The Caroline County Historical Society
Your $10 donation takes just a minute.
Your generosity sustains our work.
Caroline History & Culture Events
Anna Murray Douglass Presentation
Dr. Celeste-Marie Bernier presentation. Brought to you by the Frederick Douglass Society of Easton, Caroline County Public Libraries, and the Caroline County Historical Society.
Friday Night Collectibles
Enjoy an hour of sharing antique fire memorabilia from the collection of Fred Spence – with Cathy Spence and Cameron Wynn. November 10, 5:30-6:30 pm.
Paranormal Night at Linchester Mill
Invitation to a Special Fundraising Event October 30-31, 8 PM to 3 AM Spend a night with Caroline County Paranormal for their return investigations of Historic Linchester’s buildings of the 18oo’s. Hear local history and stories of the Mill and a Linchester home near...
Hear Our Stories

Leaders for Freedom & Civil Rights
Bishop Alexander W. Wayman, founding AME Bishop, was raised in Tuckahoe Neck. Underground Railroad conductors Daniel Hubbard and Arthur Leverton barely escaped lynching. The parents of William Still, “Father of the Underground Railroad”, were born into slavery near the Choptank River. James H. Webb, a free black, farmed here before the Civil War.

Courageous & Creative Women
Nettie Dean Carter, prominent teacher, suffragette, and businesswoman – a century ahead of her time. Enolia McMillan, NAACP’s first woman president, started her teaching career in Denton. Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad ran through the heart of Caroline County. Anna Murray of Tuckahoe Neck helped Frederick Douglass escape north before they married and raised a family.

War Heroes
Capt. Quentin Walsh, USCG, captured the French seaport that secured D-Day. 2LT Louise Hollister was Maryland’s only Army Nurse casualty in WWII. Col. Peter Adams commanded Maryland troops at Yorktown. Col. William Richardson, “Father of Caroline County”, also saved the Continental Treasury from the British. Cpl. William H. Carney, 38th US Colored Troops, was laid to rest at Union Church after the Civil War.

Everyday Citizens
Captain C.C. Wheeler was illiterate yet built and operated a successful steamboat line. George Swartz and his mule loaded sailing vessels in West Denton in the 1930s. The Two Johns were vaudeville actors whose riverside theater scandalized the locals. Georgist Tax Rebels planned a colony at Gilpin Point. Robert Jacobs was a modern blacksmith at age 14.
Historic Buildings Preservation
William Still Center – a U.S. National Park Service Network to Freedom Historic Site
We are honored that the William Still Family Interpretive Center has been accepted as a U.S. National Park Service Network to Freedom historic site.Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony was Monday, May 23, 2022 The William Still Family Interpretive Center and Historic Site Caroline...
Help us preserve the 1802 Tuckahoe Neck Quaker Meetinghouse
Donate to save the Meetinghouse. It takes just a minute.The Tuckahoe Neck Quaker Meetinghouse was built in 1802. The building was later used by the "Dunkards" as a place of worship and a school. The Committee for the Preservation of the Tuckahoe Neck Quaker...
Underground Railroad House (c. 1820) to be Available to the Public
The Society documented the dwelling in 2005 for the National Park Service as the only surviving UGRR station house on the Eastern Shore. It was then placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The UGRR network that operated here was run by Quakers and free...
The Historic Landscape of Caroline County
Caroline County Mapped: 1670-1950
Historical Maps from the David Rumsey Collection Maryland's Eastern Shore and what later became Caroline County were first mapped by Augustine Hermann in 1670. Many of the maps which show the Eastern Shore since 1670 have been preserved and digitized by the David...
1897 is a Certified True Copy of the Original
We can see the Caroline County landscape in 1897, thanks to the efforts of two county citizens working 72 years apart. I found no reference to M. L. Saulsbury's mapmaking in the Denton Journal around 1897. So I'm not sure why this map was made. And I haven't seen an...
Segregated White Schools
The Historic Landscape of Caroline CountyWe identified historically segregated white schools in the Choptank River Heritage area, primarily by georeferencing the 1875 Isler and 1897 Saulsbury maps of Caroline County. In the map shown on this page, use the toggle at...
Segregated White Churches
The Historic Landscape of Caroline CountyWe identified historically segregated white churches in the Choptank River Heritage area, primarily by georeferencing the 1875 Isler and 1897 Saulsbury maps of Caroline County. In the map shown on this page, use the toggle at...
Segregated Black Schools
The Historic Landscape of Caroline CountyWe identified historic black schools in the Choptank River Heritage area, primarily by georeferencing the 1875 Isler and 1897 Saulsbury maps of Caroline County. In the map shown on this page, use the toggle at the upper left to...
Sawmills and Grist Mills
The Historic Landscape of Caroline CountyWe identified and mapped the historic locations of sawmills and grist mills in the Choptank River Heritage area, primarily by georeferencing the 1875 Isler and 1897 Saulsbury maps of Caroline County. In the map shown on this...
River Landings and Railroad Stations
The Historic Landscape of Caroline CountyWe identified river landings and railroad stations in the Choptank River Heritage area, primarily by georeferencing the 1875 Isler and 1897 Saulsbury maps of Caroline County. In the map shown on this page, use the toggle at the...
Post Offices
The Historic Landscape of Caroline County We identified historic post office locations in the Choptank River Heritage area, primarily by georeferencing the 1875 Isler and 1897 Saulsbury maps of Caroline County. Below the map are lists of post offices which appear in...
Towns, Crossroads, and Named Settlements
The Historic Landscape of Caroline CountyWe identified these named settlements in the Choptank River Heritage area: Crossroads Houses Immigrant Settlements Native American Settlements Plantations Towns We identified these sites primarily by georeferencing the 1875...
Museum Exhibits
Taylor-Brown House
Built for merchant-broker Solomon Brown in 1819 and later owned by the Taylors, an African American family. This house was moved twice by mule cart and survived the fire that leveled most of Denton on July 4, 1865, when balls of candlewick and kerosene were flung in celebration at a Civil War reconciliation picnic.
Painter’s Range
One-room dwellings were so common at the end of the 18th century that they housed roughly 85% of the inhabitants of southern Delaware and the lower Shore. They became less popular by the mid 1800s. By the time the log dwelling was built on Painter’s Range about 1828, one-room houses in rural areas were associated with “subsistence farmers”; i.e., a family scratching out a living on fifteen to thirty acres.
Chance’s Desire
Typical home of a “middling planter,” circa 1787, Chance’s Desire was a classic hall-parlor dwelling in which there were two rooms aligned end to end on the ground floor with a fireplace at each gable end. Parlor room with large “chimney breast” with thirteen hand-carved raised panels over the fireplace. Overhead were decorative floor/ceiling joists carved from local poplar trees.
Skillington’s Right
Skillington’s Right was built circa 1795, home of the Fraziers, a wealthy planter family. Once said to be the finest specimen of colonial architecture on the upper Choptank. The area along the Great Choptank River between Skillington’s and Edmondson’s Creeks has long been known as “Frazier’s Neck.” It was first surveyed in 1663 for John Edmondson.

WWI - The Great War
Built for merchant-broker Solomon Brown in 1819 and later owned by the Taylors, an African American family. This house was moved twice by mule cart and survived the fire that leveled most of Denton on July 4, 1865, when balls of candlewick and kerosene were flung in celebration at a Civil War reconciliation picnic.
WWII - Lost Lives
In the Lost Lives exhibit, visitors will recognize the names Corregidor, Cuadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Normandy, Tripolis Мопtе Cassino, The Bulge, Guam, and others. Together with the Letters Home and Romance, our WWII exhibits give visitors compelling and straight-forward insight into how World War impacted Caroline County families.

Sea Stories
Caroline County captains, sailors, and shipbuilders in the Age of Sail and the Age of Steam.

FDR on the Denton Courthouse Green
FDR’s visit on Labor Day 1938 was more than just a big day for Denton. It was also a carefully planned and orchestrated event in FDR’s battle to secure the New Deal.
Join Us
to Preserve and Share the History and Cultural
of Caroline County

What We're Doing

Caring, Sharing, Giving
The CCHS depends on your generous contributions to continue to promote and protect Caroline County’s rich heritage. Funds are used to operate the Museum of Rural Life, sustain our programming, and restore and maintain historically significant structures throughout Caroline County.