City have again moved up to Snow Hill, as they did during the trial of Lillie Duer for the shooting of her school-mate, Ella Hearn. This time it is not a murder trial, but one which involves the good name and standing of the most prominent man in the county, one long and well-known throughout the state. On the Wednesday before last Christmas, Mrs. W.S.C. Polk, wife of the proprietor of Pocomoke City's shoe store, walked into the office of Justice Nock, and swore out a warrant against Col. W.J. Aydelotte, charging that he had been guilty of an attempt at an outrageous assault against her. News of the charge spread rapidly, and it, with the preliminary hearing, furnished a startling holiday sensation for the Eastern Shore. Col Aydelotte was at once brought before the magistrate. The hearing lasted four days, and great excitement prevailed while it continued, friends of the Colonel loudly proclaiming that it was a case of black-mail. In the end, Col. Aydelotte was held under $2,000 bail to answer before the County Court. The case was called here Monday, and was concluded today, with a judgment of the court of not guilty. The case was not tried before a jury. The court-room was packed to its utmost each day. Mrs. Polk was the first witness. She testified that Col. Aydelotte had visited her house several times, uninvited, while her husband was away at Philadelphia, at times when he had reason to suppose she would be alone; that he had used improper and and indelicate language toward her, and on three occasions he had made an indecent assault on her. Mrs. Polk stated that she could not induce herself to take summary action against him on account of his age, his prominence, and the fact that he was an Elder in the Presbyterian Church, and highly esteemed by everybody; she would have been willing to let one or two attempts pass apparently unnoticed, and would not have taken to her very disagreeable course she did in making the matter public, except as a means of self-protection from Col. Aydelotte.

Col. Aydelotte was long a member of the state legislature, was in the State Senate in 1873-74, was a member of the Maryland-Virginia Boundary Commission in 1872, and at the time of the recent alleged assault was a member of Gov. Carroll's staff. He has been a prominent candidate for high honors in the Democratic Party and is held in high esteem. He is 64 years old, is courtly in manner, of polite and insinuating address. He has been one of the pillars of the Presbyterian church at Pocomoke, being a man of some wealth, and has been an Elder for many years. Mrs. Polk is a fine looking lady of 42, although she does not look over 30, of rather full form, slow speech, and entirely self-possessed, whatever the position in which she may be placed. She belongs to one of the best families in the county, the Adamses, of Rehobeth, and has been twice married, her first husband, Dr. Taylor of Berlin, living only a few months after their marriage. The affair in all its bearings had been a great wonder here. People in the church took sides for and against the Elder, and at one time a split was threatened, but was averted, and the feud between the Aydelotte's and the anti-Aydelotte's promises to long outlive the immediate results of the trial.　

Footnote: A posting from last year.

January, 1880

(The New York Times)

Baltimore, Jan.7. - Advises from Pocomoke City note a curious sequel to the sensation caused a fortnight ago by the scandalous charges brought by Mrs. Polk against ex-State Senator Aydelotte, of entering her house during the absence of her husband and attempting to violate her person. Aydelotte is a conspicuous pillar of the Presbyterian Church. The Rev. Mr. Brown is an eloquent speaker and popular Pastor of the Presbyterian flock, having accepted a call from the West to take the Pocomoke City charge. The congregation has been violently agitated by the charges against Aydelotte, and a split is threatened. On Sunday the church was crowded, but in place of a sermon the Rev. Mr. Brown gave from the pulpit a scathing diatribe, denouncing Aydelotte and the whole community. He came there, he said, supposing he was coming into a Christian, moral, community, but found himself among a people without principle or morality, lost to all sense of shame, rotten to the core. He was ashamed to acknowledge his residence there, and recently in Philadelphia he could not acknowledge to a brother clergyman that he belonged to Pocomoke. He ended by resigning his pastorate, and the congregation dispersed in high dudgeon. The excitement throughout the county is intense.

　

November, 1883

(The Daily News...Frederick,Md.)　

George H. Bagwell, Esq., the county surveyor of Accomack, Va., and commissioner on the part of that State for the final location of the boundary line between Maryland and Virginia, was in Pocomoke City, Monday, conferring with Hon. Wm. J. Aydelotte, commissioner on the part of Maryland. The two gentlemen visited important local points, and report satisfactory progress in their work.

　

August, 1972

(Salisbury Daily Times "People Patter" column)

Mr. & Mrs. Curt Lippolt have won an all-expense trip to Hawaii as a result of the largest percentage of sales at their Western Auto store in Pocomoke City for a store of their size. They had just taken the store over in November.

　

October, 1990

Bringing back a rare opportunity for passengers to ride the rails again on the Eastern Shore, the Maryland Main Street Special was making a day of excursions in 1920's passenger cars from the rail museum in Parksley to Pocomoke City.

　

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