The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1903-02-28

slight allusion to the soldiers and Il tradi-
tion about the vessel, nothing more is
known of either
In 1888 vacancy occurred in the
Board of Commissioners, which was fill
ed by the election of Rev. John Hamil-
ton, who was at that time rector Of
North Elk Parish. There is reason to
believe THAT many of the early Commits
sioners of the town did not reside in it,
though they We're probably the owners of
town lots. This year John Smith was
sued for rent Of the fair ground, which
he rented two years before In 1850 the
Commissioners contracted with Philip
Nelson to repair the public wharf. They
were to pay him 10 shillings currency
per day, he finding two good workmcn
beside himself and to vichial them (Which
Hans Rudulph engaged to do at Is. per
day cacM, and allow them half pint
of rum II day. y return made by the
Constable this year. which is to be found
among the papers in possession of the
County commissioners, shows that there
were three two-whcelcd carriages in
tharleStown ut this time, one of which
belonged to Rev. John Hamilton. These
od-faslrioned two-whccled carriages were
sometimes called chairs" The whole
number of these carriages returned in the
county in 1857 was thirty-four. Five
years afterwards they had increased to
fortytivc. In 1861 the Commissioners
ordered that the rent of each pcddlcr's
stall and drinking booth, when rented by
citizens of the town should not exceed IS.
The records of the Commissioners show
that the keeper of the store-house, dur
ing the years from 1749 to 1854, had fail
ed to account for two hundred and fifty
hogshcadS that had been stored in it.
In other words, he was Il defaulter to
the extent of E12h.
The levy list for 176S shows that the
taXablcs, as returned by the Constable
for that year, numbered cighty-nne, of
whom twelve were negro slaves. The
whole population of the town at this
time was probably about three hundred
and fifty. In I'LL the taNablcS number
I'd one hundred and two, of whom seven
teen Were slaves. In 177I they numbered
ninctr-two, of whom eleven We're slaves.
In each of these years, the Rev John
Hamilton is returned as one of the tax
ablcS and the owner of one of the slaves
of tn" same age. and for Il long time
after tn" former WAS laid out they were
rivals. and continued to be such until
about the time Of the Revolutionary War
when the latter, owing to the trade with
he western part of the State and the
superior facilities for foreign commerce,
outStrppcd the former. and it gradually
sank into obScurity and neglect. Many
of the inhabitants who had erected sub
Stantial houses in Charlcstown tore them
down and shipped the material to Balti-
more, where it was used in the construct
ion of other buildings: thus the success
full rival gained what the unsuccessful
one lost and rs the one diminished, the
other increased in size.
1t seems proper in this connection TO
notice an error or two into which Mr..
Scharf has inadvertently fallen in his
History of Maryland. when writing Of
Charlcstown, ''of which," he says. mo
vestigc now remains, unless possibly a
chimney or two. but of which the story
is told that about 1850 II British mer-
| chant having some money to invest and
full of faith in the Maryland province,
came over in person to select the place to
put his money where it would turn over
most rapidly. He examined Annapolis,
Baltimore. ChcStertown, Elkrdge and
Oxford. and after mature dcliberation,
put his money in town lots in Charles
town, as the most promising site of all
the great cities of the future" Unfor-
turatcly for the truth of this scrap of
history Charlestown, by the census of
1881, contains 235 inhabitants, As dwell
ing houses. Il church and school house,