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CharactersWay Back Machine

Albert Jackson: How a Man Born into Slavery in Milford, Del. Became a Hero in Canada

Up in Toronto, Canada, there is a street in a residential neighborhood called Albert Jackson Lane. Downtown, on Lombard Street, there is a historical marker describing why Albert Jackson's life should be celebrated by Torontonians. The honors that Mr. Jackson has received up north go beyond those city limits--the Canadian postal service has issued a stamp in his honor. Why does this matter on a…
July 30, 2020
CharactersWay Back Machine

The Legend of Gilbert Lare, aka “The Del-Mar-Va Bandit” of the 1930s

The criminal career of Gilbert Lare, aka "The Del-Mar-Va Bandit,” began with a seemingly minor affair. Wilmington News Journal, Dec. 27, 1926: Gilbert Lare, a young man of , was arrested by Constable Thomas Nichols breaking into store on South Main Street Wednesday night and removing two slot machines. … The machines were found early the following morning along the river shores, broken up, and…
June 30, 2020
CharactersWay Back Machine

How Capt. Edward Trippe Launched the Steamboat Revolution

In tumultuous times, we sometimes miss the forest for the trees. Wartime news ruled the day during the summer of 1813. Nearly 40 British ships prowled the Chesapeake Bay. The bad guys burned a pair of Maryland towns, Fredericktown and Georgetown, and attacked another, St. Michaels. A vessel named Chesapeake dominated newspaper headlines that June--she was a U.S. Navy frigate captured by the bad guys…
June 28, 2020
CharactersWay Back Machine

‘The most remarkable man I had ever seen:’ John Hunn, Delaware’s Warrior for Freedom

If I could commune with the dead of Delmarva, one soul I would definitely want to call out is John Hunn, a great warrior for freedom during the days of slavery. He was a key player—the “superintendent,” as he once described it—along an Underground Railroad line the ran through central and northern Delaware. Precise numbers are impossible to pin down, but it’s likely that Hunn…
June 24, 2020
CharactersWay Back Machine

St. Michaels Character of the Day: The Crazy Life of James Michener, Millionaire & Cheapskate

This is an excerpt from Eastern Shore Road Trips #2: 26 MORE One-Day Adventures on Delmarva. At the end of each trip in the book, there is a postscript section that tells a bit of historical or natural lore attached to the trip. This is at the end of the chapter about visiting St. Michaels, Md. By the time Chesapeake was published in June of…
June 10, 2020
CharactersDelmarva WisdomWay Back Machine

When Accomac, Va. Put the Baptist in Jail, 1778

This excerpt from Eastern Shore Road Trips #2: 26 MORE One-Day Adventures on Delmarva comes from a trip centered on Accomac, the seat of Accomack County, Va. The town played an important role in the life of the preacher Elijah Baker (1742 to 1798), who helped get the then-fledgling Baptist faith off the ground and spreading through America. The most famous structure on the square…
May 30, 2020
CharactersDelmarva WisdomWay Back Machine

Character of the Day: The Delaware Housewife Who Invented the Modern Chicken Industry

As a deeply religious young woman, Cecile Long Steele probably didn’t let loose with a string of curse words when the delivery truck driver showed up at her farm that day in 1923. Cecile had ordered 50 baby chicks, but the deliveryman had 500 chicks instead. This being 1923, Cecile couldn’t call or text customer service to sort out this mix-up on the spot. The…
May 28, 2020
CharactersWay Back Machine

A Whaleyville Wonder: How Delmarva’s Dale Wimbrow Made a Difference in the World

What was Dale Wimbrow thinking on the day in 1934 when he put those words on paper? He could not have known in that moment how his words would spread in the decades that followed like inspirational wildfire, giving strength to hundreds, then thousands, and then millions of men and women as they stood up to life’s challenges. Those words are still doing good works…
May 23, 2020
CharactersFrom the BooksRoad TripsWay Back Machine

JOURNEYS: The British Teenager Left Behind to Live with the Indians in 1608

Every chapter in my book, Eastern Shore Road Trips 2: 26 More One-Day Adventures on Delmarva, is a mix of fun places to visit and interesting stories from days gone by. This free excerpt is from one of the road trips set on the Eastern Shore of Virginia--the book also includes lots of trips in Delaware and on Maryland's Eastern Shore, of course. Thanks for…
May 3, 2020
CharactersWay Back Machine

A Delmarva Town’s Unlikely Love Affair with a Chinese Laundryman, Early 1900s

Judging by their last names, the men who climbed into a "large touring car" and left Cambridge, Md. on a Wednesday in late May of 1910 hailed from the upper crust of Dorchester County society. There is a Mount Rushmore aspect to the collection of surnames--Brannock, Hopkins, Hearn, and Willey. All those families loom large in local lore and civic leadership across the centuries. We…
April 29, 2020