The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1922-09-30
TRICKS CITIES
into OBLIVION
Prosperity and Activity of Early
Days fastened Decay of
Once Noted Ports.
NOW ARE DESERTED VILLAGES
Erosion of Land, Due to Cultivation,
Fills Once Navieable Streams and
Despoils Soil Of Its 1
Fertility.

80 $500
time immemorial. The usual cause:
are military and economic. Carthage
one of the greatest cities of early
times. was utterly destroyed after the
Punic wars waged by the Romans. Vir
ginia City. New, was deserted because
the mining industry which made |
a substantial municipality lapsed upon
the exhaustion of the lode. But here
in the East is a group of cities which
have fallen from their previous impor
tance by the operation of the forces
of nature.
The great mass of the people of the
United States, being distributed sc
widely ove the expanse of the new
territory of the West, lacks the envir'
onment TO create a realization of the
| antiquity of the Eastern section. 1t IL
difficult for the man in Chicago to
realize that the eastern Americans
have lived on this soil for as long a
period under the British flag as under
the American-that the period extend
ing from the first settlement of the
eastern seaboard up to the American
Revolution was as long as that from
the Revolution to the present day.
Prosperity Saps Life.
More than three centuries of human
occupation bring about curious
changes in the habitations of men,
When the country was first settled the
soil was virgin and for the most part
covered with dense forests. The pio-
neers built their primitive houses on
the banks of streams because the
streams were their easiest roadways,
They felled the trees and planted their
corn and tobacco and, in the course of
years, ports sprang up by the water
side and became thriving cities. The
farms reached farther and farther
back into the wilderness, large areas
being cleared of timber.
Southern Maryland furnishes an ex'
cellent example of such development
Its soil Is loamy and was extremely
fertile. As, year after year, the gently
rolling hillsides were plowed, the soil
was loosened and the rain of each
year washed it down into the streams.
Three centuries of this erosion gradu-
ally have filled up the streams. The
riverside and bayside cities which once
throve IN the shipping of the products
of the farm did not keep up with the
erosion of the land. The result was
that the streams filled year by year
until the channels were clogged and
what once were noble waterways now
are narrow creeks.
Soil and Streams Ruined.
This erosion, which was despoiling
the rivers, the highways of commerce,
also was washing off the rich, fertile
top soil. Therefore the land which
produced the crops, the object of com
merce, disappeared in company with
the streams. It was inevitable that
the cities should decline with both
their means of commerce and the com
modities of commerce taken away by
this operation of natural forces set In
motion by the pillow.
When the Romans took Carthage
tlieN lOlt uOMn Int DullllISSs coNC
salt upon the site and plowed it under.
The lost cities of southern Maryland
no less have been plowed under. There
are three excellent examples of these
places, B~ladensburg, Port Tobacco and
Piscataway.
Bladensburg was a port to the
wharves of which came great mer-
chant ships from England that sailed
up the Potomac and followed its east
ern branch to the port which was a
city long before Washington was ever
planned. Today no craft larger than
a small motorboat can get up as far as
Bladensburg and, after a dry spell,
even such a small boat is likely to
ground.
Thriving Port Near Extinction.
Bl%adensburg was a thriving port OF
entry, Il great tobacco shipping point
Ii boosted hotels and warehouses and
numerous beautiful colonial mansions,
several of which still stand. Today ii
is IA village of small population and
probably would have disappeared al
together were 1t not for the fact that
1t Is nea Washington.
Probably the most interesting Of the
lost cities is Port Tobacco. Old maps
of Maryland show this place marked
with the large star Or circle as indi-
eating an important center. Mary
ianders lean strongly on tradition and
even today the maps show Port To
eacco as a s~econd-class city. Not more
than three families live there.
Port Tobacco, obviously, was n OF
the busiest of the tobacco exporting
points. 1t stood on an estuary of the
Potomac. From it radiated the roads
peculiar to southern Maryland, roads
ovex which the planters rolled their
huge hogsheads Of tobacco, Its court
house was the pride of that section.
It's hotel was the social center of the
country. In its public square was a
marble fountain and its warehouses
occupied wide spaces. 1t was al i'm.
portant colonial port. Today 1t is not
a port nj all. There is no water al
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