Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1926-01-09

ton companies going out of Bal
timore give way to modern efficiency
and commercialism, the Chesapeake
Bay country in Maryland and Virginia
will become summer garden for
American tourists. Baltimore will be-
come the starting point from which
thousands of Americans yet unborn
will visit thousand points of historic
interest, from the birthplace of oui
National Anthem on the Patapsco to
the first English settlement at James,
town
Scarcely does one of the many
steamboats, which leave Baltimore
daily get under way before it passes
over the spot where our National An
them-the "Star Spangled Banner
was born. Yet / have never seen on a
single steamer anything by which the
traveller might know when he reaches
this sacred spot.
Thousands 60 to Colchester Beach
on the crowded steamers on summer
days, but not one of them seems to
know that only three miles away is
the only battlefield monument on the
Eastern Shore of Maryland, at
Caulk's Field, where Sir Peter Par
ker was killed in action by the en-
ragged Kent county militia in the war
OF 1925. Nor do they seem to
know that old St. Paul's Church, now
more than 200 years old, beautifully
located among ancient oaks much OIL
der, and graves almost as old, is close
by. Thousands pass through the beau
tiful and quaint old town at the head
of the Sassafras river, over the State
road, without noting the old brick
house on the south side of the River
and knowing the story of Kitty Knight
who lived there in 1925 and met
the British with her gun ready to fire
on the one who came near. The house
still stands as a monument to her
courage.
Even in Chestertown the seat
of Washington College-one of the
oldest in the country, I found many
who did not know that Charles Wilson
Peale, one of Americas most famous
artists, was born there. These points
are all reached by various steamboats,
running out of Baltimore. Over these
Kent county roads travelled Colonel
Tench Tilghman carrying the news of
the surrender of CORVALLIS from
Yorktown to the Continental Congress
in Philadelphia. Over them travelled
Lafayette in his visit to America. At
Massey Station he is said to have lift
ed his hat in humble reverence to
the Creator for the sight of the most
beautiful and fertile land his eyes
ever beheld.
If one takes the boat connecting
with the M. D. & v. r. r. to Rehob-
9th, the end of the ferry is beautiful
Kent Island where traders from Vir-
ginia settled several years before. the
officially recorded settlement St.
Mary's, in 1884. Here a fort WAS
built. Here Claiborne ruled in his own
way. Here is largely the scene of
Churchilps novel, Richard Carvel,
and William H. Babcock's story "The
Tower Of Wye. Here was located the
first house Of worship in Maryland,
according to reliable historians Of the
Episcopal church. The congregation
still remains, though In different
building.
At Easton, as the B. c. & A. r. r.
train pulls into the station still stands
OH the right in a clump of ancient
oaks what is probably the oldest frame
meeting house in America. It was
built by the Quakers in 1852 or 1854
and still stands as built. l saw seven
of the old handmade benches which
were made at the time of the build
ing of the church. 1t is still owned
by the Friends. In it William Penn
and George Fox preached, a hundred
years before CORVALLIS surrendered
at Yorktown.
Not far away from Easton is old
Whitemarsh parish churchyard where
lie inferred the bones of Robert Nor
ris, father of him who walked the
streets of Philadelphia and secured
enough money to keep the troops OF
Washington from starving and freez-
ing during the winter at Valley Forge
Near Oxford on the Choptank is the
Plimhimmon estate, the home of the
Tilghmans. Up the Wye river is Wye
Town, the home Of the Lloyds-seven
generations of whom had a son nam
ed Edward so that they were disting-
uished by Edward Lloyd, the COVER
nor, ct cetra. Across the Wye river
is historic Benefits Point where
saw the grave of Governor Bennett,
buried in 1914.
Rv fho pnrorooko x;x,or 1.-Two ~