The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-05-25


debtors and runatoay servants into consid
GRAFTON, and enacted law obliging all per-
sons, who intended to leave the province,
to give three months notice of their inten-
ton to do So by atlixing a notice to that
effect upon the door of the court house in
the county where they lived, after which,
if no persons objected, they were to be
furnished with passes. The act recites the
fact that" Whereas, several ill-minded
people, inhabiting and residing at the head
the head of the bay and SusqueAanna riuer
being either felons, debtors or runaway
servants from the more remote parts of this
province for some small advantage they
goods, or apparel, as such persons SO alb
sentng or flying from justice aforesaid
have with them generally money, goods or
apparel, by them feloniously purloined from
their masters and other owners; therefore
it is enacted that no person shall be allowed
to transport any one not having a pass over
the said Susquehanna river or head of the
bay north of the Sassafras river, unless
tices of the county where they formerly
resided, certifying that they were freemen."
This is probably the first enactment in
reference to the underground railroad that
was made in the legislation of the colo
MES. The servants referred to were gen.
orally white servants, and it was not till
many years after this, when slavery was
abolished in the Northern States, that the
slaves of Maryland and the Southern States
availed themselves of its use.
1t is probable that the ferry at the mouth
of the Susquehanna was the only one across
that stream at this time. A few years after
wards Thomas Cresap was proprietor of
ferry near where Port Deposit now stands;
this, for long time afterwards, in contra
distinction to the one at the mouth of the
river, was called the Upper ferry. This
man Cresap is believed to have been
Catholic, and probably the first settlers
along the Susquehanna were members of
the same denomination. In 1927, Richard
Touchstone was proprietor of Mount Ara
rat; he states in a petition, presented to
the court in that year, that he was then
seventy years of age and had served the
country forty-three years. He, no doubt,
is the man whose wife, tradition says, sup
piled George Talbot with food when he
took refuge in the cave, which was at the
base of the Mount Ararat. He certainly
was in the county at the time that Talbot
was in the cave, and the tradition is not
improbable.
The Jesuits, very early in the history of
the colony, had a missionary station, called
priesthood, on the west side of the Susque
hanna, on Deer creek, and a short distance
from its junction with the Susquehanna.
In 1913 two Capuchin Friars came to Mary
land; one or both of them are supposed to
have gone to priesthood, and in some way
to have been connected with, and gave
their names to, "Bald Friar " ferry, which
is still further up the river, and only
short distance south of the State line.
Thomas Cresap was very prominent man
in the early history of the county, and
took an active part in the troubles which
grew out of the disputed boundary between
Cecil and Chester and Lancaster counties.
He appears to have been quite as Jealous
in the service of Lord Baltimore as George
Talbot, and while he seems to have pos
nNh In ha
probably had less discretion and much less
education. The old book, in which the
petitions are recorded, that were presented
to the court for period of about fifteen
years, beginning with 1919, is in itself "a
part from the curious petitions it contains,
in which are concentrated more of the his
tory of this period than we have met with
any where else) great curiosity. We in
back of it, that it was sold by "James
Mariner at the pillow, in Fenchurch street
1--WE believe in London), stationer, that
maketh all sorts of merchants books and
shop books, and selleth all sorts of paper,
ink and quilts, wax and waters, and all
stationer's wares" From a petition pre-
sented to the court in 1929, and recorded
in this book, we learn that the old chapel,
of St. Mary AIMS Parish at North East.
was at that time but recently built. Two
years later, in 1881, the inhabitants of Sus-
quehanna upper ferry petition for road
from the ferry toward Philadelphia They
say the ferry was much used by the lower
Inhabitants of this province, and there was
nothing but small paths by which to reach
it. They, therefore, prayed for this road
to "extend towards Philadelphia as far as
the jurisdiction of this court doth extend"
The inhabitants of the county about this
period became much interested in the sub
ject Of roads, and many of the most i'm
portant ones in the county were laid out.
This was especially the case with the peo-
pie along the Susquehanna.
The same year some of the uppermost
inhabitants of Cecil county on Susquehanna
river present petition, which sheweth
that ferry is kept at a place called the
Upper Ferry and merchants mill near by
at a place called Rock Ran, which place
being the nearest navigable water that any
vessel of any considerable burden can come
up to, to which place they were obliged to
roll their tobacco, in order TO be shipped
off," they, therefore, pray for road from
Peach Bottom to the said Rock Run mill,
aud from there to the said ferry place.
The petition was granted and Randall
Death was appointed overseer of the road.
Many of these people, no doubt, resided
several miles north of where Mason and
Dixon's line was afterwards located
Wagons and other wheeled conveyances
were scarce in the early days of the colony;
indeed OK carts, which were quite common
few years ago, were very rare and scarce
at the time of the Revolutionary war. For
want of better method the early settlers
were in the habit of rigging their hogs
heads in such a manner that they could
hitch n horse to them and roll them to the