TIME MACHINE ... A Very Large Loss In A Small Eastern Shore Community.

　

(Reader-friendly viewing of newspaper archives material)

May, 1926
(Cumberland Evening Times- Cumberland, Md.)

Blackened Walls And Tower From Which Chimes Have Fallen All That Is Left Of Edifice

Associated Press

Crisfield, Md., May 10- A one-time massive granite church structure, built at a cost of $200,000, to residents of the little suburban community of Lawsonia, lies in ruins today. Parts of two blackened walls and the tower from which the chimes have fallen are all that was left by a fire, which yesterday afternoon, also destroyed three dwellings, an underwear factory and drug store. The loss will exceed $300,000.

Many residents of Lawsonia had mortgaged their homes to pay their proportionate share of the cost of the edifice which was formally opened two years ago. All but $20,000 of the church obligation had been paid. Only $45,000 in insurance was carried.

The fire started in the factory and soon spread to other buildings. The community is without a water system and the residents were unable to offer resistance to the flames advances.

The heat from the garage was so intense that the stain glass windows were removed from the church. It was thought that the slate and granite structure was immune. The flames appeared to have spent their force when suddenly sparks caught to the interior and the building was doomed.

The church was among the most pretentious in the Wilmington Methodist Episcopal conference and was the second largest edifice on the Del-Mar-Va peninsula. 

　
February, 1930
(The Salisbury Times)
　

Crisfield- The new Asbury Methodist Episcopal church at Lawsonia, near here, was dedicated yesterday with impressive ceremonies, conducted by Bishop William F. McDowell and other prominent Methodist clergymen. Services in connection with dedication of the new church, which cost $175,000, will continue through the week.

　
May, 1912
(The Evening Post- Frederick, Md.)

For Salisbury-to-Ocean City Road.

Berlin.- Mayor Orlando Harrison headed a committee of about 30 businessmen of this town who called on the county commissioners at Snow Hill yesterday, in the interest of building a stone road between Salisbury and Ocean City, a distance of 35 miles. The county commissioners have promised to take the matter up with the State Roads Commission.

　

March, 1977 

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.

　
October, 1884

Forrest fires were raging through many sections of the mid-Atlantic coast including Eastern Shore areas. A newspaper article published by The Review in Decatur, Illinois included the following: "Along the line of the Eastern Shore Railroad through Wicomico and Somerset counties, thousands of acres have been burned over. Two weeks ago a fire started in the swamp near Eden, a station on the Eastern Shore Railroad, a few miles above Princess Anne. It ate its way down the country around Princess Anne, and wound up last night near Kingston, having cleaned out the swamp and high timber fields for a distance of nearly seventeen miles, varying in width from one to three miles, and burning over five thousand acres of land. Rabbits, squirrels, partridges, snakes, raccoons, opossums, swept before the oncoming flood of fire in mad haste to escape with their lives." 

　
July, 1894
(The Times- Portsmouth, Ohio)

A GOOSEBERRY farmer on the eastern shore of Maryland recently shipped to Baltimore twelve thousand, seven hundred pounds of green gooseberries and sold them at four and a half cents a pound. He expects to gather more than 600 bushels of gooseberries from six acres. The gooseberry is one of the fruits that sell better green than ripe. Green gooseberry sauce is esteemed an admirable accompaniment to meats in the land where the gooseberry grows, and green gooseberry pie, though less beautiful than cranberry tart, is an admirable product.  

　
　
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, a Holiday memory? 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!