Time Machine: 100 years ago this week in Pocomoke's newspaper; 1884, 1954, 1999, 1939, 1927.

 

January, 1884

The Morning Herald (Baltimore)

June, 1954

Salisbury Times

November, 1999

Salisbury Times

*August, 1939

Baltimore Sun

*March, 1927

The Evening Times (Salisbury)

tkforppe@yahoo.com

Recollections from generations past. (Katherine S. Etchison- 4)

KATHERINE: I remember when the mill used to blow whistles and it was quite a sight to see the people coming from those mills, you know, when the whistle blows, or going to work when the whistle blows. But we used to set our clocks to the whistle. Where do you have transportation?

INTERVIEWER: That’s the next thing.

KATHERINE: We had five trains a day at Pocomoke. And we had one at six o’clock in the morning that went north, I think. And we had two between one and two o’clock, one went north and one went south. Then we had one at eight o’clock and I don’t recall whether that went north or south, I’ve forgotten. I think it went south because it seems to me, I came home on it once. And then we had one at midnight. And then we had steamboats. And the steamboats, I think we had three a week. And I have something here that I want to…. Would you mind helping me lift that up? Now this is when a steamboat arrived at the station. This is something that somebody had written up. It’s perfect because I remember it so well.

“The Arrival of the Steamboat. There was always a crowd on the wharf when the steamboat was due. The farmer’s sons all newly washed and combed. The more sophisticated white-collar town boys and the neighborhood girls in finely starched dresses. Negros with their shining teeth indulging in wild horse play, but careful to avoid jostling white folks. One would have a (audio not clear) and a group would start dancing and clapping hands. All of these vessels are remembered with brushed carpet, easy chairs, shining brass on steps and rails. Everything as clean as a pin. The fare to Baltimore from Easton was fifty cents which included a clean berth, a private stateroom with extras. When the deep-throated whistle sounded,” and I’ll say here that many people went to see the steamboats come in. That was one of our pastimes, was to go to the wharf and watch the boats come in. “When the deep-throated whistle sounded every eye would be fixed on the bend. A whiff of smoke might be seen in the sky and at last she swims into view. Here she comes! What a moment! She drifts slowly alongside, with engines stopped. How big she is! What majesty and what grandeur! The white coil lines are flung ashore. The wharf tender jumps, catches the line and hauls it on the holster, drops the heavy loop over the wharf post. The captain on the hurricane deck signals to the engineer to reverse speed, while every face on the wharf turns admiring regard at that Superman in blue and gold. In those days, every small boy on the shore dreamed of becoming a steamboat captain. The gang plank was run ashore and a scene of (audio not clear) activity took place. The passengers did not go aboard yet, that would have been to miss half the fun. Jazz had not been named, but the Negro roustabouts with their banging hand trucks conducted all their operations in the rhythm of jazz. Prancing, shaking their shoulders, rolling their empty trucks on one wheel, and singing in time. The racket was terrific. After the dead freight was on, the cattle were loaded. If the beef had horns two grabbed him and pulled while a third walked followed behind pushing his tail. An animal would often escape where upon a mad chase took place, everybody hollering to get her. At the very last the passengers walked over the gangplank and were hustled on board. The steamboats left Pocomoke in the afternoon, arriving in Baltimore in the early morning. The service had traditions that helped to make each trip on a steamboat a festive occasion. For one thing it was an unwritten law that the captain should be a gentleman as well as a navigator. He was expected to play host to the passengers to see that everyone had a good time.” That expresses exactly what happened because I been dancing the wharf many times.

INTERVIEWER: Everyone went down there to watch them come in?

KATHERINE: No, not everybody, but that was one of things we liked to do. We used to enjoy going down and watching. The trains, I didn’t tell at the time, but there used to be a bus. There used to be two buses that met the trains from the livery stable and the buses took the people to the hotels or if you wanted to go to the station you’d call the livery stable and they’d stop for you. One thing I have overlooked that I hadn’t told you. We had a fair in Pocomoke. Had horse racing. And that fair ran for years and years and years, every summer and that was quite a big event.

INTERVIEWER: What kind of things? Was it just horseracing?

KATHERINE: Horse races and it was an agricultural fair too. People would take their products there and they would give them prizes. They had side shows like a carnival, but it was a fair. But the horse racing was really very good. Of course, they had a bandstand and they had a band. Pocomoke used to have a band, from the Pocomoke adults had a band. Here’s a picture of the fairgrounds. Alright, what’s your next question?

INTERVIEWER: Do you remember when you got your first car, when your family got a car?

KATHERINE: I remember the first automobile in Pocomoke. That was Dr. Walters. I’m sure you don’t know him, well it’s Henry Walters’ grandfather. He had the first automobile in Pocomoke. He was a dentist. There used to be a man down in Virginia that had a great big automobile, and Mr. Parker, the proprietor of the Parker House, was a good friend of my mother’s. And Mr. Bodley would come up in his big automobile and Mr. Parker would come around and collect all of us children, ours and friends, and take us for a ride. Oh, that was, we thought that was just a wonderful thing to happen. Probably I was six or seven years old, but I remember it very well.

INTERVIEWER: Did you ever learn to drive?

KATHERINE: Oh yes.

INTERVIEWER: Did you just get in and start driving? How did you learn to drive?

KATHERINE: No. I think my husband taught me to drive. I drove until I broke my hip. After I broke my hip, I kept my car two years thinking I would do better, you know, and I would be able to drive.

(Continues next Saturday here at The Pocomoke Public Eye.)

Worcester deputy in head-on collision-

 a

Deputy Involved in Head-On Collision on Racetrack Road

The Worcester County Sheriff’s Office reports that one of its deputies was involved in a head-on collision on Racetrack Road earlier today.

The incident occurred as the deputy was traveling southbound on Racetrack Road when a GMC van exited the Tidal Health Ocean Pines Campus at Cathage Road. The van crossed over into the southbound lane, traveling north directly into the path of the deputy’s vehicle, resulting in a head-on collision in front of the Shore Stop/Valero gas station.

The deputy was transported to Atlantic General Hospital (AGH) for medical evaluation, while the driver of the van was taken to Tidal Health. Both individuals sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

The Worcester County Sheriff’s Office extends its sincere gratitude to the citizens who stopped to assist and to the emergency medical services for their swift and professional response. Their support and care are greatly appreciated.

This incident is currently under investigation, and additional details will be provided as they become available.

GO Lady Warriors!

 

(Delmarvanow.com)

Pocomoke Field Hockey wins semifinal game, advances to fourth straight state title game

The Pocomoke Warriors are back in the Class 1A State Championship Game for the fourth year in a row, as they defeated Fallston 4-1 on Wednesday in the state semifinals.

Autumn Riggin kicked things off for Pocomoke, scoring the opening goal to put them up 1-0. And after teammate Maddie Cornwell followed things up with two goals of her own, Kendall Rayfield scored the fourth goal for the Warriors, putting the game on ice and sending Pocomoke to yet another state title game.

This is the fourth year in a row that the Warriors will be playing in the state title game, as they won the championship in 2021 and 2022, and lost in 2023. If Pocomoke wins on Saturday, it will be the school's 22nd field hockey state championship.

Pocomoke will play Patuxent in the Class 1A State Championship Game at 5 p.m. on Saturday at Stevenson University.

Accomack bans outdoor burning.

 

(Shore Daily News)

In response to heightened fire risks due to dry conditions, Accomack County has issued an immediate suspension of all outdoor burning.

(View news story:)

Accomack County declares immediate suspension of outdoor burning due to dry conditions - Shore Daily News

Pocomoke Public Eye-

(An outdoor burning ban has been in affect in our Maryland lower shore counties.)

Worcester Sheriff's Office new app feature-

 

Worcester County Sheriff's Office

New Feature Alert!  We’re excited to announce the addition of our new “Calls for Service” icon to the Worcester County Sheriff's Office App!  This feature provides recent service call information, which appears shortly after our deputies have completed the call and cleared the scene.

To explore this feature, simply download the Worcester County Sheriff's Office (MD) mobile app today and stay connected with your community!  https://apps.myocv.com/share/a87521863

Worcester Veterans Day Ceremony-

 

A Veteran's Day ceremony will be held Monday, 11/11, at 11a.m.at the Worcester County Veterans Memorial in Ocean Pines.  The Memorial Park is located on Race Track Road.

Where to check for area election results-

 

(View latest results from Maryland including by county:)

Official 2024 Election Results

(Eastern Shore of Virginia:)

shoredailynews.com

 (Other Delmarva sources:)

wboc.com

wmdt.com

                                   

Pocomoke projects on Worcester slate-

 

Worcester unveils five-year plan for capital projects

(View news article:)

Worcester unveils five-year plan for capital projects | News | oceancitytoday.com

Time Machine: 75th Anniversary Edition items; plus 1913, 1888, 2003, 1962.

 

Note: Some dates for the Worcester Democrat are not available for November and December, 1924.  In lieu of our "100 Years Ago This Week" news we're publishing items from the newspaper's July, 1955 75th Anniversary Edition.  

V F W. AUXILARY CHARTER MEMBERS- Charter members of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 8622 are (left to right) front row: Mary P. Mapp, Mary Rantz, Doris East, Margaret Ardis, Gladys Wooster, Muriel Mazzo, President Nelda Maddox, Mary Wooster, Gladys Flemming, Virginia M. Tull. Back row: Dorothy Atkinson, Annie E. Maddox, Florence Mariner, Mildred Townsend, Edith M. Nash, Eleanor R. Bunting, Marjorie L. Cross, Hester M. Lane, Marie Rucker, Ruth Mariner, Post Commander E.L. Fleming.  Absent when the picture was taken are Ada McDaniel, Inez Melson, Emma Phillips, Myrtle Stant, June Coons, Marie B. Darby, Dorothy Davis, Frances Howard and Evelyn Hurley. 

(Willow Street Station)

October, 1913

Crisfield Times

March, 1888

Peninsula Enterprise

*August, 2003

Salisbury Daily Times

*March, 1962

The Evening Sun (Hanover, Pa.)

tkforppe@yahoo.com

Recollections from generations past. (Katherine S. Etchison- 3)

 

        

INTERVIEWER: Let me see. Something about your brothers and sisters.

KATHERINE: I had three brothers and two sisters. There was six of us. We had a very nice home. Our mother was always delighted for us to have friends to come in. She had parties for us. It was a house for everybody. I remember my sister said one time, she had this one person that came to see her so often, and I heard my sister say, “I wish she would stay home so I could go to see her.” She was always at our house. We had a very nice home.

INTERVIEWER: Did you raise your own food?

KATHERINE: No, not to any great extent.

INTERVIEWER: What were the businesses in town?

KATHERINE: I imagine they would like to know about the businesses that are not here now. They used to make barrels in Pocomoke, because the farmers shipped their potatoes in barrels, so they had a barrel factory. And they had a basket factory where they made baskets for the tomatoes. And that was at the Schoolfield Mill, and the Schoolfield Mill was out near the, it was on Clarke Avenue, where the first railroad station was, the early one. They had shipyards. In one shipyard that made boats, and I mean real sure enough boats. And they used to launch the boats and that was a big time in the town when they would launch a ship. Many times the ship that they’d launch reached the entire width of the river. I mean that was the size of the ship. They had lumberyards. They had a bottle factory at one time. I remember that when I was a little girl. Somebody was talking about it one day and they said, “I don’t ever remember a bottle factory.” And I said, “I do.” I remember I looked in the window one day and they were making bottles and bottles on kind of a belt, carrier belt. It was down on Clarke Avenue. I think when I was a child, I explored all the time, I mean I was always looking for something. My father had an ice cream manufacturing. He manufactured ice cream. He had a factory down on Railroad Avenue. There was a soft drink factory in Pocomoke. They had glass smiths. We had three glass smiths shops in Pocomoke. Of course, horses then. Automobiles changed all that. They had wheelwrights and cabinetmakers. I remember Mr. Farlow was a wheelwright. He had a shop. I used to, we lived not too far at that time to Mr. Farlow. And I used to go over to his shop in the morning and he would use a wood shaver, I guess you would call it, they would come out in curls, you know? And I used to pin the curls all around my face. They had a sausage manufacturing place, where they made sausage. The man’s name was George Johnson. They had oyster bars where men used to go in. I don’t think women ever went in an oyster bar in Pocomoke at that time. Where they just served not anything but oysters, serve them all different ways. They had a carriage factory in Pocomoke, where they made carriages. Livery stables. They had three livery stables. A millinery where they sold hats. Shoemakers, they had a bakery, and we had an electric plant right in Pocomoke where they made the electricity. The Presbyterian Church was the first church lighted by electricity, I think, on the shore, because the man that owned the electric plant was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and I think it was through him. We had millers, flour mills. Two flour mills where they made flour. And they had an ice plant. There are some of the things …

INTERVIEWER: It sounds like Pocomoke was pretty big.

KATHERINE: It was. I don’t think the population of Pocomoke has changed too much. At that time when I was growing up it was around three thousand. It’s four thousand now. It may be around four thousand, but I’m not sure.

INTERVIEWER: It sounds like there was more industry then than there is now.

KATHERINE: There were more industries. And people used to come to Pocomoke to shop from all the surrounding, all the area, the Virginia part of the Eastern Shore. Now the livery stables, we had five hotels in Pocomoke, and as I told you, three livery stables. And salesmen used to come down. Of course, the transportation then was train mostly. And they would come down on Monday and go to the hotel and stay. Then they would hire a horse and carriage from the livery stable and go down all the area around. But Pocomoke seemed to get most of those travelling men, instead of Snow Hill or Princess Anne. I think maybe it was because they fed them so well. But many of them came here. Our five hotels, we had the Parker House, the Clarke House, the Ford House, White Hotel and then there was a River Hotel down by the river. I don’t know who stayed there but it was a very low-class hotel. The River Hotel.

INTERVIEWER: Did you have a policeman or sheriff?

KATHERINE: We had one policeman. His name was Mr. Stroud. And Mr. Stroud also delivered ice.

INTERVIEWER: You must not have needed to be protected.

KATHERINE: We lived at Hartley Hall and one time, this one time in my life I remember. Everybody left home and looked around for a front door key so we could lock the door, and we didn’t have one. And we had to have one made. Our front door wasn’t locked for years and years and years, day or night. So, you can imagine…

INTERVIEWER: When you lived at Hartley Hall was that sort of out of town then?

KATHERINE: At one time when Dr. Murray wrote his history of Pocomoke, that was in 1840 something, I think. The boundary of Pocomoke, your church was in the country. Your church, the boundary started there. Linden Avenue that was all woods and swamp. We used to skate out there sometimes.  

INTERVIEWER: When the swamps were frozen?

KATHERINE: Because there was a little bit of water, but it was enough water to freeze, you know.

(Continues next Saturday here at The Pocomoke Public Eye.)

Anonymous

Katherine Etchison's family owned and operated a business, Stevens Dairy. One of their products was, of course, ice cream. Sometime in the late '50s or early '60s my father and grandfather purchased a 1936 or '37 six-wheel ice cream truck from Mr. Stevens with the idea of removing the freezer box and replacing it with a wooden grain body.

They used this truck successfully for many years, finally retiring it in the late '60s. Since I just started to drive I needed (wanted) a vehicle to drive to school. My family suggested that I could use the former ice cream truck since it still ran and would be free. The truck had a straight transmission, milk crates for seats and you could watch the road go by through the gaping holes in the floorboards. But it ran, and it was free!

I drove it to school most days and, after school, many of my classmates begged for me to give them a ride home or to the pharmacy in my rattletrap truck instead of riding with more affluent contemporaries in their newer and shinier vehicles.

October 31st marked Dan's final regular TV appearance-

 (WBOC)

DELMARVA - After 12 years with WBOC, Chief Meteorologist Dan Satterfield is officially retiring.

For more than a decade, award-winning Dan Satterfield has been the weather authority on Delmarva, keeping you in the know and prepared.

“Dan is among the top meteorologists in the country when it comes to television,” Draper Media President Craig Jahelka said.

Satterfield has been on location through hurricanes, blizzards, solar eclipses, and flares of the northern lights to keep neighbors on Delmarva - from Kent County, DE to Accomack County, VA - weather-aware and safe. He has alerted us to flash floods and tornado warnings, icy roads, and everything else Mother Nature has in store on the peninsula.

“We’ve heard from people who tell us that they think they’re alive today because of what Dan Satterfield and WBOC did to give them early warnings,” Jahelka continued.

Though retired to enjoy his love of family, photography, and travel, you can expect to see Dan on the air again - he has happily volunteered to fill in as meteorologist at WBOC when needed.

WBOC and all of Draper Media wish Dan a happy, fulfilling retirement and thank him for his years of service as Delmarva’s most trusted meteorologist. Thank you, Dan!

Halloween Costume Contest voting-

Congratulations to Downtown Pocomoke's Virtual Halloween Costume Contest Winners! Pictures were taken at the Annual Downtown Pocomoke Fall Festival & voted online by YOU, the public. Congratulations to the adorable children & creative parents. Happy Halloween!

1st Place - Cousin Eddie

2nd Place - Bingo

3rd Place - Beauty & the Beast

Fly to Orlando from Salisbury?

 (WBOC)

SALISBURY, MD - The Wicomico County Office of the Executive has announced new grant funding aimed at making flights from Salisbury to Orlando, Florida a reality.

(View news story:)

Salisbury to Orlando: New Flight Route Prepares for Takeoff in Wicomico County | Latest News | wboc.com

It was not that long ago that we had service from SBY to SFB (Sanford/Orlando) on Allegiant, about the lowest cost carrier around. Sanford in only 20 miles from Orlando and a lot closer to Daytona Beach.

This is a feel-good proposal, a waste of tax dollars and will last less than 12 months (if it ever gets started).

Your friend,

Slim

Worcester School Superintendent's statement-

 

As Superintendent of Worcester County Public Schools, I feel it is necessary to address the rhetoric and misinformation about our schools that is circulating throughout this election cycle. While candidates are entitled to their own opinions, I will not stand idly by while our students, teachers, and staff are attacked with hateful and inaccurate discourse.

(View Superintendent's letter:)

An Open Letter from Our Superintendent of Schools | WORCESTER COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Save the date.. December 6tth!

 

Pocomoke City Mayor Todd Nock & the Pocomoke City Council will light the town’s Christmas tree while guests roast s’mores by the bonfire & enjoy FREE refreshments.

Live entertainment & music onstage all night!

Children can decorate Christmas cookies, make a holiday ornament, and visit with Mr. & Mrs. Claus!

There will be a Holiday Wreath Silent Auction to raise money for the Boys & Girls Club! If interested in donating a wreath, please email karah@pocomokemd.gov - prizes awarded!

For more info, contact City Hall at 410-957-1333 x111.