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Way Back Machine

Stories about the way things were on the Delmarva Peninsula–the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and Delaware.

A Proposal on Holland Island
Quote of the Day

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Rev. Joshua Thomas Proposes to the ‘Ugliest Woman in the World.’

    Ladies, is this the perfect time for a marriage proposal, or what? That question certainly popped into my head while reading up on Rev. Joshua Thomas during the work I did for my book, “Eastern Shore Road Trips: 27 One-Day Adventures on Delmarva.” Thomas was the famed “Parson of the Islands,” of course, and he traveled the Bay in a log canoe called…
July 8, 2016
Cape Charles Light off of the Eastern Shore of Virginia
Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day: The Terrible Scourge That Halted Work on the Cape Charles Lighthouse, 1895

There is a second Smith Island off of the Eastern Shore, with the lesser-known one shown here located all the way down by the mouth of the Bay. It's home to the Cape Charles Lighthouse, which is pretty as can be but just about impossible to go visit. Between the shifting sandbars and the tricky tides, the landing on uninhabited Smith Island is supposedly a…
June 28, 2016
Moonshine in Greenbackville and Franklin City
Quote of the Day

QUOTE OF THE DAY: A Moonshine Moment in Greenbackville

    The book “Voices of the Chincoteague” is built around oral-history memories of folks whose families lived in Greenbackville and Franklin City during boomtimes for those towns back in the day. Franklin City is gone now. Greenbackville is still there, right on on the Chincoteague Bay at the Maryland/Virginia line. When Prohibition became law, most of the women of the community applauded. On the other…
June 23, 2016
Crab Pickers on the Eastern Shore of Maryland
Quote of the Day

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Never before had seen a crab. No, they didn’t know what to do with it.’

    Local crab houses first started bringing in Mexican migrants as crabpickers in the early 1990s. A few years in, the historian Virginia Jenkins conducted a slew of interviews at Eastern Shore seafood houses to try and get a handle on how everything was going. Here is one thing she learned: Traditionally , women have taught their children or other family members how to…
June 13, 2016
Eastern Shore Quote of the Day: The Milkman
Quote of the Day

QUOTE OF THE DAY: The Cape Charles Milkman Remembers-“That Horse’s Name Was Frank”

    History lovers in Cape Charles, Virginia rounded up some grant money a few years back and conducted oral history interviews with some older residents there. Here is David Mitchell, remembering his days of delivering milk aboard a horse-drawn carriage through Cape Charles. At an early age my Uncle Jesse had me working. He used to do a little gardening and he would sell butter beans…
June 5, 2016
Oyster Dredging on the Eastern Shore
Quote of the Day

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Chesapeake Oystermen, 1887: “One of the Most Depraved Bodies of Workmen in the Country”

This is from a report by the federal government written in 1887, at the height of the craziest and most violent oyster boomtimes that the Eastern Shore has ever seen. And hey, Somerset County, when you get to the end here, I am thinking that the writer is talking about you as the rare "respectable" and "honorable" exception to the rule--congrats! VERY STRICT PROTECTIVE LAWS…
May 30, 2016
Map with Humphrey's Lake in Salisbury on Maryland's Eastern Shore
From the BooksWay Back Machine

How a Construction Mishap Back in 1909 Helped Create Modern-Day Salisbury

This excerpt from Eastern Shore Road Trips #1: 27 One-Day Adventures on Delmarva is comes in the midst of a road trip through Salisbury, starting on the east at the Ward Museum and then running through City Park and into downtown and its Riverwalk. Do you see that giant kidney-shaped thing at the top of this old map of downtown Salisbury? That is the 40-acre Humphrey's Lake that…
May 24, 2016
Eastern Shore Painting: Maryland Crabpickers by Ruth Starr Rose
CharactersWay Back Machine

The “Socialite” Whose Art Celebrates the Life of Eastern Shore African Americans Back in the Day

The story of Ruth Starr Rose is full of bold and interesting turns. Born in the Midwest in 1887, she moved to the Eastern Shore at twentyish years old when her parents bought a dilapidated wreck of a mansion called Hope House in Talbot County. The place was chock full of history—members of the Lloyd and Tilghman families had called it home in the 1700s—but by…
January 17, 2016