Evening star., 1948-04-19
$50 Form Port Tobacco Society
To Restore 18th Century Town

Mulberry IrOVe, now TeDullI, scat
of John Hanson, last president OF
the Continental Congress, and Plen-
ty, now the home of George I Gar
diner, jr., another society director.
More than half of the land once
occupied by Port Tobacco is owned
by George Wade, treasurer OF
Charles County. Although the ori-
ginal Wade House in which Mr.
Wade was born is now torn down
he lives at Port Tobacco in home
more than century old.
When the old Port Tobacco homes
disappeared, he bought the lots for
farm land. A member of the soci-
ETY., Mr.. Wade said he will release
the land if the society makes any
real progress toward the restoration
of the town.
Once An Indian Village.
Port Tobacco was an Indian vii
.lage when Lord Baltimore's first
colonists sailed up the Potomac
in 1884, and the Indians there were
among the first in the area to be
converted to'Christianity. Is Z
The 5lsaM Teceived4 4largea land
grants in the vicinity. Chandler
Hope, built by Job Chandler in
1899, was used as the first nunney
in English-speaking America, until
Mount cafup@ vas built four miles
lp thesvalley III f796. " q *afs
Y When settlers who had been
granted large tracts in the area
began to prosper in the tobacco
trade, the little town grew up
The creek was navigable and the
town became an important port on
the Potomac. But Port Tobacco
was not named for the trade that
made it famous. The name is a
corruption of that of the original
Indian settlement, Potopaco.
In 1858, it became the seat OF
Charles County. 1t was rival OF
the provincial capital in st. Marys
had two large churches. several inns
and a busy courthouse, and was
stopping place for the travelling
theaters of the day.
Town Mile From Creek
After the American Revolution
however, Port Tobacco's influence
began to decline. The sitting up OF
the creek already had commenced
to hamper shipping. Eventually
it made Port Tobacco an INLAND
town as it is today-more than 8
mile from the creek estuary.
Port Tobacco again came to thu
front in history during the Civi
War. A sympathizer with tht
South, 1t was the center Of con.
spiracy to abduct President Lincoln
in 1865, and a boat was moored ir
Port Tobacco Creek to carry th'
President into Confederate terri
tory Possibly the same boat alst
awaited John Wilkes Booth aftel
he assassinated Lincoln. Bootf
was hidden in the vicinity of Por
Tobacco.
It was the railroad and figh
over the courthouse that EVENTUAL.
killed Port Tobacco. When thu
railroad was built about 1868 it rar
through La Plata, then a mer,
crossroads. The residents of Ii
Plata urged that the courthouse b,
moved there. but in 1892 Charlie
County citizens voted to keep th'
courthouse where it always had beer
where such men as Roger Taney
William Pinckney and William Wir
had argued their cases.
Then, in 1893, the courthouse
burned down. 1t was charged tina
it was set afire by the La Plat,
group. At any rate, La Plata won
and the new courthouse was bull
there. Christ Church was moved
stone by stone from Port Tobacco Il
La Plata. The old homes gradual,
disintegrated, and from town o.
more than 500 inhabitants, Por
Tobacco has dwindled now to five
white and four colored families.
But its future looks brighter If the
Society for the Restoration of Port
Tobacco is successful.