The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1934-03-23
PRECAUTIONARY DEDICATION
AT ST. CLEMENTS
Immense Cross To Mark Landing OF
States First Settlers 800
Years Ago


lie and the Protestant Episcopal
churches will participate will be held
at st. Clements Island on March rs
Palm Sunday-to observe the
three hundredth anniversary Of the
landing on Maryland soil Of the first
settlers of Maryland.
The exact date upon which Leon
ard Calvert, the first Governor, and
his fellow voyagers aboard The Ark
and the Dove put foot on the island
never has been definitely determin-
ed. 1t is known positively to have
been in March 1884, and probably
was quite close to the twenty-ffth,
since the two boats in which the
Journey from England was trade set
sail from jamestown March 8, and
before arriving at st. Clements had
sailed up the Potomac almost as far
as the present site of Washington,
where they paused to explore little,
before disembarking.
1t was on the twenty-fifth, how
ever, the first of the year, old style,
that the first recorded ceremony of
the Maryland palatinate took place.
In honor of the Annunciatlon, mass
was celebrated on the little island
whose sloping shores and meagre
size make it impractical as site for
a permanent settlement, cross was
erected and Governor Calvert and
his Catholic followers recitei Titan
les with great emotion"
The name, st. Clements, was be-
slowed upon the Island by Father
White, one of the Jesuit missionaries
who had accompanied the settlers
and whose Relation of Maryland
constitutes all that is known about
the voyage across the Atlantic and
activities of the colony during it's
earliest days.
Appeared A Wonderland
After almost four months Of BATH
ing with the Atlantic during which
they encountered incipient mutiny
on the part of the sailors, terrific
storm, fever and death, had been
done" by profiteers in the Barba-
does and-unless their diet differed
materially from that of other ocean
travellers of the time-had break
tasted, dined and supped daily ON
cheese-the first Marylanders, as
personified by Father White, found
their new home vertible wonder
land.
The river and woods alike ELECTED
tribute from the States earliest his
torian. The former, he wrote, were
not disfgured by swamps, as he
seems to have expected TO find them,
but showed firm land" On the
banks. In the forests, he chronicle
ed fine groves of trees appear, not
choked with briers or bushes and
underground, but growing at inter-
walls as if planted by the hand of
man so that you can drive four
horse carriage wherever you choose
through the midst of the trees
The arrival at St. Clements will
be permanently memoralized by a
cross forty feet high standing upon
an octagonal base four feet high.
On it, in relief, will be the inscrip-
ton, est. Clements Island" in let
ters of bronze
The services on Palm Sunday will
be in charge of the St. Mary's coun-
! ty tertentenary committee. Among
the churchmen expected to partici-
pate are Archbishop Michael ]. Cur
ley, Bishop Freeman, of Washing
ton; Bishop Helfenstein, of Balti-
Phillips, d. D., of Fordham. N Y,
provincial of the Jesuit Order in the
United States.
Governor Richie and members of
the Tercentenary Commission will
proceed to St. Clements from St.
Marys City abroad one OF the State
steamers. Local craft, boats of the
Conservation Department and the
Naval Proving Ground will assist in
ferrying visitors from the mainland
to the island.
This will be the first outdoor cele-
bration arranged by the Tecentenary
Commission, the next important
event scheduled for St. Mary's coun-
ty being the pageant and regatta to
be held June 20. This is expected
to attract throngs of visitors from
all parts of the country and is being
lplanned jointly by the Commission
ond the St. Mary's county centenary
COMMITTEE. Preparations for it
were begun several years ago with
tho oneninQ nv the State Eoads Com